Why CF banking PAWNS pop banking everytime:
Part 1: General calculations as an example:
Cash Factory:
Produces 8 GC / tick
Investments: 120 GC, 10 iron and 1 endurium
LQ supports 500 pop which equals 16.67 GC / tick. You need 50 food to support this
Investments: 200 GC, 50 iron and 1 endurium
Hydro Farm: Produces 100 Food (i take these into account because you are most likely to fund yur attacker for it )
Investment: 160 GC, 3 iron and 1 endurium
Suppose you built 2 LQ and 1 HF
Investment: 560 GC, 53 iron and 3 endu
This yields in 33.67 GC / tick bruto
Substracting upkeep, this yields in 30.67 GC / tick
Suppose you built 4 CF
Investment 480 GC, 40 iron and 4 endu
This yields in 32 GC / tick bruto
Substracting upkeep, this yields in 28 GC / tick
To compare we need to normalise, lets see how much you have invested to increase your income with 10 GC net
For LQ you invested: 182.5 GC, 17.3 iron and 0.98 endu
For CF you invested: 171,4 GC, 14.3 iron and 1.42 endu
So for the same income increase you need to invest more with LQ. Furthermore, cf finish 5 ticks faster, so you can enjoy your profit even earlier
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Part 2: 4 options calculated
calculations along the same line of reasoning as above:
Investments needed to increase income with 100 GC (lower is better)
option 1: ratio of 6 LQ: 2 TO and 3 HF placed at attacker: 1496 GC, 136 iron, 7.9 endu
option 2: ratio of 2 LQ and 1 HF placed at attacker: 1846 GC, 174 iron, 9.8 endu
option 3: just CF: 1714 GC, 142 iron, 14.2 endu
option 4: ratio 3 CF and 1 TO: 1750 GC, 140 iron, 12.5 endu
So the combination LQ/ TO with farmer is most productive followed by just cf, but here comes the time lag into play. CF finish after 5 ticks and LQ after 10 ticks. TO make it more comparable lets assume a market price of 20 GC for 1 iron and 20 GC for 1 endu.
This means:
option 1: you need to invest 4374 GC to increase your income 100 GC
option 3: you need to invest 4857 GC to increase your income 100 GC
As option 3 finishes 5 ticks early, the opportunity cost of building LQ is 5 times 100 GC = 500 GC, making your LQ investments effectively cost 4374 + 500 = 4874 GC. Conslusion: Due to the timelag, investment for LQ and CF are the same for the same income increase at a market price of 20 GC per resource. Higher market prices for resources favour POP banking. But since we are producing resources in the fam, we can assume lower resource prices favouring cf banking imho.
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Part 3: Research
Now lets incorporate reasearch. It is commonly accepted to have an cf: rc ratio of 3:1
investment per 100 GC income increase
ratio 3 cf and 1 RC: 2300 GC, 150 iron, 20 endu
considering a 20 exchange rate on the market you need to invest 5700 GC to increase your income 100 GC and increase your research points 100 / tick
For pop bankers it is generally accepted to fund research. Else the TO bonus gets messed up. Meaning you have to increase your income 200 GC compared to previous example. 100 GC income and 100 GC into research. Investments for this considering a 20 GC market price is 8748 GC.
Comparing, for the same increase in research (100 points / tick) and income (100GC) you need to invest 3K GC more when pop banking.
The only advantage for pop banking is NW. For an 100 GC income and 100RP / tick increase pop banking needs 15.8 NW (spread over Banker and attacker in a 8 : 3 ratio) and cf banking needs 20 NW (just at banker). This means with cf banking you can have a very small food resourcer -> thus lower NW for that attacker resulting in more targets....
~Attacking is a Skill~
~Defending is an Art~