At Faq Master. Document on empire building. Opinions pleasse

[Gandalf The White]

Now you have got to grips with the X-economy, we can now look at building up your own empire.

You can either have loads of singular factories, which will make you quite a bit of money with little investment, or, you can build up a factory chain. For example, you have a Crystal Fab, selling Crystals to the outside factories, and you have support factories there just so you can guarantee yourself cheep resources all the time and in doing this, you can also ensure that they are as near by as you can possibly get them to the main factory, which in this instance, will be a Crystal Fab.

Now, it's much easier to set up a factory chain like this in X-Tension than it is in X-Beyond the Frontier. This is because, in X-Tension, you have additional options in the trading menu of the factory which allows you to either allow other races to dock with this particular factory, or not to allow them to dock at that particular factory. This has the advantage of allowing your ships to dock only. This means that you can guarantee the main factory, the Crystal Fab, a constant supply of resources. This means, that you can constantly produce the main Product. Crystals.

An additional option that you have in X-Tension, is the ability to set the maximum amount of sector jumps that a transport ship can make when looking for resources for your factory. So, if you have the fortune to be able to have all your resources in 1 sector, then you can set the amount of jumps to 0 and your transport ships will never stray outside the sector. This has the advantages that you can always get resources to the factory quickly and, it will minimise the transport ship getting attacked or, it will minimise the chances of the transport ship straying into a Pirate or Xenon controlled sector.

Now, in X-tension, if you want to supply all the resources at the minimum price, then on no account, do you place a Solar Power Plant in the chain. The reason for this, is because Solar Power Plants require Crystals as their resources. Now because Crystals are so expensive, you could never produce the amount of Energy Cells at lowest price to sell to your other factory, not even to break even. You would have to sell Energy Cells at 12 Credits just to break even. Which, defeats the object of having them in the chain. The best thing you should do in this instance, is to buy from the race owned Power Plants and resource your factories that way because you are much likely to get cheaper power that way.

So, if you are going to start a factory chain, where should you first start it? Well, because this is going to be your first group of factories, the best thing that you can do, is to set up your factory chain as best you can in protected sectors. This means that these sectors have race owned destroyers or carrier ships patrolling them so if your factory gets attacked and you don't have any defences, the races will help you to protect your factory. So, the 3 sectors that we are going to use, are:

Argon Prime
Ringo Moon
The Wall, Defence HQ.

Now although Ringo Moon doesn't have any patrolling ships in it, you are still well protected. Because there are 3 gates into that sector. Two of the sectors where you can reach Ringo Moon from, have patrolling ships in them. These sectors, are Argon Prime which is the East gate, and Red Light which is the South Gate. So because of this, the Pirates don't have easy access to that sector.

So what does a Crystal Fab need? In order to make Crystals, it needs the following:

1. Energy Cells. We already know where we are going to get these from, they are going to come from the race owned power plants.

2. Cahoona Meatsteaks. You will need to purchase a Cahoona Bakery in order that you can produce the Meatsteaks. In addition to this, you will need to get a Cattle Ranch. Because, you will need Argnu Beef in order that you can produce the Cahoona Meatsteaks, as the Cahoona Bakery will require these in constant supply. You should deploy the Cahoona Bakery and Cattle Ranch in the sector The Wall Defence Headquarters. There is 5 solar power plants in that sector, so there is power in plenty in that sector and it is always cheep power.

3. Then, the last thing that you will need, is a Cilicon mine. This needs to be placed on an asteroid that has Cilicon Wafers inside it. The mine will mine it for it's resources. This is where Ringo Moon comes into the equation because there are 2 Cilicon Asteroids in that sector. 1 at 6 and another at a yield of 26. The higher the yield, the quicker the production of the resource will be. Note, although a resource may not always sell, even if you use it, you can never have to much of a resource. Remember, that if you have plenty of resources, then production of the main product will never be interrupted.

Now where do you place your factories and where should they be best placed I hear you ask. Well factory placement is very important. Because you want/need to keep all the factories as close together as you can. This is important for the following reasons:

A. Your transport ships are less likely to be attacked on shorter journeys.
B. The quicker the resources initially get to the factory, the quicker it can get producing. In addition to this, the quicker you can get the resources to the factory, the more likely it will be you can guarantee a constant supply of resources.

So for these reasons alone, it is very important that you can if and when possible, stop your factory transporters from going long distances.

But why else should you choose a system like Argon Prime to deploy a Crystal Fab? Well, there are plenty of Solar Power Plants, there are 2 in that sector, and a a much higher amount in the surrounding sectors. Additionally, some of the laser forges use Crystals as well. The Gamma Particle Accelerator Cannon factories and the High Energy Plasma Throwers also require them. So you will have plenty of customers. The way you determine where you place factories, is the exact same way that you would determine your trading routes. If you have been observant of the economy whilst trading, then you will also be able to spot where you can place factories to make the best possible profit. The way you do this, is to see what a sector is in particular demand of. Whether it be a material like Ore, or a food stuff, you can place the appropriate factories and make great profits.

So how should this particular factory deployment look and what type of configuring is required in order to maximise effect, and which factories should be deployed in order? These are good questions. To answer the second one first, I usually deploy in the following order. Cattle Ranch, Cahoona Bakery and then the Cilicon Mine and then the Crystal Fab. I like to get the other factories working first before I build the main factory. Whilst I am trading my way to eventually getting the main factory, I allow other races to dock at the other factories except, for when I have my Cahoona Bakery. Because then it will need the Argnu Beef out of my Cattle ranch. I allow my other factories to build up their own profits, because when I eventually put in the main factory, the main factory might not buy straight away from your resourcing factories, which in a way is a good thing because it will allow them to build up. their resources ready for your main factory to purchase in plenty. This will guarantee resources and, it will put money back into the factories that are resourcing the Crystal Fab. Example, the Cahoona Bakery needs both the Argnu Beef and the Energy Cells. It will keep purchasing them until:

1. The factory stops producing the Meatsteaks because it is stocked to capacity.

2. The Factory runs out of funds.

Note, if your factory is stocked to capacity of it's produced product, if it's stock of resources isn't to capacity, then it will keep sending it's transport ships out to stock the factory up. If the stock of the product to sell remains at full and the stock of resources reaches full capacity, then the transport ships will no longer be sent out to purchase them until someone goes and purchases some/all of the product that is selling. Because then it will start using up the resources so your transport ships will again be sent out to stock up.

If you get it right and that is relatively easy to do, you can create an almost complete money and trading circle with the exception of the Energy Cells and may be the Cilicon. Because, if you put the Crystal Fab in Argon Prime, there is the possibility, that the transport ship looking for Cilicon might stray into Herons Nebula because there is 2 Cilicon Mines in that sector and they are always full. You could eliminate this problem by placing the Crystal Fab in Ringo Moon near to your Cilicon Mine as that will definitely be the nearest source of Cilicon. But, even if you have placed the Crystal Fab in Argon Prime, all is not lost. Because your transport ship can stray into Ringo Moon to your Cilicon Mine. Or, you can build another factory in Ringo Moon that uses the same resources as the Crystal Fab does. The Quantum Tube Fab for example.

So, how should you have your factories best set? Firstly, lets deal with the Crystal Fab, because when we have dealt with that, then the others should fall into place relatively simple. Depending on where you eventually place your Crystal Fab, there will be a slight change in one of the options. First, lets place it in Argon Prime.

Set the selling price of Crystals to maximum possible price. You do this in the same way as you would if you were purchasing a product. When the white line at the bottom is as far as it can go, then you will need to press Enter to accept this price.
Then, set the price of all resources to minimum price. You would do this in the same way as you would if you were selling a product. When the line has completely disappeared, you will need to press enter to accept this change.
Then, go down and change the amount of sectors you wish your ships to travel. Now in doing this, we have missed out an option, that option being to transfer some funds into the account. I have deliberately missed this out, I will make that reason clear later. Anyway, go down to where you select the amount of jumps that your factory transport ships can make, and move it all the way down to 1 jump only. Once you have selected 1, press enter on it to confirm this and keep this setting. Then below this, is the allow other races to dock option. Leave this set to yes as you want other factories to buy from your Crystal Fab.

Now you will need to put some money into this factory or non of your ships will buy from your other factories. Place about 150000 credits in this factory. Now you have done this, now go and try and change the amount of sectors to jump and you will understand why I have left the transferring of funds to the last.

If you were to place your Crystal Fab in Ringo Moon, then everything would be exactly the same. Except, for the amount of jumps. You would need to put this to 2 jumps. You will want the cheep Energy Cells and your cheep Cahoona Meatsteaks.

Now, the 1 great advantage of putting your Crystal Fab in Argon Prime, is that all your transport ships for that factory will in general, have less of a distance to travel. All resources are in 1 sectors travel from the factory so your factory is smack bang in the centre of the route. Even if your ship fetching the Cilicon does stray else ware, it won't matter so much in that it won't be buying it for any more than you have set it. That doesn't mean that the Cilicon Mine that has already been placed is redundant, you can use it for other things.

As for the other factories, hear is what you do.

With the Cattle Ranch, set everything to minimum price. Set jumps to 0, set the allow other races to dock option to yes, until you have the Cahoona bakery, then when you have that, set the allow other races option to no. Put about 25000 credits in the factory initially.

With the Cahoona Bakery, do the exact same thing, but place about 100000 cr into the factory.

With the Cilicon Mine, set the amount of sectors to jump to 2 sectors as you will want the cheep Energy Cells. Place about 20/25000 credits in that factory.

One thing to note, when setting the allow other races option, you don't need to press enter. Just get it to show (yes) or (no). That's all you need to do. By default, it's set to (yes). Also, with the sector jumps, by default, they are set to the maximum amount which is (100)

[Gandalf The White]

Bump. In case he hasn't seen this.

[DocFX]

Thanks, this is very useful!...

[Merroc]

Maybe BurnIt! ought to make replying to a month+ old thread harder .

[Xenon_Slayer]

You just bumped up a 8 year old post! Pretty sure that's a record.

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