Science & Industry

While I have no hard data to support this, I've seen similar effects myself, although I don't know if it happens the moment you hit the submit button. I've cancelled a run as soon as the one minute cooldown timer expires and there is no apparent loss, but I've done it within 5 minutes of starting, and it shows the depletion you're talking about.

So it looks like there is a grace period within with the site you're extracting isn't affected, but after that then the site gets depleted.

As far as i am aware of... the "phenomena" of disappearing resources by restarting the program is a myth but i haven't had a chance to test out the validity or not. Might do it, when i get more time to play again. The theory is against rational thought, since why would CCP code it so complicated or flawed?

After DT check how much was extracted, compare to renewal, remove the deficit from the pool vs "estimated program extraction" to be removed as soon as you hit/stop restart to allow complete resource depletion in an hour, if someone does it 100 times.

Is it possible to drive other Pi industrialist out of business?

It is a myth. Just go do the test. Did try a similar test half a year ago and the yield was the same (14 day program, max heads, reset every 5-10min).

The amount of extracted materials depends on how much is replenished in time. Moved around a few planets and a program, that was supposed to bring in 18k / h for 4 days, ended up with a full storage at the end of the program. The replenishment was faster than the depletion (single toon on the planet, no other corp mates using it, Adv. Planetology 4).

As some one already stated, this is not a depletion mechanic you are seeing. stopping and restarting the cycle triggers a new survey of the planet. The planets resources do not change, it is your survey results that change. For example a character with planetology and advanced planetology both trained to 4 will get a survey result that is lets say +/- 5% of the actual amount available. (I do not know the actual % for each skill level as it is not in the released information) While a character with 0 planetology skills will get a survey that is say +/- 50% of what is actually available.

The survey estimate of your extraction is not equal to the actual extraction rate you get, you only see your actual extraction rate after you apply the program. The planetology skills affect your margin of error. Even with 0 skills you can get a lucky roll of the dice and get an accurate survey. But with such a wide margin of error you have know way of knowing how accurate your survey is until after you install the program. It could be out by as much as 50%. Training the planetology skills will reduce this margin of error. You will still get a random within that margin but a random number within 5% of the actual number is much more accurate than a random number within 50% of the actual number. As I said before, even with a 50% margin of error it is still possible to hit the right number, or very close to it as that number is still within that 50% margin. But the only way to guarantee your survey will be more accurate than 50% is to train the planetology skills.

I can not see the actual code but based on my experience and testing I believe I have determined how the planet survey system works. I have 4 accounts with most characters on each account active for at least market and PI alts.

Each time you survey a planet you have as I described above, a margin of error as to how close your survey is to the actual amount of resources available. This margin of error can be reduced by training the planetology skills.

It seems once you perform a survey on a planet you will continue to see that same survey until you instal and stop the program, or a server down time has past. The higher your planetology and advanced planetology skills are the more consistent and accurate your surveys will be.

Aside form this margin of error based on planetology skills there is an additional margin of error that applys to your proximity to the planet. The further you are from the planet the more is added to your margin of error. This additional margin of error can be reduced by training the remote sensing skill. If you are always surveying the planet from orbit around that planet you will not see this additional discrepancy, but if you survey and restart your extractors from several jumps away, you will see your surveys get much more accurate with remote sensing skills trained.

Now that we have the basics covered there is one more point I would like to make clear to the OP. As you said you normally run 2 day cycles and reset after 12 hours. This is definitely shooting yourself in the foot. But not in the way you thought. The longer the program you set up the more you will extract for the over all program, but you will get less per cycle or per hour. The impact of this is much greater as you pass each step in cycle times. For example any program 1 day 45 minutes or shorter has a 15 minute cycle time. Setting up a 12 hour program you will notice a very high rate per cycle(each bar in the graph) and average per hour shown in the program. Keep in mind though this is not your actual rate but based on your survey. Your actual rate will only show after you have installed the program.

Once you pass 1 day 45 minutes you have 1/2 hour cycle times, at 2 days 2 hours it changes to 1 hour cycle times, at 4 days 4 hours it changes to 2 hour cycles, and at 8 days 8 hours it changes to 4 hour cycles. Also as you increase program length the radius of the extractor heads increases. So on a shorter extraction program you can fit more heads on a smaller hot spot.

What this comes down to is if you normally restart your program every 12 hours you are losing a massive amount of income setting up two day programs. You will also lose density as your heads are bigger and need to be spread out more.If you are regularly not getting back to reset every 12 hours then by all means set a longer program. But if you mostly do get them reset within 12 hours the extra you will bring in with a 12 hour program will more than make up for the slight loss if you don't get back to reset once in a while. On top of this you can always set longer programs at times when you know there is a good chance you will not get back in time, or set shorter programs when you know you will.

Personally I use 1 day 45 minute programs as it is the longest you can go while maintaining 15 minute cycles. And I only need to reset once per day. This also gives me a 45 minute buffer so I do not need to get back at the exact time every day. It works very well for me and I have been doing PI non stop since it was introduced to the game.

Thanks for the support.

I never plan on writing a wall of text. It just usually ends that way by the time I get all my thoughts on the page.

I would hope that most who take the time to read my posts do appreciate the effort I put into helping other players, rather than just trolling as so many others do.