Architect Archive

Isn't that a bit of a steep punishment in trying to stop throw away harveters?

Personally, I would have made it so that a harvester at 97% condition drops to 20% efficiency, and at 90% condition it drops to 10% efficiency, and then it degrades down to 0%-0% and poofs. But this way works too I guess.

A harvester plunked down on a 100% vein of metal with no maintenance paid should not pull up enough materials to replace itself, let alone a tasty surplus.

It's not a punishment, it simply is a stop to throwaway harvesters. They tried making it unattractive by reducing efficiency etc, but that didn't work. So now you just have to pay maintanance if you want it to work.