Let Penny increase serum production or Delay Penny's Increase ???
Code:
<<SetFlag $penny "increaseOutput">>\
<<set $serum[1].yield++, $serum[2].yield++, $serum[3].yield++>>\
<<set $serum[1].yield *= 2, $serum[2].yield *= 2, $serum[3].yield *= 2>>\
@@.data;MCS serum yields have greatly increased!@@
According to this coding, the batch size is increased by 1 and then multiplied by 2.
Since the player starts with the lowest batch size of 1 and lab upgrades in the beginning are more important and easier available than the batch size upgrades which cost $5000 upwards, the effect at the start of the game is minimal compared to the case where the upgrade is delayed. Since the upgrade costs seem to double with every level, the timing of Penny's upgrade will decide how far the batch size can go :
Example :
1 : (1+1) x 2 = 4 -> 0+16 upgrades to 20
2 : (2+1) x 2 = 6
...
5 : (5+1) x 2 = 12 -> 4+8 upgrades to 20
...
9 : (9+1) x 2 = 20 -> 8+0 upgrades to 20
Imagine you want to reach a batch size of 20 and you do Penny's upgrade right at start, then your batch size of 1 is upgraded to 4 and you need another 16 costly upgrades until you reach 20.
If you delay Penny for 8 costly upgrades until you have reached a batch size of 9, then Penny will push you to 20 directly.
The difference in costs is enormous ...
The early upgrade from 1 to 4 quadrupels the output, but the costs for 16 upgrades until batch size 20 are 257 times higher compared to the case when the batchsize is first upgraded to 9 and then pushed to 20 by Penny.
Upgrade costs :
Code:
increase yield to @@.gain;<<print $serum[1].yield+1>>@@" "Lab-UpgradeLab">>
<<set $serum[1].yield += $SerumYieldIncrease>>
<<set $Money -= $serum[1].yieldIncreaseCost>>
<<set $serum[1].yieldIncreaseCost *= 2>>
MCS-1 starts with $5000, MCS-2 with $10000.
The multiplier is doubled each round, so the sequence is n -> 2^(n-1) ... (and the sum for all n values is 2^n - 1) :
Doing 8 upgrades costs 255 times the base costs while doing 16 upgrades costs 65,535 times the base costs.
For MCS-2 :
08 : $002,550,000
16 : $655,350,000
Edit :
The example with batch size 20 is extreme.
In a normal play I guess players will mostly do less than or up to 6 upgrades which costs up to 63 times the base costs. The result varies between batchsize 10 for early Penny and batchsize 16 for late Penny.
1 : (1+1) x 2 = 4 -> +6 -> 10
2 : (2+1) x 2 = 6 -> +5 -> 11
...
7 : (7+1) x 2 = 16
The difference between early and late Penny upgrade could be simply avoided if Penny would simply double the existing batch size and would upgrade the batchsize-increment to 2.
