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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Sat, 5. Jan 19, 01:13
by Jean Pagette
Found success with having smart chips and the intermediate products, assign your own miners and traders for a streamlined effect. helps when you can go in and hack production and also eject some of there product so you can either scoop and run or just shoot it all down to create a void. being the middle man is better then being the man.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Sat, 5. Jan 19, 04:36
by reanor
waynetarlton wrote:
Fri, 4. Jan 19, 23:34
I've found that with over 60 Soya Husk productions, I can't keep up with demand, also Claytronics is another where demand is impossible to keep up with. Literally no stock of either product ever left in storage. I try to make the stations all self supporting, which means it's own energy, water, silicon, chips, etc...

The claytronics and soy facility in Hat Choice is my largest with 20,200 work force for peak efficiency - admittedly, the 'actual' workforce employed so far is just over 8k.
It's different in my case, my game factions all fat and lazy, good demand is only for microchips and smart chips, but it beats me how it happens, my claytronics complexes make me hundreds of millions, even thought there is no demand... hey, that's why there is no demand on the market!! :mrgreen: I think my traders will be useless soon.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Sat, 5. Jan 19, 05:19
by waynetarlton
It's interesting how each person's game can be so different.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Wed, 9. Jan 19, 11:22
by weenis futzler
Claytronics are probably in demand from the other factions' stationbuilding.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Mon, 21. Jan 19, 08:54
by russbo
I made my big millions the way that real people make really big millions in real life, generally, illegally, LOL. I started setting up factories scattered throughout the universe, preferably near ice and other asteroids (ice is important for water generation), and made mega factories that created all of the illegal substances sold in the economy. Then I stole the blueprints for Claytronics (among a lot of other modules), and started setting up factories that build that and Field Coils. Claytronics then became my biggest profit maker., much better than illegal contraband, which, granted, was a steady good income. Ultimately, I took the PHQ and made that into a huge mega factory, basically making everything that the universe creates. That now is my biggest money maker; 100 million credits every few hours is not uncommon. With a net worth of over 6 billion, a few fleets, sixteen manufacturing centers, and "friends" to all but the MIN Teladi (who I pissed off when I stole one of their builders a while back, the salvage of 10 or so million from that capture wasn't worth the future loss of trading to that group), with the usual enemies not doing much, well, I'm not sure what to do next.
  • Not sure if it's worth starting a war with the HOP or some other faction just to spice things up.
    Not sure if carriers work as they did in X3 (especially with Cycrow's and other's mods back then). They don't seem to do much now. Hate to start a war with fleets that are useless...
    Really don't know how to capture stations (is it the same as capturing ships? Can't find security stations to shut down defences.)
    Can you wipe out other faction's stations? Wharf's? Shipyards?
    Can't wipe out the Khaak installations (they seem to be indestructible)
Wondering if the game will let us earn a trillion...

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Mon, 21. Jan 19, 16:18
by skerbl
I don't know, people constantly recommend Engine Parts as money makers, but I just don't see that to be true. Sure, the universe is notoriously short on EP, and providing a supply will get your ships built. But printing money? Well, the maximum I see in trade offers from shipyards is a profit margin of 25-30 credits (!) per unit, no matter if their stock is literally empty. Oh, and sometimes they don't even seem to put up buy orders at all (they'll still buy it through manual trade, but autotraders won't pick up on it).

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Mon, 21. Jan 19, 21:43
by VincentTH
skerbl wrote:
Mon, 21. Jan 19, 16:18
I don't know, people constantly recommend Engine Parts as money makers, but I just don't see that to be true. Sure, the universe is notoriously short on EP, and providing a supply will get your ships built. But printing money? Well, the maximum I see in trade offers from shipyards is a profit margin of 25-30 credits (!) per unit, no matter if their stock is literally empty. Oh, and sometimes they don't even seem to put up buy orders at all (they'll still buy it through manual trade, but autotraders won't pick up on it).
Demand for Engine Parts was in 1.3. In 1.5, it's Smart Chip!!!!!

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Mon, 21. Jan 19, 22:00
by Fame
Have to agree on the smartchip demand in my "own Universe", started it on ver 1.5 ... still trying to get the blue prints for it on my end .
Engine part demand is pretty much limited unless a player buys ships from HOP.... i´m currently downsizing operations in regards of microchips since i´m oversupplying the marked...

In regards of smartchips (blue prints) i don´t plan to steal those ... just need to carefully balance faction relation :D
Claytronics might be a good option but expensive to set up but for those that plan to build a couple of factories it might be worthwhile to keep construction costs down :)

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Tue, 22. Jan 19, 12:46
by RainerPrem
Fame wrote:
Mon, 21. Jan 19, 22:00
Have to agree on the smartchip demand in my "own Universe", started it on ver 1.5 ... still trying to get the blue prints for it on my end .
Engine part demand is pretty much limited unless a player buys ships from HOP.... i´m currently downsizing operations in regards of microchips since i´m oversupplying the marked...

In regards of smartchips (blue prints) i don´t plan to steal those ... just need to carefully balance faction relation :D
Claytronics might be a good option but expensive to set up but for those that plan to build a couple of factories it might be worthwhile to keep construction costs down :)
Nanotronics give the term "self sufficient factory" a new dimension. I have one M-trader constantly shuttling Nanotronics and Hull Parts from the factory to its own buildstore...

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Fri, 1. Feb 19, 21:40
by henron
In my game these factories work best (ordered by profit/hour):

Claytronics
Antimatter Converters
Hull Parts

Those made some serious credits and demand for claytronics and antimatter converters is still not satisfied. I would recommend to steal blueprints (I did so by scanning - no rep loss) and save those credits for building factories / buying ships. All factories I built are "self-sustaining". They only require basic resources from miners. You seem to need most miners for Hull Parts (just my gut feeling) as it needs a lot of ore and ice (for food).

I only used argon blueprints. Having one module of Meat/Spice/Wheat will enable you to build a maximum of 10 claytronics modules, 14 antimatter converter modules or 42 hull part modules (you really need a lot of miners for those, though).

I also built factories for all other wares required by shipyards/wharfs and none of them gets remotely close to the profits I make with the factories above (that includes drone components, shield components, engine parts, weapon components, missile components, scanning arrays, smart chips, food rations, medical supplies, energy cells, advanced composites, advanced electronics, turret components). Advanced electronics initially looked best from that list but demand was satisfied quite quickly.

Right now I have 2x 10 claytronics and 2x 14 antimatter converters and I'm considering building yet another factory for each as product storage is almost empty all the time.

So if you can afford it I would go for claytronics and (depending on your economy) antimatter converters. A big complex as mentioned above can cost you something between 400-500 million including ships (though you don't have to start with 10/14 modules obviously).

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Mon, 11. Mar 19, 02:37
by Lazerius
Kalantris wrote:
Sun, 23. Dec 18, 13:57
No, supply and demand play no role.

Build this:
  1. 2 docks
  2. 1 energy cell production
  3. 2 water production (6 med ice miners)
  4. 2 wheat production
  5. 1 spice production
  6. 1 meat production
  7. 1 food rations production
  8. 6 medium habitats
  9. 12 spacefuel production
  10. Solid storage
  11. Container storage
You will need two medium traders for the trade routes, but I would advise not assigning them to the station. Build it in Nopileo's Fortune VI, which is one jump away from the station, that buys spacefuel for 202 creds. That's a million per single trader haul, because spacefuel takes 1 storage. The station is completely self-sufficient and can produce around 10.000 spacefuel per hour (2mil/hour). Also there's no plot cost, because it's nobody's turf.

Oh, sometimes HAT have their own spacefuel production plant in that system, but all you have to do is apply some healthy, free-market competition:
Image
I get you’re aiming for a single buyer, but you’re shorting your profits by providing no dust or weed in this complex, and using 2 mediums for delivery instead of 5+ smalls couriers as subordinates.

I only have 5-6 of each end drug station, and it all sells constantly.

It’s all fire and forget with the couriers. They’re too quick to get scanned, and are usually faster than the pirates trying to get them to drop their wares. Plus when was the last time you actually filled a medium transport with booze?

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Mon, 11. Mar 19, 02:45
by Lazerius
A 30 station smart chip complex in Trinity Sanctum was my jump off point to get the shipyards going.

Then it became claytronics in same sector.

Then I took over Nopilio’s Fortune sectors and built a hull parts station, then 1 station to do all the primarily ore based shipyard goods, another to do the silicone and methane based goods. Now I’m build wharf and next will be L/XL Shipyard to actually start building my fleets up.

My best money maker was actually built to just test the waters of that side of the economy. A single complex producing weed, dust and fuel right by the gates in NF.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Sat, 23. Mar 19, 18:19
by Sam L.R. Griffiths
mellimell wrote:
Sun, 23. Dec 18, 01:08
As the headline says.

Is it better to produce all the needed resources by the player? Or shall I buy them?

All help appreciated.
In order to maximise profits I would build integrated supply chains with fixed in prices for both sale and purchase, personally I use fixed purchase prices about 17% below average and sale prices about 17% above average and thus far it has guaranteed profit generation (maybe not maximal but at least reasonably consistent). My shipyard/wharf chains built using these principles do generate a significant amount of credits per hour.

I have 3 shipyard/wharf chains - 2 smaller chains and 1 huge one. I would reckon between the 3 of them I am generating in excess of 50M/hr plus having near enough free S/M/L/XL ship construction. The 3 stations are supported by 40+ M size traders in total plus 30+ M-Size Mineral Miners, 30+ M-Size Gas Miners, 6 L-Size Mineral Miners, and 6 L-Size Gas Miners.

See this thread for the station designs myself and others have shared so far.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Thu, 6. Jun 19, 23:57
by Ramokthan
I experience drug factories as rather... useless...

I dont know how but actually i los money running them.

They got all they need to run, everything is self supplied, every product is sold at a slightly less then average price immediately... still it loses money over time... no profits.

lmao im slowly ripping my hair out... my other hull parts factory is shitting gold in the meantime...

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Fri, 21. Jun 19, 20:02
by LegionOfOne
Ramokthan wrote:
Thu, 6. Jun 19, 23:57
I experience drug factories as rather... useless...
Had the same experience, until I realized that to sell at a good price you need to do special missions.
Some missions unlock black-market contacts on stations that don't buy drugs usually.
You need to scan stations to find them.
These contacts create new buy offers on these stations, allowing you to sell drugs at a very good price.
The other buyers are trade stations and pirate bases, at ridiculously low prices.

So, to set up a serious smuggling empire, you gotta have a lot of shady friends on a lot of stations.
At least that's how it worked a while back, haven't tried recently.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Fri, 21. Jun 19, 21:39
by Ramokthan
If you really need to set up all that to get it running.
my words as business man: if there are easier ways to make more money which require less efford, doing drugs is not my choice.

As i mentined already in several posts of mine...
I recently earn about 1 BILLION (1.000.000.000) per hour. with 0 drugs.

And i am not finished with expanding right now bc there is still demand...
Funny thing about that is that my factory setup in the factory calculator estimates a profit of 150 Million/h

lol.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Mon, 26. Aug 19, 22:43
by taztaz502
For me my Ore refinery is by far the most profitable built in argon prime. It has just 10x metal refinery and 1x energy cell, Teladianium doesn't seem to sell very well for me.

Second to that is my 48x smart chip plant but i suspect that to dry up soon.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Fri, 30. Aug 19, 08:08
by MarvinTheMartian
Ramokthan wrote:
Fri, 21. Jun 19, 21:39
As i mentined already in several posts of mine...
I recently earn about 1 BILLION (1.000.000.000) per hour. with 0 drugs.
Any chance you can link to a post of yours that describes your setup? Or to a config in the station builder?

Cheers
Marv

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Sun, 1. Sep 19, 08:16
by grapedog
the most profitable by far are claytronics. But they do take a while to be profitable because it requires a high cost to make them, but ultimately they're the most profitable in the long run.

Make sure you use habitats to increase profitability. Again, same with habitats, there is an initial cost, but down the road it's just more money in your pocket for no additional cost besides setup cost.

Look at if/where there are holes in your economy. You can also manufacture holes by taking out certain production modules from other factions. You could destroy them, or hack them to make them dump their contents, and then make money off the shortages.

any factory can be your most profitable, depending on the situation of your economy.

Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Posted: Wed, 4. Sep 19, 07:05
by MarvinTheMartian
Cheers grapedog. I'm now at a point where I can scan (and steal) blueprints thanks to your guide.

In my universe there's a big shortage of Advanced Electronics at Argon Prime Shipyard and Smart Chips at the Wharf and many other places. This may be short-term though so I'll start small. Claytronics will be good for building up my own stations then hopefully there'll be a longer term need for those.

I'm prepared to hack other stations' production for my own gain, are there repercussions to repeatedly hacking competitors? Do they go hostile or are they unaware whodunit? I don't plan to play fair :twisted: