⚠️ work in progress ⚠️
Abundance can be found in 3 buildings in Sim Companies. The Quarry, Mine, and Oil Rig are these buildings. This quick review will be going over the aspect of Abundance and why it is important to "prospect" for a high abundance.
What is Abundance?
Abundance is the value assigned to Mines, Oil Rigs, and Quarries when prospecting a new building.
The higher the abundance the lower the unit cost will be for the resource being produced.
For this example we'll be using Minerals. They can be found in a Mine.
Minerals require 20 * Power and 1 * Water to produce. These inputs never change (except for their unit costs).
You can manually change the Abundance values in the Encyclopedia:
Abundance changes, and it is important to understand the relationship between abundance and your unit costs. Note: Abundance does decay daily by 0.032% or ~1% a month.
The following images will show an increase in abundance from 70%, 80%, 90%, and 100%. Notice the relationship between Quantity, Unit Worker Costs, and Unit Admin Costs. Each has assumed 0% Production Speed Bonus and 10% Administration Overhead.
(don't mind my terrible cropping skills)
Here is a more condensed breakdown:
Comparing 100% abundance to 70% abundance we can see that 100% produces an extra 889.2 units a day and is $1.05 cheaper in unit cost.
(Remember to add in your Power and Water inputs to your unit costs. Unsure how to do that? Here's a guide to using the Encyclopedia)
This is why in chat we suggest players keep any abundance 95%+. Not only do the buildings last longer; they also save you a lot of money. Note: the 95%+ is when prospecting for abundance (scrapping and rebuilding). It does not mean you should scrap your building once it reaches 95% after you found 95%+. An abundance of 95% can last 10 months (real time). It will decay over time but you will get your Return on Investment and more when letting it decay down to 85%.
If you are new and found a semi-high abundance; i.e. 90%, you can keep that building and only upgrade it to level 2 (scrapping gets full materials back). You can make some money while you prospect with other buildings. When prospecting building slots do not matter. Each rebuild will give you a new abundance %. See FAQ (frequently asked questions) for: How is the resource abundance for mines, rigs, and quarries assigned?
This chart shows the drop in both abundance and quantity while the wages (unit worker cost + unit admin cost) increase (level 1 oil rig).
This chart shows the drop in both abundance and quantity while the wages (unit worker cost + unit admin cost) increase (level 1 mine).
This is a link to an older article that does not cover Quarries. But, the concept is still the same.
The Art of Prospecting