Upgrading Your Homeworld: Worth it?


The Big Planet upgrade though that's worth explaining, however, is the first and biggest one you can get, the lvl 4 pop upgrade for your Homeworld at the start of a game (assuming you're not playing one of the few preset maps that starts you with a desert)

If you go in and check, 1 pop generates .03 cred/sec. You can't go by the 11.4 on a homeworld and divide it by 190 b/c the homeworld get's a homeworld credit bonus. So, you have to take into consideration three time periods of the upgrade.

1. The actual upgrade period. There is no credit generation, and the lvl 4 is not teched until 90 seconds have passed.
2. The Population growth period. Population grows at .1pop/s. That means 900 seconds (you get +90 pop with this upgrade) will pass during this period.
3. The Full Bonus Period. This is what you get permanently after 990 seconds (16 min 30 sec). It's an upgrade of 2.7 cred/s to your economy.

So how long does it take to pay itself of?

Well, during the 900 second growth period, you can call the average income 1.35 cred/s, so that means 1215 credits are generated during this time.

The actual cost of this upgrade is about 2775 credits. I say 2775 credits because it costs 750 credits, 225 metal, and 225 crystal (450 resources net). You can sell and buy resources at roughly 4.5 cred per 1 resource. (When you sell you have to get someone else to buy it though)

This means that after 990 seconds, you still have 1560 credits net to make. That means you have an additional 577.7 seconds to wait until this upgrade FINALLY pays itself off. So, how long does it take net?

990+577.7= 1567.7 seconds or roughly 26.1 minutes.

I do not consider the three mines you get to start as part of paying off this upgrade. EVERYONE gets them. The only difference between a player who gets the homeworld upgrade and one who doesn't is just this very expensive upgrade.

So moral of the story, only get this upgrade when you know you won't be seeing an opponent for 26.1 minutes. If you think you're going to rush someone or get rushed, save yourself the resources for this upgrade and spend them elsewhere.

Eventually you should get this upgrade. I don't think anyone would argue against this because for it's price it's about the same as getting a tradeport and it generates a little bit more. I would say if it's a rush map, the ideal time to get this upgrade is AFTER you're pretty much 100% certain you've got your little 1v1 on your portion of the map in the bag, tech it, and then go to help an ally.

No 1 v 1 except Point Blank will be done in 26 minutes, but the battle can be decided within that timeframe. See what I mean?