Facility | Labour Cost | Material Cost | Valid Locations | Cargo Tons |
Mine | 50,000 (workers) | 120 | Everywhere | 25,000 |
Automated Mine | 0 | 240 | Everywhere | 25,000 |
Orbital Mining Module | 50 (crew) | 120 | Asteroids and comets | 5,000 |
Facility | Labour Cost | Material Cost | Valid Locations | Cargo Tons |
Terraforming Installation | 250,000 (workers) | 600 | Everywhere | 125,000 |
Terraforming Module | 100 (crew) | 500 | Everywhere | 25,000 |
1- Terraforming installations are free to move around (Civil Transports)
2- There is the hidden cost of other components on modules since you need to place them on a ship or a station, if station you need to build a Tug and factor ir the fractional cost of that Tug to move the stations.
3- Modules also cost you crew and commanders.
Quote3- Modules also cost you crew and commanders.
Modules should not cost any crew as you would use the Conscript checkbox for any commercial ships. Commanders will not be a problem in 2.0 as we will be able to disable auto-assignment for classes.
1- Terraforming installations are free to move around (Civil Transports)
2- There is the hidden cost of other components on modules since you need to place them on a ship or a station, if station you need to build a Tug and factor ir the fractional cost of that Tug to move the stations.
3- Modules also cost you crew and commanders.
Thank you for your inputs, I was just trying to assert that such costs exists and should be factored.
If we are discussing min-max I agree that they are more efficient but we need to account all costs related to both parties, and we are also excluding the cost of workers and the underlaying infrastructure when using installations.
If cash-poor, the best investment is financial centers, not overpriced other installations.
My terraforming ships tend to be large and slow. ~~Snippy Snips~~
I realize i am a fringe case because i play with 20% terraforming speed, but to give you an idea. I build terraforming stations with 20-25 modules. 3-4 Stations above Mars (early game) can still take 20-30 years to make it a CC 0 planet. If i were to do that with instillations, were talking about investing 60-100mil population for 30 years. It's just not worth it for me. (yes i can play with quicker terraforming, but i feel that the default speed is too quick, terraforming should be close to a lifetimes work, not a few shot years).
I would think the reason to build installations instead of modules would be justified by having to maintain the changed atmosphere once you terraformed a body. Something not currently in the game, but would seem reasonable to have, and yes, I'm sure it would be a pain to implement. Other than that, yeah... the installations seem to be of little use or value.
>> the installations seem to be of little use or value.
Not quite true. Ground installations will never take extra minerals for repair (spaceborne modules on civilian ships could be damaged, and thus require repair work), and do produce tax income, which the modules don't. You can also build them with construction factories, rather than generally more limited shipyard space, and you can build them with less research investment and thus get them operating more quickly, so they do have some niche uses.
On the whole though, yes, installations are generally not as useful or widespread. I, and probably most players I suspect, only build a few at the start of a game, and then rely on terraforming ships when they become available, and any extra installations dug out of ruins or captured from NPRs. The 2.0 version will certainly be more interesting though, as they will become cheaper than modules, and easier to use, with the lower worker requirements and size, so there will be a genuine choice to be made over which you favour, especially for games that have a conventional start, and/or lowered research rates
I don't use the modules as I prefer to keep my shipyards tooled to warships and scouts and keep a minimum of civilian yards. The installations are fine for me. I can make 10 to 20 and ship them where I need as my freighters are usually idle a lot.