What is the cost of construction in SARP?

[Luca]

I was yammering to @Doshii Jun about PSG, and I explained my abstract system of 'Capital' I use to limit the growth of PSG and tie it to In-Character posts, I eyeballed one unit of 'Capital' as about 100 to 125 thousand KS, representing investment. The first step on the two unbuilt platforms, the Medical and Resource platforms of the Phoenix Service group is to actually build them by investing a single point of this Capital.

I did this intentionally so PSG would grow with in-character missions providing pay rather than be immediately funded off the bat. So I decided to look up an eyeball figure on how much it would cost to build an oil rig here and now.

The price of oil rigs have tripled since 2003 and deepwater rigs now cost between $600 million and $650 million to build, according to Hemmingsen. Maersk Drilling's deepwater semi-subs operate at water depths of as much as 3,000 meters (9,800 feet), according to the company's website.

Needless to say this is where I bumped into problems and realised that The Rigs would not be able to exist by today's standards unless I had several billion dollars lying around willy nilly.

[15:24] Eistheid: Still.
[15:24] Eistheid: Luca is probably making more than that in a month.

Even so, if the costs of building an oil platform tripled from 2003, it means that with advances to builders, technology, materials, and planning, the costs may go up or down.

I think this is why I chose a fairly abstract investment system for PSG because tracking the costs of everything myself would be too detailed, even for my usual style, and it doesn't serve much story purpose unless I want to expand my audience to civil engineers, tradies, and Will Wright.

So, let's get some eyeballs for the money cost of:

• Planning
• Architecture
• Civics
• Convincing Real Estate/Developers/Banks/Whoever it is who controls things (and is a dick about it) to let you go ahead (don't dwell too long on this one because it is potentially infinite)
• Material acquisition
• Labour (by person or by technology) and associated maintenance costs involved
• Transportation
• Palm grease
• Cleanup
• Time taken

For the following sorts of dwellings in SARP:

• Suburban Two Bedroom House in Kyoto's outer suburbs.
• Suburban Four Bedroom House in Kyoto's affluent suburbs.
• A fully-stocked mansion in some pristine wilderness.
• 20 storey Mixed Development with ground-level commercial establishments, and apartments for floors 3-20.
  
• 30 storey Apartment Building in Funky City.
• 60 storey Apartment Building in Kyoto.
• Block of 6 units in Kyoto's inner suburbs.
• A residential area on a space station.

Now I figure with flying drones and such it'd cheapen the costs a bit and speed up construction, but I have the feeling there's ways to equalise, or different ways to build things, such as having the parts fabricated elsewhere, transported onsite, and fitted together - which is how I imagine the Rigs at PSG are built.

 

[DocTomoe]

Alright, here's the deal. Oldschool days, Wes' intention was for the KS and the IRL USD to be a 1:1, granted, that ratio may now be somewhat skewed because of the absurdly low cost of starships in setting, and other luxury goods which have distinctively low KS amounts attached... unless, quite simply, the cost of goods in SARP is much much lower than their IRL counterparts. For this reduced cost, I can actually provide quite reasonable causes.

Quite simply, there is no shortage of materials and energy in SARP. With an excess of supply, comes exceedingly low costs due to these supplies continuing to be made for the purpose of near-constant colonial expansion. Considering how many worlds Yamatai alone has colonized, how many settlements are spread throughout these worlds, there must be somewhere around 500 construction cranes per colony, and we'll assume there are at least ten colonies per star system, and there's roughly 40 systems held by Yamatai, that means that there are at least 200,000 heavy lifting cranes in theory... this is a bit of a tangent, but, it serves as an example of a concept, there is a glut of equipment out there, that means renting or buying is going to be on the cheap.

When we get into the topic of materials, that is a whole different matter, considering that there are energy-to-matter converters in setting, in conjunction with aether reactors. What this boils down to is that a proper manufacturing facility can theoretically produce solid blocks of perfectly formulated steel all day long, without a single bit of mechanical investment. We're not just talking steel though, we're also talking about high-end ceramics, imitation stone, even in-setting materials such as nerimium.

What does this mean to someone wanting to build something? They just need to pay for the invested time, transportation cost, and manpower to relocate materials from manufacture site to building site, and suddenly they have all the materials they need to plant the piles needed to build a deep sea rig. So, what is more important, is to calculate out the time invested, and place a value on that time.

Beyond basic equipment and materials, there are also the bigger advancements in technology in the SARP setting. With the equipment available in-setting, it would be possible to drop some shield generators to the ocean floor, create a shield wall, and part the sea while laying a foundation. Alternatively, it would be possible to simply attach thrusters to solid nerimium cylinders and just orbital drop them on the build site, driving them into the bedrock beneath the ocean floor. On the cheap.

I'm pretty sure, considering the cost of starships in setting, construction platforms, and the array of other equipment in setting, it would be feasibly possible for the PSG to have their rig in all of its glory for a final price-tag about 10,000,000 KS, assuming imported parts and large labor crews. Even cheaper pricetags can be attained using femtoconstructors (nodal machines), automated building drones, high-end construction equipment, and orbital construction prior to simply dropping the structures planetside.

But uh, on the topic you're going for: It is far too difficult to calculate, due to the building situation being different planet-to-planet.

 

[Wes]

I'm basically going to endorse @DocTomoe 's answer on this one. Really as long as the cost feels reasonable, no one is going to call you out on making up your own numbers for things.

 

[Jimmy]

I already gave Luca quite the spiel about this earlier tonight, but now I feel somewhat motivated so I guess I'll post the footnotes here just for readers interest. But basically the PSG rigs would cost nothing close to a RL modern oil rig.

One of the primary reasons for the skyrocketing costs of oil rigs is the greater difficulty and deeper depths now required to reach remaining known oil reservoirs. Equipment must be built to withstand enormous pressures deeper than the previous generation of rigs were ever expected to go. Certain sections of pipe have been known to cost tens of millions of dollars by themselves. Other issues include safety concerns for the dangerous waters these rigs are now required to go to. Pirates, wildlife, mother nature, all very concerning to oil companies. Often times the cost of a nearby land refinery are included if there is no on board refinery on the rig itself.

But the real reason why the PSG rigs won't cost so much? They're not actually rigs at all. They would most likely resemble a type of naval fort, and as they are on a relatively shallow sand bar issues relating to water pressure are not as severe as deep sea drilling. For an example of these look at the Maunsell Forts, as mentioned by Luca himself in our earlier conversation.

As DocTomoe as already pointed out, making starships in SARP is cheap, so either starship dealers are very much into loss leading (and somehow making a return through service or such), or materials are dirt cheap.

The only complications I could see arise would be that many factions in SARP have almost no aquatic or ocean presence at all and rookie mistakes could lead to delays or mistakes in the construction and placement of the first rig or so. Basically it might be like the profession of Steam Engineer in real-life, a profession known at best by a few people in whole countries because it's seen as so outdated. Contracting either Azoreans or perhaps Hanakos World engineers as advisers might be a good idea.

 

[Aendri]

I think Jimmy's hit upon a pretty key point there at the end of his post, which is that expertise would play a big role in this kind of project. You could probably save money up front by hiring standard building contractors to do the job, but I'd imagine hiring actual specialists in working under oceanic conditions would make a big difference in both the time it took to get the job done, and the quality of the work during and after completion. Doesn't help you much if your structure is falling apart after a year because it wasn't built with tides or seawater in mind, after all, and mistakes while you're on the job slow everything down, obviously.

 

[DocTomoe]

I think Jimmy's hit upon a pretty key point there at the end of his post, which is that expertise would play a big role in this kind of project. You could probably save money up front by hiring standard building contractors to do the job, but I'd imagine hiring actual specialists in working under oceanic conditions would make a big difference in both the time it took to get the job done, and the quality of the work during and after completion. Doesn't help you much if your structure is falling apart after a year because it wasn't built with tides or seawater in mind, after all, and mistakes while you're on the job slow everything down, obviously.

Hire some Azoreans to make it, that'd solve the problem.

 

[Luca]

Hire some Azoreans to make it, that'd solve the problem.

No doubt John conscripted a few to do the works, but they didn't quite like the Nepleslian ocean conditions.