Mass Production vs. Premium

[Saint Landwalker]

When you're browsing the market, each product has info icons in the top right, showing things like what materials it primarily uses, etc.

One of the icons is "Mass Production" or "Premium."

I can't tell what difference this makes or means. It doesn't have anything to do with product complexity—the Scooter (~28 operations per unit) is Mass Production, while the King Barbecue (~9 operations per unit) is Premium.

So, what exactly are these icons supposed to mean/indicate?

[The Ultimate Illusion of Wind]

mass production normally involves a LOT more steps then premium. however premium items require HIGHER stats which, some of the time, increases the overall cost to produce it (although honestly it never feels like that, it just feels like premium is always better). however it kind of balances itself depending on what operations you use to make a item.

i feel premium is always more worth it then mass production, simply because there are far fewer steps and quite honestly worker wage is normally always higher then material cost.
workers can only complete things so fast before it actually becomes pointless to invest into it more. unless your catapults are worth 2.2k+ then catapults are actually insanely profitable if you have a large work force, and even if you don't (assuming you have money to stay afloat while you build them).

honestly though it doesn't REALLY matter which one you pick. you normally just pick the highest producing product and go with that. profit per hour is what matters, not the "profit" field, just remember that when searching for your next big profit.
if you open the plan menu you can then also open the market. the game is paused like this, so you have time to do whatever you want.

[mudfarmer]

Based on a lets-play series I'm watching, at a certain point your tech tree gets mass production vs premium branches, so maybe the icons are related to which specialization it works best with?
for example the premium branch has a skill that make specialists less expensive.

[Saint Landwalker]

Update: I talked about this with one of the devs on dlthe Discord, and they said the product classification between Mass Production and Premium is an artifact of a mechanic that was ultimately cut from the game, in which factories would have to be more distinctly focused on one or the other (as opposed to the final version, where you can just dive in to both sides of that tech tree and apply the bonuses to all products).

So, yay, answer.

[PollyWahn]

Originally posted by Landwalker:

Update: I talked about this with one of the devs on dlthe Discord, and they said the product classification between Mass Production and Premium is an artifact of a mechanic that was ultimately cut from the game

Yes and No; That feature is indeed cut, but the products still follow some trends that you can use as an indicator as to what kind of product you're dealing with :)
Some oddities and exceptions exist of course, but generally, the mass production tagged items are more simple to produce than the premium variants.

[Saint Landwalker]

That sounds like a challenge for me to go through as many products as I can find and put that rule to the test...

[PollyWahn]

Originally posted by Landwalker:

That sounds like a challenge for me to go through as many products as I can find and put that rule to the test...

I'm not sure if I should be happy about this or fearful that you'll prove me wrong :P

[The Ultimate Illusion of Wind]

Originally posted by PollyWahn:

Originally posted by Landwalker:

Update: I talked about this with one of the devs on dlthe Discord, and they said the product classification between Mass Production and Premium is an artifact of a mechanic that was ultimately cut from the game

Yes and No; That feature is indeed cut, but the products still follow some trends that you can use as an indicator as to what kind of product you're dealing with :)
Some oddities and exceptions exist of course, but generally, the mass production tagged items are more simple to produce than the premium variants.

i would say it's actually harder to produce mass production products then premium products as premium normally has FAR fewer operations (complexity). i suppose there are a few that don't follow this, like rubber ducks but honestly you lose money later in the game trying to make them....so they don't count =)

[Apokalypt]

Can I take both skill trees? Or does one lock the other out?

Edit: I waited until I had enough points and spent them in both, so it works.

[mikeydsc]

Originally posted by Apokalypt:

Can I take both skill trees? Or does one lock the other out?

Edit: I waited until I had enough points and spent them in both, so it works.

Can take both. Can max both.