Artisan Archive

I've been doing some research on the harvesters I've built, and wanted to throw the numbers out there to see if anyone else sees the same thing. Are my figures close to what you're seeing? Or am I missing the boat? This seems like an important concept, given that we all now have to start actually paying those maintenance fees...

Wind Generator

Based on what I've seen, it looks like the maximum generation per hour for a wind generator is 260 units per hour of run time. This assumes that you're sitting on a 100% efficiency spot, which of course doesn't exist, but I'll get to that in a minute. The maintenance cost is 50 credits per hour, giving us this:

50 credits / 260 units = 0.19 credits per unit of power produced

Now, since we all know that we never find a 100% location for the generator, let's take a more realistic assumption of a 50% spot. This changes the math to:

50 credits / 130 units = 0.48 credits per unit of power produced

This seems pretty cheap, given that most resources seem to be selling on the bazzar for between 5 and 10 credits per unit. I'd love to have a 90% profit margin on the merchandise I sell in my real-life store!

Harvesters and Extractors

All of the harvesters and extractors I've built and used appear to have a maximum output of about 125 units per hour, again assuming a 100% concentration. The maintenance costs are 30 credits per hour. We also need power at the rate of 25 units per hour. Assuming we use the 50% ratio on power generation, that gives us an additional power cost of 12.5 credits per hour (roundedoff for simplicity).

30 maintenance credits + 12.5 cost of power = 42.5 credits per hour to run

42.5 credits / 125 units = 0.34 credits per unit

change that to a mediocre 50% concentration, and we get:

42.5 credits / 62.5 units = 0.68 credits per unit

So, with mediocre power generation rates and a pretty unimpressive concentration of resources, we're still going to get a cost per unit that's 1/10th of what people are charging on the open market. This doesn't include the cost of building the harvester/generator in the first place, or any incidental costs you incur while running back and forth (like being eaten by a Deranged Vrix). It also doesn't deal with the cost it takes to redeed and move the harvester to a new spot when resources change, although it may still end up being cheaper to simply destroy the old one and build a brand new one in its place. Of course, if they fix the bug with harvesters sucking up power even when turned off, it might become possible to simply shut down a harvester in a bad spot for a couple of days and turn it back on when the resources move again.

Anyhow, just thought I'd throw these out. If I've overlooked something or my math is wrong, please feel free to come up with a corrected formula - I was a physics major once, but my mind has atrophied and isn't quite as sharp as it used to be....

Erialc
Corbantis

Do you have the numbers right? I thought that Wind Power Generator maximum is 500 per hour and small mineral harvesters were 200 per hour assuming you are at 100% location.

50 credits / 130 units = 0.48 credits per unit of power produced

That should be .38 c/p

"Do you have the numbers right? I thought that Wind Power Generator maximum is 500 per hour and small mineral harvesters were 200 per hour assuming you are at 100% location. "

You're correct that the machines themselves SAY something like 5kg/hr and 2kg/hr, but in practice I've never seen anything close to that. If those really are the maximums at 100%, then the costs per unit will be even lower. Check me on this - see what rates you're actually getting on your generator. I just built a new one tonight to double check, so I'lllook in a few hours to see what's in the hopper.

As for my math on the other part: 50 / 130 = .38, duh!! I told you my mind isn't what it used to be... Even more importantly, though, the hourly rate on the generator is actually 60 - I could have sworn it was 50, but on the new one I just built it was definitely 60 per hour. This brings it closer to my original number, at 0.46.

In any case, math errors notwithstanding, the general point is that even with maintenance high it shouldstill be quiteprofitable to run generators and harvesters. I'd love to find out I've erred on the conservative side, and that it's even cheaper to run than I'd thought...

Having a problem posting an HTML link. I wanted to point ya to the SWGcraft.com calculator, so guess I'll do it manually:

Head to SWGcraft.com and click the Tools button

I started an experiment last night, but logged out before we could figure out what was more cost effective.

We switched one of our Harvestors to harvesting RadioActive materials to use as power. We were lucky I guess, as the Percent around our other harvestors was 85%

Our feeling was that Genarators cost a bit more to maintain, and if we could harvest the power faster and cheaper than why not try?

Anyone see a hole in this logic?? Again we just set it up this way late last night so I won't know how we are doing til tonight when I get home from work.

Only problem I see with Harvesting radioactive minerals for power is that the harvestor costs power itself, that will cut your output and might actually make wind a better resource. Wind generators don't require power to run so that's what makes them viable, even with in the 50's for percentage.

You did overlook one thing in you calculations.

You never put the energy into the harvester. That is, you figured out the cost of wind energy per unit, and the cost of maintenance on the harvester per unit, but not how much power is consumed per unit of resource, which adds to total cost per unit of resource.

I still agree with your main point, though. Harvesters are still profitable. The profit margin isn't 90%, but it's there.

DARNAIQ

I had the same HTML posting problems... its actually a default setting in your profile, You can uncheck the Disable HTML and it allows you to post links.

Darniaq, thanks for the link to swgcraft.com! This is exactly the type of info I've been looking for and trying to collect, so that site is going to save me a bunch of time. The Harvest Calculator tool looks to be right in line with what I was predicting - a little more accurate, but pointing in the same general direction. At 100%, a personal wind generator should be able to produce 300 units per hour, making the cost per unit of energy 0.2. Compared to a bazaar price of 5 credits per unit, that would make the profit margin an obscene 96%...

Going online to check my actual output from the last 7 hours right now.

So maybe the resource supplier is actually a viable strategy after all. You can harvest tons of resources and sell them at 3 credits per unit instead of the normal 5 and undercut all the competition and still make a really good profit. Over 50% I'd say offhand.

I think the number on the harvester and wind generator is correct, I'm harvesting wind at 25% and in one hour I get 125 wind power. If it was at 100% it would be 500. I don't know how you got 260 for your maximum number for Wind Power Generator. Were you maintaining your harvester when you calculated this?