Architect Archive
Thread: BER 10 Med. vs BER 13 Heav. discuss...
It all depends upon what you want out of your harvester. If you have unlimited lots then I would say go for mediums every time, the return is far superior, you lose 30 pct collection at 50 pct of the cost in terms of both maint and power, you can also place mediumd on a smaller footprint.
If you want maximum resource gathering from a limited number of available lots, the heavies win every time. The 30pct extra you get from each heavy will easily cover the additional cost of pwer and maint, so per harvester/lot you do much better. However, placement can someimes be tricky. In addition there is less 'work' in visiting 10 heavies than in visiting 13 Mediums which would gather the same resources.
In reality there is a better solution, use BOTH. If you have 10 lots available you should really carry 10 meds and 10 Heavies, there is nothing more frustrating to find a spot with 90+ concentartion of good stuff only to find that you cannot place any of your 10 heavies due to uneven terrain, sometimes you will find that there is enough space for mediums between the 'bumps' and 'gullies', other times you will find a flat field with good saturation where you are better off placing your 10 heavies, and collect 'more' of the 1000 Conductivity copper that has spawned or the rare spawn of above70 pct concentration ore that is just too good to pass up on.
If it's not broken, don't fix it as the old adage goes.
I forgot to mention about static lots, the equation changes a bit then, but from the sounds of it your team is redeeding and placingand finding it ok using just heavies. If so then stick with it.
But just maybe ask the question if they have ever found that they cannot get the stuff they really want because the heavy just won't fit in place. If so and you feel that you could be losing out then get some mediums in. Now, if they are all 'independent' when it comes to placement it would not be necessary for the whole team to run 10 mediums as well, if they carry say 5 each they may be able to get optimum placement in a combo of meds + hvys, otherwise you could have a stock of mediums at 'home' where any of them who finds the 'sweet spot' could runto and pick up 10 mediums to take advantage of it. It comes down to how you feel, my view on these type of things though has always been that flexibility is the key. Hell, I would even suggest having a couple of Personals each as well that could be dropped in that particularily inaccessible spot where the best stuff always seems to spawn.
Message Edited by Bandola on 03-09-2004 07:15 AM
Heavies are the way to go.
If you can afford to buy the deeds then I think heavies are the best way to go normally.
The added BER and resource output is worth the added maintenance costs. And if things don't work out you can always just resell the deeds.
One situation that I recommend considering using mediums is when you are swapping lots with somene you don't know well. Its possible those harvesters will walk off either through accident or not. It stings a lot less if you loose 10 medium minerals than 10 heavy minerals.
Yes, in the long run, given finite lots, heavies ALWAYS win from an economic standpoint. If you have non-economic issues (e.g., risk of high-value structures in lot swaps) then that's a different type of decision. And clearly mediums are a viable stepping stone from personals to heavies for a few weeks, until you have generated enough profit / resources to get the heavies.
If you are using static lotswaps, that is not the only incentives to use BER 10 Mediums. If you cannot get the percentage somewhere over 43 percent on a statics spot, you are actually less cost efficent with a heavy than a medium. Many times in static swap situations, you will find you do not have something over that percentage. I use BER 10's for all my lotswaps and BER 13's for all harvesters I place myself and redeed.
Pawlin wrote:
If you can afford to buy the deeds then I think heavies are the best way to go normally.
The added BER and resource output is worth the added maintenance costs. And if things don't work out you can always just resell the deeds.
One situation that I recommend considering using mediums is when you are swapping lots with somene you don't know well. Its possible those harvesters will walk off either through accident or not. It stings a lot less if you loose 10 medium minerals than 10 heavy minerals.
Bandola I like your ideas. I will talk to my guys and see what they think. Thanks for your time and input.
Zen yes he means that heavies are way more picky terrain wise. Mediums are a lot more forgiving.
ZenDragonMLS wrote:
I'm a little confused by the reference to "placement". The heavy and medium harvesters have *exactly* the same footprint. Are you saying that mediums are more forgiving of uneven terrain? That hasn't been my experience at all.
Yes indeed ZenDragon, although they both take up one lot, the heavy actually seems to need more 'open space' to be placed than the medium, if you have time try it next time you go to put something down, you don't even need to place them, but take a deed for each and stand close to a building, see how much space the heavy requires to place compared to the medium, you should notice a not insignificant difference.
To me it all depends on how long you will run the 13s.
After a month they have paid for the extra initial cost and running costs and after that the rest is all profit with no additional work. This is especially true if you have no immediate use for extra cash - there's no interest in SWG's banks.