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I've been having a look at the tech tree and thinking that there are areas which really could do with a bit of a rethink.

Here's one example: I think Synthetic Fuel either needs to be less efficient in making fuel or should require Metal or some other input for production, or Methane Extraction should come earlier in the tech tree. As it is, they're both revealed in the same tier and branch, give the same output but Methane Extraction is more expensive to build (esp. needing Hi-Tech) and also requires Water as input. Assuming the planet can support it, why would anybody ever pick this weaker tech over Synthetic Fuel? It's completely redundant, unless I'm missing something.

The output was recently changed to scale up with the amount of methane in the atmosphere.

Methane can have massive production bonus depending on the world. Also water as input is not an issue to me, I even used it in planets without surface water. It's both cheap and abundant. I find the economic tech tree a bit underwhelming with mixed in really powerful technologies and filler ones but I haven't noticed major issues with fuel production as of now.

Soar_Slitherine wrote: Fri May 19, 2023 12:03 pm The output was recently changed to scale up with the amount of methane in the atmosphere.

Ok, I'd be interested to see the ranges it can generate. And I still think that Synthetic Fuel is too effective: I think it either needs to be in a higher tier of technology or have a reduced output (or better, require more input like metals or rares) because it pretty much invalidates the other methods of fuel production as soon as you hit it.

Adding a Metal/Rare input component would make it an interesting choice on planets where you have a lot of metal but no natural fuel, where on planets scarce with both, then either Methane or using the other techs like the fracking/deep core extraction. As it is, it's a no-brainer choice and I feel Shadow Empire needs to avoid no-brainer choices.

I have a planet where methane production is scaled up by 600%. T1 methane produces like 1k+ oil and now a single t3 methane produced enough fuel to supply my entire nation. I think the deep core mining one also scales depends on the planet. They are all in the planet overview in report page. The design idea is that methane and deep core are situational depends on the planet environment while synthetic fuel is the same production in all scenarios IMO.

Wait, what *is* even Synthetic Fuel, and how is it different from Methane Synthesis (story-wise), since I'm pretty sure that IRL Synthetic Fuel *is* made from methane ? (Or biomass/coal, but we already have biofuel refineries and oil drilling as the in-game equivalents for those.)

If Synthetic Fuel is the energy hungry asset, then it maybe should have an efficiency depending on carbon-containing non-hydrocarbons like CO/CO2/? in the atmosphere ?

It would also be nice to see (typically cold) planets with hydrocarbons replacing water (think Titan), where assets like Wind Traps and Water Purification and Rain and River/Lake/Sea collection and Ice Mines built on "glacier/snow" produce oil, and xenofarms consume it ?

Laodie666 wrote: Sun May 21, 2023 8:34 pm I have a planet where methane production is scaled up by 600%. T1 methane produces like 1k+ oil and now a single t3 methane produced enough fuel to supply my entire nation. I think the deep core mining one also scales depends on the planet. They are all in the planet overview in report page. The design idea is that methane and deep core are situational depends on the planet environment while synthetic fuel is the same production in all scenarios IMO.

Ah ok, I didn't realise the other techs could produce drastically better output. If that is the case with Deep Core Mining too, then that makes me feel a lot better about its placement in the tech-tree.