The "correct" greedy approach with an unlimited number of iterations is extremely slow.
The "intermediate" greedy approach with a limited number of iterations is a balance between speed and accuracy.
The "lazy" greedy approach where we ignore beacon blockage is extremely fast and inaccurate.


Ah ...

I think you're underestimating the calculation intensity of the greedy approach. The binary tree approach is both faster and more reliable since it has been proven that it always finds the best solution. And it's also better in memory complexity.

I am not sure what to make of that. I thought you ...

On the other hand, it is not a great player experience to have to think of a good threshold for each different fluid. It would be nice if there were a simple metric we could use which was independent of the fluid being pumped.

And of course there's the extra complication of the pumpjacks on ...

To clarify where my thinking is coming from;

At this point I'm still curious what you consider to be "most optimal". And I am trying to already bring in some "it depends on the player, the planet, and the phase of the game" nuances.

If you want this for a mod (or added to an existing one ...

Thanks for the elaborate reply. It's been helpful; and I do think I understand (most of) it. I will have to read it a couple more times to be sure.

After 1600 hours of playing I'm still a rookie, as it would seem. Only now after your explainer have I learned that not all oil wells in a field are ...

Lindor wrote: Sat Jan 03, 2026 8:27 pm Actually i'm not even sure wether the difference would even affect the layout.

I don't think it does? I don't see how. Speed is speed, regardless how dry the well is at any point. It scales linearly, no?

In an actual mod, it would probably be maximum oil per second.

Yes, I read that in earlier posts. But max oil doesn't change between 1 beacon affecting 3 pumps, or 3 beacons affecting 3 pumps (1 pump each), no? It's the same amount of oil. Or do you mean something else with it?

So what remains ...

Just curious, what counts as "most efficient" layout?
Is the goal a few as possible beacons, or is the goal maximum beacons per pump? Or a sweet spot somewhere in the middle?

It seems surface.can_place_entity is also affected by this mechanic.

When you're new to Aquilo this function will return false on ammonia and ice. I guess that makes sense. Hoever, it does mean P.U.M.P. just refuses to work until you put down a couple of tiles. This can be (and has already been) a ...

Hello,

For my mod P.U.M.P. I place pump- and pipe ghosts on liquid resources. I also place landfill, packed ice, or foundation using the default-cover-tile exposed in the API for the tiles that need it.

However, there doesn't appear to be a way find which tile to use to cover meltable tiles. I ...

Addendum: I did not encounter the issue anymore. Ever since I returned to Gleba and cleared out the frozen ones, there have not been any new frozen pentapods in the meantime.

There's more going on though, so I'll list them here, just in case it might be relevant if the bug still gets investigated ...

Addendum: I've landed on Gleba again today; and the moment I did the pentapods closest to the landing site started moving again, .. ie. attacking. The further ones didn't, but after I moved closer to them to investigate, they started moving, too.

Addendum: I remotely added some turrets nearby; they got killed but didnt move at all while being shot.

Oh, I forgot the save. Here it is.

The issue
I have a lot of Pentapods that don't do anything anymore.

They're the red streaks above the base. They seem to be remnants of thwarted attacks. As if they were separated from the group that was destroyed in the meantime?
11-04-2024, 19-03-09.png

They didnm't appear at once. They ...

The undo/redo improvements look awesome. I tend to stay away from undo-ing, as it seems flakey at times. Having insights and better covarage will surely help!

I, too (like the 3rd poster), would like this also exposed in the modding API in one way or another.
As the author of P.U.M.P. I would very ...

This looks really cool with a lot of potential. I can imagine this will be particularly handy for stations. I recognize myself like a 100% in the use-case you sketched.

I will admit I find it a bit fuzzy how those purple parameter values find their way in the blueprint if they're not available ...

Awesome! Thank you for the quick support

Hi!

For some reason, as of today, the link to the latest version (1.3.3) of my mod P.U.M.P. broke:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/pump/downloads

I get redirected with a message:
403 Forbidden
Code: AccessDenied
BucketName: prod-mod-uploads
RequestId: tx00000f9dfdca0c89ffbfb-006570bcf2-2bc55ff-prg ...

Oooof; another year :o
Well, not what I was hoping for; but I'll be waiting for those future FFF's. Thank you for managing expectations at least.

I totally understand a weekly update is undoable. Though I hope I can tempt you slightly more frequent news compared to last year. Maybe 2-monthly ...