"The Guide to Profits" at
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=98222 is an excellent resource.
Basicly, you want to find sectors which (a) have Solar Power Plants nearby, (b) have lots of the same type of factory around (so they compete), and then buy a factory which sells what the existing factories need.
My first factories were:
Flower Farm in Blue Profit
Wheat Farm in Home of Light & Menalaus' Frontier
I have also set up a two-factory complex in Bluish Snout consisting of a BioGas Factory M and a Plankton Farm L. This works quite well since they form a single pool for Energy Cells, and their products can be sold seperately, so I just have one freighter buying Ecells and one selling the products, rather than needing 4 freighters.
The downside is that the Xenon seem to send a small invasion of force of 4-6 L's, 5-8 M's, and a P every so often, so I've set up some lasertowers and an M3 guarding my two freighters, but I've been doing a lot more fighting then over in the safe sectors around Argon Prime. I tried taking a Xenon invasion mission and actually fought off a bigger horde, although it cost more to repair my ships then I earned, but the Boron seem happy with me and I kept my factories there from being wiped out.
Finally, I've just set up both a Silicon and an Ore Mine in Three Worlds, and a complex made of a SPP M, BioGas M, and BoFu M in Kingdom End. This complex seems to be making a ton of money, and supplies enough extra energy to keep my mines going. I could add a Crystal Fab to the Silicon Mine and have a completely closed loop, but there are enough Crystal Fabs in Rolk's Drift and Argon Prime (and 3! more in Home of Light) that I don't need to. But I'm thinking that they might want me to set up another Silicon Mine L down in Ore Belt to feed Silicon to them and to the weapons factories in southern Argon space.
I'm probably going to add another Flower Farm to Shareholder's Fortune, and then maybe add a Chelts Aquarium + Massom Mill complex into Split space around Ronkar's Fire or Thurok's Pride. Only problem is that the Khaak were invading from Tharka's Sun into Rhonkar's Clouds with a pair of M2 destroyers and a pair of clusters the last time I was down there, I've got enough to deal with keeping the Xenon out of Bluish Snout right now.
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