Update 08/oct/2006: Sheet updated, more data, more user-friendly
Update 1/14/2006: Link fixed
Very proud to present:
An Excel spreadsheet, made by Merroc and myself, that does this:
It shows how the loop end product profitabilities compare, meaning: when production of that product is supported by an energy loop. It also shows how they compare to selling the e-cells instead, if you hadn't used them to create the product, plus loads of other data, such as the return you're getting on each energy cell used in creating a product.
You *can* use it for open loops, to some extent, aslong as it's an open loop that sells but doesn't buy its e-cells/produces them itself. In this case you just get extra profit from the trading station trick, on top of what is shown. If you use it for open loops though (to determine what end product you want to create) keep in mind that even though a certain end product (drones) potentially makes the most profit, you should also think about the total profit the entire loop makes. In other words, the profits of all the individual stations in the loop, added up. Each inbetween product in an open loop sells its product at max, and then it gets bought back at average. The difference between max and average, the cycle time and the number of products produced per cycle, determine how much one factory makes per hour, by using the “trading station trick”. I’d love to add all that data to the sheet, but I have other things to do, unfortunately. My sheet (and guide) creation time has run out, atleast for a while.
It was originally created for my guide on loops that will be up soon, but I figured this should get its own thread, so it isn't missed. (*cough*bump*cough*)
I couldn't have done it without Merroc, so put your hands together.
http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/q.zonn ... bility.xls
The way to use the spreadsheet is obviously by sorting the data for the column you want to look at. How to do that is explained, at the top.
If anyone can host a mirror to ensure long-term availability, please do.
CHANGELOG:
v1.0: Initial release.
v1.01: Average price of Beta IRE fixed
v1.02: Cycle time of SPP slightly changed to match "speed' of cfab.
v1.03: An attempt to "fix" the SPP stats - failed.
v1.04: SPP stats NOW truly honestly and completely and finally fixed! Yeah! Also had to update columns N and P, accordingly.
v1.1: Pending.
Please update the mirror, too.
The loops guide is done:
http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=73990
It complements the excel sheet, and vice versa.
To further explain the purpose of this excel sheet, I quote from the introduction of the guide:
Lone Factories
Lone factories, especially SPP's, are the most profitable. The problem is that your empire tends to spread out over a huge number of sectors, making all those lone factories very hard to defend. It's also just plain handy to have things grouped together more. You could throw several factories in one sector, or in a few sectors that are close together, but often times and sooner or later you will find yourself running low on resources, or unable to sell your wares if you have several factories of the same type. You can make it your job to support the local economy with whatever low-level wares the AI factories need, but if you don't want to do that, or only want to sell wares that give the best returns…
Loops
This is where loops come in. There are two types of loop, closed and open.
Closed Loops
Generally used to create “for free”, tech items for personal use. They give you a certainty that the wares go from player station to player station through direct delivery. The downside is that if one of those freighters gets destroyed, the whole loop grinds to a halt. More importantly, Closed loops aren't very profitable at all in comparison to open loops and lone stations. Personally, I would use open loops, even if it was just to make tech items for personal use. Then atleast you make an (extra) profit along the way. “Closed loops generate a product economically, not so much money, because the credits are simply passed from your right hand to your left.” (*thanks for that quote, b-b-q). So selling the end product does give you a profit, but open loops generate more of it. You really should only use Closed loops if you’re going to use the end product yourself, and you really don’t want any fuss, e.g. just deliver the wares from one station to the other and not worry about selling and buying. If you don’t need any more credits and you just want to make sure you always have 125MW shields at the ready, set that 125MW factory to not trade with the locals, and this is the way to go. (Store them elsewhere and keep producing, then prepare a Julian invasion - triggered by too many Split being in their sectors.)
Open Loops
They are essentially a number of stations strung together, like in a closed loop, with two major differences. (1)The supplying factories passively sell their wares to trading stations at maximum price. Then the next factory in line, which needs those wares, buys them back from the trading stations at average price. This adds extra profits, when compared to a closed loop. (2)Although the end (tech) product of a closed loop can be sold, it often isn't because the player who owns the loop would like to keep its product for his own use. The Open loop is different in that all the products it creates are sold for profits (except the primary food, which the trading stations don’t buy, and is often too scarce to be able to buy back). And as a general rule, whatever your open loop takes from the sector/area it is in, it should also provide to the sector/area. Combinations of the closed and open loops are ofcourse possible. P.S.: I don’t consider a loop that buys its energy cells an open loop, because that seems rather pointless to me. My idea of an open loop is a closed loop that sells its products along the way, including the end product, but not necessarily including the primary (low level) food product.
The Profitability Spreadsheet
To find out which end products make the most profit when produced by a loop, use this spreadsheet created by Merroc and myself. It can be found here:
http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=73918
The spreadsheet does many things.
First of all, it proves the fact that selling surplus energy cells directly is less profitable than using them to create a product (e-cells is a possibility!) and then selling that. You might notice the SPP is the most profitable station on the list, by far. Meaning, an SPP supported by another SPP that also supports itself, is more profitable than e.g. a Drone Factory that is supported by an SPP that also supports itself. But don't be a fool and support one SPP with the other like that. Build them seperately and let them each support themselves. Incase you have two: that way they both sell 50% of the total e-cells and do 50% of the total supporting, instead of one doing all the supporting and the other doing all the selling, which is more dangerous - if one freighter goes, everything suffers instead of half of it.
A lone SPP that lets its supporting factories buy their own e-cells, is only more profitable than a 'looped' SPP (=provides the e-cells for its supporting factories), if they can buy them at <9.56 Cr per e-cell. Assuming they can't, the best way to go, is build looped SPPs (all seperate from each other) that sell their remaining e-cells, until the market starts to saturate and your selling price has to drop dramatically. When that happens you can either move on to a new area/sector, or start building loops that produce an end product, e.g. Drones, which is the next most profitable thing. (provided you can sell them)
The sheet contains a huge amount of interesting data, but it applies to closed loops that only sell their end-product. You *can* use it for open loops, in that case you just get extra profit from the trading station trick, on top of what is shown. If you use it for open loops though (to determine what end product you want to create) keep in mind that even though a certain end product (drones) potentially makes the most profit, you should also think about the total profit the entire loop makes. In other words, the profits of all the individual stations in the loop, added up. Each inbetween product in an open loop sells its product at max, and then it gets bought back at average. The difference between max and average, the cycle time and the number of products produced per cycle, determine how much one factory makes per hour, by using the “trading station trick”. I’d love to add all that data to the sheet, but I have other things to do, unfortunately. My sheet and guide creation time has run out.
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