Clerks in a Synth Ascension empire

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TheGrouch91

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Hello there,

Quick discussion and some math surrounding clerks and trade in general in a synthetic ascension empire. I just had a game where I wanted to test how viable it is to support your population with consumer goods through trade only. Which of course works great, it's super easy actually. But I still needed to build farms which isn't terrible as they are so efficient but still... So I went synth ascension so that I won't have to worry about food anymore.

That meant (a thing that didn't really occur to me when first swapping) that clerks actually produce everything a pop needs to live. (except housing of course) They actually produce quite a net surplus. So I went and tried to push this concept as much as possible and this is the result:

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Here is the (rough) math behind it:
- 1 clerk needs 0.6 energy, 0.2 consumer goods (on welfare) and 0.9 amenities
- 1 clerk produces 2 base trade value and amenities

In this example I have a 100% bonus to amenities and a 90% bonus to trade value which means:
- 1 clerk produces 4 amenities and 3.8 trade value which translates to 1.9 energy and .95 consumer goods
- 1 clerk net production is 3.1 amenities, 1.3 energy and 0.75 consumer goods

All of that without any outside resource input except the building cost and upkeep of housing which is minimal. Now the biggest downside of this strategy is that it needs a massive workforce as the production of a clerk in each of the categories is still lower than a specialist. But we are a xenophile synth ascension empire which has one of the highest growth rates.

This was somewhat inspired by all the threads about how clerks suck and how useless they are. I'd say they are of course weaker than specialist jobs but that is to be expected seeing how easy they are to get going. You can get clerks anywhere without requirements.

What do you guys think about that strategy? It seems to work out really well.