Sanity check for a PI noob

Industry Gameplay Center Science & Industry
1

Hey all, I’ve been here since '06, but I went offline from 2010 to last year sometime. I’ve just recently got into solo low-sec PI for the first time and quite like it as a passive income source.

I’ve now got four alts set up to harvest everything for a manufacturing chain from P0 up to P4. I did a whole bunch of research about it beforehand, and so I think I’ve got it right but just need a sanity check to see if I’m doing anything truly daft. Note, I’m not after optimal or even fantastic, “OK” will suffice at this point :slightly_smiling_face: but any advice that doesn’t really change my time commitments will be great.

All my alts have at least at command center upgrades 4, interplanetary consolidation 4 and varying amounts of planetology/advanced planetology. Target P4 uses three different P3 inputs.

So across my four alts I’ve got 18 planets across two systems doing P0->P2 production. Each planet has two extractors on a three-day cycle feeding 4 BIFs (buffered with storage units, for alts with CCU 5), which in-turn feed 2 AIFs producing the relevant P2 commodity. I then have one planet to do P2-> P4 which is basically three sub-factories consisting of:

  • 1 x Launchpad (for inputs)
  • 3 x Storage containers (one for each P2 required for a given P3)
  • 2 x AIF

… so basically it’s 3 LP, 9 SC and 6 AIF on the planet. Outputs of the AIFs get buffered in another storage container before going into the HT facility, which sends output to an output launchpad.

This setup gives me 1 x P4 per hour which I can sell for =~ 3m p/u, or =~ 72m per day (65m after taxes, which in total is about 10% going to the POCO). It’s more than 10% of some outputs, but the gains on the resulting P4 balance it out.

tl;dr I’ve got 4 alts running 18 P0->P2 factories and one P2->P4 factory producing 65m isk/day after tax. I can run it for 3 days with an hour attention per day, 4 and a bit days if my buffers are full and outputs empty (capped by the P4 storage).

Does that seem legit? I know I could probably cut down on the # of planets by reducing cycle time on my mineral extractors and having 3 AIFs per planet, but I don’t want to do that.

2

Nahh not really sane unless you do it in nullsec/WH space with that many accounts

3

Can you explain how that would make a difference?

I know nullsec/WH space has better yields than lowsec, but the upper limit on my production capabilities doesn’t seem to be mining yields, rather available PG/CPU on fully-upgraded bases.

Higher yields may let me squeeze in that third AIF per planet on a three-day extraction cycle, but I need 36 AIFs doing P2 to sustain one P4 output per hour. At optimal (i.e 3 AIF per planet) that’s 12 planetary bases I need for the P2 output, and then I’ll need a 13th for the P2->P4 manufacturing. Even at IC 5 that’s three characters I need, which doesn’t feel like a huge difference from my four-character setup.

EDIT: Also, the yields on the planets i’m using in low-sec are far from terrible… notwithstanding different layouts for the different planet types, some yield bars are =~ 95% full.

2nd EDIT: Also, I see that if I can get extractors down with only two heads per unit I can get up to four AIFs down… but on a 3 day cycle I’m not confident of getting 12,000 units/head to get the 48,000 required to keep all those systems fed.

4

The difference is in WH space and Nullsec there are Double the materials on planets, so you can Double your income and plex 1 account with 3 PI chars. Also you generally have 1 factory Planet where you process P 1 to P3 per Account, the rest are P1 planets where you extract the material and process the extracted P0 to P1

1 Like
5

Ninja’ed my last edit :slight_smile:
I just found this post, which is closest to my setup, but in nullsec.

Definitely wasn’t obvious that nullsec/WH space have double materials… that makes a massive difference. I’m virtually in the Nullsec where I am, so I guess a move is in the near future.

Thanks!

6

Just join a group like Pandemic Horde if you are New to nullsec they have a dedicated group to explain stuff to newbeans

7

In terms of the setup I don’t think you need so many launchpads either, just route the raws to LP, then out to BF, then P1’s to LP, then out to AF’s and so on. The volume reduces each time and the materials just flow back and forth. Just make sure to gather them up before the LP is too full and you’re good.

8

I personnaly prefer to route extractors to a storage so it can buffer the variation of production.
If I extract 12k/h, I have 2 P0->P1 so when there is a peak the buffer will start buffering and later the buffer will get emptied. Using LP for this means you may have not enough buffer.
Also I like to have my buffer not empty, so it keeps transforming for one day or two when I forget to restart it.

1 Like
9

It also makes a massive difference when you own the customs offices and don’t have to pay tax. Of course it takes a while to pay off the POCOs, but if you’re in a relatively quiet area (like say a wormhole) you can PI your heart out. The key problem is boredom and forgetting to restart your extractor jobs.

10

This is the main problem today. It takes a lot of your play time if you have multiple characters doing PI.

11

This is why I like to buffer with warehouses. On my extraction planets I have extractor-storage which branches into 2 arms of 2 factories each with a launch pad on one and a warehouse on the other.

I set up my extractor to pull in slightly more p0 than I need. Which slowly fills up a buffer in the warehouse. It’s enough that if I forget to restart for a day or two the factories will keep chugging along. (I funnel the p1 into a launchpad and warehouse or 2 launchpads because it allows me to only do pickups once per week)

12

Not in my experience. It’s just boring as f…

1 Like
13

with max skill one can have 2 P2 running all the time from extraction.

depending on the planets, you can have 2extractors, with 3days long cycles, average 12k/h per extractor. That means you have to log in once per 3 days to restart the cycles(though you should have some buffer), and once every… 9 ? days to move the P2 out of the planet.

each planet requires ~1 min every 3 day, and you need one trip to your six planets every week or so. let’s say it needs 21 min, so 3min 30s per day per account.

14

EDIT:Waaait a sec. Now I read english gooderer. Disregard :slight_smile:

1 Like
15

Way to many LP and SCs.

One of my facory planet has an extractor, 4 basics, 9 Advanced and 2 High techs. All running off just 2 LPs. The other has 2 Lps again and 23 Advanced and 1 Hightech.

That vs your 6. At most I think you should have 3 LPs otherwise its a waste of a planet.

16

The use of multiple launch pads is more for convenience than it is efficient. Two helps you avoid transfer hold ups. Three saves you time from doing any transfers on a factory planet which produces a single end product. I recommend three, and using the poco as extra storage, allowing you to export the end product from the 3rd launch pad and filling the other two by just undocking or being in space. Save the pick up for later and do it once.

17

Launch pads are very resource expensive (Power / CPU) so why not use ordinary Storage facilities instead of extra launch pads & expedite transfers to / from a single launch pad as needed? I would have thought that made more sense.

Can’t say I’ve ever found expedited transfers an inconvenience, that wasn’t what you were on about was it?

EDIT:

I tend to use one Storage facility for each product tier I produce on a planet (P0, P1, P2 etc.) plus one more (for imported products & overflow) with a single Launch pad myself… I’m open to suggestions if someone thinks they have a better way of course :slight_smile:

18

unless something had changed since my break, i didn’t think imports were possible directly to silos. Edit: I only use one silo for my extractor planets. Zero on my factory planets.

19

They aren’t.

But there is expedited transfer (I’m wondering if you know about that now?) … which moves selected items instantly from one store (a Storage Facility or Launch Pad) to another.

So you can deliver to a launch pad then expedite a transfer directly to whatever store you want it in & vice versa when you want to boost something up to the customs office.

Which means you only need one launch pad & can use ordinary stores (which hold more anyway) for any product organisation (or whatever it is you use them for?) you want.

EDIT:

If you know about expedited transfer I don’t understand your reason for all the launch pads you say you use :confused: … perhaps you can explain it again for me if I’ve missed something? :slight_smile:

20

I’m aware of the transfer utility and that it has a cool down when done from that facility (launch pad or silo) after the first one. It depends on how you setup your PI. I do a minimalist approach that optimizes my time rather than my production numbers. Let me show you what one of my extractor layouts looks like and also a Coolant farm as an example of how I setup my PI across three toons. Just gimme a while to get home from work. C U in a bit.