My Resource Factory Is Completed!

[BrigandPhantos77]

If you're ultimately going to upgrade the factories from S to XXL, then think in fives. This is because one Bio L feeds one Food L feeds FIVE Tech S factories. When you upgrade the Tech factories to M, buy a second Bio-Food L pair. When you upgrade the Tech factories to L, buy three more Bio-Food L pairs. Finally, you upgrade all 15 L factories together to XL and XXL.

Here's an example I put together a while ago. Just change those 5 EBCs to any other weapon type you're interested in, along with the appropriate Food-Bio factories needed. Also, Teladi CIG and HEPT fabs are also the cheapest. So you can just put them in here.

How often do you have to intervene and provide resources?

[Jimmy C]

This is a fully self-sufficient design. Once it's up and running, nothing is needed and EBCs come out. In fact, this complex calculator underestimates surplus, so plenty of extra energy, minerals and crystals.

[Sovereign01]

If you're ultimately going to upgrade the factories from S to XXL, then think in fives. This is because one Bio L feeds one Food L feeds FIVE Tech S factories. When you upgrade the Tech factories to M, buy a second Bio-Food L pair. When you upgrade the Tech factories to L, buy three more Bio-Food L pairs. Finally, you upgrade all 15 L factories together to XL and XXL.

Here's an example I put together a while ago. Just change those 5 EBCs to any other weapon type you're interested in, along with the appropriate Food-Bio factories needed. Also, Teladi CIG and HEPT fabs are also the cheapest. So you can just put them in here.

How often do you have to intervene and provide resources?

Can the bio-food factories not themselves be upgraded to the greater size instead of needing more of them?

I need to put together my first big complex, so far the only stations I have are the plot-related Bofu Lab, and the HQ which I moved to the Xenon hub. At some point I'll move the lab, it doesn't do anything. The large quantities of Nividium I'll be able to sell should eventually bankroll a complex of this size, although the inability to add to an existing complex (not sure if that's a flaw with the planning feature or something else as I haven't gotten that far yet) makes me want to build the entire thing at once.

[Jimmy C]

Can the bio-food factories not themselves be upgraded to the greater size instead of needing more of them?

Yes, and they will be, but only when the Tech factories are upgraded to XL-size themselves. At that point, you will need 5 Bio-Food XL pairs, and the only way to get them would have been to have 5 Bio-Food L pairs ready for upgrade at the same time. The way I do it, all 15 factories will be ready to go from L to XL at the same time.

[Sovereign01]

Can the bio-food factories not themselves be upgraded to the greater size instead of needing more of them?

Yes, and they will be, but only when the Tech factories are upgraded to XL-size themselves. At that point, you will need 5 Bio-Food XL pairs, and the only way to get them would have been to have 5 Bio-Food L pairs ready for upgrade at the same time. The way I do it, all 15 factories will be ready to go from L to XL at the same time.

I need to crunch the numbers for a chip complex. And acquire an atmospheric lifter from the Terrans to build it. My Elephant's speed makes it ideal for station build missions but capacious it is not!

[Jimmy C]

Thanks to Discounts, it pays to minimize the number of yards and trips to make get all your stations. Take the time to plan. For example, here is the plan I came up with when I did the last part of my complex.

upg
xl to xxl, 13, 3 flail, 2 hmr, 4 s.oil. 4 f.farm, 273,000 (2 AL trips to carry 6 per trip plus 1 more)
l to xl, 5, flak, pbc, bake, ranch, isr, 52,500 (Mammoth)

buy
6 s.oil L, 6 f.farm L, 2 silicon L, 2 ore L, 6 SPP, CIG, HEPT, (Mamm for 2 ore, 2 sil, Oz for CIG, HEPT, 2 AL + Oz for s.oil and f.farm pairs, 2 AL for 6 SPP)
5 ebc (Mamm + Oz)
7 crystal L, 7 bake L, 7 ranch L (AL & Mamm can carry one line each, 2 trips. 2 Oz for last line)
soy M, soy.farm M

It derailed my plans a bit to find out that EBCs was the one factory that the CEO's Sprite yard didn't sell.

[Sovereign01]

Is it just the planning tool that cannot handle adding stations to existing complexes, or is it the building software that trips up? I'm in the process of getting together the credits I need for a complex that has the base level stations before upgrades. I have 300M credits so far from Nividium mining, it's a slow process. I should probably start boarding, fixing and selling ships to get credits faster. I've already got a Guppy for the fixing part, Sirokos for the boarding part and some EBC-equipped M3 for boarding M6s. I don't have any ships capable of handling anything bigger, the one thing I'm still waiting for is my marines to finish their training, only one out of a couple of dozen is ready so far.

[Jimmy C]

There's an "Add existing factory or complex" command on the Planner. Click it, then select your existing complex. The problem is, the existing complex is "non-interactive" in the Planner, you can't upgrade its stations, only add new stations to it. It's acceptable for analyzing a manually built complex, but reinforces that you're better off building the entire complex at once.

As for marines, I feel you can't wait for them to finish, not unless you have another income stream already. Train them to a level you feel is adequate for boarding the ships you feel you can take on, then take them from training and start using them. After several boardings, you will have enough Fight 100 marines that it is safe to put some of them back into training and put new adequate marines into circulation.