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The Complex Construction Kit enables the player to link player owned stations together eliminating the need for ships to ferry wares between stations. A well planned complex can produce final products using only Energy Cells as an input or even be completely self sustaining producing wares for free.
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Small complexes can be supplied with Energy Cells by Commercial Agents however there is a limit of 20 docking clamps at the Complex Hub meaning there is a limit as to how many ships can be supplying Energy Cells at any given time while local NPC Solar Power Plants will become exhausted. Eventually it becomes more economical to have an attached Solar Power Plant to generate the Energy Cells in-house and to supply larger complexes with Crystals. This is necessary in sectors where there are no silicon containing asteroids like Reservoir of Tranquillity. Some sectors like Megnir and Barren Shores have a surplus of Silicon asteroids and limiting amounts of Ore making them good for the production of Crystals to supply silicon poor onessectors. Self sustaining complexes have all the mines and stations for the Silion Wafers>Crystals>Energy Cells loop and enough spare Energy Cells to produce other products meaning only a single ship is needed to handle the end product. As self sustaining complexes do not require an expenditure of credits to operate they can act as a constant and reliable income or be used to avoid large expenditures on missiles.
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To get the most out of a self sufficient complex consider using 2 medium stations instead of a large station if it would allow the 0.5x productivity in Energy Cells demand to go to another small product producing factory. In the case of Crystal Fabs and Solar Power Plants having 3 Medium instead of 1 Large can sometimes make better use of available silicon resources. Also do not just aggregate the asteroids with the highest yields into a complex as excess mining capacity also results in a higher drain on Energy Cells which could go into other product producing factories that work closer to a balance instead. Use https://joelbfant.bitbucket.io/x3/x3apocc.html for an online complex calculator.
Worked Example
To demonstrate how to plan a simple self sustaining complex lets turn Harmony of Perpetuity into a parking lot. The sector contains 3 Silicon asteroids (18, 19 and 20 yields) and 2 Ore asteroids (16 and 18 yieldyields) and the only hostiles are the odd Yaki or Pirates fighter or Duke's TS so it is safe to build near the Jump Gate.
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The Sun Strength is 300% so any Solar Power Plants get +4/9 times productivity. This means Medium Solar Power Plants have 1.44x productivity, Large have 3.6x and XL have 7.22x. This means enough crystals As up to 5.5x productivity in Crystals can be produced for 3 in the sector there is enough Crystals to supply 3 Medium Solar Power Plants (3*1.44x =4.32x productivity) or 1 Medium and 1 Large (51.44x+3.6x = 5.04x productivity).
If going the 2 Large Crystal Fabs and 3 Medium Solar Power Plants the Energy Cells balance so far is:
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This also leaves 0.5x productivity in Silicon Wafers and 3.5x Productivity in Ore which equates to 8 Small stations and will need 4x productivity in Bio and 4x productivity in Food. If going a Satellite/Drone factory from a different Race or uses a different Food resource compared to the other factories then (eg. Majaglit) then there will be an excess of 0.5x productivity in Food produced since Medium is the smallest station size for Bio and Food stations. This means between 12x and 12.5x 13x productivity will be consumed leaving between 3x 2.5x and 3.5x productivity spare which is enough for 2 or 3 Medium stations that only consume Energy Cells (Space Weed and Sunrise Flowers anyone?).
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Complex Construction Kits can only easily link stations that are closer than 20km away and asteroids are often scattered throughout the sector making mines vulnerable to attack and travel times unreasonable. Once a mine (only use Large mines) is built on an asteroid, the player can move the mine using a Tractor Beam. Use an M6 ship since compatible TS ships lack the laser capacity to fire a Tractor Beam. To limit exposure to attack and make complex assembly easier the player will want to gather mines as tightly and neatly as possible. To do this, tether the Tractor beam to a part an asteroid part of the mine at a right angle to the docking structure before hauling it in the direction of the complex site while avoiding obstacles but aim at least 3 mine diameters below the destination. Once in the correct place on the X and Y axis dock at the mine and save before tethering the Tractor beam to the docking clamp and pulling the mine upwards into the final location. Try and cluster asteroids so that all docking structures are parallel on the Z axis and there is not enough space to fly an M3 between them. As bumping mines into each other results in instant destruction save only after the mine has come to a complete halt. Once the mines are in place the player can start placing other stations above them.
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Once enough stations have been placed the player can start linking them up using Complex Construction Kits. When the first two stations are linked the player is given the chance to place the Complex Hub for the complex. The hub always defaults to facing North along the ecliptic and will need to be rotated (this is best done by getting the player ship to look downwards from above). Place the hub closest to where ships will be traveling to and from the complex and rotate the docking clamps to face that direction (only important in sector). Other stations within range can then be linked to the Complex Hub. If a station is too far to link with a Complex Hub create a second complex hub with that station as close to the destination hub as possible. Then link the destination hub to the intermediate hub using another Complex Construction Kit (yes the directionality of linking is the reverse of what would be expected). Once the stations are linked all that needs to be done is get the complex operational.
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