First up is the easy question. Let's suppose I'm an evil emperor out to subjugate the galaxy with fear and torment. My colony ship just landed on a planet with a moral "dilemna". (I mentioned the evil part, right?) Not to ruin the specifics, at the low, low price of lifelong agony for billions of people over untold generations I now have a planet with 10 labs and a +50% bonus to research.
Does anyone actually know what that means? Does that mean that my labs on that planet produce 50% more research than my labs on other planets, or does that mean that my labs on that planet have 50% more research capacity and I can spend 50% more on my research from that planet? Basically, is the extra 50% free or not? Same question for a racial research bonus.
Now, here's the difficult question. Assume that planet I mentioned is my primary research planet. I'd make it my research capital, but let's keep things simple for now and just say 10 labs, 50% research. Also, assume that the extra 50% is free. Finally, assume that I have 10 labs of the same type elsewhere in my empire and none of them has any sort of bonus.
Let's add some numbers and assume that each of my labs has a capacity of 10 tech points (TP). Meaning if I put all of my money behind my total of 20 labs, I'm spending 100BC on the ten assorted labs and getting 100TP, and I'm also spending 100BC on my research planet to get 150RP. In total, 200BC for 250TP.
Now what happens if I bring my spending down to 100BC? The best thing for me would be to just fund the labs on my research planet, but will the game do this? Will I be getting 150TP or 125TP?
Is bulldozing my other labs intended to be a good way to increase lab efficiency?
Finally, what do you think would be better for the game? (read: more fun for as many players as possible)
Any answers?
