Will somebody kindly explain research speed to me :'(

[LittleMissMurder]

Hi, I'm new to the game and trying to make an efficient research setup is doing my head in.

Specifically, I don't understand how "Research speed" equates to how long it takes for a lab to process a resource pack. I've taken a look at the wiki and the equations and if I'm honest it all seems a bit ridiculous.

I can feed a single T1 assembler to churn out a red resource pack, and it takes exactly 10 seconds to craft. This makes sense to me because the time cost for said resource pack is 5 units of time, and a T1 assembler has a crafting speed of 0.5.

However, if I feed that pack to a lab, I have no idea how to predict/calculate how long that lab take to process it. The only info the game gives me is that the lab has research speed 1, but I have to resort to a stopwatch - and it takes 15s to process.

Where does that 15 seconds come from? How is it derived? If I look at the wiki entry on time, there is nothing that seems related to this, and the entries on the lab and individual resource packs are also barren of any useful information.

Please help. It's already rather annoying that I have to sit with a calculator, but having to use a stopwatch to figure out ratios earlier up the chain is going beyond the pale.

Thanks!!

[Trific]

The time it takes depends on what you are researching. If you look in the technology screen, the time required to consume each set of beakers required for the tech is shown next to the beaker types required. So Automation takes 10s to consume 1 red beaker, and you then have to do that 10 times (so 100 seconds total with 1 lab at standard speed). Optics takes 15s to consume a red beaker, and again, 10 times, so 150 seconds total lab time (at standard speed).

[LittleMissMurder]

All right! So, for example, if I research Steel Processing, the Research UI shows

[ Red x5s ] x50

So this means, each lab takes 5s to process a pack, and I need 50 packs in total? Stated differently, if I had 50 labs (all supplied), I'd research the tech in 5s, since that is the minimum time taken for a single pack to process?

[LittleMissMurder]

The pennydrop for me is that this means it's a fruitless exercise trying to minimax research pack production and making an exact ratio of labs based on your pack output because the "knowledge crafting time" of a lab varies

Thank you for the help, regardless! Baby steps <3

[bormand]

varies

It's almost always 30s for midgame technologies and increases to 60 at endgame.

So you can build enough labs to run 30s researches at desired speed and double them later.

[Trific]

All right! So, for example, if I research Steel Processing, the Research UI shows

[ Red x5s ] x50

So this means, each lab takes 5s to process a pack, and I need 50 packs in total? Stated differently, if I had 50 labs (all supplied), I'd research the tech in 5s, since that is the minimum time taken for a single pack to process?

Hmm, yes, 5s, but if you had 100 labs, it would take 2.5s. A lab doesn't have to consume a full beaker to contribute towards a researched tech. This is useful when you have lots of labs you don't have to worry about "wasting" beakers that are partially consumed at the time a technology finishes.

[Serenity]

Here is a lab calculator: https://codepen.io/Tickthokk/full/NBbKPZ/

You can input your number of science packs and select a research topic per time and packs needed. Then it will spit out the number of labs you need to consume those packs. It also works the other way around

Make sure to disable modules and beacons for early game setups. But at that stage you can also eyeball it. You just notice when your science belts are backed up and can add more labs. Same with a lot of other things really. Either belts are full and not moving. Or they are empty and machines are starving.

[LittleMissMurder]

varies

It's almost always 30s for midgame technologies and increases to 60 at endgame.

So you can build enough labs to run 30s researches at desired speed and double them later.

Good to know, thank you. I'll have a gander at the tech tree and see what's what.

[jodokus31]

Additionally, you can research lab speed, which reduces the time needed for a pack.

Or insert modules...