Help with Tech...

[Devastatin Dave]

Now that my game is running smoother than the bare booty of a beauty queen (windows mode is the shizzznet!!!) can someone give me the 4-1-1 on building up your techs. I'm playing United Provinces and I only have one college and it seems to take forever to do research for each tech. Can you build additional research facilities? Is there a tech you can use that allows you to research more than one? Thanks for the help...

[Monk]

The tier 1 philosophy techs also carry with them bonuses for increasing research speed. One allows you to upgrade schools to colleges, I forget its name atm. Royal Observatories also add a base % to research speed, to get them follow the entertainment line of building in one of your larger cities.

Gentlemen over time spent researching a certain tech tree, will become acclimated to that tree and will increase the speed of research for those types. (Bonus for military, ect)

You can also destroy a factory and build a school in its place, allowing you to research more than one thing at a time. Ect. This may also have the side effect of hurting your economy since you just trashed a factory. Multiple schools will also increase the clamor for reform in your people, but early on this is not a worry you need to occupy yourself with.

[Dayve]

I always research the first 3 philosophy things first, and build conservatoriums and the follow on buildings that give further bonuses to research speed.

Destroy factories and whatnot and build schools in their place, even if only for 10 or 20 years it will allow you to race ahead in the research rate.

[Major Robert Dump]

Personally I have found gentlemen stacked in my own college(s) to be far more effective at gaining tech than trying to steal it, at least until they get some experience and traits. Trying to steal a tech from a large country may likely get him assasinated, so send one over to westphelia and every now and again to try to pick something off. Don't steal from france to early because all your agents will die mysteriously. Once you do decide to steal go all out....send every agent nearby to a powerhouse school and try to steal 6 things at once for a few turns. Also, try some duels out, your agents will get duel-related traits, get them experienced on the agents of peon countries then start hitting the school of your enemy...and no, dave, you can't duel catholic priests or imams

the ones i have on permanent steal duty are the ones who spawn in odd places, like cycon, where i have no school, and i dont feel like loading them on a boat and taking them home

Remember, you get a research project for each college, so try to build a school in your newly conquered lands if you are going to have a large garrison there anyway. I also tend to build a church to convert for a few turns and get a missionary, then i destroy it and make a school

get the first 3 philosophies first to up your research rate, but pick wisely after that and dont take the philosophy ones too fast because each one increases unrest. I like the tree on the right that gives division of labor and joint stock companies, those dont increase unrest per se, but the buildings they unlock do.