Factorio Forums

Is there a standard way of measuring the number of rockets per minute that a base can sustain?

The main question is how much time to measure. Longer measurements are more accurate, but could deplete all your resources. I'm guessing that we don't want to require players to expand new ore fields (and clear out the previous inhabitants, of course) while measuring their RPMs.

Also, if your base has a ton of rocket components already produced and buffered before you start measuring, your base will have an exaggerated RPM rate initially. This is less of an issue if you measure for a long time.

RPM is obsolete, the new measure of factory size is space science per minute.

You can reduce the size of your buffers if you want to reduce the cost of obtaining an accurate measurement. But it's all for fun anyway, people are more impressed by screenshots of your factory than a number.

DaveMcW wrote:RPM is obsolete, the new measure of factory size is space science per minute.

You can reduce the size of your buffers if you want to reduce the cost of obtaining an accurate measurement. But it's all for fun anyway, people are more impressed by screenshots of your factory than a number.

I wouldn't say obsolete since it directly correlates with space science per minute but space science is easier to measure without counting rocket parts and satellites.

AM1875 wrote:Is there a standard way of measuring the number of rockets per minute that a base can sustain?

The main question is how much time to measure. Longer measurements are more accurate, but could deplete all your resources. I'm guessing that we don't want to require players to expand new ore fields (and clear out the previous inhabitants, of course) while measuring their RPMs.

Also, if your base has a ton of rocket components already produced and buffered before you start measuring, your base will have an exaggerated RPM rate initially. This is less of an issue if you measure for a long time.

Since you are measuring production as opposed to science packs you should reach an accurate number in just a few launches(assuming no bottlenecks in plate/ore). As soon as all your production buildings start making items the per minute number under production should be pretty accurate. If you measure packs then you have to get through your backstock to get to a number that is accurate.

Just remember to divide necessary item production by items per rocket (10 for each item but satellite IIRC)

I believe that 1RPM generally means that the factory can produce 1RPM if given all the ore it can consume - essentially, it is measured from the furnaces up. Even if the ore fields are capable of producing that much ore/s you wouldn't really be able to screenshot them anyway so it's kind of irrelevant. Of course, a true 1RPM factory probably should be able to do it without ore buffers, until the fields run dry.

You can measure amount of items that going into this entity. Then divide it with combinators. The time you can get with combinators too.

Would be nice if the used satellites would be shown in the consumption tab of the production statistics. Then you would have an easy measure for at least the science rockets. If you are at 60 satellites per hour you have 1RPM (or whatever it is called now ). Not sure if the lack of satellites in the consumption tab is a bug or intended though.

You can see the produced rocket parts though 100 makes 1 rocket

Why wouldn't you just take a count of Satellites being entered into the rockets? 1 Satellite per rocket and it's only inserted at launch IIRC.

AM1875 wrote:...that a base can sustain?

That's the part of your question I'm having trouble with. Without the ability to measure the in-flow of resources and then the hijacking of intermediate products for other uses (such as coal diverted to fuel your other stuff like trains, boilers, etc.) there's no meaningful way to measure how many rockets per minute can be produced.

In my opinion 1 RPM means that the base can (and does) shoot at least 60 Rockets in 1h. Probably 120 Rockets/2h are better to empty out the buffers
Or 1 rpm for at least 1h after ~30min "shooting as many rockets as possible"
*edit* so: RPM doesnt mean you can shoot rockets, but only if everything else runs dry but the whole system is able to support that

Great insights, folks! My takeaways from this thread:

• Starting with 0.15, space science is the new metric of factory size, instead of rocket launches (though they are closely related).
• Don't worry about raw materials and miners—the factory starts with the furnaces.

I think XRPM doesn't mean anything if you doesn't specify those informations:
-how long you can sustain your XRPM (few minutes, 1 hour, infinite*)
-buffer: do you have buffered ressources in chests/belts/temporary mines*
-does the player need to be active, or is it fully automated
-the world options used on generation (default or custom, normal or peaceful...)

*infinite XRPM can be achieved by actively expanding and replacing outposts. If the devs implement dirty mining someday, a permanent RPM could be achieved.

I wonder, while you polish the base and build outposts in ennemy territory, do you usually stop the factory to prevent it from depleting ore fields before everything is ready?