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

[Average Manatee]

I feel a bit bad, because I kinda half assed every planet. I never upgraded Nauvis with anything from the other planets (except biolabs), I didn't even place a single green belt. My final ship couldn't even be stationary anywhere other than Nauvis for more than 30s, becuase it had no side facing guns. Aquilo is particularly bad, the spaghetti was absolute, there is no way I could fit in duplicates of any building (but you also only need like 3000 cold science packs and 1k quantum procs to beat the game so.... you don't need throughput).

Yeah, that was my takeaway too. Even on marathon mode I feel like the science packs were half-assable for all planets, especially Aquilo.

Especially with Biolabs, 4x prod 3 normal quality modules in a biolab makes your science packs worth almost 280% of normal. So basically divide all science requirements by 3 once you finish Gleba.

Funny enough I think Gleba is actually the strongest planet if you can finish it quickly. Stack Inserters are like getting a 4x multiplier on what your belts can carry without needing to mass replace belts, which means even a small bus on nauvis can scale up to near megabase levels. Spidertron is the other ultimate weapon for clearing biters out easily along with artillery. Biolab is basically cheating for research. The only thing missing is a way to deal with cliffs.

 

[Jaedar]

Funny enough I think Gleba is actually the strongest planet if you can finish it quickly.

Quite possibly yeah. I wouldn't want to do gleba without a flying suit though.
I also didn't use stack inserters at all until final spaceship. I didn't even need blue belts on any planet (except for undergrounds for the reach), so stacking was not relevant at all. But spidertron is great, although I'm not sure if it's capable of taking out worms on vulcanus?

 

[Average Manatee]

Spidertron is just 4 rocket turrets right? At my ending tech level that would give one about 3k DPS vs. the demolishers. That could slowly wear down the small ones. But you can make as many spidertrons as you want and just group them together and send orders like an RTS, so there's no reason they couldn't take one on in numbers. They can also have shields to keep them fairly safe from the AoE.

 

[Jaedar]

Spidertron is just 4 rocket turrets right? At my ending tech level that would give one about 3k DPS vs. the demolishers. That could slowly wear down the small ones. But you can make as many spidertrons as you want and just group them together and send orders like an RTS, so there's no reason they couldn't take one on in numbers. They can also have shields to keep them fairly safe from the AoE.

Yeah, 4 rocket turrets. My rockets were doing about 1k damage each, but I don't remember how fast rockets fire. I still think I'd prefer a single tank with uranium shells over an army of spidertrons. Especially since you have to take out one worm before gaining access to the purple ore (at least I had to).

 

[Average Manatee]

Oh yeah, if you're fighting the worms early then I'd use tank or a bunch of turrets. I was speaking of the spidertron as basically a post-game way to clear new areas. But its most useful on Gleba/Nauvis as something you send out to kill expansion nests, assuming you don't just have a full artillery patrol train.

 

[baturinsky]

Belt Weaving is essential for beacons

Or you can just send iron and wire on two sides of the one belt.

 

[Average Manatee]

Belt Weaving is essential for beacons

Or you can just send iron and wire on two sides of the one belt.

That would halve my potential throughput.

 

[Demo.Graph]

Belt Weaving is essential for beacons

Or you can just send iron and wire on two sides of the one belt.

That would halve my potential throughput.

In the grand scheme of things space conservation is relevant only before arty/trons.

 

[Average Manatee]

In the grand scheme of things space conservation is relevant only before arty/trons.

Less efficient on space, on power consumption, on infrastructure, on player time to connect up multiple belts. There's no reason not to feed in a full belt of your most input-limiting ingredient.

 

[Demo.Graph]

on infrastructure, on player time to connect up multiple belts

As an autist who spends several hours to make a BP that would save me ~5 seconds of thought (and would make the BP almost symmetrical), I cannot agree more.

 

[Andnjord]

In the grand scheme of things space conservation is relevant only before arty/trons.

Less efficient on space, on power consumption, on infrastructure, on player time to connect up multiple belts. There's no reason not to feed in a full belt of your most input-limiting ingredient.

I’ve had to redesign far too many factories due to belt throughput problem that only arose once I started slamming those modules not to agree with you.

 

[Average Manatee]

I’ve had to redesign far too many factories due to belt throughput problem that only arose once I started slamming those modules not to agree with you.

I do feel like stack inserters make the throughput problem a bit too easy once you get them. Basically turns yellow belts into green belts which is insane

 

[Tyrr]

Who cares about throughput, efficiency or other useless stuff as long the factory is symmetrical and perfectly align to the grid?
Buildings are 1 tile off? The belts aren't done harmonically? Delete everything and do it again.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Who cares about throughput, efficiency or other useless stuff as long the factory is symmetrical and perfectly align to the grid?
Buildings are 1 tile off? The belts aren't done harmonically? Delete everything and do it again.

There are games and even genres of games that I like, even love, but I almost never play for fear of having my entire life swallowed up by some sort of OCD typhoon. This is one of those games.

 

[baturinsky]

I had a week vacation. I hoped to do something worthwile during it. And instead has spent most of it routing belts and dodging trains...

 

[Jaedar]

I’ve had to redesign far too many factories due to belt throughput problem that only arose once I started slamming those modules not to agree with you.

I do feel like stack inserters make the throughput problem a bit too easy once you get them. Basically turns yellow belts into green belts which is insane

Stack inserters are cool. They do give belts a lot more throughput, but the fact that they never swing until they have a full stack means they are really bad/slow for some things.
(I only used them on final space platform, and probably placed less than 200 blue belts in total. Didn't place a single green. SA doesn't need throughput)

I had a week vacation. I hoped to do something worthwile during it. And instead has spent most of it routing belts and dodging trains...

Sounds worthwhile to me.