One advantage of robots and machine pops is not needing to pay consumer goods. One of the disadvantages is the need to spend resources and labour up front to construct the pop.
What I am wondering: what does it look like if we think of this as paying for your consumer goods budget up front?
A robot takes 500 minerals to build. That is the same mineral cost as 500 consumer goods. If the robot is replacing a worker who consumed 0.5 goods per month, you get back into positive mineral balance after 1000 months: 83 years. Or 160 years if replacing a worker with 0.25 consumption.
Labour is a bit better since one roboticist converts 10 minerals vs 6 for an artisan. On the other hand, there are two artisans per building slot, so maybe call that a wash.
83 years is a long time wait for a profit relative to a bio pop. On the other hand, to the extent that robots represent pop growth that you wouldn't otherwise have, it could still be a good investment. How does the upfront cost compare to other techniques for boosting effective pop growth?
For by the wiki (https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Jobs), the situation is a bit different for machines? The wiki has machine drones costing 300 minerals and the labor is in a sense free since the replicator drone also generates as many amenities as a maintenance drone. Of course, there is still that extra build slot and maintenance. Also, at least some machine drones are doing work that in a normal empire would perhaps take a higher consumer goods cut.
On the other hand, for regular machine empires, robot growth is not a bonus, it's their base. They don't have any other options for pop growth: they pay this upfront consumer good equivalent for every pop.
What I am wondering: what does it look like if we think of this as paying for your consumer goods budget up front?
A robot takes 500 minerals to build. That is the same mineral cost as 500 consumer goods. If the robot is replacing a worker who consumed 0.5 goods per month, you get back into positive mineral balance after 1000 months: 83 years. Or 160 years if replacing a worker with 0.25 consumption.
Labour is a bit better since one roboticist converts 10 minerals vs 6 for an artisan. On the other hand, there are two artisans per building slot, so maybe call that a wash.
83 years is a long time wait for a profit relative to a bio pop. On the other hand, to the extent that robots represent pop growth that you wouldn't otherwise have, it could still be a good investment. How does the upfront cost compare to other techniques for boosting effective pop growth?
For by the wiki (https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Jobs), the situation is a bit different for machines? The wiki has machine drones costing 300 minerals and the labor is in a sense free since the replicator drone also generates as many amenities as a maintenance drone. Of course, there is still that extra build slot and maintenance. Also, at least some machine drones are doing work that in a normal empire would perhaps take a higher consumer goods cut.
On the other hand, for regular machine empires, robot growth is not a bonus, it's their base. They don't have any other options for pop growth: they pay this upfront consumer good equivalent for every pop.