Thanks radster for the spreadsheet; waycool.
This post has a couple of suggestions & also (after extensive mooching of radster's product), answers the 'cheapest freighter solution' question for a number of CLS2 scenarios.
For the original spreadsheet:
- I did see that the hayabusa is listed as having 8x25MJ shields; I think they actually have 2x200MJ shields at maximum (cheaper than 8x25MJ shields)
- I recommend making one-way jump range an input variable for the user; so if they enter a '5' it'll calculate the jump fuel as 10*(5+1) in the volume/cost below your summary spreadsheet.
I mooched off of your product to make a similar spreadsheet for CLS2, intended to answer three questions.
Link is here:
[url]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_9JU0 ... view?pli=1 [/url]
1) what is the cheapest hunk of junk with at least X cargo capacity that I can park as a CLS2 trap at a station...no shields, jump drive, jump fuel, engine, or steering tunings required.
2) What is the cheapest set of ships I can buy that will move X volume of cargo Y distance with a CLS2 apprentice pilot (trainings turned off)? No Jump Drive or fighters or jump fuel for this tab. Apprentices are able to handle a lot of tasks almost as quickly as logistician pilots, so I thought it important to provide for the possibility that the user doesn't want to allow some of their apprentice pilots to gain rank over time.
3) What is the cheapest set of ships I can buy that will move X volume of cargo Y distance with cargo messenger or logistician pilot? Jump drive and fuel and fighters are used here
For #s 2&3: the spreadsheet doesn't cover a comprehensive list of the possibilities (for example adding engine tunings to the second-cheapest freighter), but it should get the cheapest way to solve your supply line issues 95% of the time.
As someone else noted earlier: using smaller freighters to shuttle things around is generally a good idea, unless you're jumping a long ways, because you'll have less wasted space. I think this is especially important for large/complex CLS2 networks, because using smaller freighters will generally reduce the amount of wasted space, and therefore require you to purchase fewer extra freighters to compensate.
The spreadsheets for #s 2&3 explore three possible scenarios to minimize your purchase costs, while still moving the volume you need each hour over a distance that you specify.
a) scenario1: only use the cheapest ship, but add a few extra tunings to each to handle any leftover volume requirement
b) scenario2: use a mix of the cheapest ship and the next cheapest ship to most accurately match your volume-distance requirements; Excel's solver add-in is great for correctly computing these values...otherwise you can manually change the variable cell to get the minimum value for this scenario.
c) scenario3: use the cheapest ship for all but one of your purchases; then use the cheapest ship that will accomoate your remaining volume-distance requirement[/url]
