Talk:Engineering (Apocalypse)

Manufacture: Profit Chart

This is a work in progress: please change it if you find an error!

Timing

Time to build is always completed on the hour:

• one simple project may be take three minutes to make one item, but your 'Construction Complete' screen appears only on the new hour - all the other idle minutes waiting for the new hour transition, were wa$ted!
• starting a project anytime within the current hour will also depend if it will complete on-the-hour or at the following one. It may take only a few minutes to build, but if that time stretches into the next hour, you just wasted up to 59minutes of manufacturing time. (your project should have taken one hour, but you guessed wrong and it took two hours, wasting alot of time)
• optimising time-versus-output is best when calculating the quantity possible so that it completes just before on-the-hour:

eg: there is no point in building one simple item (eg: takes five minutes to build) if the "building completion screen" only appears on-the-hour.

Example in Quantity Ooptimisation

The total amount possible (eg: takes five minutes to build) in one hour, and every hour thereafter is:

{60min / 5build = 12qty}

but if the project is started at (eg:) 27minutes into the current hour, then optimal time VS quantity in the remaining hour would be:

{60min - 27min = 33min}

of build time available, which would give:

{33mins / 5build = 6qty}

with 3mins remaining before new-hour-transition, meaning: 6 items built versus 1 item built, inside this current hour.
...and if sold, x6 the profit!

If the project were to be optimised for a multi-hour production run, the calculation would be:
eg: four hours production time and using that example above.

quantity in remaining hour time + (quantity build each hour x hours you want) = Total Project Quantity.

{6qty + (12qty x 3hrs) = 4hours, or

{6qty + (12qty x 3hrs) = 42qty.

...with three minutes wasted out of four hours!

Small, quickly built items should be multiple-quantity and multiple-hour manufacturing projects to get the best possible profit margin if not micro-managing, as in the example above.

Overheads

or, Costs Of Upkeep
Engineers receive a salary at the end of the week and with maintenance costs of facilities (living and labs), will decease your end-of-week profits by a certain percentage. Once a project's profit is calculated over a full one week run without interuption, exact profit margins will be more accurate.

Offset The Total Cost

Some items, irrelevant of build quantity over a complete week-time manufacturing run, may not actually be profitable enough to offset the cost of your technical personel and lab mantainance. However, whatever item is chosen, as long as it has a positive "Profit Per
Build Time", it will not make you alot of money but at least lessens your overhead costs.

Profit Per Build Time

The only important thing!
The higher the decimal number, the better the profit. The best item may not be researched yet! Find another suitable item from your current manufacturing list.

Note: Everything is profitable (no negative decimals).

Manufacture Item	Build Cost	Build Time	Facility	Quantity Day¹	Market Capacity	Sell Price	Raw Profit²	Profit Per Build Time³
Bio-Transport Moudle	700	4000	small	quantday	4	950	250	0.0625
Boomeroid	230	3000	small	quantday	15	840	610	0.2033↓
Vortex Mine	250	5000	small	quantday	25	1130	880	0.176
Disruptor Gun	600	7000	small	quantday	10	2100	1500	0.2143↓
Devastator Cannon	1200	12000	small	quantday	20	4500	3300	0.275
Dimension Missile Launcher	1200	5500	small	quantday	25	3100	1900	0.3455↓
Dimension Missile	400	4000	small	quantday	30	1300	900	0.225
Personal Disruptor Shield	2000	14000	small	quantday	30	5770	3770	0.2693↓
Personal Cloaking Field	3000	18000	small	quantday	30	8300	5300	0.2944↓
Personal Teleporter	6000	25000	small	quantday	40	18200	12200	0.488
Toxigun	1200	3000	small	quantday	8	2780	1580	0.5267↓
Toxigun A	200	800	small	quantday	16	500	300	0.375
Toxigun B	300	900	small	quantday	16	700	400	0.4444↓
Toxigun C	400	1000	small	quantday	16	900	500	0.5
AAG Heavy	280	1200	small	quantday	15	700	420	0.35
AAG Mini	360	1600	small	quantday	30	900	540	0.3375
AAG Grenade	250	1000	small	quantday	15	600	350	0.35
Disruptor Armor - Head	1500	3800	small	quantday	20	3480	1980	0.5211↓
Disruptor Armor - Chest	1500	3800	small	quantday	20	3480	1980	0.5211↓
Disruptor Armor - Arms	1200	3400	small	quantday	20	2830	1630	0.4794↓
Disruptor Armor - Leg	1200	3400	small	quantday	20	2830	1630	0.4794↓
Inversion Launcher	3000	8000	large	quantday	8	7000	4000	0.5
Inversion Missile	1500	4000	large	quantday	25	3500	2000	0.5
Stasis Launcher	2000	6000	large	quantday	10	4760	2760	0.46
Stasis Missile	1200	2000	large	quantday	20	2650	1450	0.725
Multibomb Launcher	4000	10000	large	quantday	14	9260	5260	0.526
Multibomb Missile	1800	5000	large	quantday	30	4230	2430	0.486
Light Disruptor Beam	2000	12000	large	quantday	5	5600	3600	0.3
Medium Disruptor Beam	4000	20000	large	quantday	10	10500	6500	0.325
Heavy Disruptor Beam	8000	35000	large	quantday	15	20500	12500	0.3571↓
Small Disruption Shield	5000	20000	large	quantday	10	12500	7500	0.375
Large Disruption Shield	8000	30000	large	quantday	15	19800	11800	0.3933↓
Cloaking Field	6000	35000	large	quantday	17	16450	10450	0.2986↓
Teleporter	11000	45000	large	quantday	20	27700	16700	0.3711↓
Advanced Control System	4000	15000	small	quantday	6	8000	4000	0.2667↓
Dimension Probe	6000	25000	large	quantday	2	10000	4000	0.16
Bio-Trans	12000	35000	large	quantday	2	34000	22000	0.6286↓
Explorer	22000	55000	large	quantday	2	44000	22000	0.4
Retaliator	35000	75000	large	quantday	2	70000	35000	0.4667↓
Annihilator	50000	100000	large	quantday	2	100000	50000	0.5

¹ when using all engineers with 100 skill. ie: the best possible scenario.
² not regarding time, salary, maintenance.
³ basic profit per time, higher is better.
↓ shortened to four decimal places.