A small "taker" area for the early game
Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 5:18 am
I've begun making an area with "taker" chests, for the early game. It's a loop, usually a double-Belt loop with 2 lanes of Iron Plates on the outer Belt, and on the inner Belt one lane of Copper Plates later joined by another lane of Steel Plates.
I have in-feed Belts to this loop (a loop 25-50 tiles long), and just before this in-feed I have Inserters taking Iron, Copper and Steel and putting to into Chests to take directly from (this means that after you add Steel to the loop, you must use Smart Inserters to take the Copper and Steel), the control+click method being faster than running around F-taking from Belts.
After the in-feed, I have Assembler Machines making intermediate products for me to take, since this speeds up hand-crafting relative to having to make everything from raw Plates.
I have one or sometimes two macines making just Gear Wheels, putting them into 2 Chests, with a cap of 2 stacks per Chest (for an MP game, I highly recommend 2 such machines and 4 if not 6 Chests), and a setup with either 3 or 5 machines making Green Circuits (2 Copper Wire and 1 Circuit, or 3 Copper Wire and 2 Circuit), again putting it directly into (capped) Chests.
That's the very basic "taker loop". The Chests for "raw" Plates must be last in the loop, just before the in-feed, so that Plates go as much as possible to make intermediate products.
You can add additional intermediate products to it. The most obvious is a set of 2 machines, one to make Pipes (I usually go for 3 Chests each with 150 Pipes in them) and to feed into another machine making Undergroud Pipes (there I might go for 2 Chests each with 50 UnderPipes). Those can be postponed a bit, but they will come in very handy when it's time to get started with Oil. Having a huge supply of pre-made Pipes is also helpful if you want to make a lot of Steam Engines, but it's mainly the UnderPipes that take a long time to hand-craft if you start from raw Iron Plates.
I like using Hand Grenades to clear away Trees, so I'll often route a Belt of Coal past or to a machine, set up to take Iron from the "taker loop" and make Grenades for me, filling perhaps 2 Chests with 100 Grenades in each. Dendrocide!!!
The reason there's Steel in the loop is that then I can have 2 more machines, one to make Medium Electric Poles and one to make Large Poles. Mediums are fast to hand-craft (I don't use Large ones often enough to have a sense of how quick they are to make) but it's neat to have, and in the longer term you can of course turn all the end product Chests in the "taker loop" into Passive Provider Chests.
Other things you can make from the "taker loop" include regular gun ammo and AP ammo, or normal Belts and normal Inserters - I tend to almost never set up Inserter-making there, though, since they're quick to hand-craft (when you already have the Gear Wheels and the Circuits) and usually not Belts either. I might well set up a very temporary machine to make Belts, so that I can make the loop, but after that I'm more likely to just take down the Belt-making machine than to re-locate it to the "taker loop".
You can also set up red potion production, directly from this Belt. Doing the same with green can be done ,but is more elaborate
I've also experimented with a 4-machine setup, along the loop, to make first Circuits (slowly with only 1 Wire machine) and then Smart Chests, but I'm not yet sure if that's a good idea. I guess it depends on how many logistics Chests you need in the mid-game.
Making any kind of "taker loop" is an investment of both time and resources. But I think it's one that pays off, since hand-crafting goes so much faster when you have a ready supply of intermediates (keep in mind, Pipes are used heavily when hand-crafting Refineries and Chemical Plants).
Of course one can begin with a smaller "taker loop", especially in an SP game, just enough for 1 setup to make Gear Wheels and Green Circuit, and 1 Chest for Copper Plate, 1 for Steel Plates and 2 for Iron Plate, and room enough for a machine-pair to be added later to make Pipes and UnderPipes. And then much later in the game one can expand the "taker loop" to make additional frequently-used intermediates and perhaps end products (Medium Poles, Smart Chests). If doing that then one can also start with a single-Belt loop that has Iron on one lane and Copper on the other, but if so do leave inside space for an additional Belt loop, to carry Steel Plate and another lane of more Iron Plate (and really, having Iron on both Belts is a bit of a hassle, Inserter-wise).
And there's no reason it has to be a loop. The main principle is that the Chests from which you take the raw Plates must be last, so that they only get filled (to their cap - remember to set the cap!) after all the intermediate-producing machines have had their opportunity to take from the belt. I just happen to like these small loops.
One more thing to do, is to Belt Stone Bricks to the area the "taker loop" is in, and have some "taker Chests" for those too. Then everything is neatly gathered in one area, where you go to re-supply when you need more stuff for your hand-crafting. But I haven't actually done the Bricks thing yet. The idea occured to me while writing this.
I have in-feed Belts to this loop (a loop 25-50 tiles long), and just before this in-feed I have Inserters taking Iron, Copper and Steel and putting to into Chests to take directly from (this means that after you add Steel to the loop, you must use Smart Inserters to take the Copper and Steel), the control+click method being faster than running around F-taking from Belts.
After the in-feed, I have Assembler Machines making intermediate products for me to take, since this speeds up hand-crafting relative to having to make everything from raw Plates.
I have one or sometimes two macines making just Gear Wheels, putting them into 2 Chests, with a cap of 2 stacks per Chest (for an MP game, I highly recommend 2 such machines and 4 if not 6 Chests), and a setup with either 3 or 5 machines making Green Circuits (2 Copper Wire and 1 Circuit, or 3 Copper Wire and 2 Circuit), again putting it directly into (capped) Chests.
That's the very basic "taker loop". The Chests for "raw" Plates must be last in the loop, just before the in-feed, so that Plates go as much as possible to make intermediate products.
You can add additional intermediate products to it. The most obvious is a set of 2 machines, one to make Pipes (I usually go for 3 Chests each with 150 Pipes in them) and to feed into another machine making Undergroud Pipes (there I might go for 2 Chests each with 50 UnderPipes). Those can be postponed a bit, but they will come in very handy when it's time to get started with Oil. Having a huge supply of pre-made Pipes is also helpful if you want to make a lot of Steam Engines, but it's mainly the UnderPipes that take a long time to hand-craft if you start from raw Iron Plates.
I like using Hand Grenades to clear away Trees, so I'll often route a Belt of Coal past or to a machine, set up to take Iron from the "taker loop" and make Grenades for me, filling perhaps 2 Chests with 100 Grenades in each. Dendrocide!!!
The reason there's Steel in the loop is that then I can have 2 more machines, one to make Medium Electric Poles and one to make Large Poles. Mediums are fast to hand-craft (I don't use Large ones often enough to have a sense of how quick they are to make) but it's neat to have, and in the longer term you can of course turn all the end product Chests in the "taker loop" into Passive Provider Chests.
Other things you can make from the "taker loop" include regular gun ammo and AP ammo, or normal Belts and normal Inserters - I tend to almost never set up Inserter-making there, though, since they're quick to hand-craft (when you already have the Gear Wheels and the Circuits) and usually not Belts either. I might well set up a very temporary machine to make Belts, so that I can make the loop, but after that I'm more likely to just take down the Belt-making machine than to re-locate it to the "taker loop".
You can also set up red potion production, directly from this Belt. Doing the same with green can be done ,but is more elaborate
I've also experimented with a 4-machine setup, along the loop, to make first Circuits (slowly with only 1 Wire machine) and then Smart Chests, but I'm not yet sure if that's a good idea. I guess it depends on how many logistics Chests you need in the mid-game.
Making any kind of "taker loop" is an investment of both time and resources. But I think it's one that pays off, since hand-crafting goes so much faster when you have a ready supply of intermediates (keep in mind, Pipes are used heavily when hand-crafting Refineries and Chemical Plants).
Of course one can begin with a smaller "taker loop", especially in an SP game, just enough for 1 setup to make Gear Wheels and Green Circuit, and 1 Chest for Copper Plate, 1 for Steel Plates and 2 for Iron Plate, and room enough for a machine-pair to be added later to make Pipes and UnderPipes. And then much later in the game one can expand the "taker loop" to make additional frequently-used intermediates and perhaps end products (Medium Poles, Smart Chests). If doing that then one can also start with a single-Belt loop that has Iron on one lane and Copper on the other, but if so do leave inside space for an additional Belt loop, to carry Steel Plate and another lane of more Iron Plate (and really, having Iron on both Belts is a bit of a hassle, Inserter-wise).
And there's no reason it has to be a loop. The main principle is that the Chests from which you take the raw Plates must be last, so that they only get filled (to their cap - remember to set the cap!) after all the intermediate-producing machines have had their opportunity to take from the belt. I just happen to like these small loops.
One more thing to do, is to Belt Stone Bricks to the area the "taker loop" is in, and have some "taker Chests" for those too. Then everything is neatly gathered in one area, where you go to re-supply when you need more stuff for your hand-crafting. But I haven't actually done the Bricks thing yet. The idea occured to me while writing this.
I also research assemblers ASAP so I can make belts and start boxing belts AND gear wheels.
