The shuttles are worth more the sooner we get them. And I think I remember Ithillid saying that for instance with one of the space station (phase 2) it would be -20 instead of -10. It will have easily paid for itself, if not twice over by the end of plan.
That depends on us actually being able to spend the necessary resources on orbital dice to make use of the shuttles, though; if we don't have the necessary resources, then their bonus is effectively useless. Additionally, I think you, Void, and possibly others are over-valuing the bonus from the shuttles massively. -10 progress requirements is not that big of an amount; we'd need to complete ~5 projects for the bonus to equate a single orbital die's worth of progress. The resource-savings certainly don't compare to the additional income from a SMARV.
Yeah, it will eventually pay for itself, and it's arguably the first space project we should pursue next, but it's going to take a fairly long time for it to even just break even, much less a profit. Which makes it rather non-urgent, in my opinion, when compared to efforts to raise our budget to a point where we can consistent afford to spend the necessary resources to pay for orbital dice.
That's in a vacuum and not accounting for the hidden synergistic bonus abatement, but also not what's being voted on this actual plan. 4 fencing dice upgraded to 4 YZ harvesting dice would cost an additional 20R (and what should I cut to find those exactly?), for a 76% chance of getting an additional 5-10R one turn earlier than if we put those extra 4 dice on YZ harvesting next turn instead. Spending 20R to get a max of 10 a turn early is a net -10 if pure monetary efficiency is what you're worried about.
We're probably NOT going to put those 4 dice into YZ harvesting next turn though, because YZ harvesting is terrible at making money and those same 4 dice would be better put into Red Zone mining or glaciers if we want money. Point efficiency is not the problem in Tiberium that's the entire reason to put 10 dice into the sector with a massive bonus, we're swimming in points, resource efficiency is what matters.
I already listed a number of projects that I consider non-essential/non-urgent, and suggested could be dropped in order to free up the necessary resources to spend on alternative abatement options such as YZ harvesting/RZ containment/SMARVs in a previous post; you only need to go back and read it.
And yes, resource efficiency is important, which is exactly why continuing efforts to increase our income this early in the 4-year plan should still be a major priority, and in my opinion well-worth making short-term sacrifices for if it means putting us in a much stronger position long-term. Doubly so if you can have your cake and eat it, too - meaning, getting abatement AND an income boost, rather than JUST abatement.
