Science pack
Science packs are items which are required by labs to perform research. Researching technologies requires a certain number of different types of science packs, which is then multiplied by a certain value to get the tech cost. For example, Bullet damage 3 requires one automation science pack and one logistic science pack and one military science pack to begin researching, but it needs this to be input into labs a total of 100 times, raising the research cost to 100 automation science packs, 100 logistic science packs and 100 military science packs.
Types
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Or, broken down into the most basic components:
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Creating science packs
The science packs and research are meant to guide players through the game by gradually increasing in complexity. At first the player has to create automation science packs by hand to research automation. Then the next goal is to create automation and logistic science automatically and to automatically feed the science packs into labs. These science packs allow research of most of the basic technologies. The next step is to create chemical science packs. This incorporates two new 'raw' intermediaries - plastic bars and steel plates, which represents a small jump in complexity; as well as necessitating the need to harvest and process crude oil. Unlike previous science packs, chemical science produces two packs per crafting cycle versus just one per cycle from automation/logistic.
Following chemical science, you will need to create military science packs. As the name suggests, military science packs are made out of combat-oriented products. You may want to create military science packs before creating chemical science packs if you're having issues with biters.
After military science, production science packs are next. Production science packs are a fair jump in complexity, as the required products have quite a few different intermediaries. Production packs yield three packs per crafting cycle.
The final stage of automated research pack creation is utility science pack. Utility sciences packs are the most complex packs to make, requiring a large chain of intermediate products. Utility science packs, like previous production science packs, yield three packs per crafting cycle.
Space science packs are yielded from launching satellites via rocket, and thus are difficult to automate effectively without massive resource-hungry bases. Unlike other science packs, space science packs are exclusively used to research repeating/infinite technologies - such as mining productivity or gun turret damage.
The ratio needed to keep science production in sync is 5:6:12:5:7:7, or:
- 5 science pack 1 assemblers
- 6 science pack 2 assemblers
- 12 science pack 3 assemblers
- 5 military science pack assemblers
- 7 production science pack assemblers
- 7 high tech science pack assemblers
The list above assumes that the science packs are assumed to be produced from assembling machine 3, being produced at 75 items per minute without any beacons/modules.