Architect Archive

It is really wicked. I have subcomponents that are experimented to 99% right now and get BER10 mediums just fine. Every friggin single heavy I try to make ends up as a BER11 or 12 though because I cannot get anything better than 'medium success' on the first experimentation of the final product. This is driving me *NUTS*.

dont be lured to the dark side. hopper size may be important to your customers. hopper size doesnt matter if you play this game everyday, for hours. some of us have other commitments(school, job, family, etc) and only get on when we can. I feel lucky when I get on for a few hours on the weekend. when my job slows down i will have more game time. but untill then, i leave my harvesters go and fill up the hopper. more hopper space is what I need more that extraction rate. extraction rate wont matter to me at all, only hopper size. in the 5 days that i am away, all my harvs and power gens fill and i get stacks of resources. i plan on keeping this going for a while untill i can spend uber amounts of time in game. just my opinion.

For how the quality of different resources affects the quality of the final BER, bith when making the 'operating unit' and in the final assembly you could do worse than take a look at this:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=architect&message.id=43465

The Crafter's Assistant is great, but it isn't necessarily gospel. It could easily be off 1-3% on various breakpoints.

Here's a suggestion. Go *all out* on making the mining component - get it as high as possible. Make a batch of them.

Then choose a mix for your final assembly that *should* (according to the calculations) get you to BER13. Then try to make one harvester. Before you even start experimenting, take a look at the extraction line and try to guage what it's "max" is, and compare that to the Crafter's Assistant's prediction. Experiment it up to BER10 (or BER13 - whichever you are shooting for), and make note of where it crossed the line to the max rate. Then experiment on the hopper size or not - your choice.

I would try this with mediums first, just to get a feel for it. If you hit the max, then *make a schematic* if at all possible (ie., you have enough of the components to make it worthwhile). If you blow it, then make a prototype and discount it. If, however, you get a serious of "great" results and get to the top percentage on the final without hitting the max, then you'll know that you tried to cheap out too much on the mix. Go back to the Crafter's Assistant and richen up your final assembly mix a bit.

Let us know how it goes.

Quick question... If I make a schematic for a light ore mining unit and run off a bunch in a factory, then I make a Extractor schematic using one of those factory-made mining units, do I need to use just those mining units when I make the Extractors in the factory? Which means that once I run out of factory-made mining units, my Extractor schematic is also useless?

Yes. When you make a schematic for light ore mining units (for example), then that schematic wires in *exactly* those named resources, so you must use ABC steel and DEF metal, for example, to run that. Furthermore, *every* LOMU made with that schematic will get the *same* serial number assigned to it. (Notice that you can run these in batches - put in enough resources for 20 of them and produce them - then 2 weeks later load those same resources in and get another 20 of them - every one of them will have the same serial number).

So the same logic applies when you take a generator turbine, LOMU, Small system storage module, structure modules, and the resources for final assembly and make a schematic for a BER10 medium mineral harvester. That schematic wires in not only the specific resource names (XYZ steel) but it wires in the specific serial numbers for ALL of those components (with one notable exception). So before you make a schematic for harvesters, you need to either have on hand "n" of each of the components or have set aside enough resources to continue making batches of those components.

For example, if you had 20 LOMU on hand but only 7 factory-produced generator turbines, and no way of making any more turbines, that harvester schematic is only going to give you 6 harvesters (because you eat one whole harvester of materials to make the schematic). So really look at your components before you plan some factory runs. Managing resources, components, and the flow through your factory is much trickier than it seems.

The one exception I mentioned earlier is that schematics do NOT wire in the serial numbers for structural modules or wall modules. So you can safely use an arbitrary mix of those from arbitrary sources and the schematic will still produce your harvesters. This is important to know because that way you can assemble all of the components and the resources for final assembly for 30 BER13 Heavy Mineral Harvesters (for example), and make a schematic even though you only have 7 walls on hand. Then as you produce walls tomorrow or next week, just dump them into the factory and produce your harvesters.

Ievb, If you read the post I mentioned you will find towards the bottom a listing of how I believe the calculation, or weighting of the resources affects the whole thing. It should be simple to put into a spreadsheet. I suggest you do the calculations as I showand play around trying the model (theoretically) with different of your available resources. When you get a mix of resources that seems to work and gives you your required target result while optimising on your usage of high vs grind quality resources, then try to make something.