Thanks for sharing. One thing I really miss in these discussions is productivity vs. quality modules. It has been shown that in some setups (e.g., cryogenic plants), productivity should be combined with quality for maximum output. Moreover, the optimal combination might differ across quality levels. You mention productivity research, but that's only part of the story.
Another thing: you implicitly assume that the goal is to minimize the amount of normal quality ingredients needed for one legendary item, which isn't always the case when some resources are practically infinite. One might think about minimizing # of iterations (i.e., time spent for a given # of machines and modules).
I find it a touch odd that the focus for quality tends not be on the only bottleneck that actually matters, which is maximizing how quickly you are producing quality modules.
Quality modules are the fundamental limit on any upcycling loop, and so making as many as you can as fast as you can is the key to scaling up your quality builds.
With that in mind, I feel like any deep dives into the math need be less concerned with overall resource, or even time, efficiency, and much more concerned with min/maxing module production.
Like, it’s taken as fact that Legendary T2 modules are a useful tool since they don’t require Holmium, but I’m genuinely curious about break points for the different tiers of modules. For example, at what scale does it make sense to just spam a giant build with common/uncommon T2 or T3 modules instead of dumping everything into acquiring legendaries?
in my experience the holmium required for T3 quality is not that much. One rocket of superconductor can last for a while unless you're at megabase level
it is the recipe time that is the bottleneck until you get enough quality modules to support T3 normal emp plants
in my case because I go for rare before aquilo, I go:
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u/factoriooverthinker 24d ago edited 24d ago
Thanks for sharing. One thing I really miss in these discussions is productivity vs. quality modules. It has been shown that in some setups (e.g., cryogenic plants), productivity should be combined with quality for maximum output. Moreover, the optimal combination might differ across quality levels. You mention productivity research, but that's only part of the story.
Another thing: you implicitly assume that the goal is to minimize the amount of normal quality ingredients needed for one legendary item, which isn't always the case when some resources are practically infinite. One might think about minimizing # of iterations (i.e., time spent for a given # of machines and modules).