Training Facilities:
First off, there are 4 types of training facilities: Sector ship training, Sector fleet training, System ship training, and System fleet training. Taken separately, each of these functions identically. When combined, Sector and System training facilities (Normal ones and the Psychic ones) both stack, for a possibility of 6% per turn.
That being said, I will focus on Sector ship training facilities. If you have multiple training facilities on one planet, only one facility functions. The facility with the highest training rate adds experience each turn. Once that facility's limit has been reached, it can no longer add any experience. This does not matter in the standard facilities, since more advanced ones increase both the rate and the max. Once the facility with the highest rate has been maxed, the second highest rated facility will train the ship. I will use this example to illustrate how this works:
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Level I (L I):
3% per turn
15% max
Level II:
2% per turn
20% max
Level III:
1% per turn
25% max
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Consider a planet that has all three facilities built on it. Ship X with 0 experience parks in orbit.
Turn 1-5:
L I is the highest rated trainer, so it adds 3% per turn. On turn 5, Ship X has 15%.
Turn 6-7:
Since Ship X has 15% exp, L I can not train it anymore. So, L II, the 2nd highest trainer, takes over. It adds 2% on turn 6, and then 2% on turn 7, bringing Ship X to 19%.
Turn 8:
L II could add 2% still, but it's limit is at 20%. So, it can only add 1% to the total, bringing it to 20%. Only one facility works at a time, so L III does not add anything.
Turn 9-13:
L III now takes over, since L II has maxed out. It adds 1% per turn for 5 turns, bringing the ship to 25%.
So, if you only build a L III, it takes 25 turns to maximize exp. If you build one of each, then it only takes 13 turns.
Edit: Hmm... I hope that isn't confusing as hell.
[ May 23, 2002, 02:19: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]