The Thulium Data Archive building is completely useless right now, and has been since it was introduced over a year ago.
- it's an early-game structure
- it requires a resource that isn't terribly abundant, and one which has many other very powerful uses
- it costs an ENORMOUS amount of production, particularly for a early-game structure
- it has quite low benefits, being barely better than the 2nd-tier improvements
Unlike the Durantium Manufacturing Plant, which does have benefits worth the early-game cost, the TDA is so unbalanced that no sane person would ever build one. It's far too expensive to build for something that provides very little benefit. Since it's an early-game building, and tends to be built on worlds concentrating in Research (thus, with lower Manufacturing levels), I find that it can take 20+ turns to get it built. That's way to long for a very mediocre building, and also means that I can get better buildings about the same time it completes.
For comparison, the 2nd tier Research building (Xeno Research Lab) doesn't cost you a valuable Thulium resource, has a BETTER base research bonus (+30% vs +25%), and costs half as much (if you include the cost to buy the 1st tier Research Lab). The TDA's adjacency bonuses give it a MAXIMUM of +25% total research bonus over the XRL, in the best-case-scenario where you can surround the TDA with 6 labs. That's a terrible cost/benefit.
I've played over 400 hours and maybe three dozen full games, and NEVER have found it useful in it's current incarnation.
Personally, I think the TDA should be an early-game version of the 4th-tier, one-per-planet research buff; that is, roughly equivalent to the Terran Research Coordination Center.
I'd vote for one of the following:
- Increase the Research bonus to be +65%
- Decrease the build cost to 75.
- Bump the bonus to +40% and decrease cost to 100
Stardock - take a look at the saved games we've been sending you. How often does the TDA get built? I think you'll find virtually never.
