Aluminum production goal

[sergier]

Is there a "rule of thumb" on how much aluminum stuff i will need? I know this is a horrible and wholly subjective question. But was looking at the center of the map where there is plenty bauxite, coal, copper, water, and quarts.
Guess a better question is; how crucial is it to have a lot of aluminum production?
Not building a megabase but dont want to be squeezed either.

[Ryzilynt]

For me , so far. I've only needed it for heat sinks and empty bottles for jet fuel. And for a while there belts.

I'm up to tier 9 and I only have 1 refinery making alumina and 2 refineries making aluminum scrap. They are boosted , and I think the alumina is slooped, but still.

Depends on how many parts/ min you are looking for.

[sergier]

Yeah saddly i feel like the scale of the game to item/parts demand are really off. Almost like things are to... cheap? Not that cause invitory space. Its... a lower end build works all game. Built a 4 copper sheet place early on and have never needed more. At my new oil power plant i made on just cause its half way across the map. Dunno

[wux]

Depends how big you go and so on but until I'd 'finished' the game and was going for much larger builds, I was producing 780 scrap/min and it was more than enough.

[Dirtyshadow]

If you not aware of your future needs with sheets and casings. Aim for your first plant to be 240 per min, that way it goes direct to Dimensional Upload.

Then you also don't have to stress about logistics or uses for more later.

Later you can figure out any future plant or expansions.

[Eiko]

I agree with wux that 700-ish scrap/min is basically the amount you need for a normal playthrough, which is two scrap refineries fed by 4 alumina refineries using the normal recipes. You can plan the rest around that.

[Fenix]

I haven't done tier 9 yet but my U8 save I made due with a single pure Bauxite node.

[ThanatosX]

Max out the node for whatever belt tech limitation you have now. You will need an ungodly amount of cases mostly, just have a side production of your alclad for building and such. A couple of higher tier items need cases and they build into items themselves, as well as requiring some for various constructions.

[MrBishop077]

Im at the end of T8 and getting ready to make the last part for phase 4. 5 refineries making solution into 3 making scrap into __ making bars.. into cases/plates/bottles/heat sinks/fused modular frames etc ...
and my industry still cant sink the finished products fast enough..
i will say tho, keep a box of alclad set aside to upgrade belts/lifts to Mk.5.

*BUT* ive also only focused a huge portion of my economy to finishing the phases and tiers (no Nuclear yet, and no ionized production lines, only Bio/Coal/Fuel/Turbo/Jet for power atm, also no crazy transportation setups either) and had planned on fully revamping after everything was unlocked. so i dont know if one of the later industries will need more Alum.

[Songbird]

Some of you build really, really small. Like, I'm at the scale of ten per minute of stuff like fused modular frames, a couple hundred bottled rocket fuel per minute to cover drones, and about 40 radio control units per minute, and I'm already exhausting 600 bauxite per minute using the sloppy alumina > electrode scrap > pure ingots line, using alclad casings for all the casings.

[MrBishop077]

I admit it. my only excuse is its my first play-thru and im still learning.. =)

honestly, i am less worried about massive outputs (for now) and more worried about undoing the pasta ive started to develop all around my main factory due to rapid growth and new manufacturing lines, and not 'break' those chains in the process.
poor planning on my part probably but as i said, its a learning experience.

[ThanatosX]

If you are worried about not being able to upgrade because you never leave enough space, you could overbuild now, for 1200/min bauxite off a pure node. Then when you get the latest belts the only thing you have to do is replace your lifts and conveyors.

The alternate recipes for aluminium make it a lot easier to work with, so spend some time doing some hard drives if you haven't yet. Should only need bauxite, water and oil if you want least diversity of material in.

[Wolfgang]

Make an estimate on what you think you need and then double it and give it to the next person .

Get some alt recipes (Sloppy Alumina and pure aluminium Ingot, Alclad casings are optional).

[kLuns]

2 assemblers sheet, 1 constructor fluid tank, the rest into casings

[Doombringer]

Sheets are for mk5 belts and base heat sink (and 5000 for mk6 conveyor unlock).
(You will need some cooling systems, even if you use turbo motor alt that doesn't use it - tier unlocks and thermal propulsion rocket).
You can use alt heat sink which uses casings instead.

Lots more demand for casings - Fused Modular Frame and Radio Control Unit (both used for nuclear pasta and a bunch of buildings, radio used for turbo motors and drones)
(Alt Fused Frame uses ingots instead, but is mainly for slooping)

At tier 9 you can turn aluminum ingots into ficsite for tier 9 things.


Probably 600/min bauxite is enough (mostly turned into casings).


Of course I went insane and made a 2880/min ingot base that does 2400/min quartz crystal +4580/min silica and I don't even use 90% of it...

[Garma Cyro]

Brutally speaking there's no rule of thumb. Only how fast you need things done.
With exception of powers something will get done given enough time.
Thus you don't need a minimum through-put. Just start with something, then supplement it as you grow.

The only thing you should do is re-check your output at various points as you grow.
No matter how well you plan bottle-necks will form. If it isn't platinum, then its going to be something else.

Another reason for "just slap something down": In the start tech unlocks is more important. Massive projects and/or scalability is something you can work on once you've unlocked useful alt-recipes and buildings.
EG. It's easier to break down a quick and dirty aluminium factory, than a massive plant when you get the sloppy alumina & pure alumiunim ingot alt-recipes :)

In the start just find a nearby single aluminum field, and work of that.