UFO Defense: How to research most efficient ?

[Zak]

I never investet much into understanding the research mechanics to its core.

I always set my scientists all on one projekt.
This was no problem even in higher difficulties.

But now i want to optimise my scientist placements.

I read a few guides on the ufopaedia but im not realy sure.


What are the key points to understand so howle scientist placement?

[yrizoud]

All in one project is most optimal in vanilla, at least because there is a bug/quirk that on project completion, when you re-assign the 100 (for example) scientists on a new project or one that is below it in list, you get an instant progress as if those 100 scientists had been working for one day.
It's even possible to waterfall it : If 100 scientists are enough to complete this project, you can again put them on a third project and get again 100 man/day progress on it, which can cause it to complete immediately, etc.

OpenXcom doesn't have this behavior. A side effect is that it makes research systematically (a bit) longer.

[Sharp]

There isn't really a most optimal strategy, it's up to you what you want. You can put them all on one project or half and half on two etc...

Technically as yrizoud is saying the rollover bug isn't in OpenXCOM then the most efficient method is as few scientists per project which means you will only lose a small amount of research potential. The research times are random and research completion updates on midnight so it's impossible to know exactly how much research is left required for a project to complete, if you have more scientists on a project then you have a greater chance of project being completed but the day being wasted for a few scientists as they over-research the goal.

That being said it's only for pure research you would want to distribute scientists amongst all projects evenly, you could use the https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Research_Technical_Details to scale number of scientists based on average research so research projects are more likely to finish at a similar time.

However for practical purposes it's best to research one topic at a time for an item that you want, that way you can get it into manufacturing quickly and therefore you can have it ready to use more quickly as well.

[Warboy1982]

1: research heavy plasma.
2: ?
3: profit.

[Hobbes]

Focus all research in 1 base and get fully 4-5 manned labs.

At the start you have 2 options: either go for Motion Scanner (to start using your workshops to make money by selling them) or Laser Weapons (to increase your firepower). If you go for laser weapons, don't stop until you've reached Laser Cannon since it is the 2nd most profitable item (considering time/cost to manufacture, workshop maintenance and engineer salaries and selling cost) to manufacture and sell.

The top profitable item is Fusion Ball Launcher, but you can only research it after you capture and research a Blaster Launcher).

You can also got straight for Plasma weapons research and skip Lasers. However, at the beginning Heavy Plasmas are scarce to be seen on missions, so you may be better getting Plasma Rifle first until the aliens switch completely to using Heavy Plasmas.