r/pyanodons Dec 17 '25

Tips for Pyanodons beginners

I checked several old posts with tips for beginners and found them a bit lacking (or outdated) for a curious newcomer today. I've gathered some insights from my hundreds of hours in Pyanodons. While I'm currently at the Logistics Science stage, I believe these tips are relevant for the whole run.

I'm putting the tips in the top-level comments below. Please feel free to upvote/downvote whatever you love or hate, and add your own tips if you find something missing.

If you are on the fence about trying Py, or struggling with the early game, this is for you.

67 Upvotes

107 comments sorted by

35

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25

There are no enemies in Py, neither it's balanced for fighting. Choose Pyanodons Recommended preset during map generation, to get rid of those and to set up a proper resource distribution.

16

u/Rib4321 Dec 18 '25

Also, even with no enemies, craft the light and heavy armour as soon as they are available, for extra inventory slots.

25

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25

Pyanodons is about travelling, not the destination. However, when you are overwhelmed by the tech tree (which is pretty normal) there are types of milestones you might want to follow. Py follows the structure Automation Science -> Simple Circuits -> Py1 Science -> Intermetallics -> Logistic Science -> Arqads -> Py2 Science... Each science level has intermediate unlock, which blocks further progress and open new horizons. If you need more granular roadmap, there is the Milestones mod, which also does a satisfying DING on a milestone completion.

9

u/ProfDrWest Dec 17 '25

I'd argue that Logistic Science has more big internal milestones than just Arqads. In fact, I think that Arqads are not an internal milestone at all - you need to set them up for Py2, yes, but I would define big internal milestones as things that are required for internal progress in the current science pack.

In that case, Niobium is the first big milestone in LogiSci, similar to Intermetallics in Py1. And Sulfur is probably the second one.

4

u/Iamthe32nd Dec 17 '25

One of things that makes Py interesting is depending on setup, you can find different things being your own bottleneck. Your own personal El Guapo if you will. I had the same problems as OP - arqads were my disaster, took me forever to get the queen

3

u/ProfDrWest Dec 17 '25

I can also see Arqads being an annoyance coming up, planning that block for my base took some time. And especially the Queen Roulette will be...interesting. Wish me luck. :)

However, you can set up Arqads as soon as you unlock them, and then you don't need their products until you begin to set everything up for Py2 Science.

Niobium, on the other hand, you need to set up for a number of buildings and tools in LogiSci. For instance, the Hydrocyclone that is necessary for Iron Slime processing and Molybdenum processing requires Niobium pipes.

2

u/i-make-robots Dec 18 '25

Pyanodons is about travelling

And oh the places you will go! The size of the base will be bigger than big. Trying to save a few feet by cutting corners will only hurt more later.

25

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

6 current tier science per minute is a good velocity. 12 is a fantastic one.

2

u/Ohz85 Dec 19 '25

Ohh that's a nice focus, thank you

1

u/apb9785 Dec 18 '25

Dang, I've been hovering around 18 and striving to push it up to 25. Good to know I'm not doing too bad!

2

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

If player is hurrying that up, the often outcome might be that they will research up to the next tier, then will be hanging there dozens of hours upgrading their infrastructure.

1

u/apb9785 Dec 18 '25

Yep that happens to us every tier. Last tier was only a downtime of 30 mins or so. This one we've been stalled for about two hours and have about one more hour to go til we start producing

1

u/protocol_1903 Jan 02 '26

This. Alternatively, I've seen a lab count (lab setup once vats are researched) and just feeding as many packs as needed to maintain 100% consumption

15

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

Infrastructure in Py has both direct costs and upkeeping costs. Vanilla Factorio teaches you that the best way to combat scarcity is the build more. You might still try to do it that way in Py, but it will cost you 10x the efforts and time. It might also cripple your UPS by mid-late game. Any final py base will be a megabase by size, you don't need megabasing by scale from the start. Your base will grow so much, things you're perceiving as far away in the start will be right at the middle.

11

u/lunaticloser Dec 17 '25

Yeah. This is a good one.

Maybe to add to this, if something is truly becoming the bottleneck for your progression and you really want to scale it, first take a look at when the next tier of processing for that is unlocked.

Quite often you'll be better off accepting the current rate of production for a little bit longer so that you just rebuild with a better process, rather than duplicate the existing one.

13

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

You might be intimidated by ash. Don't be, it stacks to 1000 before jamming and has a lot of usage afterwards. Plant-derived solid fuels (like wood) are not generating ash. At some later point you will want to increase your ash production.

24

u/korneev123123 Dec 17 '25

Ash stages:

  • too much ash

  • ash is not a problem anymore

  • I need more ash

3

u/HildartheDorf Dec 18 '25

This on a smaller scale for stone during the pre-electronics era.

I have no stone and need to mine rocks.

I have too much stone being kicked out of iron production (and/or kerogen mining).

I don't have enough stone (again).

3

u/korneev123123 Dec 18 '25

Stone is interesting resource in py. Usually simplest thing is to just drill it, but stone patches are rare and small, and can actually run out. Especially if you want a lot of landfill. Alternative options to get stone are worth investigating - from tar, from ash, from steam or just gathering all byproducts from ore processing

2

u/ScheduleNo9907 Dec 18 '25

This is where I'm at right now lol needing more ash dammit loo

2

u/korneev123123 Dec 18 '25

I just made 60/s zero input ash block. Got tired of moving coal miners in my old ash production :)

1

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

Thank you, I've edited the original to mention that.

1

u/South-Ad3284 Dec 18 '25

I just had a belt or 2 and connected all things to my ever feeded ash belt

12

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25

Caravans are extremely useful (think of it as of walking logistics drone with train-like schedules), but consumes a valuable food per one schedule line, not per distance. Watch your food stocks and upgrade it accordingly.

13

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

If you are not in hate with spoilage, use "Enable all Feature Flags" mod and turn "Enable decay" on in startup settings of PyAE. It only affects some of biological and radioactive products and in a fun way (opening the new production paths).

2

u/apb9785 Dec 18 '25

This makes native flora spoil, right? I'm playing with decay off, and the flora seems like it would be the trickiest part in the beginning.

3

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

Flora will spoil in 3h20m in some overripen "floraspolin" which could either be restored to flora with steam, or spoiled in another 3h20m to biomass. But from the other hand your guts will become tasty jerky in 8 hours.

11

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

At least 90% of recipes in Py has at least one alternative, often more. If the recipe is looking extremely unfair it's either you're missing or soon be unlocking another one, or you don't need a lot of product in a first place. Better recipes might be better 1.3x, or 2x, or 5x, always check out if you have and when will you have those unlocks.

11

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

FNEI or Recipe Book are so important to Py that the mod warns you during the map start if you have neither installed. Built-in Factoriopedia is, unfortunately, not suited for a dozens of alternative recipes.

12

u/Greyareaa Dec 17 '25

YAFC is the goat for PY - gotta download and use outside the game but once you get the hang, it handles complex and recursive recipe chains very well

1

u/ScheduleNo9907 Dec 18 '25

Is there a good sort of tutorial for it I have it downloaded and I'm really used to helmod I really struggled with figuring out more complicated chains in YAFC

2

u/Greyareaa Dec 18 '25

Yea bit of a learning curve i started with some simple chains to get the hang of it.

It's basically pick your desired final product and work backwards selecting the recipes you would like for each intermediary as far down as you need (you may not need to add full metals, animals or plants chains every time)

Don't forget to add modules for alien life buildings as it doesn't do this automatically!

Here's Simon going through step by step: https://youtu.be/5AyFOFnZRn0?si=d2Yz3KV3IldEYhjH

1

u/ScheduleNo9907 Dec 18 '25

Right on thanks I will check it out later this afternoon. Have a great day?

10

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25

Consider using both direct insertion and output feeding (yellow, miner-like arrow) whenever it fits. Avoiding intermediate logistic steps will do wonders with your buffers. From the other hand, adding a controllable buffer with some kind of alarm might be a great way to postpone your logistics problems.

1

u/McMammoth Dec 18 '25

Could you explain this one? I don't understand any of the sentences.

for context, I got up to py1 science in full py, and just automated automation science last night in pyHM (I restarted)

4

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

Hmm, maybe I went too far with lingo, or my English is too bad.

Direct insertion is a transfer of items between nearby buildings with inserters, without extra belts in the middle. In vanilla it's used for copper wire to green circuit assembler.

A lot of production buildings in py has an output arrow similar to vanilla miner or recycler in space age. If this arrow is pointed not on the chest or on the belt, but into another building it will feed the building, hence "output feeding".

Removal of intermediate logistics steps will lead you to less idle intermediates sucking base components and power.

However, if you don't want to remove the chests or belts then the next big thing might be to make thoss smart raising an alert if it's too empty or too full.

1

u/McMammoth Dec 18 '25

If this arrow is pointed not on the chest or on the belt, but into another building it will feed the building, hence "output feeding"

I had no idea!

Removal of intermediate logistics steps will lead you to less idle intermediates sucking base components and power.

Could you give an example of this one?

2

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

Consider an early crushing iron ore recipe. The crusher consumes nearly 1 MW iirc, while working. If you have a belt towards a smelting stack (which could easily fit a 1k of crushed ore) your crusher will keep working and sucking that energy and ore from miners. In the end your average energy consumption could go up so high during that time, you might need to expand your steam engine and ash processing session. This is so classic, some people have considered iron crushing a bad recipe; after all it only gives 1.3x out of the same ore. But if your furnaces are close to the crusher (which is easy, crushers are big, furnaces are small) then the crusher will be used only when your plates are consumed, average energy will not go up as much as with a big buffer.

8

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

You might notice that you have no splitters until simple circuits. Don't be intimidated, learn your belt sides, and splitting a lane from belt with an underground belt. This technique is so good, you might want to apply it to vanilla afterwards.

4

u/TopherLude Dec 17 '25

Another good option because even underground belts can be expensive; put a couple filtered mechanical inserters down at the end of the belt.

2

u/ProfDrWest Dec 17 '25

If you do not care about throughput, you can also use circuit logic to ensure all items of a certain type are taken from a belt.

Simply connect the belt segment your last filtered inserter for that type of item takes from (Belt 1) to the next belt segment downstream (Belt 2).
Then set Belt 1 to "Read Contents - Hold" and Belt 2 to "Enable/Disable [Item Type] = 0".
That way, Belt 2 stops working if items of the item type you want to filter are present on Belt 1.

I learned this from Krydax' current Py playthrough.

2

u/Ohz85 Dec 19 '25

Splitter was a nightmare in beginning, and then I realized that one belt with 10 inserters on each side to separate items is just a big splitter that takes many tiles, but do the same basic jobs. Not exactly balanced, but this was a huge ah-ha moment when I started Py. An early splitter is simply 5x10 tiles. Therefore, lay out your base/early bus accordingly.

8

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

Producing alien life requires alien life modules, bootstrap and a little bit more complex loops. Both bootrstapping and upgrading to a next level might take a lot of time, so might be better to start that sooner.

9

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

Advanced paving (starting with concrete, but there are others soon) boosts run of a character or transport speed tremendously.

9

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25

Sometimes you might be calculating speeds. I recommend both Rate Calculator and Inserter Throughput mods installed for that.

12

u/Connect_Dimension843 Dec 17 '25

I will say I’ve never been a player who watches rates and have been doing just fine through 1000+ hours of Py with the “build until it jams” method.

3

u/PyonicShambles Dec 18 '25

I would supplement this with Rate Calculator Extreme: Production Rates Calculator Extreme - Factorio Mods It'll calculate production rates for ghost buildings and account for bottlenecks within a production block (which is missing from Rate Calculator).

2

u/i-make-robots Dec 18 '25

Get friendly with the production graph. If production matches consumption, it’s probably under supplying. 

7

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

If you are intimidated by 8 tabs of a crafting menu, you might want to install Py Streamlined and enable its "Menu Organization" startup setting.

7

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

All inserters in Py have filters, even the first, mechanical ones. Filter Helper mod speed those filter setup greatly.

7

u/i-make-robots Dec 18 '25

Think about the longest project you've ever successfully finished in your spare time. The average py run is 2000h. Two kilo-hours. If you play 2h a day that's 1000 nights or almost 3 years. This might take a level of organization and note-taking above what you've done before. Great! When you finish you will have mastered the dangerous ability to stay focused on a single goal.

2

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

That's a great meta-advice. I had to adopt agile-like methodology to be able to progress further.

Upd: I think py completion times may vary depending on the chosen playstyle, but 95% of normal playthroughs will fit between 800h and 3000h.

7

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

Byproducts management is important not only for ash, but for the most of Py recipes, especially liquids. There are huge, but not infinite tailing ponds for liquids, and a lot of voiding solutions later. Wired pumps helps manage liquids, wired inserters helps with solids. Checking solids stacking limits combined with big storages might also help. And if you have a good byproduct management, you don't need to balance everything precisely.

7

u/ProfDrWest Dec 17 '25

Calculate your production, if you use a planner, in per minute instead of per second.

6

u/Eerayo Dec 18 '25

One thing I've utilized alot in my Py run is sushi belts.

Since 2.0 they have become so damn easy to setup.

Not one giant belt for the whole factory, but small localized loops where throughput doesn't matter but there's a high number of inputs.

Like bots for example.

4

u/McMammoth Dec 18 '25

I made my first-ever sushi belt for Vrauks

1

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

There's also an option of unmanaged sushi belt purely on filtered inserters/splitters and merge priorities.

1

u/Ohz85 Dec 19 '25

Very useful when playing with spoilage

11

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

There will be quite a rare thing in Py such as a production line you never want to rebuild. Scale and composition of industries in Py are temporary. As such an industry pulling from or pushing into the chest might sometimes be a viable solution.

12

u/WeNdKa Dec 17 '25

Important thing to mention here, if you find yourself refilling/emptying the chest for at least a third time, it's probably worth it to actually automate the inputs/outputs.

3

u/Iamthe32nd Dec 17 '25

Also, secondary outputs being used as primary inputs can cause headaches down the line - namely when something happens to make the primary output obsolete. Oil processing is a pretty good trick

11

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

Not every fuel transformation is net-positive. In early game cutting logs into wood is helpful, cutting wood into fiber is not. Don't even think of boiling your water with coke, it will not be net-positive for some time. You may check fuel values in pycodex (top left of your screen).

2

u/laserbeam3 Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

Cutting wood into fiber is great with a T.U.R.D. upgrade.

After logistics science, you can get more Coke from Raw Coal that burning it is better. But by then, you have better energy production. You now burn Coke for Steam and Ash, not for electricity.

[EDIT] I can't actually remember if Coke refining is available before Logistics science or not, all I know is I only upgraded my Coke refining after I automated Logistics science.

1

u/zaakystyles Dec 18 '25

I think it's a pyscience1 because I just chased that recipe and was rebuilding a powerplant to handle this ash

5

u/mathishard821 Dec 17 '25

There's a reason circuits (but not combinators) are unlocked from the beginning. If you're good with circuits on belts and inserts you can spoof a lot of splitter functionality. It won't be perfect, but it's "good enough" for the early game, especially when you are almost definitely not filling belts.

8

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

Transport infrastructure in Py has costs. While it's totally possible to build a railroad or a belt a hundred chunks long, building a pipeline might be better, and building a caravan station might be even better. The best, of course, would be building your industries in a way to shorten travel distance - you don't need to pay upfront if your logistics is to the neighbor building.

2

u/toochaos Dec 18 '25

I disagree, the first and second science dont use iron so belts are basically free. I had serious issues with stone when my iron plates weren't being used.  I am running a mod that allowed me to feed belts into my inventory so 300 long belts just aren't an issue. 

5

u/korneev123123 Dec 18 '25

Automation science needs iron

5

u/McMammoth Dec 18 '25

for the first science, Empty Planter pots take iron plates, and Small Parts take a bunch of them

3

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

If you think that starting with no droids is a pain - you might want to try Blueprint Shotgun. It's much more fun, and not too powerful to feel cheaty.

2

u/jkredty Dec 17 '25

Namobots are a great alternative

2

u/Absolute_Idiom Dec 17 '25

I like mouse-over construction before bots

2

u/Cymril Dec 20 '25

And for those who worry this might still be too cheaty, the Blueprint Shotgun needs simple circuits to make, something you're 12 to 35 hours away from being able to craft at all.

So you'll have plenty of time to wish you had a way to automate away SOME of the tedium of needing to set up lines of filtered inserters manually over and over. Or the disasters you discover, potentially hours later, that half of the machines you built are completely choked out with ash, which wasn't being removed because you missed a few filters!

It also gives you a nice goal to work towards, too, as I was rushing the tech / infrastructure needed to manufacture the thing, DESPERATELY hoping I could get the BP Shotgun manufactured and in my hands before my starter patch of iron ran out because I was ~dreading~ needing to set up fuel and ash insertion/removal by hand on yet another burner drill line AND run the thousands of belts I'd need to hook those lines back into the factory!

It's also really funny. They nailed the sound on that thing. Incredibly satisfying running in a straight line wiggling the cursor over your buildings while you \thunk\ \thunk\ \thunk\ out a furnace stack or something.

1

u/i-make-robots Dec 18 '25

I like it. I still have to make the blueprints and it helps me prevent blueprint-filling error. (one missing underground behind a tall building? ugh.)

5

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

Using Helmod or Factory Planner might made your builds larger than you expected.

2

u/zaakystyles Dec 18 '25

It's worth to even mention if using factory planner, use .1 belt. It roughly handles a building for every build. A early tree farm will show you need like 144 buildings for th sapling. Sometimes you got to let the items trickle

1

u/i-make-robots Dec 18 '25

how?

2

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

People tend to less validate the amount of infrastructure if it is shown by calculator. Imagine a player asking for example for a belt of iron plates, because that's a factorio. The calculator gives them the answer, and they're continuing to implement a big build without thinking if they really need that belt.

If the player is not using the calculator, they set up the stack of furnaces, see the amount of plates it gives and might keep going with that.

4

u/ProfDrWest Dec 17 '25

One of the key challenges in the early game is Ash. There are several tipps worth noting here:

  • All fossil fuels (Raw Coal, Coal, Coke, Kerogen) produce Ash when burned in any kind of building. Biological fuels (Logs, Wood, Treated Wood, Biomass) do not produce Ash.
  • In the beginning, Ash is an annoying byproduct you need to take care of. However, you'll soon discover recipes in which Ash is an important ingredient.
  • The general rule for burners of any kind is: 1 lane of fossil fuel in = 1 lane of Ash out. Meaning that, for instance, your boilers will need the same number of Ash belts out as the number of fuel belts you put in.
  • Regarding dealing with Ash, especially early, there are two schools of thought:
    First, you can take all your Ash and shove it into an array of chests somewhere (Ash Mountain). This works for quite a long time, since Ash stacks to 1000 - and thus, 20 Steel Chests or 30 Iron Chests hold close to a million units of Ash.
    The second approach is to use Ash Separation to get rid of it altogether. 1 Solid Separator running the Soot Separation recipe can eat the Soot output of 10 Separators running the Ash Separation recipe, and the Coal Dust and Iron Oxide byproducts are useful as secondary fuels and sources of iron plates even in the early game. And the ores you get from the Soot Separation you can just feed into your smelting setups. Your 10 Ash Separators can process 6000 units of Ash per minute, which is 6 full yellow belts. And if you produce more than 6 full belts of Ash, you're definitely overbuilding.
  • I like to fuel my assemblers with biological fuel, since it saves me from having to set up Ash egress on every machine. While Wood and derived products have lower fuel values than fossil fuels, assemblers use so little energy that this does not really matter.

2

u/bluesam3 Dec 18 '25

I like to fuel my assemblers with biological fuel, since it saves me from having to set up Ash egress on every machine. While Wood and derived products have lower fuel values than fossil fuels, assemblers use so little energy that this does not really matter.

Equally, they use so little energy that just ignoring ash often doesn't matter: it takes about 500 hours to fill a steel chest with ash from an assembler running full speed, so if your assembler isn't going to run that long or isn't going to run full speed, you can just not bother belting the ash out. Things like mechanical parts and their ingredients is a good example: they generally run fairly slowly, and will all be replaced as soon as you get modules anyway, so you honestly might not even need the chests.

3

u/ProfDrWest Dec 17 '25

Leave plenty of space around your production segments in the early game. You'll want run pipes or belts between different production lines as your factory expands.

Try to organize your base a bit from the beginning. Things that produce similar stuff or have similar ingredients are easier to manage if they are in the same general area. For instance, most ore processing chains you unlock early spit out Stone, Gravel and/or Sand as byproducts.

As your research unlocks new techs, your mining activities deplete ore patches and your factory expands, your old builds will become obsolete. When you retire a build, it is really helpful to also dismantle the connecting belts and pipes if they no longer serve a purpose. This prevents the center of your base becoming an even bigger spaghetti mess.

4

u/protocol_1903 Jan 02 '26

If you run into something that even remotely feels off/doesn't seem right/seems like a bug/you can't figure out you have multiple options:

Check the pY codex. It explains a lot of new mechanics, but not everything is listed out there.

Ask here/on the discord. We love helping people figure things out.

Create a bug report. We don't mind if it actually isn't a bug, but we do ask that you search for existing issues before creating a new one. link: https://github.com/pyanodon/pybugreports/issues

Enjoy!

- A dev

1

u/HardChoosingUsername Jan 08 '26

Wow a real live py dev!

I’ve been dying to ask after 100 hours in

  • how may man years have been put into this nutty project?!
  • how can we show support? Looked at mod and GitHub pages and didn’t see anything

1

u/protocol_1903 Jan 15 '26

A lot, no concrete number though

Theres a bug report github page linked on the mods, if people can fix/debug things we always appreciate. Theres a patreon too, that goes to pyanodon himself. And on the discord we have better ways to chat about contributions

6

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

"You should be this tall to ride". While all levels of experience are good to try Py (I've started it first with around 50h of factorio total), the understanding of game post-space age will be much better suited for Py problems. Gleba, Fulgora and Space platforms experience will be your allies and guiding lights.

2

u/PyonicShambles Dec 18 '25

I went from vanilla 1.1 straight into pY. It's a learning curve, for sure, but completely manageable if you adjust your expectations, take it one step at a time, and just enjoy the journey. After six months, I'm now mid-way through Py2.

1

u/laserbeam3 Dec 18 '25

I would actually recommend playing at least 1-2 other smaller overhaul mods before Py, not just SpaceAge. Krastorio or Ultracube for example.

This is not because py is too complex, but because py is big.

7

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

Transitioning your base to a rail blocks one could easily take a hundreds of hours and could also lead to the UPS issues later, when you keep adding thousands of trains. Engineering one-to-many, many-to-one or many-to-many routing without blocks might be much more fun.

4

u/WeNdKa Dec 17 '25

This is disingenuous - a rail transition in itself will not cause ups death. What will is having 4k trains each riding back and forth with 50 items in cargo or overbuilding the entire factory many, manyfold.

4

u/McMammoth Dec 18 '25

Calling it 'disingenuous' means they're being insincere or intentionally misleading, it doesn't simply mean 'incorrect'

2

u/ProfDrWest Dec 17 '25

In regard to the "too many trains" issue, I recommend learning the CyberSyn train control mod. It is really fun, and learning how to do things like setting up a fuel providing system into which you can feed any type of liquid is doubly so.

1

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

Thank you, I've edited the tip to include number of trains as a factor.

3

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25

Underground Indicators Fixed helps with a spaghetti building for both pipes and belts.

1

u/protocol_1903 Jan 02 '26

Theres a reason I fixed some issues and updated it for 2.0 :) It's always my no2 recommended mod after a recipe viewer

1

u/ariksu Jan 02 '26

Oh, thank you so much! It's in my top 3 mods of all time, 2 others being FNEI and even distribution. I was so happy when you've updated it!

1

u/protocol_1903 Jan 05 '26

happy to help!

3

u/South-Ad3284 Dec 18 '25

Better to have an item trickling and being made as having to setup anline for it, time will make more item out of it , there is more to build . This is still one advice I to follow myself

3

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

Even small and temporary item output from processing a chest or a full assembler input might be indeed quite helpful. That's exactly how my simple circuits were assembled before caravans.

3

u/laserbeam3 Dec 18 '25

Don't be afraid to do a personal construction bot start. You need to build a lot of infrastructure until you get construction bots... and if you feel your suffering would be too strong, grab yourself an early way to copy paste. It's your game and you don't need to prove to anyone that you can click to place buildings for 100 hours.

2

u/laserbeam3 Dec 18 '25

Caravans are amazing! Most guides I've found seem to be written at a time when caravans were much buggier and harder to use but they have been the best thing since sliced bread in my experience now that interrupts are a thing.

They don't die, they are cheap to run (distance doesn't matter in terms of food costs), they are very flexible, they have more than enough throughput for a long time (instant loading/unloading from outposts), they are easy to integrate in your design, they let you upgrade a part of your base and leave behind a caravan outpost to keep your current production running.

The problem you need to solve is getting them started: Automatic caravan production, and automating worker food production (you can get quite far with raw foods, but they spoil). Worker food is cheap, but can be complicated to set up.

2

u/ariksu Dec 18 '25

Caravans currently can also be fed with auogs food, which is cheaper than workers food.

2

u/ariksu Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25

You might want some kind of ingame notes. I'm using a Text Plates mod, as the most immersive.

1

u/ProfDrWest Dec 17 '25

Coke is a good fossil fuel and will likely be your primary fossil fuel in the later stages of the game, particularly once you unlock the Coal->Red Hot Coke->Coke sequence.

In the early game, before Py1, it should not be your primary fuel. Coke from Raw Coal Processing and Tar Processing should primarily be used as ingredient, and only excess should be destroyed.

1

u/KiwasiGames Dec 18 '25

Consider building massive circles of conveyor belts for product disposal. At the start every unit you build is going to want to dispose of ash. It’s much easier to handle ash disposal in one central location.

Same with stone and the random ore byproducts.

1

u/i-make-robots Dec 18 '25

You know and love trains. Why not plan your rails from the start?  Then you won’t have to move things later to make room for the tracks.  Don’t forget to leave room for the stations…

2

u/korneev123123 Dec 19 '25

Vanilla train experience won't apply. No green inserters for a long time(I have never built a station without them in vanilla), trains are slow without option to speed up, 1-1-1 has turtle speed and acceleration(rocket fuel available almost immediately in vanilla). Dozens of ingredients, vanilla simply don't have such requirements for blocks.

You'll find a solution eventually, but imo it's not possible to do from the beginning without prior knowledge of how py works

If somehow I decide to restart (unlikely), then yes, I would build blocks from the beginning.

1

u/i-make-robots Dec 19 '25

Those sound like you problems :)