Research costs as percent of GDP?

[fischkopf]

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, but does anyone know how (historically) research costs compared to wartime GDPs?

Should this ratio be used to establish a limit on maximal research spending (eg you can spend up to 3x the historical percentage)?

Very curious.

[fischkopf]

bump.. this is important!

[Shaka of Carthage]

Yes, buried in some of the books I have, there is information on what the R&D percentage of the military budgets where. Getting the information on the US is the easiest. If you read German, you could get the info on Germany. No one has gotten any accurate numbers on the Russian budget, so its who you believe is more credible.

Should this ratio be used to establish a limit? No.

Understand, that every wargame I am aware of, doesn't try to recreate a historical budget. What they try and do, is give you enough economic units so you can purchase the military units so that you have something along the lines of what they had historically.

Thats why it really isn't that critical that we have a accurate cost on a Corp vs a Armor unit, as long as everyone has the same relative values. But without other limiting factors, what it does lead to is an enviornment where you have ahistorical numbers of units.

So back to the research question you brought up. Is 250 MPPs an accurate research chit cost? Who knows. But as long as well all have to pay the same amount, it will work fine. Same with the ten (10) chit limit per nation... is it accurate? Nope, but as we are all under the same limit, it works.

[fischkopf]

Hmmm. I suppose it does boil down to realism versus gameplay, and gameplay should almost always win that argument.

It could very well be that historically research spending was something like 1-3% of the war budget and thus the option of spending the big bucks on chits is purely a fun fantasy. Who knows....

[pzgndr]

Remember that research, like everything else in this game, is a gross abstraction. Nothing is a perfect simulation of reality. You have to think of research as something more than just scientists in lab coats working on some new wonder weapon.

Tech advances represent overall improvements in unit capability. Take Advanced Subs for Germany as an example. Type VII and IX U-boats were already designed by 1939, so it's not like you're waiting for them to be discovered during a game and then poof! you get to upgrade your fleet. But there were other factors involved with sub improvements. Torpedoes, operating and maintenance experience, snorkles, wolfpack doctrine, etc. Chits are just an abstract way for you as Supreme Commander in a grand straegy game to assign more priority and emphasis to certain tech areas, and gearing up the national industry to mass produce new improvements.

How can you quantify all this? That's hard. Some things are just beyond your personal control at this level and the randomness reflects that. And ensures replayability from game to game.

Back to the original question. Country specific research limits CAN be set in SC2 with the new editor. And country specific costs for different research areas also if you want to get really sophisticated. We'll probably have some reasonable limits established which may be more than 2500 MPP for countries like Germany and USA and maybe less for countries like Italy. And the 250 MPP cost per chit will probably be broken down into different standard costs like 300/200/100 MPP for different tech areas. Like 100 for infantry weapons, 200 for subs, and 300 for jets. Those are rough numbers but you get the idea.