Noob requesting advice with first "big" complex

[swift knife]

Hey guy first time poster here but I have been on this site for some time now(this site helped me A LOT), not a lot of people talk about how they plan their complexes, they mostly talk about the basic "starter" factory setups, so I still have a few questions.
I am thinking about building my first "big complex" but I really don't know what I'm doing and how much potential this complex has.
Here are some of the bigger questions on complex building that I have.

This is my complex.

It says I will have around 2.6 million profitss per hour but how much is that really? I mean, will it be enough to buy and equip an m2 or something after the station has been up for a few hours?

Are there any other factors that aren't being looked at with this calculator that I should look out for(possible buyers,etc...)?
What should I add to the complex?
Is there maybe a better place for maximum profitss?
How many Cag sellers would be enough for this complex, or really any complex in general?
Also why do most people say its better to build a station like this in spaceweed drift(doesn't have sillicon in my game) when you can have a complex like this just 1-2 sectors away from that place with a closed(I think) loop.

I would really appreciate it if somebody could answer me this.

BTW this is in X3:tc vanilla, also it says I registered in 2009 because I bought reunion and just didn't like it, but I was a fool back then, this game is pretty awesome once you get into it.

[wreckzors]

I have not played this game for a few months, and although I had made a few different stations... they never seemed to make any money. the real question is... how to you made a big station complex without tubes running all over the place making it look very dumb.... and also a flight hazard.

[swift knife]

You modify your game with one of those tubeless mods or something, I don't think you can make it nice in vanilla.

[BDK]

If you rely on factories alone it'll take forever to build up your massive fleet of doom. They provide a reliable income but I havent seen anything amazing yet even if I carefully planned the location.

A simple build or transport mission can give you 4-8 mil per mission every 10-20 minutes if you have your own TL that is. That's quick and easy money, but a grind as well.

[Spychotic]

Waffling in no particular order;

Factories are best used for slowly grinding away in the background. You need a lot of them to turn enough profits to equip an M2 in a couple of hours. I can - in fact I can't buy and equip M2s fast enough to use my money. However, I make 60 million an hour. You're a long way off that.

Let's see... Standard weed producing complex. If you are going to start to want a complex with nice looking tubes then I will have to call you a bit of a aesthete; man up! Simply spacing your factories at 4km intervals (8km for SPP XL and Mines) and linking them willy-nilly produces a decent enough looking complex. Who cares that the odd tube snakes around somewhere?

You've not got space to expand according to that analysis. You'll need to add an entire E-cell production loop (SPP, two crystal fabs, 50 yield of L Silicon mines, two refineries and two farms) in order to put any more factories on. And if you're doing trades with Pirates, it makes sense to add in a booze production plant later on. You can't do that in Teladi space.

So, my suggestion would be to move this complex somewhere in Pirate space that is not too tricky to defend. As long as it's not frequented by M7s a Corvette or two will be good for defence (I use Springblossoms) as all you'll be attacked by are fighters.

2.6 million an hour sounds a bit low. I never trust calculators' profit calculations. I reckon you're looking at a bit more than that.

To maximise your profits, look though my Guide to station management (linked to in my signature) but in brief; your best profits come from selling your own produce to the highest bidder. This requires a fleet of jumpdrive-equipped transporters for Space Weed. However, you could set the price 1Cr below average and let them come to you, although it'll take a while for them to get to you so put your complex somewhere central. The difference in profits will be slight so perhaps this second option is the best as you won't have to worry about transporters (only defence).

As for what you should add to the Complex, that depends ultimately on where you put it. I make all my money selling menial goods; a typical Spike complex will have a single XL SPP, four Crystal Fabs feeding it and producing some excess, six Cahoona Bakeries (or equivalent) feeding those and producing some excess, eight Cattle Ranches (or equivalent, etc) feeding those and producing some excess and two Wheat Farms producing grain. I set the complex in a central location to minimise freighter transit time (the complex's Silicon Mines are usually dotted on high-yield asteroids with freighters shipping it to th core Complex) and set one freighter to sell each of my excess products up to three Sectors away. Do that in eleven different regions and you've got a lot of money rolling in.

So; to answer the question "what should I add to my complex?", menial stuff that sells to the race that your Complex is located in.

Alternatively, you could start adding weapons producing fabs if you're in Pirate or neutral space to equip your fleet.

No, you don't need the Complex in the same sector as your Mines. Having the Complex in a central location is more important; if that means there's not enough Silicon in that sector to support you, then you should ship it in. It isn't problematic. Especially not with CLS2 from the Bonus Pack, which is an awesome piece of software that may need a walkthrough sometime.

I think that answers all your questions.

Spike

[foszae]

in Seizewell, selling to the Teladi? with an EQ and trading dock in-sector?

quick'n'dirty money-makers: 1 MJ shield, 5 MJ shield, Microchips, Teladianium. IRE fab, Fighter Drones.

also, i'm a big fan of multi-ethnic food. so Nostrop oil, Rastar Oil, and Bofu (given who the neighbours are). an extra M-sized food fab of every local variety doesn't make huge money, but helps keep your CAGs running non-stop and also allows for any sort of whimsical expansion you may consider

[Kryten]

Your complex is fine, I wouldn't bother with CaGs, you will only be waisting money. you don't need to sell the stuff, npcs will come from everywhere to get it, just set the price to -1 below average. All you need is a trader set to buy crystals to compensate for the small shortfall.

The calculater itself works on pure math, it takes into account all products that you produce so if you overproduce energy it works that into the equation as if you'r selling it. In your complex there is so little overproduced that it would be counter productive to use a CaG to sell the surplus.

The reason people would build in spaceweed drift is that seizwell where all the asteroids are can be very laggy and you'd have to tow all those silicon mines. Some find it just easier to forget about the silicon needed to make a self sustaining complex and ship crystals in from a crystal complex dedicated to feeding smaller complexes. A lot of my weed complexes just have the basic needs and I use a CLS mk2 to transfer crystals for the SPP from my huge Crystal Complex.

BTW this is in X3:tc vanilla, also it says I registered in 2009

Actually its tells me you never registered your game, or you would have a gold disk with the tick on it or a blue one for TC. Perhaps you meant joining the forum.