Cost
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| Flag: | Cost |
| File(s): | rules(md).ini |
| Values: | Signed integers: All whole numbers from -2147483648 to 2147483647; in rare cases, only from -32768 to 32767. |
| Default: | 0 |
| Applicable to: | All Types |
This flag sets the base amount of credits needed to purchase this object, before any multipliers are applied (such as Country bonuses or the Industrial Plant). The final cost (after any multipliers have been applied) is the amount of credits that will be deducted from the constructing player during the course of construction (when the unit is, say, 10% constructed, 10% of the final cost will have been deducted from the player. When the unit is 50% constructed, 50% of the final cost will have been deducted, and so on).
Cost also determines the default value of the Soylent= flag, as Soylent defaults to half the Cost= (Soylent is the amount of credits refunded when the unit or building is sold or sent to a building with Grinding=yes set.)
Cost also determines, in part, the amount of time the object will take to construct. BuildSpeed determines the time, in minutes, to construct 1000 credits' worth of an object. So an object with a Cost= of 2000 credits will take ( 2 * BuildSpeed= ) minutes to construct. Any multipliers to cost have no effect on construction time - construction time is always determined by the base Cost= of an object.
Cost also plays a part in determining the order objects' build icons will appear in the sidebar. If there are two or more objects of the same TechLevel, the cheaper one(s) will appear earlier on the sidebar.
It is possible to set Cost to a negative value, so the player receives credits during the building process. Setting negative values to multiplayer start units has strange effects, because the game converts the values to 0 and the player will have an incredible amount of starting units.