I realy hope that the devs thought of something like this when they posted the following item in their roadmap:

(If time allows!) more circuit logic (circuits for electricity, trains, liquids, etc.)

Wow, great! So the PushMePull train is actually reversing its direction after a train stop so you don't need track loops to turn the train around?

This didn't come for free and we had to spend quite some time to make this work. Maybe we should "advertise it better" in a way of tips and tricks or ...

Wow, great! So the PushMePull train is actually reversing its direction after a train stop so you don't need track loops to turn the train around?

While I was playing factorio yesterday (and was thinking about gameplay balance) it came to my mind that it is currently somewhat "hard" to give balancing feedback to some aspects of the game as I'm not sure about the design philosophy of the devs regarding certain aspects. Mainly I have two ...

Very nice post sslik!

I completely agree with you that long distance mining/assembling needs to be supported more. I guess the "easiest" solution would be to incorporate the trains into the logistic system. So each station would be able to act as a supplier and requester chest at the same time ...

Zourin wrote: The '100' for smelting iron is a misnomer, it's actually much shorter in practice.. although I'd have to manually time it.

As far as i know the values are only a factor 100 too high. That means that on iron plate needs 1 s to produce.

Yeah, it is quite extreme sometimes. Maybe it would help to reduce the "mining" time to make it easier/faster to clear a bigger area?

I think that inserters should be used for this to keep the game mechanics streamlined.

The new assembling machine needs some getting used to. I guess you are than overall going for a very steampunk heavy graphic style? I guess steampunk is fitting for quite some machines, especially early on in the game but I would think about "electrifying" the machines with the technology progress ...

I like that idea, because as of now it is quite difficult to place all your assemblers correctly if you put in the belts and inserters at a later point in time.

I think from a gameplay perspective this change is making a lot of sense.
Actually every change that encourages the use of trains is a good change i think personally, as I still hope that someday you will have factories scattered around the map that are connected by your railways (a little bit like ...

At the current point in time remote bases are usually only mining bases that are sending all resources back to your "main" factory. To extend such a mining base you, as the player, have to bring all the required resources manually to this base.
I think, that in a perfect system your logistic system ...

Yeah, I currently have only 4. But as you can see at the splitter at the end of the iron smelting area I actually expected to need more circuit assemblers. But until now (mid tech 3 production) I found 4 assemblers to be more than enough. Up next would be an expansion on the number of mines ...

I tend to go for effectivity modules more or less all the time, as the production and speed increases aren't that huge and less power used means more power for laser turrets and less attacks from the biters. If I need a higher production I'm just going for additional assemblers/mines.

Quite a few replies raised the aspect of expandability and to some extend on how many science pack producing factories and labs you will need.
In my game I went for an output of 1 (/0,75 production speed of assembler 2) science pack every 2 seconds (= 6 blue science pack assemblers). This doesn't ...

In every game I play I tend to skip burner inserters completely and directly go for electric inserters as I find it extremely tedious to manually refill them with coal. That's why i suppose to enable burner inserters to refill themselves if they are facing a tile (belt) with coal on it. That way ...

In this step by step guide I will show you how to build an efficient and compact factory which is able to produce science pack 3s at a constant rate while also building modules, construction robots and logistic robots.
The end result will be looking like this:
http://i.imgur.com/BA1HZLt.png
The ...

Hmm. good question. At least I never noticed any decrease in the power output even though the water level isn't at 10. So I think that the maximum output is only dependent on the water temperature (has to be 100 for 100% efficiency).

I actually like the constraint that the 2x1 splliter imposes on you. That way you have to do a lot more of preemptive thinking and planning which I consider fun.

Personally I'm going for rows of 1 pump, 14 boilers and 9 steam engines. Everything is running at100% efficiency.