Unit Design - "!" means what, exactly?

[Serenity42]

It's vexing that after years of playing this game I still have to ask a question this daft. In the unit design system (one of the greatest features ever incorporated into a game, by the by), occasionally a heavy-duty cutting-edge unit will have its unit or prototype costs - sometimes both - in red with an exclamation mark. What exactly is that trying to tell me? Merely that it's expensive?

 

[Petek]

I also noticed this phenomenon and just assumed it was related to high costs. After seeing your question, I played around with various units in the Workshop (and using the Scenario Editor to "discover" advanced techs).

What I found was that the red text and exclamation marks seem to point out that you are designing a units with too many advanced features. As pointed out in the CUSTOM UNITS section of the manual, the cost factors are not additive.

For example, I designed the folowing unit:

Speeder Chassis
Fusion Laser Weapon (10)
Synthmetal Armor (2)

The workshop showed:

Cost 120!
Prototype Cost 180!

Then I designed another unit:

Infantry Chassis
Fusion Laser Weapon (10)
Antimatter Plate Armor (10)

Now the workshop showed, with no color or exclams:

Cost 160
Prototype Cost 240

So, even though the second unit cost more it wasn't highlighted. My guess is that you only get the highlighting when you design units with advanced chassis, armor and weapon. I didn't experiment with reactors or special abilities, though.

Interesting question!

Petek

 

[Shylock]

I think it means potion.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

I beleive it mans you can create a superior design for less cost. This is often in relation to armour or reactors, where increasing the reactor results in a decrease in cost, or another, higher value armour is available for the same cost.

 

[vyeh]

Look at Petek's post #2 above. The datalinks specifically says that units that are strong in weapons, armor and chassis are expensive.

It would be more accurate to say that the '!' means you can create an INFERIOR design that is more cost-effective.

Petek was careful to test his theory in the Scenario Editor and share the data.