Architect Archive

Nice charts.

There is also the interactive version at the SWGcraft.com site:

http://www.swgcraft.com/harvtool.php

thanks, I should have know that someone already did this

For mediums, the max BER is 10, and the maintenance id 60 cr/hr.

For heavys, the max BER is 13, and the maintenance id 90 cr/hr.

Every few weeks someone brings up the "cost per unit" of mining and the differences among the harvesters.

The cost per unit depends on: harvester size, concentration, BER, frequency of redeed, and cost of power. It can vary between 0.20 credits per unit up to about 0.50 credits per unit. And you know what? It doesn't matter a damn bit.

*IF* we were talking about a resource that sold at something like 0.75 credits per unit, then obviously a difference of 0.10 cpu of operating costs would have a significant difference in your final profit. But we are talking about sales prices on resources of 2-4 credits per unit and pontentially higher. The difference in cost per unit operating costs is absolutely down in the noise compared to *volume*.

Here are some numbers to chew on. Assume a 60% concentration, a re-deed every 7 days, you buy power for 1.00 cpu (of energy), and you sell the resource for 2.00 credits per unit. (Or, if you are mining for yourself, you have to *spend* 2 cpu to buy it - that's its "value" to you)

BER4 personal: Yields 3,456 units a day, for an operating cost of 1,534, or 0.44 credits per unit. Net profit of the resource is 5,378 credits per day.

BER10 medium: Yields 8,640 units a day, for an operating cost of 3,069, or 0.36 credits per unit. Net profit of the resource is 14,211 credits per day.

BER13 heavy: Yields 11,232 units a day, for an operating cost of 4,603, or 0.41 credits per unit. Net profit of the resource is 17,861 credits per day.

Lookie! A 0.05 per unit difference in operating costs between the medium and the heavy! See - clearly the medium is "better".

Bzzzzzt - wrong answer. Running the heavy gives you 2,592 more resources each day, and a *profit* of 3,650 credits a day more.

And those were very conservitive assumptions. With higher consentrations and/or higher sales price the difference at the end of the day favors the heavy more and more and more.

On the issue of placement, consider this: You find a lovely 90% concentration of something, but it's at the top of a hill, so you can only place a personal there. The personal would get you 5,184 units a day with an operating cost of 0.30. If you are only worried about operating cost (I don't know why, but maybe you are), then a BER13 heavy placed on a 82% spot will match that operating cost, although it will pump up 15,355 units (more than 10K more a day).

If, as is more likely, you really *want* that resource in as big a quantity as you can, then you would have to drop a heavy on a concentration less than 28%. That's right - any concentration of over 28% will give you more of that resource with a heavy than a personal on the 90%. So unless you only found one vein of it, peaking in the mountains, with NO trace of it elsewhere, just drop the heavy on the best you can find - the personal will never be worth the effort relative to the heavy.

heavy is better for the ber

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Buugli wrote:

The footprint on mediums and larges is huge vs. personal. That means (in my experience) I always settle for something less than the sweet spot concentration. In your opinion, does the higher BER per unit of power or maintenance (e.g. 10 BER medium vs. 4 BER personal) compensate for the loss in efficiency? Add to this the higher redeed costs and higher cost to buy the harvester, what is the "real" comparison between personals and their larger cousins?

My opinion is that the cost per unit of resource is higher with the larger harvesters. Only the 10-lot constraint makes the larger machines at all attractive.

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For me ther are a few things, first the heavys and mediums get more ressources. Sure they are more expansive then with personals, but if you could sell more things then you have ressources you should buy bigger ones. Second, I like heavys because they have a huge hopper and I only need to check them once a week.

Yup 1 BER = 1 unit per minute. 1 day = 1440 minutes. 1000 units per minute / 1440 minutes per day = 69.44% concentration. 70% (exactly) should yield 1,008 units per day.

Now, here's my question. The footprint on mediums and larges is huge vs. personal. That means (in my experience) I always settle for something less than the sweet spot concentration. In your opinion, does the higher BER per unit of power or maintenance (e.g. 10 BER medium vs. 4 BER personal) compensate for the loss in efficiency? Add to this the higher redeed costs and higher cost to buy the harvester, what is the "real" comparison between personals and their larger cousins?

My opinion is that the cost per unit of resource is higher with the larger harvesters. Only the 10-lot constraint makes the larger machines at all attractive.

I could go into the math of it, but I won't. Here is how it is:

If you have an infinite number of lots(cross server lot trades), then it is better to go with the more efficient(and cheaper) Mediums.

If you have a limited number of lots, then the greater production of a Heavy harvestor outweighs the slightly higher costs per unit.

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jol69 wrote:

I could go into the math of it, but I won't. Here is how it is:

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Please do

I went into the math. The medium *is* always slighter cheaper per unit mined. So if you could have an infinite number of harvesters you would be slightly better off running mediums than heavies.

However, there are a couple of problems with this. The first is the very obvious one - you don't have an infinate number of harvesters - you have 8 - or 10 - or 200 - some number.

The second has to do with the effort involved in deploying and servicing harvesters. If you didn't have lot limitations and wanted to pump a certain amount of resources, let's say that you could deploy 10 BER13 heavies or 13 BER10 mediums. Notice that you have to do about 30% more work to manage that group of mediums. Perhaps that difference between 10 and 13 doesn't bother you, but maybe difference between 100 and 130 would.

The facts remain:
- you have a finite number of lots
- a resource spawn lasts a *very* finite time (6-10 days) - after that it is gone
- you do a certain amount of work to survey and locate the new spawn - that effort is the same no matter how many harvesters you put up
- unless your concentation is *very very* low such that it isn't economical at all, you will absolutely make more net profit per day with heavies - period

There *are* other valid reasons for using mediums rather than heavies, having to do with capitol expense of the equipment and risk associated with lot swaps. But *operating cost* is a totally bogus arguement for favoring mediums.

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ZenDragonMLS wrote:

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Agreed, the net profit with heavies is bigger.

But the previous posters argument seemed to be that mediums are cheaper to maintain and therefore were better, does this mean that it is even better to use personals for lot swaps? they are even cheaper than mediums to maintain.

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Grisbilen wrote:

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ZenDragonMLS wrote:

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Agreed, the net profit with heavies is bigger.

But the previous posters argument seemed to be that mediums are cheaper to maintain and therefore were better, does this mean that it is even better to use personals for lot swaps? they are even cheaper than mediums to maintain.

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That depends onsome things, firstif you trade 20 lots for example - depending on the price you will invest 3-4 mio for heavys, 800k-1 mio for mediums and maybe 60k for personals. And then the maint is: 43k per day for heavys, 29k for mediums and 15k for personals. Soimo you will need a good stock of money that you can run a fleet of heavys over a longer time.I think after a certain time, when you have a few millions, most will like the heavys, because you dont have to check them so often and get more out of them.

Something to add to my charts: I did not want to say with them that everyone should use mediums.I for myself have 16 usable lots (2 accounts) and i have got 16 mediums and 16 heavys. And depending on my money I want to invest, on power I have got and type of the ressource I decide what I place. This charts are more an overview to see how much ressources you will get with what and how much it will cost you.

And another thing: profit is everything, not profit/cpu. For example if you harvest 1 ressource with 1 harvester on an 80% spot and it is worth 2cpu. you will get 11.500 units with your medium for 0,125 cpu (without power) and 15.000 with your heavy for 0,144 cpu.

So the medium gives you: 1,875 profit per Unit and the Heavy gives you 1,856 profit per unit. But overall you will get: 21.560 credits profit from your medium and 27.840 from your heavy.