Question about factories

[richard]

I have several question about factories?

1) What determines the number of factories that are active?
    I seem that some times it is equal to the population and other times it lags?

2) What determines the number of factories that are Built?
I seem that some times it is equal to the population and other times it lags?

[anrdaemon]

Not "number of factories that are active", but "number of CP utilized". Which is less than or equals to the planet population.
Factories generate CP, but only CP that can be utilized is counted towards construction projects.

You build them, you determine it.

[contributor]

Each factory provides a certain amount of potential CP. A factory 1 give you 2 CP, for example.

The total number of CP you've built, through factories or other upgrades is shown in the bar as "Built"

To actually use the CP you have you have to have population to run the factories. Your population on the CP bar is listed as "Max" so...

In short, the number of factories that are Active is determined by the lower number of the population or CP potential.

If you have 1 Factory 1 for 3 CP (the extra CP comes from your Starport) and population of 2 you will have 2 active factories (CP) because, while you may have the potential to produce 3 CP (factories) you only have the population to run 2 of them.

If you have 1 Factory 1 for 3CP and a population of 4 you will only have 3 active factories (CP) because while you have 4 population there are only 3 possible factories that they can run. So you would see Active 3 / Built 3 / Max 4 because you could have 4 running right now, but you've only built 3.

Obviously, in general, you want to match the number of factories to the population you have to be maximally efficient.

Does that make sense?

[fallen]

contributor - great answer!