Planetary Interaction
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Getting Started
There is a lot of information out there about Planetary Interaction (PI) and when I began looking into I was slightly overwhelmed. So on this page I'm going to try to get you started on your PI journey. By no means is this guide going to produce the most efficient, logical, or even sane ways to set up a planet, but it should get you started. Once you have the basics down, you can tweak your planet(s) and soon you'll be a PI mogul.
So, what exactly do you need to do to get started?
The skills you'll need to pick up are:
Interplanetary Consolidation (allows multiple planets)
Command Center Upgrades (allows you to upgrade your command center)
Remote Sensing (allows you to deal with your PI from a distance)
Planetology ( Increases the potential yield of your extractors )
Advanced Planetology ( Builds on Planetology skill giving you a more precise planet scan )
Aiming for the Colony Management and Planetology certificates is helpful. Once you have Interplanetary Consolidation to level 1, you can start, however getting Command Center Upgrades up to at least 3 will help you have more extractors, more factories and more storage.
As stated in the video linked at the top of the page, you'll need a command center that is compatible with the planet you'll be working on. The video does a great job of showing how to scan for deposits, place structures, and how to get your stuff going. If you didn't watch it, you really should :)
So, really the big decision is what do you want to make? There are several things that your corporation may be in need of. If its to keep a POS fueled make componants for starships or they may need some specific item for manufacturing T2 ship modules. Whatever it may be ask your CEO or director how you can help. Our corporation encourages its members to donate one planet from one of their charactors to making fuel block componants and we have created a list of some of the items needed that people can contribute. That list can be found here. Otherwise, there is plenty of isk to be had from PI, doing a little market research can help you decide what to start producing.
So, what exactly do you need to do to get started?
The skills you'll need to pick up are:
Interplanetary Consolidation (allows multiple planets)
Command Center Upgrades (allows you to upgrade your command center)
Remote Sensing (allows you to deal with your PI from a distance)
Planetology ( Increases the potential yield of your extractors )
Advanced Planetology ( Builds on Planetology skill giving you a more precise planet scan )
Aiming for the Colony Management and Planetology certificates is helpful. Once you have Interplanetary Consolidation to level 1, you can start, however getting Command Center Upgrades up to at least 3 will help you have more extractors, more factories and more storage.
As stated in the video linked at the top of the page, you'll need a command center that is compatible with the planet you'll be working on. The video does a great job of showing how to scan for deposits, place structures, and how to get your stuff going. If you didn't watch it, you really should :)
So, really the big decision is what do you want to make? There are several things that your corporation may be in need of. If its to keep a POS fueled make componants for starships or they may need some specific item for manufacturing T2 ship modules. Whatever it may be ask your CEO or director how you can help. Our corporation encourages its members to donate one planet from one of their charactors to making fuel block componants and we have created a list of some of the items needed that people can contribute. That list can be found here. Otherwise, there is plenty of isk to be had from PI, doing a little market research can help you decide what to start producing.
Efficiency
How many extractors do I need?
How much time should I set them for?
How many processors do I need?
To the left is an extractor window. It is set to mine for 4 days, which will give the extractors an 1 hour cycle. 1 hours because it makes the math easier to work out. A longer period will increase the cycle time to 2 hours. A shorter period will lower it to an half hour.
On the bottom right of the window is Program Output Per Hour. This is the important number. Your basic processor's cycle is 30 minutes, consuming 3000 units each cycle. So the goal is 6000 units per hour, per processor.
On this window it says that the extractor will produce 8,540 units per hour, but that is the average over the 4 days. You can see that the graph is not flat. It starts at around 20k units and ends around 4k. If you have 2 processors working on the materials from this extractor, in the first day they will have more than they can handle, but by the end of the 4th day you'll be working off your surplus from the 1st day to feed one processor.
So the answer to how many extractors, or processors you need greatly depends on how often you plan to check your planets. If you are going to reset your extractors daily, then you would need 3 processors to take care of the ore this configuration will produce. If you only have the power for one processor and will only check every 4 days, then lower your output to just above 6000. This will allow you to better use your limited power someplace else and help to guarantee you don't overflow your launchpad space.
Storage units use power, and unless you have level 5 upgrades in a wormhole, or are planning to leave your planet working for several weeks you shouldn't need more than the launchpad space.
How much time should I set them for?
How many processors do I need?
To the left is an extractor window. It is set to mine for 4 days, which will give the extractors an 1 hour cycle. 1 hours because it makes the math easier to work out. A longer period will increase the cycle time to 2 hours. A shorter period will lower it to an half hour.
On the bottom right of the window is Program Output Per Hour. This is the important number. Your basic processor's cycle is 30 minutes, consuming 3000 units each cycle. So the goal is 6000 units per hour, per processor.
On this window it says that the extractor will produce 8,540 units per hour, but that is the average over the 4 days. You can see that the graph is not flat. It starts at around 20k units and ends around 4k. If you have 2 processors working on the materials from this extractor, in the first day they will have more than they can handle, but by the end of the 4th day you'll be working off your surplus from the 1st day to feed one processor.
So the answer to how many extractors, or processors you need greatly depends on how often you plan to check your planets. If you are going to reset your extractors daily, then you would need 3 processors to take care of the ore this configuration will produce. If you only have the power for one processor and will only check every 4 days, then lower your output to just above 6000. This will allow you to better use your limited power someplace else and help to guarantee you don't overflow your launchpad space.
Storage units use power, and unless you have level 5 upgrades in a wormhole, or are planning to leave your planet working for several weeks you shouldn't need more than the launchpad space.
Below the different commodities are listed by planet type. There are other ways to pursue PI, such as shipping in resources, that are explained here. The list below will assume you would like to produce from beginning to end on one planet, no transfers.
Temperate
Life-bearing worlds are often referred to as "temperate", as their mild temperatures are one of their defining features. Planets with existing, stable ecosystems are prime targets for colonization efforts as they are generally easier to make fully habitable; as a result, the majority of highly populated worlds are of this type. Indeed, it is not altogether uncommon for detailed surveys to reveal signs of previous settlements from various stages of New Eden's history.
Ice
The majority of icy planets went through a period of being barren terrestrials, before being surfaced with ice over the course of many millennia. The exact process for this varies from case to case, but the end result is both common and visually uniform - a bright, reflective planet scored by countless fractures and crevasses. A few icy planets are hypothesized to have been warmer, liquid-bearing planets in the past that have subsequently frozen, as a result of either stellar cooling or failed terraforming projects.
Plasma
The aptly-named "plasma planets" have captured the imagination of countless artists and inspired innumerable works, yet the physics behind them are surprisingly mundane by cosmological standards. A rocky terrestrial with the right kind of atmosphere and magnetic field will, when bombarded with solar radiation, generate sprawling plasma storms as specific atmospheric elements are stripped of their electrons. Over time these storms will generally scorch the surface rock black, adding to the visual impact.
Storm
Storm worlds are usually considered terrestrial planets, although to a casual eye they may appear more similar to gas planets, given their opaque, high-pressure atmospheres. Geomorphically, however, the distinctions are clear: compared to a gas world, the atmosphere of a storm world is usually considerably shallower, and generally composed primarily of more complex chemicals, while the majority of the planet's mass is a rocky terrestrial ball. Their name is derived from the continent-scale electrical storms that invariably flash through their upper atmospheres.
Lava
So-called "lava planets" (properly "magmatic planets") fall into one of three groups: solar magmatics, which orbit sufficiently close to their star that the surface never cools enough to solidify; gravitational magmatics, which experience gravitational shifts sufficiently strong to regularly and significantly fracture cooling crusts; and magmatoids, which are for largely-unexplained reasons simply incapable of cooling and forming a persistent crust. All three types generally exhibit the same external phenomena - huge red-orange lava fields being a defining feature - but the latter two types are sometimes capable of briefly solidifying for a period measured in years or perhaps decades.
Barren
Barren planets are archetypical "dead terrestrials": dry, rocky worlds with a minimal atmosphere and an unremarkable composition. They are commonly etched with flood channels, which are often broad enough to be visible from orbit; most such worlds have accumulated significant quantities of ice over their lifetimes, but cannot retain it on their surface. Generally surface liquid evaporates rapidly, contributing to the thin atmosphere, but occasionally it will seep back into the ground and refreeze, ready for another breakout in future when the local temperature rises.
Oceanic
Oceanic worlds are a class of terrestrial world covered entirely by liquids, usually in the form of mundane water. While the liquid surface is exceptionally smooth, the ocean floor on most worlds of this type exhibits significant topographic variety. It is this subsurface irregularity which causes the formation of complex weather systems, which would otherwise revert to more uniform patterns.
Gas
Gas planets are characterized by a deep, opaque upper atmosphere, usually composed primarily of light elements such as hydrogen or helium. Simple chemicals can add a range of hues and shades in the visual spectrum, and the interaction between upwellings and rapidly circulating pressure bands result in a huge variety of visible surface structures. A similar level of diversity can be found beneath the cloud-tops: the inner composition of a given gas planet might belong to any one of a dozen broad groups, with no two planets entirely alike in this regard.
Advanced Commodities (R4)
These commodities cannot be made on just one planet, you need to transport some goods in.