Jimmy C wrote: ↑Sat, 16. Jul 22, 16:16
I'll just compare EBCs to this. 1 load of 110 5mj shields takes up 330 space. This takes an XXL factory 2 cycles to produce, that's 32 minutes. If an S factory produces 3 shields per cycle then the XXL produces 60, right? 110 shields is worth 2,570,920. There's only time for 2 cycles until the EBC forge completes one cycle, so 60x2x23,372=2,804,640.
What about the EBC? An XXL EBC forge produces 20 EBCs per cycle. That's worth 3,022,880.
The EBCs also only take up 20 space compared to the shields which take up 60x2x3=360 space. Want to know how much 360 EBCs are worth? 54,411,840. If you were carting 360 space of stuff to be sold at a Dock, would you prefer EBCs or Shields?
The matter with credits over time is that goods are not produced at a continuous rate but at discrete intervals at the completion of production cycle. So you either get all the money then or none in between.
Sorry for the late answer, was busy with my shield complex.
No doubt that EBC if more effective if we talk about cargo, I'm fully agree with that. The only thing that's still not clear for me that why it matters.
If we compare fabrics with different cycle time then we shouldn't rely on that time. One fabric produces goods for 1m each 10 cycle of minutes, another 2m each cycle of 20 minutes and third one 6m each cycle of 1 hour. Which is more profitable? Simple calculation shows that each of them earns 6m per hour, so they are equivalent.
EBC cycle time is 50 minutes (let's don't count some seconds here) while 5MJ Sh cycle time is 20 minutes, so it's better to compare fabrics when they both finish their cycles at the same time. And this time interval is 100 minutes which means 2x cycle for EBC and 5 cycles for 5MJ Shields.
An EBC XXL will produce 151,144*20*2=6,045,760 (2 cycles with 20 pieces per cycle)
An 5MJ XXL will produce 23,372*60*5=7,011,600 (5 cycles with 60 pieces per cycle) for
exactly same time interval that means it's ~16% more effective.
In result, it means one additional million per XXL fabric each 100 minutes or, if we have 5-plex XXL complex, it will be additional 50k every minute. That's why I decided to build 5 MJ Shield complex instead of EBC complex. But I like your idea in general and
v_make's finding for that TDR solution will help to get a lot of money in the game.
And answering for that question:
Jimmy C wrote: ↑Sat, 16. Jul 22, 16:16
If you were carting 360 space of stuff to be sold at a Dock, would you prefer EBCs or Shields?
Of course, I'd prefer EBC but it will take more time to get EBCs for the same money as it could be done for 5 MJ shields. That's the point.