Bioharvest DEAs
Population Requirement: Medium (0.66)
Cost Basis: Low (50)

This DEA produces Food and AUs from rare bioharvest byproducts and excess food production. Best terrain Plains for most species.

Bioharvest DEAs produce food, the AU’s from using that food, and AUs from rare byproducts.

BIOHARVEST OUTPUT

The formula for determining the bioharvest output of a bioharvest DEA is as follows:

(Base efficiency + Base efficiency mods ) * Efficiency mods * DEA Capacity

BASE EFFICIENCY

This is the basic bioharvest output of the bioharvest DEA before any mods affect it. You can think of this as the starting productivity of the DEA. The base efficiency of a bioharvest DEA depends on which region it is placed (only mining and bioharvest DEAs are so effected) and is as follows:

First, bioharvest base efficiency is affected by the fertility and terrain of the region it is placed in.

Fertility: Fertility is a measure of how favorable the region is for supporting life compatible to a particular species. Fertility affects the base efficiency of a bioharvest DEA placed in and the maximum population growth rate of that region. 

¹Ecosystem Density is the measure of the biomass of the region. It has a range from very dense (dense tropical forest) to very sparse (desert). And is shown by the color of the maple leaf on each region of the planetary infrastructure display. The ecosystem density of a region doesn’t change with respect to species (I.e. it is the same no matter who is looking at the planet). The region with the best ecosystem density has the best fertility. Also, if a region has a grass-green maple leaf (very dense ecosystem density) it has the best fertility allowed for a planet of that habitability ring.

A quick rational for regions having the same fertility but different habitability/ecosystem density levels. A Green 2 planet with Very sparse region is able to support about the same amount of compatible life as a Red 2 planet with very dense region hence they both have the same fertility (hostile). The second planet region can support more total biomass but only a small percentage of that biomass would be compatible.

²Habitability ring is determined by the location of the planet on the habitability display (temperature and atmospheric density) and the distance of that planet to the ideal habitability of a particular species.

Each horizontal row represents a planet habitability ring with the full range of fertility allowed for that habitability ring. Ecosystem density is the only factor that gives a variance to the fertility of the regions on a planet in a particular habitability ring.

If a planet is terraformed one level, all regions will improve one fertility level (except some toxic regions – I don’t distinguish between toxic levels of a region; if exposure to a region that is toxic harms in 5 minutes or 60 minutes, it matters very little as in either case you’re hurt )

If a region is regionally terraformed one level (one ecological infrastructure building added improving the ecosystem density of that region one level) its fertility will also improve one level (again, except some toxic regions).

Biodiversity: Now, lets talk about biodiversity. Biodiversity is kind of the bioharvest counterpart of mineral richness. But you tend to find higher biodiversity with older solar systems (the opposite of mineral richness) Biodiversity has two effects in the game. 1) Affects starting ecosystem density of the planet. Each region has the same chance of starting with any ecosystem density on a planet with a biodiversity of Heterogeneous. Higher biodiversity increases the chance of each region starting with a higher ecosystem density. 2) Affects the amount of AUs generated by rare byproducts from bioharvest DEAs on that planet.

OK, now that I have given you a glimmer of how planet development works (I’ll explain more when I cover solar system creation), here’s bioharvest base efficiency:

Note: Remember, this is base bioharvest efficiency. Having a "0" only means that building a bioharvest DEA on that region needs a building or achievement to raise the bioharvest efficiency above zero.

A bioharvest DEA placed in a region with plains terrain and alluvial fertility (the first region on all homeworld planets) would have a base efficiency of 10 for most species except for cybernetik (8) or geodic (6). That bioharvest DEA would produce 10,8,or 6 bioharvest (depending on which species occupies that region) if no other mods affected it.

BASE EFFICIENCY MODS

are mods that directly affect the base efficiency of the DEA and are added to the base efficiency before any other mods take effect. They consist of:

(species mods + race picks + bioharvest DEA buildings + bioharvest DEA planetary builds + bioharvest achievements)

Below is a table for the rest of the mods organized by increasing techs. The numbers in () represent the mod to base bioharvest efficiency. Don’t be fooled by the small numbers. These mods can have a MUCH greater impact on the final output of the farm because they are factored in FIRST before any other mods. A +1 could give a net boost of 25 to bioharvest output late in the game.

Any secondary tech requirement is shown as “(+tech lvl)”. That secondary tech lvl, if present, must also be satisfied before you can develop that tech.

* the cost is multiplied by the square root of the number of regions on the planet. Therefore the multiplier has a range of 1-3.46. Weigh the benefit/cost before building one of these planetary buildings because the cost is the same regardless of the number of bioharvest DEAs present on the planet (I.e. don’t build one if there are no bioharvest DEAs on the planet).

Note: both bioharvest achievements (Biomorphic Fungi and Mineralmorphic Bacteria) do more than just add to the base efficiency of bioharvest DEAs. They also expand the range of habitability rings that will allow bioharvest DEAs to be built. Normally, you can’t build a bioharvest DEA on a planet with a Yellow 2, Red 1or Red 2 habitability ring. But one or both achievements will reduce or eliminate this restriction.

EFFICIENCY MODS

are covered above under General DEA Data

DEA CAPACITY

is from the DEA (always one) and any capacity buildings present AND any FLUs present( I forgot to include FLUs in mining capacity – it is the same as presented here). All Capacity buildings require additional population to run and represent the “extensiveness” of the DEA facilities. These buildings generally give a greater boost to bioharvest production than efficiency buildings but cost more to build/maintain and require population to run.

If you have all 4 capacity buildings present in a bioharvest DEA the total capacity would be 6 and the pop requirements to run at 100% would be 3.35 pop. Up to 6 organic FLUs could also employed.

Organic FLUs – the capacity of DEAs can also be increased by employing organic FLUs. For each full integer capacity a DEA has one FLU can be employed (I.e. a DEA with a capacity of 6 could employ a maximum of 6 organic FLUs). The benefit to the DEA employing FLUs depends on the number employed and the FLU Oppressometer setting. Each organtic FLU employed at a DEA increases the capacity of said DEA by 0.1 times the Oppressometer setting (0-10) giving a net benefit of 0.0 – 1.0 capacity increase for each FLU employed. Theoretically, assuming maximum FLUs employed and maximum oppressometerare setting, organic FLUs could double the capacity (and hence the production) of most DEAs.

Robotic FLUs – I will talk about this later.

Regional bioharvest buildings:

There two buildings that produce bioharvest (but no rare bioharvest) at the regional level without the need for a bioharvest DEA in that region. They are:

These buildings allow planets to produce a nominal amount of bioharvest without needing to devote a DEA slot to bioharvesting. This benefit is significant on planets that are unable to place bioharvest DEAs because of poor habitability. A little food is a LOT better than no food when it comes to starvation.

AUs FROM BIOHARVEST PRODUCED

he amount of money earned from the usage of bioharvest depends on how they are used.

Consumed as food – 20 AUs/bioharvest
Consumed by Industrial DEAs to create Industry – 10 AUs/bioharvest
Any excess sold off – 5 AUs/bioharvest – this is multiplied by (100% - the unemployment rate) to simulate supply and demand for the excess minerals.

Note that the prices for bioharvest are lower than minerals. I did this for two reasons. 1) Most species consume bioharvset as food (getting the better price). 2) Regional fertility can be improved by techs, allowing the eventual possibility for all regions to be terraformed to the best fertility (lush). Mining has no such benefit.

Below is the money earned by a bioharvest DEA producing only the bioharvest from its base efficiency (all other mods having no effect in this example) and having ALL of the bioharvest produced consumed by Industrial DEAs on the same or shipped any other planet.

DOUBLE these numbers if all the minerals are consumed as food and HALF them if all are sold off as excess.

AUs FROM RARE BIOHARVEST BYPRODUCTS

This represents any exotic/rare compounds from life forms found during the bioharvesting process and gives a bonus to AU’s produced by the farm without affecting its normal output.

The formula is:

AUs = Bioharvest produced * biodiversity factor * 2.5 * race pick

This formula is illustrated below assuming a bioharvest DEA with only it’s base efficiency:

Times biodivestity factor

times

tuning variable of 2.5* race pick

gives a result of

Note: the table above lists the AUs from rare bioharvest for each biodiversity level and each terrain preference (favorable, neutral, unfavorable) of the species.

The ratio of (AUs produced from using bioharvest : AUs from rare byproducts) is determined by the biodiversity of the planet. As you can see the bonus from rare bioharvest is trivial for Very Sparse planets but is very significant for planets that are Very Dense (being equal to the AU’s earned from consuming all the bioharvest as food – the max price for bioharvest).

The main purpose of the rare bioharvest bonus (and a similar bonus to mining) is to give an incentive to place bioharvesting or mining DEAs on planets with very good regions for these DEAs regardless of the need for the bioharvest or minerals they produce. As the game progresses the need for bioharvest and mineral DEAs will diminish and I don’t want these DEAs to become rather useless like farmers did late game in MOO2. This rare bonus will allow bioharvest DEAs to be viable choices for planets with good biodiversity even late in the game and especially desirable when the need for bioharvest is significant.