Scrapping Station - estimately EC/h consumption wrong

[Scoob]

Hey all,

I've built a basic scrapping operation. It produces ECs, takes in raw scrap, converts it to scrap metal and, ultimately, produces Hull Parts and Claytronics. Great.

When building such a station, ample Energy Cell production is of course a must. On my current station, it produces 905k ECs per hour but consumes at most 558k ECs per hour, according to the Logical Station overview. This, in theory, gives a nice buffer of ECs. So much so, I've said it can SELL any over 750k.

However, despite seemingly over-producing EC's by 350k an hour, reserves are still draining, and have dropped well below the "Sell all But:" level of 750k. Note that I am of course aware of the difference between the Claytronics and Hull Parts cycles, with the former using significantly more. I can also see how the "estimate" is the Claytronics and Hull Parts figure combined, even though it's only doing one or the other.

Now, currently, this station is FULL of Hull Parts - artificial storage limit set by me - so it's ONLY producing Claytronics, the more expensive (EC) ware. This suggests that the estimate is WAY out. On this station, Claytronics alone reportedly uses 432k EC's and hour, yet my 905k EC's production isn't enough to support that.

Basically, the maths is wrong here, the station is giving incorrect EC consumption values. Bare in mind that, occasionally, a scrap processor will go idle for a moment as a cycle completes and another wreck is delivered. Idle time is low, when wrecks are plentiful, but that estimated EC usage should, if anything, be HIGHER than the actual values.

Perhaps there's an explanation for this, some averaging of values between Claytronics and Hull Parts. However, the bottom line is that the Logical Station Overview vastly under estimates Energy Cell usage for this station. Sure, I can build more Solar Modules - exactly what I'm currently doing - but having accurate EC consumption data would be useful.

Anyone else noticed this? Easy enough to work-around the miss-reported consumption values, but a pain if you get caught out, and find you're station has been stalling repeatedly for hours.

[z1ppeh]

Basically, the maths is wrong here, the station is giving incorrect EC consumption values. Bare in mind that, occasionally, a scrap processor will go idle for a moment as a cycle completes and another wreck is delivered. Idle time is low, when wrecks are plentiful, but that estimated EC usage should, if anything, be HIGHER than the actual values.

Guide here with all the quickmaths explained for you dude https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2810269037

[TheDeliveryMan]

If you are interested in the correct numbers, the Scrapp Guide has them. See z1ppeh's post above.

An alternating recycler concumes per hour 72k EC for claytronics and 21k EC for hull parts. Assuming you have six recyclers, that would make 6 * 72k EC = 432k EC for claytronics and 6 * 21k EC = 126k EC for hull parts, 558k EC total. These are the numbers you see in the LSO.

I had quick look at my recycling stations, and for some reason the processors are not included in the calculation of energy consumption, seems like bug. Each processor consumes at most 90k EC per hour. If you have a couple of processors, the displayed consumption is already off by a few 100k EC.

Since your recyclers are producing claytronics full time, their actual energy consumption per hour is 2 * 432k EC = 864k EC. In this mode, you will need 6 * 3600 Scrap Metal per hour. A processor consumes 10 EC to turn 1 Raw Scrap into Scrap Metal. So that adds another 10 * 6 * 3600 EC = 216k EC consumption per hour.

In total your station consumes 864k EC + 216k EC = 1080k EC per hour. No suprise, your station is running out of energy.

[Scoob]

Hi,

Thanks guys. I just came back to say that the calculation appears to be excluding the Processor(s) from the total EC consumption figure, which is of course what throws things out.

Basically, my initial point remains though, the Logical Station Overview screen is reporting the wrong values for total EC demand, but we know why now at least.

@z1ppeh: I did look at that document, thank you.

@TheDeliveryMan: thanks for breaking down the numbers. I did the same, just checking actual consumption of each module to verify things. Those Processing Modules do indeed seem to be what's missing from the presented EC consumption values.

I usually go a little overboard on EC production at such stations, so haven't really properly noticed this before. I mean, I've seen EC storage going down overall, so I just add some more panels without thinking too much about the precise numbers. This time however, I settled on a theoretically "enough" amount of panels based on what I planned to build, which of course highlighted this issue.

I ended up adding four more panels (over 200% sunlight in this sector), and the Workforce bonus will kick-in soon too. This station now provides all ECs, Claytronics and Hull Parts needed for construction. Will likely add another Processing module and perhaps three more Recyclers. The Ratio of 1 Processor feeding three Recyclers works well. However, having additional Processors just to speed-up wreck drop-off is the main reason.

As an aside, and this was true several game versions ago, having TWO Processors does not reliably double the Wreckage intake of a station. I don't quite understand why that is. There was the picking a Processor at random issue, where an already busy Processor might be picked for drop-off - which didn't happen of course. That was fixed some time ago though, as I understand it. With ONE Processors, I will see it idle BUT a wreck will be incoming right away. With TWO Processors, I can often see one or two of them idle, multiple Tugs waiting near the station but drop-off is oddly delayed.

I did a test, a few game versions back, of three separate Scrap Processor stations - one Processor each - vs. one station with three Scrap Processors, and the former had less down-time. Strange but true.