Auto research queue

[Zavian]

What happens when you have 2 or more dependencies available at once? Does it choose randomly, or the cheapest?

I think it would be great if micro-managing research could gain you something (esp. for speed running), but that everyone else (esp. noobs) didn't have to.

"Noobs" are actually the very people who need to have the research screen open after every research, so they can see what that technology has unlocked. Not looking at the research screen is why adding an auto-research to rocket silo (especially if it is available by default) is a bad for new players. (Adding a research goal mechanic to help people pick research work towards some longer term goal as mentioned in viewtopic.php?f=38&t=61897&p=395601#p395531 should be less of an issue for new players).

[nemostein]

TL;DR

Queuing a research should queue all required research instead of giving a error message.

What ?

Consider that, in a new world, you want to rush the Fast Inserter technology.
You open the Tech Tree, click in the Fast Inserter icon and click Start Research.
Instead of showing a tooltip stating that "Some prerequisite technologies are not researched ...", the game should add Automation, Eletronics and Fast Inserter to the queue.

Why ?

Currently is troublesome to queue all desired research to achieve a specific technology.
When the player queue one research, the whole list of technologies is reordered to display, in orange, all the newly available "queueable" technologies, forcing the player to look twice to find the next technology.
Furthermore, some techs have a complex chain of requirements, making even harder to remember all required techs (e.g.: Automation 2 requires Logistics Science Pack, Steel Processing and Electronics that, in turn, requires Automation).

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older (still valid despite it's 3 years old) topic with same suggestion.

[Haybale]

When having to do multiple researches wich are not unlocked yet, right click in the Technology Tree to add them to the queue when possible

[SuicideJunkie]

When having to do multiple researches wich are not unlocked yet, right click in the Technology Tree to add them to the queue when possible

IE: Queue up the dependencies when you click to start research on an unavailable tech area?
That would be great.

[Haybale]

Yea was kinda tired when thinking about this, but thats what i ment

[y.petremann]

TL;DR

Being able to see research that can fit the research tree with their dependencies and quickly adding them with their dependencies.

Now

Actually with the research queue available, when we append a research, any research that could be researched after is displayed in orange and can be appended in the research queue.

Proposition

Instead of that I propose that:
For each unresearched research, we calculate how many unresearched dependencies not in research queue are needed to research this one (we can abord the calculation as soon as this is higher than the availlable research queue size), if( number dependencies > availlable research queue size) then we mark it in orange.

Then if we append a orange research, we append every unresearched dependencies not in research queue before it.

Why

Actually when we append a known research (like logistic 2), we need to prepend manually every dependencies, which is not very practical...

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged topics about queuing a research and its prerequisites into older one

[Epb7304]

TL;DR

When you shift-click a research in the research tab it should queue the prerequisites in the research queue

What ?

When shift-clicking (or alt clicking, or whatever button is chosen) a research that is red (meaning it is currently locked behind other unresearched technologies) the game should queue systematically as many (or all) of the prerequisite research before the red research in question

Why ?

I believe that this should be added because right now you have to manually go through each research individually and select each and everyone for research, add this feature will not change the game significantly but instead, add another layer of polish and prevent the occasional annoyance. This change would also be especially useful for modded playthroughs that add a significant amount of technologies.

Especially with the latest FFF (#376 - research and quality) stating that the research queue will always be enabled this suggestion will be particularly applicable as there will be a good portion of the player base (especially new players) will experience the research queue for the first time

[thedoh]

For completeness sake, how should technologies that have multiple pre-requisites be handled? Take blue science, for example, which depends on sulfur and red circuits. Red circuits, in turn, depend on plastic. Should the order be Sulfur -> Plastic -> Red Circuits -> Blue science? There is an equally compelling argument for Plastic -> Sulfur -> Red Circuits -> Blue science.

I think this is a great idea, but if it's relevant to your suggestion, this clarity could help.

[Illiander42]

For completeness sake, how should technologies that have multiple pre-requisites be handled?

Are you asking breadth-first vs depth-first, or which order for parrallel techs?

I personally don't think it matters. If you're using this, you want the end tech and all its prereqs and obviously don't care about what order.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older thread with same suggestion.

[atomizer]

+1. The research button on red tech should simply always be available to be clicked, and fill the queue with prerequisites.

The current experience of trying to enumerate even relatively simple dependency trees (in modded) is absolutely miserable. Search for the tech I want, look at the tree, try to memorize what I need, click on one available tech, add it, find another, add it, forget what else I need, search for the target tech again, ...