Rubber red science balance

[BlueTemplar]

Split from the PyAL thread :
viewtopic.php?p=538268#p538268

[...]

Here's another one that looks questionable :
Starting rubber stopper recipe vs rubber tech - unlocked rubber stopper recipe :
Screenshot from 2021-02-16 17-18-16.png
Screenshot from 2021-02-16 17-19-09.png

[...]

Here's another one that looks questionable :
Starting rubber stopper recipe vs rubber tech - unlocked rubber stopper recipe :
Screenshot from 2021-02-16 17-18-16.png
Screenshot from 2021-02-16 17-19-09.png

later on the rubber to spoper recip will be better but early on it is not great

In which situation would you prefer to have 1.25 coal rather than 0.25 Titanium, 50 Aromatics, 50 Tar/CrudeOil ? (and ~6 MJ, but this might change)

Unless you're talking about green science and better rubber recipes, but then why put the (not-)'better' rubber stopper recipe in the same red science tech that unlocks the first rubber recipe ?

So, this is the current red science rubber recipe, unlocked by Rubber tech :

Screenshot from 2021-02-17 12-27-07.png (182.59 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

As already mentioned, the optional rubber stopper recipe unlocked by Rubber doesn't seem to be worth it during red science :



But neither seems to be worth it the optional yellow belt recipe, unlocked by Rubber tech too :

Screenshot from 2021-02-17 12-30-28.png (57.74 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

Screenshot from 2021-02-17 12-32-00.png (233.71 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

As for the optional engine unit recipe, unlocked by Rubber tech too, it gets the double whammy of the inefficient red science rubber recipe *and* the inefficient red science duralumin recipe !

Screenshot from 2021-02-17 12-35-57.png (58.38 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

Screenshot from 2021-02-17 12-36-43.png (241.35 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

[immortal_sniper1]

well later on the rubber will become much cheeper and the rubber recipes will make more sense , regarding the duraluminium and plates you shouls also do the math useing molten metlas

[BlueTemplar]

The issue is that, while the optional stopper / transport belt / engine recipes are available at mid/late-red science, the better (?) rubber recipes which might (?) make them worth it are only available *quite* a bit (as you say) *later* :
- the "next" one is at coal processing 2 (60 green science total),
- the one "after that" is at oil industry machinery 2 (200 green science total).

And molten duralumin is even deeper into green science.

Remember how complex green science is to set up in PyAL ?

That's a looong time to sit on those "alternative" recipes (and therefore high chances for a player to set them up by mistake).

I would therefore recommend to :
- Move these new stopper / transport belt / engine recipes to a new cheap green science tech ( "Rubber 2" ?).
- Maybe make Rubber ("1" ?) tech cheaper to "compensate" ?