Technology

Technology is developed by all nations over time.

## Mechanics

Players may devote 1-12% of their budget to research at any given time. The default is 8%, with diminishing returns for higher levels. The money spent on research is invested in the various fields of technology that a player has unlocked. Fields may be set to High, Medium, or Low priority, which will affect the research speed in that field.

In each field, a tech is chosen to research whenever a previous tech completes. Each tech has a chance of being skipped, so tech will not always be researched in the same order. If the tech chosen is too far advanced, no budget will be invested in that field, and the funds will be re-allocated to fields with valid research options.

AI nations will also occasionally offer to buy tech from the player, or sell tech to the player. You may choose whether to accept in either case. Typically, a tech is worth roughly 4000-5000 on very large fleet size. Alliance (Security Agreements) with other nation increase the chance of technology trade offers from AI, with better price for the player.

As any technology can be purchased from another nation. In this case RP used in that field are used on another technology even in case that technology which was purchased was under research. The idea is that research is done in that field not technology and as RPs are accumulated, certain technology is researched even if in game save there is technology which is under research.

## Technology Fields

The following fields of technology may be researched by players:

### Technology information

#### Level and name

Level is the number shown in the tech screen.

#### Year

Each technology has a nominal year of development. Beginning research on a technology in game before that year is reached will result in the number of research points per turn generated in that area being reduced until that game year is reached. It is intended by the game developers as a balancing tool to somewhat limit the technology gap between larger, richer nations and smaller, poorer nations over the full course of the game.

#### Proliferation

After any country researches a technology with a "Y" for proliferation, it becomes more likely for other countries to select it for research as well. These "Y" technologies tend to be ones that are visible either externally on a ship or when the ship is being visited/inspected. For example, once the first nation works out triple turrets or installs a 12 foot rangefinder, other rival nations are going to be more interested in researching that technology as well since they've now seen the first nation implement it.

#### Chance

This is the percent chance of that particular technology having research commence on it after the previous technology is completed (or was skipped). So technologies with 100 listed are never skipped.

#### Cost

This is the multiple of 20,000 research points (RP) needed for the technology to be researched. So a 3 would mean the technology requires 60,000 RP to complete, a 10 would require 200,000 RP, etc. Research points in each individual research area resets to zero after successfully completing researching a technology in that area.

#### Effect

The final column is a general listing of the effect of that technology.

### Machinery Development (0)

Coal is initially the only fuel available. Coal is the least fuel efficient, meaning that more weight is required to increase a ship's range. It also requires stokers to shovel coal into the furnace. During long engagements, the stokers can become tired, resulting in a drop in the ship's top speed. The higher a ship's speed is set during battle, the faster they become tired. On the other hand, coal remains the cheapest option throughout the game. The coal bunkers also add some protection by absorbing damage from shots that hit them.

Before 1920, oil is only available if the nation controls a territory that has oil. If a nation has oil fired ships and loses the territory that has oil, then all oil fired ships will be forced to remain in port (thus unusable). Likewise, blockades can keep oil from reaching the home territory. As of 1920, oil becomes commonly available to all nations, and having a territory with oil is no longer required to use oil fired engines.

### Turrets and Gun Mountings (5)

Initial turret limitations as of 1900:

* -20% ROF for multi-barrel primary turrets below 7 inches, and -10% at 8 inches
* -40% ROF for multi-barrel secondary turrets below 7 inches, and -20% ROF at 7 inches
* -20% ROF for single secondaries below 7 inches in full turrets (> 2" armor), and at 7 inches
* No ROF penalty for casemates or single turrets below 7 inches with gun shields (2" armor or less)
* No more than 2 barrels per turret

### Ship Design (6)

Initial turret limitations as of 1900:

* Primary wing turrets up to 7 inches
* Secondary guns up to 7 inches in casemates or single turrets
* Secondary guns up to 6 inches in multi-barrel turrets

\* = (With varying ship tonnage requirements based on caliber and number of barrels)

### Missile Technology (19)

†These technologies appear in the game files, but as of 1.24 cannot be acquired in-game without user modifications. This means that all ship-to-ship missiles and SAMs other than medium launchers cannot be used.

### Guns (21)

Guns are treated as a tech category for allocating research budgets, but they have a different structure than other fields of technology, with each gun caliber from 2" to 20" having a quality, which can range from -2 to +1. For more information, see the main Guns article.