- Rhizome big 1 - 2.jpg (515.44 KiB) Viewed 1515 times
- Rhizome big 3 - 2.jpg (300.85 KiB) Viewed 1515 times
This is the default rhizome cell
- Rhizome default cell 2 - 2.jpg (156.2 KiB) Viewed 1515 times
Roundabouts spread 4 kinds of ore in all 4 directions. They create a physical environment described by modified heat equation
- Heat equation.png (1.14 KiB) Viewed 1521 times
In practice it just does the trick. Producers (miners) fill the rhizome with ore, consumers (factories) extract the ore, and ore propagates from producers to consumers automatically. Usually all the area is filled with ore almost completely, and quasi-particles travelling with the speed of sound make consumers and producers find each other quickly enough.
You can also see underground pipes, but there is no direction change for them.
And, of course, solar panels and accumulator blocks. This is how it all started. I was filling area with solar panels and accumulator blocks manually, then I created a blueprint with all blocks. Then I added underground belts to the blueprint in all 4 directions, just in case, so I don't struggle passing something over a big area filled with electrical buildings. But I was still struggling. Ore patches were depleting, and I may need something here today, but there tomorrow, and I was building too much belt connections manually. Rhizome ended this. It just makes all 4 main ores available everywhere just in case.
If you are not such a big fan of solar energy in Factorio, here is a simplified version of the default cell:
- Rhizome naked cell.jpg (221.5 KiB) Viewed 1521 times
I have no problems with drones over lakes because I build over lakes too.
- Rhizome patch.jpg (137.45 KiB) Viewed 1521 times
This is Rhizome patch cell, suited for water and forest. To build on water, Shift-deploy it, wait for landfill to arrive, then deploy again.
It does not have roundabouts, but it lets ore flow through. I build it over forests to preserve some trees, and I build it over water to let water stay a barrier for beetles. On another hand, spidertrons navigate through the water built over by patch cells very fast, in a straight line route.
Patch cells don't spread the ore in all directions, but at least they preserve the throughput.
Yet another usage for patch cells is to be a starting point for new factory designs. All my embedded factories are topologically patch cells, but morphed to make things fit. They let all ore flow through and extract some share of it to do their job.
But first we need to populate rhizome with ore, right? It was impossible to put everything inside a single miner cell, so I separated mining logic into several different cells.
Here is the mining cell:
- Rhizome miner cell.jpg (229.93 KiB) Viewed 1521 times
It has altered Eastern and Western interfaces, hinted by longer pipes. It has one external ore belt reassigned, it was not possible to pack everything otherwise. Like all other rhizome cells, mining cells are not an obstacle for ore flowing through. So there is external ore flowing through, and one belt was reassigned to another location.
Also it has additional mining belts for unsorted ore. They do not go underground on the boundary of cell, unlike the others for external ore.
Rhizome is designed so the each ore can only be on specific half of specific belts, so ores don't mix. In order to avoid errors I designed special injectors complementing mining cells. They enclose opposing unsorted ore mining belts into a ring from two sides. They reroute reassigned external ore belt to ordinary place. They detect unsorted ore by filtering manipulators and inject any 4 ore type in all 4 directions. Ore patches are rarely close to each other, so most likely only half on injector is functioning, but on the other hand it makes it no-brainer to use.
This is the Western injector:
- Rhizome Western injector.jpg (217.58 KiB) Viewed 1521 times
This is the Eastern injector:
- Rhizome Eastern injector.jpg (227.87 KiB) Viewed 1521 times
Both injectors have landfills just in case. I wish there is no need for landfill in the blueprints, I wish Factorio can deal with water automatically like it handles trees, rocks and mountains. What is so special about water?
One more important note about mining cell. Its Southern interface is not compatible with the default cell. Default cell has solar panels in an inconvenient place. This incompatibility is notified by middle electrical pole conflicting with default cell's North central light. This electrical pole is there just for that. Any other Rhizome cell is appropriate. The version without solar panels (naked rhizome cell) is compatible, patch cell is compatible, mining cells are compatible, injectors are compatible.
So the algorithm to handle ore patch is as follows:
- Cover all ore patch with mining cells (M)
- Terminate Western and Eastern sides with injectors (w, e)
- Most mining cells' Southern interfaces will be connected, but connect remaining ones with naked rhizome cell (n)
Code: Select all
wMMMe
wMMMMMe
nwMMe
nn
What else?
How do I deal with liquids. I have an oil processing blueprint for that.
- Rhizome oil refinery.jpg (278.97 KiB) Viewed 1521 times
Pipe inputs and outputs are, from West to East:
- Unused
- Output: lubricant
- Input: crude oil
- Output: petroleum gas
- Output: light oil
- Input/output: water
- Unused
Use patch cell and morph it to host pumpjacks, then route crude oil to the input.
If deployed on water, water pump makes water an output, and crude oil is the only input. Otherwise water has to be supplied inside externally.
This blueprint only uses pipes of one direction. Liquids flowing in the other direction are not used in blueprints. I use another direction to connect pipes manually. It is usually enough to connect crude oil pipe, the rest will be produced in place.
My embedded factory blueprints can be found on Factorio Prints, search for "Rhizome". They are small, they produce stuff very slow from liquids and basic ore, but I keep putting them everywhere, and the performance increases.
