Architect Archive
Thread: BER 13 vs 10
Ok, I'm not an architect, so I need some help on this one:
A Heavy Harvester requires 1.5x the maintenance/power as a Medium Harvester.
Yet, 13 does not = 1.5(10). So why in the world, if I'm simply looking at it from an efficiency standpoint, would I want a Heavy? Is there something I'm missing, or is it all about lots? Please help me make an informed decision on my purchases. Thanks guys.
I wish I could figure this out myself. Let me explain a little backstory though. When I started playing back in late august, the harvesters had the following static stats that could not be changed....
Personal: BER 2KG/h
Medium: BER 4KG/h
Heavy: BER 7KG/h
So, when buying a heavy, there was a difference. The heavy pulled almost twice as much as the medium. Times have change, however, and this is not the case anymore. So, why purchase a BER 13KG/h heavy over a BER 10KG/h Medium...to be honest, I can't answer that question. I really wishI could. I think those are around more for the hardcore resource suppliers where the difference in 3KG/h can be a lot at times. And, probably for those very very rich crafters that need that little extra each day.
Anian
Look at the math. Here's an example of a BER 10 and a BER 13 on a 80% concentration of a resource.
BER 10 Medium Harvestor:
.80 x 10 = 8 harvested per minute
8 x 60 seconds = 480 per hour
480 x 24hrs = 11520 units harvested per day.
Maitenance: $1200 per day
Power Consumption: 1440 per day
BER 13 Heavy harvestor:
.80 x 13 = 10.4 harvested per minute
10.4 x 60 seconds = 624 per hour
624 x 24hrs = 14976 units harvested per day.
Maitenance: $2160 per day
Power Consumption: 1800 per day
You decide what you can afford and what is desirable to you. BER 13's produce more but cost more. Though the difference is about 3K in resources, if you have for instance 3 on a 80% concentraion compared to 3 BER 10's, you'll see a far higher increase of resources mined.
Really the only reasonsare as follows.
1) I'm useing all 10 of my lots, yet still need more <insert resource here>.
2) I'm useing all 10 of my lots, yet still need more <insert resource here>
The cost per unit variance between a medium and a heavy is negligible at best, so you make the choice. Without going heavy into the maths, I make more profit useing heavies because of volume.
Dronayus wrote:
Look at the math. Here's an example of a BER 10 and a BER 13 on a 80% concentration of a resource.
BER 10 Medium Harvestor:
.80 x 10 = 8 harvested per minute
8 x 60 seconds = 480 per hour
480 x 24hrs = 11520 units harvested per day.
Maitenance: $1200 per day
Power Consumption: 1440 per day
BER 13 Heavy harvestor:
.80 x 13 = 10.4 harvested per minute
10.4 x 60 seconds = 624 per hour
624 x 24hrs = 14976 units harvested per day.
Maitenance: $2160 per day
Power Consumption: 1800 per day
Here's the only answer you need:
Even assuming worst case scenario #1 --an outrageous price of 2 cpu for power--the total cost per day of operating a medium is 4080. The cost is 5760 for a heavy for a difference of 1680 credits.
Then, even assuming the virtual worst case scenario---that you can only find a 50% spot to harvest on--you would harvest 7200 units with the medium per day, and 9360 for a heavy, for a difference of 2160 units.
Finally, chances are if you want a resource, someone else is gonna want some of it too. Even assuming worst case scenario #3 --that you can only get 1 cpu for the extra stuff you don't want -- you've still made out to the tune of 480 credits per harvester, per day.
Realistically speaking, the difference will be much more significant, about 9000 credits per harvester per day (assuming 1 cpu for power and about 3 cpu for selling surplus harvested at 80% concentration). That difference alone will pay for your heavy harvester in full in just 25 days, even if you paid 225K for it.
If you want to make more money, use a heavy. If you don't, use a medium.
People who dont have so much money get mediums.
Simplified: don't look at cost-per-resource. Look at profit-per-lot. Your lots (and the time to service harvesters) are the limiting factor. Regardless of how many lots worth of harvesters you have, you will make approximately 25% more profit with heavies than with mediums.
The real reason not to use heavies is capital expense. To completely tool up with heavy minerals (10 lots) will cost you (on my server) 1.8 million or so. Tooling up with medium minerals will cost you 0.4 million - so mediums are a more efficient use of capital until you can afford to invest in more capacity.
You have finite lots. You have finite time. A resource spawn only lasts so long. It doesn't take any more time to survey for heavies, or service them, or place them. Pumping up 30% more material per lot is more money in the bank.
There is another reason why heavy gives more advantage than a medium which is capacity.
The storage capacity of mediums is 50-55k (usually, whereas heavies have double that). If you consider that at 70-80% concentration of resource will give you a10k units a day (plus)that means that the mediums storage room will fill faster then the shift time period. Meaning you will need to spend more time attending your harvesters (sme people already do, however others not)
Yes, if you are low on cash you can use small BER 4 or medium 10.
If you have plenty of cash and few lots to use, then heavy 13 is the way.
For renting lots, use small BER 4 or medium BER 10, because if you rent 10 lot with 10 heavy 13, you are going to be a bit mad if the guy you have rented the lots quit and you will never get your heavy backs...
heavys aremore expensive per unit but u get more also. using the example above.
80% med = 11,520 a day @ 0.44 cpu
80% heavy = 14,976 a day @ 0.50 cpu
this is taken into account maintance rates for each harvestor and nrg cost @ 3cpu