For Plot research items, is the additional funding and story the only effect?

[Melee]

I fear it will speed up the aliens.

[Chris]

15 minutes ago, Melee said:

I fear it will speed up the aliens.

Yeah, advancing the story research never penalises you.

[Melee]

Whew, ok.  Might want to call them 'Story' or something more benign.  Lots of games switch to next harder phase when 'plot' missions and things are finished.

[Chris]

12 hours ago, Melee said:

Whew, ok.  Might want to call them 'Story' or something more benign.  Lots of games switch to next harder phase when 'plot' missions and things are finished.

Hmm, to me those two words are pretty much interchangeable. Does anyone else feel like this change would make a difference to how they see the missions?

[Emily_F]

1 hour ago, Chris said:

Hmm, to me those two words are pretty much interchangeable. Does anyone else feel like this change would make a difference to how they see the missions?

The words are equivalent in my mind, but I guess it is subjective.  In either case, I wouldn't expect it to necessarily affect the difficulty of the game any more than any research item.  That might just be the way I interpret it though.  You could add a statement that it won't affect the difficulty, but that seems superfluous to me because I expect the game to get harder over time and you don't know when that is going to happen anyway.  

[Skitso]

Don't see the difference there. I'd maybe change it to "MAIN" or "PRIORITY" or something in that vein... the main scientist might mention in the description text that this particular reasearch option is something that will push the main operation forward.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Skitso

[SoftwareSimian]

I was also initially suspicious that these kinds of research could make the big-scary stuff come faster. If it was labeled "Funding" or similar it might be more clear that it gives you good (more money) and not bad (tougher aliens sooner).