What are the most profitable factories?

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mellimell
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What are the most profitable factories?

Post by mellimell » 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.

csaba
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by csaba » Sun, 23. Dec 18, 01:47

It really depends on supply-demand.

Look at the shipyards/wharfs as to what they buy.

Right now smart chips and engine parts sell really well from the legal wares, illegal ones are a totally different story and require more think to it. You don't have to provide everything under it (food, ecells, silicon wafers, refined metals, medical supplies etc.) to make good money but as you add the lower grade wares to the station production it becomes even more profitable albeit sometimes barely noticeably. I have some single production facilities that make more per hour than my full complex that produces almost every ware.

Location also counts. Try to build right next to the Shipyards of the main factions, at least in the same sector depending how much you whish to spend on the plot license. A station there with only several smart chip plants on it will make easy millions then you can expand the station to include the lower tier productions.

So I generally advise to build from top down which requires higher investment initially but it brings it's costs back faster.

Also I'd advise against building in Teladi space they are generally peaceful and don't loose many ships so their economy is slower. Albeit I saw an increase in their demand lately they are still far from other factions in demand. HOP has the highest demand as they are sieged on 3 fronts, PAR and ANT second, ARG third, TEL/MIN last.

mellimell
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by mellimell » Sun, 23. Dec 18, 10:51

Awesome thank you!!

Kalantris
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by Kalantris » 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

Paul2724
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by Paul2724 » Wed, 26. Dec 18, 03:52

http://www.x4-game.com/#/station-calcul ... 02,count:5

This is my best so far - averaging around 4 mill / hour in Argon Prime in its first 8 hours after getting going properly with a fleet of 10 gas miners and 10 solid miners supplying it (might be overkill on the miners but they're cheap :mrgreen: )

NightlinerSGS
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by NightlinerSGS » Wed, 26. Dec 18, 17:06

Kalantris wrote:
Sun, 23. Dec 18, 13:57
No, supply and demand play no role.

Build this:

- snip-
That works... until you've fulfilled all demand for Spacefuel, which is not infinite unless you mod it. Same for Nividium btw.

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Lord Dakier
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by Lord Dakier » Thu, 27. Dec 18, 02:13

NightlinerSGS wrote:
Wed, 26. Dec 18, 17:06
Kalantris wrote:
Sun, 23. Dec 18, 13:57
No, supply and demand play no role.

Build this:

- snip-
That works... until you've fulfilled all demand for Spacefuel, which is not infinite unless you mod it. Same for Nividium btw.
Surely you use that profit to then branch into something else though?

I mean the main thing with trading is all you need to do for the most part is just snowball. I smashed out 5 gas miners, then 5 mineral miners, then 1 large of each. Next I'm going to either expand that 5 into 10 miners and 3 small or go down the uni trader route. Once I have basically 10-20 of each I'm going to be making so much money that I'll be able to spam stations continually.

Trading is too easy with no real way of making a loss.

Kalantris
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by Kalantris » Thu, 27. Dec 18, 10:02

Lord Dakier wrote:
Thu, 27. Dec 18, 02:13
Surely you use that profit to then branch into something else though?

I mean the main thing with trading is all you need to do for the most part is just snowball. I smashed out 5 gas miners, then 5 mineral miners, then 1 large of each. Next I'm going to either expand that 5 into 10 miners and 3 small or go down the uni trader route. Once I have basically 10-20 of each I'm going to be making so much money that I'll be able to spam stations continually.

Trading is too easy with no real way of making a loss.
Of course I do.

There's two ways I usually go:
  1. In for the money
  2. In for the greater good
You have to earn money, that's pretty much established.
This is a money printer: http://www.x4-game.com/#/station-calcul ... 01,count:1
I put it one jump away from the best spacefuel price on the map, ice miners have two jumps, so I focus on meds /because large ships dock waaaay too long to make them viable with two jumps/

And then I make factories, that don't make that much profit, but supply the local economies with necessary parts to build ships.
Last edited by Kalantris on Thu, 27. Dec 18, 13:13, edited 1 time in total.

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Général Grievous
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by Général Grievous » Thu, 27. Dec 18, 12:23

In my game, my most profitable station is the one that produce scanners. Almost 1.000.000 cr per hour, with 2 production modules. (and i only have silicon wafers and reffined metal as intermediary products. I still buy energy cells from one of my station :D )
Il vaut mieux mobiliser son intelligence sur des conneries plutot que de mobiliser sa connerie sur des choses intelligentes...

TomatoAE
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by TomatoAE » Thu, 27. Dec 18, 23:41

I usually start off with a 3x3x3x3x3x3 plot in argon prime with a closed loop silicon wafer complex (usually 2 or 4)

I buy 4 traders and 4 medium miners. The thing has been running since the first day and consistently makes really good money as well as reputation with the argon.


My first megapex is usually hull parts (4-8). I then add to it in waves, adding 4 engine parts and 4 claytronics. I then increase the hull to 8.

Finally, ill basically add 2 of everything else to the station in preparation for player owned shipyards (coming soon to a complex near you!!!)

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Général Grievous
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by Général Grievous » Fri, 28. Dec 18, 10:35

TomatoAE wrote:
Thu, 27. Dec 18, 23:41

My first megapex is usually hull parts (4-8). I then add to it in waves, adding 4 engine parts and 4 claytronics. I then increase the hull to 8.
How can you have enough demand in Hull parts to produce and sell this amount of product?
In my game, there is soo few hull parts buying offers.
Il vaut mieux mobiliser son intelligence sur des conneries plutot que de mobiliser sa connerie sur des choses intelligentes...

reanor
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by reanor » Wed, 2. Jan 19, 23:12

Don't listen to these guys. The most profit bring factories that cost the most from a faction rep. Claytronics today, by far, is the biggest money printing machine. It will cost 20mil+ to get a blueprint, but after you do, make some money and build yourself a few 100mil complexes, preferrably in sectors that have no other claytronic factories. Each complex may consist of multiple claytronics factories, you can go as many as you want and have money for, assuming you will also provide the complex with enough habitats for human workers, and enough storage. I have a few claytronics superFABs (100 mil ecah to build), 4 factories in each and they make me hundreds of millions a day, each. And all that income with absolutely no demand on claytronics, based on my daily review of the trade market. My economy though is kinda broken now. I blame a lack of wars, which I am trying to start. Microchips and Smart Chips the only thing I see the major demand for, but comparing to claytronics superFABs, Microchips doesn't give me as much profit and Smart Chips are even worse. It doesn't make sense, but seems as more expensive is a blueprint, as more money you'll make in a long run. If you manage to hack a few production terminals of the claytronics factories in a few competing sectors, it will make you the sole claytronics producer for hours. Imagine the profitssssss...
“The dark and the light, they exist side by side." ... “It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars."

Rhiannin
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by Rhiannin » Thu, 3. Jan 19, 12:59

reanor wrote:
Wed, 2. Jan 19, 23:12
The most profit bring factories that cost the most from a faction rep. Claytronics today, by far, is the biggest money printing machine...
Agree Claytronics seems to be the best single product earner, but I haven't gone crazy building massive Claytronics megaplexes.

In my two games, the things needed by the economy once my miners were up and running were Smart Chips (Argon game), Engine Parts (Paranid game), then Hull Parts. I grew these two factories concurrently and have just built my second of each factory. The goal with the "everything else factory" in the first game was to get Engine and Hull Parts up and running, then Microchips and Claytronics fit in nicely. The second game I followed similar order, then once Claytronics was done, focussed on the Habitats to maximise production of what was there, then added on the later ship components (now needs a 5th Habitat). I figure better for the economy if I manufacture pretty much everything since there's spare for all products to sell. I've tried to keep build order in the calculator since it grows out nicely as you add modules that have pre-requisites already in place:


Smart Chips (simple one to just keep increasing the smart chips as needed- 2 miners seems to keep it stocked):
http://www.x4-game.com/#/station-calcul ... 1,count:20

Everything else (probably overkill but 10 mineral and 6 gas miners) - this is making 5x the maxed smart chip factory. This one has 5 x 3M docks and 2 x E Piers, with 3x each Large storage type - had to build the 2nd Container storage after Claytronics and later had the money to go overkill and build 3 of each ... to be sure, ya know:
http://www.x4-game.com/#/station-calcul ... 01,count:1

reanor
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by reanor » Thu, 3. Jan 19, 17:13

I withdrew money last night from my 3 claytronics quadruple factories and they made me 850 mil. And all that from about 20 hours of the game running without SETA and about 4 hours on SETA. This game needs some kind of an end-game money sink. I am gonna post my ideas in suggestions forum.
“The dark and the light, they exist side by side." ... “It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars."

waynetarlton
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by waynetarlton » 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.

Jean Pagette
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by Jean Pagette » Sat, 5. Jan 19, 01:13

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.

reanor
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by reanor » Sat, 5. Jan 19, 04:36

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.
“The dark and the light, they exist side by side." ... “It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars."

waynetarlton
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by waynetarlton » Sat, 5. Jan 19, 05:19

It's interesting how each person's game can be so different.

weenis futzler
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by weenis futzler » Wed, 9. Jan 19, 11:22

Claytronics are probably in demand from the other factions' stationbuilding.

russbo
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Re: What are the most profitable factories?

Post by russbo » Mon, 21. Jan 19, 08:54

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...

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