Returning player here. I distinctly remember needing 24 workers to fully saturate a base, not 16. When/how did they change this, and why? Are there patch notes for this?
On a related note, I seem to have a much higher overall income than I remember. Enough to easily afford an expansion much earlier on, and churn them out like crazy if I so choose. That’s not just my imagination, is it?
16 workers is the maximum amount you can have on a base before they start losing efficiency due to wait time. 24 is the maximum you can have on a base before you stop gaining any benefit at all. Workers 17-24 still improve your income, but you gain less income per worker on that base.
Hey! Welcome back to the game!
So mining itself was changed marginally at the beginning of LOTV, specifically around how quickly minerals mined out.
The number of workers that were needed to fully saturate a base wasnt changed at all, however. 16 miners mining minerals (say that ten times fast!) Was simply the optimal number for mining and has been since WOL, as far as I can remember. Often however, it was discovered a while (back by some people much better at the game than I am) that full saturation to 24 per patch made mining somewhat less efficient than it was at 16. I dont remember the exact details, but it has to do with the time workers spent rallying around the mineral patches trying to find a free spot to mine on.
As such, the devs implemented a quality of life UI update several years ago that allowed players to see the optimal mining numbers for a base, rather than full saturation numbers.
Part of this might be due to the fact that games now start with 12 workers instead of 6 workers. This means economy ramps up much faster and the game doesnt take as long to get into ‘the fun stuff’. The overall income rate is the same as it used to be at optimal, but the rate at which you expand is faster as mineral fields mine out faster due to the changes at the start of LotV.