Post by MagikThe densities have always been a factor. That hasn't changed. The
only changes are the limit of income from the LMs based on how much
metals were extracted and the prisoners mining rate. We cannot have
10k LMs get full income from extracting 1kt of metal...30k mc from 1kt
of metal...no.
Labor mines still generate more income than labor camps in most
situations since they only need 1 unmined mineral to be present to
match the income.
Any races with SWD or SWA can have infinite metals. If you don't have
one then trade.
Magik
I politely disagree, but the more I consider the havoc this rule
change has done to the Dracs the more agitated I get. So wait I
moment ... I have re-booted my emotion chip and this should take me
safely through the next minutes.
Before you had to have a single unit of a mineral type mined and you
got the full 3 mc per labor mine. The density was a very minor factor
because already with a small number of labor mines it was practically
guaranteed that you would extract one unit, no matter how low the
density. The scenario you paint did not apply. 10k labor mines
extracted much more minerals that just 1 kt, in fact they rapidly
depleted the stock of unmined minerals. Well, the situation was the
reverse of now. Unless you were not in urgent need of a type of
mineral a very low density worked in your favour because it took more
turns to deplete the planet's stock.
Now to the really important stuff:
The reform has lowered the income of Dracs that they can make through
good playing by more than 50%. That is a very big blow to a race that
has always been considered to be on the economically weak side
compared with other races.
The Evil Empire in contrast retained a bonus of 10 mc per labor
factory. That's quite a reduction from the 4x income they had before,
but they weren't as economically troubled as the Dracs are to begin
with. Where do the Evil Empire players earn their money with the labor
factories? At their homeworld right in the middle of their empire, at
their shipyard, protected by distance and easy re-supply of defensive
forces.
What did it do the Dracs? It gave them a weak money-earning mechanism
that is coupled with a logistic nightmare, something the Dracs know
already from the income derived from the government centers. If you
don't believe in the force of logistics, ask the Evil Empire whether
they would like to move the 10 mc bonus to the labor mines instead of
the labor factories. Think of the hyperjumpers burning their fuel to
get the money back to their shipyard. Distance is not a problem for
them per se. It's the constant moving back and forth to get the
resources to where they are useful.
In my current game I have less than 100 minerals newly generated per
turn through high stress. Raising it to a stress level of 900 stress
would probably give 200-300. And my shipyard should live of that
money? Only 20% of the earnable money from prisoners can be directly
generated at your homeworld through the labor factories. The rest has
to be earned out there - a long way from home in a dangerous world.
Stripmining under the earlier rule was somewhat of a compromise
considered from the point of views of logistics and safety. You
established a prison center, secured it, did fast-track mining that
yielded an amount of money that was big enough to warrant a transport
by ship to a shipyard and quickly moved on to the next planet. In the
face of danger you were flexible enough to retreat and choose another
planet.
Now you have to hunker down at the best planet you can find for mining
and any decent player knows he can swipe you off the game with a
single successful raid on that base. The remaining small trickles of
money that will continue to come in from the other suboptimal planets
and the government centers pose no threat.
Unless the Dracs are compensated I will continue to agitate for a
Socialist Revolution that takes from the rich and gives to the poor.
Phaidros