Is there a list somewhere of what all the technologies do?

https://www.sinsofasolarempire.wikia.com/wiki/Research_Trees is all I know of or you can try the forum search 

some things, like nano-dissasembler require the ship to face the target.

shield bypass = best weapons research in game... though subverters are better used for thier distortion field, but the shield bypass will just destroy capital ships.

volatile nanites is awesome if you can shoot it at a group of LRMs/illums/assailants.  take a few down and they will ALL instapop! hard to do, but ooh so gratifying when happens.

gravity tolerance... kinda on the meh side. doesnt do much.

it is theorized that mass reduction increases acceleration and turning, but we really dont know.

Volatile Nanites cannot be improved.  Once you've added one point to it, it's maxed out.  It increases the damage taken by affected targets (everything in a medium radius around the main target) and causes them to explode on death, dealing additional damage to enemies.  This can rack up a lot of damage.

As I've said before, I'm not sure what this does, but there is no noticable in-game effect.  It probably increases acceleration rate, but as I said it's not significant.

Yeah, they stack.  Absolutely scary damage when maxed out.

Some abilities are really finicky and require you to line up perfectly with the target.  This makes them impractical against moving foes, unless you manage to align yourself perfectly with them, which is tough in the case of the Jarrasul since it's a slower capital ship.  That's a hold-over from previous versions when it was way stronger than any other Vasari capital ship; these days that slow speed really gimps it.

If you have any other questions, ask away.

Thanks.

Still on Vasari since I have a game going:

How much do Volatile Nanites do to reduce enemy damage?  Against structures only?  Planets too?  Anything in the gravity well?

How much does Phasic barrier reduce damage?

Enslaved Labor looks like a loser: costs 800 + 150 resources ~ 1,500 on a balanced map, so must spend 37,500 to pay off.  If my income is 25/s (reasonable early to middle game average?), takes 1,500 seconds = 25 minutes.

Currently playing Vorkul's Labrynth (medium, 9 star systems, lots of wormholes and asteroid fields).  Am I right that once I have wormhole jumps may my max trade route length will be about 3 since almost everything is adjacent to a wormhole?

Hmm, if very resource rich will slave labor pay?  Value the resources at 350 instead of 700 ~ 1,150, so takes c. 28,000 spending to pay off.  But my income will likely be lower, say 22/s.  Still takes 1,270 seconds ~ 21 minutes.

Volatile Nanites do not reduce their damage; it increases the damage they receive from your attacks.  You can always reference this thread for capital ship abilities:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/335807

It increases the damage they suffer 30%.

I'm actually not 100% sure of the value.  What I do know is that it's mostly used for its annoying effect on the targeting AI rather than for damage reduction.  When activated, any unit ordered to attack the structure will pick a new target, usually moving to attack something else.  This requires manual control by the opponent to override and actually destroy the structures efficiently.  In terms of damage reduction, it's far less than the passive bonus offered by the Advent Hanger's shield bestowal.

Yup, and not all costs apply to enslaved labour, either.  Research, capital ship promotion, and planet upgrades are all exempt.  It's not terrible, and as your income pushes higher this upgrade improves further, but in general you can't afford this early on.  If your resource income is really high (such that you're selling to make credits meet) then it becomes a lot more sensible, since it helps you avoid using the black market. 

If you're playing without the expansion pack, then yes this is the case.  If you're playing with the expansion pack, this is only true if you have starbases on both sides of the wormhole with trade port module upgrades.

Sorry, I meant Power-Draining Nanites.  How much reduction, to whom, against what?

Making the AI keep switching targets is nice, but it's an awfully powerful exploit.

The Egg's destroy-yourself ability does seem to require pointing exactly at the target and transmitting an "infection bullet."

I have also been having trouble getting the Subverter's Distortion Field to work.  That one does not seem to rely on the orientations of the ships.  In some cases the targets moved out of range shortly after I activated the ability, which suggests that it takes a few seconds to "warm up?"  But in other cases it has failed despite targets well within range.  Anyone know why?

Re trade routes, suppose I have A-B-wormhole in one place and C-wormhole, D-wormhole, E-wormhole, etc., in others.  Not entrenchment.  Length 2, 3, 4, or 5?

Now Entrenchment, starbases at two wormholes.  5?  Starbases at several wormholes  Still 5?

I'll need a screenshot.  I'm not following you here.

Darvin 3,

Thanks.  Dunno how to do a screenshot and this one would have to be big; dunno if file size could ne a problem.  But I think it is not needed. 

Suppose 4 star systems-1, 2, 3, 4--with letters indicating colonizeable planets, all with friendly trade ports. Dashes indicate gravity well connections.  Assume that any other star systems and planets that exist are irrelevant. 

1-A-B-wormhole

2-C-wormhole

3-D-wormhole

4-E-wormhole

What/how long is the longest trade route without wormhole tech?  (I *think* I understand that systems 3 and 4 are actually irrelevant.)

What/how long with wormhole tech?

I don't have Entrenchment yet but plan to soon.  How would the answers change?  I understand that with E you get different answers depending on how many starbases and where.

Btw, any strategy advice on a 9-system map with few planest per system and 1-4 wormholes per system?  Seems to require eyes everywhere all the time.

IIRC, Power Draining Nanites is an ability from the Nano Weapon Jammer. PDN will simultaneously increase weapon cooldown time and bombardment cooldown time for hostile forces within range of the Jammer. First level of PDN does 10%/15% (weapon cooldown penalty/bombardment penalty) but a Tier 6 Empire research subject can increase this to 20%/30% and maxing out at 30%/45%. Each upgrade level also increases the maximum number of affected targets per cast (can't pull the exact numbers off the top of my head).

For Distortion Field, the Subverter must be facing the target to start the cast. Once the cast is started though, it will complete, whether the target moves out of range or not. DF can be terminated early if the ship it is cast on is destroyed before the cast time ends, or by another disabling ability.

For your trade route, that will depend on which wormhole leads to which. For Vanilla Sins, all uncolonizable gravity wells are automatically considered when the game determines your longest trade route, but for Entrenchment/Diplomacy, only these wells which contain a Starbase with a trade port upgrade will be considered (this has the consequence of Magnetic Clouds never having a trade route go through it).

Voruk's Labrynth is quite a dispersed map - you may want to keep plenty of scouts running around. If you're Vasari, one way to keep permanent visibility of stars is to research both levels of Phasic Cloaking (I think its a Tier 4 Empire subject?), park a Jikara at a star, turn off all autocasts, and use Phasic Cloaking. If PC is maxed, it drains 2 AM/sec from the Navigator, but the star restores 2.5 AM/sec, so you can keep the scout there indefinitely as long as it is kept cloaked.