Ok so im rank 180 and im starting to feel as though im lacking in artifact and research production

Arti - 1500
Research - 1700

I feel like a noob for asking but whats the minimum I should shoot for, for my rank (btw i am getting ready to do a scan blitz soon since i havent in a while)

Also im at the +8 structures

well i'd say keep everything just below 1/8 of your caps (that way if you ever decide to use a dark smuggler's cache you don't hit cap)

every planet adds 500 mining and 1000 arti to the cap... and every 4 levels adds 600 research to your cap
so for every 4 levels, after picking up one more planet, you should boost your mining by 62.5, arti by 125, and research by 75

but since those numbers won't always be possible from a single planet,... just boost whatever is furthest from 1/8th of the new cap

Thanks for the advice

get your research up, I'm 2 ranks below you and my research is 2111, also, your artifact should be fine.

Personally i base mine on 2 factors
How often i can go on and claim per day
My storage capacity

For example, it is 10 hours between me setting off for work and getting home and 9 hours between going to bed n nipping on before going to work, so i am setting it up so that it fills to capacity in 10 hours, done my mining and research that way. It reduces wasted production that could be used elsewhere

Artifact is another matter, since every planet gives 1000 storage i cannot get it to every 10 hours so i just do this one when mining and research are at the right number of hours to refill storage. With the larger capacity storage there is no need to use fill timers on this one.

Im rank 155 with 2200 research/hr, but only 275 art/hr, and 875 mineral/hr, i know that im seriously lacking in artifact, but i feel that my base makes up for it enough for my tastes, and the minerals get me like 200-300mil/day gain after maint, which is only like 40mil. all in all, i get like 53k research/day and around 7k artifact/day

Caps are a ridiculous thing to base what you aim for on. More you have the better you get.

I have kept some notes on game- at Level 164 I had 2863 research, 1448 artifacts and 1068 minerals

at 178 i had 3205 research, 1692 artifacts and 1334 minerals

I often lose research when i sleep and work- but when i am home and can gather every few hours the extra makes up for that

early in game research is your highest priority- as game progresses- it loses importance- but even though you take only a limited number of more research planets it continues to grow as you amass artifacts and better buildings. Back then research was 53% and 51% of my totals respectively- now as a level 326 it has dropped to 40% but i am still happy- just changed priorities to mining and artifact production

You are underpowerd for resource gathering though- need to focus on getting better planets and better buildings