Hey all,

I never understood why there is a cap on research per level. Smart players spend their research points constantly, so there's no research cap issues. Newbies ask why they can't research certain tech's because the tech's cost more RP's than they can hold (the cap) and they don't realize that they can research in increments like the smart players do.

Another issue is that some of us may have real life stuff where we can't be online for a couple days or so. Most players will hit their research cap within 24 hours or less, so if the research cap is abolished, the research won't be wasted over a "vacation" from online. Keep in mind, the highe end tech's cost over 90,000 RP's, and that's 4x, 5x, 6x more than the research cap for most players.

If not abolish the research cap, how about doubling or tripling it instead?

I think a better answer would be to dictate all your research go to one field of study until you change it.

For example I decide I need better planetary structures so I choose that. Every hour all my research points automatically go to planetary structures.

To keep this from changing "hacks" you simply delay the results of the hack until the targets RP renews for example.

Player A hacks 154 research points from Player B. At the end of Player B's hourly cycle his research points are automatically 154 less than they would have been.

I like this idea, I didn't think of that! I could go for that. I have a couple things though.

1. If Player A hacks more than Player B's hourly RP's, or if a group of people keep hackng Player B in excess of their RP's, what then? 0 RP's gained from hacking?

2. There should be an option to have quered up research, so if a guy finishes researching the 3rd increment of a 3 increment tech (like Defense) worth 45,000 RP's then the next tech is 90,000 each. So the player queres up the next tech to auto-research, say, Weapons at 25,000 per increment instead of waiting forever for the 90,000 increment to finish.

If they actually:
1) read the tutorial
2) searched the forum
3) read the forum posts
4) find and read the FAQ

.. they would really quickly know that they can spend any RP when ever they want to and there is a limit to how much you can accumulate.

That brings me back to my original point. Why was there a research cap put in the game in the first place? Or why is the research cap so low compared to the exponential increase in tech costs for the later tech's?

By rank 150, 200, 250 the techs probably will need 250,000+ rp's per increment to research, and those high ranked players probably have more than 2,000+ research per hour income. They can't even sleep overnight without hitting the research cap. They can, however, sleep overnight and not cap out on energy, minerals, or artifacts.

What gives?

Thats why I think at the very least research caps should be doubled, tripled, or have Kao's idea implemented.

If it was doubled/tripled, higher rank will just pump up their research, hitting the cap around the same time. So increasing cap won't reduce this problem. It will just be a temporary fix. Let it be. The research cap is what limits the research/hr.
If cap is doubled/tripled, I won't be surprised if high ranks double/triple their hourly production too. It is competitive at the higher ranks to waste research points while sleeping/away.

Competitive to waste research points? Isn't it the other way around, to compete for not wasting research and have higher tech's than everybody else?

Would a dynamic % work for the cap instead? Meaning that the cap is equal to 24 hours of whatever your current research hourly income is? Example, Player A gets 500 research points a hour, and Player B gets 2,000 research per hour.

Player A's cap would be 24 x 500, or 12,000 research ponts.
Player B's cap would be 24 x 2,000 or 48,000 reearch points.

The higher level tech costs will basically balance out the larger reseach caps.

Then the cap is fixed at a 'number of hours' which in turn leads to --> Everyone pumping their research to a ridiculously high amount.
Try to live with it, the cap is there to prevent players from reaching the 'end of the tree' faster than Dan can add new items.

a cap it there to reward people for PLAYING the game. if there were no cap i could create a character and take a long vacation. when they get back they could have 9999999999999999999999999999 RP to spend. next i will hear something like why is there a cap on energy...

stupid stuff like this is why i rarely visit the forums anymore.

Agreed... I prefer the old forums with the old old people.
In fact, the limit was increased in the past and I don't think any changes are needed now on the Research limit cap.
http://galaxylegion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=24&start=0

Heh yep. My friend who played Mafia Wars during early time and stopped playing and came back almost 1 year later only to find that he was so rich with money cuz there were no money cap then Mafia Wars fixed that by introducing the cap.. Dan isn't dumb.

I think having a cap is a good idea and should not be changed. As for the noobs not knowing what they are doing. I only started playing this game a little over a week ago maybe closer to two weeks and the first thing I did was read about what I am able to do and not do. So as I see it, they don't read the wiki or the forums then too bad for them.

I miss Noah, he ranted for me.....

Dan should make a "vacation" mode.

I'm away on holiday for 2 weeks and if i were to be attacked or lose anything i wouldn't be pleased.. although i don't take this game seriously enough to cry about it on forums

I already suggested on another thread that the Vacation mode can be like on Starfleet Commander, where you cannot be attacked, but get 1/2 production. With the balancing factor being that any toggle of the Vacation mode has a 24 hour delay: click vacation mode at noon 7/26, vacation mode turns on at noon 7/27.

This is exactly what I was trying to drive at with the research cap.

If I go away on vacation with no internet access, or events outside of my control (go to funeral in another state or what have you), I don't want to be left behind. I'd like to still be able to accumulate my RP's as if I was still here with internet access to spend them.

Mineral and artifacts- their caps are just fine. You don't need 200,000+ minerals or artifacts to advance to the next "level".

Energy- the cap is fine and is raised for each step higher energy core tech you go. Also, if someone needs 1,000 energy or something for a single level up, any "stockpiled" energy over 1,000 would be wasted at level up anyway.

With research, I've looked at the Wiki, and the higher end tech's are over 100,000 RP's. The highest energy tech to date needs a whopping 800,000 RP's to research PER increment! With this in mind, even if a player has 2,000 RP's a hour (probably a level 200+ guy), he'd need 50 hours to research a 100,000 RP tech increment. However, for the Supernova energy tech- 800k RP's, he'd need 400 hours, or almost a month of nonstop research just for one increment- and 4 months to finish that whole tier without researching anything else.

So if vacation mode is implemented, it should be that there's no research cap (only in vacation mode) so that players can still get the RP's they need especially for the higher up tech's if they can't have internet access for a week or two.

That's actually called diplomacy on Starfleet Commander. I play that game and yes it however would be a good idea. Vacation mode lasts for 48 hours minimum and your production is nothing at all.