Guide: Math, optimal ratios and layout

[beetree]

UPDATE: This post has been replaced by this guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3234784476

This game is just great! I don't see anyone having started gathering the analytics and optimization behind the game yet so I thought I'd kick it off.

SUMMARY

Below is an example of a close-to-optimal layout for mid-game crops (Cauliflower, Potato and Turnip):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3234767455

Overall principles and assumptions

- Our objective is to progress as quickly as possible towards unlocking the whole farm. This means maximizing Spare Part generation
- It seems to me that the biofuel is what yields the most money. Therefore I'm going to assume that maximizing biofuel production is the goal for maximum progression.
- All calculations are based on Cauliflower, Potato and Turnip. That said, all calculations scale linearly so it's easy to adjust for other crops (e.g. more/less water, faster/slower growth)

Base data

Biofuel Converter:
- 18 seconds to complete

Bots:
- Movement of ~1 square per second
- Charging takes 15 seconds (Biofuel Bot)

Biofuel Bot:
- 4 actions before charge

Water Bot:
- 4 waterings before getting more water
- 20 waterings before recharging
- Refilling water takes 1.5 seconds
- ~1 second per action watering

Harvest Bot:
- 6 harvest per charge
- ~1 second per harvest

Optimal ratios

Biofuel Bots per Biofuel Converter

Assuming storage and bots placed next to converter, there would be on average ~6 movements per placed item. The placements are immediate and so are the pickups. This means each placed item takes 6 seconds, and a total of 18 seconds to start a converter.
The bots do four actions before charging. Hence, one Biofuel Bot can cover 4/3 of a Biofuel Converter.

Conclusion: 3 Biofuel Bots per every 4 Biofuel Converter

Crop Patches per Biofuel Converter

This of course will depend on which crops are being used. I'm going to assume that Cauliflower, Potato and Turnip are being used, or put different that crops with a completion time of 300 seconds are being used.

At perfect efficiency, the Biofuel Converter can complete in 18 seconds. Practically though, with only one Biofuel Bot, it will take 6 movements X 3 items to reload it, or another 18 seconds. In addition, the Biofuel Bot will sometimes charge at suboptimal times. Therefore, in practice, the Biofuel Converter is likely to take more than 36 seconds to complete a cycle. I'm going to assume 40 seconds to complete a cycle.

Conclusion: We need 3*300/40 = 22.5 patches per biofuel converter (for 5 min crops, adjust linearly for faster/slower crops)

Crop Patches per Water Bot

A watering bot if perfectly optimized can water one crop and move to the next crop in 1+1 seconds. I'm going to assume 3 seconds per watered plant though as there will be some suboptimal movements
On a full charge (20 waterings) this means 20*3=60 seconds on watering movements. It also means 5 refilling of waters, that takes 1.5 seconds each and I will assume 5+5 movement per each refiling. This means 5*(1.5+5+5) = 57.5 seconds spent on refilling water. Then another 5+5 movement assumed to go to the recharging place. This would bring a total time per full charge of 60+57.5+10 = 127.5 seconds.
During a full charge, the bot will be watering 20 plants. A Water bot waters 20 plants in 127.5 seconds, or 6.375 seconds per plant.

Just like above, I'm going to assume that we are planting Cauliflower, Potato and Turnip. Cauliflower needs 7 waterings per 4:50, or 41s per watering. Potato needs 5 waterings per 5:10 or 62s per watering. Turnip needs 4 for 5:24, or 81s per watering. On average, this means ~61 seconds per watering. I'm going to assume this average.

Conclusion: A Water Bot waters one plant every 6.375 seconds. A patch needs to be watered every 61 seconds. This means a single bot can cover 61/6.375 = 9.6 patches (assuming 61s watering plants, scale linearly for higher/lower values)

Crop Patches per Harvester Bot

The harvester needs to move back to storage after each harvest. Let's assume on average the distance for this is 5 squares, then movement would take 5+5=10 seconds per harvest. Plus 1 second for the actual harvest. Dropping off is instant. There are 6 harvests per charge, or a total time of 11*6=66 seconds. Plus another 15 seconds for charging. This means a total time per charge of 81 seconds for 6 harvests. Or, 81/6=13.5 seconds per harvest.

Just like above, I'm going to assume that we are planting Cauliflower, Potato and Turnip. They have roughly a completion cycle of 300 seconds.

Conclusion: A harvester can cover 300/13.5 = 22 patches (assuming ~5 min crops, scale linearly for other crops)

Optimal layout

To summarize ratios:
- 1 Water Bot per ~10 patches
- 1 Harvester Bot per ~22 patches
- 0.75 Biofuel Bot per Biofuel Converter
- 1 Biofuel Converter per ~23 patches

It looks like a reasonable design could involve
- * 20x Crop Patch
- 2x Water Bot
- * 1x Harvester Bot
- * 1x Biofuel Bot
- * 1x Biofuel Converter
- * 1x Storage Unit
- 1x Water Well

One possible layout for this is:

https://ibb.co/fnk3LR8

I'm eager to hear your feedback on this.

[Anoiram94]

Thankyooou!

[cozi]

thank you! you should post this as a guide in the guide section!

[beetree]

Originally posted by cozi:

thank you! you should post this as a guide in the guide section!

Great idea. I'll put that together!

[beetree]

Here's the guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3234784476

[triin.vaino]

That is amazing! Good work

[SuperPooperTTV]

Are these based on the base bots or max upgrades?

[tmaddox]

Thanks for the guide

Is playing optimally even that important? I have not moved on to a new farm yet but in a couple of days I got all crops unlocked, upgraded all my bots and am about to unlock the last berry bush.

I have 346k biofuel and 300k in spare parts.

[JustTooks]

Originally posted by tmaddox:

Thanks for the guide

Is playing optimally even that important? I have not moved on to a new farm yet but in a couple of days I got all crops unlocked, upgraded all my bots and am about to unlock the last berry bush.

I have 346k biofuel and 300k in spare parts.

As long as your biofuel production is higher than your biofuel usage, you're good. This is a casual slow paced game, being optimal isn't that important

[Lurkily]

That said, for some people optimization is the game. That's okay, too.

[maross80]

seems weird, this to be better optimized, as making 4x4 fields above each other, a bunch of necessary harvest stuff, and again two 4x4 fields above each other on the other side.

[JustaGunslinger]

Could you do something like this with the vertical layout? It would be greatly appreciated.

[Eve]

Split it in half and stack it (the 8 minute crops layout is the same layout doubled side to side), the math is the same. I do recommend looking at the comments in the guide for more info.

[dog]

Thanks for the guide, which helped early on with understanding game mechanics and got me thinking about optimization. As others have pointed out, this guide falls apart when you get Echo and start upgrading bots , which imo is when "mid-game" starts anyway. If you follow this pattern of 20 crop patches to 1 biofuel converter, your progress will be stunted early-game because biofuel converters are very expensive, and late-game because the long crop growth times will make it so that your crop production can't keep up with biofuel conversion. You will literally have 0 crops in storage and your biofuel bots will be sitting there doing nothing most of the time.

From what I've gathered after playing through three maps, upgrading capacity on biofuel bots is overpowered. It's really cheap - cheaper than even buying another bot, and certainly cheaper than buying multiple biofuel converters. What I've been doing is farming crops at a leisurely pace with some watering bots and a harvest bot, getting Haiku, and then saving everything (except for maybe another biofuel converter) to rush Echo. Immediately upgrade the capacity on your biofuel bot twice, and get a second biofuel converter if you didn't earlier. Your biofuel production will probably at minimum quadruple after this, and you can easily fund any expansion that you desire. . I would guess there's no point in having more than three or four biofuel converters even with a whole map of crops patches, and you shouldn't even think about getting a third converter until you hit late-game.

I haven't done any of the math so maybe you could optimize this further. Let me know what you think.

[Eve]

Because this forum is resurfacing, I would like to remind people that the full guide and discussion can be found here.

More data and tools can be found here[docs.google.com]. This link includes calculators and layouts. There are spoilers if you haven't already played.

[Sternosaur]

This is great, do you plan on updating this to include buildings for farm animals like cattle and swine?