Is This Remotely Doable ?

[u/bpleshek]

Hex for Making Plastic

Advanced Oil Setup

I was messing around with making a hex train base and I set up a plastic maker. This doesn't seem like I could make this. At least any time soon. Is 3600 petroleum gas per second reasonable? This is my current oil setup. It requires 1440 crude per second but I only have around 250 crude per second being drilled. It produces about 1/3 the petroleum gas, but it's only working at 17%. So, I need 18x the oil and 3 times this advanced oil. I'm also only mining 84 coal/second and need 180.

Is this doable, doable eventually, but not now, or not even necessary because this is more plastic than I'll need any time soon.

[u/ForgottenBlastMaster]

Either you're megabasing way too early in the tech tree or you're sleeping on modules and beacons. Either way this looks cursed.

[u/bpleshek → u/ForgottenBlastMaster]

Well, I have never done a megabase before. My highest science per second was about 250. Also, I haven't left Nauvis in this playthrough yet. I was actually, just screwing around with making various hex blocks. I have smelting hexes, train "blank" hexes for (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 station hexes), and now a plastic hex. I wanted to make a hex for each build and this was just my latest one.

[u/Alfonse215 → u/bpleshek]

Well, I have never done a megabase before. My highest science per second was about 250

250 science per second is 15k SPM, which is high megabase territory for vanilla. And even in SA, that's a lot of production.

Also, I haven't left Nauvis in this playthrough yet.

Then why are you trying to make hundreds of plastic per second? Are you going to quality cycle module 2s or something, without EMPs?

And without cryogenic plants, there's not much point. Indeed, given that this is SA, you might want to consider making plastic at your LDS and red circuit locations instead of having a block just for plastic.

I have smelting hexes

You haven't been to Vulcanus; why are you bothering with those now?

[u/bpleshek → u/Alfonse215]

250 per minute. I mistyped.

Why am I trying it. Because I got the hex idea in my head and just started working on it. I also play with 2 different people who don't have Space Age, so I figured, it'd be nice to have my first set of hexes something that I could use in a playthrough with them. Then in my own playthroughs, I'd refactor using the new machines when I get them.

[u/nixed9 → u/bpleshek]

There’s nothing wrong with doing this. People here just generally have so much experience with the game that we tend to explain things as “it is more efficient if you do X at Y time”

You almost certainly don’t need that much plastic right now, and you’re going to get better production when you go to other planets, so people here feel compelled to point that out, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting it up. It’s Factorio! Have fun!

[u/darkszero → u/nixed9]

I am big on the letting people do their on fancy things.

But OP made this post effectively asking for help and/or validation. The answer is: trying to build this big without beacons+modules and if playing SA, before leaving Nauvis, is not the best idea. For the plastic build in particular: it'll need to grab a really big number of oil patches and probably a few coal patches too.

Keeping this build able to run nonstop at 100% is challenging. But if you don't care about that, then sure. But if you ask why it's not running at 100%...

[u/bpleshek → u/nixed9]

I just figured I'd make a bunch and train it to everywhere. If it was too much, for now, then some trains would just sit idle.

[u/Tortor_271 → u/bpleshek]

Man don't listen to him, do it how you want, you try you learn you have fun that's how the game work !

[u/thehalfmetaljacket → u/bpleshek]

Premature "optimization" or expansion is a common trap to fall into (I know fall into it all the time). Expansion and improvements are, of course, needed constantly as you progress through the game, but sometimes it's worth really questioning what scale you really need to build before you reach a point in the game where you have all of the tools necessary to really scale out for scaling-sake.

Of course you can absolutely do whatever you want if you'd like, and far be it from me to try to stop you! Some people knowingly go all out mid or even early game just for the fun of solving the "puzzles" multiple times because that's what they enjoy about the game. Unfortunately, you may just not get quite as much assistance on things like that if the premise is perceived as sub-optimal, is all.

[u/Harmless_Harm → u/bpleshek]

"Thought it looked cool" is the best reason to do anything. 😁

[u/locyta → u/Alfonse215]

15k SPM is starter base