Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: jacozilla

Aside from AI difficulty, harder difficulty setting = less cash for player and other economy related bumps ( corruption, etc). So i get that.

But while i'm currently playing on one down from max difficulty, unless that last level is logarithmic in terms of economy reduction, i dont see how playing on hardest difficulty will make mining tech matter.

It is literally 2 gas and 3 solid (ok 3.33) extractors to cap mining speed with zero mining tech. The build on maintenance cost on that 1 extra gas and 1-2 solid extractors make negligible difference on any provate economy up to the difficulty one below max.

Are you saying the last difficulty level progresses so sharply or in logarithmic curve for economy reduction that the savings of 1 gas and 1-2 solid extractor per station will matter?

Again note - havent tried last difficulty setting yet but thus far each rise in setting has led to noticable rise in difficulty, lower reduction in resources - but in fairly linear progression. My cirrent strategy is to immediately redesign GMS and MS stations to 2 gas, 3 lux, and 3 mining extractors right at start of pre-warp and thus far hasnt affected my economy at all.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shark7

quote:

ORIGINAL: jacozilla

Aside from AI difficulty, harder difficulty setting = less cash for player and other economy related bumps ( corruption, etc). So i get that.

But while i'm currently playing on one down from max difficulty, unless that last level is logarithmic in terms of economy reduction, i dont see how playing on hardest difficulty will make mining tech matter.

It is literally 2 gas and 3 solid (ok 3.33) extractors to cap mining speed with zero mining tech. The build on maintenance cost on that 1 extra gas and 1-2 solid extractors make negligible difference on any provate economy up to the difficulty one below max.

Are you saying the last difficulty level progresses so sharply or in logarithmic curve for economy reduction that the savings of 1 gas and 1-2 solid extractor per station will matter?

Again note - havent tried last difficulty setting yet but thus far each rise in setting has led to noticable rise in difficulty, lower reduction in resources - but in fairly linear progression. My cirrent strategy is to immediately redesign GMS and MS stations to 2 gas, 3 lux, and 3 mining extractors right at start of pre-warp and thus far hasnt affected my economy at all.

Your maintenance costs are based on the price of the strategic resources. And if you have shortages of strategic resources, the price of those resources go up, which raises your maintenance costs. Its why on the extreme difficulty I play at, a short war can see my income drop to -200k in very short order. Even being at peace and having a shortage of a strategic (Caslon and Hydrogen are usually the most common shortages) you can dip into negative income.

So the faster I can get those minerals out of the ground and get them stock piled, the better.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jacozilla

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shark7

quote:

ORIGINAL: jacozilla

Aside from AI difficulty, harder difficulty setting = less cash for player and other economy related bumps ( corruption, etc). So i get that.

But while i'm currently playing on one down from max difficulty, unless that last level is logarithmic in terms of economy reduction, i dont see how playing on hardest difficulty will make mining tech matter.

It is literally 2 gas and 3 solid (ok 3.33) extractors to cap mining speed with zero mining tech. The build on maintenance cost on that 1 extra gas and 1-2 solid extractors make negligible difference on any provate economy up to the difficulty one below max.

Are you saying the last difficulty level progresses so sharply or in logarithmic curve for economy reduction that the savings of 1 gas and 1-2 solid extractor per station will matter?

Again note - havent tried last difficulty setting yet but thus far each rise in setting has led to noticable rise in difficulty, lower reduction in resources - but in fairly linear progression. My cirrent strategy is to immediately redesign GMS and MS stations to 2 gas, 3 lux, and 3 mining extractors right at start of pre-warp and thus far hasnt affected my economy at all.

Your maintenance costs are based on the price of the strategic resources. And if you have shortages of strategic resources, the price of those resources go up, which raises your maintenance costs. Its why on the extreme difficulty I play at, a short war can see my income drop to -200k in very short order. Even being at peace and having a shortage of a strategic (Caslon and Hydrogen are usually the most common shortages) you can dip into negative income.

So the faster I can get those minerals out of the ground and get them stock piled, the better.

Granted that resource shortages are bad for both strategic loss and economic reasons as mentioned - but I still don't get how this applies?

My point is the gas / solid caps are so easy to reach, with negligible to zero hit on weight/economy, that you might as well stick 2 gas, 3 solid extractors on every mining station right from year 1 of pre-warp start. Done. No need to ever research mining tech, no need to redesign other than for adding other useful things to mining stations like shields, sensors, etc.

How would you get more minerals out of the ground faster than simply maxing your mining cap on day 1 using 2 gas / 3 solid extractors? And how does playing on the hardest difficulty prevent anyone from affording this extremely tiny cost?