MAchine production cap(using bob's modules)

[imperiumgraecum]

This is my first topic/post in this forum, so please be gentle.

So, I 've noticed there's a fundamental rule that states that a machine/refinery/miner etc. can't complete a cycle in less than a tick(1/60th of a second), essentially setting a minimum boundary of 0.0166....6s, and the same holds for the productivity cycle. Which means that a machine can complete a maximum of 60+60 cycles/sec.

My question is: how can speed and productivity in a machine be balanced well enough, as to not have excess of either, thus being wasted(due to the aforementioned boundary), and basically have the machine working just at the border of the saturation zone.

[bobingabout]

It's not an easy answer, especially for mining drills where their mining speed depends on which ore they're mining.

for an assembling machine, you need 4 variables.
The speed of the machine
The time of the Recipe
the speed bonus
the productivity bonus.

Ideally, for maximum production, you want a productivity bonus of 100%, and a speed bonus to bring the recipe time to 60 per second.

So... (Machine speed * Speed bonus) / Recipe time = items per second.

We want 60 items per second, and need to know the speed bonus.
(MS * SB) / RT = 60
MS / RT = 60 / SB
MS / (RT * 60) = 1/SB
Flip it. (RT * 60) / MS = SB.

So if I did the maths right, to calculate the desired speed bonus, you do (Recipe Time * 60) / Machine speed.
so, lets put a simple 1 second recipe into an Assembling machine 6, speed is 3.5.
60 / 3.5 = 17.142857... So 1715% speed bonus would bring it to 60 items per second.
And then 100% producitvity bonus maxes out that bar too, because at 100%, it's the same speed as the crafting.

in the case of mining drills... you'll have to see if it tells you what the current mining speed is, then do 60/Mining Speed = Desired Speed bonus.


I hope this helps, it was all off the top of my head.

[imperiumgraecum]

I did some calculations in my factorio sheet, and I found some interesting things:

1)In bob's modpack, unlike vanilla, it's extremely easy to go (deep) into the saturation zone.
2)Reaching maximum cycles per second can be achieved with very few modules.
3)Especially for miners, productivity cycle gauge reaches 60cycles/s, without any modules at all, at lvl219 for every resource mentioned in the list EXCEPT for uranium(due to its high mining time) and Thorium, which is used only in conjunction with Angel's mods, so I didn't include it.
4)There are 2 viable production strats I could think of: either just max out both cycle production rates at ~60+60 and keep machine numbers(and therefore, required space and modules) to a minimum OR max out bonus productivity cycle and keep the standard cycle rate to a minimum(and consequently, greatly improve output/input ratio)

[bobingabout]

Slower speed and Faster productivity would be preferable if you want the most out for your input due to the 60/s limitation.

I think the formula for productivity bonus would simply be... 60/items per second = productivity... so if you were producing 3.5 items per second from your 1s recipe in an assembling machine 6 (speed 3.5), then the formula is 60/3.5 = 17.142857... or 1715%

Also, I did make a slight error with the speed formula, you want 1715% speed total, it starts at 100%, so you only need +1615% from speed modules.
this means the formula should be ((Recipe Time * 60) / Machine Speed) -1 = Speed Bonus.

[imperiumgraecum]

Thanks for your tips, they really helped me a lot

The last thing I haven't been able to figure out, is how Labs function, based on their speed and productivity: are they also subjected to the same 60+60 rule(taking the specific Research time into account)?

[bobingabout]

Labs, right. Well, it should all be a similar formula, lab speed, research time etc, it is per lab, which is why multiple labs research faster. but you also have to take into account that there is a lab research speed technology bonus too.

so it's... (60 * lab speed *(1+ research speed bonus))/research time = required module speed bonus.
Unlike with a assembling machine, or mining drill, you don't know what the research/recipe/mining time is going to be, it can be as high as 45 or 60, but as low as 15 or even 10. So do you aim for the longest time, so that they all go as fast as possible, or the shortest time for maximum efficiency? Personally, It depends if you end up using beacons or not (which you probably would if you were trying to maximise both), but there's also the cost efficiency to consider (minimise speed, maximise productivity). I'd probably just aim for the fastest productivity that doesn't require beacons. (may need some speed to maximise productivity)