This idea may have already been discussed but, Here goes...
I'm in my first pass through the maps, currently playing Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Plenty of the map left to clear with 8 smelters and 6 crafters which are mainly making glass to turn into money (and only needing 1-2 smelters to make sufficient silver) so I have smelters that are idle and ready to make terbium, samarium, or other alloys as needed to clear the rest of the techs.
Turns out I need about 3000 lead to make 4 structs. This will take about 200 minutes, give or take. But why wait?
Instead of smelting, I go to the market to buy lead bars, sell off the equivalent ore (my ore makes more money than equivalent bars and the market bars still cost less than I can sell them for), thereby making a profit, and start making the struct immediately.

Edited 3/12/2022 15:36:36

Not specific to smelting or even WZI, there are multiple ways of accomplishing the same task, and if A is better B, just do B.

There will be specific cases when A > B, but until those arise, just do B.

agreed, buy your lead to make your structs. but why keep smelters idle? presumably your alloys have a net profit vs their respective ores. plus, your alloys will eventually cost more from the markets, and may eventually not be efficient to buy.

Dwayne, no, my ore is worth a lot more than my alloys (I've maxed out my ore value AP) so my smelters stay idle except for bars not yet in my markets or for silver (for glass). By the time the market price for alloy is higher than my sell value, I hope to be finished with my techs. For the past few levels, I pretty much kept my smelters idle about halfway through the map, making money at the end (for buying mercenaries and financing digs & hospitals) by crafting and selling ores. This may change later.

Yeah before the market change there was a clear role for mining/smelting/crafting. Crafting in particular was a very important money source and money was valuable in all stages of a level. Speedy Crafters was widely acknowledged as a good (if not the best) artifact. I think this dynamic may still exist at +0% alloy values today.

The problem is that as soon as you have even a few percentage points of alloy value, the markets are insanely overpowered to the point they make mining/smelting/crafting pointless.

Nowadays, smart players hit +100% alloy values in less than 10k AP. If you have a legendary alloy values you’re at +212% alloy values. The markets are hilariously broken at that point where you have infinite money once you get to the first market.

Great point, Graemes. I had been using the disparity at the end of the game for extra cash to buy mercenaries. A few days ago I realized it was better spent, in part, to buy those late stacks of cheap alloys needed to clear the last few techs. As I progress, I'm planning on upping my alloy value with APs to do exactly what you said. Right now, I'm struggling for cash to upgrade the last few mines. Ore and glass sales are just not enough.