Is there a rule of thumb for production ratios?

Whenever I build a production chain (such as wheat farms-> flour mill -> pasta factory), I am never sure how many of each building I need to optimize the industry. Do you generally need more farms than factories, or vice versa? Is there a rule of thumb to it, or is it different for every industry?

For instance, it seems like an iron mine can only support maybe one or two smelters, but one coal mine can support multiple.

Is there some way to tell how many base resource buildings you need per manufacturing plant?

Solution 1:

There are a few options that you have if you want exact numbers that have been pulled from the game for optimum efficiency. Obviously, various factors such as your personal layout for the areas, travel time for goods on the roads, etc. will affect your chain.

1. It would be too unwieldy to replicate the data here, but the Production Chain article on the Anno 2070 wiki let's you easily see how much of each building you need to use. However, because this is a fan-run wiki, the information is not yet complete.

2. If you can read German, you can use this site, which also has complete listings. However, there doesn't seem to be a deployment of this in English yet.

3. Download this Production Calculator spreadsheet.

Solution 2:

Generally you need around a 2 to 1 ratio whenever you're converting from one "input" good to an "output" good. It's actually more like 5 to 3 (give or take) in practice.

If the production chain has several steps, you'll need 2x the number of inputs at each level. For instance, if good A requires good B, and good B requires good C, you'll need:

• 4 good C production buildings in order to supply
• 2 good B production buildings in order to supply
• 1 good A production building.

At 2 good A production buildings though, you might only need 6 or so good C production buildings. Some of this also depends on the characteristics of the location for certain "input" goods.

There is some variance from good to good, so what I generally do is build 2 of the "input" production buildings per 1 "output" production building, and then as the industry grows (ie, I have 5 or 6 "input" production buildings) I keep a close eye on whether or not the "input" good is being stockpiled or is the limiting factor in production.

Since there are a lot of variables (ie, time to collect the good and move it from place to place), each industry differs slightly, and the math doesn't tend to work out evenly, there's not a catch-all rule you can use. As you encounter new production chains, you'll have to do some monitoring to work out the best ratio.