I'd recommend using an SR-Latch instead of a simple comparison: https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circuit_network_cookbook#RS_latch_-_single_decider_version
Otherwise your engines will constantly turn on and off around the switching point. It's also possible to switch the water pumps instead of ...

Chris1983 wrote: Sat Mar 19, 2022 9:07 pm How many green circuit assemblers do I need to fill a yellow belt? Thanks

There are online calculators for this stuff:

https://factoriolab.github.io/list?z=eJ ... MGAGOJB2w_

I don't think it's really a problem. Yes, they store a large amount of plates and this can give a false impression of the activity in your factory, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. Knowing how many plates are buffered on your belts isn't very useful in practice either. As far as ...

I set resources to be pretty rare, but rich. I don't want ore patches everywhere. There are way too many resources that way. And I want to explore a bit and need long rail systems.

Uranium is really optional. Useful, but you don't need it for progression. It's oil that is essential.

With videos do you mean on YouTube? There are good tutorials there with varying levels of detail and complexity.

Also, basic oil processing is relatively simple. You hook up oil and get only ...

Flying aliens confirmed

Making gears reduces the amount of items (2 plates to 1 gear), so making them early reduces the amount of belts you need.

True, but these days it's really not important. This was a huge issue when military science needed many turrets and chemical science mining drills or assembly machines. The ...

There are all kinds of different layouts. There is a lot of personal preference in that. It's not just about what works best since tons of layouts work equally well.

Red and Green Science can be combined into one sub factory together right next to each other. The more complex sciences should have ...

If you want to pick up artillery munition at one stop, oil at another, repair packs at a third or whatever

That isn't really needed at that point. With the logistics network you can have your supply train pick up everything at the same station.

Having multiple supply trains would be more ...

The latter is probably the most complex circuitry with practical use you can do in vanilla Factorio, which really needs a minimum kind of computer science background or mathematical thinking.

You're probably thinking about far more general setups with calling trains on demand to random locations ...

If you are a beginner you'd start with different things. Like circuit based oil cracking, which is just simple "great than" comparisons. Or automated outpost resupply.

Advanced stuff like that is really just a bonus. It may have some applications, but it's never necessary even in complex bases. A ...

They are an arrangement of splitters to draw from or distribute from belts equally:
https://wiki.factorio.com/Balancer_mechanics

They still have their uses, but with the introduction of splitter priorities their usefulness on a bus has drastically decreased. People used to split from a bus and then ...

You're playing a character on the screen, not some invisible god/overlord. And as the game progresses your physical presence becomes less important

There are mods to increase reach:
https://mods.factorio.com/query/reach?version=1.1

It really depends on your overall goals and also the design of the base. You can go with 8 belts iron and copper each if you want to go big, but 4 or 6 of each can be fine too.
Personally I don't put the copper and iron for the green circuits on the main bus anymore. Those eventually get their own ...

Also keep in mind that one copper plate turns into two copper cables. Combined with the very fast production time of green circuits (0.5s), and them needing three cables per craft, that makes it a really bad idea to belt the cables in this case. As shown above direct insertion is the solution here ...

If you build big you still need to out and kill biters just for the necessary space

You're having two tracks east-west. So why do you want both of them to be two way? Usually when you do that you have one track for each direction. Makes signaling far easier.

Also for two-track lanes: instead of putting them right next to each other leave some space in the middle and place the ...

I've heard that its very difficult to play Factorio without some outside knowledge

It depends. It may not look nice and have the "correct" ratios, but it's very much possible to play the game and figure the basics things out on your own. Newbie bases like that have their own charm even. It can ...

Just use Shuttle Train Refresh. It does everything you want and more.

Mods aren't a big deal. You can add and usually remove them during an ongoing game.

And then how is that stuff getting to the bus itself without causing a mess of everything?

I don't really understand the problem. At the start of the bus you either have your smelters and bring in the ore by train eventually. Or you bring in the plates by train from off-site smelters. You can ...