Blueprints

**Location:** Infinite Lagrange Wiki -> Game Mechanics

**THIS IS A D\*R\*A\*F\*T and WORK IN PROGRESS!!!!** It is incomplete and may contain badder grammar, incorrect splling, incorrect, punctuation, and confusing Klingon.

Blueprints are one of the major focal points of Infinite Lagrange. Ships and fleets are the primary means by which a player's orders are executed and each account's blueprint collection determines what ships the player can build to carry out those orders.

While blueprints are not the only means of acquiring ships, they are the means that is the least restricted:

* Temporary blueprints: Ships can be built in the player shipyards, and can gain tech points from experience, but cannot be given permanent tech points, thus limiting the total tech points to 50, and only for whatever time the temporary blueprint is available. Special note regarding the D20 - Data Utility Ship - it does not have any enhancements.
* Purchased ships, reward ships, salvaged ships: Can not gain experience or be given permanent tech points

There are three sources of blueprints:

* Starting blueprints (FG300 - Multi-Role Frigate and the standard Utility ships)
* Various Tech files
* The Research Agreement

**See also:** Blueprint availability

## Tech Files

There are a wide variety of different tech files in this game, but for purposes of discussing blueprints, they fall into three groups:

* Tech files with guaranteed blueprints: Ship & Aircraft BP Files, Enterprise BP Files, United Tech Files
	+ The **Dawn Accord Standard Military Ship Research** is a set of special, guaranteed blueprint tech files that are **ONLY available in Phase I**, containing a total of eight blueprints. The full details are explained on the Blueprint availability page.
* Generic Tech Files, which have only a 3% chance of having a blueprint, and then only for generic ships
* **All other tech files** have a 10% chance of having a blueprint (includes Black Market, Interstellar Caravan, festival, and ship introduction tech files)

When buying a tech file, players (especially **free to play**) should carefully consider the costs and benefits of the offered tech files. Also, some of the specialty tech files, such as the United Tech Files or the Jupiter Ind. Tech Files, have limited blueprint pools which may make them more or less attractive.

## Duplicate Blueprints

One aspect of the game that many players find frustrating is that when they pull a blueprint, it may be of a ship for which they have already pulled the blueprint at least once. There also seems to be a system bias in favor of certain blueprints and against others.

When a player pulls a duplicate blueprint, there are seven possible scenarios:

* The ship in question is a **super-capital ship** (Battlecruiser, Carrier, or Auxiliary Ship)
	+ The player has pulled all of the modules for that ship: In this case, the player will be offered the choice of 10 tech points or 10 research points
	+ The player has **not** pulled all of the modules for that ship: The player will be offered the choice of one module (guaranteed), 10 tech points, or 10 research points
	+ The player has pulled the blueprint through the Research Agreement and has already pulled all of the Modules for that ship: The player will receive 10 tech points
	+ The player has pulled the blueprint through the Research Agreement and has **not** pulled all of the modules for that ship: The player will receive a module
* The ship is question is **NOT** a super-capital ship (Fighter, Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer, or Cruiser)
	+ The player has pulled all of the **variant** blueprints for that model, or the model has no variants: The player will be offered the choice of 5 tech points or 5 research points
	+ The player has **not** pulled all of the variant blueprints for that model: The player will be offered 5 tech points, 5 research points, or a **chance** (NOT guaranteed) of getting a variant
	+ The player has pulled the blueprint through the Research Agreement: The player will receive 5 tech points

Special cases:

* If a player pulls the SAME blueprint in two boxes, it is very possible for something to go wrong. It is **HIGHLY RECOMMENDED** that the player NOT research them simultaneously, but instead research first one, and then the other
* If a player makes an attempt to acquire a variant blueprint and does not succeed, they will will receive **Research Progress** that will increase their chance of gaining the blueprint in any future attempts
	+ In the patch on 2023-04-26, a change was made that allows players to build **one** ship for which they have received Research Progress (considered a prototype)
	+ If a player pulls the variant in the Research Agreement, each **unsuccessful attempt** to acquire the variant will be converted into 5 tech points
* For super-capital ship modules, the system will only offer modules that the player has not yet taken. If the player does not take a particular module, but instead takes tech points or research points, the system may offer the **same module** if the player pulls that ship again; cases have been reported where players were offered the same module four times in a row.

## The Research Agreement

The Research Agreement (RA) is an alternative, for players in Phase II systems to using research points to buy **Ship & Aircraft BP Files**. The RA costs 25 Research Points per attempt, but allows the player to significantly reduce the pool of ships from which their blueprint will be selected - to as few a two blueprints, in some cases.

The RA is **NOT** a guarantee of pulling the blueprint for a particular ship - it can only improve the player's chances significantly. As with the Ship & Aircraft BP Files, luck is still very much a significant factor. Some players love the RA and use it all the time. Some players hate the RA and only buy Ship & Aircraft BP files. There is no right or wrong answer.

When a player gets a blueprint in a tech file, it is for a specific **model** of ship, and the player is guaranteed to get the base model (the 'A' variant) first. On the other hand, with the RA, the player pulls a specific ship/variant. It is possible to pull a variant for which the player **does not** have the base model (variant 'A'). In that case, the player will be unable to build the ship until they have acquired the blueprint for the base model.

### How the RA works

During each Phase II server/system, the player may make up to 10 (?) attempts to get a blueprint via the RA. Only one attempt may be running at any given time. If the blueprint has not been pulled before the end of the server, the RA will continue to run in the Hub, and that attempt will count against the number of attempts the player will get in their next server.

Every ship can be assigned various properties, in three groups:

1. Authorizing company: can be zero or one of:
	1. Jupiter Industries
	2. NOMA Shipping Group
	3. Antonios Consortium
	4. Dawn Accord Organization
2. Strategic Performance: can be zero or more of:
	1. Outstanding Firepower
	2. Sustained Combat
	3. Strategy And Support
	4. Fighter & Corvette
3. Tactical Performance: can be zero or one of:
	1. Projectile Weapons
	2. Direct-Fire Weapons

RA research takes place in zero or more **phases**. In each phase, the player may specify one property from one of the three groups. Only one property from each group may be specified. Depending on the assigned difficulty of each property/filter, the system will calculate how long it will take to complete that phase. Phase I is completed in 1-2 days, Phase II in 3-4 days, and Phase III in 11-14 days. A player can pull a blueprint at any time before specifying the next phase, or after Phase III is complete.

In all three phases, the player may spend proxima coins to end the phase early. In Phase I and Phase II, the player may also spend Weapon tech to reduce the research time required. In Phase III, the player may also spend tech points to reduce the research time required - this is not recommended for **free to play** players.

### Probabilities for various ships

Each ship is assigned a **weight**. The chance of a particular ship being pulled from a group is the weight of that ship divided by the total weight of all the ships in the group. For example, if a player chooses NOMA Shipping Group, then Strategy and Support, and finally Projectile Weapons, there will only be two matching ships: Light Cone - Area-Denial Anti-Aircraft Cruiser and RedBeast 7-13. The Light Cone has a weight of 5 and the RedBeast a weight of 10, for a total of 15. The chance of pulling the RedBeast will be two-thirds (67%) and the chance of pulling the Light Cone will be one-third (33%).

The possible weight values are:

* 2 - all super-capital ships, plus Callisto
* 5 - all other cruisers, plus the more highly rated ships from all other classes, such as CV-T800 - Pulsar Corvette, Taurus, Mistral - Combat Attacker, and XenoStinger
* 10 - the less highly rated ships in the Destroyer, Frigate, Fighter, and Corvette classes

**Please note:** Some ships are not assigned a category in some groups. The Thunderbolt Star - Multirole Arsenal Ship and Hayreddin's Loyal - Pulsar Fighter are not authorized by one of the four main companies. Callisto - Heavy UAV Cruiser is not assigned a **Strategic Performance** value. This fact, plus the weight values can make some ships very difficult to get via the Research Agreement. The chances of pulling a specific ship through the RA are always higher than with Ship & Aircraft BP Files, but due to the limited number of attempts per phase, the long time required per attempt, and the low probability, per attempt, it is extremely unlikely that the player will get a particular low-probability ship via the RA.