Better Research
Improves the Research system to allow for better recycling.
The two optional item slots in the research UI now only count towards the resulting item rarity, not the item type.
This means that you can use this to give any "trash" items you wouldn’t even want to have an upgraded version of to have a higher chance of improving the rarity of an item you do want to upgrade!
There are and may come more minor tweaks to the research system, read on for more.
Features:
> Top 3 slots – the "required" slots – determine item type, tech level, etc.
> Bottom 2 slots – the "optional" slots – only count towards the item’s rarity.*
> Station is now considered to be in the actual sector it’s in rather than 5 sectors further out.
> Predetermined research recipes – won’t spoil them here, if you know you know – remain intact.
*: Each item in all 5 slots adds a 20% chance for that rarity +1, as in the default game.
Only the RARITY of the optional slots is taken into account, allowing you to recycle unwanted items for a higher chance at your desired rarity without adding a chance for an item you don’t want.
Usage example:
I have 3 common mining lasers and 2 common chain guns.
Here I don’t want the chain guns, but I do want a better mining laser.
In vanilla:
I would put the 3 mining lasers in, giving me 100% chance at a mining laser but 60% chance that it will be a higher rarity.
Alternatively I could add the chain guns, this gives me a 100% chance at a higher rarity but a 40% chance it will be a chain gun, which I don’t want and thus isn’t any different from me not putting those in as I still only have a 60% chance at the higher rarity mining laser I want.
With this mod:
I put the 3 mining lasers in the first three slots, this guarantees a mining laser at 60% chance of a higher rarity.
Now I add the two chain guns, or any other item of the same rarity.
This gives me a 100% chance at a higher rarity, but doesn’t add a chance to get anything other than a mining laser.
With my mod the bottom two slots (the optional slots) do not count towards the resulting item type, only the rarity.
So now I have used the chain guns I wanted to get rid of anyway, for something I do want, thus recycling them.
Do note that if you put a different rarity in the optional slots, this will still work the same as vanilla rarities.
Meaning two lower rarity items gives 60% chance at a higher rarity and 40% at the same rarity. (no different from no items in the optional slots at all)
The same goes for items of a higher rarity where two items of a higher rarity than the rarity of the items in the required slots will add a chance of 40% to effectively upgrade the items in the required slots by two rarity levels.
This however is vanilla behaviour, difference being the optional items don’t contribute to the generated item type nor its stats.
