Labs and Research Rates

[Dezus]

How do additional labs effect research rates?

[DaveMcW]

Linearly.

[GopherAtl]

labs basically craft research. Each technology has a research recipe - with ingredients (science packs) and a time to craft in seconds - and a count, of how many research must be crafted to finish that technology.

Ex, automation 1's research recipe is just 1 red science pack, and takes 10 seconds, seconds, and unlocking automation takes 10 research. So 1 lab can research it 10 times, taking 100 total seconds, or 10 labs can each research it once, completing it in 10 seconds.

[Peter34]

labs basically craft research.

This.

Back before a12, there might have been some waste sometimes, but with a12 it's supposed to be always percentage-perfect, with the magic science potions being depleted gradually as research is crafted from them, rather like Ammo cartridges are gradually depleted.

That also seems to me to make research go a bit faster, relative to in a11 (I never played a10 or earlier), but I'm not sure. The effect is noticable but not necessarily unbalancing.

[GopherAtl]

labs basically craft research.

This.

Back before a12, there might have been some waste sometimes, but with a12 it's supposed to be always percentage-perfect, with the magic science potions being depleted gradually as research is crafted from them, rather like Ammo cartridges are gradually depleted.

That also seems to me to make research go a bit faster, relative to in a11 (I never played a10 or earlier), but I'm not sure. The effect is noticable but not necessarily unbalancing.

Yah, before 0.12, research was crafted in discrete units, so using the same automation 1 example from before, 20 labs would all run for the full 10 seconds, consuming 20x the ingredients, twice what was technically needed. Now it would finish in only 5 seconds, each lab consuming only half a red science pack.

[orzelek]

Anyone checked if productivity modules work properly in labs?
I put some in and they had second progress bar as normal but I'm not sure if there was an actual effect on research.

[Alekthefirst]

Anyone checked if productivity modules work properly in labs?
I put some in and they had second progress bar as normal but I'm not sure if there was an actual effect on research.

The only difference i noted was much slower research and much higher energy consumption. Use speed modules in labs, rather use those productivity modules in the blue pack assemlers.
Of course if labs do actually work with productivity modules then you can get (1.4*1.2) = 1.6-ish bonus just those two tiers of machines. If you use unlimited upgrades or mods that increase science costs or even on the higher tiers of follower count, you can save thousands of blue packs with some productivity modules. Of course you have to factor in the cost of the productivity modules as well, so i would suggest using them only if you have mods that allow research to go to the extreme in terms of cost

[orzelek]

Anyone checked if productivity modules work properly in labs?
I put some in and they had second progress bar as normal but I'm not sure if there was an actual effect on research.

The only difference i noted was much slower research and much higher energy consumption. Use speed modules in labs, rather use those productivity modules in the blue pack assemlers.
Of course if labs do actually work with productivity modules then you can get (1.4*1.2) = 1.6-ish bonus just those two tiers of machines. If you use unlimited upgrades or mods that increase science costs or even on the higher tiers of follower count, you can save thousands of blue packs with some productivity modules. Of course you have to factor in the cost of the productivity modules as well, so i would suggest using them only if you have mods that allow research to go to the extreme in terms of cost

I'm using science cost tweaker and pure productivity modules from bob's mods. Was hoping for some benefits from it since amount of packs per research is getting quite high.

[Xterminator]

I would suggest using speed modules over productivity. I just feel like science is something that is better sped up rather than getting little extra bits of progress towards for free.

But yes now that research is on a percentage base system, you can add as many labs as you want to speed up the process without worrying about wasting packs like before. Of course make sure your pack production can support the amount of laba you have. :p

[Peter34]

Yah, before 0.12, research was crafted in discrete units, so using the same automation 1 example from before, 20 labs would all run for the full 10 seconds, consuming 20x the ingredients, twice what was technically needed. Now it would finish in only 5 seconds, each lab consuming only half a red science pack.

Back in a11, I used to spend quite some time worrying about the optimal number of Labs to avoid being screwed by rounding errors. I had a sense that 10 would be fairly good, not risking much waste, but I wanted more, so I messed about with "nice fractions of 20" or even outright 20, but...

It was silly, it made me feel silly, and a12 is much better since you can just play the game intuitively and build as many Labs as you want.

[Dezus]

Linearly.

Hahaha. Thanks such a simple answer it is funny for some reason.

[Dezus]

Thanks for all the insight and answers. I am new to the game, and my first real accomplishment was learning how to get the red and green automated somewhat efficiently. Now that I have that done on to the next hurdle... Here is where I am on my first decent factory

[Dezus]

I would suggest using speed modules over productivity. I just feel like science is something that is better sped up rather than getting little extra bits of progress towards for free.

But yes now that research is on a percentage base system, you can add as many labs as you want to speed up the process without worrying about wasting packs like before. Of course make sure your pack production can support the amount of laba you have. :p

I will figure out how to make modules, thanks.

[codewarrior]

I would not recommend using only speed modules. On their own, speed modules are inferior (both materials-wise and power-wise) to just building more labs, so if all you want is speed, build more labs!

Productivity modules in labs give a constant, percentage increase to your research progress. The productivity bar in a lab is purely visual. Nothing special happens when the bar fills up, but you continuously get bonus research as long as you have productivity modules in the lab. So the modules do give you better yields from your materials. Since the bonus is applied to all of the research packs used for the tech (and some techs will use more than one of a research pack), putting the modules in the labs is a more efficient use of the modules than just putting them in the science pack assemblers. (Not that you can't do both!)

(I personally verified this by cheating myself some research packs, labs, and modules in a new game, inserting 5 red packs and 2 productivity-3 modules into a lab, and watching the tech progress gradually grow to 6/10 of the progress needed for the Armor Crafting tech, and finally removing the modules and completing the tech using only 4 more red packs.)

If you want to use speed modules, use them in beacons covering the labs instead, once those labs have productivity modules. The speed modules will overcome the speed penalty from production modules, which gives an even greater relative boost than just putting them in the labs.