Overview
This Guide establishes the basics of the games mechanics and then expands to encompass(eventually), the minuet and advances aspects to help understand and establish automation. My purpose here is to provide you with the information needed to play the game efficiently in what ever style you’d like. Not tell you how you need to play.
General Notes
This Is a work in progress. I will add to it as time permits, but will post as I go. Just so you can see, I cleared my entire world in order to run the tests and experiments to make sure I was providing you with the most accurate information. So thanks for the patience. A like would be much appreciated
Next Planned Addition:
- 1st stage assembly processes(trying to decide the best way to display the start to finish process)
- Appendix
- Oil Refining Processes
- Various Mechanic testing
Updates:
- 02-17-2021
- Added to Appendix A:
- Electromagnetic Motor Assembly
- Stone and Glass Smelters
- Created: “Advanced: Understanding Logistics Stations(WIP)” Section
- Added to Appendix A:
- 02-14-2021
- Created:” Advanced: Belt, Sorter, & Splitter Mechanics(Still Testing)” Section
- 02-12-2021
- Created : “Appendix” Section
- Added 5 images to section
- Created : “Appendix” Section
- 02-09-2021
- Finished: The “Basic Element Refining(cont.)” Section
- 02-07-2021
- Added: “Production Line Concept” Section
- Finished: “Basic Element Refining” Section
- 02-06-2021
- Added:Copper and Iron Processes to “Basic Element Refining”
- 02-05-2021
- Added: Icons to make the guide clearer and more appealing
- Created: “Coal vs. Energetic Graphite In Thermal Power Stations” Section
- Added/Adjusted: the information to include each level of Vein Utilization, and how it influences production rate(s)
- 02-04-2021
- Created: “Basic Element Refining” Section”
- Sub-section: Coal to Energetic Graphite
- Created: “Basic Element Refining” Section”
- 02-03-2021
- Created: “Important Information on Supply Lines”
- Created: “Ground Based Material Handling”
- 02-02-2021
- Created: “Mining”
- Created: General Notes
- 02-01-2021
- Guide Created
Mining
When looking at the Mining Machine, you will notice that each miner produces (# ore/m) per vein covered. So once your have the miners set up for a cluster of veins, you can calculate the Output/Sec. The table below shows how much ore you can produce for based on each Vein Utilization Upgrade. The wiki states that you can do this research indefinitely(the ∞ sign would seem to support this), but I can not confirm this statement yet.
Vein Utilization Upgrade
- Find the sum of the of all the veins covered by the miners. You can do this by clicking on each miner individually. In the pop-up menu, on the right hand side, you will see “Cover # vein(s)”.
- Once finding the sum covered veins, lets say it was 45 veins, you are going to multiply it by # ore/min(Provided in the table above). For the example, if using Vein Utilization 2 which produces 36 Ore/Min, 45 x 36 = 1620 Ore/Min.
- Lastly we need to convert that into ore/sec by dividing that 1620 Ore/Min by 60. So 1620 / 60 = 27 Ore/Sec.
Simply put,
[(Vein Coverage)x(# ore/minute)] / (60 seconds/minute) = Total Output per second
*By doing this we know that we will be pulling “27”(whatever your value was) ore/sec out of this cluster. We will need this number later when we start setting up a system to move/smelt that item into its refined form.
Ground Based Material Handling
Conveyor Belts
Conveyor Belts will be the main way you move items about your planet, and the only way until you advance further into the research. When looking, you will see there are 3 tiers of belt Mk.1-3.
The table above shows the maximum number of items per second that belt can move. F.e.-This means that even if you are producing 9 items per/Sec and putting it onto a Mk.I belt, which only handles 6 Items/Sec, then you are not utilizing the full production capabilities. In this instance you would need to do one of the following:
- Upgrade to a MK.II belt
- Utilize a 2nd MK.I belt
- or, Reduce your production rate.
*An important note about the belts is that when merging belts, if you are merging a MK.I belt into a MK.II belt(In a T fashion), the item will retain its speed when it first merges onto the belt. This means that when the item from the MK.I belt lands on the MK.II belt, it will slow down the items on the MK.II belt behind it creating a slinky effect on the belt. This can be prevented and allow the belt to operate at max speed by upgrading the last belt on “feeder line”(the MK.I in this instance) to a MK.II.
Sorters
The use of sorters is how most items will be added/removed from buildings. As with the Conveyor Belts, also have 3 tiers. They differ slightly from Belts though in that the length they travel affects how many items/sec it can move.
*In game it specifies “Trips/Sec” but this will be equivalent to Items/Sec.
Above you can see how the distance the sorter must travel affects how many items it can handle.
*You can notice that 3 grid squares in the max range they can reach. No research, or upgrade, will increase this distance.
Sorter Cargo Stacking Upgrade
On the upgrades tab under the technology tree there is a cargo stacking upgrade that allows MK.III Sorters to move more than 1 item per trip. You cannot use the previously mentioned method of directly converting Trips/Sec to Items/sec when calculating its rate. At max level, the MK.III Sorter will be able to move 6 items per trip. This means at a 3 Grid square distance,at max level, it would be able to make 2 Trips/Sec carrying 6 items each trip. Therefore moving 12 Items/sec.
Below is a table showing how many Items/Sec each sorter can move at each level:
Please Note these numbers only apply to MK.III Sorters.The MK.I & Mk.II Sorter are NOT affected by the upgrade
*The purpose of these upgrades are to make the sorters more energy efficient than filling every port with a sorter.
Important Information on Supply Lines
The level of belt that you are using to feed an assembly line affects how many machines it can feed. Just because the math works out that you can feed X items to Y machines per second does not mean that you will be able to operate all the machines at their max production speed. If your MK.I belt is feeding 12 machines with a cycle rate of 2 seconds, the machines at the end of the line may never receive the materials required to operate. You must consider the speed of your belt and the required items/Sec required to run. This may seem insignificant, but the more tiers of item that require that items out will cause a domino effect that will result in the first item in the the next process hogging all of the output. By the time this issue compounds you could wind up with 6-8 item not being produced because your system is waiting on a single item.
Coal vs. Energetic Graphite in Thermal Power Station?
I have spent a fair bit of time working/test these numbers out to get to get the best answer I could.
There has been some debate as to whether you should use Coal or Energetic Graphite for power. After testing, I have concluded they are essentially the same. Accounting for the 20% loss in efficiency in the TPS(Thermal Power Station), there is less than 0.5% difference in your net power gain(per item) between using 2 Coal or 1 Energetic Graphite after calculating power use to refine, varying based on what tier sorters are used. With That said, because Coal has no other use in the game at this time, it only makes sense to process it into Energetic Graphite so that you can have it on hand if needed.
What I have found In regards to the Thermal Power Station:
Below Is a chart that exhibits the # of Thermal Power Station that can be supported based on the belt supplying the Fuel. By opting for Energetic Graphite, and using a MK.1 Conveyor Belt as your starting power solution you will be generating roughly 30+ MW of power(plus whatever you are getting from Wind Turbines). This should be enough power to get you into Energy Matrix(red cubes) research. As you start setting up your systems for the automation of red matrices your power satisfaction will begin to fall off and require supplementary power. You can either upgrade to the MK.II Conveyor Belt system, which should get you into Structure Matrix(yellow cubes), or look else where.
How many TPS will a full Conveyor Belt of Energetic Graphite support?
*Note: If you use a storage buffer for Coal Ore and a storage buffer for Energetic graphite; then using Coal Ore will be Slightly more energy efficient, but the difference is minuet and would still recommend opting for Energetic Graphite .
Basic Element Refining
Now that the basics are out of the way, we can start diving into the actual automation. Now we will need that Ore/Sec calculation we made earlier. We will use that number to figure how to set up our smelters to keep up with the Mining Machines.
Number of Veins each Tier Belt can support based on Vein Utilization Lvl
*Important notice: All figures are based on operation at 100% power efficiency
You can Calculate this by using the Formula Below:
[(60 Sec/Min)x(Belts Supported Items/Sec)] / (# Ore/min per Vein) = Veins Supported
What the above chart is showing, is how many total ore veins each belt tier can handle. This means that a MK.1 Conveyor Belt (with Vein Utilization 2) can support 10 total Veins. So this could mean,
- 1 Mining Machine covering 10 veins
- 2 Mining Machines covering 5 veins
- Any combination that totals 10 veins
This applies to all three tiers of belt. How ever many Mining Machines it requires to equal “Veins Supported” for each tier of Conveyor Belt will supply the system with a “Saturated”(completely full) Conveyor Belt of Ore. This will mean this first process in the production line is operating at maximum efficiency.
Coal Ore to Energetic Graphite
Starting With Coal we will see that the Energetic Graphite recipe requires 2 Coal Ore, and completes a cycle every 2 Seconds. This means we need 1 Coal Ore per second. Now we need to set up our system. Using the “How Many Veins Does Each Conveyor Belt Support?” Chart above.
Smelters Supported(based on a saturated belt)
*The number of smelters supported is based on 1 Conveyor line running between 2 rows of smelters, each row equals 1/2 of the “Smelters Supported”. If you try to make a single row of smelters to support the line at max rate, the last 16.7% of the smelters will not receive the required materials to operate at max efficiency due to the issue stated in the “Important Supply Line Information” section .
Using the Ore/Second we found for the vein cluster, we can determine how many individual production lines we need. This will be determined by the tier of belt you are using and the veins covered. Use the 2 tables above to to determine this. Take the tier of Conveyor Belt you are using. f.e. the MK.II Belt (with Vein Utilization 2) supports 20 veins. Now we look at the total veins covered from our cluster. Since we are covering 45 veins this means we are capable of supporting 2 Conveyor lines, each of those 2 lines, supporting 2 rows of 6 smelters. That leaves us with the last 5 veins[45veins – 2x(20veins supported for MK.II Conveyor Belts) = 5 Veins] to utilize. Using the left over veins can use the same method above to figure out how many smelters we need. Since we need 1 Coal Ore/Sec per cycle and (5×36)/60 = 3(this method of determining how Ore/sec is in a prior section of the guide). This means we are producing 3 Ore/Sec with those last 5 veins. With this information we are able to support 1 more line of 3 smelters. So this cluster will support 27 smelters.
For the rest of the Guide I will refer back to this portion for the explanation of how items were calculated.
Iron Ore to Iron Ingot
Smelters Supported(based on a saturated belt)
Iron Ore to Magnet
Smelters Supported
Copper Ore to Copper Ingot
Smelters Supported[/b]
Basic Element Refining(Cont.)
Stone Ore to Stone
Smelters Supported(based on a saturated belt)
Stone Ore to Glass
Smelters Supported(based on a saturated belt)
Stone Ore to Silicon Ore
Smelters Supported(based on a saturated belt)
Silicon Ore to High-Purity Silicon
Smelters Supported(based on a saturated belt)
Stone Ore to High Purity Silicon(explode-able image)
Smelters Supported(based on a saturated belt)
Important: Production Line Concept
My concept here for the automation is to make everything modular. My doing so it reduces the math needed to set your systems up. This also makes everything easily scale-able and in return makes it easier for you to adjust the information provided to fit your needs. This is why everything has been based on Conveyor belt speed. By optimizing the initial processes, everything beyond them becomes easier to visualize. This simple system of Max input to Max output provides a streamlined system to identify how a required output of Y, requires an input of C*X(where C is a rational scalar).
Towards the end of the previous section there is an Image of the process from Stone Ore to High-Purity Silicon. While I don’t recommend building this particular process to that scale as you will gain access to Silicon Veins shortly. It is mainly there as example for what is to come. Its not possible for me to account for every single combination of belt and machine. For the sake of time I am going to do the process based on a fully saturated Conveyor Belt of each tier. This means MK.I will use MK.I all the way through. You are completely free to modify it in sections. So if you want to input 20 MK.I belts into 40 rows of 3 Smelters, you would be completely safe to output that onto a MK.II belt since it is producing 12 Silicon Ore/Sec. You could then run that to 2 rows of 6 Smelters for an output of 6 High-Purity Silicon/Sec onto a MK.I belt.
For the Next section I will go through all the simple Assemblies you will need earlier on, that will act as building blocks for the remainder of the game. After that we will need to make some decisions in regards to our systems and how we plan to expand operations to prevent bottle necks in production.
Stage 1: Assembly Processes(WIP)
Coming Soon…
Just as an update I am calculating the distributive weight value of all the in game recipes in order to set up properly balance supply vs. demand systems. Everything snowballs back into just a few base items. Determining the weight value of these items helps us to predict the avg/max demand at any given time.
Expansion(Not Complete)
At this point in the game I suspect that you should be somewhere Structure Matrix(yellow cubes). This means you are now capable of moving materials around your planet, maybe even the solar system. This Section of the guide caters more to the people playing without the “Infinite Resource” setting. Something that needs to be considered is the movement of materials. Because of the constant growth in demand for items, and the constant decay of available ore; we are posed with the question of “what should I do?”. You have a few options as to how you want to play, Each with their own pros and cons.
TBC…..
Advanced: Belt, Sorter, & Splitter Mechanics(Still Testing)
Below is an image of the tests. All Belts are of equal grid based length. All results are repeatable, and times are fall within similar periods accounting for human based error. Assuming +/- a standard deviation 400ms for the human element. All other aspects of the testing remain unchanged.
(*Image Still being modified)
All test were preformed in the same latitudinal margin under the assumption grids remain the same between the breaks.
Using the formula 2(pi)r(theta/360), and assuming an arc radius of 0.5m, or 50cm, we determine that the belt length of a 90 degree turn is .785m, or 78.5cm. 180 belt turns appear to utilize the same radius, meaning the belt length is 1.57m, or 2X the 90 degree turn.
Using Pythagorean Theorem a^2 + b^2 = c^2, where the base is 3m(linear component), and height is 1m(vertical component), we come up with a distance of sqrt(10) or ~3.16m. For the sake of this guide we will assume 3 and 1/6 m as the linear distance of travel for each level of vertical change in belt height, for simplicity.
Looking at belt G, our control for non-looping belts, we see that 57 items fit onto a 29m(30 belts are used but that is not the length) belt. We come up with actual Item size. This gives us a value of 50.88cm. This is the collision box of the Items, because the Items don’t actually touch each-other on the belt.
We definitively can see that that a Mk.I sorter places an item on a Mk.I belt every 2/3, or 0.667 sec, varying by +/-0.01 sec. This gives us a 1.06% of error. This is well within an acceptable margin of error. This value held constant for the majority of the experiment except in some instances where the sorter was blocked briefly when first arriving by a passing item on the belt, but the mean(X bar), still fell into the same range as all other tests.
A few things that are clear is that splitters affect the way items on belts act. In test A, as expected, we see a perfectly even distribution of material onto the belt. In test’s B-E the distribution is not even. We would expect this with tests C and D as there is a vertical component adding to actual length traveled. C adding 1/6m and D adding 1/3m. However B and E also appear to be influenced by the splitter, presumably proportional to belt speed.
I am still testing and analyzing the data. Several outcomes of the tests regarding belt length and items held are not making complete sense.
Advanced: Understanding Logistics Stations(WIP)
Planetary
Using the Formula below we are able to see how many items/sec we can move over a given distance. This formula works under the assumption that all drones in the tower are moving a single item to 1 tower, and no other tower is pulling the items out of the tower. If the tower you are supplying also has drones flying out to pick-up the items as well; you can double the output you receive if both towers have the same number of drones, or (situational) you can input the total # of drones between the 2 towers straight into the formula.
- I_max : The maximum # of items the system can move per second
- L_drones : The # of logistics drones in the tower
- C : Carrying capacity of the drones
- D : Distance between the 2 towers
- Based on each individual grid square being 1m. This number doesn’t have to be exact.
- This will vary slightly planet to planet based on my understanding, but we can assume, roughly, a circumference of 1000m. This means that D_max = ~500m for the Planetary Logistic Stations
- You can estimate this by looking at your Map View. Because of a spheres geometry, regardless of the angle you are viewing it, you are always viewing exactly 1/2 the object. This means if you can see the base of both towers at the same time they are </= 500m apart, If you can see only the top of both towers they are >500m apart, etc
- V : Velocity of drones
Appendix A-?(Incomplete)
Below are some examples of assembly process layouts. These are not built to mimic the recommended scale, but just to give a visual representation of the input/output schematics. I will organize, annotate, and optimize the builds/images as i progress on the guide. I will try to update and reference where the items are located as they are needed in the guide here.
Important: If you wish to scale up the builds it is important to note they are build to max length. To maintain max efficiency upon scale up you will need to build either, wider(top and bottom of image) or re-create the process at the end with new input lines.
Copper Ingot Smelting Process
Producing 90 Copper Ingots/Sec
Steel Smelting Process
Producing 30 Steel/Sec
Gear Assembly
Producing 30 Gears/Sec
Magnetic Coil Assembly
Producing 120 Magnetic Coils/Sec
Electric Motor Assembly
Producing 60 Electric Motors/Sec
Stone and Glass Smelters
Producing:60 Stone/Sec & 30 Glass/Sec
Electromagnetic Motor Assembly
Producing: 30 Electromagnetic Motors/Sec
Content
I am the sole contributor to all the information on this guide. Feel free to use it as you see fit, but I do ask that you link/reference anything you use if parts are reproduced. Anything beyond referencing I ask that you message me first.
Thanks!