Switch to planned economy?

[Zeiter]

Switching to planned would give us +2 growth (each growth row would only be 8 boxes instead of 10), +1 industry (our mineral rows would be 10 instead of 11), and -2 efficiency (we'd lose 1 lab point/turn from Gythium Harbor, according to our simulations.)

Switching would cost 40 energy credits.

So, what does everyone think? Discuss...

(Personally, I'm for it, hopefully sometime within the next few turns).

[Googlie]

I'd do it right away.

pros

• there's currently no loss in research (due to the rounding up effect - we're still at size 1 or size 2 bases)
• we get a +2 growth boost, to help our expansion plans, and a +1 industry, to build faster units and colony pods
• rush costs are cheaper, as there will then be 10 mins per row instead of 11 (but we won't be able to rush SC3's colony pod next turn as we'll only have 3 ec's in the treasury - unless we pop some ec's from a pod)

cons

• costs 40 ec's, and we have many uses for those funds
• the hit to efficiency will take effect as we grow in size

On balance, i favour changing right now

[Zeiter]

SC3 has another good square to work, right? A 2-2-1, if I'm not mistaken. So then, I guess we can just let that CP complete when it will, and use the ECs to switch to planned this turn. Anytime these next 4 turns is good for me, but since we don't take any efficiency hits yet, as you pointed out, I guess it would be best to switch as soon as possible, meaning, this turn.

[Googlie]

I'm scared to test hypotheses with the live turn, but it'd be interesting to see what delaying 3 years did to the production in our 5 bases (eg, right now, in SC3, the colony pod has 21 mins completed out of 33 needed, and is producing 4 mins per, (6 per after our pop increases next turn)which means that the CP will complete in 2127 anyway

Changing to planned would mean that it had completed 21 of 30 needed, still completing in 2127

(which, btw, answers one of the questions - no need even to consider rushing the colony pod - it wouldn't complete any faster anyway)

At Olympus Academy, right now it'd cost 25 ec's to rush the new recon rover. Changing to planned, it would cost 19 ec's (except we couldn't, as we then wouldn't have enough in treasury to rush anything)

But the industry bonus alone, I reckon, is worth the inefficiency loss, at least until we can get some crawlers working to get the minerals rolling in - then we can think of changing back to a more efficient setting

[Zeiter]

Originally posted by Googlie
Changing to planned would mean that it had completed 21 of 30 needed, still completing in 2127

That's true, but the minerals get carried over, so our next build project would have a nice head start. Do excess nutrients get carried over after a pop increase?

[Maniac]

As going Planned would make us lose one energy in Sector Craterwest, I voted only to switch in the year when being Planned starts giving us advantages: MY 2127, when the SC3 CP is about to finish.

Do excess nutrients get carried over after a pop increase?

Unfortunately not. So switching now wouldn't give us extra nutrients in SC3 and GH next year.

[Dis]

Planned sound cool to me. Or as mentioned in another thread, wait to our cities grow, then switch.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
................... MY 2127, when the SC3 CP is about to finish.

I suggest we spend some credits and rush the CP in 2126. That way we can take Shinsengumi off garrison duty next turn and send it north. Plus we get Sector Cratersouth built a turn earlier.

And looking at the covert ops report, where all but the Angels are running Planned, (except Morgan, of course, who can't) I fear we may fall behind growth-wise if we delay that +2 effect for too long

(having said that, of course, if we spend our (next turn's) 46 credits buying Lal.s commloink and rusahing the CP, we won't have enough to change anyway. And I think the rush and buy option is better tactically right now anyway. So oit's prolly a moot point when we change SE - when we can afford it, I guess!!)

[Googlie]

Zeiter Edit: For the sake on continuity, I'm just going to post my comments in your doublepost.

Yep, rushing SC3 CP sounds good. That crater farm is completed, right? We'll have SC4 work that square, then. BTW, do we need new orders for that former? How about a farm on the eastern crater tile, the one that SC2 is working now? That way SC2 will have a nice 2-2-1 tile in addition to its 2-2-2 monolith square.

Edit: Oh wait, weren't we going to plant a base there in the future? If so, then scratch that idea for the farm there. Hmm, I guess we could farm any of the other rolling/river crater tiles. Or we could start roading.

In the discussion thread, I suggested keeping the emphasis on econ instead of labs for several turns, until we accumulate enough to do all the things we need to do (like switch to planned, contact Lal, rush things, etc.). Also, if we contact Lal, wasn't there a good chance that we was going to give us 25 ECs for planetary nets? We can recover the cost of the commlink just from that, and we will then, once again, have enough ECs to switch to planned.