Research Tree

[leeor_net]

It's starting to get to the point that I want to finalize a research tree for OutpostHD. Vomov did a lot of initial work that I used as a base for my current work.

To draw things up I've been using Draw.io. You can see the current research tree work here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Z044zgUGCvQ9_cLovHoaFaoCLY8xYze/view?usp=sharing

All of the work that Vomov did and the discussion related to the research tree can be seen on GitHub via Issue #23.

I opted to go with a more complex tree that requires a lot of research to get to any given point. Some of the items require multiple other items to be completed in other areas of the tree before they become unlocked.

You can also see my thought process on how to implement satellites in this game -- unlike in the original where you started off with satellites that you brought with you from earth, you'll need to research the technology to develop satellites and launch them. This will have the effect of making the space port useful.

Additionally, power generation is something you're not going to automatically start off with except for the Solar Panel Array, the new structure that White Claw came up with for us. The Solar Receiver Array and the Fusion Reactor will both need to be unlocked. The Reactor will be a lot easier and cheaper to research and build but at the cost of being expensive to run. The SRA will be extremely expensive to build but once launched and in place you basically won't have to worry about power issues at all so long as the satellite doesn't get knocked out of orbit.

Anyway, I digress. Point being, I wanted a more complex, more interesting research tree and I've started to get to it. That said, I could use a little help looking over it to make sure 1) it makes sense and 2) to get any suggestions for the other four branches that I haven't yet started on:

• Chemistry
• Mathematics
• Social Science
• Medicine

I'm not really sure where to begin with Chemistry and Mathematics so any thoughts on that would be appreciated.

Social Science and Medicine is fairly straight forward though Medicine isn't just to develop the 'cure for the alien plague', something I don't intend to be in OPHD. Instead it will over advances in medical technology, treatments, diagnostics, etc. that will have the effect of lowering mortality rates, increasing fertility rates, etc. These will all be small, incremental changes but reaching the end of the Medicine branch will have far reach long-term results that serve to make humans much more hardy in their new environment.

Social Science of course is about improving morale and developing advances in entertainment, sociology and psychology (obvious overlap in medicine with psychology).

Anyway, I'll draw this post to a close. I'm open for thoughts and ideas on how to round out the research tree.

[macksting]

Gonna have anything unlocked by varying degrees of Basic Research? In real life it's not without its value, though by its nature it's pretty abstract as often as not.

[leeor_net]

I've thought about basic research and I'm not really sure I want to include it. In the original game it only provided a small boost to current research by reducing it by some defined amout (a few turns). I don't really see the point in OPHD -- If it had a better defined effect that provided a real benefit I could be persuaded.

[Vagabond]

leeor,

A couple of random thoughts.

You could include research into geology that is a pre-requisite for expanding the levels of the mine. This would make another nice way to kill the player off if they don't research it soon enough before their mines run out of minerals. Perhaps some sort of minor boost to the smelter and mine in general through a couple of topics. Maybe allow for locating new mines through further geology study. You could also restrict how many levels down the player can dig based on geology. Maybe some sort of research to increase digging speeds based on understanding of local geological conditions.

Maybe some form of Biology (or biochemistry). You could introduce some sort of crop blight that starts appearing randomly X turns into the game that can be significantly reduced through research. Another nice way to cripple or kill the colony. Research that would reduce the probability and severity of the blight occurig on an Agridome.

---

This doesn't really belong here, but for Morale if you haven't already, I would consider a tier based system based on population. What I mean is once colony hits a certain population, they require more ammenities to keep morale up. This has the nice effect of finding employment for the extra colonists, forcing research, etc that scales with colony size. I think Outpost 2 could have really used this. It would have been nice if say at 100 colonists, you needed recreation facilities to keep them happy, but they didn't care about them until that point in colony size.

-Brett

[leeor_net]

You could include research into geology that is a pre-requisite for expanding the levels of the mine. This would make another nice way to kill the player off if they don't research it soon enough before their mines run out of minerals.

Definitely. I was thinking that research into geology could allow for expanding a mine 1 level past the maximum digging depth of the planet, something that currently can't be done.

Perhaps some sort of minor boost to the smelter and mine in general through a couple of topics. Maybe allow for locating new mines through further geology study.

Most definitely. It's already in the new version of the tree in the geology branch -- I forget which path but it takes awhile to get through.

You could also restrict how many levels down the player can dig based on geology.

This is already implemented based on planet hostility.

Maybe some sort of research to increase digging speeds based on understanding of local geological conditions.

I hadn't thought of that -- will take into consideration.

Maybe some form of Biology (or biochemistry).

Definitely -- already got some stubs into it but haven't fleshed it out.

You could introduce some sort of crop blight that starts appearing randomly X turns into the game that can be significantly reduced through research. Another nice way to cripple or kill the colony. Research that would reduce the probability and severity of the blight occurig on an Agridome.

I like the general idea of this... could use a crop blight as some sort of possible disaster that research can mitigate.

---

This doesn't really belong here, but for Morale if you haven't already, I would consider a tier based system based on population. What I mean is once colony hits a certain population, they require more ammenities to keep morale up. This has the nice effect of finding employment for the extra colonists, forcing research, etc that scales with colony size. I think Outpost 2 could have really used this. It would have been nice if say at 100 colonists, you needed recreation facilities to keep them happy, but they didn't care about them until that point in colony size.

Definitely digging this idea. Will have to think about how to implement it.

[JetMech1999]

Is there any new progress on the research tree, or has that been paused to concentrate on other aspects?

[leeor_net]

Basically paused while I work on other parts of the game but I want to get it finalized fairly soon as I'm rapidly approaching the research branch of development.

I will put out there that draw.io is behaving kinda strangely, not sure why I can't update the file online and the root node disappeared as well. I've been updating the research tree offline though I'd like to get that back online in the very near future.

[leeor_net]

Wanted to bring this back into focus as I'd like to see the research tree effectively completed. I could use some help fleshing out Computer Science & Engineering and Astronomy and help developing Social Sciences (which includes sociology, psychology, economics, law and education among others), Biology (which would also include things like medicine, genetics, etc.) and probably something along the lines of Humanities (which includes History, Literature, Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Philosophy).

Social sciences and Humanities focus primarily on morale and efficiency improvements. Biology focuses on improvements in health, agriculture, genetics and so on (you know, where the Blight came from )

So yeah, any help here is very much appreciated. Can use the link in the first post to see the current layout. Any questions please ask. And thank you for helping! This is a much larger project than I ever anticipated!