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So I had a sub-factory all setup for special drill > washer > formpress to make crushed N4 and N7 and thought i'd increase production so I went through (what I thought was) the obvious upgrade route of using drill heads. Without really thinking about it, it seemed like I would be getting 8x the dirt production for what seemed like a measly cost of essentially one N4 (Dutotal) pellet. I got it all setup nice, auto-repairing drill heads etc. Right at the end I had a nagging feeling something wasn't right and ran the sums. I'm hoping I missed something here as I currently have this:

8 dirt converts to 10 contaminated mud which equals 25% of one 'contaminated mud to crushed N4 production' which gives one crushed N4 (and one crushed N7). It takes three crushed N4 to make one N4 pellet and a '4 drill head repair cycle' costs 1 N4 pellet and obviously repairs 4 drill heads. These 4 drill heads will make 40 contaminated mud or 1 third of an N4 pellet. This means 1 N4 pellet will make 1 third of another when used in this way, also known as a loss of resources! (not counting the N7).

Really hoping I've made a mistake as I just spent an evening on this seemingly pointless setup and really don't want to waste any more time trying to test it all. If I haven't made a mistake then what is the point of the drill head if it only serves to use up additional resources? I guess if you need a lot of N7 then it would be handy but otherwise it seems more than pointless. Can anyone versed in this setup please enlighten me what's going on here and what the point of the drill head is if it isn't to step up dirt production?

Thanks!

Make the calculation from a different point.
Search for Alien-Data-Fragments. Stone + Data-Fragments can converted into UC and this into N4-Pure. Byproducts of this process is also additional mud.
The focus is not a huge benefit or ressource gain - its more a faster production or easy upgrade to a current system.

Ahhh ok I see so increased dirt production is really designed for data fragments rather than dirt to mud?

Thanks for your suggestion, I haven't tested it but reviewed it all in Foreman. So yes it looks like I can get extra N4 by going:

data fragments > unicomp > N4
stone > unicomp > N4
contaminated water > mud > N4 / N4

...but the additional complexity, space & materials to build it all makes me think I may just be better to stick with the lower outputs of the drill > dirt > mud although the

The world I'm on is a death world with lowest possible settings on all resources and highest for biters (plus RSO mod) and I didn't really comprehend exactly how little resources there would be and didn't work it out until I'd invested quite a bit of time. If I hadn't started with Yuoki installed I'd have had to quit this world (thanks for that! ) so i'm just looking at ways of getting increased resources etc.

If nothing else, this post has served to make me realise theres a good use for the massive store of stone I have!

Cheers

Velox wrote:Ahhh ok I see so increased dirt production is really designed for data fragments rather than dirt to mud?

Yes, or stone both more the targets. Make sure you left a little reserve of Unicomp to start something new if needed.