Patent
| Patent |
|---|
|
| Nominal Cost |
| ?¢ |
| Weight |
| 0.02kg |
| Pack Size |
|
A patent is used to unlock more advanced manufacturing processes. The quality of the resulting patent will limit the quality of the patented commodity. This means that when better quality resources are available the patents will have to be updated.
All manufacturing processes more advanced than metal will require a patent to be researched before it can be done.
Research
A patent is researched at the building that need it or at a university.
When a patent is successfully researched, it is added to the empire's patent list. If the patent already exists it is simply updated if the new one is a higher quality.
Research Sample
Some patents require a sample to be resourced. For example patents for mining radioactives, eludium and lumenite all require the a sample of the resource itself. This is simply done by foraging a sample by hand and then selling it to the researching building.
Resulting Quality
The quality of a patent depends on the quality of the materials used.
Quality of cronodollars is ignored.
Prototype Failure
On creation, a patent has a chance to fail based on its quality. If it fails, no patent is created. This is usually only an issue for very low quality patents.
Prerequisites
Some patents require other patents to be researched before they are possible to research. For example rocket drive module has to be researched before gravity drive module is visible on the lists.
Rule of thumb; if what you want to research isn't listed as an option, research the lower tech equivalent first.
Research Time
Most patents take no more than 5 minutes to research. Some of the more advanced or big patents can take longer.
It appears that universities research patents ~15% faster than other buildings.[1]
There is however one special chain of patents that takes a increasing long time to research, measured in days and weeks. FTL technology:
- Wormhole P, 1 hour
- Wormhole PN, 1 day
- Wormhole PNN, 2 days
- Warp 1, 1 week
- Warp 2, 2 weeks
- Warp 3, 3 weeks
- Warp 4, 4 weeks
- Warp 5, 5 weeks
- Warp 6, 6 weeks
- Warp 7, 7 weeks
- Warp 8, 8 weeks
Warp 9, 9 weeks
Empire Patents
All buildings belonging to the empire will periodically fetch required patents from the empire patents.
The list of empire patents can be seen on the Governance window's Patent tab. It is also possible to export these patents onto media, allowing you to trade them with other empires.
Effect of Knowing
Once the empire patents contains a warp FTL drive module patent a number of things start happening.
- The empire's airports will start emitting warp signatures.
- The empire's radars will start detecting warp signatures.
- The empire's broker shipments will travel faster. (confirm?)
This means that once warp FTL technology is researched, an empire is detectable by other empires that also has the warp FTL technology researched.
Produced by
| Building | Produces | Consumed | Required | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commodity's Factory | 1 Commodity Patent |
* The materials used to create the Commodity |
* The requirements used to create the Commodity |
* The optionals used to create the Commodity |
| University | 1 Commodity Patent |
* The materials used to create the Commodity |
* The requirements used to create the Commodity |
* The optionals used to create the Commodity |