Research guide

RESEARCH

Investing in research allows companies to produce higher quality products. High quality products are sold faster in retail allowing higher profit.

You may have noticed "stars" next to the products on the market. These determine the quality level of the resource. By default, you can manufacture quality 0 (Q0), by investing into research, you can get manufacture capability up to higher levels.

In order to do research you will need to be level 10.

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RESEARCH UNITS AND PATENTS

To invest in research you need to get so called research units. Depending on the industry you want to get higher quality level in, you need to get the right research units. Go to the RESEARCH screen to see what research units are needed for which products. You can obtain research units either by getting a laboratory building, or buying them from other players. Note: production of aerospace research works a little differently than other research. You can find more info in the Aerospace industry guide.

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Your research progress for your products can be found in the Warehouse.

The research is divided into each research type: Plant, Energy, Mining, Electronics, Breeding, Chemistry, Software, Automotive, Fashion, Aerospace, Materials and Recipes.

The above image shows the products that fall under Materials Research. The number in the (0) is how many research units you have of that research type. Any product that shows yellow stars is how much quality you have researched per product. The above image shows Q3 for Carbon Composite and Q2 for heat Shield. The rest of the products that do not have stars are Q0. There are progress bars at the bottom of each product that show you how far along that product is until the next quality is reached.

Going into Tools you can see the following screen:

To get to quality 1 in Tools; you need 12 patents. (0 patents out of 12)

You can enter how many research units to use to do research in the text box. Then press “Apply Research.”
If, you don’t have research for that specific research unit you can use the blue link at the bottom to take you to the exchange for that research. In the example above you can see the current research price on the exchange is $248.

Once you’ve obtained research units, you can try to get your research patented by using them in the RESEARCH screen. This varies, but you can expect approximately eight ( 8 ) research points getting your company a single (1) patent. You can imagine rolling a dice for each research points, getting a patent each time you get a six.

You will need 12 patents to get quality level 1 (Q1), another 50 for quality level 2 (Q2), 500 more for quality level 3 (Q3) and finally 2000 more for quality level 4 (Q4).

Each type of research patent has a fixed value, which contributes to your Company Value (CV). Your CV will be effected by the price that you pay for research consumed. One (1) patent increases CV by the listed value.

PRODUCTION OF HIGH QUALITY PRODUCTS

Do I just need to invest in Q1 smart phones research and I can produce Q1 smart phones? Well, yes, that's exactly right, once your company is granted the 12 patents needed, all the smart phones you produce from then onwards will be Q1. There's no need to decide what quality you want to produce, the highest quality possible is always produced.

Does the same works for Q2? Not entirely .. You do need to invest research points to achieve Q2, but you also need all your input resources to be at least Q1. The rules is simple: The manufactured product cannot be higher quality than the lowest quality input resource plus one.

It's actually very simple. Let's say you want to sell petrol Q3 and you already invested in the research. You will need crude oil that's at least Q2, ethanol that’s at least Q2 and power that's also Q2 minimum.

(Not pictured; To produce Q2 crude oil, you will need at least Q1 power. To produce Q2 ethanol, you will need Q1 sugarcane and Q1 power.)

Some players wonder what's higher quality water for? It can't be sold in retail, so why bother leveling the quality up. Well, it's simple, you need high quality water, to produce high quality apples, oranges, etc.

Another Example:

To make Q3 fabric you will need Q2+ cotton and Q2+ power. To make Q2 Cotton you will need Q1+ water and Q1+ seeds. To make Q1 water you will need Q0+ power.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

We covered the mechanics, so let's answer the most obvious questions. Should I invest in research, and when should I do so.

In principle, you can use your funds to either get more plants and shops, or to increase the quality of the products you are selling. While you are very small, it's almost always better to do the former, get more buildings, or level up the buildings. However, having more employees increases your labor cost and you will start getting diminishing results. Investing in research on the other hand will allow you to earn more per each unit you sell, while keeping your employee headcount the same.

Let's see an actual example, getting Q1 apples capability needs approximately 12 times 8, 8 is approximate, plant research units (12 x 8 = 96 research units). Assuming unit cost of $150, this is $14,400. $150 being on the expensive side, assuming you get the plant research units on the market or from other players. Getting your own Plant research center can bring the cost down to $90 a unit. With $90 a unit, the total cost of Q1 is $8,640.

Keeping the same selling rate, time being constant, with normal demand, you can ask $0.1383 more for each apple. To get your $14,400 back, you need to sell a bit less than 104,121 apples. To get your $8,640 back, you need to sell approximately 62,473 apples.

A very rough calculation, depending heavily on market conditions and your retail strategy, assuming you sell 350 apples an hour in each of your two level 5 grocery stores. You will get $14,400 back in a week or $8,640 back in less than 3 days.

HAVING A GOOD CTO

Cost of getting a good Chief Technical Officer (CTO) can vary greatly. A young student fresh of the university will have skill 0 - 3. Training him/her, or keeping the executive around for long time can cost anywhere around $50k to $200k. See executives guide.

Assuming the worst case of patent conversion 1/8, e.g. 12.5%. A CTO skill 15 increases this by 15%, changing the conversion to 12.5% * 1.15 = 14.375%. If you were to bring your batteries from Q2 to Q3 (500 patents, $300 for energy research). The move from Q2 to Q3 costs around $1.2M, the science 15 skill CTO would save you ~ $155,000.

Helpful articles from our local newspaper The Sim Companies Times:
Genie of the Lamp: The Power of Science

ACHIEVEMENTS

There are achievements that can be earned by researching products.

• Scientist

• Know-it-all

SUMMARY

It makes sense to invest in research once your company gets larger (reaches about $1,300,000 in company value or 3,000 employees). The larger your company, the more sense high quality products make. Having a strong CTO on retainer is worth it only if you are getting Q3 research or higher.

Special Thanks: The Traveller, for confirming Aerospace Research patent value after the November 2020, Aerospace Nerf.

Library Guides:
Forum, Frequently asked questions, Guide for beginners, Interface tips, Supported platforms, Construction guide, Bonds guide, Executives guide, Government orders guide, Aerospace