Deconstruct & Analyze too powerful?

[Baron Munchausen]

Yes, it would be more realistic to have your progress accelerated than to simply acquire a tech all at once. If MM hadn't simplified the research model from SE III it would probably be possible to track each area and only award research points for each currently unknown tech in a ship when you analyze it. But we can only track research points in 12 techs in SE IV. I hope that SE V will restore a decent research model like MOO 3 is restoring the original MOO sliders.

[Vildecor]

As far as realism goes, I think how D&A works is decently close. Gaining one tech level above where you already were in a certain area isn't a far stretch when analyzing alien ships. ("Hey, these alien Quantum Engine IIIs look remarkably similar to our Quantum Engine IIs!")

The only thing that isn't very realistic, in my opinion, is being able to get the colonization techs from D&A (if you haven't gotten them already by then).

[Deathstalker]

What would actually be nice is two things: 1)option to turn off analyze for a game.
2) A flag in each of the components in the txt file to whether it can be gained by 'D&A' or not.

(and three...maybe analyze could be changed, instead of instant tech maybe it added a set # of research points into that tech type. ie, analyze Ion engines III and you have +10,000 points towards Propulsion research....)

[Fyron]

If analyzing same or lower level technology components on ships contributed any research points to the tech area, what would be to stop me from analyzing my own ships? I could build a bunch of escorts with minimum components, an engine, and a weapon, and then analyze them and get a huge amount of free research points.

[Baron Munchausen]

Uh... why would analyzing a technology you already have give you any research points? Only higher tech levels give you anything from analyzing. I don't see any reason to change that.

[Fyron]

I direct you to this post by PvK:

It would be useful and provide ideas, and even same or lower tech levels could provide what would essentially be some research points...

[Pax]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
If analyzing same or lower level technology components on ships contributed any research points to the tech area, what would be to stop me from analyzing my own ships? I could build a bunch of escorts with minimum components, an engine, and a weapon, and then analyze them and get a huge amount of free research points.

Obviously, you would have to limit this to only work on CAPTURED ships -- ships that are not from your own shipset.

As to the *why* of it -- picture: two alien races have the same general capability to build, oh, Phased Polaron Beam III's.

Race one managed to come up with a *very* nice waste-energy dissipation system, which itself helps focus the beam more efficiently (result: less wasted power involved in getting the same damage output).

Race two, OTOH, has higher-capacity output levels; they can pump more energy through to begin* with, it's just more wasteful and less-focussed ... resulting in the same effect on the receiving end.

In SE4 terms, both are using PPB3's; the mechanics are the same regardless of which race builds them. But ... each alien race has arrived at that abstract capacity, by slightly different routes. This means each race could potentially benefit from examining what the OTHER race did, or more specifically, what the other race did differently. A fusion of the two, even though they are identical in game-mechanics terms, might just lead to something better than either one alone -- say, PPB4's.