How I ended up with 108k SPM on my modded Angels-Bob playthrough

gaddhi · Post by **gaddhi** » Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:32 pm

When I started this Angels-Bob playthrough I had as rough idea: starter base 1 Science per second, main base: 10 Science per second, Endgame: 100 Science per second (~ 6000 SPM). Well, it ended differently.

After going through the starter phase, and building my main base, I wanted to design a robot-based science-outpost that creates a full ultimate belt of each science pack and imports only basic ores and fluids.

I utilized Helmod in order to outline the basic production chain and within a sandbox-game I designed, build and tested each of the necessary 31 components so that each one produces the necessary amount and a bit more to be on the safe side.
Bringing all components together showed me, that 1100 Fusion powered Logistic Bots were necessary in order to keep the base working at the designed output.

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The startup-phase for this outpost was also a bit tricky, since I needed to add a few more buildings in order to get the process rolling, because the different production chains within a science outpost depend on each other. Also, I had to kick-start the initial process by importing a few resources like plastic and steel in order to begin producing barrels, canisters and bottles, because without them nothing happens.

The size of this science outpost (8x5 chunks) was far less than I anticipated, so I simply had to build this science outpost multiple times. This made it necessary to design a building-train that contains all necessary factories, initial resources and bots. Designing and building the station for this train and creating item-restrictions for the train alone took a few hours, since there are nearly 100 different item types necessary in order to build the science outpost and get it running.

One of these Science Outposts has an output of 4500 SPM and I started building several of them. After I had built 10 outposts, I noticed the first UPS-impacts while viewing the world map. After 14 outposts UPS dropped to about 50. And after 24 Outposts and 108k SPM I was at 35-37 UPS. The following entities require the most CPU-time: Inserters, Assembling Machines, Logistic Robots and Offshore Pumps.

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The 24 science outposts consume 20-21 GW electricity and I created a Nuclear Reactor setup for power generation. It consists of 2x16 Thorium and 2x20 Deuterium reactors in a tillable setup for a maximum of neighbor bonus.

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I transport all necessary input resources by Train: The six Ores, Coal, Thermal Water and Viscous Mud Water. LTN is more than helpful for this setup. Thermal Water comes in a 2-8-2 train, which is also the train-format for my main base. Viscous Mud Water and the ores and coal are transported in 2-16-2 trains. Viscous Mud Water is the resource, that I have to transport most with several trains per minute.

The thing that annoys me most on these outposts is that I produce Uranium-234, which I cannot get rid of except by building additional Uranium-reactors. Currently I only store them.

My single most fascinating aspect of the science outpost is the space-science belt. 75 Science Packs per second means I have to start 4.5 rockets per minute. One minute consists of 3600 ticks which means I have to start a rocket exactly every 800 ticks. For this I created a small timing circuit, that inserts a satellite every 800 ticks. Since the setup is symmetrical, each of the four rocket silos receives the satellite exactly 800 ticks apart and the Science-Pack belt is filled from both sides without any gap. Here is Factorio-precision at work.

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After finishing the outposts 316 hours in the game, I just passed Mining productivity 460.