Comments And Analysis

Starfire campaigns are, as much as anything else, an exercise in economics and financial investment. The finest military strategist will usually eventually fall to a race which more carefully manages its money and investments.

One of the simplest ways to invest is Industrial Expansion. Each unit of Industrial Expansion provides an exact and predictable about of return on the investment. Further, the conditions to optimize the investment's return can be easily established.

There are three conditions which determine where to invest in Industrial Expansion.

1. It should be done in systems which are reasonably safe from attack. It does no good to select the optimum location, if the industry can be destroyed or captured by an attacking enemy.
2. The IU (Industrial Unit) should be placed in a system which has the maximum number of asteroid belts.
3. The amount of the IU should never exceed one-half of the PU on a world.

Note in particular, that within a system, it does not matter on which world IU is placed. The IU on all worlds in a system work exactly the same for GPV computations. The only limitation, is that the amount of IU on the world cannot exceed one-half of the PU (excess IU does not produce, and so is wasted).

The return on the investment for IU is a simple calculation based on the race's Technological Level (TL) and the number of asteroid belts in the system with the IU. Multiply the TL value by the asteroid belt value to determine the per turn income per IU. The TL value is the TL divided by 10, plus 1. The asteroid belt value is the number of asteroid belts divided by 10, plus 1. For example; in a system with two asteroid belts and a race with a Tech Level of 3, the return per IU will be 1.2 (asteroid belts) times 1.3 (Tech Level), or 1.56 Mc.

Pay back periods for IU are a little tougher to calculate, since, until at least Tech Level 7, the pay back period will normally span at least two Tech Levels. The simplest method is to average the return for the two Tech Levels, and divide the cost of each IU (30 Mc) by the average. Using the example above, the Tech Level 3 return is 1.56 Mc, and the Tech Level 4 return would be 1.68 Mc, for an average of 1.62 Mc. Thus the pay back period would be 18.5 turns.

The following tables list the returns on investment and pay back periods for Industrial Expansion through TL 10.

Return on Investment for IU

High Tech		Asteroid Belts
		0	1	2	3	4	5
Level	Modifier	1.0	1.1	1.2	1.3	1.4	1.5
1	1.1	1.10	1.21	1.32	1.43	1.54	1.65
2	1.2	1.20	1.32	1.44	1.56	1.68	1.80
3	1.3	1.30	1.43	1.56	1.69	1.82	1.95
4	1.4	1.40	1.54	1.68	1.82	1.96	2.10
5	1.5	1.50	1.65	1.80	1.95	2.10	2.25
6	1.6	1.60	1.76	1.92	2.08	2.24	2.40
7	1.7	1.70	1.87	2.04	2.21	2.38	2.55
8	1.8	1.80	1.98	2.16	2.34	2.52	2.70
9	1.9	1.90	2.09	2.28	2.47	2.66	2.85
10	2.0	2.00	2.20	2.40	2.60	2.80	3.00

Pay Back Period (1 TL) High Tech Level Asteroid Belts 0 1 2 3 4 5 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1 27.3 24.8 22.8 21.0 19.5 18.2 2 25.0 22.8 20.9 19.3 17.9 16.7 3 23.1 21.0 19.3 17.8 16.5 15.4 4 21.5 19.5 17.9 16.5 15.4 14.3 5 20.0 18.2 16.7 15.4 14.3 13.4 6 18.8 17.1 15.7 14.5 13.4 12.5 7 17.7 16.1 14.8 13.6 12.7 11.8 8 16.7 15.2 13.9 12.9 12.0 11.2 9 15.8 14.4 13.2 12.2 11.3 10.6 10 15.0 13.7 12.5 11.6 10.8 10.0

Pay Back Period (2 TL) High Tech Level Asteroid Belts 0 1 2 3 4 5 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1 26.1 23.8 21.8 20.1 18.7 17.4 2 24.0 21.9 20.0 18.5 17.2 16.0 3 22.3 20.3 18.6 17.1 15.9 14.9 4 20.7 18.9 17.3 16.0 14.8 13.8 5 19.4 17.6 16.2 14.9 13.9 13.0 6 18.2 16.6 15.2 14.0 13.0 12.2 The Pay Back Period (1 TL) table assumes the pay back period is entirely within one Tech Level. The Pay Back Period (2 TL) table assumes the pay back period extends over two Tech Levels. In this case, all pay back periods could vary +/- 2 turns, depending on when the IU investment occurs. The Pay Back Period (2 TL) ends with Tech Level 6, since beyond that that the cross-Tech Level effect is greatly reduced.

To Play Comments

Updated 19 September 2000.