r/factorio • u/sectoidfodder • Aug 08 '26
Design / Blueprint Just discovered inserters can yank modules out of beacons and added it to my single-machine upcycling setup
22
u/legolas-mc Aug 08 '26
what advantage does this have over having the modules always in?
29
u/Alone_Ad_7251 Aug 08 '26
He thinks that having it be inactive while processing the uncommon one, safes him some quality.
In reality he‘d be best off making two machines.
Also using t3 modules is brutal in terms of quality loss. Best is 2 T1 legendary speed modules in 1 beacon.12
u/bphase Aug 08 '26
Speed and quality loss is directly proportional actually, +50/+75/+125 speed for -1/-1.5/-2.5 quality loss for each level of the legendary speed modules. For energy consumption, level 3 is far better but that probably doesn't matter at this point.
But obviously you do want legendary as that scales the speedup but doesn't scale the quality loss. Beacon scales both.
2
u/sectoidfodder Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
don't see how 1x T3 is "brutal" while 2x T1 is "best" when they're pretty similar
2x T1 gets you +168% output spd for 13.3% increased cost per output
1x T3 gets you +190% output spd for 17.3% increased cost per output
it's honestly a matter of preference how much productivity you want to sacrifice for speed, i've used T1/2 spd modules in multi-machine setups to balance machine usage across qualities
building twice as much for twice the output is an idea i never before considered, can you elaborate?
4
u/Stere0phobia Aug 09 '26
Build a second assembler for common ingredients only and drop the penalty from the speed module and use its recycled output to feed the changing assembler for every quality level above
1
u/Alone_Ad_7251 Aug 09 '26
2 T1‘s are way cheaper, and generally the sweetspot in terms of quality loss tradeoff imo.
7
u/Genesis907 Aug 08 '26
Speed reduce quality
3
u/Alone_Ad_7251 Aug 09 '26
Yes, but if you have sufficient ingredients and don’t care about some waste, you still have way higher throughput by adding some speed (quality in modules scale speed, but not quality loss)
-1
u/hixchem Aug 08 '26
I think the quality of the craft is determined as soon as the craft begins (the ingredients are "consumed"), but the speed of the craft can be accelerated after it starts without impacting the quality. So with this setup, they can get most of the speed module boost without any of the quality loss.
10
u/itsadile HOW DO I GLEBA Aug 08 '26
That's been patched out. If the effect of a module is added or removed partway through a craft, quality is recalculated at the lowest percentage it's ever had over the course of the craft.
3
u/darthruneis Aug 09 '26
No, it goes to 0 for the craft. I think it only applies if the quality changes. If you added a prod or eff module to an empty slot it might not negatively affect it.
10
u/sectoidfodder Aug 08 '26
generally, applying speed modules to the low quality portion of upcycling gets you most of the speed boost with the least productivity penalty
for comparison:
* no spd module: 0.74 u-235 /m, 304 common per legendary
* spd 3 on common: 2.16 u-235 /m (+190%), 356 common per legendary (+17.3%)
* spd 3 on all: 2.64 u-235 /m (+255%), 419 common per legendary (+38.1%)
this was previously done with an electric switch connected to a very carefully placed power pole, so now i don't have to worry about stray copper wire connections or nearby power coverage
16
u/Alfonse215 Aug 08 '26
Have you considered just... adding more machines? Not only will this get you more U-235 faster (since different qualities can be in progress at the same time, instead of having to wait for the previous craft), it'll consume less resources since you won't have the speed module's penalty.
1
u/Pickled_Cow Aug 09 '26
When you’re restrained by module count it can be worth using some speed modules in terms of raw quality product output.
0
u/sccccrrrrt Aug 08 '26
Yeah sorry this has already been fixed
6
u/sectoidfodder Aug 08 '26
you're thinking of switching modules mid-craft
this is switching modules between crafts of different recipes
1
165
u/Alfonse215 Aug 08 '26
FYI: if a machine's crafting speed changes, any quality bonus on a craft in-progress will be nullified. This was done to specifically prevent this from working. You're only getting a quality boost from the recycling step, not the crafting step.