new data on time to make a robot

[rkda]

After extensive research and development ... and some creative math ...
the following results have been predicted for near optimal farm operation.

Basic assumptions:
you have all your crafting tools
steel farming tools
40+ slots worth of chests to hold inventory along the way
enough seeds to plant at least 6 full rows each of iron/copper/sand trees
seeds for 2+ rows of plastic trees
at least a dozen of each kind of gate seed
seeds for 2+ rows of pine trees
near optimal automation

It takes about 300 robot hours to farm the mats for an additional robot.

1 working robot = 300 hours
2 working robots = 150 hours
3 working robots = 100 hours
4 working robots = 75 hours
5 working robots = 60 hours
6 working robots = 50 hours
additional robots, beyond 6, do not provide a proportional increase in overall farm productivity

[worfc]

[rkda]

The ultimate limiting factor is the growth time of the trees. If you can keep every space in the farm growing, and harvest each tree as it pops, then you have true optimal farm production.

The numbers cited above are based on a row at time optimization model. You cut, then plow, then plant each row, then move to the next row. This is obviously not the true optimal production rate. But it is still a pretty darn good level of optimization. Also, this means that what ever you find yourself needing next, is available to harvest when you need it.

With this model, 6 robots provide the ability to keep every row in growing. Obviously they are not all planting pine, as 1 robot cannot even keep up with the growth rate of 2 rows of pine trees. But, if you plant a practical distribution of pine, the four material trees, and gate trees, then 6 robots should be able keep just about everything growing, most of the time.

While I can imagine that some future automation model will allow more robots to contribute proportionally to overall farm production, I don't see how to implement it today. Perhaps I will get enough robots tripping over each other some day, that I will need to discover how to make effective use of more of them.