AI War:Knowledge
| This page is up to date for version 8.024 and should still be correct. |
Knowledge is a resource that is gathered by Science Labs for a finite amount of 3,000 per planet. Knowledge is used to unlock new ships and structures, or higher marks of known units. There is no maximum limit for stocking Knowledge, however the total amount of Knowledge available in a galaxy is finite.
Gathering
Knowledge can be gathered by science labs on player-controlled or neutral planets, but not from AI-controlled planets.
The Hacker is capable of Covert Knowledge Extraction on hostile planets, but this costs hacking points, which are also a limited resource.
The rate at which the knowledge is gathered depends on the level and quantity of Science Labs on a planet. This means that having multiple science labs on a planet gathers Knowledge faster, but still no more than 3,000.
Each player gather its own knowledge at its own rate until its own threshold. This means that if on a human-controlled planet, a player has one science lab MkI and another has ten science labs MkI, they will each have 3,000 Knowledge in the end, but one will get them earlier.
A Spire Archive can gather up to 9,000 Knowledge from a planet when captured. Multiple players gathering Knowledge at different speed on a Spire Archive planet may cause the Archive to self-destruct earlier, canceling some players to gather all the 9,000 points.
Use
Knowledge is spent in the technology panel, displayed when the player select a science vessel, which is similar to the building panel, displayed when the player select a space dock. This technology panel has several tabs, each holding some buttons representing unit techs. These buttons can be clicked to unlock the target unit level at a Knowledge expanse. Each column generally represents successive mark levels of a unit model, the lower level being at the bottom of the panel, and each level having generally its lower level as a prerequisite.
Grayed buttons are unavailable because a prerequisite is missing. Unlocking the lower level make the level immediately ahead available. Grayed buttons with a check mark are already unlocked.
There is generally five tabs in the technology panel. The first is "I-III", which holds one column of two buttons, one column per ship model the player has; the lowest button unlocks the MkII version of the ship, and the higher button unlocks the MkIII version of the ship when the MkII version is already unlocked. The second tab is labbeled "STAR" and holds starship models: most of them have two buttons, like the I-III tab, but the Zenith and Spire starships have their MkI version locked from the begining, and the scout starship has a MkIV version available. The "ECON" tab holds economic structures, such as the Engineer drones and metal harvesters, alongside with the advanced Orbital Command Stations. The "SUP" tab holds support units; most of them are available from start and have no higher mark, however the Area and Widow Mine Fields aren't higher mark and don't need one another as prerequisite. The last tab, labeled "TUR", holds the turret techs: most of them are columns from mark II to IV, each having its lower level as prerequisite; however the Counter-* turrets are variants and not higher marks, and the Heavy Beam Cannon, Spider, Gravitational and Tachyon Beam turrets have their MkI locked from the beginning.
A sixth tab is available on planets containing an Advanced Research Station, showing three ship models that can be chosen from after a Research Redirection hack.
