So there's the question of when will my planet have paid itself off? Logic says that asteroids will pay themself off the quickest, but what about Lava, Ice, Deserts, and Terrans?

I want to clarify a lot of the simplifications I've been making.

To start, I consider resources as part of paying off the planet. I consider 1 resource = 4.5 cred. The market always fluctuates, so if you're watching for better conversion rates, that means you're reducing the time I'm coming up with. Kudos to you if you do, but I have to make this simplification.

Also, for the sake of simplification, I'm saying that the mines kick in once the planet is in the green. I know this is going to throw off the calculation, but it keeps the equations I'm using simpler and makes my life easier. This probably is going to throw off the actual numbers by +/- 5%.

When planets are colonized, they start with 3 pop-ish. I don't know about you guys, but in the very early stages I tend to lose that to the lone pirate that manages to get a seige burst off on my planet. I'm going to neglect the starting pop, but since the amount of time spent in the red is 105 secs (45 tier one upgrade, 60 s tier two ), I'm going to say once the planet has entered the green, it has 10 population and the mines are built. Yes, I know, oversimplification, but...

I feel the final answer I give you will be ballpark correct. I hate getting a mathematicians answer, so I feel the numbers I give are at worst +/-10% from the actual time, and I believe my numbers are really +/-5% overall.

Well, they're all wonderfully complicated and here's what I've come up with so far.



Currently Re-formulating Chart



I put a lot of thought into it, and I'll gladly explain the logic behind it if someone wants me to, but I've checked it as much as I can, and frankly I don't want to post how I did it because that'll take a while.

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?