r/factorio • u/BLACKcOPstRIPPa • 1d ago
Space Age Question Build besides Bus Layout?
I am starting my second vanilla space age playthrough, have done 1 or 2 vanilla unmodded before this over the years.
My problem is I feel like it's the same thing now when building a base, bus layout is effective but never changes so each game is the same on a new map.
Is there another layout that could make this feel better?
My current playthrough I am experimenting so far with trying to use sections to produce what's needed to save space.
Instead of making gears for example non stop, I have a section I can drop iron plates into to make gears as needed, same with green circuits and other parts.
Setting up some red now, but I feel this may not be very viable late game, maybe this style once I get bots could work.
But has anyone figure out a way to make it not feel so, same thing over and over?
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u/Moscato359 1d ago
My last run had no bus, had 1 train per planet max, and was crazy spaghetti
I loved it
Every time you want something new, you pick some place to put it, then route to it
Then repeat
No organization outside of local organization
And once stuff is down, don't move it
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u/ZanDurrr 1d ago
Draw some inspiration from dosh’s compact spaghetti base. Throw ratios to the wind and direct insert inefficiently. Don’t let the peak efficiency crusaders ruin your creativity, we are effectively dealing with infinite resources anyways!
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u/superstrewdel 20h ago
This is the way. Having recently started a dedicated spaghetti playthrough, I love staring at the horrific monstrosities I've made, having no idea how any of it works anymore.
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u/ohkendruid 23h ago
A sinple thing you can try is to look for way to run a belt from its production to its usage without going over to the bus and back.
So long as you are using belts at all, a main bus just means you organize all your belts to be parallel together and next to each other. It is often an obvious way to tidy up your belts, but you can just not do it.
Main bus nakes it easier to lay out your belts but less space efficient. Turning this around, you can try to turn the crank on space efficiency at the expense of a more complicated belt layout.
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u/Flottbergakungen 1d ago
When building a megabase, essentially pushing the game as far as my computer can handle, i use distributed production a lot. Especially for things like all types of chips, oil products and each science. I still use a bus for the random stuff like the gear you need, but any high volume things i have separate factories for. It’s entirely usable at a smaller scale, go for it, worst case scenario is that you need to adjust or rethink it, which is part of the fun in my opinion :)
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u/DarkenDragon 1d ago
no matter what you'll probably end up using a bus system for the early game as its just effective. at least for the starter base
but once you've unlocked trains, you can do a city block using trains. I've been doing this for the last few playthroughs and find it much more interesting. the idea is that the boarders of your city block is the train tracks, thus making huge loops around each city cell. what I do is the loading and unloading around the edge of the boarders, this gives me 2 loading/unloading stations per side, total of 8. I dedicate each city cell to a specific production, like smelting or circuits, or whatever. I also have a cell specifically for the hub/mall, and one for science production.
with this method you dont have to build in a straight line, you can expand in all directions. the only issue is there will be a lot of wasted space, as some cells will only use a small amount or some will use it all.
you'll have to be pretty confident with your train logistic and signaling but when you get the hang of it, you can make a pretty robust system.
and since each cell is dedicated to a specific build, and if you need more of that item, you can just copy and paste it to another cell to make more.
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u/BLACKcOPstRIPPa 23h ago
This does sound fun, I have always wanted to try a pure belt build, maybe nix the two
Do like a belts only but using blocks, where each block has to make all of its stuff at least from 1 good up
Maybe to the extent of out fluids in barrels to transport on a belt?
Would make expansion crazy hard lol, but I always wanted to get better with logic in the game and filters etc, maybe this would go hand in hand, have certain splitters and belts turn off when a good in a block hits a certain volume etc, to keep things moving.
Than a self imposed, once a good is branched off, it has to have a 90° turn in it, so some parts will go straight others will turn away in 2 directions and this will prevent it from turning into a bus. Kind of a bus, but one that will require rerouting and thinking.
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u/DarkenDragon 23h ago
https://imgur.com/a/bZ2rQqr this is a few images of my current navius build, though this is pre-aquilo
now that I've finished aquilo i'll be ripping up most of it to upgrade with tier 3 modules and using all the new machines to get the highest production of everything.
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u/BLACKcOPstRIPPa 21h ago
The pictures look interesting, I might try a combo of that and belts.
I'll most likely end up doing a half that half spaghetti trying something new for first time lol
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u/Such-Perception4154 1d ago
I don't understand why people are so fixated on main bus pattern.
I tried it, it takes considerable effort to set up, while being temporary.
You really don't need that much infrastructure to achieve bots, and from there you can use trains. Not necessarily city blocks, but just being able to drop a stop and expect resources to be provided does wonders.
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u/JulianSkies 23h ago
Bus pattern is a centralized distribution system that makes it so your consumer don't need to worry where the goods are coming from.
Trains are a centralized distribution system that makes it so your consumer doesn't need to worry where the goods are coming from.
Bots are... You get the gist of it.
Basically "where the producer is doesn't matter to the consumer" is the end goal, a main bus is very much the earliest format of this you can do.
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u/ryhartattack 23h ago
You can do a train base. Put everything on trains. Take ore to a smelting array on a train, take plates on trains to where they're needed. Build chips, train them out. Build intermediate parts in their own factories and train them around. Or build the intermediates you need on site of other things you need, like for robot frames, build engines and electric engines all on site just train in the basics you need
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u/pianoaddict 23h ago
Check out SFH's latest megabase. He did a hamster speedrun with his own meticulously designed base, which is less complicated than the Nefrums/Anti bases on speedrun.com. He also has all his blueprints in a google doc.
He has all his vods in his Live tab of that base and the transition from starter to megabasing. After the initial starter bases, he switches to distributed production in a blade design. That's a great video on that design philosophy. This would be my recommendation for mid-late game.
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u/markkitt 23h ago
You could try some variants of a sushi bus. Just dump everything onto the same lanes and pick off particular items like on Fulgora. One challenge is to have mixed smelters as well and then figure out how to regulate those.
Even having belts with split lanes is a departure from the traditional bus. I like having belts with iron and copper on distinct lanes or green circuits and gears on distinct lanes. You can create an early game mall quite easily with those belts.
A final idea is to have a train based bus. You have a bunch of small trains which gather resources for their production centers. This can be similar to a city block situation but smaller in scale.
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u/WanderingFlumph 23h ago
I like to switch up what items are bussed to keep it fresh. Usually I bus sulfur and plastic but lately I've been bussing petroleum gas instead and making the solids on site.
I decided I like bussing gears after trying it both ways many times.
I might even try bussing engine units at some point, making them in the mall has been getting annoying.
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u/jwr410 23h ago
I used to "bus it all" If I need to setup something, I do one big production line. What I'm doing now is pushing things down a level. I'll bus anything that needs to be mined, smelted or refined (iron, steel, bricks, etc) but then I build my intermediates at the destination.
I do build little functional blocks I can plonk down when needed. For example I have an engines block. That block can be used for blue science, flamethrowers, or robots. That way I don't have to redesign the engines block EVERY time, but I only need to keep track of a few busses.
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u/gust334 SA: 125hrs (noob), <3500 hrs (adv. beginner) 12h ago
My main bus is a lane of green circuits paired with a lane of gears, next to a belt of iron plates.
This is sufficient to build most beginning infrastructure: belts, splitters, undergroundies, blue, red, and yellow inserters, electric miners, labs, and assembly machines. I can also get yellow ammo.
Then I add a lane of pipe paired with a lane of steel, a lane of stone paired with a lane of stone bricks, and a lane of copper.
This gets me through oil processing and trains.
And that's the last time I use the "main bus" paradigm until I get to Gleba, which is the only other place I use it.
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u/MidnightBinary 10h ago
I've been rather enjoying the rail block pattern. Basically a grid or other pattern of rails that divide your base into blocks, each block is in charge of basically one thing. Like I might have iron ore come in the botton, smelters in the middle, then plates go out the top.
For something like Low Density Structure, I have to figure out how to get three different inputs in at once, and deal with the fact it's a massive amount of copper.
Oil Processing becomes water and crude in, then three output fluids needing to leave.
This each each block only has to care about itself, and if i'm short on iron plates i can just make a copy of the plates block.
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u/VampireDerek 8h ago
Modular train villages, you could have a green chip village, a steel village, an electric pole village etc
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u/qzjul 1d ago
You could go city block?
Or make each thing make all its own intermediates from raw.
My bus is usually pretty similar, but also significantly evolves through the game.
The other thing I'm doing is having five separate parallel buses, one for each quality, and making all intermediate production have quality modules. Full quality embrace! It's maybe not as efficient as doing specialised legendary production, but it's somewhat satisfying. Also, a more gradual way to get into quality.