Optimal Layout Patterns.

[Maelstrom Vortex]

I can never quite discern if any particular layout is optimal in my builds. Take this for example. it's a sinlgle product, spider silk, large farm from a mod. Far as I can tell one to one of livestock to process results in the processing not running efficiently, however if I add two more, processing oges to 100%, yet.. sales of silk never approaches full utilization. It feels like the game is trying to tell me I am doing something wrong, but am not sure what.. or it may just be that the sales is built with capacity included that isn't really needed for the factory's total volume. Am I just trying to hard? Is there a better way? Someone toss me a clue.

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[Hans_Lemurson]

When I have conundrums like this, I do some experiments setting up a game with a bunch of cash so you can mess around with stuff.

What I recommend is to make a Farm, or a couple of farms with different layouts, and connect them to warehouses that will absorb everything they produce, with no drop in demand. This is the best way to see a system operating at "Full Capacity". If the warehouse gets full, you can just clear its inventory to make more room.

You can then do is try out a bunch of different setups, run them for a couple months (or a year) and then see how much total Product has been produced, either in total, or by looking at the firm's Quantity graph.

What I've found is that Sales Units in farms are fairly potent, and rarely get pushed to full capacity even when the Processing units are at full speed.
Livestock also follows a simple 1:1 ratio of 1 Livestock unit supplying all the needs for 1 Processing unit. Neither 2:1 or 1:2 seemed to give any higher output.

I've found that you can however be tricky and if a Livestock Unit can supply two different products, you can for example have a single Poultry unit supply a Processing unit for Eggs, and another one for Chicken.

However, for a single product farm, I've found that the simple "4 Livestock, 4 Processing, 1 Sales" format works just fine (put Livestock in all 4 corners).

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LPL

[Maelstrom Vortex]

I had been pondering that layout, but I noticed when on a 1:1 connect some of the processing didn't reach full utilization. I realized the only way to get somewhere between a 1:1 and a 2:1 ratio was the structure above. They've since been operating at full capacity on all 3.. but having a 4th may be generating a surplus despite inefficiency in the processing unit. I will have to give it a try. 4x80% still beats 3x100%. Even if it drives my compulsion for everything at 100% a bit crazy.

Thank you for your valuable input.