Planetary Improvement Structures - List of Build Point Costs

why are the costs not listed.... anywhere?

Why is this list important?

Because social production above and beyond the amount necessary to complete a building is not conserved, nor is it refunded. It is *wasted*. Wasted turns of production add up (and gnaw on the fragile minds of gamers who take pleasure in discovering how to play a game well).

This is in contrast to Research Production, which is conserved, and applied to the next project. Thus, if you want to play efficiently, it behooves you to micro-manage your social production in the early game such that it will be a factor of the build-point cost of the improvement you're currently building. That's a complicated sentence, here's how it works:

Let's say you're building a factory. It takes 75 build points to build. You don't want to waste your production building over 75 on the turn its completed. Thus you want your social production at this planet to be EXACTLY 1, 5, 15, 25, or 75. (You could, of course, set it to 50 the first turn, and 25 the next, but this turn-by-turn micromanagement is likely to exceed the patience of even the hard-core gamer).

Why is Social Production not conserved in the same manner that Research Production is?

A darn good question....

Are military (ship) build points conserved in the manner that research points are?


They don't appear to be, no. That said, you *can* at least see the build point cost in the ship construction screen. A colony ship, for example, cost 101 build points at the beginning of my last game, and a constructor 144. Good numbers to set such military production to would be 26 and 18(or 36), respectively.

If the build point costs of these improvements aren't listed anywhere, how did you find them?


I set my spending rate to a level so low that my homeworld was producing only 1 social build point per turn, then checked to see how many turns it would take to finish each of the listed improvements.

Why aren't the build point costs listed anywhere, as they are for ships?

Another good question.

Would it be helpful if such costs were listed in-game?


Sure would. Almost as helpful as if they were to simply conserve build-points in the manner of research production so that we players don't feel compelled to micromanage to this extent.

Until they are, however, please take the time in your games to measure the build point cost of higher tech structures. Simply set a planets spending to 1 social production, and check the number of weeks it will take to complete the various structures. I'll check back on this post to add the results to the list.



So what are the build point costs already?

Advanced Marketing Center..............60
Basic Farming.....................................50
Basic Lab.............................................40
Embassy..............................................60
Entertainment Network......................55
Factory...................................................75
Manufacturing Capitol......................500
Xeno Lab...............................................60
7,829 views 4 replies
Reply #1 Top
UPDATE:

I just started a new game to check your data, and found found that your numbers must be wrong. The planet screen tells me that my factory will be done in 7 weeks, for example, when my social production was set to 10. Your numbers suggest that it would actually take 8, and that I'd have wasted half of my production on the last turn.

That nice little number in the bottom right hand corner of the planet screen? It lies. Repeatedly. Don't ask me why it does, but ooooooh, how it lies. So does the number on the bottom left of the galaxy screen, the one meant to tell you how many weeks of research you have left on a given technology. Neither of these numbers update correctly (or at least, not *consistently* correctly) to changes in your spending levels.

All the more reason we need concrete build point numbers to be listed for each of the improvements. All the more reason to make a more forgiving UI by conserving social production.

In the meantime, don't take my word for it: observe it yourself in-game. Alter your production levels and observe the UI giving you incorrect data with which to (mis)manage your galactic empire. Then, as an added amusement for Yours Truly, time how long it takes you to make a satirical post about it.
Reply #3 Top
I think the xml file is right. The social & research timetables are definitely wrong.
Reply #4 Top
xmwhatnow? There's a list of this data someplace?

I'm all ears.

Is it someplace in the game directory? It's too much to hope for that it all be in a single list somewhere there, isn't it?