There seems to be a lot of inconsistency with Planetary Improvement upgrade times, and I think it's been similar for every version I've had. At the moment I'm running Dark Avatar 1.7 beta 2. The issues I'm seeing are (and note that I've tried to get at the correct values but some may be off a bit and some seem to change from game to game):
1) The displayed time in the queue for an upgrade is incorrect - upgrades generally finish faster than what is displayed (the bar fills up more quickly and this can be seen)
2) The displayed time in the middle of the screen when the pgrade is selected is usually closer and sometimes correct, but even it can be off, in either direction
a) Sometimes, it starts off incorrect but after a turn or several turns has passed, it may correct itself
3) Upgrade times / social production costs don't seem consistent. For example, one time it was 60 to upgrade a Xeno Farm to an Intensive Farm but then another time it was 100
4) Some Upgrade paths don't make sense, but not sure if this was by design or not. For example:
a) Going from Basic Lab (40) to Invention Matrix (200) costs 150, and 40+150 is LESS than 200. However, going from Research Center (100) to Invention Matrix (200) costs 145 and 100+145 = 245 is a lot more than 200
c) It costs MORE to upgrade a Xeno Lab to a Research Center (75) than it does to upgrade a Basic Lab to a Research Center (60)
Is everyone seeing these issues? Does anyone know when/if the following might be available:
1) A fix to the above issues in the game display and mechanics
2) Perhaps a post that lays out a matrix of what all the upgrade costs / social production requirements are?
I haven't investigated the cost side as much as it relates to purchases upgrades, but it would be good to know those as well.
This would be really helpful, especially if some paths are more efficient than others. For example, from what I was able to tell:
- Going from Basic Farming (40) to Intensive Farming (100) is pretty efficient at a social production cost of 50 (40+50=90 is LESS than 100)
- Going from Intensive Farming (100) to Advanced Farming (120) is pretty inefficent at a social production cost of 70 (100+70=170 is significantly more than 120),
- Going from Basic Farming (40) to Advanced Farming (120) is pretty inefficent at a social production cost of 75 (40+75=115 is LESS than 120)
Therefore, if you can hold off, it is much more efficent to go from Basic to Advanced (total cost of 115) than from Basic to Intensive to Advanced (total cost of 40+50+70 = 160).
Thanks so much in advance for any info/help that can be provided.