The refineries are fine, but I have [TIM Construction] on the assemblers, with them initially disabled, and set to repeat, and adding 10x of each item I want assembled in that assembler. The cargo container is a bit more complex with [TIM Component:1000 PhysicalGunObject:1 AmmoMagazine:1000].

I guess it's time I updated this, now that I've been using the script, and once everything "clicked" in my head, now I can't play without this... The percentages way of moving the quota's up as you ammass more resources is just nothing short of brilliance.

So with that, here's what I do... This assumes you are starting on a DS that allows program blocks and timer blocks, and that you're starting off in a respawn ship, either a lander, or ship.

1) Immediate needs - you must meet your immediate survival needs, be that finding a good landing spot, or finding an asteroid with uranium etc. Your first goal here is to make it long enough to get a base going.

2) Once you've met your immediate need (enough uranium to sustatin you a few hours / landing in a flat spot with the lander) etc, start your base, you need a way to generate power (batteries and solar or a reactor or whatever combonation of these you like), and you need a refinery and an assembler (and a med bay but I'm going to focus on game-play with this script). Most servers give you enough materials for that. There are a few servers that only give you enough materials to build an arc furnace to start off with, that's fine, treat it like your first refinery for the moment.

3) Once you get and arc/refinery and an assembler, hand mine enough iron to build a timer and program block. Technically you need cobalt or nickel as well, but I hope that you have enough starting materials to only need to make some plates or tubes. If not you may need to grind some things off your starter ship, even "recycle" some things in the assembler to get the materials you need. But once you build your timer and program block, get this script setup by loading it into the program block, setup the timer to trigger the program block using the default argument (leave the argument blank) and trigger itesel (timer block) again so that it loops.

4) Build your first LCD panel, I recommend you change the name to <Whatever> [TIM Debug] This will show you what your script helper AI is doing, and it will report to you any problems it's having. At this state you're going to see a lot of "errors" because you haven't tagged anything yet.

5) Start your tagging and building of the base. Recommend that you name your first small cargo [TIM Component PhysicalGunObject] This will make the script move all the building materials and tools/guns into this crate and give you a central location to pull the materials you need. Don't worry if you can't remember the full word or spelling TIM is smart enough to rename things for you, so if you type [TIM PhysicalG] the program will rename it properly for you.

6) Recommend your refinery's get [TIM Ore] (you should also build another cargo box with this same label, it will be used for "overflow" / "temp storage" when the script swaps out ores. What's really cool about TIM, it know's whats more important to refiene right now. So if you are low on Uranium, and have a boat load of Iron ore and some uranium ore, it's going to refine the uranium until you have enough to keep you going then it will swap back to iron for a while. I also recommend you get cargo storage setup for [TIM Ingot] (this will be ingot storage until they are needed). Eventually you're going to have [TIM Ammo] as well.

7) Once you have your "ore side" going, meaning all your processing blocks have [TIM Ore} and you have an overlow cargo, it's time to get to work on life support. Label your Oxygen Generator [TIM Ice OxygenBottle HydogenBottle] Tim will change the names appropriately and will move all the ice you need into the generator and move the bottles in there. Make sure you have the Auto-FIll box checked on the generator. Later on if you are using a life support manager script (I like CAT's) you can re-label to have the Oxygen bottels go to the O2 Tanks and the Hydrogen bottles to the Hydrogen tank and just leave the Ice label on the Generators. Then you'll have a setup that will produce only what's needed and shut off the generator when it's not needed :) (requires 2 scripts)

8) Now that you can process ore and your life suppport needs are met, I recommend not labeling your assembler just yet, instead your priority right now is to build your first miner so that you can start getting a good supply of Ingots going.

9) Now is when you need to find space for at least 4 LCD panels, but I recommend the following setup: 3 sets of 3 LCD's lined up left to right. You going to label the first LCD of Each set with the SPAN command. Here's what I do. First set is [TIM Ore SPAN:2:1] This will give you a bar graph and display of how much ore is in your system and being procecessed. The 3rd LCD you should label [TIM Ore:P1] This will give you your quota panel where you can make adjustments if needed. I consider this optional because the pre-done ratio's seem to be spot on for me so I rarely edit any quota's except for Ammo which we'll get to in a minute. The next set of panels is going to be [TIM Ingot SPAN:2:1] with [TIM Ingot:P1], and finally you're your 3rd set will be [TIM Component SPAN:2:1] with [TIM Component:P1] I also change the color's on these so that I can tell at a glance which display I'm looking at.

This will give you a command center that tells you the following information: How much of what types of ore you currently have in your systems to be processed and how many refinery's are working on what. The bar graphs for the Ore display will fill up when you drop a load of raw ores into the system and will decrease as the system processes the ore.

The ingot displays will tell you your stockpiles of ingots, this will help you to decide what the next type of ore you need to go get/find is. The bar's will fill up as you get closer to your quota.

The component displays will tell you what you need to make in order to meet your quotas. The graphs will fill as you get to your quotas. This display will help you decide what to use your assembler to make. Later on, when we have enough materials, we'll start building more and more assemblers and assigning them a single type of component to build and TIM will take care of making that up to the quota amount and then stop. What's really cool about this, is that the author has setup the ratio's to near perfection, so I've found that if you don't fiddle with the quota's you'll always have enough steel plates / computers / etc.

9) Now that we have a miner, a command center and by now you should be filling your ingot quotes, setup your first assembler to start making what you need to make more assemblers. You're going to need 1 assembler per component so make a bunch. After you build them, label them like this: [TIM SteelPlate] ; [TIM Construction] ; [TIM SmallTube] etc etc For each assembler, set the repeat option and queue about 10 of that item. TIM will activate that assembler when your inventory of that part drops below the quota amount and will turn it off once you have met th quota again. Remember that TIM will adjust it's quota's up and up as you amass more and more materials, so keep doing those mining runs and let your super smart A.I. TIM manage your manufacturing process.

10) Reactor considerations - I recommend when you're starting out and using a small reactor to set it's name to [TIM Uranium:20 LOCK] This will make TIM keep that reactor filled with 20 uranium ingots and the LOCK will keep TIM from pulling any of them out.

Next post: Dealing with Mod blocks, Ammo, Turrets, and special cases

Mods: What's really cool about TIM is that once he "see's" a mod item, he'll know what it is. This is where that debug panel is going to help you out, because once you add these items in your system, either via making one in an assembler or adding a new ore, TIM will then recognize that and move it around accordingly as long as you setup the Tag's right. I'm going to use the Shale Oil mod, and the CSD ScatterCannon as examples. Shale Oil adds in a new ore "shale", Shale is refined in a refinery to "Oil" (but not really the name I'll get to that in a minute), and from there it adds new generator blocks in the form of Diesel generators, which use up oil to make power (it's much the same cycle as Uranium Ore to Uranium Ingot to Power in a reactor).

Once TIM see's some Shale enter the system, he'll know that it's an ore and will move it to your refinery. If you want to use the special refinery block that mod adds, then name it " [TIM Shale] " and tim will know to move shale there to be refined.

When I first started using the mod I labled my first generator block as " [TIM Oil] ", but this was WRONG. The GUI Icon for refined shale has the word "oil" in it and the mod talks about oil, but the actual name of the item is "Diesel"... I found that out by looking at TIM's DEBUG screen. I also noticed that if you mouse over the item it will tell you the acutal Item name. So my advice is to watch out for those Mod items, as they can be named slightly differently than you might think. Once I changed the tag on the genreator to [TIM Diesel] TIM knew what do to. I made things even better by using the same tag as the reactor and updated to [TIM Diesel:20 LOCK]

Ammo: Make 2 LCD Panels, one will be [TIM Ammo] the other [TIM Ammo:P1]. The first panel will tell you the total amount of all of an ammo type in your system, and the 2nd will be your quota panel. To update the quota, access the panel, go into the public text, and change the number for the quota to what you want. I usually start with around 200 for gun ammo's and 20 for missile types but those are just a guess at where to start out when you don't have much.

Make a cargo container label'd [TIM Ammo] and TIM will rename it, this caro is now your central Ammo Magazine. For each turret you create you can label it [TIM Ammo:XX LOCK] and TIM will be smart enough to load the proper ammo type where XX is the number of ammo boxes or missiles to load and LOCK keeps TIM from moving that ammo away from the turret. What's really cool is that TIM is smart enough to load the right ammo, even for mods. At least I haven't used a weapon mod that TIM didn't work with yet. IF you happen to find one, the solution would be the same as the Shale Oil mod above, label your turret or gun with [TIM <AMMOTYPE>:XX LOCK] TIM will find that item and load it in.

Special Cases, like Gravel processors: Some servers have the gravel resources extractor MOD or similar mods loaded in. These mods take your gravel (which is the ingot form of stone) and turn it into another resource, usually it's a combonation of all of the other types in very small amounts. In cases like this TIM usually needs the "FORCE" command entered into the tag to force TIM to move the gravel into these blocks to be processed. This is where the DEBUG panel helps you out! If you find that you're not able to get a mod block working right, the debug panel always has given me the clue I needed to figure out what was wrong. An example tag for a stone processor I'm using: [TIM FORCE:Ingot/Stone:100]


Cool stuff: Later on once your thriving, you'll start making large cargo's and labeling them for Ore and Ingot and Componet's etc. What's neat is that you can re-label your original small cargo's to make them useful again. Example: I usually make a large cargo with the [TIM Component] label, then I change my original small cargo to [TIM Component:25] This makes TIM load in 25 of each type of construction component and he will re-load that amount everytime I take it out. So you've basically made yourself a vending machine :)

I usually for RP purposes make a weapons locker cargo that loads in rifles and 5.56 magazines, TIM helps me keep it stocked properly ;)

Docking and Miners: On your base label your connector as [TIM DOCK:<ShipName>] where ship name is whatever you want. I usually start with Miner and my first mining ship. Put [TIM DOCK:Miner] on the connector for the base AND the connector on the miner ship. This will let TIM manage the items on the "other side" of the connector connection. Later as you get more and more advanced you can add timers and program blocks to your miner, but that's another show.... For now you should refer to the documentation on docking and connectors for more use cases.

More thoughts: Where this script really shines, is not just the early and mid "game", helping you to create the parts you need in the correct ratio's to expand and thrive, but the "late game" potential for this is amazing.

Take for example, the new Nanite mod that MANY servers have added. This is a kind of late game block that helps you to build ships, bases, etc. When used in tandem with this script, you've basically created an automated ship yard that all you need to do is feed materials too, and a blueprint of course.

Posibilities are as far and wide as you can imagine, want to create a starter base senario that will pre-load bottles and guns to crates for people, you can do that. Want to make sure your faction mates don't completely screw up your inventory - make them vending machines ;)

Hey, thanks so much for writing all this up! Now I can point folks here when they have questions about how to get up and running. :)

Most weclome, thank you for writing this and sharing it. I would have moved on from SE a while ago had I not stubled upon this and then forced myself to learn it.