Are upgraded factories worth it?

For example basic factories produce 6 and cost 50; enhanced produce 8 and cost 75. A 1/3 increase in production and 1/2 increase in cost. Same for other increases.

The difference is that the cost is a one-time deal, but that production matters every turn. So unless the second one has higher maintenance costs, the advantage piles up pretty quickly.

More sdvanced factories are a substantial advantage. Don't worry about the cost... that just means they're longer to build (and more expensive to quick buy...). Those factories are crucial to building ships... the speed increases very fast.

One thing to watch for, though, is that the new factories only give you more CAPACITY, they don't make your factories more efficient. You still need the same amount of money (1 bc) for one unit of construction. Therefore, make sure you've got your economy together before upgrading, or you'll either a)sink your economy via overspending or b)have to run well below capacity, which is a waste.

I've never really understood concern about the cost of Industrial Sectors. While they are clearly expensive and take a long time to build, the production bonus, as Kryo said, is continuous.

If you can't afford the extra cost and you need factories quickly, then I'd stick with the manufacturing center and then replace them as time goes by.

If you can't afford the extra cost and you need factories quickly, then I'd stick with the manufacturing center and then replace them as time goes by.

Couldn't agree more. I will get to manufacturing center's as quickly as possible, but i stay with them for a while, (in fact i make sure to get to these before going past trade centres) but once the game has settled, the rush is over and war has started i will always step up to the industrial sector.

By staying with basic factories you are missing out on just how quick you can turn out those decked out medium hulls. With 4 or 5 planets set to manufacturing, full to the brim with industrial sectors, you will have a very powerful ship each turn.

Good hunting!

In DA (where you're allowed to build basic factories even after you've researched industrial sector), I build the high-end factories on my manufacturing planets where I really care about what they're putting out, but I stick with factories on my unimportant planets that are just kind of there. I say "factories" and not "basic factories" because that first bump, from basic factory to factory, is worth it. You're going from 4ip to 6ip for 1 maintenance: that's a +50% increase. But the next bump from 6ip to 8ip for 1 more maintenance, that I won't do just anywhere.

To put it another way: on my fluff planets, maybe PQ 6-8, no extra tiles, i will put factories on those (and maybe a starport). But on my manufacturing capital, any +100% manufacturing tiles, or planets influenced by an economic starbase, those will most definitely get industrial sectors. And then there's the high-PQ planets which don't have any special tiles: those I first populate with basic factories, and then I upgrade as I start running out of tiles. They'll be upgrading throughout the whole game. Those planets make nice homes for the lesser Super Projects (such as Galactic Privateer, Micro Repair Bots, Spin Control, etc.).

if you're winning quickly enough that the advantage of better factories isn't obvious, i'd recommend playing at a harder difficulty level.

Even if it takes a long time to win, the short-term advantage of sticking to low-tech factories is worth considering. Instead of spending time and money building or upgrading advanced factories, you could be doing something else. For example, build warships and go conquer some new planets. That's another way to increase your production capacity, and you'll probably capture some nice advanced factories without having to build them.

Need to ask something else as well: is there really any point to building the various capitals other than fluff? For example, the Manufacturing Capital gives only a 25% bonus to production, while a quantum power plant gives 100% for half the price. The Economic Capital is just two stock markets with an inflated price tag. It doesn't seem like they are worth the investment, TBH.

You've got a point there. I saw similar behavior with the morale structures. We'll see if this new DA release addresses that.

I haven't played DA, so to respond to the Manufacturing Capital part...does it stack with a power plant, and if so, how? Because if it does something like adding the 25% after the power plant's doubling, that's a lot of shields/hammers...

The Economic Capital comes along a lot sooner than stock markets. Even if you somehow get it after stock markets, two stock markets use up more tiles than one econ capital and, IIRC, the Econ Capital costs less than the two stock markets put together. If I've specialized a planet to be a cash cow, I want to squeeze every last credit I can out of it.

For the Technolgical Capital...I'm not aware of any other research-multiplier buildings, so that leaves its use pretty obvious.

I can't comment on the Political Capital since I've always been too busy researching ways to hurt people to bother going past Republic =P

There's a Research Consolidation Center in DA, so your question of how it stacks with the Tech Capital still holds.

When you capture Capitals (Tech, Econ, Political, etc) from other civ's do they still work? (Or are you better off changing them?)

Yes. Capitals cannot be dismantled in any case, so unless you use a destructive invasion tactic you can't get rid of them.

As far as I'm aware, the Manucap and Power plants are additive. However, the Manucap also provides an economy bonus and has no maintenance cost, so it is still better than a regular factory if you already have four or more on that planet.

Well, try the Thalans. They are amazing for building factories

There are several problems with upgraded factories: One is if you don't build them, you get stuck with them when you conquer AI planets and then it takes half an hour to get rid of them or your economy goes into the dumper. Then it happens again and again (factories, upgraded, industrial sectors, etc.)

The other problem is mid-game when you colonize a neutral planet. If you have upgraded factories, they take too long to build from scratch.

I guess DA solves some of these problems. But I hate to admit it, I love the colony rush. It's part of what a 4x game is about.

The solution to your economy going in the dumper is to just not build anything on that planet. Then you only pay maintenance. I always just focus on research and not build anything--I _always_ need research.

The solution in DA for the upgraded factories is to select the "All" tab on the buildings screen, then you can build Basic Factories on up.


What *IS* a problem, though, is a long-standing bug when upgrading factories (or any building, for that matter). You can click on one basic factory and it'll cost one price to upgrade it to a factory, and then you click on another basic factory and it costs a different price to upgrade it to the exact same thing. Sometimes the upgrade price is more than the price just to build it outright!

I have found wacky planets where some are trying to upgrade to enhanced planets and some to industrial sectors.

Maybe I "stole" the latter first. Doesn't make sense.

I wish Stardock would fix some of these problems. But I am sure they are focusing themselves and us on DA.