Your failure to see it doesn't mean it's not there. You're too close to FA, thepilot. Your views, right or wrong, are not the view of the majority. FA's system, while not obfuscated per say, makes no sense whatsoever.
PA encourages you to not care about final energy cost. You just need to know "I need a bit over 1 mex & approximately 2 power gens per fabrication vehicle". You can't do such a thing in FA, because it varies both on what you are building and what you are building it with. PA only cares about the later.
You need 4 pgen to run a T1 factory in FA, or 2 for a landf fact, whatever you build in it. It's really the same.
thepilot, you're missing the point entirely. raevn talked about engineers, not factories. There was no tooltip that showed how much energy and mass a T1 engineer used when assisting a T3 structure's construction other than memorising it via the Econ Overlay. and that number changed on a building by building basis. That makes NO SENSE, unless you understood FA's completely arbitrary rules about Mass and Energy consumption.
What's an example of something that would become unbalanced such a system were implemented? Do you play FA thepilot? One of the things that one has to do early game is to build a lot of power, and at least one or two energy storage to support the com's overcharge. Ignoring energy costs, power generators cost 3 mass/second with each engineer, yet inexplicably power storages cost 6 mass/second. This sort of ridiculousness isn't present in PA.
Currently, air usually cost less mass but more energy, and naval has an higher build time. As air is probably more powerful (because it can be anywhere very fast, can hit & run easily,....), mass cost would need to be way higher than now. (because energy is the problem to spam them). Meaning that bombers/gunship would need to cost way way more mass-wise. Meaning that all the AA needs to be rebalanced toward that, and probably all land and all air. Not even talking of naval. It's a lot of change for something that is not a problem to begin with.
Yeah, I'm balancing the game for 3 years now, but I don't understand simple things that you seems to not understand. Can you stay polite for once?
it made perfect sense, ya sure you didn't have time to run the math, but neither will we in PA and PA's math's been super simplified. So yea, you can calculate and make sure you economy consumption checks out in PA wheras in FA it would take a long time.
Me be polite? You're the one casting aspersions upon my understanding. Maybe you should lay off the personal attacks. I am perfectly capable of understanding, and even running the math in my head, for FA's foolish economics. That doesn't mean I appreciate how silly and universe breaking it is.
He didn't accuse you of not understanding it, he was stating that it is a hard-to-learn system. Which it is, compared to PA, not counting the current-and-temporary lack of certain UI things in the alpha.
That doesn't change the fact that the number of pgen you need is very much predictable. To take your storage example, in PA, if the mass storage cost is higher, it will be slower to build. If it's lower, it will be faster. The problem now is : how to do if you want storage mass cost to be higher but build faster ? (or the opposite) for balance purpose?
"Arbitrary" does not mean "hard to learn". It means "not being a fixed rule". The fact is it's a real clear and predictable mechanic in FA, so calling it "arbitrary" can only lead me to the conclusion that he doesn't understand it.
And if I want to be really rude : viewtopic.php?p=764259#p764259 As you call simple, well known maths "magic", I'm assuming that you are able to run some math in your head by default. You are probably able to, but I'm not assuming it. And replace "please be polite" with "please stop trolling" (calling things "arbitrary" and "magical" for example) if you want.
It is clear and predictable, once you know it, but afaik it's not based off anything that makes sense in and of itself, unlike Factory/Engineer Build Power, which is much more logical and easy to explain. Although it does bring up it's own problems, like that balancing problem you mentioned. Has the FA system been explained in this thread?
It shouldn't have. This isn't the right topic We're so off the rails now that I'm surprised a Mod hasn't stepped in. Oh, and while there is a "rule" of how much mass and energy are drained, the rule itself is arbitrary. It's a sloppy gamey implementation. PA's system is far more elegant and in keeping with basic logic.