Mechanics Deep Dive #2 - The Economy (Part 2 of 10)

In the previous part of the economic overview, I told you how you can buy tiles. So now we have a tile, but what next? The answer is to build a building. The only question now is which one.

Before I get to that, however, one thing should be noted: Only one building can be constructed on a hexagon at a time, so you always have to weigh up which one to build. And since we have already learned that you need resources (iron and titanium) to buy tiles, it makes sense to focus on extracting more of these two resources first. There are two basic buildings available for this purpose in Entrotria. The mine and the extractor. On most planet tiles, it is possible to build both buildings. But why are there two, and how do they differ? I will clarify this in the following.

MINE LEVEL 1 + IRON

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First, the mine: a mine costs 5 iron as standard, which is the same amount as a hex. To build a mine on a rocky plain, where it then produces 1 iron per round, you need to spend 10 iron (5 for the hex, 5 for the mine). That is, of course, a large amount, and this is where the extractor comes in as an attractive alternative. The extractor also requires 5 iron for the tile, but instead of 5 iron to build it, you need 5 copper.

EXTRACTOR LEVEL 1 + COPPER

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“Great, and now I need copper too, or what?” you might ask yourself, and yes, that's probably the case. So just build mines? Well, maybe that's not the best solution, because what the extractor with its different resource profile makes possible is replacing iron. The tiles are randomly generated, so iron can quickly become scarce.

Or you can invest in tiles that produce copper, but not for the copper itself, but for one of the other resources that can be produced there, and then you have copper left over that just needs to be used... The forest on forest worlds is such a tile, as it produces 1 wood, 1 fossil fuel, and 1 copper when a mine is built on it.

And then there are the tiles on which no mines can be built (the opposite is also true, of course, e.g. with asteroids). And what else can you do with deep water, volcanoes, or nebulae, if not building extractors on them?

[Deep Water, Volcano, Nebula]

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In addition, extractors offer a decisive advantage in some fields over mines: they produce different resources on the same tile. One example of this are mountains: a mine produces 1.5 iron there. That's a good value. But the extractor would produce 1 iron – less, but still good – and 0.5 gold. So what do we do now? It depends on whether we really need the iron or whether we're happy to do without it given the offer.

So does it make sense to build mines and extractors? Yes, indeed! To be honest, it is possible to play the game without the extractor, but this means losing out on many of the opportunities it offers. The extractor often offers a slightly “different” resource production and is therefore a good choice for anyone who wants to “ puzzle out” the optimum or is not blessed with an extremely generous starting system. This diverse resource management is also reflected in the various upgrade branches for mines and extractors. Wait, upgrades? Yes, or did you seriously believe that 1 or even 1.5 iron were production values you would want to have on a tile? But more on that in the following economic overview. And if you don't want to do without some hexagons and spaceship weapons, you will probably have to invest in copper sooner or later anyway...

Have a wonderful 4X-fest and see you next week!

-a cheerful Giratakel (Simon Alber)