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The cost of each facility is given in "rows". The number of minerals for a human player with 0 industry is 10, so an Aquafarm, with its 8-row cost, is usually 80 minerals.

Aerospace Complex

Aquafarm

  • Prerequisite: Progenitor Psych
  • Mineral rows: 8
  • Maintenance cost: 1
  • Alien Crossfire only

The Aquafarm increases the nutrient output of every kelp farm at that base by one.

This facility is most useful when a tightly packed sea-base spacing is used, and if you really need to maximize production from worked tiles it can help keep a small base eating well, even when mostly specialists. The main negatives are that despite coming early in the tech tree, you won't be able to reap the benefits until after Gene Splicing lifts the nutrient restrictions, and the large mineral cost, combined with a per-turn upkeep, mean that this facility may be a waste of precious minerals to build, and even more precious cash to maintain until at least after Tree Farms — by which point you probably will not be short of nutrients anyway. The case for building them in sea bases is even worse, as sea bases normally are so rich in nutrients, that any more is purely a waste.

Having said that, if building an Aquafarm allows you to increase the base size, then it may pay for itself in the long term, although if it allows one specialist (producing +2 of something) it will require 160 turns to cover its costs, or with 2 extra specialists 53 turns. If the Aquafarm allow you to use two extra second-tier specialists (that is, if you are working four tiles with kelp), the construction costs can be regained in only 18-25 turns, and then anything after that is profit.

This is bad practice in terms of turn advantage, though; sea bases are notoriously short of minerals, and an 8-row facility is going to block up your build queues for a few years. A single trawler on a kelp tile will offer just about the same benefits, for half the mineral cost and no upkeep.

Bioenhancement Center

Biology Lab

Brood Pit

  • Prerequisite: Centauri Genetics
  • Mineral rows: 8
  • Maintenance cost: 2
  • Alien Crossfire only

Centauri Preserve

Children's Creche

This facility provides +2 Growth and +1 Efficiency. Any units defending the base ignore negative Morale penalties and take +1 Morale instead. Units that already have +1 Morale or better do not benefit.

Everyone knows the importance of looking after the children. For a mere 50 minerals (Roughly = 100 ec) plus 1 ec/turn (Which the +1 Effic often gives back to you from reduced inefficiency losses) you have given yourself (with most factions) the ability to pop-boom. Even without the other bonuses, the +2 Growth is easily worth twice the current cost of the facility. Say, for example, that we build the Creche in one of our little size 4-5 bases in turn 30, expecting to end the game around turn 130 (conservative estimates indeed) so we have to pay the equivelent of 200ec all together over those 100 turns, which is about 2 ec/turn. Here comes the good news. Even without pop-booming, the extra +2 Growth will (assuming there's always enough food) make the base grow so much faster, that often in the long run the extra income from a getting a larger base x turns earlier than otherwise more than pays for the production and maintainance with the profit gained over a base growing without a Creche.

Assume the Creche makes the base grow to each size 1 turn faster. Assume also that each extra poppoint is worth a 2-2-2 tile (nothing special) which has an estimated ec-value of 6. Now with a 50/50 Labs/Economy split, that's 3 extra ecs each time the base grows one turn earlier (ignoring the other benefits). So, the first growth comes 1 turn earlier, the second comes 2 turns earlier... till the tenth comes 10 turns earlier. That's a total of (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10) x 3 = 165 extra ecs gained in the growth of the base compared to one without a creche. Ok, then we have to pay for the creche, and that costs an estimated 200ecs over our 100 turns or so, so we only make a loss of 35 ecs. However... what if the base grows more than only one turn faster? Depending on the base set-up, its possible to rake huge profits here by growing 2 turns faster each time (130 ec/base = 1.3 per turn) or 3 turns faster to the next size (295 ec/base = 2.95 ec/turn)

And that's without figuring in the other advantages of more population, namely council votes and score.

Not to mention how much you can gain by going from size 5 to size 14 in only 9-10 turns, in which case you are Popbooming, and the maths becomes irrelevant. If you're going to pop-boom, time your construction so that all your bases are finishing the Creches about the same time, then flick over to Democratic/Planned and enjoy the glory of +6 Growth.


Command Center

This facility provides +2 Morale to land units produced. Land units end their turn here are automatically restored to full strength the next turn.

For a small cost you can make your units 25% better in combat. You can see how that might be useful in a prolonged war. There's a big "but..." implied here though, and that is whether or not the time and minerals needed to build Command Centers in every base are well spent.

Consider you intend to start an early war using Laser or Impact Rovers. The aim of an early war is to rush a nearby opponent before he or she can get their defenses ready. If you delay your war long enough to build Command Centers (say 4 turns in a size 3 base with Recycling Tanks working 3 forest tiles) your intended target has time to prepare. There's nothing more embarrassing than a failed rover rush.

So, what else could you do with 4 rows of minerals instead of building a Command Center?

You could build four 1-1-1 infantry units or two 1-1-2 rover units to upgrade into real attack troops. In this case, you'd better be playing a high-support faction. For a high-cash faction, it's much better to have smaller numbers of better troops.

Don't automatically build the Command Centers before building the troops. If you're planning on attacking Morgan or Zakharov, it's usually unnecessary to pump up your Morale. It's far better to attack these Builders early before they can get ahead in tech, and your 4-1-2 rovers find themselves attacking 1-3-1 ECM units behind Perimeter Defenses. If you want to take on Cha'Dawn or Deirdre, then that extra Morale may just save you while you fight the inevitable Mind Worms.

The catch: Command Centers will cost you 1 energy per turn each. If you're playing as Yang, with his -2 Economy, then this may be a bridge too far. Of course, Yang can run Wealth to counter his -1 energy per base, but this is not an option because it reverses the effect of the Command Centers. You gain 1 Energy, pay it to the Command Center, which gives you +2 Morale, which in turn is taken away by the Wealth. Sure, you get +1 Industry, but that will save 4 minerals from the cost of your rather expensive and pretty useless Command Centers.

But, and here's the rub, against the AI you can be pretty sure of snagging The Command Nexus, and getting one free in every base. Of course, this is only a good deal if you have 5 or more bases.

[1] The upkeep of your Command Centers starts at 1 and increases according to the best Reactor strength you have. For example, upon discovery of Fusion Power, Command Centers will cost 2 energy per turn to maintain.

Covert Ops Center

Energy Bank

The Energy Bank adds +50% Economy at the base.

As long as you're making good money anyway, it can't hurt to make a bit more. Energy Banks are always worth having, especially if you can get one in every base for free with The Planetary Energy Grid (Alien Crossfire only). However, there are two questions to ask yourself before building an Energy Bank: "Will it give me a profit?" and "What else could I be building?"

Firstly the profit question. An Energy Bank gives you +50% Economy, at a cost of 1ec/turn. So if you're producing 2 Economy (not total Energy, just Economy) at that base, you will gain 1 energy/turn at a cost of 1 energy/turn. Not such a great deal. With 4 Cconomy at that base you gain 2 energy/turn which means it will only take 160 turns to cover the value of the minerals involved in building the Energy Bank. Of course, the base will grow, and the returns will improve over time, so the sooner you build one, the quicker you'll make the money back. Energy Banks are like a stock exchange: you put some cash in now, and hope the company goes up, and stays up long enough for you to profit from it. So, as with all facilities that improve the base's mineral or Economy production, the sooner you build an Energy Bank, the more you will gain from it.

However, building too many facilities early on is going to kill your horizontal growth in favor of vertical growth. Which is better, 5 bases with Energy Banks now, or 15 bases with Energy Banks later? Instead of increasing the Economy of your bases by 50%, why not increase the number of your bases by 50%?

What else could we have built in the same time with those 8 rows? A Colony Pod, 2 Formers to develop the new base, and a 1-1(t)-1 unit to protect it? Recycling Tanks and a Crawler? Two Colony Pods and 1-1(t)-1 units to protect them? If every base did that instead of building an Energy Bank, you'd increase the number of bases by 200%.

So, we must decide between building early to get more cash for rush buying to speed a later but faster expansion, or building later, to expand faster in the first instance, but to get less efficient use from our Energy Banks. There really are a lot of factors to consider here, such as which faction, Social Engineering settings and map you are using, but with the exception of Morgan, it may be wiser to use those 8 rows in the early game to get more stuff on the map instead of more credits in your pockets. Morgan on the other hand has poor Support and high energy in the base square (easily gets 8+) so he can build Energy Banks as soon as he is running Free Market/Wealth and really rake in the cash. Morgan can easily get 16 energy at a size 3 base, which with the default 50/50 Economy/Labs split allows an Energy Bank to make a net profit of 3 energy/turn - only 53 turns at that rate to earn the value of the Bank back, and most probably less, and help to fuel a rush-buying frenzy that only Morgan can get away with.

Flechette Defense System

Fusion Lab

  • Prerequisite: Fusion Power
  • Mineral rows: 12
  • Maintenance cost: 3

Genejack Factory

Geosynchronous Survey Pod

Hab Complex

Habitation Dome

Headquarters

  • Mineral rows: 5
  • Maintenance cost: 0

Hologram Theatre

Hybrid Forest

Nanohospital

Nanoreplicator

Naval Yard

Nessus Mining Station

Network Node

Orbital Defense Pod

Orbital Power Transmitter

Paradise Garden

Perimeter Defense

Pressure Dome

Psi Gate

Punishment Sphere

Quantum Converter

Quantum Lab

Recreation Commons

Recycling Tanks

  • Prerequisite: Biogenetics
  • Mineral rows: 4
  • Maintenance cost: 0

The Recycling Tanks provides +1 nutrient, mineral, and energy per turn in the base square of the base it is built. The Pressure Dome can serve the same function as a Recycling Tanks but also protects the base in case it gets submerged in the sea...but it costs twice as much to build. Sea bases are automatically equipped with a Pressure Dome (so Svensgaard will rarely have to worry about Recycling Tanks).

The Tanks seem modest at first glance, but they are essential facilities; every base should have one as soon as it can get it. Some consider the Tanks so essential that they will rush-build it the very turn a base is built if they can, even if the base is undefended. It pays for its mineral cost in 40 turns, assuming no Industry bonuses or penalties, while providing free nutrients and minerals all the while, and everything after those 40 turns is profit. The extra resources can also be multiplied by facilities, so the small amount the Tanks contributes each turn will still be significant later in the game.

Imagine we have a size 1 base on land which is producing a total of 4-4-4. Adding a Recycling Tank to the base is a 25% increase for all the base's production and income. Not bad, for a facility that's so cheap, and requires no upkeep. Look at it another way — your first 4 bases with Recycling Tanks will be as productive as 5 bases without Recycling Tanks.

Of course, you don't want to tie up your build queues early in the game with expensive facilities when you should be scouting, Mind Worm hunting, Colony Pod rushing and former flooding. Therefore, the best way to build Recycling Tanks is probably to rush them using the free minerals1 on the very turn you found a new base. The cost is somewhere around (40-10) = 30 minerals, assuming the base can produce 4 minerals per turn, so that's only 26 minerals that you need to buy, which will cost about 52 energy to rush with normal Industry. The Recycling Tanks will only take 15 turns to pay off the rough equivalent of that cost, while increasing the growth, research rate, and speed of production immediately. More growth and more production mean the next base will be planted perhaps a turn sooner. That adds up in the long term to big savings and more turn advantage, and after only 15 or so turns, you're making pure tax-free profit from your rush building.

A nice side effect of Recycling Tanks is that a size 3 base with Recycling Tanks can work 3 forest tiles for 6 nutrients, ensuring no waste. Before restriction lifting, this is one of the more efficient base builds, especially if you can manage 3 forests on a river. Without the Tanks, the base would have to use a farm or crawl one nutrient, costing you either a mineral or an energy credit, or an extra turn for the next citizen and wasted nutrient production.

[1] Won't work so well with Democratic; otherwise, the ten free minerals are pretty nice.


Research Hospital

Robotic Assembly Plant

Skunkworks

Sky Hydroponics Lab

Stockpile Energy

  • Mineral rows: 0
  • Maintenance cost: 0

Subsea Trunkline

Subspace Generator

Tachyon Field

Temple of Planet

Thermocline Transducer

Tree Farm

Some of this content was originally written by Jamski on Apolyton and has been modified from its original version, which can be found here. Used with permission.

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