by Nemesis420x
I wouldn't necessarily say they have a harder time getting to 4 ships than the other races due to their pillaging ability. Assuming that you're using your ships as you build them to gain rep, etc., I'd say that the amount of economy you're gaining probably more than offsets the extra material spent on each ship over the course of the ship's life, assuming of course that they're not just dying outright.And all in all, if given the choice, I'd probably be willing to pay 1 extra material per ship for built-in shield and initiative, especially early in the game, and if I'm not going to be saving for dreadnoughts anyway. The 4-cost Starbases I think are the biggest issue for them in that regard. But I've yet to see a Rho Indi player put much focus on them.
PS. Mechanima have starting computers, not built in computers. That being said, it's still not exactly a fair comparison between Mechanima and Rho Indi as their building capabilities are bi-polar to one another. Given equal tech, the RI ships will be better, but given an equal amount of materials, Mechanima would be very difficult to beat mano-a-mono. Rho Indi does have a slight advantage in starting material production, though.