Labs in Orbitals question

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neilwilkes
Posts: 184
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:44 am

Labs in Orbitals question

Post by neilwilkes »

This may seem like a dumb newbie query (and in a way, it is) but there is something I cannot seem to work out.
When creating orbitals, is it only on Interface Orbits that I get the lab bonuses to research, or will these work on all orbitals?
For example, if I have a set of Xenolabs in, say Medium Earth Orbit will I get the bonuses, or must these orbitals be in an interface orbit?

Secondly, if the latter and an interface orbit is required to get the research bonus, will these work in Mars/Mercury Interface Orbits too?

Any advice will be fantastic and gratefully received
Hawkeye
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:03 pm

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by Hawkeye »

While you _do_ get the X number of research points, if you want to get the %-bonus to research, yes, the station needs to be on an interface orbit above Earth and only Earth
DarthVicious
Posts: 98
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2022 7:38 pm

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by DarthVicious »

A lab provides some research points AND a bonus to research speed for the topic it relates to, regardless where it is built.

If it is built in an Earth Interface orbit, it provides a bonus to IP investment as well.
Richard Baxton held off four waves of mind worms. We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him into the Recon Rover Rick character. People need heroes. They don't need to know he died clawing his eyes out, screaming for mercy.
Hawkeye
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:03 pm

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by Hawkeye »

DarthVicious wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 9:32 pm A lab provides some research points AND a bonus to research speed for the topic it relates to, regardless where it is built.

If it is built in an Earth Interface orbit, it provides a bonus to IP investment as well.
I just double checked and I stand to be corrected.
neilwilkes
Posts: 184
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:44 am

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by neilwilkes »

Hawkeye wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 5:34 pm While you _do_ get the X number of research points, if you want to get the %-bonus to research, yes, the station needs to be on an interface orbit above Earth and only Earth
So it is of no real benefit to build these various labs anywhere else except LEO then?
I know Research Labs just add a base of 100 regardless, but will this mean that Xeno Labs etc are useless outside of LEO?
Hawkeye wrote: Fri Nov 11, 2022 5:02 am I just double checked and I stand to be corrected.
On which thought, please?
Hawkeye
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:03 pm

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by Hawkeye »

You get a fixed number of research points _and_ a percentage bonus for a specific kind of research (depending on the type of lab)

If you look at the picture below, the Materials Lab gives you 5 Research Points _and_ a 2.5% bonus to research in the field of Materials Science, no matter where the lab is build (first box)
Once you get above 50% bonus, there is diminishing return on this

It can _also_ grant you a 3% bonus to the effect your investment into Military Priorities has, _if_ the lab is in an Earth-Interface orbit.
This one is capped at 30% bonus.
science lab.jpg
science lab.jpg (68.13 KiB) Viewed 2191 times
dweejbird
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:24 am

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by dweejbird »

I’ve got 2 questions related to this.

1. In regard to the research bonus, I’m a bit confused cause in the Hab description, it says that “All tech categories from hab modules are subject to diminishing returns once above a 50% cumulative bonus”

Whereas, the research tab states that research bonus suffers diminishing returns once it goes above 50% but not specifically only from habs. So which is which?

2. I recently only started playing so I’m not very good at my orbital layouts now. Needless to say, it’s a bit messy and I’m trying to maximize my social science lab bonus for public campaigns, my xeno labs for alien detection, military science labs for mil tech and nanofactory bonus for economic priority. All these bonuses are subject to a cap. So my question is whether there is an easy way to get a summary of all these bonuses? As far as I know, I can select my army and see that it has the mil tech bonus coming from my orbitals in interface orbit. But I can’t seem to find any place that summarizes my bonuses coming from the others. My current workaround is to manually count each and every module I have in interface orbit which is a pain due to my earlier mention messy layout.
DarthVicious
Posts: 98
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2022 7:38 pm

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by DarthVicious »

Maybe not as detailed as answer as you would like, but.... tooltips are your friend. Read them carefully.

FOR RESEARCH BONUSES
Mouse over the Research icon on your status bar at the top. The tooltip includes the total research bonus from all sources by category at the bottom.
OR
Open the tech screen. It tells you next to each research item what bonuses are being applied from +engineering and +research category.

FOR IP BONUSES
If you open the nation tab (click on a nation) and mouse over the category names, you get a description as well as a summary of all bonuses that are being applied.

All bonuses from orgs, labs, techs, projects appear to lumped together into one total, which leads me to believe the diminishing returns apply to the total bonus, and not necessarily from one source. But I rarely let diminishing returns stop me. I happily go up to 70% or more.
Richard Baxton held off four waves of mind worms. We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him into the Recon Rover Rick character. People need heroes. They don't need to know he died clawing his eyes out, screaming for mercy.
dweejbird
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:24 am

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by dweejbird »

You are right. Not as detailed as I would like but still some good points.

I am agreement with you that the diminishing returns above 50% probably apply to the total value combing from habs, orgs, councilors etc.

However, the tooltip doesn’t help with my specific query. Yes, it does summarize all the research bonuses I am getting but this does not help with optimization because the max you can get from habs is only 30%. So if my current bonus is 40%, how would I know whether building an additional hab module will boost it as it is not clear to me if my bonuses from habs is already at 30%.

Secondly, the other items I mentioned such as strength to Public Campaign and Alien Detection does not appear in any tooltip I am aware of.

Some areas of improvement to the game perhaps? Like a Hab summary tab for a planet that keeps track on all your bonuses.
DarthVicious
Posts: 98
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2022 7:38 pm

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by DarthVicious »

Agreed.

The habs page is your best bet for that. It shows the output and upkeep for each hab on the left. If you filter it to say all habs in orbit of Earth, you can manually add up the relevant output from each hab.

With some mental gymnastics you could assess that if you have +40% energy, then you likely have 4 energy research centers, and a 12% bonus to IP investment. (10% research bonus and 3% IP bonus iirc).

The output/upkeep string is badly formatted for this, and very difficult to read. It would be nice if it were in neat columns with a summary total.
Richard Baxton held off four waves of mind worms. We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him into the Recon Rover Rick character. People need heroes. They don't need to know he died clawing his eyes out, screaming for mercy.
rookie.one
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 6:08 pm

Re: Labs in Orbitals question

Post by rookie.one »

dweejbird wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:56 am 1. In regard to the research bonus, I’m a bit confused cause in the Hab description, it says that “All tech categories from hab modules are subject to diminishing returns once above a 50% cumulative bonus”
dweejbird wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 3:57 am I am agreement with you that the diminishing returns above 50% probably apply to the total value combing from habs, orgs, councilors etc.
There you are wrong, the diminishing returns apply to each source of bonus research income indevidually.

So if you have a research bonus income of 50% from habs, 25% from councilor traits and 35% from orgs, you will get a total of 110% to that specific research. If you have research income from habs of 100%, 25% from councilor traits and 35% from orgs, that should result in something like 122% (50 + 50*0,25 + 25 + 35).

My basic advise would be to go for the 5 research centers or 3 research instutes you need to get your 30% bonus to the investment points in your countries and then focus on research campus / universities and skunkworks / foundries (there are diminishing returns after 100% and ~150% aswell) to advance your research.

/edit: typos
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