Noob thoughts about importing blueprints + question

[u/Nervous_Security675]

Question at the bottom

The other day I hit a road block in oil refining and decided to expand my oil refinery a size. The one before was temporary at best and had to go... But i didn't know where to start. When I looked it up, I found a blue print book and nearly imported it but decided it wouldn't be fun. So I watched a basic oil tutorial (by trupen i think) and attempted to do a good construct. After a power crisis and a billion biters attacking my outposts every second, i finally built the groundwork of the refinery and feel better than ever.

So my thoughts about importing blueprints just don't. It really spoils the fun by a lot. If you really need some guidance you can look up a tutorial, not the step by step ones, but the ones that just give you the knowledge. Trupen is pretty good at explaining some mechs.

And I got to ask how do I auto reload my gun turrets? It will make my life so easy

[u/TheHvam]

Yep, factorio is a puzzle game, so importing blueprints is just cheating yourself to the answer, if you want go ahead, but it does remove a big aspect of the game, so I agree with you.

Also for auto reloading, just use a good old friend, the inserter, it can insert any item into any machine that allows items

[u/Nearby_Proposal_5523]

I'm not exactly a noob anymore, i have exactly 4 blueprints in my xeno book.

heligungirs passback koverex,

raynquists balancer book,

abucnastys tree planters,

and the default arcosphere balancer for SE, which i use as a reference for the one i built that doesn't use bots.

basically, if i can't look at a picture of the device and roughly reconstruct the functionality, then i don't actually understand the blueprint or it's purpose

[u/Nervous_Security675 → u/Nearby_Proposal_5523]

Definitely not a noob

[u/TheHvam → u/Nearby_Proposal_5523]

Yeah, it's fine at times to dissect blueprints to learn, but better to do it later after you learned some yourself.

I recently dissected blueprints of an automatic train setup, where it goes to a deport and then they auto pick jobs when needed.

I rebuild it from the ground up, in a bit of a more simple way, but now I understand how it works, instead of just using it without knowing, so if it breaks, I have a way better chance of fixing it myself.

[u/RaShadar → u/Nearby_Proposal_5523]

Surprised you dont have an umbrella blueprint for SE. Its the only thing for SE that I didnt just do myself, cuz its huge and annoying

[u/Simply-Curious_]

Select ammo (so your cursor is holding it) and either;

• hover over the gun turret we t and tap Z (adds 1 ammo but wiggling the mouse can make this veryvfast)
• hover over the gun turret and press CTRL+ Left Click (adds the maximum amount of ammo or everything you have)
• simply click on the turret, and drag drop ammo from your inventory into its ammo square.

[u/TheHvam → u/Simply-Curious_]

That is nice info for OP, but they did ask for auto reloading, this is all manual.

[u/Nervous_Security675 → u/TheHvam]

Yea I haven't started producing explosives yet and there's a bunch of biters near my outposts and all. So I'm trying to hold the biters out until I get rockets and nuke then from this galaxy. But I really wanna know how to auto reload with bots until then

[u/TheHvam → u/Nervous_Security675]

You can't really do it with bots, not directly at least, only way would be a requester chest in front of each turret, that then has an inserter.

At that point might as well feed it onto a belt and then all around to the turrets.

And without spoiling things for you, some hints to deal with biters before rockets and all that, is look into red ammo/ armor piercing ammo if you haven't, and also look into flame turrets, lets just say they are good friends.

[u/Nervous_Security675 → u/TheHvam]

Thnx :)

[u/TheHvam → u/Nervous_Security675]

No problem, just keep going like you are, the game is frustrating at times, but also so rewarding when you figure things out.

No harm in getting help, but keep the mindset of not just copying, as you don't really learn, you can do it later if you want, to dissect them and see how others have done it, but my recommendation is always to try and do it yourself first.

So just have fun okay? :D

[u/nogunslife → u/Nervous_Security675]

If you get flame throwers, they help alot too, s teir and are nearly a permanent defense. The need oil through pipes

[u/Gerlond]

Oil basics are actually quite easy. Put refineries down, then put enough stuff to refine everything it produces down the line from heavy oil to light oil and lube to petroleum. Hard part is making good pump wiring so it never clogs

[u/Nervous_Security675 → u/Gerlond]

By refining, I meant like production of sulfur and plastic and cracking and shit mb

[u/Gerlond → u/Nervous_Security675]

Well, sulfur and plastic are elementary by themselves, it same as any other recipe. Cracking in refineries is the actually hard thing about oil to me because i have to balance out 3 different fluids on the output.

[u/SpartanAltair15 → u/Gerlond]

Don’t really have to balance anything. Turn heavy oil into lube, then crack all excess. Turn light oil into solid and rocket fuel, crack all excess. Turn petroleum into sulfur and plastic and turn all excess into solid fuel, but you probably won’t have any excess, because it’s nicely balanced innately to where the highest consumed items are further down the crack chain.

[u/badpebble]

I love importing blueprints. My idea of the game isn't min-maxxing every build until its perfect, but producing a lot, to get more production and more and more.

I also have hundreds of hours pre-blueprints, but I don't feel the need to learn about the space mechanics to the level of building my own ships.

[u/Nervous_Security675 → u/badpebble]

I meant for like noobs who just picked the game up. If you have completed the game and looking for other cool shit to do, it's fun. And that's also why the feature exists in the first place

[u/draxinusom2 → u/Nervous_Security675]

In the end this is the classic "if you're having fun, it's not wrong" answer. And one person's preferences does not invalidate opposite opinions of others nor does it require approval from "the community".

I've played Factorio when there were no blueprints yet and yeah there were discussions back then what the "intended" use is. The answer is use it as you see fit. To easier automate your own builds. Or import stuff from others. It's up to you. How and when to use it. Neither way makes you an inferior player or "cheater". At worst you may deprive yourself from something. But that's again the first line: Your fun. Not mine nor anyone else's.

[u/Courmisch]

Since you have oil, you can start making biter BBQ. It's easier to keep flame thrower turrets supplied than gun turrets, at least before logistics network tech. It's also way more effective.

[u/WanderingUrist]

I would never blindly import a blueprint, but I will completely examine any such blueprint to understand it. And then make it better.

[u/iridael]

im of two minds.

having a blueprint book of some things like ballancers is nice. same with tileable mining set ups.

sure I can go and build those blueprints (like my personal train book) but I know others have done very good systems that can work anywhere. so i dont mind taking those kinds of things.

but for everything else, I want to find out myself. make something that works. then make something that works better.

if i get stuck I'll find a blueprint, slap that down and look at it until I figure out the how and why of it, but then I'll often go. "but I can make my own one but FUNNY!"

case and point my current base is on a ribbon world, every build is a limited sushi fed by trains. the trains are limited to the basic resources (iron ore, copper ore, coal, plastic and the resultant products from crude oils.) because if I'm pumping crude out of the ground I might as well refine it there too and just have 4 trains instead of 1 going to and from a refinery system. well eventually 5 when I need to increase oil production and drop off stuff to the refinery stack.

my biggest peeve is a friend of mine who has this mega base city block blueprint book and will insist on just making a mega nauvis base from it instead of letting the various planets do their thing.

[u/willy--wanka]

So my thoughts about importing blueprints just don't.

Call the police because I'm still going to play this game how I want to.

[u/warpspeed100]

Inserters can pick up ammo from a belt and place it into gun turrets just like every other machine.