It takes so long to research new things and I feel my company is so far behind others by year 13ish because of that.
After a point in the game nearly everythig costs 80 research, as far as I can tell it does not matter how many people are working for yo research never increaces any faster. So I tend to work alone because I don’t think their wage is worth the work I get from them.
A way to improve this is have emploies able to read books to bring up the research points while you are working on games or what ever.
Even when you have multiple employees, only one will work on a research project at any given time. You can however research multiple projects simultaneously if you have more employees. As far as earning RPs goes, you can generate a large number by building a new game engine. but pretty much any non-research or training project will generate RPs. You are however right that training your employees in research will increase the output of RPs.
Also remember that the pacing of the game is such that you should not expect to have researched every possible feature by the 25/30/35 years is up. It pays to specialise and only research the features that you actually plan to use. Once you build the R&D lab is Stage 3 (the second Office), then you can generate RPs for cash simply by giving the lab a budget, but not setting a project. At this point you’ll be able to catch up with research projects that you missed out on, because you’ll probably have 6 employees play with (thus 7 projects simultaneously )
Really? I thought the opposite. I actually always had way more research points then I could spend. Enough to research everything as well as do training. If you lack RP you should look for high Research stat when hiring new staff. Or train the research skill (Make Me Think!/G3 Innovation Challenge/R&D Course). Or have a R&D lab with good funds, they automatically give you a lot of research points when not assigned to another ask. Or if you have money make big engines, even if you don’t need them, they are an extremely great way of generating a lot of RP. If you lack money and RP make contract works, also a decent amount of RP. There are plenty of ways to always have more than enough of research points.
In my first playthrough i also had the problem of not generating enough research point.
In my current second playthrough (currently Y24 in a 35-game) i don’t seem to have that problem. I have 4 people already specialised in certain sliders, my first MMO is running (planing an expansion next) and already have opened up my hardware branch (though that was a misclick, thanks to that i’m in slight money problems)
I think what i made different in the second playthrough was:
Not alot of topic resarch in the beginning. It helped that with Action/Strategy/Sim i had alot of choices in the topics, rather in my first game where i made almost only RPGs. I would say aside from Sci-Fi and maybe fantasy if you’re going the RPG-Route you don’t need to resarch topics in the garage.
Don’t move too fast, but don’t wait too long. I once tried moving to the office after my first hit, with just around 1.5 Mill in the bank. Wen’t downhill after that.
In the second game i waited a bit longer, but moved as soon as i got 3 Mill, which was around year 3 or 4 (don’t remember). Allowed me to use 500k each for scouting two new employes.
Mind the research attribute. My first training on my main character was research and when hiring i also had an eye on their secondary attributes (speed and research). Hiring someone who is under 200 is a bad idea i would say.
Try to get them on par with your main as soon as possible (that is around 300).
Between training and engine, choose training
When it comes to spending your RP, don’t reinvent the wheel every year. Ok in the beginning i made a new engine as soon as i got a new graphics-version, but thats when they only cost 15 or 40 RP.
You can use a v3 or v4 graphics engine for several years, your increase in skill will compensate.
Also in contrast to new engine features, training is cheaper (both money and rp-wise) and a lot more effective.
An example from my second game: I made one sci-fi/simulation which got a rating of 6,25 or something - clearly medicore. Another sci-fi/simulation game made shortly after (not directly) got 8,5. The only difference was the person working on engine and A.I. The first guy had around 520 in tech, the second 720.
@rosebud and @EvoGamer
I’ve only made it to year 16 or 17 just upgraded my computers. I did not know about the R&D lab so I’ll look forward to that. Thanks for the idea of heighering emploies with high research, I’ll keep that in mind.
I did notice I get a bit of research points while doing contracts.
I’ll think about building “junk engines” for the research points on my next playthrough.
@MagicMagor
timing is a good suggestion. when I get the office I waited tell year 11 before heighering someone but that may have been too long.
I didn’t think much about training, like I said I’m at about year 17 and on my 5th engine still using v2 graphics but I’m at sround sound and have voice acting.
How often should I build a new Engine that I’m going to be using?
I’ve played Chrono Trigger and they have a Game + mode where you start a new game but keeping your items and skills. sence Game Dev Tycoon start’s with you going back in time after you finish the game year 35ish you should be able to keep your skills and research and go back in time but you loose all the games and what ever else you made/earned.
Good question. In my current second game i decided that switching to a new engine always means also a step up in the graphics department. But also not only a graphical update. Meaning i want an engine switch to matter. Therefore the new engine should include beside the higher graphics-level several additional features.
It also depends on wether you are going to use 2d graphics all the way to the end, or switch to 3d at some point.
I would also note that if you change engines quickly in the beginning, when the updates are cheap to research your new engine is way longer “up to date”. In my current game i decided to go 3d, so as soon as i could research 3dv1 i did so and continued to upgrade my 3d-version as soon as i got the chance. At least until v3, that sticked with me for quite a long time (i think i got it to level5 before i switched to v4).
3Dv4 i have been using for the longest time, probably around 10 years - leveled it up to level8. And the only reason i build a new engine with 3Dv5 was, that i needed a new engine for the MMO anyway.
The way i see it, upgrading an engine in the later parts of the game costs more RP than specialising an employee and i find the latter improves the games much more than an engine upgrade.
thanks for the reply. in my next game I’ll wait a while before making my 2nd engine and try to pick 2 or 3 areas of game develement I’m going to focus on. perhaps Dialog, Gameplay, and Engine or something like that.
I went up to 3D graphics V2 and got it up to level 7. I want V3 but there’s so many other things I need to research more.
Edit: I’m fairly sure it’s because I spent so much time in 3D V2 that I researched 3D sterioptics (the thing with the glasses)
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