Megacorp branch offices

[Xaos]

Good afternoon everyone.

I have been playing megacorps and as I have been playing a megachurch, and enjoying being Space Pope, but as I was placing churches all across the galaxy, I eventually got to the other buildings.

And they range from useful to useless real quick.

Fast food chains produce 10 food for you and give a farmer job for them. I like this one.

There is a job that allows you to produce 10 minerals and give the host empire a mining job. I like this one as well.

I like the research and unity ones as well, but how come when it comes to alloys and consumer goods they are so terrible?

I can turn 12 minerals into 12 consumer goods, so how come I can only produce 2 consumer goods on the branch office building. It should be 10 (same as the minerals) and the alloys produced are only 2 as well (instead of 5).

It just feels so bad and I feel it could be so much better...

 

[Hibernus]

It's even worse for the criminal variants, not only are the yields the underwhelming 6CG or 2 alloys, but they also produce less crime, making the office worse and more likely to be shuttered.

Talk about high risk no reward...

 

[Mavkiel]

Yeah criminal version is basically paying to be abused. It costs a point, it costs opinion of other empires also likely to get shut down if you don't plan it right. (Good luck with that since most likely they will close your borders so you cant scope the crime level beforehand)

 

[VanguardKing]

The consumer goods one is real bad, but I think 10 of a processed resource to be a bit much.

The research and unity ones are pretty meh in my opinion, but I still build them if i've an extra slot and my mineral economy is good. Jobs are just so much better for those resources considering the number of bonuses you can stack onto them that you can't for branch offices. Even without racial bonuses you can out produce a branch offices with a single worker in research.

EDIT Mercenary liaison offices however, are amazing. +10 Naval, and can be stacked on a single branch office? That is so damn good. Not sure who gets the XP bonus to armies tho, probably them.

 

[tobias.mb]

First of all. Where are you getting a 2 CG branch office building? It should be 6. (As in that's what it says in the game files.)

I can turn 12 minerals into 12 consumer goods

Not really. You are forgetting the upkeep for the factory and the artisans. Also the opportunity cost of a building slot and employing the pops somewhere else.
Just looking at a (basic) factory + 2 Artisans:
- 4E factory upkeep
- 2 x 6M job upkeep
- 2 x 0.5CG + 2 x 1.25F pop upkeep
In sum: 4E + 12M + 1CG + 2.5F
This means in reality the value of 1CG is: 4/11E + 12/11M + 2.5/11F

Assuming a 1E = 1M = 1.5F (based on district productivity) you get a minerals -> consumer goods ratio much closer to 3 -> 2. (actual ratio: 1.6 : 1)

So getting 6CG instead of 10M is totally a fair deal. It also means, you can employ 2 artisans as something else, which matters a lot in the early game. On top of that the basic resource building create a miner or farmer job, which is worthless to you (you = branch office owner). Clerks at least generate trade value, which increases the branch office value.
I'd say the basic resource branch office buildings are usually a really bad idea.

Alloys are a bit too low at 2. But this actually fits with the old metallurgist output of 2 alloys (for 6 minerals upkeep), so I suspect during the alloy rebalance (2.2.2) branch offices were simply forgotten. You could open a bug report on this one (but better wait until after the winter break).

The research building is also good. If you do similar math as above, research comes out at around 1.7 : 1 compared to energy or minerals.


And finally, if you don't trust my math, think of it in this way: You can either

• build a minerals building and employ 1 artisan
• build a consumer goods building and employ that artisan as a miner

In both cases you end up with 6CG + 4M. However artisans cost more upkeep than miners, you get a crapton of bonuses to miners from tech (but not artisans) and a factory has more upkeep than a mining district.
So is there any reason why you would ever want to choose the first option?