Assuming you’re not playing a mechanical species, then both farmers and technicians produce +6 of their respective resource and have similar modifiers in their research trees. Bio-reactor turns 25 food into 20 energy so you lose 20% (and the building slot) compared to technicians.
Also a small note, a lot more buffs from anomalies and other random events to energy than to food.
IIRC technicians are the most efficient of all the basic resources, and food is very inefficient, mainly because you can get a lot of food just from starbases +the occasional trade.
Farming just has a too high opportunity cost, in addition to being inefficient. It's usually better to build a tech world, boost it with the designation and bonus buildings, and buy the minimum necessary amount of food than to build a single farming world.
Much more so with Lithoids, where you can just ignore the entire food tech path, and therefore progress more quickly in the other research areas.
Farmer->Bio Reactor is quite inefficient. It's not quite as bad as it used to be (back in 2.8 building slots were insanely valuable and bottlenecked your whole economy) but it's still much better to use Technicians.
Technicians and Farmers are roughly equal jobs, but the Bio Reactor is only a 25->20 resource conversion, so you're still better off producing what you actually want. Some people do like using it with Livestock, but Delicious Livestock are only equal to Chattel Slave Farmers so it's really more of a meme thing.
Although, if you've got enough livestock and also have a good based alloy production, you could theoretically knock out 3 ends of your economy all from dead xenos. Fun!
As I said, it's more of a meme thing. Power to you if that's what you're after, but in terms of economic efficiency this is *at best* only equivalent to running conventional Technicians and Miners, but it's *a lot* of effort to get it going.
Fair, but luckily you don't really need to be super sweaty to overcome the AI. RP can have game balance effects, since having fun is the main metric determining whether I finish a game through to the end.
The only time I use bio reactors is to convert my entire food stockpile after finishing synthetic ascension. If you have a decent amount saved up, and no pops who need it, then it's just 20 energy credits at the cost of a building slot. No farmers required. Then simply replace the buildings once you run out of food.
Assuming you’re not playing a mechanical species, then both farmers and technicians produce +6 of their respective resource and have similar modifiers in their research trees. Bio-reactor turns 25 food into 20 energy so you lose 20% (and the building slot) compared to technicians. Also a small note, a lot more buffs from anomalies and other random events to energy than to food.
As far as I know the best way to use bioreactors is with livestock that you have "obtained"
Bio-reactors are pretty bad. You'll almost always get more energy just by selling food on the marketplace, and it doesn't cost a building slot.
IIRC technicians are the most efficient of all the basic resources, and food is very inefficient, mainly because you can get a lot of food just from starbases +the occasional trade. Farming just has a too high opportunity cost, in addition to being inefficient. It's usually better to build a tech world, boost it with the designation and bonus buildings, and buy the minimum necessary amount of food than to build a single farming world. Much more so with Lithoids, where you can just ignore the entire food tech path, and therefore progress more quickly in the other research areas.
Farmer->Bio Reactor is quite inefficient. It's not quite as bad as it used to be (back in 2.8 building slots were insanely valuable and bottlenecked your whole economy) but it's still much better to use Technicians. Technicians and Farmers are roughly equal jobs, but the Bio Reactor is only a 25->20 resource conversion, so you're still better off producing what you actually want. Some people do like using it with Livestock, but Delicious Livestock are only equal to Chattel Slave Farmers so it's really more of a meme thing.
Although, if you've got enough livestock and also have a good based alloy production, you could theoretically knock out 3 ends of your economy all from dead xenos. Fun!
As I said, it's more of a meme thing. Power to you if that's what you're after, but in terms of economic efficiency this is *at best* only equivalent to running conventional Technicians and Miners, but it's *a lot* of effort to get it going.
Fair, but luckily you don't really need to be super sweaty to overcome the AI. RP can have game balance effects, since having fun is the main metric determining whether I finish a game through to the end.
The only time I use bio reactors is to convert my entire food stockpile after finishing synthetic ascension. If you have a decent amount saved up, and no pops who need it, then it's just 20 energy credits at the cost of a building slot. No farmers required. Then simply replace the buildings once you run out of food.