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Planetary Interaction: Extraction cycle comparison
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Kassandra Viljoen
Springbok Expeditionary Inc.
#1 - 2013-09-26 12:01:26 UTC
Hi all,
I have really gotten into PI and recently started up my dormant 3rd account and trained all three toons for it including Planetology 4, Advanced Planetology 3 at least.

I'm planning on training them all to Interplanetary consolidation to level 5, with only this one training for both interplanetary consolidation level 5 and Command Centre Upgrades level 5 as she oversees the factory planet producing P3 as well as overseeing P0/1/2 planets. The operation is based in low sec.

Right now it is not doing to bad, despite that fact that I do not have time for spreadsheets. That is what brings me to this question, which hopefully differs from others that may be similiar.

I currently restart my factories every evening after a 23h cycle (I read somewhere 23h cycles yielded a lot while not needing me to check in twice a day, can't find that thread again) so every evening I spend an hour doing that and balancing out extraction heads. Time has now increased to over an hour on 3 accounts and with potentially more planets coming in (due to skills) this will increase more somewhat. I would like to enjoy the other aspects of eve, like getting back into missions etc but the current setup takes up quite a bit of time in the evening and when done there is no time for much else.

I would like to know from the PI masters out there if switching from my current cycle to, say, a 3 day cycle would cause me significant losses. The other reason why I ask this is because I also do not want to **** off my neighbours by digging holes in the planets and shifting resources around for them. I know New Eden can be a cut throat place, but I want to be a good citizen :)

Your thoughts, guidance and experience are much appreciated.
Termy Rockling
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#2 - 2013-09-26 12:07:19 UTC
Its pretty linear, shorter cycles give more resources than long ones, its all about balancing your workload.
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#3 - 2013-09-26 13:18:30 UTC
If your this serious you may as well go ahead and train them all to Command Centers V and InterP Consolid V.

It's seriously worth it.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
Kassandra Viljoen
Springbok Expeditionary Inc.
#4 - 2013-09-26 14:08:16 UTC
Krixtal Icefluxor wrote:
If your this serious you may as well go ahead and train them all to Command Centers V and InterP Consolid V.

It's seriously worth it.


Actually I might do that. I'm trying to get my 3rd main into some PVE to raise standing and so need to train for that as well, so I may need to rely on Dual Char Training. Quite a cool feature actually, if planned well.
Invictra Atreides
Toward the Terra
#5 - 2013-09-26 20:45:43 UTC
It's not that linear at all =/

I'd guess a 30-40% drop if you go from 24h to 48h.

Blog | Tutorials | Youtube "I don’t know everything, I just know what I know."
Psade
Blind Avarice
#6 - 2013-09-27 00:06:47 UTC  |  Edited by: Psade
I've been working out PI a lot lately so I might be offering more information than you want, but here goes.

http://i.imgur.com/ekpylva.png

That is a simple chart of the first 3 days of atrophy from a single extractor head. It was not moved. The most relevant columns to your question are the %Loss/hr and total loss(1 day) columns. %Loss/hr refers to how much less the extractor pulls from the planet every consecutive hour. The fluctuations are due to the ticks of recovery that the planet gets at some threshold, and possibly data entry errors

http://i.imgur.com/70brZV7.png

This is a similar chart, except with 7 extractor heads instead of 1. Interestingly, the dropoff in the first few hours is much stronger, but over long periods it actually ends up about the same. I'm guessing that the planet recovers resources more aggressively as it gets further and further from its maximum value.


In either case, the total extraction per hour seems to be about 20% less in 2 day cycles, 30% less in 3 day cycles. This is compared to 1 day cycles, in the same spot.

edit: removing some things that upon further examination do not seem to be correct


P.S. Is it possible to embed images in this forum?
Kassandra Viljoen
Springbok Expeditionary Inc.
#7 - 2013-09-27 19:01:37 UTC
Thank you everyone for your input. Psade, please keep us updated with those corrections, you observations are interesting. This will further help me make a decision. Perhaps switch to 3day cycles and make up the loss with level 4 missions :)
Fozzy Dorsai
Friendly but Irritating
#8 - 2013-09-28 11:15:24 UTC
I too used to run my PI every day, but once I trained up my two alts to max PI it was just eating up too much Eve time. I do like playing around with PI, so it wasn't a "fun" issue, but if you do anything too much it will become boring/tedious. Since my main goal was to have enough PI to fuel my POS, with 3 toons I could afford to be pretty inefficient. So I went with 4-day cycles and did one toon every day; that way it never ate up all that much Eve time any day. Yes, I know that works out to a three day cycle, but rl does get in the way sometimes and it's nice not to HAVE to worry about it if my rl day got too busy.
Efficiency v. Eve fun ... each capsuleer will have to determine their balance.
Termy Rockling
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#9 - 2013-09-28 11:54:36 UTC
Invictra Atreides wrote:
It's not that linear at all =/

I'd guess a 30-40% drop if you go from 24h to 48h.


Well thats doubling cycle time and almost halving production, sounds right to me Cool
Zoe Kaltana
Kaltana Industries
#10 - 2013-10-04 12:15:42 UTC
Basically, it's irrelevant if you use a 1 day or a 14 day cycle when resetting once per day. Each cycle gives the same amount of resources for the first day. The difference is the much larger extractor head radius (not suitable for small hotspots) for the 14 day cycle and a large reduction in efficiency after the 14 day cycle passes it's first days.

As a compromise, I use two cycles simultaneously for basic resource planets (except gas planets):

One with 4 days, 3 hours (the maximum amount of 1h-cycles).
- This one I use to "hunt" hotspots throughout the planet. It's extracor heads are small enough for this task. When a hotspot gets depleted, I dismantle and build up at the next hotspot.

One with 8 days, 6 hours (the maximum amount of 2h-cycles).
- This is my permanent extractor close to my base, covering a larger area with moderate resources.

With this setup I use to reset every 3-4 days, so I have to spend about 1-2h a week.

Pinups | Bloodhorses
sunny48761
Perkone
Caldari State
#11 - 2013-10-10 00:43:47 UTC
2 day 1 hour 30 minute cycles.
Bahr Cudas
Beta Ray Bill
#12 - 2013-10-11 06:34:07 UTC
I like to set all 18 planets (3 chars) at 3 Day / 12 Hours. I sometimes reset after 2 Days, though, if I'm online and feel like checking my planets.

1 character focuses on P2, another on P3, another on P4. All 3 work toward providing P4 with what it needs. When I'm really active I generate about 250mil in a month doing Hi-Sec PI.

I can't wait for the Rubicon changes. I think it'll really mix things up.

I know all of this was general info, but I hope it helps...
Bi-Mi Lansatha
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#13 - 2013-10-11 12:35:56 UTC
Kassandra Viljoen wrote:
...
I would like to know from the PI masters out there if switching from my current cycle to, say, a 3 day cycle would cause me significant losses...
It depends whether you are in Highsec, Lowsec or Null.

Highsec resources are not good, so losing 30-40% might not be that much ISK. In Null on the other hand, resource can be very good... and a 30-40% loss can lead to a large loss in ISK.
Kassandra Viljoen
Springbok Expeditionary Inc.
#14 - 2013-10-14 11:04:49 UTC
Just thought I'd let you know where I am at the moment:

As mentioned before, I have 9 toons in low sec:

So far

3 with 6 planets (updated from last time I posted.)
6 with 5 planets.

I'm training 3 at a time for Planetary Consolidation V. Using Dual Char Training, Kassandra has recently finished Command Centre Upgrades (same time as 3 mains) as she has a factory planet. She is now training Planetary Consolidation V along with the other 2 secondary characters.
The tertiary toons will start training in roughly 1.5 weeks. Total training time accross all accounts (Planetary Consolidation V only) from start to finish will come to around 1.5 months. Not too bad. This includes attribute remaps on all secondary and tertiary toons, as the mains have implants, etc.

My ultimate goal is to have 9 toons with 6 planets each (Kassandra with 5 resource and 1 factory planet). Then, any losses due to cycle changes will hopefully be reduced.

I have currently changed to a 7 day cycle for now, however, once all training is done, I can play around with setups on planets. Zoe Kaltana, you have an interesting setup there. I might start another factory planet, as one is causing a bit of a bottleneck!

As always, thank you all for your input.