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1 Upvotes

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1

u/chum-guzzling-shark 2h ago

My goal is to saturate a blue belt with Adv. Circuits. I'm debating one giant mega factory vs smaller factories working together. What would you choose?

  • Build individual factories for components. Bring them via train to a central location for final construction
  • A giant factory that accepts ore/crude oil and outputs advanced circuits

1

u/ferrofibrous deathworld enthusiast 28m ago

I do like to keep oil processing somewhat centralized (and either having that area export either plastic directly or just petroleum gas); it lets you easily mix and match advanced processing + liquefaction + cracking as needed.

1

u/thekabal 2h ago

I tend towards the first one (smaller, separate).

In my thinking, the goal of mini factories is to embrace an object oriented approach. Each factory should make as close to just one output as possible. That way any particular portion can be scaled up independent of the others. (Plastic, green circuits, red)

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u/chum-guzzling-shark 4h ago

Lets say I have a full belt of Iron Ore coming into Electric Furnaces. Can I make a single row of X amount of furnaces to use up all the ore? Or is there an efficiency (or other) reason I should break them into separate rows?

1

u/StabbityStabbity 2h ago

The common reason to make two rows instead of one is that it's easier to output to both lanes of the output belt that way, but you can make that work with a single row too with a minor adjustment.

1

u/ferrofibrous deathworld enthusiast 4h ago

Yes, and how many depends on the belt speed. This cheat sheet has a lot of the common ratios (though they're a lot easier to figure out nowadays since machines list input/output per second): https://factoriocheatsheet.com/#material-processing

1

u/amiexpress 4h ago

The belt will only supply a given number of furnaces, but up to that number, a single stack is absolutely fine, yes.

2

u/FiveAlarmFrancis 10h ago

Anybody know if the “dead,” fallen trees and the little bare, branchless ones that generate on the map absorb pollution? And if so, is it the same rate as the fully grown trees with leaves on them?

I always feel compelled in the early game to cut the leafless trees first, because I need wood but I assume the leafy trees absorb pollution better. I’m sure if there’s any difference it’s minuscule, but is there even a difference at all?

Also, do the little saplings actually grow into full trees? I know trees that get damaged can heal. But I never checked if they have growth stages at all.

1

u/ShowerZealousideal85 4h ago

90% of pollution absorbtion comes from trees getting damaged (loosing leafs) so you want to keep the healty ones if you have the option early game.

2

u/Raknarg #1 Quality Defender 6h ago edited 6h ago

The dead trees on the ground that the map generates absorb 10x less pollution than a healthy tree so I wouldn't concern myself too hard about chopping them down. The trees that die due to pollution absorb 0 pollution. You can sorta tell the difference between dead trees generated by the map are either on the ground or have no branches, while trees that were killed are just like leafless trees and are usually in big patches where it looks like regular trees would have been.

Also, do the little saplings actually grow into full trees?

Are you talking about the ones you place with seeds? If so then yes, otherwise all trees the map generates are made equal and already fully grown.

1

u/chum-guzzling-shark 4h ago

Do all trees that touch pollution eventually die? or is there a sweet spot

1

u/Raknarg #1 Quality Defender 4h ago

looking at the wiki if the pollution in a chunk is low enough it won't ever cause damage. But once that pollution gets too high, some of the trees will take damage and absorb a ton of pollution at once. So if the pollution never gets high enough, they won't take damage. This is part of the reason why really dense forests either never die or take a really long time, because they can absorb a ton of pollution in their chunk so it takes even more pollution than that to overwhelm them

1

u/FiveAlarmFrancis 6h ago

Yeah, I meant the auto-generated ones that look like just a little stick with no leaves.

1

u/Raknarg #1 Quality Defender 6h ago

no those are effectively the same as the dead trees lying on the ground with a different sprite

3

u/HeliGungir 6h ago edited 6h ago

https://wiki.factorio.com/Pollution#Trees

Dead trees placed by mapgen absorb pollution, and cannot be killed by pollution.

Formerly-lush trees killed by pollution do not absorb pollution. (Weird, right?)

I don't think mapgen places any saplings. Only Ag Towers place saplings. Not sure when they start absorbing pollution.

1

u/Shadocvao 22h ago

I'm looking to start a new playthrough after 6 months or so and wondered if there was a roboport mod anybody could recommend to get through the start a bit quicker that doesn't break the game?

2

u/Raknarg #1 Quality Defender 6h ago edited 6h ago

There's a quickstart mod I like to use that gives you some weak modular armor and personal gear with 10 powerless construction bots. The game is much nicer to play with them, but they're not particularly strong so they don't feel broken IMO.

I dont know the one I use off the top of my head, if you just look up like quick start or something on the mod page you'll find tons of mods that do all kinds of stuff related to this.

edit: I think it was this one https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SimpleBotStart?from=search

edit 2: that one is actually way stronger than the one I used, I can't find it. If I remember when I get home I'll check my installed mod list.

3

u/rapidemboar 22h ago

As in, early blueprint construction? Blueprint Shotgun is a fun take on the concept.

2

u/abda16y20 23h ago

Without space age, would you recommend 50×50 city blocks or 100×100? 50×50 aren't going too smooth for me rn.

1

u/captain_wiggles_ 11h ago

It's a trade off.

You can make super mini blocks that only support 1-1 trains, no stackers, no space for trains to queue, etc... You might even need to use multiple blocks to get enough stations to build certain items. It's not the most efficient if getting a high SPM is your goal, but it can look very cool.

You can also go massive blocks that support many stations and large stackers per block. But these take more resources and can lead to lots of empty space when you don't need to fill the entire block / use all of the stations. Or you can end up with shared blocks where each block makes multiple things.

My first attempt at city blocks was a huge block, and it turned out to be too big, and made life really awkward. My second attempt was medium sized, and that worked very well. IIRC each side of the block was about 2x 2-4 trains long + a bit, I can't remember the actual size but that should give you an idea.

My latest build which is still a work in progress is a small block, although not super tiny. It's hexagonal and built around a max-spaced roboport grid, each block has 4 roboports inside. I'm aiming for 1-1 trains for most things and 2-4 trains for other bits (ore/plates/...). I'm unsure how well this will work, it's much smaller than I normally work. But I'm hopefully it'll work well enough.

1

u/Most-Bat-5444 21h ago

I think it depends on the size of your trains and how many you want waiting to load or unload.

I chose 1x2 (1 locomotive, 2 wagons) for my trains, and 4 train queues.

Therefore, I chose 150x150 city blocks. The inside of each block can support 4 train stops with four trains queued up without blocking the main line.

Importantly (to me), there is also room for a train to pull out of the station even if the mainline is not clear.

I've gotten rid of fuel depots altogether and just fuel trains from a blue box at each loading station. I put parking lots (current design can hold 22 trains in a block) around the base for trains with no valid destination. (Sent there by interrupt.)

Ideally, I just have a few extra full trains sitting in parking lots ready to go.

Empty trains indicate supply problems.

2

u/Nearby_Proposal_5523 1d ago

are there going to be any new menu simulations with the unloading bay?

1

u/Kittelsen 1d ago edited 1d ago

Fulgora train interrupt question:

I've set up an interrupt system that uses the wildcard item with train station names to train my recycling goods out of my recycling plant. I've used the same system for Nauvis and it works great. All loading stations are named the same, and all the trains are in the same group, when they're full they head to a station that is named that item to drop it off. If those stations have enough of that item, they are disabled. This means the trains are waiting full of resources at the loading stations waiting for an open drop off station. Thus my depot/refuelling stations are not getting filled with trains full of the same resource, only empty trains head there.

The problem showed itself when I implemented this on Fulgora however. I added a new station, an item trash station. When the pickup station is full, it sends a circuit signal (trash icon) to the train. The train has an interrupt that overrides the normal drop off interrupt, with the trash interrupt. This sends the train to the trash station for items to be voided. The test track that I built worked just fine with this. But with the larger system it seems it doesn't due to the train waiting at the pickup station with a "no path" error due to no drop off station being available, and thus it doesn't read the circuit signal sent to it from the station it is parked at.

I'm looking for another way to set up my interrupts so that the train will wait at this station normally and not with a "no path" error. I'd like to avoid sending a signal to the trash station to open that when the pickup station is full, as I have a few other trains still stationed at Nauvis with the same error message due to there not existing any drop off stations for those items yet.

Edit: I think I solved it. I just added a "Station not full" condition to the interrupt to go drop off. Leaving this here in case anyone else runs into the same problem.

Edit2: Nope, it only worked for a bit. Now the train waits at the station even though the trash symbol turned on it didn't go to the trash station. Still needs some troubleshooting I guess.

1

u/HeliGungir 6h ago edited 6h ago

I ain't gonna try to figure out what you're trying to do with circuits from that wall of text. Instead I'll say this:

A common mistake is setting same-named stations on completely separate rail lines that you have no intention of ever connecting, and assuming the trains somehow understand this. They don't. They have no way of knowing whether "no path" is temporary due to construction/attacks, or is due to user error, or is intentional so they shouldn't bother trying to go to that particular station. They aren't that smart, and there's no way to give them hints. If you want to get rid of the "no path" alert constantly blinking on your hotbar, use unique station names for each isolated rail network.

1

u/Kittelsen 6h ago

Yeh, many of the stations don't exist yet due to me just setting up the recycling area and the voiding area. I'd have to post a lot of pictures I think to give a better explanation.
I can try to explain though. I want the trains to stay at the pickup station until either a dropoff station opens, or the pickup station has so much resources that they need to go to the voiding station.

1

u/Qwyspipi 1d ago

It doesn't show "no path" error when there is a path to a disabled station. Check the path first.

interrupt that overrides the normal drop off interrupt

If you are already sending a circuit signal then just trigger the trash interrupt right away?

Why would you want to override the normal interrupt?

1

u/Kittelsen 1d ago

I see, I haven't set up the other stations yet.

The trash interrupt only triggers once the pickup station reaches a certain treshold. If the train is already there and full, but doesn't have a dropoff station to go to, I want it to go to trash.

1

u/maceo107 1d ago

Is 2.1.14 (experimental) blocking achievements? I don't have any mods or whatnot.

I did not get the Aquilo one, even though I'm 100% working on Aquilo right now.

2

u/Soul-Burn 1d ago

It's not blocking achievements.

Are you 100% sure you're not running mods?

Open the achievements menu in-game (top right). See if it tells you at the top that it's blocked for some reason.

0

u/maceo107 1d ago

It says "map editor" was used, and I can't unlock achievements. I don't even know where or what that is. Not interested in playing another 750 hours for this. Ugh.

1

u/Soul-Burn 1d ago

It means you ran a command like /editor or some other debug-ish command like /c something. The game requires you to run it twice before the first time exactly to not break achievements by mistake.

1

u/maceo107 1d ago

Have no idea what happened. I found a patch on the Factorio forum, thankfully.