Research Overview

A Typical Ground Agency
Most ground agencies follow a typical layout, as illustrated in the picture below:

Research aims at improving one or more of the following systems:


 * Research laboratories - Conducts research to improve all other systems, usually the preserve of the Research Director. Of course, no research can be done until you have a Prestigious Labs
 * Deep Space Radio - Sends transmissions to space, usually the preserve of the Flight Director. You'd normally start here by researching Hardware Improvement.
 * Telemetry super-computer cluster - Scans and analyses spectrographic readings from space. Usually the preserve of the Telemetry Director. You'd normally start here by researching Telemetry Communicators.
 * Vehicle assembly building - Produces extra-atmospheric craft for use in missions. In this particular case, you will always start with a Missile Chassis in order to reach the shuttle in time to be useful.

We recommend you follow links to all of the above to acquaint yourself with the sorts of improvements you might be undertaking during a time of national crisis

Research Breakthroughs
Each round, research institutions around the world will approach your agency for a request to fund their research.

Your agency can grant you funding in $1m chunks in order to bid on this research. You will text the referees your bid on each institution's research programme (in no less than $100,000 increments). At the end of each round, the agency who has bid the most on each research gets the breakthroughs described in the 'Notes' section of the request.

Research Programmes
Most of the rest of this wiki is information on various Research Programmes which can be undertaken. A research programme involves expending the breakthroughs made during regular research to create a new tool for the agency to use in Bringing Them Home.

For example, consider a very simple and cheap upgrade, Hardware Improvement. You can see that the page contains four pieces of information:


 * A small bit of flavour text (in this case, "It makes the radar dish you use for communication better")
 * The cost of purchasing the improvement (in this case, one minor breakthrough)
 * The impact of purchasing the improvement (in this case, it lets you strap more capacitors or compression modules onto your radar dish)
 * Possible future research paths you might consider when this research is complete (in this case there are quite a lot; Capacitor Overflow, Compression Algorithms and Radiation Shielding). This section also lets you know whether the upgrade is a one-off or is repeatable, in case that is ambiguous.

Paying for a research programme requires that you have the correct amount of Research Breakthroughs in the correct specialism. However, deeper breakthroughs can be used in place of less deep breakthroughs if so desired.

For example, ESA might have one Major Materials Breakthrough and text Game Control, "Purchase Hardware Improvement". Game Control might text back requesting clarification - "Did you mean to use your Major Breakthrough here?" - or might assume it is unambiguous and text back, "Hardware Improvement purchased". It is up to ESA to track their completed Research Programmes, although many Research Programmes will trigger with no human oversight (Capacitor Overflow, for example, will always ensure that a certain number of characters each message are not scrambled whether or not the Research Director reminds the Flight Director of the purchase

Research Gifting
Sometimes, research is not needed. Research can be gifted to another agency by texting Game Control to say, for example, "Gift 2 minor physics breakthroughs to NASA". Game Control will text back to say, "Gift complete" or ask for more clarification if it is ambiguous.

Game Control will not facilitate trades for you. You can only gift research, and if you agree to 'gift' your Materials breakthroughs in exchange for a 'gift' of their Algorithms breakthroughs, it is not Game Control's problem if they welch on their end of the deal.

Research Publication
Sometimes, research is not needed and you are frankly so far ahead you don't even need to trade with anyone else. In these circumstances you can publish your research, expending it to generate prestige for your agency. The amount of prestige each publication grants you depends on exactly what you publish, with more fundamental and rarer publications being worth more prestige.

You can publish research by texting Game Control, "Publish 2 major algorithm breakthroughs", and they will text back to tell you the publication was successful or that there is more information needed. You expend research by publishing it - it is up to you to track what research you still have access to.

The prestige associated with each type of publication is given below. Each time a publication is made in a particular research area (materials, physics or algorithms) the 'field activity' increases by one. This means that a minor piece of research published early could in principle be worth more than a fundamental piece of research published late. * The first piece of published fundamental research, regardless of discipline, gains a 50 prestige bonus

** The first piece of published major research, regardless of discipline, gains a 20 prestige bonus