I'm new to the game, so let me say that right up front....

I just unlocked the Power Conduit with research (first tier) and I'm a bit confused. It takes 1 second off the energy recharge timer of 3 min and I lose 5 max energy? Is this even worth it? What am I missing here? I don't find this useful at all...

Are all the upgrades in this tech tree like this? If so, how in the world do you increase your max energy other than spending ship points on engineers?

Well in the case of the tier 1 power conduit, nah in my opinion it's not really worth installing. The research on the other hand is VITAL. You really want some of the more advanced items they unlock.

Ok so there is hope for this tech tree then. Will any of them actually add energy?

Yes, every 2nd tier will let you research 4 increasingly powerful energy reactors. And at higher levels the recharge modules are nothing to laugh at when stacked. Combine the 2 types of modules and you'll have a lot of quickly regenerating energy. (And no room on the ship for anything else except a steering wheel and a bathroom.)

Woot! Thanks for the info

personally i found the first ones incredibly useful and fully worth it. You just need to install some cores.

new cores? Remember, I'm brand new to the game....

Apparently im special or something but I had the first level of cores/conduits and was rank 17 at the end of day one. So to me you should have that.

He was asking about the tier 1 conduits, which I think are useless at any level. Stacking the max gets you what, 4 seconds off the timer? That 20 energy you'd lose is much more useful at that level. Tier 2 gets the fusion reactors though, which are great.

Jesus, how'd you level that quickly? Anyway, I still have no idea what a core is...I may or may not be able to do that. Here's my stats so far:

Level 8 Inergon Explorer (started playing about 26 hours ago)
Minerals 6/hr
Artifact 6/hr
Research 23/hr (13 coming from 1 planet, 10 from Engineers)

Energy 88
Hull 50
Shield 20

48 Decks (Put 4 each level up here)
85 Cargo (Put 1 each level up here)
80 Engineers
5 Tactical Officers
5 Helmsmen
10 Scientists

I've put 200 research into Advanced Power Systems to unlock the Power Conduit
I've put 200 research into Advanced Sensors to unlock Proximity Sensor - Mark II
I've put 200 research into Planetary Construction to unlock Habitation Modules

I've scanned 27 times and found 15 planets. Of those 15 planets only 1 had research that was uninhabited and it was an average size planet with a 25% bonus to research. I built nothing but the +1 to research things on it. My starter planet is average with only minerals and artifacts on it both at a 25% bonus. No these aren't ideal planets but I'm stuck at a 8% successful find percentage and that's with 4 Mark II's installed and I get a 10% from my race. So, finding another planet in the near future looks grim.

So what am I doing wrong?

I would have invested more in scientists and engineers. They have a large effect, especially at lower levels. There are some who believe that almost all decks is the way to go, I agree to a point, but I wouldn't neglect the others. Consider that 1 point in scientists every level would be +300 research by level 100. How many free planets is that? And engineers are more energy, which is key to EVERYTHING in this game. (But there is a point where more energy just means longer waits to recharge.)

Tactical and Helmsmen are debatable, high levels bring up the point that modules are MUCH more efficient but require a lot of decks, and at level 60 I can see how that makes sense. I ranked them up anyway, but I might regret it later.

core=module that increase max amount of energy, and its not engineers that increase research its scientists. I put EVERYTHING into engineers and rode the energy gained from ranking untill about rank 16 in which i actually had to wait a few mins to rank. I then got my planets and what nought putting everything into researching energy. I was rank 35 by the end of the week.

Core = Also known as reactors in-game. Fusion reactor... graviton core to name a few.

Advanced power systems. +1 charge is useless. This is followed by a reactor (core) -> new relay -> new reactor and so on. Get those reactors. The next relay after +1 charge is +3. This you may want to consider.

I'm at high power conduit now. It seems not to be worth it though, but I'm not sure. I maxed them out anyways. At what level of the tech do you get a very profitable relay?

HOW TO USE CONDUITS

Step 1: Do the math, find out weather the energy lost from having conduits will cause you to have less energy overall due to maxing out energy. For the time you will be away from your computer. (Before you get cores times like these might be going to school/work/sleep/meeting ect.)

Step 2: Adjust accordingly.

Step 3: Take off conduits whenever you get a maximized amount of energy (AKA energy cubes, ranking, ect.) so you get the most out of the situation.

Step 4: Always update your cores/conduits, at first they may not seem like much help but later on they become invaluable.

I know step 1 can be difficult but if your willing to complain about these things you should be willing to do something to make 'em worth it.