Actual maintenance cost of buildings

[Rv]

I would be quite wonderous if we could have the actual maintenance cost of a building...

1. I look at the building info, nifty, only 1 maintenance.
2. Building is done and it's a -16 per month; from -8.

I do get that you have to pay a salary to robots (REALLY?), but that information should be readily available, because right now it's really hard to manage your economy with those "hidden" cost popping all around.

*** Correction ***
I noticed that I didn't correctly express the "drop", orignally I wrote "16 drop" which did not exactly convey what was happening.

[Zyme]

Salary to robots is maintenance.

[The Renderer]

You clearly don't understand how it works yet. Those 16 aren't maintenance. You built a building that provides jobs that convert one resource into another one. Those 16 are used by your workers to generate something (you didn't specify the building, so I can't tell you what).

All that info is readily available and not hidden at all, simply look at the population tab and what the individual workers are doing.


Edit: An example:

Research Lab. One energy maintenance (I think, don't have the exact numbers). Provides two jobs for technicians. If you then go look at the population tab and look at your technicians, you see that one technician converts 2 consumer goods into 4 research (+modifiers if applicable). So when you build a new lab and have enough workers, your consumer goods will drop by 4 but that is not maintenance. Maintenance is still only the one energy.

[Rv]

Sadly, no resource conversion on the tooltip, as I said, upkeep only.

Uplink node.

And as for those building which convert ressources, the amount is not mentioned, making it a hidden cost.

[The Renderer]

Originally posted by Rv3:

Sadly, no resource conversion on the tooltip, as I said, upkeep only.

Uplink node.

And as for those building which convert ressources, the amount is not mentioned, making it a hidden cost.

Look at the POPULATION TAB. Buildings don't convert any resources, pops working jobs do.

[Rv]

Did you read? I said I know it's the "salary" but it should be readily available on the tooltip so you can math it out when looking at the building.

It should'nt be required of the player to look at the building tooltip, check what role the population is going to do, then go look into a tab to find out how much that pop cost to maintain in the said job, then mathing the whole thing to then decide if you can manage the maintenance of the said building and pop.

> Click colony
> Click empty slot
> Browser buildings
> Select building
> Look at pop role
> Click on pop tab
> Click on detail of type of pop
> Browse to correct role
> Hover for tooltip (Advertise cost of said pop role IS NOT the same as real cost).
> Welp, can it be afforted or not?
> Go build or look at an other building

Wait, what would it be if diplayed on tool tip?

> Click colony
> Click empty slot
> Select building
> Look at tool tip
> Welp, can it be afforted or not?
> Go build or look at an other building

That's my comment. That's just absurd the amount of step required to make a building decison, I'd rather have that mindless clicking to build/upgrade (And at least you had a warning about that decision making you go red).

[Rv]

I'm actually wondering if the upkeep mentioned in the tooltip is in adition to the cost in the job category. If it is, it makes even less sense that those numbers actually do at the moment.

Notice, pop upkeep + building upkeep = total upkeep (Which should be readily available to the player)

[The Renderer]

They can't include the conversion rate on the building tooltip because it depends on the individual pop working in that job (specialization, happiness, whatever, I don't know the exact modifiers). They could include the base rate but then people would complain that it's not accurate.
Edit: Not sure if there are modifiers for the *cost* or only for the product. If the latter then they could at least include the cost per job on the building tooltip.

[The Renderer]

Originally posted by Rv3:

I'm actually wondering if the upkeep mentioned in the tooltip is in adition to the cost in the job category. If it is, it makes even less sense that those numbers actually do at the moment.

Notice, pop upkeep + building upkeep = total upkeep (Which should be readily available to the player)

Of course it is in addition to the cost of the job. It's what I keep telling you. Upkeep is NOT the same as conversion and pop costs. Why? Because you can simply not use the building (i.e. not put a worker to the job) and you still have to pay the building upkeep, but not the conversion cost.

[Rv]

Well, if you are correct, I should have a effective drop from -8 to -29, which is not reflected, the actually variation would be in line with only the pop upkeep; from -8 to -16.

(Replicated on multiple games)

[The Renderer]

Originally posted by Rv3:

Well, if you are correct, I should have a effective drop from -8 to -29, which is not reflected, the actually variation would be in line with only the pop upkeep; from -8 to -16.

(Replicated on multiple games)

I don't know the numbers for the building you are using as example, sorry. From what you say here it has 13 energy upkeep on the building tooltip and the jobs then take another 8 energy? But you only lose those 8?

Edit: No, wait, in your first post you say it's only one maintenance. Then why should it be -29?

Edit 2: Oh, you can't include the upkeep for the pops themselves in this number. You paid that even before you built a building, the pop did exist before, after all, so it doesn't incur a drop in resources.

Again, there are three costs here:
Building upkeep: Paid as long as the building is standing.
Resources for conversion: Paid if a worker uses the building to convert one resource into another.
Pop upkeep: Paid as long as the pop exists, has nothing to do with buildings.

Only the first two will cause a change in your resources per month. And not every building will have the second cost, there are jobs that don't require resources (enforcers, for example).

[Rv]

Actually, by looking at all the numbers all over again, I found what was going on.

There seems to be an odd rounding issue going on; it won't have much of an effect except under the condition I was testing, one colony with no expansion whatsoever. The fact that your empire date is only updated once every first of the month made those external factors screw my maths.

Cost seems to line up after testing it on multiple games and excluding some variables that occurs from normal growth; had to test it in 5 different games.

Tool tip should still mention tho; "Converts X energy into X this and that" instead of a plain "Produces this and that" and pop will consume Y this.

It would then be easy to know, from first glance; Upkeep + time pop consumption + time building consumption. The date is already display on the planet UI, just not in the same location.

[The Renderer]

Ah, ok. Glad it worked out at last. :)

Yeah, more info on tooltips is always nice. As I said above, they can't include the "converts x resource into y resource" because that can vary from pop to pop depending on species, specializations and other stuff. But they could at least include the base values.

[Rv]

Oh I wouldn't know about different species... I kind of play murder machines... Makes it very simple to manage. But I do get what you mean by that now. Base cost would indeed help give a feel of the cost involved.

[Rv]

This is MegaCorp; they could add disclaimers everywere...

"It will cost you this and that"
"*Disclaimer: cost may vary on species, days of week, number of meals per day and number of planets orbiting the closest black hole between this planet and the center of the galaxy that you do not own."

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by Rv3:

Oh I wouldn't know about different species... I kind of play murder machines... Makes it very simple to manage. But I do get what you mean by that now. Base cost would indeed help give a feel of the cost involved.

There is. The tooltip for the Base: is there, just a very small line.