balancing Yellow and White science with Labs

[mpderksen]

For this map, I have launched 2 rockets so far. My goal for this play-through is to learn to balance "things" better. I.e. how many Green Circuits to fully supply x-y-z. Peaceful mode so I can focus on the educational part. I have gathered 2K of the White science. Clearly I have unlocked Lab Research Speed 6. Now I'm bottlenecking on Yellow science!
My rocket silo has 4, Prod3 modules, but I have NO beacons at all (too much math yet). My goal is to produce 1000 Yellow (and others) at the same rate I launch each rocket. Step #2 is to consider how many labs can burn 1K science packs in that amount of time. I currently have 19 labs on the map and about 14 of them get enough Yellow to keep going.
That's the background, so here are the questions (use small words :) ):
1. Rocket launch is currently limited by assemblers making Control Modules. But for the sake of this discussion, we will assume I launch 1 rocket every 15 min. How do I accurately determine my launch rate?
2. How many labs, at Research Speed 6, or 250%, can burn 1K packs if the base rate is 60sec each? Can I just figure that each lab now uses 1 pack every 24sec? 1000packs * 24sec/pack * 1launch/900sec = 26.7 labs?
3. Taking the output from #2, (27 labs), is it smarter to use some beacons? Or just increase my # of labs?
4. Growing ALL my science pack capability to 1K every 900 seconds, do I go back and upgrade all my assemblers from #2 to #3? Modules? Beacons? Just MORE and bigger? As they say in Kerbal Space Program, "Moar Boosters!!!"

Again, the goal of this factory is primarily to learn what a successful, balanced factory contains. Next round maybe we include some biters, or try Nuclear. Until I can understand ratios, I want to focus on this part. Plus, it's really really FUN, which is the point.

[mpderksen]

side note: I'm trying to look at other people's blueprints for ideas, but not copying anything unless I create it. I learn a lot more when I have to do the layout.

[Jacowboy]

I dunno I suck with that whole aspect... plus I went very slowly... I just know that yellow packs were a ♥♥♥♥♥ for me... The one thing I know is that you're gonna need A LOT of plastic, so you better plan for a good supply of that...

And even though I don't know ratios and all that you'll also want to set up a good plan for producing green/red/blue chips, but it's a bit tough because it seems you can't just do it any random way... copper wire is always an issue when making green chips because like, sure I could set 20 assemblers to create copper wire, but what ends up happening is that a lot of them can't place their product because it gets backed up, and even with that backup sometimes the copper wire doesn't reach all the assemblers doing green chips... so for sure, there's probably a perfect ratio of stuff to maximize out put, but I haven't really bothered with that so far.

Anyways, I'm sure someone will come along with hard numbers, so gl =P

[KatherineOfSky]

Have you seen the calculator at http://kirkmcdonald.github.io/ ? You can input the rate you want things to be made, including beacons with modules (if any), and it will tell you exactly how many machines making each of the products you need, including belts to carry them there.

Remember to do additional calculations for extra stuff like modules.

[mpderksen]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Have you seen the calculator at http://kirkmcdonald.github.io/ ? You can input the rate you want things to be made, including beacons with modules (if any), and it will tell you exactly how many machines making each of the products you need, including belts to carry them there.

Remember to do additional calculations for extra stuff like modules.

Frankly, I know about the calculator, but have focused on your recent Tutorial with Cal instead ;)
Taking Question #1 by itself then, do we assume that, since my current limiter is the Control Units, I can extrapolate from that? These are assembly machine2, so that's 1 every 40 seconds, x the # of Ass. Mach. I have. Is it really that easy?
To increase my rate of these (AFTER I get Yellow Science under control), do I go to Ass3 to reduce my cycle time? Seems like a huge jump in power requirements and if I have room, maybe just MORE of the Ass2 make more sense?