One who wishes to know

[geoschmo]

The value of monoliths versus resource specific facilities has been debated at great length in the past. We even wasted a bunch of time at once point and did detailed statistical analysis comparing the two. (Man, we had too much time on our hands back then didn't we? )

Boiled down the answer is it depends on how long you epect the game to Last. IIRC the break even point when a monolith started giving you more total resources than a resource specific facility built in the same spot was something like 30 to 50 turns. When you figure the average PBW game ends about turn 150, you can easily see why a great number of people don't bother building them in multiplayer games. Waiting 40 turns for the resources you could have already had and built ships with in a multiplayer game is suicide.

If however you are in a long game and things are stable, no immediate need of resources, then yes long term monoliths are more efficent. And your point abou tresearching the resource specific technologies is valid. Very few people research those either. They are very pricey for very little return.

Technically Fighters and Drones are not seekers at all. They are units. They get lumped in with seekers often beccause they are targetable by Point-Defense.

Tech cost has a formula. It depends on the level cost, which is different for each tech (You can see the level cost in the techarea.txt file) and the Tech Cost chosen at game setup.

For low tech cost games it's Level Cost (LC) times Tech Level (TL)

For Medium Tech Games it's LC times half of TL²(this one may be wrong, I'll have to look it up)

For High Tech cost games it's LC times TL²

Geoschmo

[ August 29, 2002, 22:12: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Puke]

not to drag up old ghosts or anything, but im going to drag up old ghosts.

you really need BOTH resource extractors AND monoliths. it would be silly to put a monolith on a planet that has 150% minerals and 0% radioactives and organics. it would be foolish to put a mineral extractor on a planet that has 150% of everything.

[Mister Cat]

Depending on various other factors, of course. If you've got organics and rads coming out your @$$ and/or are in urgent need of minerals, a 3x150% planet might still be a good candidate for mining.

As pointed out below, loading planet out with even 10 Liths takes a lot more time and resources that just mining it.

[Puke]

nah, thats why they invented resource converters. mine the planet for whatever it produces best, then convert the resources to another type.

[Wardad]

Definitely, the extraction facilities are the way to go. For really long games you might want to scrap one extraction facility at a time and replace it with a monolith. Hopefully by then you will have a spaceyard 3 on the planet to speed up the build time.

The robotoid facilities are much more expensive to build than the (mineral) scanners. The scanners cost more research points to discover.
The robotoid will boost production of all three resources. So overall your better off with the robotoid facility.
BTW, be carefull how many you try to build at once, you could run out of rads and organics.

Only the best bonus is used, but the planet bonus and system bonus do add up.
ex,
planet bonus of +10, +30, +30 = +30.
System bonus of +10, +20, +30 = +30.
total bonus of +60

------------------------------------------------
So many ugly women, so much time. Got Beer?

[oleg]

Originally posted by Wardad:

BTW, be carefull how many you try to build at once, you could run out of rads and organics.
------------------------------------------------
So many ugly women, so much time. Got Beer?

In my latest Proportions game I was buildind about 20 Megapolises (sp.?) at one time. Before I figure out what is going on, I was out of any organic or radioactive speck in my most galactically advanced civilization. It was the worst ever case of petrolium crisis I ever witnessed (yes, I was alredy here in 70ies, albeit as a small child) !

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Ganraeln:

7) What is the price of rice in China when it's raining on Tuesday?

Try www.riceOnline.com