Perhaps I did not communicate my point clearly

autodesign/autoupgrade NEVER uses strategic mods

autodesign/autoupgrade ALWAYS suggests the "best" "white" engine available

that's eithet T0, T1 or T5ish.

autodesign/autoupgrade currently IGNORES existence of salvaged rampascoop.

my proposal:

put rampascoop at least over T1, probably also over T5, because it is still better, yes we get it, balancing team was asleep again.

Sublustris wrote:

No, because there is a use for Ramscoop engines even after unlocking antimatter engine, if you stack them. Because it has special effect it whould be wrong to mark it obsolete after reaching t2+ engines.

You saying NO to making it better than T1, because it is actually even better than antimatter does not make sense to me.

Strategic modules aren't part of autoupgrade path not just because they require strategic resources, but because they apply secondary special effects, that might be useful even when main stat (movement distance for engines) is lower then in higher tier module counterpart. Ramscoop have special effect, so it still can be usefull even when you have engines with higher base speed.

Let's say we do it your way, and make it as an autoupgrade from Basic Warp Drive, that later will be upgraded to Accelerated Warp Drive.

I'll consider two cases for 4ms (movement speed) Horatio scout.

Case a): Scout with one engine.

And autoupgrade it as we unlock better engines:

1. String Gravitics Engine will yield 6ms ship

2. Upgrade to Basic Warp Drive will lead to 7ms ship

3. Upgrade to Scavanged Ramscoop will lead to 7ms ship that travels to 8.75 distance

4. Upgrade to Accelerated Warp Drive will lead to 9ms ship

Everything seems fine and in line with your proposal.

Now consider case b): Scout with two engine modules.

1. Two String Gravitics Engines will yield 8ms ship

2. Upgrade to two Basic Warp Drives will lead to 10ms ship

3. Upgrade to two Scavanged Ramscoops will lead to 10ms ship that travels to 15 distance

4. Upgrade to two Accelerated Warp Drives will lead to 14 ms ship

As you can see, in last case with just nerfed the distance scout can travel with last autoupgrade. Even one Scavanged Ramscoop + one Accelerated Warp Drive whould be better, because we would have 12ms ship traveling to 15 distance.

My argument is that module should be autoupgraded only if ending result is always better, no matter the resource production cost. As such, existing modules that are presently part of autoupgrade logic follow this rule. Scavanged Ramscoop falls out of the line.

I've never had the habit of using the auto upgrade/design. I probably should though.

Not that its a better choice - its not - but the Probe Microfactories do *mathematically* become useful once you slot 3 probes (2 Hyperium; 1 Microfactory). That's pretty fringe though, especially when compared to the broad and lasting usefullness of the Salvaged Ramscoop. The developers should have included a probe within the Probe Microfactory.

it's handy when you tier up, simply replaces all clearly obsolete modules.
Yeah pretty fringe given, plenty of scouts only come with 2 slots for that.