Set Research Project is the order used to start a research project. You will need to set the item number for the project, number of labs to be used and at what research points to convert to mass as discussed below.

Research is the conversion of theories and hypotheses into formulated procedures that can be used either for the furthering of specific fields of research or to create blueprints for the construction of advanced items in factory complexes.

Theory
Research is the development of technology as well as the duplication of existing technology. Research complexes produce research points. These represent theories as well as the equipment needed to test the theories. It is presumed that research can be broken down into smaller steps. The governor of the starbase determines these research steps, although there are always a minimum number of steps that must be taken. This is the theoretical minimum time to develop a project.

Note: Starting a research project costs 10,000 stellars but subsequent orders to alter quantity of complexes and conversion step are free.

Research Points
Research points are accumulated at a rate of 100 per complex per week. There is no limit to the number of research complexes that can be accumulated. At any time the starbase governor can elect to put the researched theories to the test. The test will (hopefully!) convert research points into mass of the principle, tech or blueprint being researched. Once the mass of the item has been accumulated, the research is completed. As with all research, there may be unforeseen factors involved. These may aid the research or may cause a set back. The greater the amount of research points at the time of conversion, the greater the analysis of the theory and therefore the smaller the chance of something going wrong. The conversion table on the next page indicates the results.

The governor can set the conversion amount as a number of research points, allowing for relatively predictable results.

Conversion

Conversion Result	Average Points	Worst Case Points
Disaster - 100 mus research destroyed.	-	800
Disaster - 50 mus research is redundent.	0	1200
Wrong avenue - 25 mus research is redundent.	100	1500
Wrong avenue - 10 mus research is redundent.	200	2000
Stalled - Required new equipment, 4000 stellars	350	2400
Stalled - Required new equipment, 2000 stellars	600	2900
Stalled - Required new equipment, 1000 stellars	900	3500
Stalled - Required new equipment, 500 stellars	1200	4100
No change to the project	1400	4800
10 mus of research complete.	1900	5500
20 mus of research complete.	2900	7100
30 mus of research complete.	4100	8800
40 mus of research complete.	5500	10800
50 mus of research complete.	7100	13000
60 mus of research complete.	8800	15400
70 mus of research complete.	10800	18000
80 mus of research complete.	13000	20700
90 mus of research complete.	15400	23700
100 mus of research complete.	18000	26900

The Result
The process of research is random and the above table shows both the average number of points requires to get a certain result and the points required in the worst case scenario, that are need to be sure to get that result or higher.
e.g. accumulating 8800 points at the time of conversion assures that at least 30mu's will be constructed, although depending on circumstance as much as 90mu's could be built. The reason for this is that there is the chance of flukes or breakthroughs. The worst conversion result presumes that absolutely everything has been covered by the theory and nothing is left to chance. Obviously using less research points than the worst possible conversion is taking risks in an attempt at fast tracking.

NB. Maximum research presumes all underlying technology is present (see below). If there you have a -3 penalty for missing principles you can not get higher than 70Mus result

There are three types of basic research. These are blueprints, techs and principles. Blueprints are needed to build advanced items. As these items cannot be built without a blueprint, they are known as restricted items. Items with similar properties will generally be researched from a single tech. They are shown grouped together under the tech from which they can be researched. Thus a tech may be useful in researching a number of blueprints. Finally, each tech is itself founded on principles. These are wide fields of research covering many aspects, not all of which will be applied to a tech. It is often the case that a tech will be founded on a number of principles. In general, the more advanced a tech, the greater the number of principles that will be needed. Principles are often themselves founded on other principles.

The diagram below show a flow chart showing the relationship between a principle known as energetics and the various types of photon beam weapons. All these photon weapons are restricted items.

Lack of Underlying Technology
Normally research is conducted based on previously acquired technologies. Jumps and shortcuts can be taken if the item technology being researched is already known although these will make all research harder.

Research into principles requires all underlying principles to be tooled at the base.

Research of tech can be conducted without the underlying principles. If this is done though, the maximum conversion result will be shifted towards failure. Insufficient prerequisite principles at the time of conversion will shift the result towards failure by 3 rows per principle order. Insufficient tech will shift the result towards failure by 7 levels per tech order.


Example
A starbase researching a tech has accumulated 22500 research points and want to convert them into mass. This would normally generate a minimum of 80 mu's but the starbase does not own one principle. The missing principle is classed as level 1. The result is shifted by three levels towards failure giving a minimum result of 50mu's.

Obviously the more complicated the item, the more prerequisite principles. In general blueprints only require tech, but the shift of 7 levels per tech order is a severe penalty. This said, it is often faster to develop blueprints for relatively simple items such as photon weaponry directly (despite the penalty), than to complete research into both the principle and the photon weaponry tech. The trade off though comes when better versions of the weapon are desired, or if blueprints are wanted in many starbases. In this case, a single set of principle(s) and tech(s) is often fastest, with the blueprints then being distributed to the required destination.

Having the original present gives a +2 shift towards success on the conversion table but does not cover all the prerequisites.

Example 1
A governor gets his hands on a tech that requires 2 1st order principles that he does not have, he is still at a penalty of -4 (-6+2) to researching a copy of the tech.

Example 2
A governor acquires a Light Photon Gun mkII blueprint. This is dependent on Photon Weaponry mkII, a 2nd order tech. Research to copy the blueprint can be conducted at -12 ((-7x2)+2). The starbase is going to need a scientist specialising in Photon weaponry in order to stand even the remotest chance of copying the blueprint. This makes blueprints of higher mark items often irreplaceable.

A scientist is a unique item similar to an officer. Once created the item will be checked during research to see if the scientist will give a bonus to the research. A bonus will be given if the principle/tech/blueprint the scientist is specialised in is a pre-requisite of the research or the target of the research. Scientists come into play at the time of conversion of research points into mass. They oversee the testing of the theories among other things.

The best scientist available will shift the results towards success per bonus. A scientist will give a bonus range for 1 to 5, e.g. a +4 scientist will turn a result of 'stalled 1 item required' into '30mu built'. Even scientists with a +1 bonus are uncommon while a +3 bonus will only be given by a super genius.

Scientist Creation
A scientist is somebody that has proved himself to have a flair for the research project undertaken. This will only be revealed during the final analysis of the research, i.e. when the project is finally completed. The check is automatic and it is presumed that everything is done to recruit and identify anyone with a particular talent in this field during the course of the research.

At the time of completion there is a check to determine if one of the employees that worked at the research complex is upgraded to scientist. The speciality of the scientist will be the project target and the chance of producing a scientist is directly proportional to the size of the project undertaken. The scientist bonus is very rarely above +1.

Universities
These are similar to scientists in that their bonus is granted to research in exactly the same way. The primary difference is that the result of a special action may indicate that it is possible to construct a university in a unique location in order to benefit research from the local environment. This might be due to an unusual radiation profile of a gas giant enhancing research in wave technology for example.
The special action will give details of what is required to build the university.
Only one university can be constructed to benefit from the phenomena.

In order to make use of any principle, tech or blueprint, it needs to be functional. Making it active is called tooling. This can be seen as the distribution of the data and special parts throughout the starbase. When tooled technology cannot be removed from the starbase - although it can still be destroyed. Due to the amount of care and precision that is required during tooling a fixed amount of time is required based on the type of technology is being tooled.

Technology	Tooling Time
Principle	26 weeks
Tech	5 weeks
Blueprint	1 week

In order to move a piece of technology to a new location, the technology needs to be untooled. As this is fairly straightforward untooling is immediate.
NB. Untooling is not possible during combat.

Blueprints are needed to build items that are not classified as common. They are also used to build ships and train troops to advanced levels. They may also be required for the exploitation of rare resources. They therefore represent a unique set of equipment including schematics and the basic processing equipment needed to produce specialist aspects of the item such as widgets. It is not just a load of data.

As can be seen in the conversion table, a blueprint can be produced in a single step.

Damage
Each blueprint is unique, as by their very nature they do not represent ubiquitous technology. Further, as blueprints not only represent data, but also what is often irreplaceable equipment, they can be broken due to damage such that caused by sabotage or during combat. If this happens, they are basically useless and are scrapped.

Production Limits
Blueprints not only represent data, but also specific tools needed in factory production and various protocols to be used. As such, each blueprint regulates the maximum amount of production that used to build the restricted item. Generally speaking, a mkI blueprint will allow the production of 1000mu's of an item. For each mk increase in the blueprint, this amount will halve. The table below gives an example for all the various photon weaponry blueprints.

Photon Weaponry	Mu's production per blueprint
MkI	1000mu's
MkII	500mu's
MkIII	250mu's
MkIV	125mu's

There are exceptions to this rule. Certain blueprints allow the construction of a single item per blueprint. Having multiple blueprints in all cases allows the starbase to build the limit multiplied by the quantity present.

Training Limits
As blueprints for items do not only represent data, so too training blueprints cover the construction of small weapons needed for the troops, skills needed to subliminally implant into the minds of the troops and much more. As much of the blueprint covers neurological lacing, the artificial implanting of learned instincts and knowledge, each blueprint is also tied to a race. A blueprint for the training of human crew cannot be used to train dewiek mercenaries. These blueprints also require troop-training complexes, as some simulation training is also necessary. Most training blueprints allow up to 20 mercenaries of the appropriate species to be trained up to the specified troop each week. Veteran mercenaries cannot be trained.

Shipbuilding Limit
Once a design of ship is decided on, a blueprint is created for it. This is a list of parameters for the ship, including hull type, size, armour and installed items. During construction this list is referred to in order to build the ship to the specified capability. The blueprint also includes unique construction techniques to ensure that the ship is spaceworthy once built and not merely a lot of randomly bolted hulls. Each blueprint will allow up to 20 hulls to be assembled per week towards the specified ship design, although the number of shipyards may reduce this. Having 5 blueprints for a ship design will mean that 100 hulls can be assembled providing there are sufficient shipyards. Also note though that there is a limit to the number of hulls that can be assembled in any one week for a given ship. Where more hulls can be assembled than is possible for a single ship, multiple ships of the same design can be worked on simultaneously.

Example
If 3 blueprints for the ship design Warhammer are present, 60 hulls can be assembled per week. If only 15 hulls can be assembled per ship per week, it means that 4 ships can be built simultaneously.
See shipbuilding for information on assembly limits, refitting and related information.

This covers the specific application of principles within a select field. It is also the basis for a number of blueprints. It may well be the case that a number of different items will fall into one technology, e.g. thruster tech will cover standard, landing and combat thrusters.

Higher order versions of the same tech are often based on the lower order techs combined with another principle.

Example
Development of the mkII landing thruster blueprint uses Thrusters mkII Tech. All mkI Photon weaponry such as the Photon Gun, Photon Cannon and Photon Battery use the Photon Weaponry Tech.

Even without the Technology though, the blueprints can be researched, but a penalty is applied (see above).

Example 2
Photon Weaponry Tech is based on the Energetics Principle. Photon Weaponry mkII Tech is based on Photon Weaponry Tech and the Anti-Matter Manipulation Principle.

The conversion table shows that a minimum of 10 steps must be taken in order to complete research of techs.

Stellar Cartography
Each system has an unspecified number of stellar cartography projects associated with it. These are researching sequentially. Each project maps a larger volume of space as well as following up on anomalies identified in lower level projects. The primary reason for researching stellar cartography is to determine if there are any uncharted systems in the local region of space and once detected, researching the navigational data required to reach them.
Level one is a blind research project, i.e. the outcome is never known until completed. The levels above generally have target such as a specific uncharted system. Information generally also includes its approximate spatial location, i.e. how many jumps away and whether it is directly linked to the system where stellar cartography is being researched.
Stellar Cartography differs from normal technology in that the mass of a tech is related to the size of the mapping project. Invariably the initial level is the standard 1000mu beyond this though it is generally down to the navigational distance which will be further increased if there isn't a direct jump link.

Principles cover a wide range of aspects within the field. The mass covers not only data but everything needed for research and development such as linear accelerators, nuclear plants, firing ranges, computer simulations, artificial intelligence simulators, laboratories, even torture chambers and whatever else will be needed. Without principles, developing tech is very difficult although not impossible for tech based on the lower order principles.

Known principles have been placed into a tree showing their order of magnitude and what they are dependent on. There may be other principles waiting to be discovered that are not commonly known about.

As can be seen on the conversion table, due to the limit of 100mu's per week, it takes a minimum of one year to complete any principle.

Sometimes a new field of research will be desired. This can fall into one of two types. The first and most common is to research technology that is known to exist but the knowledge of the specific technology is restricted and unknown to the position wanting to start the project, i.e. its principle/tech/blueprint number, is not listed in the data archive. An example might be Photon Guns mkIII. They are known to exist in the game, but the blueprints not classed as common knowledge.

Without in-game knowledge of the technology, attempts to initiate reseach will fail.

While it is possible to trade for the information and have another political transfer the knowledge enabling research to begin, it is also possible to have the scientists work on existing knowledge in order initiate research.
If the latter route is the one desired then a special action should be issued by a starbase where the research will be carried out. The starbase should make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the special action will result in the successful addition of the knowledge.

Successful Example:
The owner of a starbase wishes to research Photon Guns mkIII. He has a stockpile of Photon Guns mkIII that he has traded from another faction. He also has Light Photon Guns mkIII blueprint that he captured from another faction's base. He presents these two technologies as the basis for initiating research into Photon Guns mkIII even though he does not have a copy of Photon Weaponry Tech mkIII.

Successful Example:
After efforts, the base has developed Photon Weapons Tech mkIII at a base along with a stockpile of Photon Cannons mkII. The owner of the base uses this as a basis for initiating research into Photon Cannons mkIII.

Where research is more of a speculative venture, then there will generally be a hint from investigations that such a field is viable. Even in these circumstances all efforts should be made to ensure that tech likely to be needed in supporting the new research is present. If some but not all the necessary technology is present the Moderator might respond as to the missing technology and allow a future free action to complete once the technology is present.

Failed Example:
We want to start research into a new ship, the Slaver based on DTR Freighters at our IND Pirate Base. There isn't a tooled copy of the DTR Freighters at the starbase so we are prepared to research at a -7 penalty.

In all cases, where technology is required to initiate research, it has to be present at the base initiating research and be tooled. This is because subspace communication is closer to the pony express than the internet and research programmes cannot rely on it.

Failed Example:
We want to start research into a new ship, the Slaver based on DTR Freighters at our IND Pirate Base. There isn't a tooled copy of the DTR Freighters at the starbase but there is at IND Hidden so we are prepared to research at a -7 penalty.