The Problem
When a the quantity of a consumable resource (anaeroebes, medicine, organics or oil) in the refinery becomes too small to deliver a bonus, the consumption on that consumable is halted, and the bonus is cancelled. It remains this way until there are enough resources to deliver the bonus, and then resumes full consumtion on that resource.
This causes a couple of minor issues.
Firstly, the quantity of any consumable doesn't often hit zero, nor will it show any kind of consistency. It will climb a little then fall again, in accordance with the fluctuating demands of the colony.
Secondly, the morale and population rates as listed in both the biodome and the radio receiver screens will fluctuate just as randomly. Both values will indicate either a massive increase or a massive decrease, and cannot be relied on to indicate what the colony is actually doing.
The Solution
The obvious answer is to give a consistent average of bonuses instead of all of the bonus sometimes and none of it others. However there are several intricacies which need to be examined first.
The first relates to the quantity of resource in the refinery. If the harvest rates for a resource exceed the consumtion rate for it, there will always be a full bonus. Or if there is any non-zero quantity in the refiney, there will always be a full bonus. If there is exactly zero in the refinery and consumption rate exceeds harvest rate, the quantity will remain at zero and the fraction of harvest/consumption will be used to determine bonuses instead.
The second relates to the size of the bonus. Under the current system, having a supply of two resources will yield three times as big a bonus as having only one such resource. Thus the bonuses cannot simply be added together, as that would result in a change in the mechanic, which is not the purpose here.
An effective averaging formula is propsed:
time_fraction_with_both = (harvest_rate_1 / consumption_rate) * (harvest_rate_2 / consumption_rate)
time_fraction_with_neither = (1 - harvest_rate_1 / consumption_rate) * (1 - harvest_rate_2 / consumption_rate)
time_fraction_with_only_one = 1 - time_fraction_with_both - time_fraction_with_neither
total_bonus = const_bonus_for_one * time_fraction_with_only_one + const_bonus_for_both * time_fraction_with_both
The Result
-Change rates listed in the biodome and radio reciver screens will be a meaningful indication of what the colony is doing.
-The colony population and morale will not have such rapid rises and falls all over the place, instead will smoothly change to the appropriate level.
This simulation is of an oceanic planet with 5% tax, 45% harvest, owner charsima 5, no disasters, no researches, fully built. The population begins at 11,000 and morale begins at 1400. There are no resources in the refinery at time = 0. The planet is simulated over a 250 hour time interval.
The same planet as above, only this shows the growth rate as given in the biodome window. The time scale has been reduced to 20 hrs through to 25 hrs for clarity.
