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Hints:
The Argon have the least expensive Silicon Mine.
Only the Argon have the Alpha PPC Laser Forge, Mass Driver Forge and Ammunition Factory.
Only the Paranid have the Beta PAC and Beta PSG Laser Forge.
The Paranid have the least expensive Advanced Satellite Factory, 5MW Shield Production Facility, and Wasp Missile Factory.
The Paranid SQUASH Mine Factory may use less energy than the other races.
The Teladi Alpha, Beta, Gamma IRE and Alpha PAC Laser Forges are more expensive than the other races.
However, the Teladi Gamma IRE Laser Forge uses half the Energy Cells as the other races.
The Split have the least expensive Beta HEPT, Gamma HEPT, and Gamma IRE, Gamma PAC Laser Forges, Ore Mine, 1MW Shield Production Facility and Solar Power Plant.
Only the Split have the 25MW Shield Production Facility.
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For example, the Teladi Bliss Place creates 1 unit of Spaceweed every 4 minutes, consuming 60 e-cells and 8 units of Swamp Plant. In turn, those 8 units of Swamp Plant consume 60 e-cells, so in effect, 1 unit of Spaceweed requires 120 e-cells. Since you'll probably be able to sell the Spaceweed at the maximum, 4076 credits, divide that by the 120 e-cells it took to make it, and you get almost 34 credits per e-cell used. That's a much better profit than if you had just sold the same amount of e-cells for 23 credits each.
However, we must also consider the time it took to create that 1 unit of Spaceweed, 4 minutes. Divide 34 credits by 4 minutes, and we get only 8.5 credits per e-cell per minute. An SPP in a 100% sun sector will produce 140 e-cells per minute, multiplied by 23 credits per e-cell equals 3220 credits per minute. Then if we multiply the 8.5 credits per e-cell per minute by 140, we get 1190 credits per minute for the Spaceweed production. Now we can accurately compare the profit generated by the different factories.
Let's find a more profitable factory, say the Split Scruffin Farm, which makes 15 Scruffin Fruit per minute, while consuming 15 e-cells. That works out to a single Scruffin Fruit being equal to 1 e-cell, per minute. And if you can sell that Scruffin Fruit at maximum for 32 credits, you're making 32 credits per e-cell per minute. To compare this to our 100% SPP, multiply 32 by 140 e-cells, and we get 4480 credits per minute. At last, we can make more profit than a single SPP! Of course, you'll need 9.3 Scruffin Farms to do so, which may cut into your profit initially :)
What's more profitable that a Scruffin Farm? How about a Paranid Soyfarm, 12 Soja Beans per minute, consuming 15 e-cells, 1.25 e-cells per minute. That Soja Bean fetches up to 49 credits each, equivalent to 39.2 credits per e-cells per minute, the highest for all wares. Again, multiply by 140, and we get 5488 credits per minute, again, requiring 9.3 Soyfarms.
But why not just setup 9 Split Solar Power plants, which only cost 239,658 credits each? Then you could generate over 13,000 credits per minute! You could, if you could find enough Crystals to supply all those power plants. Pretty soon you'd end up setting up a loop to supply your SPP with crystals. Now you have 45 factories, but you're only making 16,000 credits per minute. You could setup 4 loops, providing e-cells to 21 Paranid Soyfarms, but you'd only be making 12,000 credits per minute. On top of that, the cost of those stations is 25,776,452, as opposed to 24,252,768 for the 9 e-cell producing loops.
Up to this point, we've only considered maximum potential profit of the factories. However, Crystals are needed for all player-owned SPPs, and e-cells are needed for all the other factories. So let's take another look at the single Split SPP. In a 100% sun sector, producing 140 e-cells per minute, the SPP will consume slight more than 1 Crystal per minute. Selling e-cells at 23 credits apiece, and buying crystals for 1684 credits, results in a net profit of 1515 per minute. That's less than half our original profit calculation!
Will our SPP perform any better with a Crystal providing loop? Let's use the Argon Crystal Fab, Cahoona Bakery, Cattle Ranch, and Silicon Mine. Our factory loop now costs 2,694,752 total, but we improved our net profit, 1819 credits per minute! It's a 20% increase in profit over a single split SPP, but because of the increased factory cost, it will take this group of factories 5 days, 14 hours, 38 minutes, and 12 seconds of game playing time to pass the profit made by the single SPP.
Remeber though, if we add the right factory to the mix, we can improve profits further. Let's use the Paranid Soyfarm, and add one to our loop. Our net profit increased to 2062 credits per minute, and our loop will pass the profit made by a single SPP in just over 4 days. With 4 Soyfarms in the loop, profits increase to 2791 credits per minute, and our payoff is under 3 days.
Another good factory loop is the Fighter Drone producing loop, using the Paranid Drone factory. It actually uses less Massom Powder than the Drone factories from the other races, so the excess Massom Powder can be sold for extra profit. This results in a net profit of 2847 per minute, and a total loop cost of 5,993,854. Another plus with this type of loop is that local Trading Docks will purchase your product at full price, as long as no one else nearby is selling it for less. And Fighter Drones are available in most Argon, Paranid, and Split Trading Docks.
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