[REQ-FA]Upgrade System Changes

This is mainly with regards to the mass extractors, since there are 2 ways of getting a higher tier mass extractor. You can either upgrade from a lower tier mex, or simply build one with a higher tier engineer. Now I happen to be messing around with what I thought would be the resources needed for an upgrade when I realized that it's the same values used in the blueprint as if you were building the higher tier mex from scratch. This means that upgrading is actually a waste of mass, since the lower tier mex is replaced by the higher tier one after the upgrade which costed the same as building it from scratch, but no mass is returned for the lower tier mex which gets "destroyed" when the upgrade is done. In other words, you'd be better off ctrl-King the lower tier one, reclaiming the wreck and building the higher tier one in its place, since the resources used in building the lower tier structure is returned (partially at least), but the cost of building the new one in its place is as if you had upgraded it. The only difference being that you would need the higher tier engineer in order to build the new mex, and some delays in the ctrl-K command and reclaiming the wreck.
What I'm requesting is something that would allow the input of separate parameters in the blueprint for upgrading (perhaps UpgradeMass, UpgradeEnergy, UpgradeTime), instead of upgrades using the same resources as stated by the BuildMass, BuildEnergy, and BuildTime parameters. Or at least some other way of solving this so that upgrading is better or at least equal to simply destroying the unit and building the upgrade unit in its place.|||To your point of ctrl-K being more efficient:
How I understand it, you say that by looking at the values to building one from scratch is better than upgrading it?
Actually no, because during the entire upgrade time the current mex is still producing resources, so that the net cost is lower. During construction the mex could be killed before finished and there would be no resources for half finished new mex. Although I don't know exact values which one is probably better, less micro to upgrade mexes |||Ion|||I've done the number crunching thing too, and come up with two styles of efficiently. Efficiency by time, and efficiency by resources.
When it comes to resources, you're absolutely correct. It's better to reclaim the wreck, and build the next level of mex. However, you're only getting 80% of your initial investment. Since t1 mexes only cost 36 mass, its probably not worth your while.
However, mexes come with their own build speeds. 10/s at T1, equal to 2 T1 engis, and 15/s at t2. You order the mex to upgrade itself, then task engineers to assist it, then the operation is very efficient by time.|||A question then...
How much mass does the higher tier extractor produce in the time you got it sooner? And does this pay for the inability to reclaim the wreck of the lower tier one? - If so then upgrading is more efficient in BOTH ways.|||While upgrading from T1 to T2, a mex. will produce 180 mass. And from T2 to T3, a mex. will produce 1150 mass.
So quite a lot.
Assisting reduces how much mass a mex. will get to produce, but since it'll be upgraded and producing 3x more mass it also always works out for the better if you assist the upgrade.