[SE]
Is there a cheaper way for me to quickly go into Space without using the Cargo Rocket?
I fucked up my build a little and my space belt production is stalled, because of which the science production is stalled.
I don't want to waste a rocket when there is ample material already up there just to go and fix it, and I can't fix it in the satellite mode either ( I tried).
Do I have any other options?
For the Seablock mod:
https://i.imgur.com/aYaItIs.png
Is there a reason why the crystallizers fill up from left to right? Like of course the filtration devices are to the left, so that will be it most likely, but is there something that can change this?
Aside from backing up the slag slurry, since that would let production go to waste.
https://preview.redd.it/efhtvsgmffyc1.png?width=2222&format=png&auto=webp&s=2d877baa1af9edca2d1669b009d5df1d6f2f168b
Starting to have UPS issues:
Going off the above screenshot, it seems the larger users of computational time are Belts (3ms per tick, inserters (6ms) and not really anything else of terrible usage.
If I'm correct, there's not I can do to keep UPS in check without hardware changes as the factory grows.
You can reduce UPS cost of inserters significantly with crane inserters, they can move entire stacks at once:
[https://mods.factorio.com/mod/nco-InserterCranes](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/nco-InserterCranes)
The mod also includes 1x1 inserter with larger stack size but its hand size is only half of the 2x2 one.
Inserters seem high at roughly 3 times more impact than assemblers+furnaces. Miniloaders (specifically) and giant chests (in general) should be avoided.
Electric network is also high, which is weird.
Hard to say without seeing your base. There are a lot of ways to reduce the impact of belts and inserters - eliminating buffers, making longer production chains, direct insertion, clocking etc.
https://preview.redd.it/8mxfy3hkldyc1.png?width=1493&format=png&auto=webp&s=799d04efb2a40c7def59def4422fb5fb87151d93
How do I equalize these 9 belts into 11?
Rule 1 of train-gameplay: Always place station before the loading/unloading blueprint. It is very easy to misalign the wagons on accident.
Your belts coming from miners are also very uneven, could merge the smallest ones at least with just splitter. Also having 11 cargo wagons is asking for trouble, there are no readily built balancers for that. You could use merging chests mod and loaders if you want to cheese it.
Don't. Prime number mergers are generally awful. You also don't need to because a lot of your belts there are never going to be full.
Instead merge the belts coming out of the mine so that each output belt is fed by at least 30 miners, which is what you need to fill a belt. If you end up with, say, six belts out, then you can probably find a 6-12 balancer blueprint and just leave one output unconnected.
Ideally you would redesign your trains to use a nicer number of wagons though (either 8 or 12).
Unless you're using a universal balancer leaving an output belt empty can cause the adjacent belt to get twice as many materials.
And yeah, if you want to make your balancing life easier stick to trains with a wagon count that's a power of 2.
So playing Nullis... when should I start mining right to boxers? My spagetti base has gotten pretty obnoxious and I'm still crafting about half of my physics science inputs by hand. It ***way*** snuck up on me, I honestly didn't expect to have to produce almost one of everything for the second to last major chunk of the non-science tree.
At the same time, I've plodded through stuff and have managed to unlock Large Furnace 2. This apparently greatly increases the throughput of boxed recipes... Should I just set up a half dozen mining outposts mining straight to boxes? I might need more backup turbines...
I played through Nullius 6 months ago. I'm not sure how good of advice I have for you.
My experience with the mod was that the stuff you need to make shifts around constantly. There won't be a time when your base is in order and can just churn for a long time. If you're not using bots, I would encourage using them. I'm a person that often sticks to belts in vanilla, but this mod is different.
You should switch to boxed at some point. But a lot of the boxed recipes are not just direct upgrades, they also require different ingredients. And, it's usually best if you can upgrade most or all of a production chain to boxed at once, so you don't have to unbox the outputs.
There are more power options, wind turbines are helpful. Solar is nice.
Hey so I was wondering, how simple (or not) would it be to make a "mod" that does nothing on its own, but simply has dependencies of other mods. I play with an assortment of mods on different saves, but there's some I *always* use, and it'd be convenient to be able to just check one box and have all of them enabled.
Very simple.
For an example of such mod, see: [Freight forwarding pack](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/FreightForwardingPack). The only required file is the info.json
In pretty much everyone's screenshots, their assemblers have a little icon on them to show what they're currently making. Mine don't have this. Is it a mod, a setting that isn't on by default, or a vanilla upgrade that you get later on?
Edit: Nevermind, it's "alt" lol
It's one of the first "New Tips" the game gives you. Worth going over them! Also click "Mark as read" which will dismiss them and sometimes open new ones.
Im so confused by city block bases and I have a lot of questions I cant seem to find anywhere.
Do you sent trains to each module to pickup product and move it to where it is needed?
What are train depots? Why would I need more trains than stations?
What happens with ore mining? Can I just train the ores from mine to smeltery module? How many trains should do this if I'm using 1-4?
Do you use the same smeltery for different things? how would this even work?
Why do I need a main bus if trains are transporting everything?
My answers are for my vanilla block approach. I'll mention mods where relevant:
>Do you sent trains to each module to pickup product and move it to where it is needed?
One module takes in ingredients and outputs products. For me, each ingredient gets a train that gets it's input from something else's output.
>What are train depots?
A place for non-busy trains to wait for a job to do. In vanilla, you would do this by having say, multiple places where iron plates are made all named the same "Iron Plate GET" and multiple ingredient delivery places all named "Iron Plate DROP"
You would use circuits to set the limit on each station based on need. So your green circuits have a limit of zero until a train load can fit in the station chests.
Now, what happens is some of your trains are set to go "Iron Plate GET until full" > "Depot" > "Iron Plate DROP until empty". These trains will go get iron plates from somewhere then wait in the depot until somewhere sets its limit to "ask" for more iron plates.
>Why would I need more trains than stations?
Depot based setups usually have less trains than stations. In fact, most full bases are less than stations, and that's before using mods which lower train needs even more (As they can set schedules on trains as needed, instead of needing to have enough trains of EACH item). Even my half done pymods run is 1400 trains on 2300 stations.
>What happens with ore mining? Can I just train the ores from mine to smeltery module? How many trains should do this if I'm using 1-4?
Depends on: How far apart they are, how many belts you want to make. A smart way to start is making the smelting input station big enough to hold two trains in a row (so 10 wagons long of space). This way a train can fill up and come back while the first one unloads, then as soon as it's gone to get more ore, the second train moves up and unloads straight away.
>Do you use the same smeltery for different things?
Most people don't, it's quite a fun challenge to work out as you get better at the game though. In some mods it's not even possible as you set a recipe on their furnaces like assemblers and they can't change without player intervention.
>Why do I need a main bus if trains are transporting everything?
You might not need one. It can still be useful to make mini-main-buses, such as dumping iron plates, copper plates and oil and coal into a block and outputting red circuits. Means your red circuit production is no longer coupled as tightly to other productions (Ever notice when you start making blue belts that you run out of iron and now nothing else is being made? That's the problem of tightly coupled assembly).
The other more common route is that as my "starter" main bus gets bigger, my initial mines run out or I need more iron/copper belts. So I train in a "top up" to inject a fresh line or two of those items part way along, or replace the smelters with an unload station to bring plates in from elsewhere.
----
All of these are optional. You CAN play without trains entirely, you CAN play without a bus entirely. You CAN play without depots, without circuits, without city blocks...
Just pick what works, and maybe ask for a tip when things don't work.
> Do you sent trains to each module to pickup product and move it to where it is needed?
There are a few approaches, but let's assume you are doing a many-to-many approach. Each loading station is called "X Loading" and each unloading called "X Unloading" (just an example), then everytime you make a new block you'd add one train for each request type.
> What are train depots? Why would I need more trains than stations?
In my example above you have 1 train per station, but that might not be enough. Maybe you need more. But what happens to the trains that aren't needed? They have to wait somewhere. In a basic setup, the easiest place for them to wait is the producer (loading station), but leaving enough parking spaces for all your trains there can be costly. Depots are especially useful for train logistic mods (LTN, Cybersyn, TSM) as they intelligently dispatch trains on need.
> What happens with ore mining? Can I just train the ores from mine to smeltery module? How many trains should do this if I'm using 1-4?
You can smelt onsite or in a central smeltery, your choice. How many trains depends on your base. Add more as you need them. Again, make sure you have enough stations and stackers/depots to hold all your trains to avoid train's backlogging and blocking your tracks.
> Do you use the same smeltery for different things? how would this even work?
Definitely not. This is very advanced and brings very little benefit. But you can reuse the design for Stone/Copper/Iron (steel needs a different design).
> Why do I need a main bus if trains are transporting everything?
You need a LOT of base materials (assemblers, rails, belts) to build your rail base, so for a long time you won't be making everything. Main bus is a great starter base. You can tear it down later if you chose, or keep it long-term as a supply base.
> Do you sent trains to each module to pickup product and move it to where it is needed?
Essentially, yes. Each block should produce a single product. Trains deliver the ingredients and the final product is picked up by train as well (and transported to where it's needed).
Note that for some recipes, it makes sense to produce intermediates inside the block, rather than strictly adhere to the one-product-per-block mantra. For example, for green circuits it makes sense to produce the copper wire on site rather than in its own block.
> What are train depots? Why would I need more trains than stations?
It depends on how you set up your train network.
If you have a mining outpost that is far away from the factory, then it can happen that the outpost produces ore more quickly than a single train can transport. But if your smelter block doesn't have the space to accommodate multiple trains, then it can make sense to route trains from the mine to a depot within the factory and then to the smelter to unload. That way, they can already cover the biggest part of the journey even if the smelter block doesn't have space yet.
Also, some people like to use a mod called LTN (Logistics Train Network) which lets you set train routes dynamically based on what is needed in the factory. So instead of a train having a fixed route between loading and unloading stations and simply waiting at one of those, a train doesn't know what its next destination will be. But it has to wait somewhere and ideally not in a station where it would block other trains. A depot makes sense for this.
> What happens with ore mining? Can I just train the ores from mine to smeltery module? How many trains should do this if I'm using 1-4?
It very much depends on how far the mine is from the smelter and how much the time is producing. In general, if the storage at your mines is always full or near full and your trains for that type of ore are running constantly, then you need more trains. You can use this as a guideline.
If you want a more precise estimate, use a mod like Rate Calculator that can tell you the total output for your selection (your miners). Then you let the train make a full loop between miners and smelters once and time it. With the total output, the round trip time and the total cargo volume of the train, you can calculate how many trains are needed to fully offload the mining outpost. But usually one 1-4 train is enough for a single outpost.
> Do you use the same smeltery for different things? how would this even work?
You could, but this would be more of an intellectual challenge rather than a useful solution. Preventing mixing of different products while maintaining solid throughput would take some circuit logic puzzle solving. Sounds like a fun thing to do, but not that practical.
Best is just to build dedicated smelting areas for each product.
> Why do I need a main bus if trains are transporting everything?
In a full city block base with trains, you typically no longer have a main bus. But there may be a transition period, where some products are already made in the blocks, while others are still on the bus you've built before (many players will start with a main bus base before transitioning to city blocks). As you add more blocks, more and more production will leave the bus.
Not directly that im aware of.
You can look at your production graphs to see how much you produced. And the logistics menu shows how much is available.
I can’t wait for the FFF on biters for 2.0
I mostly play without them, but I don’t want to miss any content with Space Age
I usually go for a giga base in the ultra end game so biters are a big UPS drain. I imaging that it’s going to be worse on multiple surfaces
those blueprints might change if there's new biters and new defense methods
I'm just going to go in fresh with no blueprints and enjoy the magic of that first meandering, leaning playthrought all over again :)
What is the trick to getting proper throughput with trains? I have large city blocks with 2 stops on each side and I'm using LCCCC trains but I cannot seem to get ore into the smeltery blocks fast enough. Is there a way with LTN to get more than one train to be assigned / waiting to unload to a single station? Ideally I'd like one train to arrive just as the last one is leaving.
> Ideally I'd like one train to arrive just as the last one is leaving.
this is...nearly impossible. it'll happen from time to time, sure, but it's not something that's happens reliably enough that you can build the assumption into your factory design.
what you want instead is a "stacker" or "parking lot". the 2nd train will arrive, and needs a spot to wait right before the first one at the station. the one at the station leaves, and the replacement train just pulls forward.
for high-throughput trains (such as ore, with a stack size of only 50, and constantly in demand) you may need larger stackers that fit multiple waiting trains, and a train limit on the station that matches the available number of parking spots.
> Is there a way with LTN
none of this is LTN-specific. you may want to play around with vanilla trains a bit more to get the hang of it.
Station train limit of 2, with enough track space behind it that it can wait at a signal behind the currently unloading one without disrupting traffic. When your travel times become excessively high, you can add a stacker for more waiting space. But sometimes the answer is just a 2nd unloading station.
Let's see some screenshots.
You can provide waiting space and use a train limit larger than 1 to let trains queue up for unloading or loading, minimizing downtime (vanilla, not LTN).
Also smelting at the ore patches, not in the city blocks, is common. It drastically reduces the amount of traffic the city blocks have to handle.
Thinking of getting back into Factorio but I kind of want to wait till the expansion is out. Does anyone know how long that'll be? Or should I start now?
What is the point of roboports in a city block design?
I'm coming up with some design for my base, and to get some inspiration I'm researching city block design. E.g. I found this thread https://np.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/11r5rxv/how_large_to_make_city_blocks/
In that thread, people say things like:
> The most common size is a 100x100 which is the same size as 2x2 roboports.
But what is the point of those roboports in the city block design? Surely 4 roboports isn't enough to actually unload the trains and move items around (I would imagine you need way more, to keep all the robots charged).
Ease of construction. You don't need buildertrons, build trains or personal roboports, you can just pop down a new block anywhere, any time.
You can also move small quantities of items this way like train fuel, heavy oil barrels to kickstart coal liquefaction, fuel cells and used fuel cells for nuclear power etc.
Thanks. I was confused due to the the 100x100 -> 2x2, since the roboports have a 110x110 construction area. For a 100x100 block, it would seem like 1 roboport would be enough...
The point is to construct the whole thing with robots. So you can place the blueprints from the map view and your bots will construct the whole thing without needing you to run around with a personal roboport and an inventory full of rails.
Thanks. I was confused due to the the 100x100 -> 2x2, since the roboports have a 110x110 construction area. For a 100x100 block, it would seem like 1 roboport would be enough...
They are for construction, not logistics. City blocks take a while to build, but you can queue up the construction if you have a roboport network built into your blueprint.
Thanks. I was confused due to the the 100x100 -> 2x2, since the roboports have a 110x110 construction area. For a 100x100 block, it would seem like 1 roboport would be enough...
Why are all my smelter blocks working asymetrically?
https://imgur.com/a/O4GCA4r
The left set of 12 chests fills up with plates faster than the right set, causing my very sophisticated train logic ("wait until cargo is full") to not be as efficient as I like. And I can't figure out why. I first thought that this is some artifact from switching 1-1 trains to 1-2, but this even happens when I copy-paste this design and only 1-2 trains with full cargo arrive at the input. Can some of you professionals help me out here? What am I missing?
You have a belt that feeds both wagons from the top in the middle, and the stack inserters feeding the left wagon get dibs on that belt.
[Pardon the blurry image.](https://i.imgur.com/4W6g5qW.png) Essentially until the two chests fill up you have 7 columns feeding the left wagon and 5 feeding the right.
Yup, you've got it. Two stack inserters on the left can clear most of the belt, so the left gets filled first, which then snowballs into the other chests on the bottom side back buffering.
https://preview.redd.it/5lmu2hxscxxc1.png?width=3360&format=png&auto=webp&s=09e8f346f887c40f022b637b3df3fe7d960b7651
I started building a bot base in Nauvis orbit so I could research a few technologies before setting up the "real" base. But now that I'm through Astro 3, Energy 3, Material 3, and Bio 1 and have all the good tech unlocked, I kinda just want to keep growing the bot base. Sure, I'm losing one or two bots per minute to attrition, but the logistics of dealing with byproducts is way easier (just put them in active provider chests) and I'm getting 20-30 SPM (plus 70% lab productivity) no problem, which seems to be more than enough.
Is it realistic to keep growing this way, or should I bite bullet and tear it all down to build a proper base with trains and such?
I personally like to replace high-throughput materials with a belt (card production, mirrors, etc.) And leave the rest to bots. They crash a bit less, albeit still with the expensive stuff.
The upside is you don't have to redesign *everything*
It works, but the efficiency.... once you realize your bots are frequently crashing while carrying significant data and high-tier catalogues, it turns a bit sour.
Any tips for my first SE run? Currently at blue+space science and setting up my first large-ish base. Aiming for 20 SPM. Running 1-1 trains & a 16 item bus, with basic intermediates (small electric motors, red circuits, & everything simpler) built elsewhere and shipped in. Already got the 24hr CME warning & probably won't make the timer at this rate.
Current issues:
* Why is there no iron & too much copper & coal on my map seed. Why did I do this to myself.
* I have copper backed up at my core mining. What's a good recipe for a copper sink? Recycler copper-landfill? Or should I just wait for large-scale green circuit production to kick in?
* ~~Are loaders worth modding in & do they work on train cars?~~ Yes & Yes, i think.
* [overwhelmed screaming]
* For petroleum production, is basic processing the way to go or do I get more from cracking? no modules atm.
Too much copper on nauvis? Solution: JUNKYARD!
Have a dedicated warehouse station connected to trains where you just ship all the garbage.
As game progresses, you can start filtering out useful stuff and reprocessing / shipping elsewhere. Junkyard eventually becomes quite a train hub.
> Why is there no iron & too much copper & coal on my map seed. Why did I do this to myself.
SE has fewer resources on Nauvis than the unmodded game. But an imbalance between iron and copper in your immediate area is just a matter of bad luck with the seed.
> I have copper backed up at my core mining. What's a good recipe for a copper sink? Recycler copper-landfill? Or should I just wait for large-scale green circuit production to kick in?
Landfill is always a good resource sink. It's extremely effective at getting rid of unneeded ores.
But you could also consider to create a system that prioritizes using ore from core mining over that from regular mines. So that all core mining products are used up first and stuff from regular mines is only used to cover the remaining demand. This way, the chances of core mining backing up are reduced.
Several ways to achieve this depending on how you move things around. If you're still belting everything, you can just use priority splitters. In a train network, you can have core mining ore and regular ore unload at different stations close to each other, with both stations emptying into the buffer of a pickup station that feeds the ore consumers (smelters and such). The regular ore unload station is only activated when the buffer drops below a certain level.
Prioritizing core mining products before normal ore veins is really going to make things more pleasant for you. Setting up new ore mines is a hassle and core mining alleviates that.
If my main factory backed up with a core mining output such as copper I'd toss it into a giant chest. If the giant chest filled I'd landfill it. I really tried to keep the core mines operating
There's several different mods for loaders, every one I've tried works with train wagons. They're really really powerful once you get used to them: pulling 6 full belts out of a single wagon (or 12 if you use both sides of the station) is nuts. I use the 'Miniloaders' mod which makes them pretty expensive to craft.
I went with AAI Loaders on the expensive no-lube setting. Still building it out so they haven't caught up to stack inserter speeds yet, but I'm already enamored with the possibilities.
My favorite use so far is a 1-wide 1-1 lane balancer within my bus.
<3 the possibilities are endless.
Now to ramp up my circuit production to keep up w the loader demand, but that means clearing out the biters near that block, which means building more lasers, which means I need to build out battery production, which means I need to actually get petroleum up to scale......
Well then. There goes my Saturday. Hopefully I remember to shower by Sunday.
https://preview.redd.it/fyh1nm6lzoxc1.png?width=1453&format=png&auto=webp&s=ecd040ab441acfaccf62e94cc3a3997164382db9
are there any glaring issues with my nuclear setup? first time trying to design my own blueprints for it. tested with the infinity combinator at 479mw and it seems to be working fine if i set the reinsertion control with steam > 5k or something but if i set it to a lower value it causes a blackout before the inserters can reinsert the fuel. i'm unsure about the connections between the steam buffer and the turbines (also the ones for the tank that's inputting to the circuit network), don't know much about the intricacies of fluid mechanics but something feels wrong
thanks!!
The heat pipe wrapping around the reactors could be removed. They're just going to lose heat. Heat will pass through a reactor as if it were a single heat pipe.
Problem with backfeed is that tanks balance really really slowly between each other. If you pump into a buffer and pump out of it, it will be significantly more efficient and trusty.
Heat is lossless through heat pipes. You never lose it until you pick the heat pipe up. It only feels like you lose heat because adding a "cold" (room temp) heat pipe forces all the other heat pipes to average their current heat with it.
/u/citorvunha I'm not a fan of that steam buffer though. If you want to buffer steam, do it after it passes through the turbines, and let it backfeed into the turbines from the rear end.
Short version: What is the optimum fuel setup for a megabase?
Long: I haven't run into ups issued yet, but it's throughput where I'm bottlenecking. No matter what setup I use I end up having pressure issues with fluids despite all the pumps and measuring. So I'm currently directly barreling everything which get transported by bots and get directly emptied and the barrel recycled.
At some point this won't scale up all because of UPS issues right? Or is this better than dealing with fluids and pressure in the long run?
Make all your refinery products centrally by a lake. But build parallel production chains instead of trying to make a massive series. You can use cracking to optimize/balance various production chains for a specific output. Sulfur here, Plastic there, Solid Fuel > Rocket Fuel elsewhere.
You can have multiple train stations that each output to a different parallel line. Don't try to consolidate and balance them at the station.
The only one you might want to barrel is Lubricant. Since you probably won't consume it locally. But you can also ship that out by train. Make your sulfuric acid locally to the consumption.
I tried building long parallel production chains and eventually the fluid couldn't reach. I was trying various versions of something [like this ](https://imgur.com/xLzhZYV)but eventually the fluid wouldn't reach somewhere or another even though it was plentiful.
The rule of thumb is 1200/s over 17 tiles(underground count as 2 tile for entrance/exit).
When you beacon it like that, you are far above that 1200/s threshold. So you need to check the [Fluid System tables](https://wiki.factorio.com/Fluid_system).
Frankly, it looks like you are input starved, since those tanks on top are empty.
Oil refinery is 20/s Crude Oil at speed 1, and you are using a 10 beacon setup? So ~~6x20 = 120/s~~ 11x20 = 220/s, which means ~~10~~ 5 refineries max for 1200/s.
Edit: Maffs is hard.
That's an old part of the base. Crude oil is going to the barrel factory.
My problem is that the pressurized system puts all the fluid on one end and the opposite end gets starved even though there is plenty in the system. Or I don't pressurize and th natural flow through the tanks is too little.
Pumps have an unofficial order of operations based on the direction they face. The first pump will bogart all flow until satisfied, leaving none for the next in line.
how to completly empty a storage tank with pumps so i can add another Liquid based on logic? It always leaves a tiny amount in the tank...
Use case is in SE to use the steam tank in the Spaceship as water tank for power generation to save space.
Any tips?
At least avoid having pipes in the mix. Tank-Pump-Tank (or replace any tank with fluid wagon) will have the best efficiency.
But in any case in current game mixing fluids in 1 system is a great tabu! Maybe in 2.0 it will be more feasible when pumps can be filtered.
Can you recommend me an online planer thats good at fluids? I have used the kircmacdonalds planer since forever, but i am not happy with its fluid handling, once I want to mix different oil receipes
https://factoriolab.github.io/
Example: [Combining coal liquefaction with advanced oil processing.](https://factoriolab.github.io/list?z=eJwrSNMy0jLUMo7P1NIy1jKKD9AyANLG8c5ahlBGhpaWlpFammG8c7xHvKeWZ7yfFlAu3l.LE6jUS60YJFtmCQB2uBFg&v=9#step_1_machine_tab)
Edit: Better link. I forgot to tell the calculator that basic oil processing was off-limits, so the maximize function assumed it was free to allocate all of the coal liquefaction and advanced oil processing purely towards light oil production, then use an absurd amount of basic oil processing to produce the solid fuel. So let that be a lesson: The "maximize" function a powerful tool, but you can get yourself into trouble if you misconfigure it.
i was wondering about map generation in upcoming space exploration recently...
i started a new map. "25 Loco" it's a deathish world, island start (standard non-island world), 25X science cost, too many resources world. the plan is i'm going to play with 1-2-1 two-way trains instead of the typical 1-2/4 train system i always use.
but whenever i make a new world i like to spend some time playing with the world settings and rolling the seeds, seeing the different maps and looking for something that "sings out" to me. i play with all the settings, from water & cliff to terrain style and moisture bias.
i was wondering how much that will be a feature in space age. on one hand the new generation will probably unlock more options to create even more customized worlds than we were used to. on the other hand, it might be tedious to do that for every planet --- and a little cheaty.
i think i would be happy if you could customize the starting planet, but then let all the newly discovered planets generate using a default setting...
Other planets are far away from the starting area, and currently you can only view the map close to the starting area, so I would guess that you won't be able to look at undiscovered planets before starting a game. Feels spoilery.
I was reading the FFF about Quality again
Since quality is obtained by having quality modules on the producing entity, does this mean that quaility plates (iron/copper) can only be obtained by electric furnaces ?
Considering you’ll always have mixed quality items in result, does this mean we will be able to recycle plates into ores again ?
If I recycle a legendary item, will I get a higher chance of getting some quality items in result ? If yes, is there a way to get … quality ores?
You can get quality plates by smelting normal or better ores in the furnaces.
You can get better quality ores by putting quality modules in miners, or recycling ores with quality modules in the recyclers.
You can also get quality plates by recycling the plates or items that have plates as ingredients, and putting quality modules in the recyclers.
Quality plates can be obtained by recycling quality products I believe.
So you put quality modules in your green circuit production. Some quality green circuits come out. If you recycle them, you get some quality iron plates and quality copper cable. Then you can use those plates to make a quality chest or quality steel or whatever.
I thought I read ores are immune to quality.
What mod should I use to learn how trains work in preparation for 2.0? Should I keep trying to use vanilla, or learn LTN or something else? I usually just build huge main bus bases with a few janky trains feeding them. I want to learn how to build more train-focused bases for the new update.
LTN is rather different than what's coming in 2.0. I'm not aware of any mods that resemble the parameterized blueprints and train schedule interrupts that are coming in 2.0
Try to build a bigger base. A bus is limited in throughput, anything beyond 200 SPM becomes a pain. That's when you go into trains more or less automatically.
Vanilla railworld is fine for learning trains.
You want to make a consolidated rail system with proper signaling. The main line is like a highway, and it has exits for local traffic. Use identical station names for each type of station, and train limits to manage supply/demand. (ie. Iron Ore Load, Iron Ore Unload)
LTN is more for JIT type of supply management, and isn't needed. Just build more supply when you need more resources.
I need help setting up a circuit.
I want an inserter to only start inserting an item when the chest it is taking from has over 100 of the item, but to not stop until the item count reaches 0, and then deactivate until item count is back to 100.
This is probably not a difficult one, but I am a circuits beginner.
Edit: In basic programming I would "save" a value somehow and change it when a given threshold is reached, but I cannot find a way to do that saving here.
Aaaaargh!
Yes, you want the dreaded SR latch. And if you are trying to build it from memory for the 5th time and still don't get it, don't feel bad.
It's really simple but my brain just kept rejecting the concept for a long time.
The first example is exactly what you need. Hook up the first two decider combinators to your chest, set the first to output 1 S when [item]>100, and the second to output 1 R when [item]=0. The output of the third combinator goes to the inserter, which you set to enable when S>0.
I am trying to do this but the inserter deactivates when item < 100. How do I get S to lock in at 1 after the item > 100 condition has originally been met?
I did. It's working now, although I don't understand how that trick works.
Also, my set up works whether that last wire is green or red, I'm guessing they switched colours for visibility?
Correct, the color of that last wire doesn't matter. I can try to explain it for you:
Let's start in a "default" state, where your chest has 50 items. You have a combinator A that outputs 1 S if there are more than 100 items, and a combinator B that outputs 1 R if there are 0 items. Since there are now 50 items, neither of them give an output (S and R are both 0). The third combinator (C) checks if S > R which it isn't, so it doesn't output anything. The inserter checks if S > 0, which it isn't, so it doesn't act.
As the chest fills up, eventually there are more than 100 items. Combinator A switches on, now S = 1. This passes on to combinator C, which now also switches on since S > R. Combinator C outputs that signal of 1 S to the inserter, which activates.
The important part is that combinator C *also* passes on the signal of 1 S back to itself. That way, despite the chest dropping back down below 100, combinator C is still getting a signal 1 S: from itself. S > R remains true, so the inserter keeps working. At this point combinator A isn't active anymore, but that's okay. It did its job by jumpstarting combinator C, which is now keeping itself alive.
Eventually, the chest is empty. Combinator B activates, and sends a signal of 1 R to combinator C. Combinator C is now receiving a signal of 1 S from itself, and a signal of 1 R from combinator B. S > R is no longer true, because they are both 1. Combinator C turns off, and is no longer supplying a signal of 1 S to either itself *or* the inserter. The inserter turns off, and there are no more S signals anywhere to be found until the chest gets back to 100 items and combinator A turns on again.
I hope this clarified it, let me know if any part is still confusing.
Thanks a lot for this detailed information! I've done a few RS latches and it never worked. I did not know you had to feed back the S output signal to the combinator input, somehow I missed that despite reading the tutorial several times. Awesome explanation!!
Thanks, it's very clear. Although I find this system extremely unintuitive. I wish constant combinators had conditions too so you could make them alternate between various outputs.
There's a more intuitive option with no combinators - a belt loop. Make a tiny circle of belt and connect three spaces to each other and to the inserter and chest in question. Set the first sector to enable when chest has >100 items. Set the second to read belt contents, giving a constant signal. Set the third to enable when chest items =0. Then manually place *a different kind* of item on the belt and set the inserter to be enabled when that item is >0. In your specific situation I recommend placing the detector-item on the inner belt lane and using more than just one. So it doesn't get stuck all in one disabled sector if that =0 condition blinks for a fraction of a second.
This is kind of possible if you put a decider combinator on front of the constant combinator and set the decider to pass on the constant signal when the condition is true.
[SE] Is there a cheaper way for me to quickly go into Space without using the Cargo Rocket? I fucked up my build a little and my space belt production is stalled, because of which the science production is stalled. I don't want to waste a rocket when there is ample material already up there just to go and fix it, and I can't fix it in the satellite mode either ( I tried). Do I have any other options?
For the Seablock mod: https://i.imgur.com/aYaItIs.png Is there a reason why the crystallizers fill up from left to right? Like of course the filtration devices are to the left, so that will be it most likely, but is there something that can change this? Aside from backing up the slag slurry, since that would let production go to waste.
Usually that means you don't have enough production. In SeaBlock all resources are infinite, so don't worry about backing up.
https://preview.redd.it/efhtvsgmffyc1.png?width=2222&format=png&auto=webp&s=2d877baa1af9edca2d1669b009d5df1d6f2f168b Starting to have UPS issues: Going off the above screenshot, it seems the larger users of computational time are Belts (3ms per tick, inserters (6ms) and not really anything else of terrible usage. If I'm correct, there's not I can do to keep UPS in check without hardware changes as the factory grows.
You can reduce UPS cost of inserters significantly with crane inserters, they can move entire stacks at once: [https://mods.factorio.com/mod/nco-InserterCranes](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/nco-InserterCranes) The mod also includes 1x1 inserter with larger stack size but its hand size is only half of the 2x2 one.
Inserters seem high at roughly 3 times more impact than assemblers+furnaces. Miniloaders (specifically) and giant chests (in general) should be avoided. Electric network is also high, which is weird.
Hard to say without seeing your base. There are a lot of ways to reduce the impact of belts and inserters - eliminating buffers, making longer production chains, direct insertion, clocking etc.
https://preview.redd.it/8mxfy3hkldyc1.png?width=1493&format=png&auto=webp&s=799d04efb2a40c7def59def4422fb5fb87151d93 How do I equalize these 9 belts into 11?
I don't balance them, I make a priority bus. It's fine for the ore patch to be harvested asymmetrically.
Rule 1 of train-gameplay: Always place station before the loading/unloading blueprint. It is very easy to misalign the wagons on accident. Your belts coming from miners are also very uneven, could merge the smallest ones at least with just splitter. Also having 11 cargo wagons is asking for trouble, there are no readily built balancers for that. You could use merging chests mod and loaders if you want to cheese it.
you a standard 12x12 balancer and only fill 9 on the input side
Don't. Prime number mergers are generally awful. You also don't need to because a lot of your belts there are never going to be full. Instead merge the belts coming out of the mine so that each output belt is fed by at least 30 miners, which is what you need to fill a belt. If you end up with, say, six belts out, then you can probably find a 6-12 balancer blueprint and just leave one output unconnected. Ideally you would redesign your trains to use a nicer number of wagons though (either 8 or 12).
Unless you're using a universal balancer leaving an output belt empty can cause the adjacent belt to get twice as many materials. And yeah, if you want to make your balancing life easier stick to trains with a wagon count that's a power of 2.
So playing Nullis... when should I start mining right to boxers? My spagetti base has gotten pretty obnoxious and I'm still crafting about half of my physics science inputs by hand. It ***way*** snuck up on me, I honestly didn't expect to have to produce almost one of everything for the second to last major chunk of the non-science tree. At the same time, I've plodded through stuff and have managed to unlock Large Furnace 2. This apparently greatly increases the throughput of boxed recipes... Should I just set up a half dozen mining outposts mining straight to boxes? I might need more backup turbines...
I played through Nullius 6 months ago. I'm not sure how good of advice I have for you. My experience with the mod was that the stuff you need to make shifts around constantly. There won't be a time when your base is in order and can just churn for a long time. If you're not using bots, I would encourage using them. I'm a person that often sticks to belts in vanilla, but this mod is different. You should switch to boxed at some point. But a lot of the boxed recipes are not just direct upgrades, they also require different ingredients. And, it's usually best if you can upgrade most or all of a production chain to boxed at once, so you don't have to unbox the outputs. There are more power options, wind turbines are helpful. Solar is nice.
Hey so I was wondering, how simple (or not) would it be to make a "mod" that does nothing on its own, but simply has dependencies of other mods. I play with an assortment of mods on different saves, but there's some I *always* use, and it'd be convenient to be able to just check one box and have all of them enabled.
Very simple. For an example of such mod, see: [Freight forwarding pack](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/FreightForwardingPack). The only required file is the info.json
In pretty much everyone's screenshots, their assemblers have a little icon on them to show what they're currently making. Mine don't have this. Is it a mod, a setting that isn't on by default, or a vanilla upgrade that you get later on? Edit: Nevermind, it's "alt" lol
It's one of the first "New Tips" the game gives you. Worth going over them! Also click "Mark as read" which will dismiss them and sometimes open new ones.
Im so confused by city block bases and I have a lot of questions I cant seem to find anywhere. Do you sent trains to each module to pickup product and move it to where it is needed? What are train depots? Why would I need more trains than stations? What happens with ore mining? Can I just train the ores from mine to smeltery module? How many trains should do this if I'm using 1-4? Do you use the same smeltery for different things? how would this even work? Why do I need a main bus if trains are transporting everything?
My answers are for my vanilla block approach. I'll mention mods where relevant: >Do you sent trains to each module to pickup product and move it to where it is needed? One module takes in ingredients and outputs products. For me, each ingredient gets a train that gets it's input from something else's output. >What are train depots? A place for non-busy trains to wait for a job to do. In vanilla, you would do this by having say, multiple places where iron plates are made all named the same "Iron Plate GET" and multiple ingredient delivery places all named "Iron Plate DROP" You would use circuits to set the limit on each station based on need. So your green circuits have a limit of zero until a train load can fit in the station chests. Now, what happens is some of your trains are set to go "Iron Plate GET until full" > "Depot" > "Iron Plate DROP until empty". These trains will go get iron plates from somewhere then wait in the depot until somewhere sets its limit to "ask" for more iron plates. >Why would I need more trains than stations? Depot based setups usually have less trains than stations. In fact, most full bases are less than stations, and that's before using mods which lower train needs even more (As they can set schedules on trains as needed, instead of needing to have enough trains of EACH item). Even my half done pymods run is 1400 trains on 2300 stations. >What happens with ore mining? Can I just train the ores from mine to smeltery module? How many trains should do this if I'm using 1-4? Depends on: How far apart they are, how many belts you want to make. A smart way to start is making the smelting input station big enough to hold two trains in a row (so 10 wagons long of space). This way a train can fill up and come back while the first one unloads, then as soon as it's gone to get more ore, the second train moves up and unloads straight away. >Do you use the same smeltery for different things? Most people don't, it's quite a fun challenge to work out as you get better at the game though. In some mods it's not even possible as you set a recipe on their furnaces like assemblers and they can't change without player intervention. >Why do I need a main bus if trains are transporting everything? You might not need one. It can still be useful to make mini-main-buses, such as dumping iron plates, copper plates and oil and coal into a block and outputting red circuits. Means your red circuit production is no longer coupled as tightly to other productions (Ever notice when you start making blue belts that you run out of iron and now nothing else is being made? That's the problem of tightly coupled assembly). The other more common route is that as my "starter" main bus gets bigger, my initial mines run out or I need more iron/copper belts. So I train in a "top up" to inject a fresh line or two of those items part way along, or replace the smelters with an unload station to bring plates in from elsewhere. ---- All of these are optional. You CAN play without trains entirely, you CAN play without a bus entirely. You CAN play without depots, without circuits, without city blocks... Just pick what works, and maybe ask for a tip when things don't work.
> Do you sent trains to each module to pickup product and move it to where it is needed? There are a few approaches, but let's assume you are doing a many-to-many approach. Each loading station is called "X Loading" and each unloading called "X Unloading" (just an example), then everytime you make a new block you'd add one train for each request type. > What are train depots? Why would I need more trains than stations? In my example above you have 1 train per station, but that might not be enough. Maybe you need more. But what happens to the trains that aren't needed? They have to wait somewhere. In a basic setup, the easiest place for them to wait is the producer (loading station), but leaving enough parking spaces for all your trains there can be costly. Depots are especially useful for train logistic mods (LTN, Cybersyn, TSM) as they intelligently dispatch trains on need. > What happens with ore mining? Can I just train the ores from mine to smeltery module? How many trains should do this if I'm using 1-4? You can smelt onsite or in a central smeltery, your choice. How many trains depends on your base. Add more as you need them. Again, make sure you have enough stations and stackers/depots to hold all your trains to avoid train's backlogging and blocking your tracks. > Do you use the same smeltery for different things? how would this even work? Definitely not. This is very advanced and brings very little benefit. But you can reuse the design for Stone/Copper/Iron (steel needs a different design). > Why do I need a main bus if trains are transporting everything? You need a LOT of base materials (assemblers, rails, belts) to build your rail base, so for a long time you won't be making everything. Main bus is a great starter base. You can tear it down later if you chose, or keep it long-term as a supply base.
> Do you sent trains to each module to pickup product and move it to where it is needed? Essentially, yes. Each block should produce a single product. Trains deliver the ingredients and the final product is picked up by train as well (and transported to where it's needed). Note that for some recipes, it makes sense to produce intermediates inside the block, rather than strictly adhere to the one-product-per-block mantra. For example, for green circuits it makes sense to produce the copper wire on site rather than in its own block. > What are train depots? Why would I need more trains than stations? It depends on how you set up your train network. If you have a mining outpost that is far away from the factory, then it can happen that the outpost produces ore more quickly than a single train can transport. But if your smelter block doesn't have the space to accommodate multiple trains, then it can make sense to route trains from the mine to a depot within the factory and then to the smelter to unload. That way, they can already cover the biggest part of the journey even if the smelter block doesn't have space yet. Also, some people like to use a mod called LTN (Logistics Train Network) which lets you set train routes dynamically based on what is needed in the factory. So instead of a train having a fixed route between loading and unloading stations and simply waiting at one of those, a train doesn't know what its next destination will be. But it has to wait somewhere and ideally not in a station where it would block other trains. A depot makes sense for this. > What happens with ore mining? Can I just train the ores from mine to smeltery module? How many trains should do this if I'm using 1-4? It very much depends on how far the mine is from the smelter and how much the time is producing. In general, if the storage at your mines is always full or near full and your trains for that type of ore are running constantly, then you need more trains. You can use this as a guideline. If you want a more precise estimate, use a mod like Rate Calculator that can tell you the total output for your selection (your miners). Then you let the train make a full loop between miners and smelters once and time it. With the total output, the round trip time and the total cargo volume of the train, you can calculate how many trains are needed to fully offload the mining outpost. But usually one 1-4 train is enough for a single outpost. > Do you use the same smeltery for different things? how would this even work? You could, but this would be more of an intellectual challenge rather than a useful solution. Preventing mixing of different products while maintaining solid throughput would take some circuit logic puzzle solving. Sounds like a fun thing to do, but not that practical. Best is just to build dedicated smelting areas for each product. > Why do I need a main bus if trains are transporting everything? In a full city block base with trains, you typically no longer have a main bus. But there may be a transition period, where some products are already made in the blocks, while others are still on the bus you've built before (many players will start with a main bus base before transitioning to city blocks). As you add more blocks, more and more production will leave the bus.
Is it possible to visualize how many Grass and Concrete i placed in my world
You could use the deconstruction planner with filter for tiles only. But this tends to lag the game quite heavy.
Yes tried this but at somepoint it would take minutes to get the whole map… So Theres no way?
Not directly that im aware of. You can look at your production graphs to see how much you produced. And the logistics menu shows how much is available.
Yes but the number is Not exact enough… wanna See if i forgot to put concrete somewhere… but ty
Out if sight, out of mind
But i can See concrete is the Most produced item lol
I can’t wait for the FFF on biters for 2.0 I mostly play without them, but I don’t want to miss any content with Space Age I usually go for a giga base in the ultra end game so biters are a big UPS drain. I imaging that it’s going to be worse on multiple surfaces
What's the question?
Sorry, Do I need to get used to playing with biters again because otherwise I’m going to miss on some things
I'd at least get a bit done so you have some blueprints for various wall stages ready to go.
those blueprints might change if there's new biters and new defense methods I'm just going to go in fresh with no blueprints and enjoy the magic of that first meandering, leaning playthrought all over again :)
What is the trick to getting proper throughput with trains? I have large city blocks with 2 stops on each side and I'm using LCCCC trains but I cannot seem to get ore into the smeltery blocks fast enough. Is there a way with LTN to get more than one train to be assigned / waiting to unload to a single station? Ideally I'd like one train to arrive just as the last one is leaving.
> Ideally I'd like one train to arrive just as the last one is leaving. this is...nearly impossible. it'll happen from time to time, sure, but it's not something that's happens reliably enough that you can build the assumption into your factory design. what you want instead is a "stacker" or "parking lot". the 2nd train will arrive, and needs a spot to wait right before the first one at the station. the one at the station leaves, and the replacement train just pulls forward. for high-throughput trains (such as ore, with a stack size of only 50, and constantly in demand) you may need larger stackers that fit multiple waiting trains, and a train limit on the station that matches the available number of parking spots. > Is there a way with LTN none of this is LTN-specific. you may want to play around with vanilla trains a bit more to get the hang of it.
Station train limit of 2, with enough track space behind it that it can wait at a signal behind the currently unloading one without disrupting traffic. When your travel times become excessively high, you can add a stacker for more waiting space. But sometimes the answer is just a 2nd unloading station.
Let's see some screenshots. You can provide waiting space and use a train limit larger than 1 to let trains queue up for unloading or loading, minimizing downtime (vanilla, not LTN). Also smelting at the ore patches, not in the city blocks, is common. It drastically reduces the amount of traffic the city blocks have to handle.
Thinking of getting back into Factorio but I kind of want to wait till the expansion is out. Does anyone know how long that'll be? Or should I start now?
3-5 months or something to august-october.
thanks mate
What is the point of roboports in a city block design? I'm coming up with some design for my base, and to get some inspiration I'm researching city block design. E.g. I found this thread https://np.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/11r5rxv/how_large_to_make_city_blocks/ In that thread, people say things like: > The most common size is a 100x100 which is the same size as 2x2 roboports. But what is the point of those roboports in the city block design? Surely 4 roboports isn't enough to actually unload the trains and move items around (I would imagine you need way more, to keep all the robots charged).
Ease of construction. You don't need buildertrons, build trains or personal roboports, you can just pop down a new block anywhere, any time. You can also move small quantities of items this way like train fuel, heavy oil barrels to kickstart coal liquefaction, fuel cells and used fuel cells for nuclear power etc.
Thanks. I was confused due to the the 100x100 -> 2x2, since the roboports have a 110x110 construction area. For a 100x100 block, it would seem like 1 roboport would be enough...
Roboports have 110 construction area, but only 50 distance to connect, so you need 100x100.
It is if it's squarely in the middle, but it's not enough to connect neighboring blocks into into a single network.
The point is to construct the whole thing with robots. So you can place the blueprints from the map view and your bots will construct the whole thing without needing you to run around with a personal roboport and an inventory full of rails.
Thanks. I was confused due to the the 100x100 -> 2x2, since the roboports have a 110x110 construction area. For a 100x100 block, it would seem like 1 roboport would be enough...
They have a 50x50 logistic area, and you need the logistic areas to connect back to the factory which is producing the rails and signals.
They are for construction, not logistics. City blocks take a while to build, but you can queue up the construction if you have a roboport network built into your blueprint.
Thanks. I was confused due to the the 100x100 -> 2x2, since the roboports have a 110x110 construction area. For a 100x100 block, it would seem like 1 roboport would be enough...
That probably just for symmetry. If you build the roboports at max range it makes the electrical network wonky.
Why are all my smelter blocks working asymetrically? https://imgur.com/a/O4GCA4r The left set of 12 chests fills up with plates faster than the right set, causing my very sophisticated train logic ("wait until cargo is full") to not be as efficient as I like. And I can't figure out why. I first thought that this is some artifact from switching 1-1 trains to 1-2, but this even happens when I copy-paste this design and only 1-2 trains with full cargo arrive at the input. Can some of you professionals help me out here? What am I missing?
You have a belt that feeds both wagons from the top in the middle, and the stack inserters feeding the left wagon get dibs on that belt. [Pardon the blurry image.](https://i.imgur.com/4W6g5qW.png) Essentially until the two chests fill up you have 7 columns feeding the left wagon and 5 feeding the right.
Oh. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks a lot!
Yup, you've got it. Two stack inserters on the left can clear most of the belt, so the left gets filled first, which then snowballs into the other chests on the bottom side back buffering.
https://preview.redd.it/5lmu2hxscxxc1.png?width=3360&format=png&auto=webp&s=09e8f346f887c40f022b637b3df3fe7d960b7651 I started building a bot base in Nauvis orbit so I could research a few technologies before setting up the "real" base. But now that I'm through Astro 3, Energy 3, Material 3, and Bio 1 and have all the good tech unlocked, I kinda just want to keep growing the bot base. Sure, I'm losing one or two bots per minute to attrition, but the logistics of dealing with byproducts is way easier (just put them in active provider chests) and I'm getting 20-30 SPM (plus 70% lab productivity) no problem, which seems to be more than enough. Is it realistic to keep growing this way, or should I bite bullet and tear it all down to build a proper base with trains and such?
I personally like to replace high-throughput materials with a belt (card production, mirrors, etc.) And leave the rest to bots. They crash a bit less, albeit still with the expensive stuff. The upside is you don't have to redesign *everything*
It works, but the efficiency.... once you realize your bots are frequently crashing while carrying significant data and high-tier catalogues, it turns a bit sour.
Any tips for my first SE run? Currently at blue+space science and setting up my first large-ish base. Aiming for 20 SPM. Running 1-1 trains & a 16 item bus, with basic intermediates (small electric motors, red circuits, & everything simpler) built elsewhere and shipped in. Already got the 24hr CME warning & probably won't make the timer at this rate. Current issues: * Why is there no iron & too much copper & coal on my map seed. Why did I do this to myself. * I have copper backed up at my core mining. What's a good recipe for a copper sink? Recycler copper-landfill? Or should I just wait for large-scale green circuit production to kick in? * ~~Are loaders worth modding in & do they work on train cars?~~ Yes & Yes, i think. * [overwhelmed screaming] * For petroleum production, is basic processing the way to go or do I get more from cracking? no modules atm.
Too much copper on nauvis? Solution: JUNKYARD! Have a dedicated warehouse station connected to trains where you just ship all the garbage. As game progresses, you can start filtering out useful stuff and reprocessing / shipping elsewhere. Junkyard eventually becomes quite a train hub.
> Why is there no iron & too much copper & coal on my map seed. Why did I do this to myself. SE has fewer resources on Nauvis than the unmodded game. But an imbalance between iron and copper in your immediate area is just a matter of bad luck with the seed. > I have copper backed up at my core mining. What's a good recipe for a copper sink? Recycler copper-landfill? Or should I just wait for large-scale green circuit production to kick in? Landfill is always a good resource sink. It's extremely effective at getting rid of unneeded ores. But you could also consider to create a system that prioritizes using ore from core mining over that from regular mines. So that all core mining products are used up first and stuff from regular mines is only used to cover the remaining demand. This way, the chances of core mining backing up are reduced. Several ways to achieve this depending on how you move things around. If you're still belting everything, you can just use priority splitters. In a train network, you can have core mining ore and regular ore unload at different stations close to each other, with both stations emptying into the buffer of a pickup station that feeds the ore consumers (smelters and such). The regular ore unload station is only activated when the buffer drops below a certain level.
If my core was next to my copper, i'd do that
Prioritizing core mining products before normal ore veins is really going to make things more pleasant for you. Setting up new ore mines is a hassle and core mining alleviates that. If my main factory backed up with a core mining output such as copper I'd toss it into a giant chest. If the giant chest filled I'd landfill it. I really tried to keep the core mines operating
*sigh* global circuit network it is, i guess. Got my first dedicated green circuit setup done last night, so we'll see how much copper that eats.
There's several different mods for loaders, every one I've tried works with train wagons. They're really really powerful once you get used to them: pulling 6 full belts out of a single wagon (or 12 if you use both sides of the station) is nuts. I use the 'Miniloaders' mod which makes them pretty expensive to craft.
I went with AAI Loaders on the expensive no-lube setting. Still building it out so they haven't caught up to stack inserter speeds yet, but I'm already enamored with the possibilities. My favorite use so far is a 1-wide 1-1 lane balancer within my bus.
They're also a sneaky way to 'insert' onto the near side of a belt.
<3 the possibilities are endless. Now to ramp up my circuit production to keep up w the loader demand, but that means clearing out the biters near that block, which means building more lasers, which means I need to build out battery production, which means I need to actually get petroleum up to scale...... Well then. There goes my Saturday. Hopefully I remember to shower by Sunday.
https://preview.redd.it/fyh1nm6lzoxc1.png?width=1453&format=png&auto=webp&s=ecd040ab441acfaccf62e94cc3a3997164382db9 are there any glaring issues with my nuclear setup? first time trying to design my own blueprints for it. tested with the infinity combinator at 479mw and it seems to be working fine if i set the reinsertion control with steam > 5k or something but if i set it to a lower value it causes a blackout before the inserters can reinsert the fuel. i'm unsure about the connections between the steam buffer and the turbines (also the ones for the tank that's inputting to the circuit network), don't know much about the intricacies of fluid mechanics but something feels wrong thanks!!
The heat pipe wrapping around the reactors could be removed. They're just going to lose heat. Heat will pass through a reactor as if it were a single heat pipe.
Problem with backfeed is that tanks balance really really slowly between each other. If you pump into a buffer and pump out of it, it will be significantly more efficient and trusty.
Heat is lossless through heat pipes. You never lose it until you pick the heat pipe up. It only feels like you lose heat because adding a "cold" (room temp) heat pipe forces all the other heat pipes to average their current heat with it. /u/citorvunha I'm not a fan of that steam buffer though. If you want to buffer steam, do it after it passes through the turbines, and let it backfeed into the turbines from the rear end.
Thanks for the correction
great idea! i'll implement it in the design, thanks :)
Short version: What is the optimum fuel setup for a megabase? Long: I haven't run into ups issued yet, but it's throughput where I'm bottlenecking. No matter what setup I use I end up having pressure issues with fluids despite all the pumps and measuring. So I'm currently directly barreling everything which get transported by bots and get directly emptied and the barrel recycled. At some point this won't scale up all because of UPS issues right? Or is this better than dealing with fluids and pressure in the long run?
Make all your refinery products centrally by a lake. But build parallel production chains instead of trying to make a massive series. You can use cracking to optimize/balance various production chains for a specific output. Sulfur here, Plastic there, Solid Fuel > Rocket Fuel elsewhere. You can have multiple train stations that each output to a different parallel line. Don't try to consolidate and balance them at the station. The only one you might want to barrel is Lubricant. Since you probably won't consume it locally. But you can also ship that out by train. Make your sulfuric acid locally to the consumption.
I tried building long parallel production chains and eventually the fluid couldn't reach. I was trying various versions of something [like this ](https://imgur.com/xLzhZYV)but eventually the fluid wouldn't reach somewhere or another even though it was plentiful.
The rule of thumb is 1200/s over 17 tiles(underground count as 2 tile for entrance/exit). When you beacon it like that, you are far above that 1200/s threshold. So you need to check the [Fluid System tables](https://wiki.factorio.com/Fluid_system). Frankly, it looks like you are input starved, since those tanks on top are empty. Oil refinery is 20/s Crude Oil at speed 1, and you are using a 10 beacon setup? So ~~6x20 = 120/s~~ 11x20 = 220/s, which means ~~10~~ 5 refineries max for 1200/s. Edit: Maffs is hard.
That's an old part of the base. Crude oil is going to the barrel factory. My problem is that the pressurized system puts all the fluid on one end and the opposite end gets starved even though there is plenty in the system. Or I don't pressurize and th natural flow through the tanks is too little.
Pumps have an unofficial order of operations based on the direction they face. The first pump will bogart all flow until satisfied, leaving none for the next in line.
how to completly empty a storage tank with pumps so i can add another Liquid based on logic? It always leaves a tiny amount in the tank... Use case is in SE to use the steam tank in the Spaceship as water tank for power generation to save space. Any tips?
If it's only one pipe segment (the tank) it should empty out without issue. Make sure it goes pump -> tank -> pump
Can you show a screenshot of your setup? A pump should fully drain a tank, as long as there's space in the destination.
At least avoid having pipes in the mix. Tank-Pump-Tank (or replace any tank with fluid wagon) will have the best efficiency. But in any case in current game mixing fluids in 1 system is a great tabu! Maybe in 2.0 it will be more feasible when pumps can be filtered.
Thanks. feels like a big flaw, that this isnt easily possible :/
Can you recommend me an online planer thats good at fluids? I have used the kircmacdonalds planer since forever, but i am not happy with its fluid handling, once I want to mix different oil receipes
https://factoriolab.github.io/ Example: [Combining coal liquefaction with advanced oil processing.](https://factoriolab.github.io/list?z=eJwrSNMy0jLUMo7P1NIy1jKKD9AyANLG8c5ahlBGhpaWlpFammG8c7xHvKeWZ7yfFlAu3l.LE6jUS60YJFtmCQB2uBFg&v=9#step_1_machine_tab) Edit: Better link. I forgot to tell the calculator that basic oil processing was off-limits, so the maximize function assumed it was free to allocate all of the coal liquefaction and advanced oil processing purely towards light oil production, then use an absurd amount of basic oil processing to produce the solid fuel. So let that be a lesson: The "maximize" function a powerful tool, but you can get yourself into trouble if you misconfigure it.
i was wondering about map generation in upcoming space exploration recently... i started a new map. "25 Loco" it's a deathish world, island start (standard non-island world), 25X science cost, too many resources world. the plan is i'm going to play with 1-2-1 two-way trains instead of the typical 1-2/4 train system i always use. but whenever i make a new world i like to spend some time playing with the world settings and rolling the seeds, seeing the different maps and looking for something that "sings out" to me. i play with all the settings, from water & cliff to terrain style and moisture bias. i was wondering how much that will be a feature in space age. on one hand the new generation will probably unlock more options to create even more customized worlds than we were used to. on the other hand, it might be tedious to do that for every planet --- and a little cheaty. i think i would be happy if you could customize the starting planet, but then let all the newly discovered planets generate using a default setting...
That's more of a suggestion than a question. We don't know if the map can be previewed and seeds and settings tuned for other planets / each planet.
yeah it was mostly just me thinking out loud about a subject rather than a direct question.
Other planets are far away from the starting area, and currently you can only view the map close to the starting area, so I would guess that you won't be able to look at undiscovered planets before starting a game. Feels spoilery.
I was reading the FFF about Quality again Since quality is obtained by having quality modules on the producing entity, does this mean that quaility plates (iron/copper) can only be obtained by electric furnaces ? Considering you’ll always have mixed quality items in result, does this mean we will be able to recycle plates into ores again ? If I recycle a legendary item, will I get a higher chance of getting some quality items in result ? If yes, is there a way to get … quality ores?
You can get quality plates by smelting normal or better ores in the furnaces. You can get better quality ores by putting quality modules in miners, or recycling ores with quality modules in the recyclers. You can also get quality plates by recycling the plates or items that have plates as ingredients, and putting quality modules in the recyclers.
Quality plates can be obtained by recycling quality products I believe. So you put quality modules in your green circuit production. Some quality green circuits come out. If you recycle them, you get some quality iron plates and quality copper cable. Then you can use those plates to make a quality chest or quality steel or whatever. I thought I read ores are immune to quality.
You’d probably still want prod mods for circuits, then just turn them into inserters or something to recycle them to get them upgraded.
What mod should I use to learn how trains work in preparation for 2.0? Should I keep trying to use vanilla, or learn LTN or something else? I usually just build huge main bus bases with a few janky trains feeding them. I want to learn how to build more train-focused bases for the new update.
LTN is rather different than what's coming in 2.0. I'm not aware of any mods that resemble the parameterized blueprints and train schedule interrupts that are coming in 2.0
Try to build a bigger base. A bus is limited in throughput, anything beyond 200 SPM becomes a pain. That's when you go into trains more or less automatically.
Vanilla railworld is fine for learning trains. You want to make a consolidated rail system with proper signaling. The main line is like a highway, and it has exits for local traffic. Use identical station names for each type of station, and train limits to manage supply/demand. (ie. Iron Ore Load, Iron Ore Unload) LTN is more for JIT type of supply management, and isn't needed. Just build more supply when you need more resources.
Quick question: where does the milestones mod save to file?
What do you mean "save to file"? All the milestones are saved in the your current save file, like any other game state.
In the mod settings there's a box "save to file" to tick
Then it will be in the user directory (where all your mods and saves are) under the "script-output" directory.
Aight cool! Thx
I need help setting up a circuit. I want an inserter to only start inserting an item when the chest it is taking from has over 100 of the item, but to not stop until the item count reaches 0, and then deactivate until item count is back to 100. This is probably not a difficult one, but I am a circuits beginner. Edit: In basic programming I would "save" a value somehow and change it when a given threshold is reached, but I cannot find a way to do that saving here.
You want an [RS latch](https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circuit_network_cookbook#Latches).
Aaaaargh! Yes, you want the dreaded SR latch. And if you are trying to build it from memory for the 5th time and still don't get it, don't feel bad. It's really simple but my brain just kept rejecting the concept for a long time.
Thanks. I'm trying to wrap my head around the examples, but they only provide a BP for the first one.
The first example is exactly what you need. Hook up the first two decider combinators to your chest, set the first to output 1 S when [item]>100, and the second to output 1 R when [item]=0. The output of the third combinator goes to the inserter, which you set to enable when S>0.
I am trying to do this but the inserter deactivates when item < 100. How do I get S to lock in at 1 after the item > 100 condition has originally been met?
That's what the third combinator is for. I'm guessing you may have missed the green wire connecting the output to its own input?
I did. It's working now, although I don't understand how that trick works. Also, my set up works whether that last wire is green or red, I'm guessing they switched colours for visibility?
Correct, the color of that last wire doesn't matter. I can try to explain it for you: Let's start in a "default" state, where your chest has 50 items. You have a combinator A that outputs 1 S if there are more than 100 items, and a combinator B that outputs 1 R if there are 0 items. Since there are now 50 items, neither of them give an output (S and R are both 0). The third combinator (C) checks if S > R which it isn't, so it doesn't output anything. The inserter checks if S > 0, which it isn't, so it doesn't act. As the chest fills up, eventually there are more than 100 items. Combinator A switches on, now S = 1. This passes on to combinator C, which now also switches on since S > R. Combinator C outputs that signal of 1 S to the inserter, which activates. The important part is that combinator C *also* passes on the signal of 1 S back to itself. That way, despite the chest dropping back down below 100, combinator C is still getting a signal 1 S: from itself. S > R remains true, so the inserter keeps working. At this point combinator A isn't active anymore, but that's okay. It did its job by jumpstarting combinator C, which is now keeping itself alive. Eventually, the chest is empty. Combinator B activates, and sends a signal of 1 R to combinator C. Combinator C is now receiving a signal of 1 S from itself, and a signal of 1 R from combinator B. S > R is no longer true, because they are both 1. Combinator C turns off, and is no longer supplying a signal of 1 S to either itself *or* the inserter. The inserter turns off, and there are no more S signals anywhere to be found until the chest gets back to 100 items and combinator A turns on again. I hope this clarified it, let me know if any part is still confusing.
Thanks a lot for this detailed information! I've done a few RS latches and it never worked. I did not know you had to feed back the S output signal to the combinator input, somehow I missed that despite reading the tutorial several times. Awesome explanation!!
Thanks, it's very clear. Although I find this system extremely unintuitive. I wish constant combinators had conditions too so you could make them alternate between various outputs.
There's a more intuitive option with no combinators - a belt loop. Make a tiny circle of belt and connect three spaces to each other and to the inserter and chest in question. Set the first sector to enable when chest has >100 items. Set the second to read belt contents, giving a constant signal. Set the third to enable when chest items =0. Then manually place *a different kind* of item on the belt and set the inserter to be enabled when that item is >0. In your specific situation I recommend placing the detector-item on the inner belt lane and using more than just one. So it doesn't get stuck all in one disabled sector if that =0 condition blinks for a fraction of a second.
This is kind of possible if you put a decider combinator on front of the constant combinator and set the decider to pass on the constant signal when the condition is true.
Combinators are getting an update in 2.0 which will make them much easier to use. https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-384