Although the normal assumption in this game is that the number of workers which are expected to reach saturation point is twenty four (24), and that gold is better or preferred to blue minerals, you have to understand the fact that it is not easy. If you are going to take the option of gold or blue expansion, there are variables which will have to be taken into consideration.
Saturation Points and Collection Rates
There was a test which was carried out on different workers on gold as well as mineral lines. It was meant to check or ascertain their rates of collection and was actually carried out on Metalopolis but its results were expected to be similar with each Blizzard map. The methodology for the testing was actually quite easy which was centred on having workers built, having the amount of minerals recorded, gathering of everything all at once, having minerals (ending amount) recorded after 5 minutes intervals, having beginning amount subtracted from ending amount and then having your final computation or analysis being divided by five (5). The above chat was produced using this analysis. There was a test carried to determine the speed which seems to be the fastest amongst others.
The above figures (1 and 2) have clearly demonstrated the illustration. You can see that blue minerals tend to get to the point of saturation at twenty four (24). On the other hand, gold minerals can only get to about eighteen (18) as their point of saturation. Gold mineral lines have a total of about six (6) patches which is against the eight (8). Eighteen tends to make plenty of sense since you have about 3 saturation for each mineral patch.
Having to increase or add more workers can be very beneficial in lots of sense. However, you have to note that there are upfront costs which may not worth your time. For example when two (2) additional workers are brought into the scene in the case of blue mineral, the total will become about twenty six (26) but your income may likely increase by only about nine minerals per minute. It implies that for the workers to pay off, it will take a total of twenty – two (22) minutes.
If the various collection rates are properly or closely observed, you will notice there is actually much difference amongst them. The collection rate for gold mineral when workers are eighteen in total is about 4.77% more than what you have in the case of the blue minerals having twenty – four (24) workers. In such a case, having to increase it in a cost effective way will be possible.
In a nutshell, the rate of income for gold mineral field is higher than that of the blue mineral field by about 4.77%. However, such doesn’t mean gold mineral fields can’t actually boost your income field as they can. This will strongly depend on your adopted method of having them saturated.
As demonstrated in both figures above, it can be observed that the workers are the same in terms of numbers, the gold field will have a huge advantage over blue field. One thing to also consider is the fact that it tends to be cheaper getting access to a gold mineral line as compared to what you will incur in the case of blue mineral. In the case of gold line, you may likely spend about $300 when having to start from scratch.
The best part of all is the fact that the saturation process will help you earn more in terms of income rate. If it is going to be saturated through the transfer of workers then there is an additional 4.77% as explained above. You will have extra six (6) workers that you can make use of in other ways. If your major priority is all about minerals then there will not be any expansion that you can assign them to. In such a case, they will not have much value to you.