Researching sold item.. Bug or a feature?

[humbe]

Hi..

I see it still is like the original UFO game, that you can start research alien artifact, and as soon as you've created the research project, you can put zero scientists on it and sell all you have of that artifacts, but still allowing you to start researching it later..

As it still is like that, I'm assuming it is because it is not considered a bug?

I'm assuming it doesn't affect research speed or anything, guessing it's only because the game only checks whether you have item when you create project.

[NKF]

It's a game, so some hand waving to simplify mechanics is to be expected.

This is purely speculation, but I do like to think that the labs will have collected all the necessary research data they needed before the item was sold. This would be things like photographs, field testimonies and other types of data collected via non-destructive means. Then it's all kept on a few pages in a yellow manila folder in a filing cabinet - as per the movies. The bulk of the research time is working out what it all means.

Also just to go on a brief tangent: I don't think the scientists and mechanics truly spend the amount of hours required to research or build the items they are working on. The actual work is probably only a portion of that, with most of the time spent on laborious administrative tasks, squabbling with other departments for resources and general day-to-day life while working on progressing said project. I'm only bringing this up due to an amusing anecdote I had at work where we had to bring in a few building management contractors and were given a quote of 4 man hours to complete the job. The task: move a small filing cabinet to the other side of the office. The work itself didn't take long, but all the clip on tasks like transportation and organising the workers do add up.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

It's a feature. If they need to consume the item, then it's destroyed once the research is added to the project list.

You could say it's a pseudobug: in a perfect world we'd like to have the item have to stay in stores (or in the laboratory!) during research, but it's merely simpler to code it to only check at the start of the project.

[Nilex]

Also just to go on a brief tangent: I don't think the scientists and mechanics truly spend the amount of hours required to research or build the items they are working on. The actual work is probably only a portion of that, with most of the time spent on laborious administrative tasks, squabbling with other departments for resources and general day-to-day life while working on progressing said project. I'm only bringing this up due to an amusing anecdote I had at work where we had to bring in a few building management contractors and were given a quote of 4 man hours to complete the job. The task: move a small filing cabinet to the other side of the office. The work itself didn't take long, but all the clip on tasks like transportation and organising the workers do add up.

Office Space basically. Thank you, I'll never look at Research in XCOM games the same again

[tarkalak]

Or if a modder wants to have it unavailable, he can have the item destroyed and then have the completed research give the same item.