Polymer Production, and Rare Earth Metals

[TheUltimateGeezer]

Has there been any discussion on increasing the polymer and rare earth production baseline some?

I find it incredibly diffiicult to obtain the polymer, either i cant afford a steady stream via rare sales, and or there are not enough of the polymer deposits i found here and ther with 1 or 2 units.

[Emmote]

Build a Polymer factory.

[Wantoomany]

Yea what Emmote said. If you are just picking it off the ground you are doing it wrong. Its the only advanced material that dosen't require workers to supply its raw materials. Making it one of the easier factories to set up.

[werdry]

For Polymer production you need Low-G Hydrosynthesis research (usually one of firsts in Engineering), which allows to build Polymer Factory. To make factory work, you need Dome, water and fuel. Fuel is made on Fuel Refinery with water and energy.

Another thing is, you can check map for geysers. Those are rare, but if you have one nearby, check it from time to time (production is very low, but its unlimited and free).

Rare metals cannot be produced. On early game, you export those for money, on middle game you save those to make electronics, on late game you build Mohole wonder which generates 20 rare metals every sol.

[Zhorge]

I make polymer factories. Usuall in the second dome I build unless I play as an Oligarch, then I do it in the first since I can afford to build the spire (spacing on it's name right now) which gives living space for 32 residents.

[ohener]

Has anyone else noticed that the output of polymer factories seems to be bugged? The factory produces 3 polymers per workshift even if you only have one worker per shift, and the actual output doesn't seem to go up if you add more workers per shift or turn on heavy workload.

[werdry]

They change things from patch to patch. Stirling dont need maintenance in locked mode, tech from Robotics now affect all RC instead of just Rover, fungus farm without upgrades and only 3 workers produce 9 food per sol... many things changes every week or so :)

[Martin]

Originally posted by ohener:

Has anyone else noticed that the output of polymer factories seems to be bugged? The factory produces 3 polymers per workshift even if you only have one worker per shift, and the actual output doesn't seem to go up if you add more workers per shift or turn on heavy workload.

yeh noticed this as well. In fact the balancing of the entire game of build x number of generators v maintaining them v gathering all the right materials with an extremely limited workforce that seems hell bent on mass suicide.. then there's all the mods to fix the gameplay. I give up on what's broken and just assume it all is. I play into the latter 80% of the game then just restart.

[werdry]

True, same here. But you can put a duck on "limited workforce" part if you lucky and get Extractor AI breakthrough (no workforce needed for metal and raw metal extractors). Then you can dig everything but water with Rover, Transport and shuttles.

I remember that game where i got this one and harvested over 50 storages of metal and raw metal with two basic domes as colony.

[vkobe]

you just need water, fuel factory and energy ^_^

[Uncle_Bulgaria]

Polymer production the the easiest advanced material to get production running for. You need water and fuel, both of which don't need colonists on Mars to produce. Fuel is made from water and you can tick fuel production over with just a water vaporiser & refinery so you don't even need an underground source so you can make it anywhere. A good habit to get into is to have fuel production already underway well before the first rocket of colonists arrives.

The polymer factory tech usually comes quite early in the tree so you can get that going with your first or second dome quite easily.

[TheUltimateGeezer]

Thank you all for the replies,

I was mistaken and did not mention I had built Polymer Factories,

I just thought the production was insanely low. The information on the gyser is great. ill look for that!

[baddoggs]

Originally posted by Wantoomany:

Yea what Emmote said. If you are just picking it off the ground you are doing it wrong. Its the only advanced material that dosen't require workers to supply its raw materials. Making it one of the easier factories to set up.

I thought the vanilla poly factorys still required workers.
There is a mod factory thet produces trickle that is automated,
I am fairly sure the one for the basegame requires staff.

[For_Science!]

Originally posted by baddoggs:

I thought the vanilla poly factorys still required workers.

They do. Wantoomany's point is that the raw materials for the factory (fuel) don't require workers, so it's an easy production chain to get going. Machine parts (from metal) and electronics (from rare metal) both require geologists in your production chain.

[DeadShot]

Must be a bug, because mine produce 14 if i have 2 shifts full of engineers.

[TheUltimateGeezer]

Mine produces 1.7 with 6 colonists and only 1 is engineer.