Another benefit to a buffer, in general, is that once you get to logistics bots, you can change the chests from which the buffer outputs into passive providers, which gives your logistics network direct access to that stored material. They can then bring it to you or to any requester chests you set ...

Actually there are two bindings for Q, "next weapon" is just one of them. And personally, I find that doubling-up to be an extreme nuisance - if I'm throwing grenades or capsules, but want to switch weapons, hitting Q puts away the throwables first, instead. So I rebound "next weapon&...

I didn't check them, but in my mind these layouts should work. The lower left signal in the offload station doesn't have to be a chain signal - having the train stop at the one in the middle won't block any train that wouldn't be blocked by stopping in it. In fact, you don't need a signal in those ...

The random solar panels and accumulators amuse me. :D This is a really nice looking setup. I really like how you've included the plastic and battery production on-site, and the use of belts going underneath assemblers reminds me of some of my own "make-more-things-fit" shenanigans. You hav...

Yeah definitely overkill on the production of the items for the science packs. xd But better to have too much than too little I suppose. It is a bit :). However I hope when I research modules and lvl 3 assemblers, I will be able to optimize it so that nothing stops running and there are no overflow...

found issue for some reason it didnt like the pickup tracks I think it was because your chain signal and regular signal were misaligned on the entrance to that final block occupied by the station, judging by the picture. If you point at one of two signals that should be a pair, and the other doesn'...

I think "terrain building area" is the keys that control the size when laying down stone or concrete path material. + and - on the keypad do that for me, at least. I'm not aware of any way to zoom the minimap in or out. There's an orange/yellow dot several pixels around at the center of it...

You'll probably have to use something like the old power sensor trick using accumulators bridging two power networks. Pumping fluids between tanks sounds a lot like the old trick of using one inserter to keep a chest empty or not empty while another tries to do the opposite, with the items (typicall...

One of many problems here was that I had not looked into exactly how many - or rather how few - recipes that raw Copper Plate is actually used for. The two main ones are Red Potions and Copper Wire. Early game, red potions may seem like a "main use", yeah... And I won't argue with copper ...

Set the requesters to some small amount like 50, then have smart inserters fill the passive providers when logistics storage levels of iron are below 999, and empty the requesters when storage of iron is over 1000? That should result in any excess amounts in storage getting shifted gradually into th...

I don't actually see any way to do that without wiring up specific chests. I've barely started to mess with the new circuit network features, but combinators appear to lack the logistics network functionality of smart inserters.

If you're trying to put a specific amount of coal (or whatever) into something and are separating it out into appropriately sized stacks in your own inventory first, try shift-clicking one of those stacks instead of ctrl-clicking. That should transfer only the stack you click.

I'm a little confused. Any time I've placed a blueprint where all the blueprinted objects perfectly overlap with identical items, I never have to use shift-click to place it. I've been using this trick a lot today, to build one arm of a rail junction, with all the signals properly placed, copy it, r...

That's a really excellent breakdown of their behavior, I don't think I could've explained it quite that clearly. :D I would add, however, that chain signals will "chain" their search through other chain signals until they reach a normal signal - if a chain signal can lead to a blue chain s...

it's the entry+internal signals that must be chain signals This is correct. You really only need three chain signals in a well constructed T junction though - one for each path that requires crossing over other tracks. Here's an example: http://i.imgur.com/yp5UqNz.png There's no reason to separate ...

That's right. All your turrets will simply become the new versions. This will result in some strange placement and overlapping, but they will all function - assuming your power grid can support the equivalent of four times as many laser turrets as you used to have, since each one now is 4x as powerf...

So a few days ago I came up with something I haven't seen anyone else make before. Considering how many circuits these things guzzle, I'd say this is almost as great as not putting wire on belts! :D I made a blueprint out of this and tiled it a total of five in a row ( like so ) and was producing en...

If I have a dozen passive provider chests on the outputs of various assemblers, each making sure that they contain a certain number of various crafted items at all times, the rest of the chest's large inventory is often going to waste. At the same time, when I deconstruct a section of my factory, ev...

For all the critics: http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-87 Look at the picture for the concrete paths. He already built a setup worth a working crossing. The picture just shows gates surrounding a stone (not concrete) path crossing some tracks. The blog doesn't say anything about the gates funct...

This is something I have wished for so many times. It's currently extremely cumbersome to get damaged items out of your inventory and into the world where they can be repaired. The only other idea I had for this was to be able to use repair packs on inventory items, but that would probably require m...