Doctor Archive
Thread: ANyone have a guide in using a factory?
Gunman_Felix wrote:
It does indeed help. And since I was about to ask the exact same question then maybe adding it to the (already excellent) FAQ would be a good idea.
Okay, I've added this to the FAQ.
Okay, I've added this to the FAQ.
Thank you for adding this to your FAQ as I was also wondering how to operate factories... Keep up the good work.
ANyone have a guide in using a factory?
ANyone have a guide in using a factory for Doctors?
Hmmm....factories....
Well, now that they're fixed, you don't need to be quite the rocket scientist that you used to have to be. Here's a few quick highlights:
Factories are able to produce identical items repeatadly and put them into crates so that many of the same item can be carried while only using up the inventory space of 1 item.
In order to use a factory, you first needa schematic. In order to produce a schematic, you'll need to be using a specialized crafting tool and be near a proper crafting station (such as a Food & Chemical Crafting Tool and a Food & Chemical Crafting Station). Once you've creates the item, you'll be give them option to create a schematic. Note that you can (and should) experiment on the item before making the schematic to make the item better.
Once you've got your schematic, you're ready to get started. Plop your factory down somewhere convenient and load the schematic (using the Access Schematic Slot item in the Options Menu of the factory). You'll also need to add credits and power (using Pay Maintenance and Deposit Power options). Once you've added the schematic, some credits, and some power, you're just about ready to go.
Now, open the input hopper (also under Options) and put the ingredients you used to make the schematic in there (if you forgot what you used, you can also access the ingredient list in the Options menu). Once the ingredients are in there, click Start (in Options, again) and your factory will begin producing items. Note that it takes about 8 seconds per complexity point to produce an item so it'll take about 2 minutes or more to make a single stim in a factory.
One thing I should probably mention is that the ingredients must all be IDENTICAL. That means that if you used a type of stell called Gaxon to make the schematic, you'll have to put Gaxon in the input hopper to produce the final items. This isn't a big deal until you start making things that require subcomponents. In order to make Stim B's and other things in yoru factory, you'll have to first make the subcomponents in your factory (so that they're all identical). Once you've got crates of all of the subcomponents you need, take 1 of each out of the crates, and make a schematic for a Stim from those. Then, simply drop the crates of those subcomponents in the input hopper.
I hope that helps. Is this something that should be added to the FAQ?
It does indeed help. And since I was about to ask the exact same question then maybe adding it to the (already excellent) FAQ would be a good idea.
I hope that helps. Is this something that should be added to the FAQ?
I've typed this so often in /tell format that it will be a refreshing change of pace to do it in this way. This is in no way as good as a FAQ, just the basics I tell any inquiring doctor.
Some specific questions that are often asked. First, you will need a Food Factory (consider it a Food/Chemical Factory to match your tool) to make pharmaceuticals. This factory requires power and maintenance to operate. The power requirements are totally dependent on how often it is in use, as it only draws power while making something. If you were using it constantly, it draws 1200 power per day. Maintenance is constant at 1,440c per day. To redeed one, which you may want to do if it is placed inconveniently, you must have 3000c in the maintenance pool which will be deducted from the pool on the redeeding. Food Factories take only one lot.
In overall terms, a factory is like a crafting tool on autopilot. Like your crafting tool, you load up a schematic, drop in resources, and some time later an item comes out. The benefit of a factory over a crafting tool is that it doesn't require you to open a new schematic every time you make one item, instead reusing the same schematic over and over again. This is especially nice if you have a good success experimented item as you will have identically excellent results for each one. Additionally, the factory makes items with identical serial numbers, meaning that they can be used for some of the Doctor crafting meds that call for identical subcomponents (like identical BECs).
To basically operate a factory, you need a schematic, the right resources, and time. To make the schematic, choose the item type and resources that you will be using, experiment if you like as well, but choose to make a schematic instead of a prototype. What this will do is create the item as a virtual item in your datapad, right alongside your droids and waypoints. This schematic can be named anything you like, I typically name them the heals of the item and my personal tag, as well as specifying how many items can be made from this schematic. The scrollbar allows up to 100 items, but you can type 1000 in the dialog window. This may be a bug/exploit, but I thought about this a great deal and have decided it is not an exploit for a reason I will list later.
Now, here is the critical part of this: the resources you put into making the schematic must be the same as you put in the factory, both in name, quality, and resource type. So, it does you no good to make a schematic with a resource that you have very little of, as you won't be able to make anything out of it. And you can't trade one type of Nabooian Tuber with a different type of Nabooian Tuber. Each change in resource means you need a new schematic. That will be especially important later on.
Approach your factory and select the radials. You'll get categories that allow you all the normal havester stuff, like naming, paying maintenance, setting admins, and destroying them. You will also have a section that gives you three to five different options (depending on if you have a schematic loaded or not). One option will be to load a schematic. If will list any currently in the factory as well as any in your datapad. Highlight your new schematic and select OK.
You will now get a radial option to list the ingredients for your schematic. This will tell you the name of the resources needed, the quantity needed per item, and the number of items that the schematic can still produce. This is useful if you can't remember the name of the Tatooine Fiberplast you need for this particular schematic.
You should now open the ingredient window. In here, you will have a spacious area to load resources. In here, you can dump the individual resources, single units of subcomponents (BECs, CRDMs, etc), or crates of subcomponents in. You will want to place as many resources as you want final output. So a stack of 8000 Organics and 8000 Chemical will be needed to exhaust the 1000 CRDM schematic you just made. This will only pull from the resources that match your schematic, so you can keep a growing stock of resources in your input hopper, although it can get very hard to manage if you have four different types of BECs in there.
Now, you can select the option to start the factory. This will make it so you can't access the factory unless you choose to Stop Production, but you can still pay maintenance. It takes about 8 seconds x the complexity of the item to make one unit in the factory, so you can determine the amount of time it will take through some quick math (like the 1000 CRDM spec would take 38 hours to complete). When this is done, or if you choose to stop production, you can access the Output Hopper option to get your completed units out. These will stay in there until you empty them, so they make a good temporary storage area for subcomponents. All items in here will be in crate format, so they're manageable even with very high quantities of items. You can examine them to see the stats of the items in the crates.
Now, it is important to stress that you have to use the same resources as your schematic calls for, and this extends to your subcomponents. If you build a schematic for a Stim-B, which calls for BECS, CRDMs, and LSs, you have to use the exact same BEC, CRDM, and LS stock as you used in the schematic. So, the process for making crate Stims is that you have to complete a run of all subcomponents, then pull one crate of subcomponents aside, pull one unit out of them to craft the schematic. This means that for that 1000 unit CRDM run can only make 999 Stim-Bs at best, because you need one sample CRDM to make the Stim-B schematic. If you run short of the water used to make the LS so you only have 500 LSs, you can only make 500 of those Stim-Bs. When you make a new run of water, you will have to make an entirely new Stim-B schematic. This is my reasoning on why the 1000 unit run is not an exploit, because there are a number of Doctor schematics that call for 3 identical subcomponents. If the limit was 100 per schematic, you could never make more than 33 of the final item and would not be able to make a full 50 unit crate. This is because you have to pull one unit to make you final schematic and then each unit would need the three identical. You could never make up the lost 17 as any new subcomponent schematic wouldn't be identical.
(*Good god, I can't believe I usually type all of that in game. No wonder the time flies when I'm 'training' someone *)