Complex planning

General discussion about X³: Farnham's Legacy.

Moderators: Moderators for English X Forum, Moderators for the X3:FL Forums

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Thu, 2. Dec 21, 00:04

I've started applying L upgrades, my Elephant can carry 2 kits at a time and luckily I don't need to be in sector to use them. What I didn't know was that factories had to carry out a certain number of cycles before they could be upgraded as well, that could be a serious problem if the thing they're making takes a long time to produce, or do items with long cycle times need less?

Deathifier
Posts: 160
Joined: Wed, 6. Nov 02, 20:31
xr

Re: Complex planning

Post by Deathifier » Thu, 2. Dec 21, 06:02

Sovereign01 wrote:
Thu, 2. Dec 21, 00:04
I've started applying L upgrades, my Elephant can carry 2 kits at a time and luckily I don't need to be in sector to use them. What I didn't know was that factories had to carry out a certain number of cycles before they could be upgraded as well, that could be a serious problem if the thing they're making takes a long time to produce, or do items with long cycle times need less?
Generally longer cycle time items need less cycles to upgrade, the larger weapons for example need a single cycle for each upgrade, even to XXL.

For longer cycle time items I found it to be a good idea to stop the stations production when it is on the last cycle.
Upgrades, once queued, only start when the station is not producing / has finished a production cycle.
By stopping production the station will halt when it finishes the cycle and you can apply the upgrade immediately whereas if you let it continue producing it will start another cycle before you can apply the upgrade and that can be quite the wait for some items.

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Fri, 3. Dec 21, 16:33

I've been applying upgrades while using agents to obtain the plans for the various sizes of upgrades with a view to producing my own. Weirdly the acquisition of the Split M-size upgrade succeeded but the Argon L-size one failed despite the latter having a higher chance of success than the former so I'm taking another crack at that one, the dozen or so upgrades I have on the go are taking place while my HQ is busy producing another TOA, after which will be 8 mining drones for my Cormorant to bolster my mobile mining. The Computer Components are proving to be a popular product, selling well even at full price so logically I should upgrade that one first. All this is being funded by the credits made by the HQ selling the Nividium I've gathered which is ongoing.

I have noticed occasions where HSAP sector contents do not match the information here, such as for Dark Waters (claimed by the Boron), where in my game it has more silicon 'roids and no nividium ones, or Consecrated Fire not having as many high-yield asteroids as it claims, which leads me to suspect that RNG applies to sector contents as much as it does to the accessibility of sectors themselves.

Jimmy C
Posts: 1130
Joined: Tue, 17. Jul 12, 02:50
x3tc

Re: Complex planning

Post by Jimmy C » Fri, 3. Dec 21, 18:22

My agents acquired the plans for the XL upgrade but I decided 1 and a half hours per unit for 42 stations was too much. I went back to buying the upgrades.

Deathifier
Posts: 160
Joined: Wed, 6. Nov 02, 20:31
xr

Re: Complex planning

Post by Deathifier » Fri, 3. Dec 21, 21:33

Sovereign01 wrote:
Fri, 3. Dec 21, 16:33
I have noticed occasions where HSAP sector contents do not match the information here, such as for Dark Waters (claimed by the Boron), where in my game it has more silicon 'roids and no nividium ones, or Consecrated Fire not having as many high-yield asteroids as it claims, which leads me to suspect that RNG applies to sector contents as much as it does to the accessibility of sectors themselves.
The asteroids in remote locations (i.e. behind HSAP's) are indeed randomised at game start.

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Sat, 4. Dec 21, 01:37

Jimmy C wrote:
Fri, 3. Dec 21, 18:22
My agents acquired the plans for the XL upgrade but I decided 1 and a half hours per unit for 42 stations was too much. I went back to buying the upgrades.
I followed the same rationale that it's better to buy the things and only make what I cannot get elsewhere. I've been buying and using the L-to-XL upgrades and have done most of my complex, the upgrade times are not bad however I know it will be a different story with the XL-to-XXL. Surprisingly though I haven't seen any interest in either the space fuel or space weed that my complex produces so I've reduced the price to see who bites. That's the downside of building a complex in the middle of nowhere, however traders are buying up the quantum tubes and computer components even at max price. Once the XL fabs are consistently producing them the income will arrive, and the chips are enabling production of mining drones. My HQ is currently making its third mining drone out of eight and my Cormorant is full of Nividium, once its drones fill up I'll call it back to the HQ where hopefully the rest of the drones will be ready. For some reason the yield 3,5 and 7 asteroids in sectors like Perpetual Sin and the one next to Xenon 534 have yielded more nividium than the 12 & 18 ones in The Void alpha. One good thing about the mining taking so long is that it gives previously-mined asteroids enough time to respawn. P. Sin is on its second go-around, 2 of the 3 asteroids have so far respawned. No sign of the third yet.
The asteroids in remote locations (i.e. behind HSAP's) are indeed randomised at game start.
I wish I'd known this when I was deciding which sectors to claim, I'm going to have to check each one individually although the accessibility issues remain since one is behind Strong Arms and the other behind Pirates.
Last edited by Sovereign01 on Sat, 4. Dec 21, 17:11, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Ketraar
EGOSOFT
EGOSOFT
Posts: 11740
Joined: Fri, 21. May 04, 17:15
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Ketraar » Sat, 4. Dec 21, 15:01

Deathifier wrote:
Fri, 3. Dec 21, 21:33
The asteroids in remote locations (i.e. behind HSAP's) are indeed randomised at game start.
Very much so. This is akin to having the UFJD Sector and make each playthrough less samy.

But allow me the OT note here to say how my heart warms up reading these discussion around profit strategies. :-)

MFG

Ketraar
Image

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Sun, 5. Dec 21, 17:10

Ketraar wrote:
Sat, 4. Dec 21, 15:01
Deathifier wrote:
Fri, 3. Dec 21, 21:33
The asteroids in remote locations (i.e. behind HSAP's) are indeed randomised at game start.
Very much so. This is akin to having the UFJD Sector and make each playthrough less samy.

But allow me the OT note here to say how my heart warms up reading these discussion around profit strategies. :-)

MFG

Ketraar
Cutting the price of the fuel and weed to average-1 did the trick, got a steady stream of customers buying it as fast as I can make it. Won't break even for a while though! :lol:

Jimmy C
Posts: 1130
Joined: Tue, 17. Jul 12, 02:50
x3tc

Re: Complex planning

Post by Jimmy C » Sun, 5. Dec 21, 17:49

I posted previously that something seems to have gone wrong with Reports on my station, no progress there. However, I found the Accounts Transaction Report, a separate report function that lists each individual transaction of a station and its homebased ships. It timestamps every time credits changed hands for one of those.
Thanks to that, I now know my Kestrel on Manual Trade Run takes between 7 and 8 minutes to make a round trip to sell a stack of EBCs. Which is good, because that means it sells 96 EBCs in an hour while my complex makes 100 EBCs per hour. one stack of 16 EBCs sells for 2,418,304 credits, so it took 414 trips to make over one billion credits. 414 trips multiplied by 8 minutes is 55.2 hours.
My MTR Blastclaw Prototype selling Hammers is also selling about the production rate of those missiles so that one's doing good too. Although I had to set it to autojump one way then fly back normally because I thought it was taking too long. I think I should do that for the Blastclaw selling the Flails too. But I'll have to check on the timing later.

The thing is, I hadn't set up the MTR loops to be this close to the production rate deliberately. Good thing it worked out for these. It didn't work out for the other missiles. I'm going to need slower ships for those.

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Sun, 5. Dec 21, 18:02

I have an XL factory for Flails and Hammers, won't be selling any of those until I have enough to load up my Aquilo, haven't had a chance to test it yet.

Jimmy C
Posts: 1130
Joined: Tue, 17. Jul 12, 02:50
x3tc

Re: Complex planning

Post by Jimmy C » Sun, 5. Dec 21, 18:05

Sovereign01 wrote:
Sun, 5. Dec 21, 18:02
I have an XL factory for Flails and Hammers, won't be selling any of those until I have enough to load up my Aquilo, haven't had a chance to test it yet.
I'm already fully stocked on my Flail and Hammer reserves, that's why I was selling them. This beats manually selling a TS full of them every few hours.

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Sun, 5. Dec 21, 22:48

Jimmy C wrote:
Sun, 5. Dec 21, 18:05
Sovereign01 wrote:
Sun, 5. Dec 21, 18:02
I have an XL factory for Flails and Hammers, won't be selling any of those until I have enough to load up my Aquilo, haven't had a chance to test it yet.
I'm already fully stocked on my Flail and Hammer reserves, that's why I was selling them. This beats manually selling a TS full of them every few hours.
Just to see what would happen I took my Aquilo to Sanctuary of Darkness to see if I could clear out the Xenon. The ship autofired enough Hammers for the enemy capships, I just didn't have enough of the things, I will need to be patient.

UPDATE: I managed to get enough missiles to fully load the Aquilo, the AI is intelligent enough to fire the right number of Hammers for the type of capship you're up against. Most of the time anyway. I found that the Xenon do respawn in that sector and they even have a station there. So as far as Nividium mining goes, that sector is off-limits.

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Wed, 8. Dec 21, 03:57

I'm now planning my second complex, this one in Akeela's Beacon Beta which was the first sector I'd chosen to put a TOA in, back when I didn't know what I was doing :lol: The sector only has two asteroids, but those two asteroids happen to be silicon with yields of 71 and 122 and perfect for what I intend to make, there's enough silicon there to run 8 XXL Space Fuel and 8 XXL Space Weed facilities. The downside is that unlike with the previous complex being a remote sector this one needs a TOA to get to and it's a long way from the gate meaning TLs carrying upgrade kits will take forever to get there. One potential solution is to buy a pirate TL which with its superior speed and cargo capacity can carry more upgrade kits and deliver them faster than the Elephant.

Deathifier
Posts: 160
Joined: Wed, 6. Nov 02, 20:31
xr

Re: Complex planning

Post by Deathifier » Wed, 8. Dec 21, 06:07

You could use single-use jump beacons to temporarily create a jump destination in the sector.

DanKara
Posts: 416
Joined: Fri, 21. Dec 18, 13:19
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by DanKara » Wed, 8. Dec 21, 07:49

Don’t you know how to get reliably JumpBeacons without searching/fighting/boarding/looting RRF- or Xenon-Capitals (vanilla, 1.3)?
:o

Deathifier
Posts: 160
Joined: Wed, 6. Nov 02, 20:31
xr

Re: Complex planning

Post by Deathifier » Wed, 8. Dec 21, 12:08

DanKara wrote:
Wed, 8. Dec 21, 07:49
Don’t you know how to get reliably JumpBeacons without searching/fighting/boarding/looting RRF- or Xenon-Capitals (vanilla, 1.3)?
:o
The reusable ones are only on RRF and Xenon capitals, the single-use ones you can buy from TerraCorp.

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Wed, 8. Dec 21, 15:40

Deathifier wrote:
Wed, 8. Dec 21, 12:08
DanKara wrote:
Wed, 8. Dec 21, 07:49
Don’t you know how to get reliably JumpBeacons without searching/fighting/boarding/looting RRF- or Xenon-Capitals (vanilla, 1.3)?
:o
The reusable ones are only on RRF and Xenon capitals, the single-use ones you can buy from TerraCorp.
I would have to steal those, Terracorp currently hates my guts! :lol:

Jimmy C
Posts: 1130
Joined: Tue, 17. Jul 12, 02:50
x3tc

Re: Complex planning

Post by Jimmy C » Wed, 8. Dec 21, 17:10

Sovereign01 wrote:
Wed, 8. Dec 21, 15:40
I would have to steal those, Terracorp currently hates my guts! :lol:
Even if they were friendly, you'd need nearly max rep to buy. Just steal them. Get friendly and you can sell them back too, for the most valuable of such transactions!

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: Complex planning

Post by Sovereign01 » Wed, 8. Dec 21, 20:40

By "single-use", does that mean "only good for one jump", or as in "cannot be picked up again once placed", or both? I had a feeling those guys were good for more than just jumpdrive installation kits. I need to take the edge off their hostility anyway, got half a dozen of their ships red to me in the Xenon hub. I should get an OTAS Boreas while I have the necessary rep.

Jimmy C
Posts: 1130
Joined: Tue, 17. Jul 12, 02:50
x3tc

Re: Complex planning

Post by Jimmy C » Wed, 8. Dec 21, 21:07

Sovereign01 wrote:
Wed, 8. Dec 21, 20:40
By "single-use", does that mean "only good for one jump", or as in "cannot be picked up again once placed", or both? I had a feeling those guys were good for more than just jumpdrive installation kits. I need to take the edge off their hostility anyway, got half a dozen of their ships red to me in the Xenon hub. I should get an OTAS Boreas while I have the necessary rep.
From what I heard, cannot be picked up again and they expire after a while. However, at the low, low price of 2.2 million, they are worth deploying for things like complex construction in a remote sector or bringing in a ship to capture an M1 or M2. After all, you need an alternate before you can go after a beacon.

And since it's more practical to steal it, who cares about the price?

Post Reply

Return to “X³: Farnham's Legacy”