Firstly, Infraspace is a great game and I love it but I think extra efficiency is kind of a weird feature.
I understand that it kinda makes sense that a building is more efficient if its close to a building that gives it resources but its quite annoying if like me, you build the buildings to perfectly supply each other and then the ratios don’t work out because some of the buildings have a lot more efficiency than the others and therefore needs more resources to function. I think it makes sense for buildings to work at less than 100% efficiency for not enough workers/power etc. but 100%< efficiency I don’t really like. Maybe they could implement a setting to turn it off or something. I know its not a big deal but its kind of annoying.
Efficiency is basically a time bonus. As in, it takes less time to produce the same amount. So instead of a production time of 10 seconds, it’s now 8 seconds, increasing production from 6 units per minute to 7.5 units per minute. This means you need less buildings to produce the same amount. That’s the profit. You need less buildings, less energy and less people.
Regarding the spreadsheet, I’m working on adding the production bonus into the calculations. The problem with that is that every building has its own production bonus. 8% per nearby resource building. So that’s a it tricky to incorporate. You will be able to enter an estimated average for a specific type of building, but I realize it won’t be accurate.
Just in case this information is relevant to you, efficiency bonuses are applied within a radius of 9 units (or 4.5 grid tiles), and the radius is measured from the center of each building.