*Engage flashback mode*
Could you two debate it for me please?
Sure thing!
I'm going to start by taking this:
Well, maybe. Again, keep in mind these are super-generalist, super-agile, build-anything-anywhere no retooling time factories unlike anything that could possibly exist in reality or even anywhere else in the ME universe; CHA probably gets the same amount of Production capacity out of a quarter the materials cost and a tenth or a twentieth the personnel cost; it's how they remain profitable at all at the margins they charge, when PI charging such a low markup would actually bankrupt us.
In our factories they're 3D-printing giant nuclear missiles, healing nanites, or 100 meter frigate superstructures out of materials that didn't even theoretically exist three months ago, to do things that weren't theoretically possible three weeks ago, to fit design specs that were emailed to their secure server last night. That kind of bullshit, Star Trek-tier engineering talent doesn't come cheap, and it isn't something that can really be automated. We probably do have design engineers at our factories that make more than our scientists (who definitely have different pay scales depending on team role, and probably don't have 20 people per team either since they're not split into 4 teams to cover a 24/7 shift; 10-15 is probably closer to the mark here), and they're worth every penny given our habit of dropping a design in their lap that couldn't exist yesterday and expect them to ship it as a finished product by the close of business today.
post apart and tackle it in pieces since there is a lot bundled up into these two paragraphs.
We probably do have design engineers at our factories that make more than our scientists (who definitely have different pay scales depending on team role, and probably don't have 20 people per team either since they're not split into 4 teams to cover a 24/7 shift; 10-15 is probably closer to the mark here)
You do remember this is PI right? I would honestly be kinda surprised if we
didn't have teams working through the night with how fast we throw out revolutionary technology.
Well, maybe. Again, keep in mind these are super-generalist, super-agile, build-anything-anywhere no retooling time factories unlike anything that could possibly exist in reality or even anywhere else in the ME universe; CHA probably gets the same amount of Production capacity out of a quarter the materials cost and a tenth or a twentieth the personnel cost; it's how they remain profitable at all at the margins they charge, when PI charging such a low markup would actually bankrupt us.
While it's true we use super-agile factories, which I figure are really mostly just advanced 3d printers that will print any design or material we feed into them, I'd figure most the cost increase would be in the
machinery not the personnel. I highly doubt our factories employ ten times as many people or even just something like 3x the people with 3x the pay.
In our factories they're 3D-printing giant nuclear missiles, healing nanites, or 100 meter frigate superstructures out of materials that didn't even theoretically exist three months ago, to do things that weren't theoretically possible three weeks ago, to fit design specs that were emailed to their secure server last night. That kind of bullshit, Star Trek-tier engineering talent doesn't come cheap, and it isn't something that can really be automated.
Thing is that design talent wouldn't be in our
factories. Why would we have design engineers in
factories when they all produce the same design. It would make more sense to have them somewhere else and send their designs
to the factories. Honestly with the way they are described in quest I'd say most our design work is done in our
labs by our research teams. Well those designs that Revy doesn't whip up in a late night caffeine fueled frenzy, which honestly probably accounts for most PI's designs.
No to my mind our factory workers are just that. The people who make our factory work.
So I've been doing some googling and near as I can tell your average factory employees thirty people but that's because there are a ton of small factories skewing the numbers. If you look at the larger scale factories then the average comes out to around sixty employees per factory. If we assume future factories are scaled such that our Factory II is equivalent to a modern day factory and that number of employees scale linearly with production then we get 1 employee per 50 production.
This gives:
Factory I = 6 workers
Factory II = 60 workers
Factory III = 600 workers
Space Factory I = 6,000 workers
Space Factory II = 60,000 workers
Space Factory III = 600,000 workers
so with:
21x Factory III
3x Space Factory I
we should have 30,600 factory workers with another 60,000 going on our payroll next quarter.
Google tells me the average (American) factory worker receives 80k per year in pay and other benefits. Applied to the above worker numbers gives:
Factory I = 6 workers x 80,000cr = 480,000
Factory II = 60 workers x 80,000cr = 4,800,000
Factory III = 600 workers x 80,000cr = 48,000,000
Space Factory I = 6,000 workers x 80,000cr = 480,000,000
Space Factory II = 60,000 workers x 80,000cr = 4,800,000,000
Space Factory III = 600,000 workers x 80,000cr = 48,000,000,000
those figured as a percentage of the total upkeep are:
Factory I = 24%
Factory II = 48%
Factory III = 96%
Space Factory I = 96%
Space Factory II = 96%
Space Factory III = 96%
Huh. That's interesting. I suppose with the way personnel scales with production but upkeep doesn't really makes that logical. Especially considering just how many people the larger factories are employing. I can't say I'm satisfied with employees being the primary upkeep factory for factories instead of maintenance. Still I'm willing to accept it.
@TheEyes what do you think about the above numbers?
Incidentally on hiring the Quarians:
It's largely a scale thing. There are 17 million Quarians IIRC. There are 13 billion humans. The number of human certified mechanics, not engineers, mechanics roughly equals the Quarian population. The number of human scientists and engineers is more than fifty times their entire population (And those are using current day figures)
There are Quarians worth hiring, hell a fair number of them, but the nature of Quarian society means they are in the fleet; hiring them requires hiring (or finding employment for) at list their ship if not the whole fleet.
Most business are of the opinion that it's far easier to hire a human, train a human or hire an alien expert that will respond to job advertisements. Obviously the military is usually restricted to the human options.
If you got the Quarians looking for jobs in SA space you could probably get most of them decent if not good or even great jobs. The trick is getting them to look, it's just not worth the effort when there are people looking.
I think that makes sense.
I really need to get around to compiling that massive WoG repository I've been thinking about.
