Resistanc Comms

[eXistenZ]

I've started my 2nd playthough now there is a performance patch, but idiot that I am, I deleted my previous campaign, so it's difficult to check things.

How many resistance contacts does a fully staffed and upgraded relay have (so next to workshop). Do you need 2, or will one suffice if you plan carefully?

thanks

[Drain]

You need 2 of this building if you want to get all contacts on the planet. One with upgrades and staffing will not be enough. You don't technically have to get all the contacts though. It just means you will not get all of the region bonuses... most of which are moot anyway later in the game.

[Fringehunter7719]

There are 16 regions on the geoscape. You start with 1 region with a radio tower under your control, and a contact limit of 3.

A resistance comms facility grants 1 contact, staffing the first slot adds 2 contacts, upgrading the resistance comms facility grants 1 contact and staffing the second slot adds 4 contacts, for a total of +8.

That means that fully staffing 1 upgraded and 1 basic res comms grants 11 contacts, together with your original 3 and picking up 1 or 2 bonus contact scanning events through your campaign is sufficienty.

Alternatively you can upgrade both resistance comms (by late game, there's little point upgrading your capacity more than you need at any point, just plan around the construction time for the second facility) and staff only the second slots, for a total of +12, bringing your capacity to 15 before scanning bonus finds. The benefit of this is that you're only committing 2 engineers instead of 3 to your communications needs.

In order to maximise productivity and minimise engineer use, it's always better to at least have a phase, when you first upgrade your first res comms facility where you shift the engineer over to the second slot, rather than simply staffing both straight away. That frees up one engineer until such time as you've contacted 2 additional regions, so (s)he can spend that time excavating your base more rapidly and gaining those resources.