How to make sexier complexes [Updated, again!]

[Ryuujin]

*Now cleaned up and reposted*

Initially I refused to use complexes - period. Because they were so awkward looking and fugly. But after much experimentation I've come up with some foolproof methods for making complexes you can be proud of.


Complex Construction

Nodes and Tunnels
First it's good to understand how the tunnels are formed. if you know how they're placed, you can bend them to your will.

The tunnels are formed between nodes on each of the stations. This are easy enough to find, they are small metallic dome shapes, with a blue light in the middle, usually arranged in a triangle around a stem. Sometimes they are in other locations, or may only have 1 or 2 nodes (Particulary on Fabs and Forges). Obviously it helps to know where the nodes are on a station, if you can't see them on the transparent projection of the station, it might be worth placing it down, and then reloading when you've worked it out.

When a Complex Construction Kit is placed down, it'll find the 2 nodes nearest one another on each of the stations, and create a large tunnel piece, sticking out the same direction as the node. This first tunnel piece will stick through other stations if you allow it. Once it's added both these tunnel pieces, it'll then "fill the gap" by adding extra tunnel pieces of various sizes and angles to connect the stations.

In practice this means to get the cleanest, shortest tunnel pieces, you'll want to:
A) Ensure the nodes on each station line up as closely as possible
B) Ensure the 2 nodes are at least 2 and a half tunnel pieces away from one another.





Placing the station and hangar
Firstly it helps to know what the stations look like, and where their nodes are. It might help to place them down now, and then reload once you have some idea how they'll look. It also helps to know that in V1.201 the Hangars are bugged, and will always face due North, and are prone to jumping about.

The first station you put down ideally should have a nice horizontal 3-point arrangement. I usually ally with the Boron, and their BoFu Lab's thankfully have a very neat triangular arrangement. This'll act a nice hub to spread from. When you deploy it, don't adjust it's rotation in any direction unless you're feeling brave.

Next target your hub station, and press F3 for outside view. Press 5 on the keypad a couple of times to orientate the view so you're looking due North (Use the sector map or starscape to help determine which way is North). Next, press 8 on the keypad til the view is tilted bird-eye. Finally, you may use + and - on the keypad to zoom in and out.

Now, go to the freight screen and begin to deploy your next station. Using the sector map, move it so it exactly super imposes your existing station (don't forget to use Insert to adjust the verticle position. Zoom in, jiggle it about a bit and identify the nodes on both stations, and then rotate the new station so the node line up. Zoom back out, and then move the new station to a safe distance (both horizontally and verticly), remember the magic number is 2 and a half tunnel pieces. This is hard to judge, as a rule of thumb, a long tunnel piece is roughly 2/3rd the width of your station (assuming it's a fairly round station like a Bofu Lab or Soyery). Rinse and repeat for all your stations, I'd advise you place them down BEFORE you place the tunnel complex.

Finally, place down your tunnel complexes. Remember, the Hangar needs to face due north, so hopefully you left a node clean in the North, simply position the Hangar complex at a safe distance, rotate it to due North, and hopefully it won't go glitchy on you. (If it does, destroying the hangar will not destroy all attached stations, so you can rerig it if you mess up) and volia.





Keep it Simple Stupid
If you're having trouble with sprawling complexes and the hub is shifting about instead of staying put, you might want to consider using smaller complexes.

Consider this:
To run a full XL size SPP, requires:
5 Crystal fabs
2 Large Food Factories
2 Large Farms
1 or 2 Large Silicon Mines

All that to power your fabs. And what do you get? - A sprawling messy complex, and you've spent 60 million on just the infrastructure, no fabs or products (besides surplus energy). It is cleaner, and more efficient in the short term to use small specialised complexes that just produce their own food (Food is the biggest single resource value wise), and end product. And then use a fast freighter to import the energy. Later on, you could created a specialised Solar Plant complex that produces just energy, which the freighters from the smaller specialist fabs can collect energy from.



And finally
+ Always save before deploying any station, to avoid frustration if you screw up.
+ Use something straight (A pencil? A disk box? a ruler?) to help line up those nodes super-straight.
+ Always ALWAYS use the same complex kit each time, if you use a different race's kit halfway-thru, the hangar will jump




x1 Bofu Lab M, x1 BoGas Plant M, x1 Teladianium Plant L, x1 Tube Fab, x1 Chip Plant = Profitsssss





Complex Planning

After a bit of studying the factories and their outputs, I've finally got some numbers to work off. Basiclly using the following numbers, you should be able to plan your complexes to achieve 100% efficiency, producing just enough food and energy, to feed your factories, and output pure profit.


Relative Scale

(Unmarked): 1
M: 2
L: 5
XL: 10

So, for instance, an L size BoGas plant, produces just enough BoGas, to run an L size BoFu Lab (5 -> 5), or 5 Crystal Fab M's, will run 1 XL size solar plant (2 x 5 -> 10). Food is used at the same way, so an M size Cahoona Bakery, can feed 2 Chip Plants (2 -> 1 + 1), or 1 Crystal Fab M (2 -> 2)



Energy usage (per minute)

(Unmarked): 15
M: 30
L: 75
XL: N/A - Theoreticlly 150


Solar Plant Output (per minute)

S: N/A - Theoreticlly 138
M: 276
L: 690
XL: 1380

All stations use the same amount of energy, which is basiclly 15 units per size, per minute. (A Quantum tube fab for instance may use 600 energy per cycle, but it's cycle is 40 minutes (600 / 40 = 15)). This means you can plan ahead of time what size power stations you'll need.


So, using this knowledge, it's not hard to plan ahead, I tend to write down some columns, and balance the equations:

[softweir]

Ah, I was wondering about this. Thanks! I was about to build my first serious complex, that info could be useful!

[Alminie]

Thats not bad, but I'm hoping in the next patch there going to make complexs easier to place the way you want it.. but if not this info will help alot

[Sandalpocalypse]

yep although i would say the hub has a very bad habit of preferring the Up/Down tubes to the Left/Right tubes.

[euclid]

Excellent job, Ryuujin !


Make that a sticky one !




Cheers Euclid

[blackfire83]

That's a purty complex. I want one!

-blackfire83

[brekehan]

Thats great but I always run into trouble after the first 4 stations are connected, then the game wants to move the hub clear across the map wherever it feels like.

I tryed the straight line method I read on the forum and it didnt work. The hub moved to the side of the line after the first 4 stations.

These complexes are really pissing me off...I've had to load a dat backward after buying 20 some stations I tryed to make a complex out of.

It seems the that every station you connect after the first 4 want to directly connect to the hub instead of to the nearest staion. How can I get it to connect to the nearest station instead?

How exactly do you see the nodes on the sector map? Reading your post it makes sense, but I dont see anything on the placement screen that I can discern as a node.

[Ryuujin]

*Bump* (I revised and updated it quite heavily, with extra graphics and diagrams)

[Blacjacmac]

I wish I could make one that looked that nice.... Or fix flubbed up ones....

Maybe in 1.4 O.o

[InfectiousDust]

That is one sweet looking station.



We should have station building competitions!

[DemaeRamen]

You're the man!

[Rikaelus]

Someday, maybe, hopefully, they'll give us a "Complex Creation" screen which has a nice wire-frame view of all the stations and other obsticles. Then we can position our stations from that and connect tubes between the various nodes.

[X-it]

Excellent! Copied and pasted into my complex-tips-Word-doc.

[mrbadger]

I've tried to move stations before placing them, but whatever key I press the station just drops wherever. Half the time I have to reload, and my complexes look rubbish. Is it not the keypad to move the station about on the sector map before placing it?

[Rikaelus]