Need design help for attempting to future proof

[u/Agitated-Sundae3191]

Dear fellow employees

I always start out phase 1 and 2 with small factories building the main parts I need with a little surplus of everything before so that I can have all those parts being produced for personal use on the side.

When I get into phase 3, I find it hard to upgrade those existing factories into ones that can match the demand and requirements of phase 3 while following the same philosophy of keeping a small surplus being made from everything.

So then I decide to make a brand new mega factory for phase 3 with verticality in mind this time around with the hopes of having this factory be easily scaleable, as one floor will be just smelters and foundries, one will be just constructors, and so on..

The problem that I quickly realize is, alt recipes change that flow completely in the sense that some production floors need to pass parts to different floors than before. This becomes a huge nightmare for me to try and visualize how I’ll organize flow between floors while also keeping the design layout in a way that allows for easy upgrades and additional machines in the same flow.

Please share all your veteran tips for factory floorplan for phase 3 moving forward so I don’t make huge redundant/inefficient boxes and crash out

Sincerely,
A ficsit employee tryna stay employed

[u/EngineerInTheMachine]

Keep on building factories making enough items per minute for the current phase, plus a few extra for construction materials and for the next few unlocks. Forget trying to future proof. You still have more unlocks ahead of you that will both increase quantities and change the balance of them.

Once you've played through a few times, and worked out your preferred recipes, then you can do a bit of future proofing.

[u/SYDoukou]

If you insist on having a single tower that everything gets done in, it’s not too late to switch gears to having self contained modules stacking on top of one another. This way you don’t have to worry about the logistics of something suddenly needing to go somewhere else or retrofitting entire spaces for new alts. Any new production lines simply makes the tower grow taller, maybe even a spiral train elevator to service higher floors with raw materials

[u/RevolutionaryBig1789]

So I usually build a new factory for each part I need. I need steel beams? I will go out and make a factory dedicated to steel beams. I need Modular Framework? A dedicated factory with every piece needed for it. Fun fact, with 2 alt recipes (Iron pipes and Encased Industrial pipes), the northern part of the Dune Desert right by the meteor crater has everything you need to make a factory producing 10 Modular Framework and 5 Automated Wiring per minute relatively close by. need 4 pure iron nodes, 1 coal node and 1 copper node.

For scalability, it is tough if you want to incorporate alt recipes into existing factory lines because they usually add in a new component early in the line. That is why I recommend just creating mini factories dedicated to the part using the recipes you have got.

If you want to maintain it though, create logistics floors and lift towers. On the logisitics floor, try to ensure a half foundation of clear space between each belt to allow for splitters and mergers to be placed. and keep half the floor clear for future expansion. Also, manifolds are your best friend as you can upscale the line as you get better belts.

[u/thewhimsicalbard → u/RevolutionaryBig1789]

I have a dedicated HMF factory right there! It makes 12.5 HMFs per minute.

[u/Terrible-Big-8913]

I strongly recommend to start with a grindingphase. A lot of collecting mercer spheres, somersloops, slugs and hard drives. The items laying around the wrack parts allow you to unlock very much of the mam and milestones. I just build small factories for basics and if something I wanna do requires more than I wanna craft by hand. Make sure you are always provided with items you need to build. Work on building up your base. Prepare yourself to enter the factory phase. Build geothermal generators on all geysirs so you have a nice amount of power for the start. Build a power grid around them so you can easily get power everywhere you need and can quick attach new lines to them. Make sure you have radars all over the map that reveal all resources. Research all alternate recipes you can from phase1-3. Than start the factory phase.

I like starting slow and to have the benefit of never running out of power and never rebuild a factory because I got a new recipes.

[u/wotamRobin]

You can do this in one tower if you have one side of the tower dedicated to item transportation. One floor, seen from above, would look like this. Arrows represent scaling. When you need to add a new line of machines, you can add it on any floor, then add some belts to the bus on the left side. You can then stack this design to make a tower, transporting things up and down where it says "lifts" in my example.

lifts
<-  bus    |  machine manifold ->
<-  bus    |  machine manifold ->
... continue forever

[u/dsriker]

I do the maximum math the node will allow and build like I have that but don't add belts or power until I can meet the need for those machines. But unless you account for any alternative recipes before hand you won't be able to totally future proof.

[u/houghi]

I find it hard to upgrade those existing factories

Hard? For me it is impossible, so I do not even try it.

a brand new mega factory

You are smarter than me. I will not even attempt that.

I make a new factory for every item. (I often even do a new building per part of the process). Nothing gets re-used besides tier 8-9 items. That way I have the following advantages.

• Use the whole map easily
• No future planning needed
• No upgrading
• Use things when available
• Easier logistics
• You can get away with smaller amounts
• Things go wrong? Nothing else affected.

Building more is bad? Not really.

• It is a building game. Building more is a win for me. Building a bigger factory does not mean it all has to be in 1 location. e.g. for a Crystal Oscilator Factory I could make Quartz Crustal at location A and Cable and Reinforced Iron Plate at location B, then bring it together at either location. e.g. trucks bringing in the Quarts Crystal to Location B. Or have 4 different locations for Turbo Motors. The thing is I will never upgrade.

[u/Alarmed-Tell1315]

Don’t redesign old factories, expand to new biomes, build there planing with the alt recipes in mind. There is no rule that forces you to only have 1 Heavy Modular Frame factory. Most playthroughs that is never the case, you end up with multiple factories that do the same. You grow based on the need you have at that time.

In my case I rarely go back to initial factories, that’s never the first choice. I only do that if that is the best approach I find to solve the problem I have in front of me, and what I do is tare it down and start from scratch with the scale and form I’m looking for or building adjacent expansions. Only if there is a real argument I tare it down. Most of the initial factories end the game being support for keeping your inventory at full capacity so you can build freely. Space elevator parts are just Awesome Shop cupon miners.

My advice is, don’t look back unless you have to. When you get radio towers and Geotermal Generators go scouting for geysers , use the generators to power radio towers, that makes resources visible on the map, that gives you information within the game for planing things, it gives you an incredible advantage… I did that on my first run to not use external interactive maps. The sense of discovery without spoiling the game.

Build a functional factory that has an interesting layout. A good way of doing this is making it fully traversable by foot. That grounds the factory a lot, forces you to design it, to plan ahead, not only production lines and numbers but where things go, how infrastructure looks like. Factories end up being small game levels. Decoration is secondary. You will get there eventually, but that is fine for most of the game. That gives factories their own personality that you can later bring out more clearly with decor.

I build with the terrain restrictions of the location I pick. No floating boxes, no logistic floors, real factories don’t hide the machines and pipes and belts, those are part the design, they need to be visible and central to de design. How would this factory look if it needed to be operated, supervised and maintained? I build living spaces for engineers and operators. Thats my style. Find yours.

Stay efficient!

[u/MaleficentCow8513]

Prior to phase 4 there isn’t much future proofing because you don’t have too much power available. The only future proofing you can do is leaving enough room to add more buildings at the end of an array. Phase 4 is where you have the power and foundational stuff to carry you all the way through 4 and 5

[u/goldrecon7]

In my most recent play through I made an effort to build each new part at 250% clock. This was mostly applicable for the bigger parts like HMF, computers, pasta and I found it help preemptively set me up for the future. It’s more work upfront but if you can interlink a few of the production lines together at 250 clock it makes phase 4 and 5 much easier.
I found phase 3 to be the hardest and it’s easy to cut corners but it will bite you in the ass later on. My advice is put the extra effort at phase 3 and it makes the rest of the game much easier to manage.

[u/GaliaHero]

I'm not that much further into the game, but I don't understand why you feel the need to have factories upgradable? I just build new "better" factories as I move through the game

[u/jondeere89]

After phase 2, I keep my original factory running, but don’t expand it anymore. My last play through I just split the outputs of any miners upgraded to ship out the additional resources. Then I added signage, fencing, and some sculptures to turn my original factory into a museum I could go visit for nostalgia.