Optimization

More coming soon...this is a developing page

Optimization is the ability to maximize production of any building or Pod. Most often a Pod is associated with Energy production, but you really could have a Pod for any resource production.

Optimization is also the ability to maximize movement of resource which is covered in a variety of ways here: Managing Your Colony.

You could use the Sandbox to test configurations. Also visiting, searching and asking on The Colonists Discord can really help.

Heuristics

• Resource production should be located near its consumption.
• It is best to isolate the resources production/consumption from main road (Pod).
• Try to evenly space out bot printers to avoid overloading them

Road: Braids

"Braids" is an optimized approach for road placement that increases throughput and reduces road blocks.

Having more than one Carrybot working a Road Post increases the throughput of resources on any given Road network. That is essentially what double Roads with parallels, "Braids", and similar set-ups accomplish.

If you consider Road Posts to be miniature Storage Yards, each allowing up to 4 Resources and with up to 4 entrances (i.e. connections); having "Braids" connected to each Road Post is effectively the same as having 2 Roads connected to the Roadpost, each Road having 2 Carrybots.

Braids are not even about throughput but rather they are about elasticity. Throughput is just part of it. No matter what you do with roads you run into efficiency entropy. Being forced to never place buildings directly on road posts might seem like a bad thing but it basically just shifts the entropy into a controlled state. For example: it doesn't matter if every building on a Braid operates 20% less efficiently, because you build everything 20% faster and never have down time and never bottleneck during construction. (note: Entropy: A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.)

A "Braid" road system often requires cross-overs/switches using a Storage Yard. They should be placed in such that they a) have the lowest distance possible between road posts and b) if possible the resources being used will be used immediately nearby.

Below is an example of a layout using "Braids". Below that is an example of your a Small Storage Yard to cross-over/switch to a different "Braid" system.

Terrain & Building Blocks

Placeholder to describe building placements that force the Bots to go a long distance out of the way to get around terrain or other buildings.

L1 Energy Residence Pod

Here's an example of testing in the Sandbox. While configuration (1) and (7) will get you the fastest 1st E1 production, configuration (2) produces the most in the long haul. Also, note while (7) might get the 1st E1 quickly, not having the Residences' entrance on a Road Post is not an optimal practice.

Why? Delivering Meat and Water to each Residence is accomplished by the Sheep Farm's and Well's Stackbots to the Road Post where the Residence Stackbots can quickly move to the resource to the local storage buffer of the Residence. This movement time is within the demand time of the Residence while the Sheep Farm and Well production is happening.

Lumberjack / Forestry Optimization

Placeholder to describe Lumberjack and Forestry placement optimization.