Category:Research

Research is the backbone of any good trans-Newtonian empire. Research is required to do almost anything in Aurora, from speeding up your mines to building fighters that travel at the speed of light.

More precisely, it should be called "Research & Development", because what you do in order to get that shiny new ion-powered spaceship engine (or sensor, or weapon, or almost any other ship component) is:

1. Research the "Ion Engine" technology. But that gives you only the scientific understanding of how tiny little ions can propel huge ships, not the engine itself.
2. Design an actual engine next. You can specify whether it's going to be a military or commercial engine, if it should have a little extra power at the expense of fuel efficiency, etc. When you are satisfied with the design, you name it the "Ion Boar Engine MkI" and return to the Research window. The engine has also become a researchable project.
3. Assign a scientist and some labs to research the engine. Call it the prototyping phase. This can be skipped by using the "Instant Tech" button in SM Mode.
4. Only when this is done can you design an actual ship using this engine.
5. And then, finally, your shipyards can build the fastest, bestest, deadliest ships in the universe.

Research is divided into eight separate areas. Each area includes different types of technology. Every Empire starts off in either the Conventional or Trans-Newtonian Era. Conventional empires start from scratch, while each Trans-Newtonian empire starts with different space-age technologies in every area.

Possible schools of research are:

To develop your empire you will need to invent new technologies. Every colony with Research Facilities can conduct research projects to produce new technology and develop new components from that technology.

Each level of research within a school and discipline costs progressively more research points. See also the (missing) List of Research Costs.

Each technology requires a number of Research Points (RP) to complete. These are obtained through active research projects, according to your scientist's abilities and the number of labs assigned to the project. RP may also be obtained through Ruins and conquest.

The more advanced the technology is, the more RP a project requires and the longer it will take. However, there are ways to speed up RP gains.

The most basic way is to assign more Research Facilities to a project. Each additional lab increases RP gain by the base rate, which is shown at the top of the Current Research Project list. You start with 20 labs by default, though this can be changed at game creation, and more can be built in the Industry tab. Each lab costs 1200 Duranium and 1200 Mercassium.

You can also improve the output of each lab by researching "Research Rate ### RP". This increases the base annual RP per lab. Research Rate projects are listed under Construction/Production.

Selecting a better researcher increases RP gain. Each scientist has:

• A specialization
• A bonus percentage
• A maximum number of labs they can manage

If a researcher works in their specialization, their bonus is quadrupled. A 25% bonus becomes effectively 100% in-specialization.

Scientists can gain skills over time, increasing their bonus or max labs. It can be worthwhile to keep promising scientists active with a single lab to encourage growth.

A scientist’s specialization can be changed, but this cuts their bonus by 75% until they improve again.

Ancient Constructs occur on system bodies and are discovered during Geological Surveys. After being studied, they remain dormant until a colony of at least 1M population exists on the body.

Constructs provide a 10%–100% bonus in one research area if the research is done on that system body. They also provide one-tenth of that bonus empire-wide.

Ruins occur on system bodies and are discovered during Geological Surveys. After being studied, they can be excavated by construction units.

Excavated components can be disassembled for RP. Excavated installations may include associated tech data. Excavated Research Labs may contain any tech, including blueprints for advanced components or RP toward unresearched technologies.

RP can also be gained by salvaging ship components from Ruins or salvage. When transported to a planet with research facilities, components can be reverse engineered. Each component provides 1%–5% of the RP needed to advance to the next tech level.

To create a research project, go to the "Research" tab in the Population and Production window (F2). From here you can select a project, assign a researcher, and view existing research projects.

Tip

You can cancel a research project without losing accrued research. Progress remains until the project is resumed.

You can also queue tasks for scientists so they begin a new project immediately after completing the current one.

• Research and components — After being designed, most ship components must be researched. These projects are usually small, generally a few hundred RP.
• Research and aliens — You can share technology with NPRs. Technology may also leak unintentionally when empires come into contact. Lower-level tech flows more easily between nations on the same planet or trade partners.