User blog comment:Katat0nyx/Determinging the difficulty of contractors/@comment-5261432-20130421140559/@comment-5596770-20130422034041

That's actually already taken in account, somewhat, in the totals in the first table. For instance, if you have to deliver 100k of some cargo, and then use 200k to building something, the totals take into account that you've already delivered 100k. I do this by using positive numbers for delivery contracts and negative numbers for building contracts in my spreadsheet, then calculate how much extra may be required during building contracts. If you are interested in the details I can send you the spreadsheet.

Now, as far as getting ahead, I find that it isn't particularly effective for my play style. Trains I typically send out for international contracts will have between 4k and 8k cargo. At best, I will overage a contract by a couple thousand, not enough to save me more than 1 trip. I could imagine where it would be more effective if you were delivering cargo while completing contracts that require XP carts, but I'm not in it to race to the finish, so I don't work it out that far ahead.

Within the next 2-3 months I expect to complete George, Otto, Mahatma, Bobby and Sam. At that point, I'll start working on Lucy and Alan again, and probably start pushing harder on Mizuki (best reward) and Wolfgang (newest contractor). I guess in some respects, I'm loath to push it much harder because the game would seem less interesting if I was done with all the contracts.