Library and cooperative research
The Library is where a cooperative improves the perks for every single one of its members through research. It isn't a building on my own farm but a joint project of the whole cooperative – the leader or their deputy does start the research, but without enough members signing up as researchers it won't budge an inch. I've found that how fast it moves usually comes down to how willing people are to register and pay the Dollars, rather than to the strength or size of the cooperative itself.
The Library is worth it for any reasonably active cooperative, because once a bonus is researched it stays for good and every member gets it, no exceptions. It isn't worth it where the cooperative can't round up enough researchers and a started research would just sit half-finished for weeks.
Cooperative leadership starts the research, but what matters is how many members join in as researchers
The Library is the system through which a cooperative earns permanent bonuses for every single one of its members. Only the cooperative leader or their deputy may start a research, but they can't manage it alone – they need enough of the other members to sign up as researchers. Without them the game simply reports too few participating researchers and the research won't start.
On top of that, each member can take part in only one research at a time, and the cooperative as a whole can't have two research projects running at once – until the current one finishes, the next one has to wait. Registering as a researcher costs Dollars from your personal account, so it's also a small personal investment for every member who joins in.
Once the research is done, the game confirms it with a message that the research was successful, and the researched effect applies to the whole cooperative regardless of who actually took part in it.
A newcomer can't join a research right away and missing researchers can be bought with Gold
Anyone who has only just joined a cooperative can't take part in research on day one – the game shows them exactly how long it will be before they can first sign up as a researcher. For planning research that means you can't count on fresh recruits straight away.
If the cooperative is short of people willing to register, the gap can be filled by hiring a researcher with Gold from the personal account of whoever wants to push the research along. I've sorted out the last missing slot this way more than once, when there was only an hour left and nobody in the cooperative had managed to sign up. In the same way you can spend Gold from your personal account to skip the remaining research time outright, which pays off mainly just before it finishes.
The cooperative can also change its mind mid-run – you can abandon a research in progress and sign up for a different one instead for a fee in Dollars, and the registration fee for the abandoned research is refunded.
Research is divided into economy, architecture and gourmet product and recipe categories
In the Library you don't pick from one shared list but from several categories – you'll find Economy, Architecture, Gourmet products and Gourmet recipes there. Economy covers the research that simply raises the Dollar amount you get for selling basic goods – Eggs, Milk, Pigs or Apples. Each of them has several follow-up levels, and as the research goes on both the required cooperative level and the duration climb.
| Research | From cooperative level | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Healthier pigs, first level | 2 | 16 h |
| Healthier pigs, highest recorded level | 15 | 3 d 6 h |
| More milk varieties, first level | 5 | 1 d 15 h |
| More milk varieties, highest recorded level | 21 | 3 d 3 h |
| Organic eggs, first level | 3 | 2 d 2 h |
| Organic eggs, second level | 29 | 7 d 1 h |
| New apple variety, first level | 14 | 3 d 4 h |
| New apple variety, highest recorded level | 33 | 5 d 2 h |
The Gourmet products and Gourmet recipes categories then cover almost every processed item in the game. For basic products like almonds or donkeys the research simply raises the price you sell them for, while for recipes like apple turnovers, almond muffins or fruit cakes with cream it raises the amount you get out of a single batch of ingredients. Further separate research raises the earnings from selling finished dishes and goods directly, from cabbage soup, omelette and yogurt through bouquets and soap to cherry juice or perfume.
The most demanding research strengthens the cooperative itself, not your farm
Besides goods and recipes you can also research the strength of the cooperative itself. The Reinforcements research gradually raises the maximum number of cooperative members and has by far the most follow-up levels of them all – they run from cooperative level 2 all the way to 60, with the duration growing from just under half a day at the very first level to over five days at the highest recorded level. The Subsidies research raises the percentage of Dollars the state adds to the amount donated to the cooperative, and its levels run from cooperative level 5 up to 31.
In my cooperative we dealt with Reinforcements first, because without free slots no new active player could get in at all, and only then did Subsidies get their turn. There are two more useful research projects for cooperative projects – Negotiation skills extends the time the cooperative has to complete a project, and Process optimization lowers the number of collectible items needed to finish it. Both suit cooperatives that run cooperative projects regularly and want a bit more of a buffer.
