Mining outpost

Fargotroniac · Post by **Fargotroniac** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 10:20 am

Hello,

I'm new to the game and I'd like to ask for more experienced advice. I'm trying to create a modular mining outpost (start game, middle game, end game...)

1. Field of mining stations

2. Loading station

It´s ok or it's completely out of it?

Thank you

astroshak · Post by **astroshak** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 3:51 pm

When setting up (belted) mines, there are two schools of thought.

The first is similar to what you have, except without the two belts running vertically down the middle. Instead, have a single long belt running the entire length picking up the output of each mine and taking it off to one side. The power poles are on the outside, as you have shown. On the side that the belts are taking the material to, after they have all met up but before the train station, use a belt balancer to help distribute the material evenly (which helps to both ensure an overall faster buffering of the material in the station’s chests, as well as reducing the impact of a whole belt’s mines becoming depleted).

The second has the power poles inside, instead of outside, using underground belt sections to make room for the power poles. This method has two miner rows back to back, rather than having a space between them for the power poles that the other method has.

Regardless of which method you prefer to use, there are a couple of things you want to bear in mind when designing a mining outpost. First, belt throughput. Yellow belts carry 15 items/second. Red carry 30, and Blue 45. Since each belt has two sides, or lanes, each half of the belt can carry half that number per second. Second, miners (in vanilla) put out one item every 2 seconds. This sets a mathematical limit on how many active mines a belt can handle : 30 mines on a yellow belt, 15/side; 60 mines on a red belt, 30/side, and 90 mines on a blue belt, 45/side. Productivity bonuses (from technology; never put productivity modules in mines) reduce this, as well. HOWEVER - you want to regard that number as a minimum, not a maximum, because as individual miners deplete, extra can take up the slack and keep the belt full. If you have less than that number of active miners on the belt, the belt will not be full.

Personally, I run however many output belts the mine has through a balancer, and that splits the ores relatively evenly among the individual cars of the train. I have one belt feeding each wagon; so a LLLLCCCCCCCC train (4 locomotives, 8 cargo wagons) would have 8 belts servicing it. If I have a 5 belt mine, then I’d feed every other belted input on an 8x8 balancer (the fifth belt going to a random input), and then have a second 8x8 balancer sending one belt to each cargo wagon. In my opinion, it is more important to have an even loading of the station buffer chests by wagon, than it is to have fully compressed belts coming out of the belt balancers.

The most important advice anyone can give you, however, is to design most things yourself (balancers being one of the big things I personally feel it is ok to get off of the web) and to ahve fun doing so.

MassiveDynamic · Post by **MassiveDynamic** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:15 pm

Also, take another look at your train loading. It’s usually best to use one or two full belt(s) per train wagon.

NotRexButCaesar · Post by **NotRexButCaesar** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:23 am

1. I would make the mining print twice as tall and alternate belts. This way lanes stay balanced and don’t fill in consecutive halves.

2. I would probably change the train to four wagons rather than 5 (I personally would add another locomotive but do what you like) and then give each wagon its own belt.

Fargotroniac · Post by **Fargotroniac** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:29 am

Thank you for the advice. Do you think you would find a screen because my English is not the best?

So which belts should I use? Are the ones I have enough or will I need faster? I thought that before the train arrived, a supply would build up in the chests.

Personally, I prefer shorter trains, so 5 wagons. I originally wanted 4, but with five it's centered. : D

Impatient · Post by **Impatient** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 10:18 am

Fargotroniac wrote: ↑
Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:29 am
... So which belts should I use? Are the ones I have enough or will I need faster? ...

When this question is about, what belt to use for how many drills, then the answer is:
Without any mining productivity researched or prod modules used in the drills, 30 drills fill one yellow belt, 60 a red belt and 90 a blue belt.

For the loading station, if you have 2 yellow belts as input (deducting from how your mining BP looks) = 30 items/s max, I would use 30 yellow inserters to insert into the chests. 30 yellow ones can move 30 x 0.94 items/s = 28.2 items/s (without any inserter capacity bonus researched). They would be the slightly throughput limiting factor then, but that way you would be able to ensure the chests are filled evenly. That is, if your input rate is 30 items/s and not less. If it is less, chests will not be filled evenly, but yellow inserters would then suffice anyways.

If you have 4 yellow belts as input = 60 items/s max, then the blue inserters are ok as they can move roughly 30 x 2.5 items/s = 75 items/s . Chests won't fill evenly though.

https://wiki.factorio.com/Belt_transpor ... r_overview
https://wiki.factorio.com/Mining#Output
https://wiki.factorio.com/Inserters#Bel ... dicular.29

Impatient · Post by **Impatient** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 10:58 am

Fargotroniac wrote: ↑
Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:29 am
Thank you for the advice. Do you think you would find a screen because my English is not the best?

So which belts should I use? Are the ones I have enough or will I need faster? I thought that before the train arrived, a supply would build up in the chests.

Personally, I prefer shorter trains, so 5 wagons. I originally wanted 4, but with five it's centered. : D

A general advice is that factorio primarily is ALL about rates (production, throughput, consumption), not speeds, sizes or distances. Speeds, sizes and distances are only secondary factors when they are limiting rates.

Something else, a bit more advanced, is the knowledge that one key element built into factorio influences every design or the effort necessary to get a design goal done: the splitter.

Because the splitter allows for easy even distribution to two ouputs or merging from two inputs, designs which inlcude belts and are created with the powers of 2 in mind are mostly the ones with the least effort needed to be efficient.

The centeredness you are striving for, sometimes is the best solution to achieve a goal, but generally is no primary concern for efficiency in factorio. Eg, in your mining BP you have 16 drills on each side, which is one too many. Or you are splitting 4 ways for 5 wagons in the loading station which gets you in the situation, that 2 of the splits serve 8 inserters and 2 serve 7 inserters.

Serenity · Post by **Serenity** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:31 pm

Fargotroniac wrote: ↑
Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:29 am
So which belts should I use? Are the ones I have enough or will I need faster? I thought that before the train arrived, a supply would build up in the chests.

On larger patches you can easily have more miners than a belt can support. So all those extra miners are wasted because they don't have any space to put their ore:
https://factoriocheatsheet.com/#mining

The 30 miners per belt for yellow belt is easily reached and you will want to switch to red belt eventually. That's also without the mining productivity you get in the end game

Also don't do that side loading thing you're doing. You're loading an entire belt on half a belt. That can't work.

Personally, I prefer shorter trains, so 5 wagons. I originally wanted 4, but with five it's centered. : D

It's generally more practical to use even numbers. 4, 6 or 8. Four cargo wagons per train are really plenty unless you get to truly large bases. One extra wagon isn't going to make much of a difference.

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