FC Forums

To prevent people from just googleing the recipes for what should be researched, we should do it like Thaumcraft and make the completed research required to craft the item at all.

In order to research, you first need NPCs (not the villagers, the ones FC will use to do stuff like man your ship) and use [insert some fitting item here] on them to turn them into scientists.

Once you have your scientists, you need to provide them with stuff like: an area to work, research devices, materials, (later) energy and something to store their research results in.

Once a research is complete, you can enter a GUI on the "data-storage-thing" (which might have different versions, like a bookcase to get started at all and for more complex stuff you would need something like a data storage computer) and get yourself blueprints (required for advanced crafting) for stuff made available for crafting by research or copy an entire technology and paste it in the technology storage of another lab. This could also be used for technology-trade. You could also use blueprint folders where you can put several blueprints at once to avoid inventory jamming. You may also store several blueprints/technologies at once in a digital data storage device (maybe different kinds, like floppy disc, CD, or data pad which allows for viewing the stuff on it like on paper without a computer) which have limited memory (different for various types of data storage) while each tech/blueprint takes up a certain ammount of memory.

Research projects would be split into 3 categories:
1.)Basic/general research: Basically you research the technology, requires completely differnt things, depending on research. Produces technology to climb the tech tree/web (whatever it´s gonna become)
2.)Device research: You use your technology to unlock crafting recipes. Requires certain basic research and unlock of all components. Might require materials and assembling devices for prototypes. Each gives you exactly 1 unlocked crafting recipe. Modular stuff would not need to be researched individually, insteads you need only 1 device research for the item category (e.g. planes) as 1 research for each possibility would be too much work.
3.) Reverse-engineering: If you uncover some ancient alien artifact or something similar you can give it to your scientists and let them do research on it. Once the research is complete, you will get a boost in both basic and device research towards the machine you uncovered. However, if you already have that machine researched, you won´t get any new information out of it.

There would be 2 research modes for labs:
In manual mode you select each researched technology seperately.
In auto-research mode the scientists research random things which have their requirements fulfilled. You would also be able to tell your scientists of a lab (maybe configurable with a black wall- like thing you put on the wall in the lab) to focus on certainthings, like only do device research of computer-stuff or general research on Plasma tech, allowing for specialisation of both your faction and specific labs.