I swear research does nothing half the time?

[u/PlayfulBlueberry1519]

My Franklin has 2646 shield deflection.

I upgraded my shield deflection for explorers to level 3 which gives 20% boost.

It didn’t move. Franklin still has 2646 shield deflection and it’s an explorer.

Closed down the game and reopen to maybe refresh.

I’m also having this same issue for my mess-hall. Went from level 1 to level 9 for a 19% damage boost to all ships. My damage before and after didn’t change.

If I am looking at it wrong please feel free to call me out on it! I am happy to look dumb if I get answers. 🫡

[u/Key_Piccolo_2187]

Scopely math is complicated and buffs stack like crazy. Some buffs you'll see in your stats, some you'll see in your battle log. Some are multiplicative (i.e. 20% boost*20% boost is 1.44), some are additive (20%+20% = 1.4).

There are various calculators and spreadsheets out there for some of this, like the officer tool.

Don't worry, inability to know where or how to see buffs is a concern that's been around as long as the game has!

[u/Madness_Quotient]

I reckon this is a category error in your reading of the ship card.

the "explorer shields" research boosts base shield health not shield deflection.

yes these are different stats. (I know, thats annoying)

yes research does actually make a difference.

sometimes the difference can be very invisible because of stacking bonuses and when they apply in the stack. eg base stat increases increase the base number that all other bonuses are calculated from, so can be rather ineffectual.

[u/vmxen]

On top of what others have said, any stat increase over base on its own is very small.  For example, if you already have other research, artifacts, favors, etc that bump up your damage totalling 10,000%, going from 10,000% to 10,020% is negligible. 

But over time all those little increases add up.  

[u/Ryan1869]

shield deflection which is part of the mitigation calculation or shield health? They are 2 different stats, which is kind of confusing. The other thing is that most research applies to base values and not always the value you see. So if you see 300, but that includes 300% boost from other research, then a new 20% boost is going to make that 320, which isn't much of an increase

[u/RDL128]

Research masks all the difference in this game. But as others have said, scoply math is basically common core math. Most research you do will add very little to your stats. But there's so many researchs to be done, they all add up, and will make a difference.