Metal Converter Building

You needed 6 solar panels per metal maker.

I would say the balance was fair.

Not with TA's T2 power it was not.

me too but I wanted to keep this thread from starting back up.

I think energy-to-metal converters would add an unnecessary element of complication to the existing economy. I quite like that metal is the limiting resource. It encourages back and forth fighting for control over areas of metal. Keeps things simple and pure!

Wait a second, I'm going to go grab some hotdogs to roast over this flame war...

If you have an emergency energy demand, then take like 2 guys off of production. Generators already provide unlimited energy per mass, so setting resources on fire just isn't a good idea. It's almost universally better to have surplus power or to use storage for emergency spikes.

In fact, there isn't much real world difference between storage and having some kind of emergency mass-> energy. Either way you pay mass, and either way provides extra energy during a crisis. The big difference is that storage is reusable, and doesn't depend on managing any special structure.