Ok so before the game starts there's dormant outposts (duh). But in the factories, you can check when the will produce drillers. Does anybody know why the production time is different? I just joined a game, some factories won't produce for 7:30 after taking them, but some have only 1:40 to production time. I even had one a while ago that was a 10 minute to production. So basically as soon as you hit you get 6 drillers. Then they change back to the 6 per 8 hour normal. Anyone know why there's this difference?

I imagine it's to help randomize the game. Without random start times, the game would be broken into distinct cycles:

8hr each factory produces
18hrs each queen hires
36hrs another player is eliminated :p

But still. It's --:-- time after your sub hits it. So since some outposts are closer to you you hit them first. Therefore making the randomness absolute

The factories you start with also have random times till first production, it's not just the dormant ones. I have no idea if I am right, but it might just be so that not all factories produce at the exact same time.

Yep, making the game more fluid rather than attacks every 6 hours. Otherwise I could just check in every 12 hrs or so and schedule just for each 6 hours