Mechanics to reduce micro

No, but the fact is that it is micro-intensive. The point is that to *get* to having an exponential economy you need micro. Which is bad. Hiding an exponential growth curve behind a micro barrier is like hiding a golden needle in a pile of hay ****.

Why is micro bad? Because it requires ridiculously good hand-eye coordination that even the most fast-paced Shooters don't require. If we can remove micro, we should; micro is a technological barrier, not a gameplay barrier. If you can reduce the learning curve of a game without effecting gameplay, you should do it. When I give orders to my army, I expect them to be carried out. When I tell my bot to attack, I want it to attack; I don't want to have to tell it to delay its attack, what munitions to put in its gun and whether or not it should use grenades while it attacks; I want it to **** things up.

I've been playing SupCom and TA since I was 7, and in hindsight I avoided micro whenever possible. I would use AA trucks and long-range weapons in TA, not because they were particularly advantageous, but because they didn't require the same micro short-range footsloggers did. I never built a Zeus or a Pyro. Same goes for SupCom, but it was even more of a necessity then; I actually had a rule where I would devote 75% of my time to managing my BASE and 25% to my army. This isn't Sim City, this is PLANETARY ANNIHILATION, the game where we BLOW THE UNHOLY HELL OUT OF PLANETS BIT BY BIT. AND THEN WE BLOW IT UP AGAIN.

Having direct upgrades (I'd rather built upgrades, rather than self upgrades) does not automatically mean you'll get an exponential economy - that is purely a result of too big a jump in metal production between the tiers. TA did not suffer from this, because the output from T1 > T2 metal extracts wasn't huge (only ~ +4 Metal over T1). It was Moho metal makers that were an issue in TA. Sup com had massive jumps between extractor output in the tiers. You don't need "ridiculously good hand-eye coordination" just to build a building on top of another one.

The usual t1 mex in ta would give around 2m and the t2 would be like 7m. So if you say that's about 5 in the difference it's correct but it is also 250% better. Then the values in pa don't seem too far off if we use ta as standard that is.

As raeven pointed out this upgrade wasn't popular as it worked out cheaper building energy fields and Moho makers.

So lets say we have automation in building t2 mass? Will the game know that you dont want to waste resources just yet in building t2 mexes if you are fighting over a large wreck field and need all available mass in units?

Or will you click on a t2 fabber and queue up t2 mass like it is a factory? Then it goes to the closest spots and upgrades. Think that could work actually as a fair medium. God I'm a genius. .