Ecumenopolis vs. Ring World - The seal on a case.

[Spirit of Honor]

So, I'm no glorious god at Stellaris, I can't claim that because I play passingly and never really got serious. I know the exploits abound, the tryhards are out there and I've never played Multiplayer because my life demands more time than I can give.

To that end, these are statistics from a rare time when I was able to dedicate myself to statistics. Playing with everything required(Towards both structures, namely dlc) I have been able to uncover the statistics and felt nice enough to take the time to post the results(Not the true results as that's an entire spreadsheet of madness that cannot be truly replicated basis to basis with Empire bonuses, civs, pop bonuses-not that it entirely matters- or events and the like) But I will give number values

So, what does each one do?(Efficiently): Ecumen vs Ring world- E or R for win

Alloy 50%(5k more for note)E 10800v5100

Consumer 81%(Nearly 14k more)E 17496v3400

Research Absolute failure at -84%(Ring world blows them out of the water at around 9k research universal)R 1360v9400

Food Ecumens do not produce food, instant failure, but Ring worlds generally give 15300(Ungodly more with buildings).

Trade balances at around 6480v7800, roughly, it goes up and down so much it doesn't matter

Unity 12312v-undefined-(I did not record it because the number was so horrible)

So, where does this leave us? Well that's the problem. The Ecumenopolis is better in nearly every way 'but' food and research. So dedicated planets need to be set elsewhere-OR DO THEY!

Research is not a dedication wing beyond upkeep, which means you can dedicate a world to trade value and make buildings to research, creating an actual dual world, which brings me to the most important notes

This is based on 25-30 worlds(I did the math and reduction even by 5 didn't stop Ecumen from destroying rings) HOWEVER finding these world is difficult, and you need 4 to complete the ring: Alloys, Consumer, Research/Trade, Unity. That means 4 perfect 25 worlds, not going lower than probably 18-19 to transform, and then dedicating two worlds to generators and food respectively. This equates to 4 worlds + 2 natural ones for perfect efficiency and max resource allocation.(Not to mention rings around planets being a benefit)

Now Ring Worlds have their own benefit/drawback. You don't need to get planets, you can build them(But they take twelve eons to build and eat potentially 2 ascension slots) and you only need 2, with 2 free slots to do with as you wish, like advanced resources, but they will 'never' reach the output of Ecumenopolis, they're just 'easier' and less resource intense to make. Which is a neat yin and yang.

They both take forever, but Ring worlds are cheaper, Ecumenopolis however are flat out better, no matter how you shine it, and you'll only ever need 2 planets to make up for the resources missing. There's just one final issue, advanced resources. You'll have to dedicate all other planets to those resources, or you can advance and build either of them.

So who wins? Ecumenopolis: There's no way to spin it without them being better, even if you had planet size 15s, their output is just so much stronger(But expensive), making them the better long term investment, but in a galaxy full of planets, finding the right ones isn't that hard, the resources are. If you want the poor man's option, Ring worlds exist and are easy build and file out set-ups.

Side note: Habitats are actual trash, so is the start. It's the equivalent of knee-capping yourself with insert tool to my knowledge, it's very, very bad, resource ratios even when habitat start bonuses added, are just the worst they can be. Find a planet, a size 8 desert, and that will give you better benefits, I ran all the tests, upgrade to resource to job to housing needs are all just trash, even with a civ perfectly designed for habitation(Which is what I was playing, and you can never remove those penalties unless you become a machine by the way-I tried.)

With that said, feel free to discuss, but I think the results speak for themselves on this age old question.

[Ryika]

Those planet types are not in competition, and if you care about maximizing your late-game potential, you want both. City worlds for industry, Ring Worlds for Research. Both over normal planets not only for their productivity, but also for their relatively low impact on empire size, and ability to stack a ton of pops which makes them prime targets for Planetary Ascension.

[Half Phased]

They’re not in competition, but also encumenopoli are available 75 to 100 years earlier and form the foundation of your economy, while ring worlds are very much a late game toy for when you’ve already won, unless you get Sanctuary.

Counter to the side note, habitats are good at 2 things: research and trade. They’re better than planets for research since the research habitat specialisation gives a researcher output bonus, which the planetary one doesn’t.

For trade, habitats are able to thoroughly crush planets, with the number of merchant jobs they can give utterly ruining planets. And the trade station specialisation.

And they’re also a pretty good place to chuck exotic resource refining, if you don’t have the building slots elsewhere.

[Tiasmoon]

Ecus arent better. You use both Ecus and Ringworlds.

Originally posted by Half Phased:

They’re not in competition, but also encumenopoli are available 75 to 100 years earlier and form the foundation of your economy, while ring worlds are very much a late game toy for when you’ve already won, unless you get Sanctuary.

There's also Cybrex, Ruined Ringworld and Caretaker FE. If you play on 1k stars, the last one will always be on the map somewhere.

Originally posted by Half Phased:

but they will 'never' reach the output of Ecumenopolis

In terms of research they will easily exceed it. Same with food. Its also much easier to get easy jobs on a Ringworld then an Ecu which relies entirely on Minerals.

[mss73055]

My first ecumenopolis will be the unity machine.

The size of relic worlds varies. You may get size 26, you may get size 9 or anything in between.

[Spirit of Honor]

Well again, I don't claim to be god at Stellaris, I just took the statistical math of what each type does so that IF YOU WANTED you could build either or, however clearly one is better than the other at certain things, which is always helpful to know. I dunno, mundane data I picked up. I think it speaks volumes given the numbers.

[ChaffyExpert]

Trade value (merchants) with Mercantile is good, but by the time you get to building Ringworlds, you can also just build Dyson sphere and Science Nexus. It's more of an early-mid-game economy.

So ya, Ringworlds don't really serve much purpose. Food i guess, but i always have tons of food anyways.

[Spirit of Honor]

Originally posted by Going to be Banned by mods Soon:

Trade value (merchants) with Mercantile is good, but by the time you get to building Ringworlds, you can also just build Dyson sphere and Science Nexus. It's more of an early-mid-game economy.

So ya, Ringworlds don't really serve much purpose. Food i guess, but i always have tons of food anyways.

I mean that's fair, ring worlds are faster to get running in my opinion and less resource intense as a trade. Ecumens require advanced resources to run, so I'd argue ring worlds are faster and you could offset costs with spheres.