Science & Industry

I've started basic PI in high sec with my alt. I'm trying to get down the basics.

Right now I have this set up on a temperate planet:

I have the extractor control units extracting microorganisms and then routed through the command center. CC is then routed to a processing facility to produce bacteria and then routed to a storage facility.

Will the micoorgs continue through the line and get processed into bacteria and sent to the storage facility automatically or do I have to assist the process at different points in the route?

can you elaborate on that please? Are you saying every step in the chain should go through a storage facility or launch pad? or Can I just use one and route everything to/through it or do I need multiple ones?

that sounds good, so routes don't have to go through the command center? I've only pretty much watched the PI starter vid and was just following their setup.

Thanks for the responses.

How do you get items from other planets back to a planet for further processing?

Is it better to concentrate all your extractors on one type of resource per planet at any given time?

I tend to, yes. It maximizes the yield per planet; then just transport it to your Advanced Factory planet and import. If you're worried about taxes, some planets can generate sufficient yield on two P1 to produce a P2 (such as coolant), but you have to do the math to decide if that's efficient for you.

When setting up a new planet, I tend to look for one with either a) good distribution of the one P0 that I need, or b) one with an even distribution of two good P0. If the latter, I tend to place my CC in an area where I can swap to the other P0 when I burn the first one out. Heads will have to be decommissioned, but the CC won't. I'm not a fan of stretching extractors really far from the CC (hold-over from the early days), so I like to keep them relatively close to it.

another question: I deploy an extractor and say I use 5 heads on that extractor. So I grab a head to decide placement and the graph moves depicting my estimated influx.

Does the graph represent the 5 heads as a total or does it indicate onlythe head that I am currently trying to place?

The resources don't come back. Only if you stop extracting and give it time to regenerate. Decomission the extractor and place it somewhere else.

Sometimes when I plan ahead and do a new setup, then I expect a 30%-50% drop in resources and build around that model.

The graph shows all of the heads combined. If you look at the little symbol for the head you are moving (should highlight) you will see the number increase/decrease depending on where it is moved to.