How to make sexier complexes [Updated, again!]

[Dr.Donkeys]

After spending what feels like a week trying to fit 7 factories into a complex, I think the complex build screen with wireframes would be a great idea.
But in the short term, I wonder if there's a way to modify the "ghost" of the station being built to have it fire some nice straight lines out of the nodes that are connectable.
It would probably not require a lot of work to either add a visual aid for building purposes, or add a kyon emitter turret to the nodes that does 0 damage so you can easily see where the tube would go. Then you could just look at where the beam is hitting, if it is at a satisfactory angle to the node at the other end then you're done. If not, just rotate/move the fact till it looks like the beam hits the other node without a lot of angle and you then get a good fit.
The other benefit to the targeting beam method would be that you can visually indicate the maximum range of the tubes. Just make the beams only as long as the tubes could be.

[Tanlith]

What about something like this?

Select a node on station A
Select a node on station B
Input "desired" distence between stations
Then maybe select the connecting tubes you want from a side menu?

By having elbow joints and semi-curved pipes you could easily get what you want

Though I suspect this would be a developer's nightmare - I like my previous idea better (seems cleaner and simpler)

[zergfest90]

I'm about to table this game for a week after spending three hours just trying to connect up another 1 MW shield factory.

I hope the developers of the game put some time into making it easier to build complexes. Now that I'm at the stage of the game where I'm building > 2 factory complexes, I'm about ready to call it quits for the game and move on to a game that has a better UI and fewer bugs.

[active1x0]

Hey Ryuujin -

Great post, excellent information. But I can't see your end product, the screenshots! Could you maybe host them on a different server so we could all get an idea of what it's supposed to look like? Thanks.

[Benchdog]

Great complex guide but still no screen shots up. I'd really like to see them.
_Bench

[DoHi]

I hope I'm missing something, can you toggle off the map and/or move around in the view or are you stuck with no vision from one point? These complexes are ticking me off something cruel. I'm ready to pack the game in cause placing stations sucks A$$.
I really hope I'm missing something that will make it instantly easier... and I want to win a lottery.

[shadowolf03]

Wow, I'm a total noob to complexes and this is making me feel like I can do it!

Anyway my question is:

I am buying 2 Bliss Place M and 3 Dream Farm L
However, my rep with the Teladi is not good enough to buy the Complex Construction kit.
Can I buy one from the Argon instead?


(please say yes!)

[paulms1980]

im confused!! really want a drug complex but the idea of makin the complexes baffles me
already have a L wheat farm in HN, what arrangement/order do i connect the factories?
dont know if it wil work as i already placed the wheat farm an i dont think its sitting square so wil the hub work if it aint gona face north?

[SirDeity]

I'm just a newb with about 120mill left over and just recently got bored so built my first complex... I don't know if it'll make profit or not but I figured I'd making cash so fast from my Hartford Trading Company fleet that I can afford the expenses. Anyway, my complex has the end output of one ALPHA HEPT factory, one Space Fuel factory, and one Ammunition factory. The HEPT was my choice because there wasn't a single HEPT factory to be found anywhere in the game at the time that I built it and I needed some more HEPT weapons for my Mammoth. The ammunition (and energy plant) are for my personal use as well... since I buy energy cells and ammunition so darn much. I'm thinking of adding another 20 or so fuel factories in the hopes of making huge profits.... it may or may not work as far as I know...

please share your thoughts on this little project of mine if anyone has any

oh... for the record, i have no scripts installed atm... just the latest official game patch.

[Cucumber King]

You could've started your own thread for this.

To your question:

The idea of adding space fuel destilleries is always a good one. I dont know if it will work with 20 but 7 worked alright for me. Just make sure theres enough energy supply in your complex, cause you aint getting that amount of energy from the systems around you ( except when its maybe ore belt ).

You could also try building 10 space fuel and 10 spaceweed facts, just for criminal diversity.

Criminal Diversity... I must meditate on that word...

[NavyAICS]

I just tried building my first factory and I think I screwed up royaly. I was trying to build a "weedbooze" complex and got the wheat farm and spacefuel together (looks like crap). Then I tried to place the bliss place but it got dropped off about 10km or so away. How can I get that moved to where my complex is started and then connect it? Need help fast, this is killing me.

[jd99]

After trying out to build and expand my first comlex, I came to believe the following:

1. A station can only be connected to a complex if its distance from the hub is not more than 20 km. I wonder how people could build a couple of dozen factories in a straight line.
1.1. This probably prevents / bugs connecting two complexes, if any station is more than 20 km from the resulting complex hub.

2. The number of nodes of a factory are not important. The tunnel connecting the factories will split near a factories node if necessary. Its like trying to connect a number of points "without taking the pen from the paper". Probably tries to connect to the closest factory first. But factories with multiple nodes will help to beatify a complex.

[jlehtone]

[lancasterj2]

really good post

[deathman20]

Well thanks to this guide I was able to make the drug complex over in Elena's Fortune actually turn out half way decent. Man prior attempts made it look like total crap and I just decided not to make a complex.


Here is a few screen shots. I had the crystal fabs going nicely then added a bakery and it jumped connection points, oh well. Otherwise not horribley bad throught the rest of the complex except when I placed my last wheat farm but at that time I was done messing around I just wanted it up and running and if that is the least of my problems so be it




Took me roughly 6 hours to set it up, but the hardest part was getting the main node placed (its a warehouse) which I gotta say after its placed now im glad I went through the trouble finding a way so more ships could dock easily because damn, theres alot of traffic coming and going with this station. Making roughly 1+ mil per hour and proably a little more since I got spare e-cells I might setup another space fuel and space weed production at this plant but we'll see time to go kick some pirate/xeon butt since they seem to like coming after me when I was building this.