Tower cranes - speed

[Patriek]

So when I'm buying a tower crane for the CO, they have really good stats compared to the other equipements (much higher speed/level) however when they are used it seems that the working days on the job doesn't go down as fast as expected. If I compare it with different equipment, like an excavator which has a lower speed/level value, the job of the excavator is done much quicker, i.e. the working days reduces much faster for the excavator.
There are enough resources or all resources are on the construction site and there are some workers.
Does someone knows how this difference can be explained? Do you need to have a certain amount of workers on the construction site to let the crane working at full speed?

[ratita]

the crane doesnt work on itself,it boost the workdays of the workers,so the full speed of the crane its at the maximum capacity of workers

[ratita]

also,in some buildings you can out more than one crane

[ZILonaut]

The speed of the crane is like a multplior to the amount of workers on the construction site.

[BareJag]

Excavators and bulldozers on the other hand works by themselves, so while they are working there is no need for workers.

[ZILonaut]

Excavators and bulldozers in real life can do work when equipped with 1 worker.
Tower cranes can't do work. They can only transport your building material around the construction site and to another level. You need workers to hang on and off.
Building walls with bricks and concrete has to be done by workers. Cranes can only deliver the material.

[electrocatalysis]

Originally posted by ratita:

the crane doesnt work on itself,it boost the workdays of the workers,so the full speed of the crane its at the maximum capacity of workers

from what you are saying I can make a conclusion that Road crane is more efficient in early game because they don't require workers. I just thought that Tower cranes would work even with 1 worker, but it seems that the progress goes too slowly and than I find your comment...
So I guess if I get almost nothing from Tower crane because I can't afford a lot of workers as builders I can just buy Road cranes and they will work perfectly. It seems kind of unbalanced. Ofc, using 1 worker to run 1 tower crane on full capacity looks unbalanced too, however...

[gwahazar]

Road crane works like tower crane - it speeds up workers.
Excavator and bulldozer can do job without workers.

[Silent_Shadow]

All cranes (tower and road) multiply the output of workers by ~5.5, while their speed/level is the number of workers that get this bonus. Generally I prefer road cranes because they can move themselves (convenient for moving to new areas and not using a truck's trip to take it to a site) and they are sufficient for most buildings (road cranes pair well with a few vans). Tower cranes are really only better for large buildings like steel mills or radio stations that can make use of a lot of workers per phase.

Other mechanisms like excavators, pavers, bulldozers, and rollers create the same number of workdays per day as their speed/level, which you can basically treat as a replacement for that many workers with 100% productivity. The 3-10011A excavator with a speed/level of 33 creates 33 workdays per day for example, but only when working on groundworks or quarries/mines. When working on roads, excavators seem to lose some efficiency.

[electrocatalysis]

Originally posted by gwahazar:

Road crane works like tower crane - it speeds up workers.
Excavator and bulldozer can do job without workers.

yes, sorry, I had old info, now I checked and saw for myself.

Silent_Shadow, this is really useful info. Thanks!

[Silent_Shadow]

You're welcome.

[MG83]

I think you are not accurate on this matter. From my tests and perspective the tower cranes are speeding up faaaaar more than excavators or similar vehicles. on small buildings and thing you might be right but when the building has alot of work hours to finish adding a tower crane drastically increases work speed compared to an excavator increasing ground works .

While you compare it be sure that you are comparing it with max workers. ie having a ground works with only worker. vs having ground work with only excavator. and having both same time.

then compare it with same work hour job at construction. Try with tower crane and without tower crane.

A single crane i can aproximately say speeds up work by % 100 while excavator is aprox speed up % 60.

Convenience of excavator is that it can work stand alone while tower crane need workers. But tower crane does scale up with worker number while excavator does not. Meaning : if you supply low amount of workers to your construction difference might look small. But if you supply alot of worker significant difference is observed.

[electrocatalysis]

MG83, I think that Silent_Shadow is right.
I had 3 tower cranes and 2-4 workers on a construction site and they made around 15-17 workdays for 1 day. So ~5.5 multiplier seems quite correct. Considering that 2 of 3 cranes were actually redundant xD

[Silent_Shadow]

Here is a video that shows how "Speed/Level" relates to workdays per day for bulldozers, excavators, and cranes:
https://youtu.be/0GwcqLP_ETQ