Promethium science pack

Promethium science pack

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Recipe
5 + 10 + 25 + 1 → 10
Total raw
5 + 10 + 25 + 1
Used by labs for research.
Stack size	200
Rocket capacity	1000 (5 stacks)
Science capacity	100% 200% 300% 400% 600%
Crafted only on
Prototype type	tool
Internal name	promethium-science-pack
Required technologies
Produced by

Object description

Space Age expansion exclusive feature.

Promethium science pack is an end-game science pack. It is used in labs to research technologies.

Unlike most science packs, the promethium science pack is only used for one technology, that being research productivity. However, this is an infinite research, and since it directly makes all technologies easier to research, promethium science packs are indirectly useful for technologies other than research productivity.

Production

Promethium science packs can only be manufactured on space platforms. Promethium asteroid chunks can only be harvested on a space platform. Quantum processors can be manufactured in space or on Aquilo, but they require resources unique to each planet other than Nauvis. Biter eggs themselves can only be manufactured on Nauvis. As such, promethium science packs requires a resource from every planet as well as space platforms.

There are two conflicting facets of this recipe that makes producing promethium science packs difficult. The first is that biter eggs have a 30 minute spoil time and can only be produced on Nauvis. The second is that promethium chunks have a low stack size and can only be harvested on the route to the shattered planet, which is quite far from Nauvis. This leaves two broad options for producing promethium science packs: bring the eggs to the chunks, or bring the chunks to the eggs.

Because the eggs spoil relatively quickly, successfully bringing lots of eggs to the source of chunks requires a fast platform that can still survive the dense asteroid regions beyond the solar system edge.

Bringing promethium chunks to Nauvis requires storing chunks. However, each craft of science requires 25 chunks. With their stack size of 1, a platform's hub can only store at most around 65k chunks, enough for 2.6k crafts of science per trip. It is possible to store chunks on belts instead. With ~8 chunks per belt tile, and the ability to store more per tile via underground belts (and using different kinds of underground belts for more overlapping), it is possible to transport large quantities of promethium chunks in a relatively small area.

Egg storage

The core issue that leads to these designs is that eggs spoil. However, biter eggs can be stored in a non-spoiling form by crafting a non-spoiling item from them and later recycling that item to harvest the eggs. The only two items which consume eggs and can be recycled to obtain them are productivity module 3s and the two overgrowth soils. Because only one egg is used to make prod 3s, a stack of them only provides ~12.5 eggs, enough for 1.25 crafts of promethium science. By contrast, one stack of either of the two overgrowth soils stores ~250 eggs, which is much more efficient for storage.

There are two downsides with using overgrowth soils. First, overgrowth soils have a very low rocket capacity, only 14 per launch. So while a single stack contains ~250 eggs, a rocket of overgrowth soil only sends 35 eggs. Sending large quantities of overgrowth soils therefore require a lot of rocket silos and rocket part production infrastructure. The other downside is that producing overgrowth soil requires a large number of Gleba's tree seeds. So to scale this method up, there may be a need to harvest trees for the sole purpose of generating seeds (and spoilage) to make overgrowth soils.

Achievements

Research with promethium Research a technology using promethium science packs.

History

• 2.0.7:
  • Introduced in Space Age expansion.

See also

• Research
• Science pack
• Technologies