This is the third part in my rough guide to PI. Part 1 covered the basics and general principles, whilst part 2 covered general guidelines for the planning, construction and operation of your own PI networks. In this part I will go into some detail regarding my own operations and the practical aspects of my operations.
Now, I’ve been running my PI network sort of semi-casually and haven’t gone into as much detail with the figures as some have. I decided to try my hand at making the components for Nanite Repair Paste and not worry too much about whether it would be a profitable enterprise or not. My main character’s corporation, being pirates, has a use for NRP and the goal is to find out if I can provide them with a reliable supply. Not having my own manufacturing facilities I’ll be asking around the corp to see if anyone has an alt with a POS nearby that can be used in the final manufacturing phase.
The Planning
As mentioned in the previous post in this series, planning is something that should be done with care and attention to detail, even moreso if you are hoping to run a profitable enterprise. I haven’t really been worrying too much about costs as I’m not really looking to turn a profit, but these should be noted if you are aiming to make money.
Using the 5 extraction planets and one manufacturing base model, I selected planets in the systems around my home base (getting three right on my doorstep, one at 1 jump away and one at 2 jumps) which would enable me to switch out manufacturing to other avenues if I wanted to change at a later date.
To manufacture NRP you require three PI products which are broken down into their components and their source planets in the following list:
- Nanites (P2, Barren)
- Bacteria (P1, Oceanic)
- Reactive Metals (P1, Lava)
- Data Chips (P3, Barren)
- Microfiber Shielding (P2, Barren)
- Industrial Fibers (P1, Temperate)
- Silicon (P1, Lava)
- Supertensile Plastics (P2)
- Biomass (P1, Oceanic)
- Oxygen (P1, Gas)
- Microfiber Shielding (P2, Barren)
- Gel-matrix Biopaste (P3)
- Superconductors (P2, Barren)
- Plasmoids (P1, Plasma)
- Water (P1, Oceanic)
- Biocells (P2, Barren)
- Precious Metals (P1, Plasma)
- Biofuels (P1, Temperate)
- Oxides (P2, Gas)
- Oxidizing Compound (P1, Gas)
- Oxygen (P1, Gas)
- Superconductors (P2, Barren)
I presented a flowchart of my planned layout in the previous post, but I will do so again here (click to embiggen).
This was V1 of the planned network and as you’ll see later in this post it has undergone some evolution since then. I’m currently still training for my 6th planet so I can plant a manufacturing base on a local Barren planet. Until that point I’m stockpiling the P1 resources at my home station and currently have enough to run my manufacturing planet for more than a month without having to extract anything else, depengin of course on how many plants I have making each of the required ingredients.
The Planets
The layout of each planet’s network will depend largely on how the resources you want to extract are distributed. As stated in the previous post the best method is to simply plonk the PCC down anywhere, as you can only do that from space, and then dock up to take some time over laying out your network. All my planets are currently running on Advanced PCCs except for the Temperate planet which is still awaiting an upgrade from the Improved PCC.
Temperate Planet
The Temperate Planet is the source for my Biofuels and Industrial Fibers, which are processed from Carbon Compounds and Autotorphs. Autotorphs can only be extracted on Temperate planets so I have to include one in my network.
I was lucky on my temperate planet in that I found reasonable sources for both materials pretty close to each other. The extractors are set up in chains of three which then go into a storage unit as a buffer. The general advice I’ve seen on the forums and elsewhere is to avoid using Storage Facilities wherever possible in order to save CPU and powergrid, The PCC and LP should have enough storage for anyone’s purposes but as you can see from the above image, I foolishly placed my LP a fair distanct from my extraction points which would have required me to set up long links betweeent the extractors and the LP. The amount of RM I’m pulling on a 24hr cycle would have meant that I’d need a separate link for each extractor chain due to congestion so an SF was the most economical solution.
Gas Planet
The Gas planet is a bit of a special case in that I can manufacture one of my P2 products (Oxides) at source as both the ingredients are available on this planet (Oxygen and Oxidizing Compound). I also need to export some of the oxygen for use in a later process (Supertensile Plastics). This has led to a slightly more complex network than any of my other extraction planets. The Gas planet is another of the planets that must be in my network as it is the only source for Reactive Gases.
Thankfully, once again the optimal extraction points were quite close together which ate least allowed me to minimize the length of any links. The way I’ve got this running at the moment is a chain of three and a chain of two extractors for each RM, going into a SF for each RM, these then run into factories for each of the required P1 products. Fairly simple so far, but this is where it gets more complicated.
One of the Oxygen factories pipes straight into the LP for export, while the other runs into a second SF, which is also fed by both the Oxidizing Compound factories. This SF then feeds both the P1 products to the Advanced factory which is manufacturing Oxides for export.
Looking at it now I can see areas where this network could be improved and made more efficient. As things stand I’ve got one of the OC factories standing idle quite a bit of the time as the Reactive Gases source is not that rich, I’m alos ending up with large surpluses of Oxidizing Compound which is taking up space in the secondary Storage Facility.
I’ll probably look at reworking this networ at some point soon in order to cut down on the surpluses and get more oxygen out the other end. I’m not too worried about the level of Oxides being produced at the moment, I won’t really get a handle on the efficiency at that level until I have my manufacturing base up and running.
Plasma Planet
I’m extracting Noble Metals and Suspended Plasma from my Plasma planet and exporting Precious Metals and Plasmoids. Neither of these resources are unique to Plasma planets but they are most abundant on this planet type.
Again, the RM sources I’m extracting from are reasonably close together, but I’ve added seperate buffers for each resource due to the positioning of the deposits. I also discovered soon after setting this network up that there was enough Suspended Plasma being extracted to run another factory, this factory isn’t running constantly but it is enough to prevent the Storage Facility from getting over full and causing a loss of resources.
Lava Planet
The Lava planet is another of the ‘must-haves’ as it is the only source of Felsic Magma which processes into Silicon. I’m also extracting Base Metals from this planet for processing into Reactive Metals.
As you can see from the above image, this is the only one of my planets where the PCC has been included in the network. Its not actually being used as anything but a routing point and is not providing any storage space. This was the first of my planets where the two closest resource deposits were still a fair distance away from each other, so the model fro the network was similar to the Plasma planet in that two chains of three extractors for each resource are routed into storage buffers which are then routed (through the PCC) to the respective factories. As the links are so long on this planet I don’t have enough CPU and Power to add another factory as I did on the Plasma planet but neither of the deposits I’m extracting from are anywhere near as rich so it isn’t really necessary.
Oceanic Planet
The Oceanic planet is the only one I’m extracting 3 different RMs from and so the amounts being exported are understandably smaller. From this planet I get Water, Biomass, and Bacteria; all of which could be obtained from other planet types but again their abundance on Oceanic planets is higher than anywhere else.
With extracting three RMs comes the issue of finding a decent location for your LP. I managed to find a spot where two of the RM depostis were close together and the third was quite a way off. I’ve also been restricted in the number of extractors I can place for each resource, simply because I’m extracting three of them. As you can see from the image above the two extraction groups closest to each other are routed into one SF and from there to the respective factories in the upper group. The further away extractor group gets its own SF and links to the two lower factories. The CPU and Power cost of the link, precludes me adding any other factories and has even resulted in restrictions of the number of short links I can have connecting my factories to the LP.
Barren Planet.
I don’t have my barren planet set up yet but I’ve got a rough plan (from the V1 flowchart above) of what is needed. I’ve got another 12 days of interplanetary Consolidation training to go and then I’ll be able to run my PI setup in its entirety. I’ll be sure an post an update once its up and running.
Some consideration will have to be given to how much storage I’ll need and how many factories I’ll have to have running.
Logistics
The basic logistics are pretty simple at the moment. I run my extractors on 23hr cycles and pick up the exports every couple of days and store them in my hangar at my home station. There’s not alot more I can do in this regard until I get my manufacturing planet running and I know for certain the consumption rates of the various inputs.
I have a very large buffer of materials in storage at the moment, which will allow me a little flexibility in the management of my output. In storage I currently have the following amounts of resources
- Plasmoids: 43700
- Water: 27480
- Biofuels: 35840
- Precious Metals: 33520
- Silicon: 36620
- Industrial Fibers: 30740
- Oxygen: 20720
- Biomass: 16200
- Reactive Metals: 40160
- Bacteria: 23020
- Microfiber shielding (left over from a previous PI experiment): 640
- Oxides: 2900
The limiting factor in the above is Biomass which is manufactured from Planktic Colonies on my Oceanic planet, and current stocks will allow me to run my manufacturing planet for 16 days or so without having to extract anything. This is not what I’m going to be doing of course as I will keep my extraction planets running in order to keep the stock coming in. Its good to know that I have a buffer in case of something unexpected happening.
So there you have it, this is my PI network as it stands right now. I’m logging in every day to double click 120 times in order to restart my extractors and flying my cloaky hauler around every few days to pick up exports. As I mentioned above I’m not looking to make money doing this and so haven’t gone into the numbers as much as some others (if you know of anyone fire me a link in the comments) and from what I’ve been reading the market has not yet stabilized enough to know whether PI can be profitable.
In the next, and final, part of this series I’ll be looking at the various good and bad points that I’ve found while exploring this new feature of EVE and looking at where it could be going.
M out
6 Comments
You'll never have an issue with CPU on a planet that just extracts and makes P1's. Since they have the same MW rating, I have two spaceports on planets I extract two different materials (spaceport MW = storage MW).
I have two extraction and two manufacturing alts running a PI logistics chain with one other person cranking out two towers and a few modules a week. So, my views on extraction planets are narrow. We need to be efficient with our P1 inflows to operate our hi sec manufacturing planets. Your goals do seem different than mine, but I think you can squeeze in at least one extra building per planet if you didn't have those really long links. And with the plasma planet, two spaceports is the same storage as one spaceport and two storage facilities saving you 700 MW. If you have 100 MW of idle space, that's another extractor right there.
Also, I have endless notes (hangs head in shame) on the input required on my manufacturing planets. I am responsible for half of our P4's and can tell you off the top of my head what goes into what (I call this “fun”). If you are running 23-hour cycles, that seems to be about 1/4 the output rate as me. Planet rating is irrelevant as the proper way to measure output is with P1 factory run time.
The important ratio to remember is P1:P2:P3:P4 = 4:4:2:1. In other words, it takes four P1's supplying four P2's supplying two P3's supplying one P4 to have a constant output. For me, I want to be running my P4 factories 24/7 (I usually pump out 12-18 of each a day, but I have the capacity for 24). For you, you don't have the P1's for it. Knowing that, if you are satisfied with twelve units of NRP's a day max (we only make P4's not sure the factory output amount), then you can easily set up your manufacturing planet for it with CC level 3.
I squeeze in 27 buildings on my CC5 planets where I go P1—->P4. I didn't remodel a CC4 planet and it's maxed out with 24 buildings. Your chart has only a fraction of that.
My advice would be to cut out the P2 production on the extraction planets and just make more P1's. On your manufacturing planet, you can set up capacity for 12 NRP pu/day with the following:
* 12 P2 advanced factories
* 2 P3 advanced factories
* 1 P4 high tech factory
* 1 spaceport
* 1 storage facility (this may be a tight squeeze if you only have CC3, if it's an issue then route everything to and from a single spaceport)
Start with the spaceport feeding the 10 P2's going on to make DC's and GMPB's in one general direction. Send the P2's back to the spaceport and route them to the P3's going in the opposite direction. Make the 2 P2 factories making nanites in parallel with the four P3 factories (3×2 or 2×3 FTW). Route the P3's and nanites to a storage, and then route them to the P4 high tech facility.
How's that for streamlining?
I blew 100's of millions of isk figuring out the best way to streamline complete PI production chains. Send check payable to…… (kidding).
Oh, something else about the PI market:
I've pen and paper tracked P1's and POS structures for the past two weeks. The commodities market is stabilized and currently steady. It was upside down for the first month because everyone was trying to make P4's and beyond without the resources (or stamina) to do so.
In regards to POS structures, modules have tanked because they are far easier to produce than towers and people opt to make them instead. One of every P4 and one cap construction part each. Towers, on the other hand, are very tough to produce. Even if you have the machine cranking out P4's, the manufacturing time on CCP's are a limiting factor. Couple that with CCP BPO's shooting up from 900 million to around 1.4 billion isk and it's easy to see that while PI is accessible to everyone, doing everything in PI isn't for everyone.
That being said, myself and another person have had over 6 billion in sales from POS structure since PI went live. Given our infrastructure and organizational flexibility, it will remain very profitable for us.
On that first post with the planet suggestions, I'm an idiot. You can't make NRP's through PI. So, take off that P4 factory and you're good to go. Feel free to add advanced factories you have the space and input for.
As I understand it you need to actually make the NRP off planet at a pos manufacturing array or station. They were in the PI production line when it first cam out on SiSi but were removed for the release for some reason.
And I replied to your previous comment without reading through all of them.
I'm hoping they reinstate the P5 products at some point, not having a POS really puts a crimp in my production capabilities.
And I replied to your previous comment without reading through all of them.
I'm hoping they reinstate the P5 products at some point, not having a POS really puts a crimp in my production capabilities.
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[...] Repair Paste and other PI advice and also worth reading (I Am Keith Neilson – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) – is the distance he places in between his extractors or processors, which [...]
[...] Repair Paste and other PI advice and also worth reading (I Am Keith Neilson – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) – is the distance he places in between his extractors or processors, which [...]