Transports needed for loop? (X2)

[Elektromag]

I'm making a self-sufficient factory loop in akeela's beacon in X2. It consists of 3 SPPs, 4 Cattle ranches, 4 Cahoona bakeries, 4 Crystal fabs, and 5 Silicon mines with yields adding up to 100. To start with, will this loop work? Also, how many transports will I need to sustain the loop? All stations are in the same sector except for the mines which are 1-2 sectors away.

[esd]

Have a look in my sig for a guide to loops.

From a glance at what I can see there, you're going to have an excess of crystals and silicon - given the yields you state the mines may well chew through most of your generated energy.

[jlehtone]

IMO, there is no terrible surplus. One SPP consumes a bit more Crystals than one Crystal Fab produces, so the Crystal surplus is at most less than one Fab's production. Yields adding to 100 match four Fabs closely. Furthermore, one SPP produces ECells for 9.2 Factories, so three make 27.6 Factories worth, but there are only 16 consumers. Solid loop.

How many ships? One could follow the esd's slave approach, but if one chooses the fully trained CLS method, then 5 ships could script-wise suffice. They might not be enough by capacity; at least a single ECell hauler with 3 sources and 17 destinations sounds like a very busy pilot.