[Alneyan]

His point was, Monoliths produce minerals and organics and radioactives, so 2,700 resources in total. You will not need that many organics and radioactives, but they can be converted into minerals, for 1,700X0.7 (about 1,200 minerals I would say). So a single Monolith is almost twice as productive as a Miner, provided all planet values are equal; but then, you won't be building Monoliths on planets with 0% radioactive and 3% organics.

The problem of Monoliths is, of course, the time needed to get them up and running. But nothing prevents you from first building the regular facilities and then switching to Monoliths; they only require SM III, and you *want* that technology as soon as you can afford it, while the other economic techs (Mineral Extraction, Organics and Radioactives) do not give a lot of benefits, unless you are willing to sink a *lot* of research to get all the way to level 9 (where, at least, they beat the Computer facilities, and only since 1.91).