What is the point of metals/crystal?

[sarudak]

I'm kinda new to the game. I'm really enjoying it as the gameplay is quite fresh. However I was wondering why we have two different resources metal and crystal when there seems to be no major point to it. I feel like it's something I never have to pay attention to since the income and expenditures of both these resources seems to even out to the point where I can ignore it and the game automatically transforms between the two. It really feels like I'm only playing with one resource for construction and I feel like it just clutters up the interface while providing no real value.

[chemical_art]

Hi!

You can convert the resources, but the building that does the conversion is not efficient. It either converts it at either 50% or 66% of the rate. So in that regard they do matter, and encourage you to not only get a few things.

[sarudak]

Well I understand that although i think the efficiency is closer to 70%. Regardless it feels like one resource to me because it's not enough to influence my strategy. Which one I'm short on seems to alternate too much for me to think something like 'Oh my economy is short on crystal. I better grab that planet with 3 crystal asteroids.' Does anyone feel like having two resources like this instead of them being one unified resource affects how they play the game at all?

[amethyst]

For me personally, the split between metal and crystal pretty much only affects what I build at mercenary space docks in order to sink excess resources in the mid game. However, depending on which bonus ships you have unlocked, I could see it making a difference - if your fleet is heavy in crystal costs, you might choose to upgrade crystal harvesters before metal harvesters.

[chemical_art]

It is very, very rough but different unit types favor different resource costs.

Bomberisk ships tend to consume vastly more amounts of metal. So your economy will suffer if you favor them. Other ships favor crystal costs, so if you focus on them they then your economy suffers. But if you buy both together then it balances out.

[sarudak]

But that's the thing. Who doesn't balance out their shipbuilding since they want to fill out all their caps?

[Diazo]

Also keep in mind the recent Harvester buffs.

It used to be a much bigger deal how many deposits of which type you had in the early game.

Once you hit mid game though, metal/crystal is pretty much a non-factor.

D.

[TechSY730]

The metal/crystal split is to allow for some ships and structures contend for resources separately from each other. Like force-fields, riot-control starships, plasma seige starships, and missile frigates all contend for resources pretty strongly with each other, but not very strongly with most turrets, bombers, bomber starships, and fleet starships, and vice versa. This gives an interesting dynamic between choosing bonus ship types, starship types, and what planets to take.

As Diazo mentioned though, the recent harvester and manufactory (the converters) buffs may have made this dynamic much less of a factor, especially mid game and beyond.

[Hearteater]

It doesn't really matter early on.  But once you are building Mark IV and V units, you'll find that not only are those costs much higher, but you don't have access to every single ship at that mark so your resource usage will generally skew heavily one way or another in late game.  You can either plan for this and take Fabricators that have opposing resource usage, or just deal with the fact that replacing your high mark ships just takes longer because they are heavily focused in a single resource.

[PokerChen]

Well, they do matter significantly to me. I have a fairly heavy crystal usage compared to metal usage, due to the ship-types that I favour and using Spirecraft (the metal-heavy spirecraft are more situational than the crystal-eating siege towers). It means the difference between using Bomber starships and Raid Starships/Plasma Sieges, and unlocking the mark-IVs of which ship-types if the resource distributions are skewed.

The converter was scaled up, but it doesn't increase the net efficiency - so the patch change doesn't change the intrinsic dynamics. You could've just built an extra 50 of the converters anyway to prepare.

[_K_]

The M/C split becomes a noticeable factor in tough games, where your fleet and defences often get destroyed or badly damaged, and you absolutely need to rebuild it as fast as possible.

[Wingflier]

I agree.  On harder difficulties M & K management is much more of a factor than on the easier modes.

Using knowledge to upgrade your economy instead of your defense/army is a dangerous choice to make at that level, and so you often run low on resources.

[Diazo]

Interesting.

I think this is a strategies difference talking.

Because I play a slower, more defensive game, I find that late game resources are not a big deal, I'm often building mercenary units to avoid wasting resources because I'm capped at 999,999,999 resources.

However, as I have a tendency towards a single, overwhelming attack on a system, I find early game I never have my fleet as big as I want it and so am always bottomed out on resources early.

Actually, what AIP per time do people play on? On games where I've set myself what I know will be a difficult game, I go 1 AIP per 30 Min. I don't want AIP pushing me, but I don't want to turn it off completely either.

D.

[Eternaly_Lost]

Actually, what AIP per time do people play on? On games where I've set myself what I know will be a difficult game, I go 1 AIP per 30 Min. I don't want AIP pushing me, but I don't want to turn it off completely either.

I always play with AIP at 0 per time, but I also always do Fallen Spire with spire civilian leaders as that is like how I play. So I don't think I am missing that much, and I have Exo-waves to worry about and once the first two cities are up, generaly only Exo-waves seem to do anything and it does not matter how many planets I take at that point.

[zoutzakje]

I've noticed that keeping an eye on both of the resources is very important on higher difficulties, as building the wrong kind of tools will mean certain death. 7/7 is a lot more relaxed when it comes to making mistakes.
In the past I used to play with 0 AIP over time, but I didn't like it. I wanted to feel that time pressure in my games, even though just small. So now I always play with 1 AIP over time.