is it really that much or am I doing it wrong?

[Laie]

I've just finished my second year and got a message along the lines of "two years already, you're wasting your time! -500 infamy".

Honestly, I don't see how I could be any farther than I am. Well, I have an inkling: I've stopped unlocking new missions around eight months ago in order to work through the backlog of research topics.

Where I am: My main weapons, since many weeks, are Alpha Rifles and M-Lasers. I have unlocked (but do not use) Heavy Armor and a host of Kustom Weapons that do not seem worth making. Analytics Room and (as of today) Industrial Printer. I have exhausted data discs and socializing. For all that, I still have a backlog of 100 topics to work on and 42 brainers to handle it. Which is twice as many as I had a year ago, but then again, it feels like the average topic now needs four times as long to research. So the sense of progress has gone down, while the number of topics has only gone up.

It feels like a tar pit. Was it avoidable? How do I get out?

[Psyentific]

If that's the event I'm thinking then it's nothing to worry about, just took a while to get Captain's Log #2. It sounds like you're doing alright in terms of facilities, so as long as your airgame and battlescape gameplay are managable then you should be fine. With the Analytics and Printer online I can say welcome to the end of the midgame.

[ciqasty]

The event runs after specific research is done. Due to size of research tree you may unknowingly skip some of the researches that are needed for it (bikini, civilian traffic) and probably last month you researched it's last prerequisite so it could fire. As long as you are doing fine and not struggling too much - you are fine

[eharper256]

What they say above. The required researches for that event to fire, as I mention in my guide, are:

The Social Hierarchy, Plotting, the Onsen, Maid Outfits, Persuasion, Bikini Design, Pirate Traditions, Contacts: Smugglers, Earth’s Satellite Network, and Stop Targeting Civilian Traffic.

The game expects you to have that precise list in around 10 -17 months, but if you don't read up about that it's easy to miss.

[Laie]

What they say above. The required researches for that event to fire, as I mention in my guide, are:
[...] Stop Targeting Civilian Traffic.

Yeah, that's the one that didn't seem urgent to me.

As I said, I have a lot of research topics, and the backlog seems to get longer with every month. I can no longer claim to really "manage" anything: Items near the top or bottom of the list have a much greater chance of getting attention than something hiding in the middle of the stack.

...is that part of the usual XPiratez experience?

EDIT: sounds whiny, and yes, it is
The kind of research I do now is rather boring, plate mail and kustom guns and jet planes. Which might have been exciting a year ago, but now are inferior to what I already have, Maybe that means that I have chosen my priorities well and got the good things first. Still, it seems like I have to cover all the boring stuff as well before the excitement can resume. Judging from the number of topics and current rate of progress, I'm looking forward to six months of not much notticeable progress. Is there a way to skip this?

I've occasionally checked the tech tree for dependencies, but by and large have managed to not spoil myself about future events. On the one hand, I'd like it to stay that way. On the other... if there is a Tome of Much Knowledge to be found on the Moon, please tell me how to get there quick.

[eharper256]

If you fancy save editing, you can skip it:

Assign as many researches as you can, assigning at least 1 scientist to each.
Save the game (ideally at around 23:00 hours ingame), with a recognisable filename.
Open your save in notepad++ (it's in Dioxine_XPiratez\user\piratez ).
Search for "- project: " without the quotes with CTRL-F.
Change all of the "Spent" values so that they, if added to their "Assigned" values, will match the "Cost". i.e:

Code: [Select]

      - project: STR_FLAK_DEFENSE
        assigned: 7
        spent: 18
        cost: 25Save the file. Load in Game. Next midnight all that science will be done.

I've used this a couple of times just to zoom through mostly irrelevant topics.

If you just want more knowledge, use the XPedia and my guide. If you don't have a copy of the Xpedia, you can download one at my guides page: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=12206.0

[Psyentific]

If you fancy save editing, you can skip it:

Assign as many researches as you can, assigning at least 1 scientist to each.
Save the game (ideally at around 23:00 hours ingame), with a recognisable filename.
Open your save in notepad++ (it's in Dioxine_XPiratez\user\piratez ).
Search for "- project: " without the quotes with CTRL-F.
Change all of the "Spent" values so that they, if added to their "Assigned" values, will match the "Cost". i.e:

Code: [Select]

      - project: STR_FLAK_DEFENSE
        assigned: 7
        spent: 18
        cost: 25Save the file. Load in Game. Next midnight all that science will be done.

I've used this a couple of times just to zoom through mostly irrelevant topics.

Use caution with this. Once you resort to save-editing the game can become much less fun.