Factory Ideas X3:TC

Drai · Post by **Drai** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 14:50

So I've been playing the game for quite a while on and off now, but have only just really started to build factories and complexes, but I'm loving how fun this part of the game is.

I was just wondering what you guys did for your first complex/factory, ie. what it was, where you put it, what your thinking behind the idea was and did it work?

I've set up a Silicon Mine / Satellite Factory in Heron's Nebula (it took ages to get it there from Omnicron). I did this as I realized Navigation Satellites were is really poor supply in neighboring sectors. Also there are 2 connected sectors that have an abundance of Energy. Ace! Well no, getting hold of Majaglit is easier said than done....that's where my mistake was, but I have a long range trade run set up now which seems to keep me topped up enough to produce efficiently

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 14:56

Which X game?

Here is a good guide thread for X3TC/X3AP (amongst other guides) from the Resources and Guides sticky.

Also a forum Google search for exact phrase 'first complex' will reveal a lot of previous threads on this topic should you wish to check a few out.

Drai · Post by **Drai** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 15:05

X3:TC, I've edited my first post. But I wasn't looking for a guide, I was just getting into the community spirit to see what people have to share! Thanks anyway.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 15:08

The guides are by other players wanting to share experience.

Drai · Post by **Drai** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 15:14

And I said I wasn't looking for a guide....nevermind, heard of conversation? I've come to the wrong forum.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 15:20

Calm down, I'm sure other players will get into dialogue with you if they want to. Meanwhile I thought you wanted some actual information as well.

Playbahnosh · Post by **Playbahnosh** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 15:38

Patience, young padawan, patience

At this time of day most people are still at work/school in Europe or still drinking their morning coffee in the US. As people arrive to the board, more will join in the conversation. But Alan is right, the guides are all written by other players mostly from this very forum, they are worth a read.

As for complex ideas, you might wanna start thinking about closed-loop complexes (that is, have the complex produce it's own energy/food) thereby lessening the need on outside resources. And E-cell loop is usually the basis for all big complexes. Even a standalone e-cell loop comes in handy, since you always need energy for this or that, and having a continuous free supply is great. You can even sell it for some early cash.

The first complex I usually build is a Small Shield complex, since they go like free candy early in the game. Then I usually switch the Small Shield fab for a Medium Shield, since I need the 25mj shields to equip my fighter wings. Maybe slap on a HEPT forge or a EBC+ammo fab if I'm playing commonwealth. And you are right, an AdvSat fab is more than welcome if you plan to deploy a sat network.

For the next plex I used to build a basic Chip plex to start gather for the HUB, but since you don't need that it AP. Still, NPC traders regularly clean house in chip plants even when set on top price.

For the rest, if you are producing for yourself mainly, like I do, figure out what you need. If you are producing for the market, look around for holes in the economy to fill. Terrans usually sorely lack Water or food for example...

ajax34i · Post by **ajax34i** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 15:40

It was a Solar Power Plant (M) with Crystals attached, and first I spent 1 hour trying to get it to face the sun properly (wasn't familiar with the rotate controls, but I needed it to face the sun), and then another hour trying to get the complex docking port rotated just right, at the right distance, etc.

Drai · Post by **Drai** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 15:44

Oh don't get me wrong I'm not impatient, I just got the impression my thread wasn't welcome!

I've thought about adding a solar power plant to one of my complexes, but forgive my ignorance, are they not difficult to run profitably? As in, supplying with Crystals. I've not really looked into this in detail so I'm probably talking rubbish

but a good next step, and cheap to build!

ajax34i · Post by **ajax34i** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 15:50

Yeah, they're difficult to run, but I didn't know that at the time. As I said, my primary concern was facing the sun. It was long ago, my first foray into complex building.

My advice now would be to:

1. Build a single station of whatever the local economy needs (other than Energy) for your first station.

2. Instead of building a complex in-game, find a web-based online complex calculator and play with your setups there. Much faster, much cheaper than trying things out in game, and you gain similar knowledge from the exercise.

Honved · Post by **Honved** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 16:07

After my first questionable try at building an SPP, which I discovered was a poor money-maker, I did a bit of research on the boards here.

In my next game, I started out with a two-station "mini-plex" consisting of an Argnu Ranch and a Cahoona Bakery in Akeela's Beacon. That feeds both it and the adjacent Legend's Home and Aladna Hill sectors, and there's plenty of energy available.

An Ore Mine in Aladna Hill also payed off well. In another game, a Delexian Wheat Farm in Omicron Lyrae was my starting station, which relieved a local shortage in that sector plus in the adjacent Treasure Chest.

Now, I review the local situation in each game and decide what there's a need for, then decide what to build from there. Some games, there's a critical Ore or Silicon mine missing at the start, or clearly not enough of some food producing or processing station, and building one is a huge boost to the whole regional economy, rather than have everything grind to a halt for lack of one item while you struggle to sell off the usual merchandise to stations that aren't buying because they're at a standstill.

Food products are generally a quick but modest payback for a low initial investment. A few goods like shields, navigational satellites, IREs, or contraband will usually sell as fast as you can produce them, even at a higher than average price, but the startup costs are higher, and WAY higher for a self-sufficient complex.

Playbahnosh · Post by **Playbahnosh** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 16:08

Drai wrote:Oh don't get me wrong I'm not impatient, I just got the impression my thread wasn't welcome!

I've thought about adding a solar power plant to one of my complexes, but forgive my ignorance, are they not difficult to run profitably? As in, supplying with Crystals. I've not really looked into this in detail so I'm probably talking rubbish but a good next step, and cheap to build!

Here are some examples:

A basic Argon E-Cell Loop, a base for possible complexes

Argon 25MJ shield + HEPT plex for equipping my fighter wings

Teladi EBC+ammo plex for equipping ships

As you can see, a basic Argon XL E-cell loop needs:
- 1x XL Solar Power plant
- 2x L Crystal Fab
- 2x L Cattle ranch
- 2x L Cahoona bakery
- 1x L Silicon Mine on 50 yield roid or mobile mining setup with close to same yield.
- 8x complex construction kits

It's a fully self sufficient complex with no outside resources needed (unless you mobile mine), and it produces a metric f*ckton of e-cells.

I suggest you don't build big complexes in sectors you want to enter in the future, since complexes make framerate tank. Also, arrange your stations so the tube ports aligns to avoid the Spaghetti of Doom

ajax34i · Post by **ajax34i** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 16:17

Or, combine techniques of rollercoaster design with techniques of X3 complex building, and offer/force ride-along-the-tubes in your Kestrel to/on any passengers you may have in your hold at any time.

DiArmada · Post by **DiArmada** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 16:32

Playbahnosh wrote: - 1x XL Solar Power plant
- 2x L Crystal Fab
- 2x L Cattle ranch
- 2x L Cahoona bakery
- 1x L Silicon Mine on 50 yield roid or mobile mining setup with close to same yield.
- 8x complex construction kits

that's the basics, yes.
the only odd thing is that the Solar Power Plant needs 80 crystals in 7:10 minutes.
the two crystal fabs produce 80 crystals in 8:00 minutes.
converting to one minute: 10 crystals produced, 11,16 needed.
which is no problem as long as you produce more energy cells then needed.

personally I always start with spaceweed production.
the Teladi allow these stations in their systems, so that's where I go.
Scale Plate Green, Two Grand, PTNI HQ, Profit Center Alpha is where I usually start.

1x L Solar Power Plant
1x L Crystal Fab
1x L Sun Oil Refinery
1x L Flower Farm
1x L Silicon Mine (25 yield of more)
2x L Dream Farm
2x L Bliss Place

Playbahnosh · Post by **Playbahnosh** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 17:23

DiArmada wrote:the only odd thing is that the Solar Power Plant needs 80 crystals in 7:10 minutes.
the two crystal fabs produce 80 crystals in 8:00 minutes.
converting to one minute: 10 crystals produced, 11,16 needed.
which is no problem as long as you produce more energy cells then needed

That 1 crystal difference is negligible, you won't really notice it, production will be continuous after the start-up fluctuation stabilizes. It's also better than buying one more crystal fab, because then you need another pair of ranch-bakery and another mine or the plex will be starved to food/silicon, which means an even bigger drain on the produced e-cell net volume. Also, over-producing crystals in that quantity is bad since you can't use it for much else and can't sell it either.

As for the weed plex, I tend to advise new players away from illegal goods until they get the hang of complex building and sector defense. It can be profitable but it's significantly harder to set up then, say, a simple Small Shield plex.

Carlo the Curious · Post by **Carlo the Curious** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 18:11

Drai wrote:Oh don't get me wrong I'm not impatient, I just got the impression my thread wasn't welcome!

If people direct you to guides or FAQ entries, it's not because your thread isn't welcome - they're just pointing you in the direction of useful information. No point in writing an essay if what you have to say is better stated someplace else

.

Graaf · Post by **Graaf** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 18:18

@Drai
I usually start with an Ore Mine and expand that with some food fabs to make a small 1MJ shield complex.

Once I start making enough credits I build self-sustaining complexes with Microchips, Computer Components and Quantum Tubes. Those always sell.

@DiArmada
The discrepancy in the production cycle is due to the 150% sun factor in the system. If you don't add the 2 extra crystal fabs (1x M-size) your SPP will run out of crystals eventually. And tbh the surplus of crystals might come in handy some day.

Coreblimey · Post by **Coreblimey** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 19:09

The surplus crystals will definitely come in handy when you have your HQ and start producing ships.

Drai · Post by **Drai** » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 19:20

Graaf wrote:@Drai
I usually start with an Ore Mine and expand that with some food fabs to make a small 1MJ shield complex.

I like that idea, starting with something that's in demand then adding to it to produce more wares when you can/need. I'll have a look at where Ore might be in demand. I tend to hang around the western sectors, anywhere you can point me to save some time?

Seems to be a lot of Ore Mines around already.

I've also set up a Cattle Ranch x2/Cahoona Bakery x1 in Cloudbase South East, it seems to be doing okay. One Mercury can keep it topped up with more than enough with Energy Cells and another seems to be selling consistently with local demand, profits are slow though.

Sinxar · Post by **Sinxar** » Fri, 3. Aug 12, 06:03

Another great seller I randomly came across is Advanced Satellites. I built a tiny little complex in Power Circle and its always sold out with price set at average. As you know most wares need to be at avg-1 for NPCs to buy... not adv sats it seems. I haven't tested how high the price can be set but still, its a great seller and very useful to the player.

A little pet project of mine was a food production and distribution complex. I got the idea after a thread was posted about drug complexes. Turns out food produces more money than drugs. This is because you can sell food at near max price giving way more money for your e-cell.

Here is the calc link: http://tinyurl.com/77cljrv

Here is the thread i posted it in. has a pic and everything.
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=317484