Talk:Gold Mine/Builder Base/@comment-32110309-20170621140143/@comment-35001873-20180315020606

I think you misunderstand the definition of "Catch up Point"

It is calculated as (Lost resources from time spent doing the upgrade) / (Gain in resource per hour from upgrade) Lost resources was calculated as (time to complete the upgrade) X (resource per hour rate from the original "un-upgraded" mine)

So for the Level 4 to 5 Upgrade you used, you would not earn 1800 per hour for 5 hours. So 9,000 resources not earned. BUT you start earning resources at a higher rate than before. 2100 per hour instead of 1800 per hour. 300 more per hour. So it takes 9000/300 = 30 hours before your increased rate of mining has recovered the resources you missed out on DURING the upgrade.

Per the Caveat above. The catch up point is faster IF you don't collect regularly. Lets prove it with an example. If you only check 'once per day' then if you kick off the upgrade, it will complete (5hr) AND have time to completely fill (12hr) and then waste a further 7 hours sitting full before you log in to collect. So you actually didn't lose any income from doing the upgrade. (In fact since the capacity of the mine is higher you're even better off, there simply was no catchup point at all in this circumstance) Essentially you collect 21,600 (12x1800) every day and then it suddenly changes to 25,200 (12x2100) after the upgrade. You are simply making 3600 more each day than before. You didn't lose anything as a result of doing the upgrade, it was only beneficial. No catch up point.

I'm guessing you're looking at it like you only earn 3,600 of extra resources per day but it costs you 60,000 resources to build so your catch up point is 60,000 / 3,600 = 16.6 days... whereas if you were collecting even a little more regularly it would be 60,000 / 4,000 = 15 days BUT that's where you missed this bit just BEFORE the caveat :: "this does not consider recovering the cost of the Builder Elixir required to perform the upgrade."

Really this is because Gold & Elixir are NOT interchangeable. Your GOLD/hr income changes as a result of the upgrade. You didn't earn some GOLD/hr as a result of the upgrade which takes some hr's so you haven't earnt some GOLD. But you're earning GOLD/hr at a higher rate now so you work it out as GOLD/(GOLD/hr) which works out to an hr - the catch up point... Common unit so the math works. But the gold mine upgrade cost ELIXIR to do... No way to factor that into the calculation as everything is calculated on GOLD. You can't treat it as 1:1 because it depends on your situation and everyone's is different and ever changing.