Corporate R&D & Tech Trees
Corporations invest in research through two linked systems: a Tech tab with decade-gated tech trees, and a background R&D Score that still drives periodic innovation breakthroughs. Both spend from the same daily R&D budget and share the overhead cap.
Tech trees overview
Every corporation has a Tech tab listing research nodes organized by decade tier. The world's current calendar year (derived from the active preset plus elapsed game years) determines which decades are researchable: earlier decades are hidden, and future decades appear locked until the clock reaches them.
Each decade forks into two lanes:
| Lane | Scope | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate | Shared across all sector types | Business functions: automation, analytics, marketing, logistics, etc. |
| Sector | Unique to your corporation's primary type | Specialist methods for energy, manufacturing, technology, , and so on |
You commit to one lane per decade on first unlock. The other lane locks until you abandon that decade's progress (forfeiting lane-specific nodes).
Completing either lane opens a final specialization tier for that decade:
| Specialization | Focus |
|---|---|
| Scale | Lower input, wage, and expansion costs |
| Premium | Higher realized prices and stronger brand effects |
| Resilience | Protection from dominance penalties and tariffs, plus cheaper expansion |
You may complete exactly one specialization per decade. Choosing one locks the other two. Switching requires abandoning that decade and giving up its lane-specific and specialization progress. Specializations cost twice the decade's base research cost, and their capstones cost three times the base cost.
Unlocking nodes
Each node has a dual cost:
- R&D Score: spent from the corporation's accumulated score (see below).
- Cash: a fraction of daily gross revenue (varies by node; heavier nodes cost more).
Additional gates:
- Decade reached: the world clock must have entered the node's decade.
- Prerequisites: earlier slots in the same lane must be owned.
- Method unlocks: some sector nodes unlock new operating strategies that stay locked until researched.
Unlocks are atomic: insufficient R&D or cash rejects the purchase, and lane commitment is enforced so you cannot buy both Corporate and Sector tracks in the same decade without abandoning first.
Node effects
Tech nodes grant persistent bonuses, including:
- Profit margin bumps
- Marketing or logistics strength grants
- Growth cost reductions
- Input-cost, wage, output, and realized-price changes
- Protection from tariff and dominance penalties
- Strategy unlocks: gates advanced operating strategies behind research
Effects stack with normal sector modifiers and apply for the life of the corporation (until a reset removes the corp).
R&D score and daily budget
Set a daily R&D budget from the CEO Budget tab. Each turn:
baseGain = 1.0 (if any R&D budget is set)
scaledGain = 0.65 × ln(1 + budget / 100,000)
decay = 3% of current score
newScore = max(0, (1 − 0.03) × oldScore + (baseGain + scaledGain) × diminishing(oldScore))
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Starting score | 0 |
| Decay per turn | 3% of current score |
| Diminishing returns above | Score 100 |
R&D spending counts toward the 150% overhead cap alongside marketing, logistics, and CEO salary.
Tech-tree unlocks spend down the score immediately; the budget keeps refilling it for the next node.
Innovation breakthroughs (legacy loop)
Every 6 turns, the game rolls for a breakthrough independent of tech-tree purchases:
probability = min(1, rdScore / 200)
| R&D Score | Chance per 6-turn window |
|---|---|
| 100 | 50% |
| 200 | 100% |
On success, one random sector receives a revenue boost (2-10% for regular corps, 1-10% for extraction). Extraction corps also gain permanent state resource capacity. Breakthroughs notify the CEO in-game.
Tech trees and breakthroughs complement each other: trees give targeted permanent power, and breakthroughs add random sector growth on top.
Strategic notes
- Lane and specialization choices matter: Corporate lane bonuses help every sector; Sector lane unlocks methods and margins specific to your industry; the final specialization decides whether that decade favors scale, premium output, or resilience.
- Decade timing: a 2019-start world only researches the final tiers; a 1979-start world walks the full tree over decades.
- Cash + score planning: nodes near the top of a decade cost more R&D and a larger cash slice of daily revenue; fund R&D before a unlock push.
- corporations: autonomous CEOs (NPP autonomy v1+) can unlock affordable nodes when the feature is enabled.
Related
- Corporations: CEO tools, operating strategies, overhead cap
- Commodities: Price realization and margin modifiers
- Corporate Bonds: Financing R&D-heavy expansion