by Limitless333
Generally while the Academy is very often a strong opening for many factions, an Academy opening starts losing a bit of its' appeal when a lot of effort is needed to get the 11 ore - one time income actions like advancing Terraforming 1 (with no plan to use Terraforming soon) will shrink the strong income to some degree.
The reality is that many strong openers cost a similar amount of Ore. RL+TS+2M cost usually requires 2 QIC for navigation and or settling cost + 2o for mines + 2o for TS + 5o for RL this total is 11 ore/QIC.
RL + 4M cost 5o for RL + 3o for additional mines + 3 settling costs again about 11.
PI+2M only cost o7, plus settling cost, but why are we sitting on resources that we can use to further develop our economy. This means that we should at least try for PI+TS+M+M which takes 2o for mines + 6o for PI + 2o for TS + 2 settling costs for about 12 total ore cost.
I think the Academy opening is on the cheaper side of strong openings when you look at it this way.