Why are Science Mk II so much?

[Quitch]

They're twice as tough but gather at half the speed. Doesn't that pretty much cancel out? At equal cost I'd still likely go with the regular ones and at current costs I never even think of building a Mk II.

[Fiskbit]

They're 8 times as tough, I think, for 8 times the price.. The price does seem rather high to me (to the point where I'm not willing to get them), but I think the extra armoring would be worth the gather cost, at least.

[Quitch]

Ah I didn't realise it was that much. Still think they cost waaaaaay too much though.

[x4000]

Yeah, these are good points -- I never use them, either.  The current cost structure sounded reasonable on paper, but in practice not so much.  For the next version, I've changed it to 12000 metal and 1200 crystal, only a 50% premium over the Mark I science labs since they also gather at a slower rate.  I don't think there will be much incentive for people to spam these, which is what I had originally been worried about.

[darke]

Yeah, these are good points -- I never use them, either.  The current cost structure sounded reasonable on paper, but in practice not so much.  For the next version, I've changed it to 12000 metal and 1200 crystal, only a 50% premium over the Mark I science labs since they also gather at a slower rate.  I don't think there will be much incentive for people to spam these, which is what I had originally been worried about.

Yeah, I just spam the cheaper ones anyway. Toss 5-6 through the wormhole along with a bunch of defense ships, if the AI starts targeting one with sniper turrets or the like, I just pop it back through the wormhole at half health. They only need to endure it for, what, less then 5 game minutes or something to suck down 2000 research so it's pretty quick.

I guess one way to slow it down would be to knock the research gained down to a third or a quarter when leeching from contested systems. Having to endure 15 or 20 minutes is probably a little tougher.

[x4000]

I'm not too worried about it, that's a valid thing to do (what you're doing).  The main thing is that the Mark IIs are immune to ion cannons, whereas your Mark Is are not.  I think we're good.