Useless skill/worker issue with the upgraded research bench

[Mattk50]

I noticed the upgraded research bench doesnt require any workers to actually do research, this seems very odd because the science skill now becomes obsolete as soon as you build this 2nd bench. So theres no real benifit to having a dedicated researcher with a high skill and as soon as you research the 2nd techbench which doesn't take very long at all, he is useless. Also, why is it a bench if nobody needs to be working at it :V

[Captain Deathbeard]

I don't want to hog up too many characters with just being permanent bench hogs. Whatever dude you assign as your researcher is going to be your worst character, because you're essentially throwing him away and forgetting about him.
I don't think science skill actually does anything yet. I could get rid of it or use it for other tasks instead.

But its either un-manned benches or a throwaway scientist. Any other suggestions?

[Kodiak]

Well of course it sounds useless if you put it that way, but I kinda look at it differently.

Yeah it could hog up a character, but why should the price of advancement be so low as "set it, and forget it"? I feel like part of what made X-Com's research system so much fun was the fact that you had to be involved with your research. You didn't just have to give up people, but spend the lives of soldiers simply to advance your tech.

If teching up is made too easy, What then is the goal of the game?

And if you have to use a scientist, then it can be made that the scientist's skill levels, or number of researchers contributes to how fast research gets done. It becomes a trade off. More firepower vs more eventual firepower if you can hold off long enough. Or spend the resources on the top dogs of the academic field. Or bust into your rival faction's base and kill their scientists. Meaning it's good to keep them well guarded.

Or maybe it could be implemented that non-combatants can be hired as well as combatants. Non-combatants having initially higher skills in all aspects not related to combat, and won't join you in fights, but are just as necessary when a base grows high enough. That being said your soldiers could do their jobs, just not initially as well.

I'm rambling a little too much here. But I say yes to having to dedicate a scientist.

[Meynolt]

Kodiak brings up a good point. It feels too easy to max out research already. This might be improved later when more research options are included, but at the moment it doesn't provide very long-lasting fun. There needs to be some more cost associated with the research. I want to have to think about which research will suit me best [i did this for the first 1/3 of the research items, but then i just mentally shrugged and queued them all up and forgot about them]

I don't know what exactly, but here's some ideas:
- a monetary cost associated with some/all research - this could be used to fund miscellaneous items used in the research
- a component requirement?
- longer time to research later technologies (2-3 days each)
- ability to 'buy' special research blueprints from certain vendors. These might still need to be researched further for improvements.

[Traver]

Certain research could also require a minimum science skill to begin/finish.

[Percavil]

i agree, better to have a throwaway scientist then a un-manned bench. Atleast with the scientist u can role-play more, its like a extra citizen in your village u gotta defend

[Mattk50]

Maybe make it so you need a large number of dedicated scientists to tech up at a fast rate after you have the basics unlocked, so its not just about who you have working on something its about how many people you can feed and dedicate to it.

Making it necessary to keep people on benches once your teched up through some sort of tech decay system might be worthwhile too, because it gives you more to "keep running" despite bandits at the endgame. performance issues could get in the way tho.

[pirdulitis]

I like the idea of having scientists learn certain techs as that would mean that there is a reason to be careful of where you place him so that you avoid accidental death.
This can also be more fun if you could capture scientists from other factions and then force them into giving up certain techs to your main scientist or instructions that can then be used to give your faction techs that you may not be able to research yourself.

And to make tech more challenging/interesting is make certain things technologies locked until you either find a manual that describes it or you have to find a teacher of sorts that can teach you the basics of that tech and then you can research it further on sort of like MGS: Peace Walker

[Ardanza]

So I totally did not realize there was already a thread of this, is there a way we could combine these 2 threads together?

This thread

[monk124us]

If you want to free up your unites then make it so researchers are npcs you can hire, capture. The more you have and the more skillful they are the faster they'll research. I would like to also hire police and caravans.

[PnzrNorm]

This issue has been fixed in update 42.0.
Research Bench 2 properly allows your worker to work, and it properly produces research at a slightly faster rate.

[toshimoshi]

Or there can be certain secret tech present in the game (say ruins or scrap metals) that needs a unit with certain science values in order for them to be claimed and researched. that would definitely add huge value to units with high science values and won't be just a bench hog because you need to bring them with you in your exploration party in order to decipher those secret techs.

[PnzrNorm]

Or there can be certain secret tech present in the game (say ruins or scrap metals) that needs a unit with certain science values in order for them to be claimed and researched. that would definitely add huge value to units with high science values and won't be just a bench hog because you need to bring them with you in your exploration party in order to decipher those secret techs.

This sounds like something for the Suggestion section. Make a new topic for it! ;D