Day 1 of Planetary Industry in the Books

After one full day of production on my five planets, I have discovered a more efficient way to produce recourses which will double my P2 item output each day. I had operated under the mistaken assumption that the more extractors I had the more materials I would end up making.
This is completely wrong. I discovered that the cycle times and outputs for all extractors and processors match completely, especially for the 23 hour extractor cycle.

What I discovered by having 7 extractors and only one basic processor, I had filled up my storage silo without increasing my actual usable output. The reason for this error was the input values, and more importantly, the cycle times of the extractors and processors.

Each extractor has a cycle time of 30 minutes, which corresponds to the 30 minute cycle time of the basic processor that processes the raw extractor material. To illustrate:

Basic Silicon processor requires 3000 units of Felsic raw material, and at the 1 day extractor time in a high yield zone is approximately 1500 units of material per cycle. These numbers quickly show that two extractors at 1500 units per cycle will produce the needed material to run one basic processor that produces 20 units of Silicon every 30 minutes.

This 30 minute cycle and output align with the advanced processor input for Miniature Electronic which requires 40 units of Silicon and 40 units of Chiral Structures (a P1 material) for a one hour cycle time to produce 5 units of Miniature Electronics. This synergy of output and cycle time shows that 2 extractors on each needed raw material with 1 basic processor to change that raw material to a P1 output will fill an Advance processor and produce 5 units of a P2 item per hour.



What this showed me was I could remove a total of 6 extractors on each of my planets, add two more basic processors and another advanced processor and double my production on each planet with reduced CPU and Powergrid requirements. I freed up almost 3000W on the power grid. Unfortunately you need 3900 empty room on a powergrid to support 4 extractors, 2 basic and 1 advanced processor...which would allow me to produce another P2 material on the same planet. The only way I way I see to fit this in is to have the Elite command center and the extra 2000 Powergrid room it allows.

That being said, by optimizing the cycle times and doubling my output of P2 materials, I can reduce my breakeven point we discussed in the last article from 27 days to 14 days, a significant improvement.