These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Science & Industry

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Compressed Ore Calculator Optimized for Price?

First post
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Zarek Kree
Lunatic Legion Holdings
#1 - 2017-05-09 16:04:32 UTC
All of the compressed ore calculators that I've found seem to be optimized for lowest volume. Is there one out there that solves for lowest price combination? I just wanted to make sure that I'm not missing a public tool out there somewhere before I go wading into linear programming on my own.
Zarek Kree
Lunatic Legion Holdings
#2 - 2017-05-10 17:35:56 UTC
Just wanted to offer a followup here. This was actually surprisingly easy to work out using the Linear Programming solver in Excel. It took me a bit longer to work it out in Google Sheets (which is where most of my data resides) simply because their linear optimization tool isn't quite as intuitive.
Messenger Of Truth
Butlerian Crusade
#3 - 2017-05-10 18:44:29 UTC
I looked into this problem a while ago as well. Its interesting because its not necessarily clear how to optimise it.

For example, its almost certain that you won't be able to find a combination of compressed ore that exactly matches the raw minerals you want, so you are going to end up buying more ore than you need. Is it better to:

a) optimise for the lowest value of mineral overage
b) optimise for the lowest volume of mineral overage

Secondly, at any one time, there are ores/compressed ores that are listed for a higher price than the value of the minerals they will refine into. Is it better to:

a) get the lowest volume of compressed ore, regardless of price efficiency
b) only buy compressed ore thats cheaper than buying the equivalent minerals (and buy raw minerals if necessary to hit your target of minerals)
c) select the compressed ore that is selling at as low a proportion as possible of the refined mineral value, even if that means you end up with a lot more minerals than you needed

And then what do you do with your left over minerals? Do you:

a) save them for your next manufacturing run
b) sell them for cheap near where you refined them
c) ship them back to wherever you bought the compressed ore from to sell there

...

Trade Hub Price Checker: stop.hammerti.me.uk/pricecheck

Visit "Haulers Channel" in game for all matters courier-related.

Structure name/system API: stop.hammerti.me.uk/api
Zarek Kree
Lunatic Legion Holdings
#4 - 2017-05-10 21:18:41 UTC
I'm still in the early stages of trying to customize it for my needs, but I'm attempting to run every source of minerals (including the raw minerals themselves) through the linear program to get the most optimal buying strategy. I'm also trying to implement some controls that let me dictate the maximum values allowed for certain sources (for example, you'd rarely have access to enough uncompressed Prismatic Gneiss to use it in any appreciable quantity).

I'm still working out how best to use it, so I don't have a full understanding of the various issues yet. This is very much discovery learning.
Steve Ronuken
Fuzzwork Enterprises
Vote Steve Ronuken for CSM
#5 - 2017-05-10 21:30:17 UTC
You want to add more constraints to the linear solver. you can tell it, pretty easily, "no more than X of this".

Woo! CSM XI!

Fuzzwork Enterprises

Twitter: @fuzzysteve on Twitter