Worth 1k words right
--Anyway, using Follower Robot Count 19 as an example, I will explain.Each item to research still has a required amount of research, but instead of the multiples of ten we have now, each could be a unique number. Currently up to 4 numbers with just vanilla science.
R - Red Science Packs are worth 1 research point.
G - Green Science Packs are worth 100 points.
B - Blue Packs are 10,000 points.
P - Purple are 1,000,000.
Science Packs can't be split, so no using one purple pack to research something that costs less than 1million points, etc, etc.
Using the above example, the following combinations of science packs would be enough. (Assumes one lab per pack type.)
-2 Purple
-5 Blue
-8 Green
-7 Red
==240 seconds / 4 minutes.
-2 Purple
-508 Green
-7 Red
==15,240 seconds / 254 minutes / 4.233~ hours.
-2,050,807 Red
==61,524,210 seconds / 1,025,403.5 minutes / 17,090.05 hours / 712.08 days / 101.72 weeks / 25.43 months / 2.11 years.
-205 Blue
-807 Red
==24,210 seconds / 403.5 minutes / 6.72 hours.
As I'm writing this out I'm finding it very hard to explain simply. But anyway, with this, we could research more advanced technologies with lesser materials, but it would take much longer. It might also cost more to do so, but I didn't do the math that far.
Another example would be say Research Code 00000100. You could use 100 Red Packs or 1 Green Pack. Code 00030001 = 3 Blue, 1 Red = 300 Green, 1 Red = 30001 Red.
Thoughts?