Practical Knowledge
Practical knowledge is a concept that represents the nation's experience in engineering and construction of each particular field. Increasing practical knowledge is done only through production. Otherwise, practical knowledge will decay over time. Practical knowledge has two effects in game:
- Modify research time (for technology that depends on practical knowledge)
- Modify the time it takes to produce units
Effects on Production
Practical knowledge affects the time and cost of producing things. It is not a linear function; that is, having a practical of 50 does not reduce building time and cost by 50%. It is approximately defined by a piecewise linear function with the following segments:
| From | To | Bonus per practical | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practical | Bonus | Practical | Bonus | |
| 0 | -50% | 5 | 0% | 10.00% |
| 5 | 0% | 6 | 5% | 5.00% |
| 6 | 6.25% | 13 | 15% | 1.25% |
| 13 | 14.2% | 25 | ~23.3% | ~0.8% |
| 25 | ~23.3% | 90 | 48.8% | ~0.4% |
| 90 | ~46.4% | 99 | 48.6% | ~0.2% |
The chart below illustrates the effect of practical on production.
An approximate fit would be:
- Linear regime (below 5 Practical): +10% time and IC per point below 5.
- Square root regime (above 5 Practical): Time and IC reduction of 5% * sqrt(Practical - 5).
Therefore, a practical value of 0 means that the time and IC cost to produce something increases by 50%. Meanwhile, a practical value of 10 creates an ~11% reduction in the time and IC cost.
Practical Knowledge Table
By taking a quick look at the table, one can see that the game designers intended for most costs to be around 1,000 IC-days per practical. For those fields that do not fit this norm, one can see that the designers strove for all units in that category to have the same cost. Some fields, due either to low cost across the board or to low cost in a single unit, are easier to acquire experience in.
The easiest fields are Militia and Rocket, being about half of the 1,000 IC-days baseline cost. Massive construction of Flying Bombs and Garrisons will lead to an enormous explosion of practical, quickly cutting production time and cost. Rocket Artillery is also a relatively cheap way of increasing Artillery Practical, being significantly cheaper than the next cheapest artillery unit in terms of IC-days per practical. Interceptor squadrons are the quickest way to increasing Light Aircraft practical. Motorised Infantry is somewhat cheaper than the next most costly unit in the Mobile Unit field. Aside from these few examples, all other fields are relatively balanced.
| Unit/Building Type | Cost in IC-days | Practical Type |
|---|---|---|
| Armor | 1,005.9 | Armor |
| H-Armor | 1,008 | Armor |
| SH-Armor | 1,088.89 | Armor |
| Light-Armor | 1,008 | Armor |
| Rocket Artillery | 845.5 | Artillery |
| Artillery Brigade | 1,000 | Artillery |
| AT | 1,000 | Artillery |
| AA (brigade) | 1,106.75 | Artillery |
| Tank Destroyer | 1,125 | Artillery |
| SP-Artillery | 1,142.86 | Artillery |
| SP Rocket Artillery | 1,154.67 | Artillery |
| Anti-air | 1920 | Artillery |
| Battlecruiser | 972.97 | Capital Ship |
| SH-Battleship | 997.5 | Capital Ship |
| Battleship | 997.16 | Capital Ship |
| Escort Carrier | 984.38 | Carrier |
| Carrier | 1,102.94 | Carrier |
| Industry | 2,723.88 | Construction |
| Naval base | 2,727.27 | Construction |
| Coastal Fort | 2,727.27 | Construction |
| Land Fort | 2,727.27 | Construction |
| Air base | 2,769.23 | Construction |
| Infrastructure | 2807 | Construction |
| Light Cruiser | 1,050 | Cruiser |
| Heavy Cruiser | 1,050 | Cruiser |
| Destroyer | 1,000 | Destroyer |
| Radar Station | 720 | Electrical |
| Strat Bomber | 1,000 | Heavy Aircraft |
| Transport plane | 1,000 | Heavy Aircraft |
| Infantry | 1,106.75 | Infantry |
| Mountain | 1,335 | Infantry |
| Paratrooper | 1,500 | Infantry |
| Engineer | 1,540 | Infantry |
| Marine | 1,600 | Infantry |
| Rocket Interceptor | 1,428.57 | Jet Engine |
| HQ | 1,200 | Land Doctrine |
| CAS | 990 | Light Air |
| Multi-role Fighter | 1,071.43 | Light Air |
| CAG | 1,400 | Light Air |
| Interceptor | 840 | Light Air |
| Naval Bomber | 993.55 | Medium Aircraft |
| TAC Bomber | 1,005.71 | Medium Aircraft |
| Garrison | 501 | Militia |
| Militia | 665 | Militia |
| Military Police | 900 | Militia |
| Motorised Infantry | 934 | Mobile Unit |
| Mechanized Infantry | 1,000 | Mobile Unit |
| AC | 1,009.25 | Mobile Unit |
| Cavalry | 1,100 | Mobile Unit |
| Nuclear(reactor) | 9,000 | Nuclear |
| Flying Bomb | 600 | Rocket |
| Flying Rocket | 1,200 | Rocket |
| Submarine | 1080 | Submarine |
| Nuclear sub | 1,422.22 | Submarine |
| Transport | 900 | Transport |
| Rocket | 3,600 | Rocket |
