Revamping P4 Production...it can be painful

After two weeks of tweaking and playing around with the five planets I was working, I decided to rip out the command centers for three of the planets and refocus my efforts. Unfortunately, "ripping" out the command centers means realizing the loss of over 10million isk, plus the roughly 10million sunk into the initial building costs.

The reason for this was the realization that the next door system in our alliance was capable of producing all the basic P0 raw materials needed for every P4 item. This abundance of material, coupled with the deals I can get at Jita for Blueprint Copies should allow me to break even with the sale of even on POS module, as well as, build that Mobile Laboratory I've always wanted.

EvE being EvE, means that I broke out the Excel spreadsheet to develop the needed requirements for producing all the P4 items. This quickly proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that one character will not be able to produce all P4 items on their own. One account may not be enough to produce the P4 items at the fastest rate possible. After adding the Powergrid needed for all the extractors and basic processors was in the order of 18 elite command centers...and that doesn't count the link or the more advanced material processors.

What I was able to do on one character was set up a system on five planets that extract every type of raw material and change it into a P1 material. The material is sent to a launchpad and I will have to have a second character (or account) take the material to another set of planets to process it through P2 to P4. The key for me to do this was the verification that no link or processor must be tied to your command center. In fact, by placing two different launchpads on the planet surface I am able to extract materials from opposite sides of the planet and both extraction sites are no where near the actual command center.

Now the amount of P0 material I produce is far less than needed to try and build all P4 items at the same time. So, I will setup a P2 through P4 processing change and then build P4 items in cycles adding in the correct P1 materials from the five planets and getting a day's worth of material then switching my P4 production to something else.

My "production" planet will have nine P2 advanced factories, six P3 factories and one P4 factory and one launchpad for each P4 factory production chain, which allow for any P4 item to be made. Assuming my calculations are correct the P1 materials will occupy up to 6300m3 for one production chain, so I should be able to use only one launchpad to run both P4 production chains. The processors and launchpad have a total CPU and Powergrid requirement of 10,700tf and 9,500MW, without adding the link which should be fairly negligible as all the processors will be close together. The CPU and Powergrid requirements limit this kind of setup to a maximum of two P4 chains on a single planet as even an Elite Command Center only has a 19000MW capability. So, to run two production chains on a planet you need an elite CC, but you must have at least a standard CC to run one P4 production chain.

This setup will produce a maximum of 23 P4 items in one day, and more likely will be a 15-20 item daily average due to wasted time moving the P1 basic materials to the production chain and accepting a less than optimal login schedule.

So for each P4 item you will need 920 units of each P1 material, which will produce 100m3 (one unit) of the P4 item.

More to follow as my extractors finish the 24 hour work cycle.