Factorio - a factory building game - now with Space Age expansion

[Demo.Graph]

I've been waiting for spidertron enemies for an eternity.
Flying biters and AI base builders when.

 

[Vic]

So they can climb over walls right?

 

[Andnjord]

Yup, started a new base with the Space Exploration mod, I blame you Vic !
Yes, I know the expansion will come out soon but the urge has been tickled and I don't feel like tinkering more with my megabase. And yes, I know Space Exploration is a three hundred hours affair but I don't expect to get very far before Space Age comes out. I'll be happy if I can set foot in a different planet altogether.

Kinda funny that after all that work I did on that megabase I'm now so confused when it comes to the very early game and having to figure out the basic steps of automation once more!

Just for fun, here's a final screenshot of the megabase. Pretty ugly but functional and it was my baby's first REAL base.

 

[Caim]

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-425

Advanced leg calculations, including some combat.

 

[Andnjord]

Hot damn, only finally got to make a personal robotport and construction robots. Between my personal rustiness and Space Exploration changes it’s taking me a lot longer than it should to design anything, of particular note designing a mall is proving shockingly complicated due to all the recipes needing the previous tier and frequently needing up to 5 ingredients. As I’ve unlocked a lot of new item I’m in the process of completely redesigning the mall which is proving fun but does make me question the wisdom of the humble pumpjacks needing a full 5 different inputs.

But main goal of this run will be to learn circuit logic properly, which me luck!

 

[Demo.Graph]

As I’ve unlocked a lot of new item I’m in the process of completely redesigning the mall which is proving fun but does make me question the wisdom of the humble pumpjacks needing a full 5 different inputs.

There're two ways to do it without circuits. (spoilers in case you want to invent shit yourself)
1. Assembler grid hub.

Spoiler

3-6 square wide gaps, run belts between them. This way you can easily feed every assembler with up to 8 inputs and have some space for output. Here, a quick sketch.

Pros:
- Can accommodate basically anything.
- Can have large throughput (for belts or w/e).
- With some thought you can upgrade it from yellow inserter stage to the end.
Cons:
- BP is space demanding
- You'd probably want to group assemblers by inputs. You know, think and organize, bleh.

IIRC it was popularized by Nilaus, though many people (including yours truly) invented it independently.

2. Bot-based hub.
Super dumb, duper easy to build.

Spoiler

Needs box-bot tech.

 

[Andnjord]

1. Assembler grid hub.

Yeah, this is what I spent last evening rediscovering (it was my previous base initial hub as well but I switched to the Robo version when gearing up to mega base level so it was a long time ago). It’s just taking me very long to think and organise due to the already larger amount of stuff there is (I’m sure it will get a lot worse quickly) and is a lot trickier due to Space Exploration’s addiction to secondary products (like glass, stone tablets, heat shields, various engines…).

 

[Jaedar]

But main goal of this run will be to learn circuit logic properly, which me luck!

This is pretty much mandatory for space exploration when you start using cargo rockets. It's one of the few poor designs of the mod imo, it really doesn't ease you into circuitry at all, and just throws one of the hardest problems in the mod at you "early" on.
The only possible reasonable training wheels I can think of is to try and use all 3 types of the oil refining recipe, and use circuits to control which ones run instead of relying on cracking. But I think this might also just be less crude oil efficient? Not sure, might depend on prod mod tiers.

full 5 different inputs.

5 inputs isn't even a lot tbh. You can fit 2 per belt, and a simple tileable design can have 3 input belts and one output belt. "Assembler grid hub" is total overkill for a mall, where you'll probably only use one assembler per recipe anyway.

2. Bot-based hub.
Super dumb, duper easy to build.

Logistics bots are locked at about 100 hours in for space exploration. You need to colonize at least one additional planet aside from Nauvis to unlock it. One of the challenges of SE is that you have to actually build a big base with lots of complexity with just belts and trains.

 

[Andnjord]

Also, an early idea I had was to use Space Exploration’s giant 6x6 wharehouses and circuits controlled filter inserters but decided it was too much upfront work and might be too difficult to expand later on. Although I’m sure smarter people than me have figured out a way to do so efficiently.

5 inputs isn't even a lot tbh.

I mean, I know it’s not that bad in absolute terms, I just question the wisdom of every basic production building needing that many.

 

[Average Manatee]

Trains effectively work as well as logistics bots, you just need an entire unloading stop per assembler type. But if you've got the city block blueprint for construction bots to build then you just need to configure the stop and lanes to feed it properly.

Also, an early idea I had was to use Space Exploration’s giant 6x6 wharehouses and circuits controlled filter inserters but decided it was too much upfront work and might be too difficult to expand later on. Although I’m sure smarter people than me have figured out a way to do so efficiently.

Well, the way I'd use those is to not use filter inserters and just wire it up so that e.g. green circuits are loaded on one side if < 200 and unloaded onto another belt on the other side if >100, ditto for 5 more resources, then 3 assemblers (or 6 if you want to use both sides) can pull out resources with just 1 inserter apiece.

 

[Average Manatee]

Also if you want to load lots of things into something then consider this setup:

That's 4 belts or 8 separate items you can load in. If you're willing to use the far side as well to load then you can have 7 input belts or 14 separate items and 1 output belt.

 

[Andnjord]

This is pretty much mandatory for space exploration when you start using cargo rockets. It's one of the few poor designs of the mod imo, it really doesn't ease you into circuitry at all, and just throws one of the hardest problems in the mod at you "early" on.

Planning to do a sushi belt for the science packs to understand basic memory cells, reserve steam to use SR Latches…Stuff that you don’t need circuits for or have to do but can, that should be some basic training before we get to outposts signalling their demands to the home base rockets autonomously and all that jazz.

Also if you want to load lots of things into something then consider this setup:

Ah yeah, belt weaving might be good too when you don’t need a ton of throughput. This is the kind of things I forgot once I got into vanilla megabase mode and everything is based on full blue belts or near enough.

 

[Jaedar]

I mean, I know it’s not that bad in absolute terms, I just question the wisdom of every basic production building needing that many.

It's to mentally prepare you for the endgame recipes that have 4 outputs and 6 inputs. Or worse.

 

[Andnjord]

Learning Circuits, a Baby's First Journey:

So I looked up how to manage a research sushi belt by using a memory cell combining how many research packs were inserted on the belt and how many taken out and immediately applied it my little gun turret outposts so I'd now when they were running low on ammo. Hooked up the signal to a Siren (silent one) to get an alert and even hooked it up to a little lamp to glows red activated!

 

[Demo.Graph]

Learning Circuits, a Baby's First Journey:

So I looked up how to manage a research sushi belt by using a memory cell combining how many research packs were inserted on the belt and how many taken out and immediately applied it my little gun turret outposts so I'd now when they were running low on ammo. Hooked up the signal to a Siren (silent one) to get an alert and even hooked it up to a little lamp to glows red activated!

You might want to apply this approach to trains.

Spoiler

When chest(s) in ammo supply station have less ammo than X, activate station, train comes and refills it.
Alert is needed only if there's 0 ammo in chests - it would mean that your ammo-trains system broke somehow.

 

[Andnjord]

You might want to apply this approach to trains.

The result of this is that when an outpost runs low of any of its supplies (be it ammunition, drones, spare turrets, fuel for the flamethrower turrets or repair kits) the train station activates itself and the supply train immediately goes there. Once the train station deactivates itself the train automatically goes back to the main supply station at the base.

That much I had already figured out back in back in 2021.
But this whole thing was predicated on having logistic drone and the whole gamut of logistic chests, something that won’t be available until I can access space science which won’t be available for a long while.
Here I needed a system that would work with long looping belts and inserters, something I wouldn’t be able to do without this new fangled memory cell technology. What I’ll need to figure out at some point will be how to write that memory cell’s output into requester chest demands for future interplanetary rockets, but that’s gonna be for later (no suggestions yet please, I can never resist clicking spoilers).

 

[Demo.Graph]

But this whole thing was predicated on having logistic drone and the whole gamut of logistic chests

No, you don't need them. Feed the box directly into signal network then into station.
Loading station can also function without bots, though it would need to be pretty simple (few inputs per train) and you'd need to cook some spaghetti.

What I’ll need to figure out at some point will be how to write that memory cell’s output into

Try making a clock.

 

[Andnjord]

Finally started work on the real, train based base on Nauvis to lauch the rocket and support future space based ventures. It's train based given I have no idea what kind of quantities of stuff I'll need, but given that the final research takes only 5000 science packs of each I don't think I'll need vast quantities of stuff on the scale of my 1000 SPM megabase, so I decided to go for little 1-2-1 trains to experiment. Watch as I gridlock everything hopelessly in no time!

Not having access to full logistic chests is a pain though, the mall is a little bit of a spaghetti abomination but it makes lots of stuff when I need it to. I think I'll start getting some basic Orange Science going first instead so I can get personal fusion reactor and better bots first. The spaghetti base will live some more!

 

[Andnjord]

Also, question to Jaedar or others who have finished Space Exploration, should I bother with Core Mining Drills? They take a lot of electricity for seemingly not much production, but will I need their infinite ressources?

 

[Jaedar]

Also, question to Jaedar or others who have finished Space Exploration, should I bother with Core Mining Drills? They take a lot of electricity for seemingly not much production, but will I need their infinite ressources?

Imo no, they're not worth it. Early on they drain too much power, later on the low mining speed and major hassle of sorting and priority usage to prevent deadlocks is not worth it compared to just setting up new mining outposts.

Use them only if it is fun to you.

 

[Average Manatee]

Isn't planet size in space exploration limited as opposed to being infinite? It might just be there as a fallback if you run out of resources somehow on settings or planets that don't give as much.

 

[Jaedar]

Isn't planet size in space exploration limited as opposed to being infinite? It might just be there as a fallback if you run out of resources somehow on settings or planets that don't give as much.

It is, but most planets are still VERY big and there's a lot of them, so if you actually risk running low on iron you can just go to a good iron planet where there will be 50million+ ore veins every few chunks. You also use a lot less of the basic resources than you might expect, because about 1/3rd through you get a new manufacturing chain that double the output (before considering that it also has more room for prod modules), and as you do research into the higher tiers you start being able to add small amounts of advanced resources to double output of expensive items.

I colonized one tiny moon as my only source of berylium, and it still had half its ore left by the time I won.

 

[Average Manatee]

That's kind of what I figured, but obviously you can adjust settings to give less resources and smaller planets and decide to strand yourself somewhere.

 

[Jaedar]

That's kind of what I figured, but obviously you can adjust settings to give less resources and smaller planets and decide to strand yourself somewhere.

Not really afaik. The resource settings only impact the starting planet, and I don't think there are any settings to make the planets smaller?

 

[Average Manatee]

There is a setting to lower the starting planet size.