Guide to Research and Development

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Research & Development

The main purpose of Research & Development (short R&D or RnD) is to provide upgrades to the various machines around the station, to contribute to the various station objectives, to equip the crew with better equipment and to offer robotics more possabilities through higher research levels.
To perform the R&D role, you will need to construct and deconstruct various items, in order, to get research levels, which in turn grants access to more complex and powerful items.
Do note that some items require Toxins research, performed in the toxin test area (see Guide to Toxins), Illegal Technologies Research, acquired by deconstructing Syndicate Items and Alien Research, obtained by deconstructing Abductor Gear.

In order to use any of the machinery in R&D you will need to use the R&D console, which's main page looks like this:

It contains the:

• Disk Operations (Tech Disks)
• Destructive Analyzer Menu (Deconstruction)
• Protolathe Menu (Protolathe)
• Cicuit Imprinter Menu (Circuit Imprinter)
• Settings (Server Saving)
• Research Branches with their current Research Levels

Deconstruction

The Destructive Analyzer deconstructs items in order to increase the Research Levels of the Console and therefore allows to unlock further technologies for the Protolathe and Circuit Imprinter.
The deconstruction process is as follows:

• Place the item to be deconstructed into the Analyzer
  
• Use the R&D console and go under the tab 'Deconstructive Analyzer Menu'
  
• Use the 'Deconstruct Item' (D) button, to deconstruct the item or the 'Eject Item' (E) button, to eject the item

There are also information given about the current item in the Deconstructive Analyzer:

• A: Research Branch
• B: Research Levels of the Item
• C: Research Levels of the Console

If the item is then deconstructed the Tech Levels of the Console can be increased by 1, (There are also exceptions to this, like some tech notes from the Jupiter Trader.)

• If B and C are equal. (This is the suggested methode as items with higher tech levels can be deconstructed later on to archieve higher tech levels.)
• If B is larger than C.

Basic research (Tech Levels up to 5) can be fully archieved by just deconstructing items from the Protolathe and Circuit Imprinter,
while advanced research (Tech Levels from 5 upwards) will most of the time require items from other departments (including Xenobiology and Robotics).

The RnD breakdown list allows the completion of basic research, do note however that this list is not necessarily the most efficient and experimentation and additional investigation is recommended.
Here is a helpful tool for simulating items you can deconstruct, should you wish to experiment. The 'filter' button will filter for items that will only improve the selected tech level.

Protolathe

The Protolathe allows for the creation of a variety of items, ranging from bluespace constructions, medical tools and implants, stock parts for all kind of machinery, over to weaponry. (See Protolathe for a full list)
However, it only starts out with the most basic items avaiable, akine to an autolathe, which can be deconstructed to unlock better technologies.
The stronger/advanced/better the items, the more materials and a larger variety of them are required (resulting in R&D being mostly dependent on mining and making the upgrading of the ORM recommendable), along side higher Research Levels.

• A: Material/Chemical Storage (allows for the ejection of materials/chemicals in different quantities)
  

• B: Search Bar (for tracking specific items)
• C: Different Categories (for producing multiple similiar items, e.g. stock parts or implants)
  

If you found the item you were searching for it can look like this:

• A: Name of the Item
• B: Materials required
• C: missing Materials

Items can also be printed once, five times or ten times.

Circuit Imprinter

The Circuit Imprinter allows for the creation of boards for different consoles and machinery. (See Circuit Imprinter for a full list)
Functions pretty much like the Protolathe, with the exception of only requiring glass and a handful of times metal for it's boards.

Server Saving

Make sure to head into settings and sync with database periodically. This will update the server on the station, making a back-up and granting access to the established tech levels. The Research Director can access the R&D server management computer and either transfer or delete research blueprints to other computers on station.Robotics will require access to tech levels, and as such syncing the server is essential for them to operate successfully.

Tech Disks

So, you are done researching at least the basics of R&D (all research levels at 5 or higher, except toxins, illegals and alien). Now the last thing you need to do in order to fullfill your job task is to grab some technology disks, to load your research on them and to give these to cargo, so they can ship them off the station. For this you will at first need a minimum amount of eight technology disks, two of which are already located in R&D as well as them being printable via the protolathe. If you acquired these stick one of them into the R&D console, use the R&D console to use the Disk Operations option, load one of the already mentioned technologies onto it and eject the disk again. Repeat this process till you are done downloading the technologies that were upgraded, transport all of the disks to cargo, drop them before their door and hope they actually ship them, which they should as it grands them extra points to spend.

These technology disks can also be used to transfer toxins research, by swiping one of these disks in the Tachyon-doppler array and then uploading its content into the R&D console, as well as to transfer research between different R&D consoles. The latter option is easily outclassed by using a R&D server/ syncing your research, but can be quite useful in case the R&D server is not working.

A Love Letter to R&D

Research and Development is one of the, if not the most tedious and repetitive task on the entire station, resulting in many players not willing to commit their round to it, while the rest of the station expects science to get it done. While the first ten minutes of your round doing it will nearly always be the same, R&D has huge potential to influence the entire round, changing its outcome and the experience people had with it. Therefore, here are some examples on how to make your stay in R&D more pleasant for yourself and others.

You could for example give people items they didn't even ask for, but are yet useful for them. It's always fun to see their reactions to the weird stuff you can make.

While other departments can function on their own without the help of science, upgrading their machinery or even adding more machinery can save many peoples round. For example constructing a second or even third cloner in medbay is able to turn many peoples experience from a frustrating to a more forgiving one, as they are granted a second chance after a genocide took place.

Furthermore, after you're done doing the basics and therefore the pressure on your shoulders has been reduced, you are able to remodel R&D into a more effective set up, making more place for interesting machinery and constructions in the process. Such constructions can include small set ups of other science sub departments like sci-chem and even xenobiology. Or change R&D into something completely different like robotics or a surgery room for organics and synthetics alike, while only leaving the bare minimum of what defines R&D in place. If the stakes are high, constructed mechs are able shred a biohazard to pieces.

You could construct a quantum pad network, connecting the various parts of the station with one another, or even use quantum pads to make connections to other areas normally not so easily accessible, like everything found in space and on lavaland. This could result in security being more mobile in order to catch antagonists, or antagonists using this network to their advantage to escape a tricky situation.

A second telecoms network is possible too, in case someone turns the other one into dust or there is another Ion-anomaly shutting it down.

Or just generally experiment with different things you can make with R&D.

The options available are gigantic, including many different things that weren't even touched on here, letting it up to you, on how you will leave your mark on the round.

Mad Scientist

The traitor experience one winds up getting while doing R&D is a mix of different elements of other traitor experiences. For example it contains the mech aspect of robotics, and possibly the grenade usage of sci-chem, even being able to enhance its usage, while also allowing for an approach to things that is unique to R&D. The lockboxes protecting the printable weapons from your hands can easily be cracked with an emagg, jaws of live can provide easy access to every place behind an airlock that isn't bolted and different implants and gear can give you an advantage in certain situations compared to your average officer. Generally sabotaging the station becomes much easier with the critical machinery you can build and using it to your own advantage. Combined with other elements like chemistry you are able to become an unstoppable force.