Terraforming Mars: Production Valuations

Production Issues

Producing resources in Terraforming Mars occurs at the beginning of every generation after the first. Two complications arise when calculating Production in Terraforming Mars.

First, the longer a game of Terraforming Mars runs, the more of a resource will be generated through production. Since the average game was calculated, the best thing is to standardize on an 'average' game. So, 10 generations (turns) is the number to use in calculating production for comparison purposes. As more players enter the game, the number of turns will decrease, but 10 provides a common baseline for most 2-4 player games.

Second, total output will differ based on when the production begins. Started at the beginning of a game, Production will generate the greatest returns. If Production is started on the last turn, it provides no benefit (plant's excepted).

Minimum Production

For evaluative purposes, Awards and Milestones will be ignored. This makes the minimum Production for all resources 0mc, except plants. Plants may be spent to boost final scores at End Game (if they total 8). Thus, plants will have one extra generation of production if produced on the last turn of the game.

Maximum Production

For all resources, except plants and Electricity, the maximum production is 9 turns of production. Thus, generating 1mc per turn will yield 9mc in total. Remember, production on Turn 1 is impossible as no production will occur until the start of Turn 2.

Plants receive a maximum of 10 turns of production since they may be used the turn after the game ends in an end game condition style mechanism (described in Minimum Production above). During this last turn, a plant can only be spent for 1VP since there is no oxygen. Both of these have minor impact on plant calculations, but they are factored into the table below.

Electricity takes an extra turn before become usable heat.

Electricity Production has an additional built-in delay of 1 turn. This is because electrictity becomes Heat on the turn after it is generated. Thus, an Electricity production on Turn 1 will become Heat on Turn 3. This delay means electricity production has only 8 turns of useful maximum production.

Average Production

For most resources, average production occurs for roughly 4.5 turns (9/2). Plants will undergo 5 turns of production (10/2), while electricity will experience 4 turns of production before becoming heat.

Value of Production

The value of production is calculated for Maximum and Average production. Minimum production is always 0, so it isn't worth noting. Multiplying out the production, and assuming every resource is efficiently spent on generating VP (e.g. every amount generates a VP), the following values are calculated for each Resource Production:

	Actual		Normalized
Production	Max	Average	Max	Average	Return
Money	9	4.5	9	4.5	1
Electricity	11	5.5	13	6.5	1.181818
Heat	15.75	7.875	14.625	7.3125	0.928571
Iron	18	9	18	9	1
Plant	28.75	14.375	16.25	8.125	0.565217
Plant-oxy	28.75	15.8125	30.875	16.25	1.073913
Titanium	27	13.5	27	13.5	1

Actual and Normalized Resource production values

Summary

The Return of all Production values didn't change, except for Plants which generate oxygen. This dropped slightly from 1.13 to 1.07. This is due to the last turn of production being worth just slightly less. Still, it remains above 1, which indicates it is still a good option.

When looking at Totals output, Plant production is always the best purchase by a long shot, especially when Normalized to VP values. Titanium and Iron make a second and third "best" investment, but this is only if the Titanium and Iron can be converted directly into VP.

With Production values and resource values determined, it is now time to begin evaluating the "worth" of elements in the game.