This reminds me of a story. In the early days of the modern railroad there were once two competing railroad builders. Both wanted to build a railroad from St. Louis to Kansas City. Both were eager to obtain the stream of revenue from reaching their goal, as the trafficking of goods and people between the two cities would make them very wealthy. However, there was no need for two railroads, so the government would only pay the commission on the first completed. This meant that not completing your railroad first would lead to bankruptcy. Now, any person over a certain age knows that a railroad is not terribly complicated in it's construction, especially in those early days. One would lay down a solid foundation (heavy wood beams), drive their rails into it in two lines in parallel (the rails), and then nail in cross sections to prevent the rails from moving over time as the locomotives ran across them. Back to the two builders though... The first builder was a smallish sort of man from a wealthy family in his 20's. He had 6 brothers and 5 sisters and all were fairly wealthy, either through investments of family money or hard work. This man, the youngest of 12 had not yet made his fortune, but knew that this railroad from St. Louis to Kansas City would be his key to success. As a sign of his good fortune, he saw that his family wealth was able to purchase all the materials necessary for the construction out of pocket. Everything needed from St. Louis to Kansas City was purchased and delivered to a warehouse he rented. With the commission he would surely have his fortune restored and built upon indefinitely. Coincidentally, he also would be able to start construction a month earlier than his competition. His competition was a tall, lanky man in his 30's. One of 3 surviving children of a family of 6 children, he did not grow up wealthy. More so, he rarely grew up without struggle. As the oldest of his siblings he had to work and find food, and share in the spoils of his production, which meant he had to work all the harder. Consequently over the course of his life he became very good at spotting the most efficient methods of production, such that he was able to complete three times the normal work that a competing man could. This man had no family wealth. He could not purchase the rails and foundational beams. He had to state a case and generate a solid business plan based on the opportunities he perceived in not only the market, but also the process of railroad construction. By taking these loans he risked indentured servitude to get the materials, and he was already a month behind his wealthy competitor, who had already began construction. Back in those early days, construction of a railroad took time. Railroad construction companies would lay one side of rail perfectly straight, leveling the ground all the way from origin to destination. At the end of this first phase, when they were satisfied of the course their railroad would run, there would be one half of the rails all along the line. They did this for mainly political reasons. It looked very good to have a railroad construction crew show that they were linking two disparate cities together. It generated in these days what they called, chatter, among the common people. The first builder, who was wealthy and had friends in the Missouri state government, followed this method of construction. His company arrived in Kansas City 3 months after construction began. He invited his government friends, State Senators and Congressman, and the papers to take photos and make a grand show of the event. "In three more months," he said, "Kansas City will have a modern railroad line and the two great cities of this state will be forever linked in trade and commerce." The second builder did not follow this method. He instead devised a different plan, contrary to the times he lived in. He instead obtained only enough rail, foundation, and cross section materials for a St. Louis to Columbia, roughly half the distance between the two states. Columbia had need of iron ore, produced out east, for their new steel mills that were being built. This man built his railroad by constructing both parallel lines at a time, including the cross sections. It was not how it had been done in the past, but in 3 months - exactly when his competitor had reached Kansas City with much fanfare - he completed his line to Columbia. Then an interesting thing happened. The State Senators and Congressman of the great state of Missouri were lobbied quite heavily by the Steam Ship Association. They were not too keen on their state funding supporting a competing trade mode, not when steam ships already supported so many jobs and voters. The Missouri state government rescinded its initial offer to financially back a railroad. This turn of events did not impact our second builder. The tall, lanky man had already put rail cars and locomotives on the short line from St. Louis to Columbia. He was already transporting iron ore and other goods to the middle of the state. In six months from that time he would have enough to pay his initial loan back. In one year, he could bankroll the line all the way to Lincoln, NB if he wanted. Our first builder, however, was in dire straits. He had all the materials, but now he would have nothing if he completed the rail line, and what was worse, a new steel concern had come up in Columbia, and that concern was now producing steel rails for his competitor at a lower cost than what he initially purchased his rail for out on the east coast. He did what he considered to be the only course of action - he sold his remaining rails in storage and bought a lawyer. He sued the state government, his former friends, and his competition for unfairly impacting his ability to run a business. He lost in court against the state of Missouri, which claimed that no formal contract had been signed (it hadn't) and that a good faith agreement had not been established based on a few of the more well know politicians visiting Kansas City for the photo op a month prior. His competition had more than enough capital to pay for a lawyer who proved to the court that in no way did the action of one railroad builder impact the other (in truth my friends, neither builder had ever interacted with each other up to this point). The civil suit was dismissed without grounds. The second builder did extend one olive branch to the first. He offered to buy up the half built rail from Columbia to Kansas City fro the first builder. The first builder sneered at him...but signed the deal. He wasted his remaining years and that money on alcohol and other questionable vices - his days spent echoing familiar phrases like, "how dare he build his faster. That's not how it's [i]done[/i]". Eventually even his family grew tired of his excuses for failure and cut him off completely. He died in a seedy hotel room some time later, and no one has remembered him since. The tall, lanky man continued to build railroads into his golden years. He never brought up the competing railroad builder from his younger days. In truth he never thought about him. His value as he saw it was based on completing his work as effectively and efficiently as possible. He had no time to stop and consider the opinions of those that did not understand this truth. End story.

you also realize it takes three times the gear, three times the upgrades and three times the amount of time and effort to get to those levels right?

So you're mad others aren't lazy.

Ooooooor, you could create three characters.