Unit costs

[Chaos Theory]

I noticed unusual unit costs when assigning special abilities to units, and checked out what was going on.

When designing a unit, you get to add 1 or 2 special abilities. Each has an integer cost. Each point of special ability cost represents a 25% increase in the unit's total cost. However, when you add two abilities, you usually do not simply add their costs together.

Observations:
The mineral row cost of a unit is multiplied by (4+C)/4, where C represents the true total special ability cost. If this value is not an integer, round to the nearest (in a game where almost everything is rounded up or down). So a crawler (3 rows) with 3 points of special abilities will cost 3 * 1.75 = 5.25 -> 5 rows. A crawler with 2 points of special abilities will cost 3 * 1.5 = 4.5 -> 5 rows, as well.

If a unit has two special abilities, add their values, then add one more, unless one of the abilities is Deep Radar, or both of the abilities cost 0 (the only case of this I found was trance + ECM). For example, a drop clean Synthmetal garrison costs 5 rows, rather than 4.

[Commy]

Okay, so is this like another version of the growth, industry and economy thread? Honestly, they're both confusing, and did you actually want a response, or are you stating a fact?

[Chaos Theory]

If they're confusing, examine the game mechanics yourself. If you don't understand their basics, how can you hope to explain their quirks?

Useful responses are nice, but my post was simply to explain unusual behavior that I had until recently been unable to explain. Others may find this useful, even if you do not.

[Snowflake]

When you add two special abilities to a unit, will the order matter? I seem to remember when I add trance as a second ability to a unit it actually costed 1 instead of 0.

[Chaos Theory]

I don't think the order matters, but having two abilities usually costs 1, as I explained confusingly :)
Therefore, a AAA trance garrison will cost as much as a clean garrison, when armor > weapon.

[Commy]

Maybe I'm wrong, but aren't some special abilities based on the value of the attack or defense or movement, not on the total cost? So basically, for some special abilities, are the costs always the same?

[Chaos Theory]

Here are the categories of costs actually used (the full list possible is in alphax.txt):

Straight cost of 1 or 2
1 for land, 0 for others (deep radar)
Weapon/Armor, rounded down, maximum 2 (Trance, ECM)
Armor + Speed - 2 (artillery)

[Santiago_Claus]

Okay here's a few zillion "undocumented expenses" for you: the Cruiser Super Former.

Cruiser, Fusion Reactor, Terraformer, Res-3 Armor, base cost 5.

Cost for Super Former: 6
Cost for Fungicidal: 6
Cost for Deep Radar: 5
Cost to combine Fungicidal & Deep Radar: 6
Cost to combine Super & Fungicidal: 9
Cost to combine any cost 1 ability with any other cost 1 ability: 9

No surprises so far, right? Use "Super Former" instead and things get weird, in an undocumented formulas kind of way:

Cost to combine Super & Deep Radar: 8(!)
Cost to combine any cost 1 ability EXCEPT Super Former with Deep Radar: 6

The only inferences I can make of this mess are either Super Former costs 2 when combined with Deep Radar or Deep Radar costs 1 when combined with Super Former.

Maybe it's the Alternative Minimum Tax kicking in ...

[Sikander]

How do reactor types factor in?

[Santiago_Claus]

Reactors impose a "minimum cost" but reduce the cost of weapons and armor.

This means that with the higher-level reactors you can often add arms, armor, and speed (faster chassis) to defensive and attack units at no additional cost.

Everyone knows about adding armor to formers and crawlers, but a less-well-known trick is to add 6r lasers to base defenders -- this works particularly well if your base defenders are rovers or hovers.

[Googlie]

And advanced reactors don't necessarily cheapen basic units. A fusion rover crawler is far cheaper than a quantum rover crawler and does the same crawling job.

Elsewhere MoSe did an analysis of best value crawler reactor/armor/special abilities for SP upgrading (and IIRC it surprised many) - quantum or singularity drop trance neutronium, while good, wasn't the best combo. I believe that fusion/drop/clean/silksteel was cheaper and worth more minerals in the rushbuild (although counter-intuitive - clean crawlers?)