Advice on what my first station should be?

[Jack152009]

So I have finally established a pretty big trading fleet and a mining fleet, so I was thinking of going from mobile to stationary. What is you guys advice of stations I should begin with?

[Tilen]

I'd build something like an Energy cell factory to start with. That always sells. Once you figure out how it works you upgrade it according to what that sector needs. Then repeat the process for other wares as you get capital.

[Stevie Lee]

I would calculate what rate of income you want from the factory, then design one that delivers it. It is not hard to sink a ton of money into a station that is barely profitable. Demand is one important factor, but you also must focus on income generation potential. For example, It takes about 10 Smart Chip modules to generate the same income as one Microchip production module. Five questions should get you there-- 1) What's in demand. 2) What do you need to make them (input wares). 3) What is income generating potential of each (Wish you could get this from Encyclopedia, but you can't. Need to scan blue print, put in dummy plan, then look at logic view to see how many inputs are needed to produce X outputs). 4) Where are the heaviest consumers of this product (are they clustered)? 5) Is there a location near consumers that can provide cheap input materials (if I don' t want to produce myself)? Now you should know what to make, how much, and where.

[ImHelping]

If you are going to use the trade overlay to determine product (and just in general), be mindful the trade overlay gives many false positives.

It only cares about VOLUME. not price. So you'll see 3 dot Buy/Sell and it turns out to be a trader station stockpiling at average and 1 cr below average. Or a 2 dot cattle farm that's still charging you well over average price to buy, etc.

[DrSuperEvil]

I advise making an energy cells module first followed by graphene and refined metals. This allows you to them move into Hull Parts for constructing future modules. I then use an L trader to raid claytronics from NPC trading stations after making them dump their wares. With these I get up a manufacturing chain for a claytronics module for complete construction independence.

Else go food/medical supplies since those modules are cheap and always sell.

With smart chips you can get 20 smart chip modules with one energy cell and silicon wafer module so they are practically free.

Trinity Sanctum VIII is a good choice for a station since it has all the basic resources.

[RubyCante]

Originally posted by Tilen:

I'd build something like an Energy cell factory to start with. That always sells. Once you figure out how it works you upgrade it according to what that sector needs. Then repeat the process for other wares as you get capital.

This works on older X games,but from my game not this one
the game is overflowing with energy,even the NPC station is selling energy cheaper than i can sell it
in the end i scrapt the solar panel and replace it with engine parts factory

there is too many energy station,too bad we cannot destroy them..yet..

[DrSuperGood]

If you want money, go smartchips or engine components as both will sell like hot cakes. Since ships are made from wares, technically the high end ones like smartchips and engine components will net the largest discount when buying ships (until your own ship warf/shipyard mechanics are added to the game).

If you want to learn how stations work while selling product to stimulate the economy go a food factory of sorts (water, energy cells, spices, faction specific food path, medicine). Food factories are a nice way to stimulate the economy and earn some money while understanding how factories work. You can always use the product to help with some missions.

If you want to invest to make more factories, go hull parts and claytronics. With exception of surface elements, stations are entirely made out of just Energy Cells, Hull Parts and Claytronics so if you make those self sufficiently and own a construction ship you can basically make or expand stations for free.

Originally posted by RubyCante:

This works on older X games,but from my game not this one
the game is overflowing with energy,even the NPC station is selling energy cheaper than i can sell it
in the end i scrapt the solar panel and replace it with engine parts factory

there is too many energy station,too bad we cannot destroy them..yet..

Actually energy cells do sell very easilly, even at well above minimum price. The problem is that due to energy cells effectivly printing money (no raw material usage) they make extreemly little value of product per hour. Energy cell production is always a good base for your factories but you will need to add something more substantial if you want a lot of money to roll in.

[DrSuperEvil]

Energy cells sell for the minimum price but have no overheads once built and remove overheads from future modules.

[primarccreagor]

They changed the rules with this game, you can have an all maker. That is a station that makes everything, so starting with what you have and not spending is the best way to start. Scan stations after a plot point and you can learn how to build station parts, this will take a huge amount for cost out of the build for the plans you would have to buy. So plans cost money and then you can build that one station part, not fun on this one.

If you read what has been said above for good spots to pick and can use what you have to build in areas for best profit for what you can make. This is the cheapest way in to building stations.

And like I said the stations with all sections can build everything so plan them like you will add onto the current one. The one note is if you can find a mission to build in a area you want, the reward will offset your build. Most missions like this will give back 6-8.5 mil. so when you finish building(key point here to log the mission) you will get payed back and oun a station.

[Tilen]

Originally posted by RubyCante:

Originally posted by Tilen:

I'd build something like an Energy cell factory to start with. That always sells. Once you figure out how it works you upgrade it according to what that sector needs. Then repeat the process for other wares as you get capital.

This works on older X games,but from my game not this one
the game is overflowing with energy,even the NPC station is selling energy cheaper than i can sell it
in the end i scrapt the solar panel and replace it with engine parts factory

there is too many energy station,too bad we cannot destroy them..yet..

Interesting. My HQ is flooded with buyers for energy cells. They are not very profitable, sure, and they take a very long time to pay off, but then it's just a foundation which you upgrade later on.

Plus, you can build an energy cell module on every factory. The module produces energy cells in excess, so they'll be sold along with other wares. I usually sell energy cells and the end product only, because:
1) you don't really want to supply the competition with resources
2) you don't want the station to buy the resources and lose potential profit--just make sure that you supply them sufficiently yourself