Questions regarding first avarice complex

[Munimentum]

Hi guys, I've been lurking on these forums reading the infinite wisdom here for a while now, not asking many questions. Until now

So I recently got back into TC, got started on Humble Merchant and have finished the TC storyline and have about 100mil with various ships (Mammoth, Zephyrus (personal transporter for my perseus, scout and 2 solanos) and lots of others) and now having just purchased my Mammoth I plan on beginning a complex (or 2) for cash.

1. I plan to build this http://tinyurl.com/4w3s2no in Avarice first as a money maker. My first question, is this complex good or are there improvements any of you could advise me on? Or do you have any advice on whether this is a good choice in a first complex? (First factory even, I've not done any build missions, been focusing on UT's and storyline atm)

2. Next I'm thinking of building one of these two:

http://tinyurl.com/4ngtpul
http://tinyurl.com/4l56oss

But I'm not sure which would be better. 200MJ obviously opens the door for outfitting ships if I like in the future, but 1MJ is cheaper and I guess a safer bet, sales wise (I'm not sure if 200MJ are one of the items NPCs will come to you for or not?)

Are these 2 choices good ones? Like above are the complexes good?
Obviously the asteroid choice is limited in Avarice so I'm working with what I have here, hence the L mines on such small yield asteroids.

3. Can anyone suggest any other complexes which would fit in with the remaining asteroids in the sector? (5 yield silicon (lol), 50+34+12+11 yield ore asteroids)

4. Can anyone suggest complexes for this stage in the game elsewhere which sell well without any player ships acting as intermediaries. (Also their composition if you can)


Phew, that's all for now, I look forward to reading you essays lol

Thanks in advance.

[StarSword]

Depends on whether you're after money or equipment. If you're planning to equip ships with the complex, I'd go with the 200 meg option. Otherwise, 1MJ shields are the way to go: plenty of places to sell them, and plenty of demand.

[Bill Huntington]

What you have looks okay, Munimentum.

I'm not sure what you want, exactly.

Let me tell you my thought process about this area.

I want a self sufficient plex that I can come to easily, so I build the central node I dock at as close to the gate as I can get without docking or parking problems, and a little out of regular traffic.

I do not want deficiencies of any kind. I use all the silicon, knowing that the Solar plants need it. I only use XL power plants for effiency, as many as the Silicon will support.

I do want an excess of energy, so I can be sure to grab some whenever I need it.

I want to produce the most Weed and Spacefuel as I can, because it will sell. I do equal amounts of these.

So I work with the Complex Calculator to see what is possible. When I use this calculator, I only enter a total for the Silicon and Ore, not each mine.

If I can add some ore to support something else, that's good. But I don't think there will be extra.

You will be building some big ore complexes for the Plot. After the plot is complete, you can add factories to use the ore produced there, and build everything there is.

I connect all Silicon and Ore mines as - is. No need for towing. I build a structure 3 x 3 stations, 4 km apart, except that Solar XL needs 5 km on the sides. I stack them, beginning at 0 then 4, 7, 10 and add 3 after that. I go both up and down from 0. If there is an asteroid close to the structure, I leave that spot or spots open. I leave the docking station open on a side and the spots over and under that one. A corner is fine for this. You want traffic to come in and out without having to dodge or adjust. I inspect the structure as it is built in case it intersects another structure. I put the Solar XLs on top of each other to minimize problems. There are a number of construction tricks to do this faster.

20 km is the limit for connection. But it easy to build intermediate structures to bridge any gaps. This can be done within your own structure, so it can be as big as you need it. Keep paper records, in case you have to add on, or find something.

I hope this helps.

[Neil Depledge]

UNI –Unknown New Income:

SM L/55,L/22,L/21 + 4 CF-L
(mines can be placed vertically : mines facing E)

SM L/12,L/8,L/6,L/5 + 3 CF-M
(mines all in a row facing North)

OM L/50,L/34,L/23,L/12,L/11
(mines all in a row, again facing North)
+ 3 CQ-L, 3 RR-L, 4 SF25, 4 PBE, 5 ISR
+ CR-L, CB-L, 4 CFA
+ 2 FF-L, 2 SO-L, 4 GC, 4 FAA, GC ammo

Leave the rest of the asteroids.

Not self-sufficient but why not ship crystals to Akela’s B and take advantage of the 400% sun?

Leave you to sort out food needs.

Hope it’s of some use to you – worked for me.

Neil

[Snafu_X3]

Almost everyone on this forum seems to be focussed on booze & weed 'plexes. OK, they're fine: a good moneyspinner in X3:R, but IMO less so in X3:TC

If I build 'plexes, by the time I need them I'm less bothered about the income & more concerned about what they'll do for me. Hence Loo's Booze - it keeps the local IBL forge happy until I can be bothered to cap my own. I've never found a use for weed except for bragging rights & income (via missions); I don't really care about the first & I'm no longer bothered by the second.

Again IMO your best bet is to set up some huge hi-tech fabs. You'll need the uChips & Xtals for the HUB plot, & afterwards they can make you a mint: they'll always sell, even at highest prices! If you want to manufacture ships yourself you'll need hi-tech wares, so consider adding computer components, quantum tubes & similar - these will also sell well to NPCs if necessary

Avarice is a good sector to put a megaplex, apart from the sunlight - it's huge & doesn't need to be visited very often (make sure you do the OTAS corp missions before your megaplex gets too big - if your machine starts lagging you'll have problems if they send you there)

For starting out I've not heard anyone complain about 1MJ shields, almost anywhere. Other people go on about IRE forges & basic missile fabs & the like, but then still others complain that they can't get them to sell in /their/ game. All games are different, but I've yet to hear someone saying 1MJ shields won't sell (to NPCs, natch - a CAG will of course sell to anyone within range for the right price).

FWIW my original 1MJ shield 'plex in HoL survived a Paranid incursion at the beginning of the game, when Terracorp & all other stations were destroyed, & is now happily expanded to include all shields up to 200MJ. I no longer use the single-digit shields, but the 'plex doesn't retain the small stuff for long. Of course, a CAG helps..

[chrisco54]

Those complexes you came up with will generate money, the 200mj's Ive had luck selling those but as to who bought them I don't know could have been A CAG or UT so the 1mj's sell better.

For my opinion I keep Avarice for just weapons, shields, and what ever tech you use. I set up A booze/weed plex in Gunnes Crusade its A pirate sector but Ive never seen enemy's in it.

barren shores has all silicon roids, slowly making A huge silicon crystal and microchip plex for one of the plots. Thats what Ive done. Ore and silicon thats not the way to make money with complexes crystal makes A good profit, so do fighter drones (not the MKll) navsat's (not the advanced) IRE and mosquito missiles. And of course whats mentioned above.

[bobxii]

If you don't have enough mineral resources in-sector, just use out-of-sector mines and CLS(1/2) to handle the distribution for you.

[TTD]

So I recently got back into TC, got started on Humble Merchant and have finished the TC storyline and have about 100mil with various ships (Mammoth, Zephyrus (personal transporter for my perseus, scout and 2 solanos) and lots of others) and now having just purchased my Mammoth I plan on beginning a complex (or 2) for cash.

1. I plan to build this http://tinyurl.com/4w3s2no in Avarice first as a money maker.

?

Did I miss something?
When you say you finished TC Story Line,did you meean you have done all plots throught to BoP?

If so then I gues that some how ,you managed to do all that without building one complex or station?

Or do you mean that the Averice complex will be the first one to build just for credit boost rather than to support plot-line(ie.The Hub) or your ship requirements?

I too tend to go the Booze/Weed route there as it boosts your rep with just about evrybody.
Last time I was lucky to have a Pirate station there also !

[StarSword]

Of course, a CAG helps..

A CAG? Singular?

I've got about a dozen CAGs assigned to my biggest plex, the Medium Weapons Complex in the Asteroid Belt. It just rakes in the dough.

[Snafu_X3]

A CAG? Singular?

Hey, we /are/ talking about someone just starting out here..

OTOH I've not yet found it necessary to build such huge 'plexes that more than one CAG is sufficient - excluding the HUB plot, natch; & even then I've had only 2 or 3 CAGs assigned to the hub: 1 for sundries & the others for resources. The rest of the resources are brought in by a couple of CLS2s

[Munimentum]

Thanks so much for the replies guys, and so fast too (Unlike my reply, sorry)

I completely forgot to specify which plot, sorry. I mean the general terran plotline starting in Omicron Lyrae, not done any of the others, and expect I won't without an M7 or something (Unless you know of any I can start right now with my perseus/Vidar(full EMCs))

Right now with these first couple of complexes I'm looking to set up I'm really not looking to the future enough to start planning for the HUB plot. All I want are some complexes that can set me up money wise to either continue adding UT's or building more money complexes.

Sorry for any confusion, but the posts have been really helpful so far. Quick question tho, is the CAG available in the default (latest patch) TC? Cus I don't think I installed the extra download whose name escapes me right now. I didn't want to incase it gave me the *modified* tag.

The reason I also didn't want to do as Neil advised because its painful enough managing my ST's and Ut's without having to worry about TS's ferrying stuff between my factories aswell. Although I'm thinking it might be something worth doing anyway, since so many people recommend it.

And thank you very much chris for putting me onto Gunnes Crusade, you're right it really is fantastic and while I was messing around setting up a complex there (To get used to doing it) I didn't see many pirates, just one patrol in like 30mins-1hour in-game time.

What is CLS? Similar to CAG?

I think that even with Avarice being a recommended place for a Hub location, I will still use it for booze/weed like TTD, seems like the rep boost and perfect location for it is too good to pass up atm (And I can use Gunnes Crusade to ferry resources as bob mentioned)

Thanks again for all the posts, I'd love some more advice/recommendations if anyone has any. For future options or whatever.

[Carlo the Curious]

CAG is intended as a replacement for a stock buy/sell ware factory trader, whereas CLS is more for transferring between your own factories/complexes or trading on specific routes.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=276039

[JAFA_NZ]

CLS2 is also really good for stocking up on stuff you can't/don't produce but that is sold (except Mercenaries).

I usually have one (in a fast TP) assigned to buying Boarding Pods (Cargo Messenger can do 15 Waypoints, do a Generate Waypoints, within 18 sectors of Unknown Sector 8:8 [aka Avarice aka US-east-of-Montalaar {but never US-west-of-New Income?}], Buy 2 for Avg Price).

He'll just roam the galaxy buying every Boarding Pod your Satellite network detects until he runs out of storage space, or delete one of the waypoints & instruct him to unload at your primary M7M or storage TL.

[Snafu_X3]

CAG & CLS (along with some other very useful scripts) are both available after you've installed the Bonus Pack, which will not modify your game.

CAG (Commercial AGent) is meant to avoid the micromanagement of making sure your stations are well stocked with supplies, & that they're selling well. It doesn't require any s/w other than Trade1 & 2 & a homebase (although addding TSE will allow the pilot to take training courses, improving their efficiency)

CLS1 requires Internal Commercial Logistics Software from Argon EQDs & a homebase. It allows you to move wares around your own stations (& eventually ships) only

CLS2 requires External Commercial Logistics Software from the same stations as CLS1. It doesn't require a homebase, & allows you to set up waypoints between any stations (yours or others') and/or your own ships, moving wares or trading as it goes. The pilot will follow a set route & only deviate from the route if he runs into trouble

The above 3 pilots are all interchangeable, so a ranking CAG will not lose their rank if you set them to be a CLS for a while. DON'T change them into Trade3 pilots unless you want them to lose all their experience - Trade3 uses a different system, & it's not compatible.

Back to the plots. Aside from almost all plots getting harder the higher your fight rank, most of them are fairly easy, at least to start with - the exception being OFF, which starts when you accept the Exterminator's mission in OL. Don't forget you can leave the plot(s) for a rest at any time - just not in the middle of a mission - & come back to them when you've got the equipment/confidence/experience. I've got 3 plots on the go ATM, plus one of the corporation mini-plots & a few individual missions. I'll get around to doing them when I'm ready.

Don't lose the Vidar - it's unique! If you're not flying it park it somewhere really really safe!

Good luck!