Research & Development
- R&D (not to be confused with the RD) consists of scientists spending research points on a tech web to unlock technology that can be used for various departments.
- Essentially this means that a scientist in this modern world doesn't actually have to know any of the concepts he's working with; it's all about pressing science buttons and playing with the resulting toys! Ain't life grand?
How 2 Gain More Points: 4 Dummies
Ballmer Peak
- DRINK ALCOHOL GODDAMNIT. If you drink juuuust the right amount of alcohol, you can research new technologies faster. However, if you drink too much alcohol, you research new technologies slower. As a scientist, instead of slurring, you start shouting out phrases from the pool below. Some of these phrases signify good blood alcohol levels, some of them signify pretty damn unhealthy blood alcohol levels.
Ballmer Phrases: The Good Sayings (indication that you've drank enough alcohol to get that sweet tech boost)
- Hey guys, what if we rolled out a bluespace wiring system so mice can't destroy the powergrid anymore?
- Hear me out here. What if, and this is just a theory, we made R&D controllable from our PDAs?
- I'm thinking we should roll out a git repository for our research under the AGPLv3 license so that we can share it among the other stations freely.
- I dunno about you guys, but IDs and PDAs being separate is clunky as fuck. Maybe we should merge them into a chip in our arms? That way they can't be stolen easily.
- Why the fuck aren't we just making every pair of shoes into galoshes? We have the technology.
Windows ME Phrases: The Bad Sayings (indication that you've drank too much alcohol, please don't do RnD)
- Yo man, what if, we like, uh, put a webserver that's automatically turned on with default admin passwords into every PDA?
- So like, you know how we separate our codebase from the master copy that runs on our consumer boxes? What if we merged the two and undid the separation between codebase and server?
- Dude, radical idea: H.O.N.K mechs but with no bananium required.
- Best idea ever: Disposal pipes instead of hallways.
Tachyon-Doppler Array
Toxins bombs detonated at the test site generate points through the Tachyon-Doppler Research Array which records the size of the blast. Somehow this generates points. At least it gives non-traitor scientists a legitimate excuse for making bombs now.
- The formula returns the delta between the total points generated and the points that would be generated by the bomb. The above graph statically applies whether you detonate the smaller bomb first or last, the downside being that improving your bomb will still reward you but with significantly less points than before. A maxcap bomb (purple), and a 700 (red) and 1000 (orange) radius bomb are marked on the graph with horizontal lines.
Radiation Collectors/Tesla Corona Analyzers
- Radiation Collectors can be set to generate research points instead of power, if the engineers are bored and you're already rolling in power. Radiation collectors require a mix of tritium and oxygen to produce research points. These gasses are consumed at a very rapid pace when the rad collector is in research point production mode. Work together with science or atmos techs to increase the station's research point production at the temporary cost of power production. For reference, one room temperature tank with 50% tritium, 50% oxygen will produce a total of 50 research points with the most frequently used supermatter setup. More radiation will increase the rate at which research points are generated, and packing more moles of both gasses into the tank will increase the amount of time a rad collector will be able to generate research points.
- Tesla Coronas (a variant of tesla coils) can be set using a screwdriver to generate research points instead of power, if the engineers are bored and you're already rolling in power. Unlike the radiation collector, it simply generates research points through electricity striking the object, not through variable gas mixtures. This means that although the Tesla Corona generates points more reliably, you don't have as many ways to increase the actual amount of points generated.
Tech Webs
Research points are generated at a static rate by the R&D Network (albeit more research points can be generated by the E.X.P.E.R.I-MENTOR) and can be spent on Technology Nodes at the console.
This is what your console will look like at the start of the round.
Simply click into any of the technologies to see what it requires and what it unlocks. The number next to each technology represents its cost. To unlock a technology, click the cost to spend your research points on it.
The console will update the screen to reflect your new research and send out a notification in chat.
For new scientists, you should strongly consider aiming for Advanced Bluespace Research and Advanced Mining Technology.
This will give mining the tools needed to bring back much more ore to fund science projects.
Certain round circumstances may call for different research early on, talk to your fellow scientists!
The progression is not linear and many research options require multiple pre-requisite technologies.
To assist in understanding: provided below is a diagram.
Note: Research tree depicted above is VERY out of date.
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is done through the Destructive Analyzer:
- Sync the Destructive Analyzer to the research computer if it's not synced.
- Insert an item into it.
- Use the computer.
The computer will show you the name of the object, if it unlocks any tech nodes, and how many materials you get from deconstruction.
The Destructive Analyzer will recover a portion of the materials contained inside scanned items and transfer it to a connected protolathe. Upgrading it will increase the amount recovered.
Construction
See here how to build machines out of the components you discover. This is where advanced technology you discovered by increasing tech trees will be made. Nothing exciting at first can be built, but you will get increasingly more fun devices as tech trees increase. You will unlock items for the Exosuit Fabricator as well.
Upgrading Machines
All machines are composed of components. There are better versions of many components, attained through research. They are organized in 4 tiers, and upgrading the tier of a machine's components will have different effects for each machine.
Without minerals, you can achieve up to tier 2-3; to go further you'll require ores for production.
Once you unlock advanced components, people around the station will probably want you to upgrade the machinery. The process is simple.
- Screwdriver on the machine.
- Crowbar on the machine.
- Take the board and re-insert it into machine.
- Insert parts you want to use.
- Screwdriver.
Alternately, you can use RPED (Rapid Part Exchange Device):
- Load RPED with parts.
- Screwdriver on the machine.
- Click on it with RPED.
- Screwdriver again.
Alternatively, you can use the even more advanced Bluespace Rapid Part Exchange Device
- Load Bluespace RPED with parts
- Click on the machine with the Bluespace RPED
Here you can see how the specific machines will benefit from parts.
Exosuit Fabricator
- Robotics starts with two of these. This machine will build everything a roboticist needs to do his job, aside from circuits. To update its research levels:
- Sync the R&D Research Console.
- Sync the Robotics Research Console.
- Sync the Exosuit Fabricator.
- Can be used directly, without the Research Console.
Items available from the start:
Reseachable items:
Circuit Imprinter
- The Circuit Imprinter requires acid, glass and occasionally gold or diamond. Here you will find circuits for most of the station's machinery and robotics' exosuits. With gold and diamonds, you can also make AI law modules.
- Information on how to construct machines is available at the Guide to advanced construction.
- Circuits cost 1000 glass and 20 acid each, becoming cheaper with upgrades.
Protolathe
- The Protolathe requires materials such as metal, glass and mineable minerals, each sheet gives 2000 units when inserted into a Protolathe. It allows you to build objects such as stock parts, mining equipment, power cells and many more. Weaponry can also be built, but will require a firing pin from the armory, the RD's locker or ordered from cargo, if you wish to use it for combat.
- Building 5 or 10 of the same item is faster than building it one at a time for 10 times; if you need lots of a particular item, mass produce them!
- Some items may also require chems. Just pour them into the Protolathe to insert them.