R&D -> When? how many? what's your research line?

[tosh]

I'm not entirely sure this subject was discussed in the forum yet. so if I just repeat an already exists post please forgive me.

When -> I set up one RND in the lowest wage city as soon as I get a decent money flow. Around 5-6mil a month. usually after 4-5 profiting retail stores (all my retail stores at the beginning are seaports reliant).
How many-> goes like this - each RND research 2 subject (5 tiles one and another one with 4 tiles). all have *some* minimal training budget, but a fairly low one (usually RND costs are around 350-380k a month per RND with the training involved).
The 5 tiles research do it as a 1 year duration research and the 4 tiles as a 2 years duration. after 2 years I set a new RND with the same method. sometimes I like to research 6 tiles one subject and 3 tiles a semi product research (plastic, aluminum etc...).
That way every year I get to ship a new line of product into the market. If competition exists I will use several methods to deny it:
One I'll research MORE than the competitor.
Second, if it's a small company I'll try to deny profits from them by selling their products cheaper to deny profits, that way I'll slow down their expansion.
Research line - depend. A. on my expertise. I'm good with toys? Racing car will be a first one as long as I can get the materials to start manufacture. B. what's good in the market. I really like Cola as it tend to be really profiting and easy to manufacture. So as long as the market can be easlly accessed, I will usually start with Cola.
From there on I'll go with whatever fits my availability to manufacture - I'm doin cold pills? why not research all the drugs section and after that go to manufacturer perfume and other chemicals based products? That what I will do.

Think I'm wrong? have a better way to dominate the market? just have a different way or another tip for us capitalism player?
Please, share with us

[lucks]

I like that you acknowledge the fact, that you have a personal bias towards a certain industry and perform better in it.
Its similar for me, but i usually allways start the game with my expert product class.

If i want to enter the market, i research untill i get Quality Leadership.
I use all 9 Units of the RD-Firm to research a single Product whose market i want to enter.
I set the timing, so I dont waste time. For example: If the Localcompetition has a Quality of 30 and the Products Quality is stronlgy influenced by Technology i set it to 6 months.
I only research 1 Product, because i want to enter the market as quickly as possible.

I like products that have a high Brand Concern (most beverages, cosmetics). But i avoid competing with AIs as much as possible.
If any AI starts with the same expertise as me I check their personality. If its aggressive I dont enter that market.

If im allready in a market i use RD as either a way to raise Prices or if there is competition ( because they entered after me) as a way to devalue their product.
Using RD to raise Prices needs some calculation and works best with Products that havea high Quality Concern and whose Quality is strongly influenced by Quality ( like most Electronics/Communication/Computers, Drugs).
For those i use 9 Units, because every point in TechnologyLevel transforms into Money easily.
I use 3 Units for Products that have lower QualityConcerns ( Like Cola).
I set the timing to the most efficient time ( 2 or 3 years). If I have expertise in the product I might use a lower researchtime, because there is no cost for upgrading units.
I usually take an arbitrary OverallRating as Goal and set the Price so the OverallRating doesnt change.

If there is competition i take a look at the AI first. If he is doing well ( Annual Profit is positive) I dont compete in Research ( remember: They have extra Expertise in Research and Training).
If he is bad I wait for the next ressesion to decide whether I let him go broke and take his marketshares ( but beware high unemployment that might follow) or Buy him out.
My biggest fear is usually, that they sell their technology to some other AI to stay afloat.

IMHO Research and Development can easily cut dangerously into your ProfitMargin, so you should take care to only invest into it, when you can meassure the Profit. Because i care deeply about my Margins ( keeps you ressions-safer) i tend to market my products into every city, before I enter a new productmarket. Onst i have a product in all Cities i might increase funding for the Development ( use 9 Units). And i seldom Research a new product before i see my product in all cities.

Sometimes it makes sense to research multiple products at once ( e.g. all Drugs).
Its easier to enter the Market profitably, if you have multiple products to sell in your Store afterall.
Just remember, that it takes about 4.5M a year to keep up a R&D-Firm ( without Training). And you probably wont be able ( psychologically) to close the firm if resession hits (and Interest Rate raised at the same time? be prepared!).
My rule of thumb is not to take Loans to fund R&D.

[counting]

I always though setting up research centers in lowest wage city doesn't make sense at all.

In real life major break through comes from countries that has higher living standard and better infrastructure. Although private research centers differ from universities, but I don't think wages should be the only factors.

About in game R&D, when you have monopoly of certain products, and your expertise (and your CTO) are not that type, its even necessary to have 2 or 3 centers with 9, to research the same product with different research time (3 years, 5 years, even 10 years). The longer timer will leap frog your research to catch up, and short term one can help you at least not falling too much behind. (I always play with max 30 competitors, so almost always every product is researched by some AIs, even if you have monopoly)

And I sometimes just research a long term tech to diminish opponents product quality.

[lucks]

Regarding the choice of City:
The Fixcosts of R&D-Firms is the same everywhere. I build it in poor cities to create some Jobs and save Money on the landcosts.

I sometimes build the R&D Unit to fill gaps between my properties. The Firm doesnt Need to be next to a street and raises the Traffic Index a Little.

[bomtrown]

In my current game, I did retail for a while, selling seaport goods and AI's products, using the profits to build dozens of apartments in each city, and commercial buildings near the central business districts. I also buy the land where oil, timber, and minerals show up in each city when possible.

At some point, I had enough money to start a research & development firm for each possible technology. I got the levels up to highest technology before opening farms and factories for every possible product. Then I opened up retail stores to sell my own goods in high traffic areas, adding new apartment buildings in cities with greater housing demand.

I'm in the 2600s (years) and have over 20 quadrillion dollars.

At some point, having all the R&D centers got too expensive, so once my tech levels started to drop thanks to AIs competing R&D firms, I hired a tech officer at headquarters to pick and choose R&D in a few new R7D labs that I opened up to stay competitive. My goal is now to drive all four remaining AIs out of business.

[Steel]

I usually start researching once I have a working factory and 2 retail shops supporting it with a little bit of profit. I like placing my research centres in towns with a low wage and I prefer downtown locations because the land prices are lower. I always connect 3 tiles so 1 R&D facility can research 3 products at once. At the start I like setting the time for 3 years, it gives you a kick start and a short term advantage that will usually prevent the competitors to enter your markets unless they make a long term research program (but it is hard to catch up since you will have your retail shop chains estebilished with brand supremacy + tech lead).
I like researching every single product I focus on if I aim to achieve monopoly in those markets. I don't mind if I have 20+ R&D centres, they don't have a high maintenance cost once estabilished, I like comparing these costs to ads, worth the expenses. When I can open more and more factories then I start thinking ahead and start researching products that I know I will market penetrate in the furture. Since I always start in the 1990s I start researching future tech like video games once I have a good market share in the key markets in early game.

[Nazka231]

Me I start the problem on the other side. First I decided how much percent I need to beat the leader depending how much the tech level has an influence for the product. Then I just need to see how many R&D I will need to do that. If the game is starting it can be only 1 R&D building with 3 slots at 2 or 5 years of research, if it's in a mid game it will be more.

I will also point that research are more and more unproductive when you beat more and more the second company in the market. Your costs will start to explode exponentially where your margin will increase only linearly. You have to be careful to not over research a tech. So at the end I try to be at 20% more than the second company in the market to 80% max if I want to destroy them quickly.

[Steel]

It is impossible to have a grip on every tech of course, but I still like thinking ahead and starting to research products as early as possible. Otherwise you have to wait a lot (5-10 years or more) to catch up. That's why I recommend setting up 3 research centres at the start to maintain advantage at the industry/products you start with, this will prevent the AI sneaking up on you later. Then with more profits, you can plan ahead and start researching products you don't have the infrastructure or resources for yet. I would only play the catch up game if all the other markets are fully saturated because it is too much time and money to dedicate research centres working 100% on a single product for a decade.

[counting]

I wonder if anyone ever try a pure tech trade game. Try to sell techs to AIs and gain real profit is something nearly impossible for human. One small mishap when you choose the wrong line of tech where other AIs also researched will be a huge blow, and you can't recover those past running cost of R&D when you fail to sell.