Research

Technology accumulates monthly. Research points are generated, banked, and spent on a target technology; when the bank covers the cost, the technology completes and its modifiers apply.

Where research points come from#

The primary driver is literacy. An illiterate nation researches slowly no matter how rich it is, which makes education policy the foundation of a technical lead. Culture and commerce technologies then boost the research rate further, so early investment compounds.

Points are capped at 10,000 banked. You cannot hoard indefinitely.

Availability#

A technology becomes available based on your existing technologies and the current year. The century gates itself: you cannot rush a late-century technology in 1835 regardless of how many points you have banked.

Picking a target#

Any nation without a target — including yours — automatically picks the cheapest available technology once it has banked enough points. You will always be researching something.

AI nations choose more deliberately, weighting by war posture and the ruling party's ideological bias. Those biases are explicit:

This is why AI nations develop characteristically. A reactionary power builds armies and neglects its schools; a liberal one builds trade and industry. Their technology profile tells you what has been governing them.

What technology does#

Technologies apply modifiers across the game. Notable ones include:

• Research rate — culture and commerce technology compounds your science.
• Recipe unlocks — factories cannot build what you have not researched.
• Supply range — railroad and logistics technology extends how far an army can operate from friendly territory (see War).
• Tariff yield — how much revenue your trade policy actually returns.

What this means in play#

• Literacy is the research budget. Everything else is a multiplier on it.
• Culture and commerce first, if you can afford the politics. They raise the rate at which you get everything else.
• Industry needs its unlocks. A factory recipe you have not researched is a factory you cannot build.
• Read your rivals' technology. It tells you which party has been in power and what they will do next.
• Do not bank points. The cap is 10,000 and idle points are wasted.

See also#

• Politics and reform — where literacy comes from, and what else it causes
• Production and industry — recipe unlocks
• War — supply range and artillery
• AI nations — how the ideological bias plays out