[quote=@Divinity]
[@MelonHead]I am of a generation that closely monitored preps. Preps, in my experience, generally take at least a turn, or a whole phase to mature, and require some kind of extra mentions to let it be known a prep is cooking. 

Edit: Depending on the community, there were also limits on the number of things that could be prepped at once. I'm pretty sure that since Eden era is phase-centric, you get a single prep a turn.
[/quote]

All true, one prep per turn, only simple actions can be carried out during (though this is flexible in my experience, higher tier characters tend to do some complex stuff at the same time, but to them those actions are simple) and taking hits during or after removes the most recent preparation (problematic, but that's the way the system is balanced.) In some reiterations of T1 Eden the intention of the prep even has to be clearly stated, though I prefer it if there's simply a strong hint of impending danger, something visible in some form. However as I say not everything is prepped, particularly defences, and in situations where all things are equal sometimes other factors are required, namely statistics or at least quantifiable descriptors. The trick is making sure those same statistics are balanced out, if something is fast its not as strong, etc etc. Shame people don't really care for balancing as much as they used to.