Research & Development

All data related to R&D are in one file, ListOfTech.txt. By convention the data regarding the actual research (or development) are in the beginning, followed by a list of prerequisites. The former are opened by keyword TECHNO and we shall refer to them as "technologies". The latter are opened by keyword OBJECTS and we shall refer to them as "objects". Together we shall refer to them as "R&D items". The data structure is as follows:

LIST_OF_TECHNO
  TECHNO                             
//opens a technology definition
    NAME PLASMA_WEAPON_HANDLING      
//unique ID among R&D items
    KIND ENG                         
//is it research or development? Can be ENG or SCI
    TIME 120                         
//length of research or development, in days, with one base
    MFG FALSE                        
//is it manufacturing? Can be TRUE or FALSE.
                                    
//Only development (KIND ENG) can be manufacturing.
    VIDEO "path"                     
//path to the video played on R&D screen
//from here to END_OF_TECHNO is optional list of prerequisites
    SUB_TECHNO                       
//opens prerequisite definition
      ELEMENTS PLASMA_WEAPON         
//points to R&D item ID
      REQUIRED TRUE                  
//the prerequisite is required, see below
      VISIBLE FALSE                  
//the prerequisite is visible, see below
      SIGNIFICANCE 0                 
//how much the possession of the prerequisite speeds up the research
    END_OF_SUB_TECHNO
    …
  END_OF_TECHNO
  …
  OBJECTS                            
//opens the objects definition
    NAME PSI_WEAPON                  
//unique ID among R&D items
    TYPE SMALL_OBJECT                
//objects type, see below
    EQUIVALENT HUMAN_WOUNDED_BY_PSI  
//points to Objects ID this object supersedes
    SHOW TRUE                        
//show this object on the prerequisites list?
  END_OF_OBJECTS                     
//closes the objects definition
  …
END_OF_LIST_OF_TECHNO

Object Type

The objects can be of the following types:

SMALL_OBJECT An equipment item that can be found in a mission
LARGE_OBJECT A large "virtual" object, e.g. an UFO hull
EVENT Not a physical object, e.g. Witnessing plasma in action

Ready, Visible, etc.

Each technology can be in one of the five states:

Invisible: the player is not aware of its existence
Visible: the player can see it, but cannot start inventing it because he lacks some required elements
Ready: the technology can be invented
In-progress: the technology is being invented (or it may be on hold)
Available: the process of inventing is complete and the player can access the results

It is important to understand how the first three states are related to the required/visible properties of prerequisites. This is summed in the following table:

An object is available: When the player takes possession of it
The object is visible:
If it is Event when it is available
Otherwise always
A technology is visible:
if it has one or more elements marked required: when all of them are visible and at least one of them is available
if it has one or more elements marked visible: when any of them becomes available
if it has no elements marked visible: when it is ready
The technology is ready:
if it has no elements marked required: when it is visible
if it has one or more elements marked required: when all of them become available

The rules are ordered by priority, so for example a technology with one available visible item but with one invisible required item is not visible.

We have included the complete research tree in PDF format (you have to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed).

For more information about Research & Development see the game manual.


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