Comments And Analysis

Where do you invest your money to get the best return? Other pages have looked individually at Industrial Investment, Colonization, and Government Pool ships. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, these investments are not easily compared to each other. They each operate in unique ways. For example, Government Pool ships, unlike industry and colonization, are not affected by technical advancements, while colonization, unlike the other two, is able to grow on its own once established on a world.

• Industrial Units offer a stable, secure way to increase your income. Placed in a home system, they are probably pretty safe and will give an exactly known return, which increases each time your technology improves. They also increase the ability of a planet to produce, since IU are figured into the production capability of planetary industry. Unlike the other investments, they can be sold for their purchase cost on a growth turn (the definition of a "growth turn" will depend on the population growth method used).
• Freighters in the Government Pool of the CFN provide an excellent return for their cost. They also increase an empire's total transport capacity, and are a quick way to get general purpose cargo ships when needed. The Government pool also provides an easy way to replace any losses to the Base CFN.
• Colonization not only provides income, but allows a race to increase its size and extend its command and control facilities and production capability throughout space. While the necessity of colonizing Benign, Harsh, and even Hostile worlds should be fairly obvious, when is it a good idea to colonize Desolate worlds?

Investments Compared

The following nine types of investments will be compared:

• Government Pool
  • Freighter 4 (the best of the freighters and liners)
• Industrial Expansion
  • In a system with no asteroid belts
  • In a system with three asteroid belts
• Colonization
  • Desolate Very Rich moon in a system with no asteroid belts
  • Desolate Very Rich moon in a system with three asteroid belts
  • Desolate Normal moon in a system with no asteroid belts
  • Desolate Normal moon in a system with three asteroid belts
  • Desolate Very Poor moon in a system with no asteroid belts
  • Desolate Very Poor moon in a system with three asteroid belts
  • Asteroid in a system with no asteroid belts
  • Asteroid in a system with three asteroid belts

The comparison criteria will be:

• Pay Back Time. The number of turns required for the investment to pay back its original cost.
• At Turns 25, 50, and 100, the current income generated by the investment.
• At Turns 25, 50, and 100, the total return generated by the investment. The return will be the total income generated by the investment minus its investment cost.
• The time to build the ship is not considered for the Freighter 4.

The following conditions will apply to the investment comparisons:

• Equivalent amounts will be invested in each of the investments (giving 2 freighters, 10 IU, or 10 PTU).
• It will be assumed that the investment occurs on the first turn of a campaign.
• The initial investments will occur at Tech Level 1, and the average advancement rate for technology will be assumed (see Technology Research).
• All colonization will use the In-System CFN to emplace the populations.

Investment	Ast. Belts	# or PTU	Cost	Pay Back	Turn 25		Turn 50		Turn 100
					Income	Return	Income	Return	Income	Return
Freighter 4	N/A	2	302	18	17.2	128.0	17.2	558.0	17.2	1,418.0
Industrial Units	0	10	300	26	13.0	-6.0	14.0	328.0	16.0	1,091.0
	3	10	300	20	16.9	82.2	18.2	516.4	20.8	1,508.3
Desolate Very Rich Moon	0	10	300	20	24.1	123.4	45.8	971.01	84.0	4,673.5
	3	10	300	16	31.3	250.4	59.6	1,352.3	109.2	6,165.5
Desolate Normal Moon	0	10	300	27	16.1	-17.7	30.5	547.3	56.0	3,015.7
	3	10	300	22	20.9	67.0	39.7	801.6	72.8	4,010.3
Desolate Very Poor Moon	0	10	300	47	7.3	-160.8	7.8	26.2	9.0	453.5
	3	10	300	38	9.5	-119.1	10.2	124.1	11.6	679.6
Asteroid	0	10	300	23	18.2	48.0	19.6	515.6	22.4	1,538.8
	3	10	300	19	23.7	152.4	25.5	760.2	29.1	2,148.9

For those who prefer a graphical interpretation (only colonies in 3 asteroid belt systems are included):

Investment Income

Investment Returns

Investments Compared

Clearly, all Desolate worlds with a Mineral Content of Normal or better are worth colonization. Although colonies in systems with one or no asteroid belt get off to a slow start, all eventually grow into highly profitable locations. Asteroid colonies, although inferior as colonization investments, are still notably better than either Industrial Units or Government Pool freighters.

The Government Pool of the CFN comes in as a distant second to the In-System colonization of desolate worlds. The return on the Government Pool is significantly less than that of the colonization of most desolate worlds. The main reason for this is the fixed rate of return for all vessels. As a result, freighters provide a decent return early in a game, before an empire's technology level helps to increase the returns of colonization and Industrial Units, but quickly fall behind colonization as the technology level rises.

Industrial Expansion appears to be the poorest of the investments available to an empire. Except in systems with three or more asteroid belts, industrial units have poorer returns than Government Pool freighters or colonization. The time to buy Industrial Units is when waiting for newly colonized systems to mature to the point where they can begin In-System colonization of their desolate worlds. The place to buy Industrial Units is only in systems with two or three asteroid belts. Other systems are only worth the money if an empire is relatively rich and has already exploited its desolate world colonization opportunities.

Investments Recommendations

Early in a campaign (assuming a start at Tech Level 3 or less), construct Government Pool freighters, and use the Bonus PTUs from the home world to colonize the Desolate worlds in the home system. Put colonists first on the Desolate planets and moons down to and including Poor Mineral Content worlds. After that, begin colonizing asteroids.

Later, if a colonized system has two or more asteroid belts, then between turns 20 and 30, stop or greatly reduce the building of freighters. In their place, build Industrial Units in the system with the most asteroid belts. If the available systems do not have sufficient asteroid belts, then continue building freighters.

As an empire grows, concentrate on using Bonus PTU from the larger worlds to continue the In-System colonization of Desolate worlds. If at any point the colonization effort flags due to a lack of target worlds, build Industrial Units in systems with two or more asteroid belts. At this point, build freighters for the Government Pool only if their carrying capacity is needed, not as investments.

To Play Comments

Updated 13 February 2000.