Is this the intended outcome?

[Caddrel]

My company of players has had two ways of interacting with the research system. In the first way, people try to craft only items they use themselves or can sell to other players. In every case, they've eventually hit a huge wall where progress is no longer possible.

The second method is also well known, but I've not seen it explicitly written down anywhere. In the interests of developer feedback:

* They find the item that costs the least amount of resources to give the most research points, with the best vendor resale value.
* They make several thousand of those items, leaving their computer on because the crafting takes a long time. (https://www.un.org/en/un75/climate-crisis-race-we-can-win)
* They vendor the thousands of items for an overall percentage credit loss, then reinvest the money in ore to make thousands more items.

These players max out the research tree on themselves (and their alts).

As far as I can tell, there's no way a player can get past a certain point without the second method. When a research item requires 80k "blue" or 50k "yellow" or both, well... You have to put together 877 batteries (which would then need to be charged to be used to build a ship) for a single node.

If the research system is just a placeholder, I haven't read anything that confirms this, or what the next iteration might look like?

 

[Sylwester]

Progress not possible, what? You can max out research tree without ever touching auction house. It's just a matter of time investment. Using auction house makes it more efficient and crafting items that give you most points for resources as well as buying ores using money you got from vendoring items would be considered *playing smart* and *using your time efficiently*.

This tool can save you time looking for best items to craft: https://ozzyberto.github.io/SRC/

Also don't delude yourself with solving climate crysis, by not running your pc over night. You could go live like a caveman your entire life with next to 0 emissions and it wouldn't make a dent in the whole problem.

 

[DemonicSanil]

I find the research tree very tiresome as well. Some values are so beyond the roof that I have to scratch my head. Completing the research tree isn't endgame, it's more like an enabler. Free to play - grinding - mechanics don't belong into a full price game.

By the way: I get it that automation is supposed to solve the issue of long waiting times in the crafting process. Also that having a station in the belt is supposed to maximize your resource per time ratio, thus allowing for more crafting. But I'm not quite convinced this alone is enough, given the absurdley high number of crafted items needed for just one node further down the tree.

 

[Caddrel]

Progress not possible, what? don't delude yourself

Perhaps my first post wasn't clear. It is entirely possible to go about it by the method you suggest (the "second method" I described in my original post). However it's not possible to progress by trying to craft only items that a player can use themselves or can sell to other players. In every case, they've eventually hit a huge wall where progress is no longer possible (or as the Japanese tend to say, "very difficult").

Regarding your caveman, the issue of personal agency, influence and eternal oblivion are probably a bit beyond the scope of this forum. Individual actions can and do make a difference, although obviously this is a complex issue. There's an extensive Wikipedia article on it.

 

[Sylwester]

As you play various games, you often learn more efficient ways to progress. If you chose to not use the more efficient way and instead insist on using less efficient way to progress then, well it's your choice. I sometimes do this to make my games harder by self imposing certain rules (permadeath etc. or in case of this game I opted out of using items crafted through ship designer until I got them unlocked in research tree).

As for the other topic, while I'm getting pv installation at my house and might get electric car later, I disagree with focusing on personal responsibility in trying to stop climate change. Even if everyone cut back massively on their lifestyles it wouldn't fix the problem with the whole system. The only thing an individual can do to make a meaningful change is to put pressure on lawmakers to force them to fix the system (which would include laws that force you to cut back on your lifestyle somewhat, if that's necessary).