Aerogel is too expensive and ultimately not worth it

[troublmaker]

I was really excited that I could double production. It seemed like the arctic was just so used up from my near maxed playthrough and I could essentially use it to double up on so much production and make things even bigger.

However I've almost built up the entire Tundra zone full of upgraded homes with tonnes of services and supplies coming in to try and produce very small amount of this stuff. My total income just shot down heavily and the actual amount of production we're getting out of this is so stupidly small.

[-AKEVA-BANSHEE-]

Think of aerogel this way. Increase production while cutting cost. I use it in the lunar sectors and for high end factories.

[troublmaker]

Except the lunar sectors are almost unlimited in their size and scope. It's almost impossible to max them out. The aerogel while doubling production still increases costs, logistic use, and number of people working in a facility. It's an ultimately pointless resource.

[gigamoi]

As I see it, modules from tundra are meant for people who already used all their costal/mining sites or expanded to the insane point where factories take too much space for them to expand any more. Unless you are in one of these conditions, it will cost you more to use the module than to just lay down an other production building because you will have to feed that module. So its pointless until very late in the game, long after you finished the lunar licencing program.

[Cythal]

To add to what Gigamoi said, I noticed that both the biocatalyst and Aerogel cost alot when used on buildings that produce the final product in a production chain.

For example the fruit machine uses fruit from farms to produce fruit drinks. If you just build a few farms and want to use biocatalyst funnel for the fruit machine, you end up consuming so much biocatalyst. But if you instead use it on the farms, you consume so much less biocatalyst. This is reasonable and sort of makes sense, because most farms take so much space. The space occupied by a fruit drink production building is too small to use biocatalyst on them for the amount they consume.

So I use biocatalys for my farms to produce so much fruit and then use the saved space for fruit drink production buildings without biocatalyst. both space and amount of biocatalyst consumed is saved.

I suggest you watch the numbers carefully and decide where you need aerogel or biocatalyst in a production chain. It will cost more to bypass farms.

[troublmaker]

Example: I use it on three mines. This now costs 2 full factories worth of aerogel to complete.

Biocatalyst is fine. Biocatalysts doesn't use excessive amounts and can give you positive results.

But aerogel is actually ridiculous how much of it is used to boost a buliding and how little you can make of it. The new land just doesn't have that money mining locations.

[Minoes]

Oh.. I was thinking about buying Tundra after all, just so I could get more molybdenum. The arctic regions don't seem to have enough mines to supply enough of it.

How much did it incrase your mines output?

[Minoes]

Originally posted by Zanzahar:

Originally posted by Minoes:

How much did it incrase your mines output?

It doubles the production output with doubled maintenance costs (Credits, Workers Needed, Energy Consumption).

Thanks :)

[Sage]

I mainly use them in the artic regions because they are most limited by space

[Minoes]

I've bought the Tundra DLC and I have to say the modules are great for the arctic. My molybdenum production is way better now ^.^

Honestly I don't understand what the OP is talking about. Making both modules isn't expensive at all. Some buildings use more modules then other. If you plan it in a smart way you can create lot's of extra space for mines and 'waterside places'. Also, extra farm output is great.

[Leraje]

Overall the basic resourses are the cheapest to boost with the catalyst/gel. The more complex the product is, the higher the cost. I actually started on a spreadsheet to calculate the cost to boost different buildings, but have been too lazy as of late to work on it.

[Minoes]

Originally posted by Leraje:

... I actually started on a spreadsheet to calculate the cost to boost different buildings, but have been too lazy as of late to work on it.

I just started that as well, but realized I don't have to. It's the same standard formula every time.
Production rate of the building or mine * consumption per minute of the module.
So: fruit plantation 700% * biocatalist -1 = -7. So 7 biocatalysts needed for a fully upgraded fruit plantation.

[Leraje]

Originally posted by Minoes:

Originally posted by Leraje:

... I actually started on a spreadsheet to calculate the cost to boost different buildings, but have been too lazy as of late to work on it.

I just started that as well, but realized I don't have to. It's the same standard formula every time.
Production rate of the building or mine * consumption per minute of the module.
So: fruit plantation 700% * biocatalist -1 = -7. So 7 biocatalysts needed for a fully upgraded fruit plantation.

I was more interested in a comparing the efficency of bossting the basic buildings vs boosting the final product. Let's take Luxury food as an example:

Food workshop ($1500, 500 power) intakes 32 beef and 32 wine and outputs 64 units of final product. It'll take 65 units of Biocatalyst to double it's procuction

Cattle ranch ($1800, 600 power) outputs 28 beef, will require 29 biocatalyst to double

Vineyard ($600, 80 power) outputs 12 wine, will require 15 biocatalyst to double


To supply 2 Food workshops, it'll take 2.3 outputs of Beef and 5.3 outputs of Wine. Unfortunately the numbers of required facilities are uneven, so the below estimate will be somewhat skewd. For the sake of ease, let's assume that 2xFood = 2xBeef+6xWine.

Boosting resourse building in that case will take 29+3*15=75 Biocatalyst and $7200 with 1680 power. At the same time, boosting the final product will take 65 biocatalyst $3000 and 1000 power.

Maintenance and catalyst drain seem to favour boosting the final product in this case, howeve boosing the resource production will save space. Boosting just Wine prduction seems to be the most balaced cost vs space scenario in this case.

[Minoes]

Ah yes. Well you have money enough (every extra citizin gives more) and wine and beef don't need a mine/water spot, so the limiting factor here is building space probably.
It would be more efficient to boost wine and beef then. Because the factory that makes the food doesn't use that much space.

Tbh the limiting factor is always: mine spot, water spot and space to build. Energy not really because of plenty of moon mines available and you can use modules (although I like the workforce ones beter). Money not really, because for every product you make and build more citizens, the money goes up and for citizens you need space also.

[lnomsim]

Originally posted by Leraje:

Originally posted by Minoes:

I just started that as well, but realized I don't have to. It's the same standard formula every time.
Production rate of the building or mine * consumption per minute of the module.
So: fruit plantation 700% * biocatalist -1 = -7. So 7 biocatalysts needed for a fully upgraded fruit plantation.

I was more interested in a comparing the efficency of bossting the basic buildings vs boosting the final product. Let's take Luxury food as an example:

Food workshop ($1500, 500 power) intakes 32 beef and 32 wine and outputs 64 units of final product. It'll take 65 units of Biocatalyst to double it's procuction

Cattle ranch ($1800, 600 power) outputs 28 beef, will require 29 biocatalyst to double

Vineyard ($600, 80 power) outputs 12 wine, will require 15 biocatalyst to double


To supply 2 Food workshops, it'll take 2.3 outputs of Beef and 5.3 outputs of Wine. Unfortunately the numbers of required facilities are uneven, so the below estimate will be somewhat skewd. For the sake of ease, let's assume that 2xFood = 2xBeef+6xWine.

Boosting resourse building in that case will take 29+3*15=75 Biocatalyst and $7200 with 1680 power. At the same time, boosting the final product will take 65 biocatalyst $3000 and 1000 power.

Maintenance and catalyst drain seem to favour boosting the final product in this case, howeve boosing the resource production will save space. Boosting just Wine prduction seems to be the most balaced cost vs space scenario in this case.

Huh.. no ? By boosting the final product, you don't have to build more catlle ranch or vineyard, so gain much more space than if you had to boost them.

[Minoes]

Yes I thought about that later :p
I was sleepy when I wrote that I guess xD