Technology

“There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation and categorization which gradually extend the boundaries of knowledge, and the revolutionary leap of genius which redefines and transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn, nonetheless, for the latter.”

Academician Prokhor Zakharov, “Address to the Faculty”


Every Faction is striving to increase their knowledge of the universe and unlock its secrets. The new flora and fauna on Chiron offer countless new insights and challenges to those scientists wishing to take the time to study and document them. 

Since Planetfall each Faction has managed to unlock a number of new exciting avenues of research and are at the brink of what could be considered a technological renaissance.

Paths

There are 4 different paths that new technologies are grouped into; 

  • Build - focussed on improving Bases

  • Conquer - focussed on improving military capability

  • Discover - focussed on improving scientific discoveries

  • Explore - focussed on improving the planet

Each of these paths is relatively broad and there is some amount of overlap.

Tech Tiers

Each technology is also part of a tier broadly representing the sort of discoveries that are available to a given faction at the same time. When a faction has had greater than half of the technologies of a given tier deployed to them they are said to have increased their Tech Tier. Each of the Factions at the start of the game are at Tier 1.

Breakthroughs

Your characters can through a variety of methods acquire Breakthroughs. If enough of these are pooled together they may be developed and turned into a new Technology as a downtime action. Each Breakthrough has a path and tier associated with it and is used to unlock a technology that matches. Two Breakthroughs from a previous Tier may be used in place of one from the tier being researched. The tier of the Breakthrough acquired is generally the same as the tier of the Faction it originated from. Some Breakthroughs represent research dead ends and other misassumptions and are invalid, a Breakthrough may be tested in uptime by characters with relevant proficiencies. If an invalid breakthrough is used in an attempt to develop a new technology the character attempting to develop the tech will need to succeed on a check to see whether or not this set back can be overcome.

Deployment

Once a Technology has been developed it may be deployed to a specific Faction, this Faction will then unlock the various benefits associated with the Technology. Each Technology may unlock new Facilities, Military Unit parts, Secret Projects or other benefits. Factions may trade deployed Technologies between themselves, however doing so without the permission of the Factions high command is unlikely to be received well if a character is caught doing so.