How do you build your factory(s)?

[DoctorWho?]

Personally, I make a separate factory for each "type" of item. Capsule and ammo get their own factory, logistics gets a seperate factory (sometimes two or three, depending on where iron and stuff is and how much I use trains and/or bots), I normally have a dedicated module factory, etc., etc. I think it works pretty well, but I've noticed many people build a giant super-factories instead.

So how do you build your factory/factories? Several-million-tiles-super-factory, or several smaller factories? Just kind of curious really

[Supercheese]

I like to turtle in a relatively small area and completely wall myself off from the rest of the world. I don't use RSO, so I generally have plenty of resources available to me inside the walls, even though it's a relatively small area compared to some of the megabases out there.

[DoctorWho?]

I tend to use RSO and FARL because I like planning out trains and stuff, but I occasionally attempt to turtle in vanilla. :I always run out of space C:

[vanatteveldt]

What do you distribute between bases? Do you send around green+red circuits from a plant to other places? How do you make sure that resources are distributed well, or do you just keep a lot of stock?

I generally build a big base that makes almost all stuff, because I like to have a central place to load up. Apart from this, I will generally have a separate power station (normally at the first big coal spot I find outside my starting area, so the coal in the starting area is reserved for plastic + capsules after dismantling the first temporary power station) and I generally smelt at my mining outposts, so that saves a lot of space in the main base.

[DoctorWho?]

Green curcuits has a seperate, normally fairly large factory. Gears are normally built on sight. Belts, inserters, powerpoles, and assembly machines get their own places. Dedicated furnaces take in ore and ship out plates (this is mainly so I can keep track of where plates are coming from). Military things get their own area. Trains get their own area, as I like to build rather large amounts of trains, all at once. Power is steam engines fueled by oil, I don't like solar panels. Science is centralized near spawn. Unless something comes up, everything else is made in my inventory or a general, catch-all factory.

[vanatteveldt]

Many of those things need red circuits as well - do you have a red circuit plant at each of the "sub factories"? And does that mean you route oil to each of the plants to make plastic as needed?

(e.g. science needs red, military robots need speed module = red+blue, your catch-all will certainly need red too)

[DoctorWho?]

Many of those things need red circuits as well - do you have a red circuit plant at each of the "sub factories"? And does that mean you route oil to each of the plants to make plastic as needed?

(e.g. science needs red, military robots need speed module = red+blue, your catch-all will certainly need red too)

I route red and blue curcuits from a dedicated factory, I guess I forgot to add that in

Generally, anything needed in more than one area (except gears) is made seperatly and shipped in. It's kind of pointless, but I like playing with trains.

[oliverpowerboy]

Normally I use the main bus but I do use a logistical robot bases a little

[nobodx]

Usually I have a bus containing the common used materials (iron, copper, plastic, stone, green circuits and steel) and everything else is build on the branches (eg iron sticks + stone bricks -> rails)

I tried to put everything on the bus, but it became way too big.

I do plan to build multiple smaller, specialized factories connected via trains though

[MeduSalem]

I have a distinct style for my factories:

I use a main belt bus to transfer bulk goods (like Plates, Circuits, etc) between the various departments.

Within each department I solely use logistic bots nowadays.

Actually I don't know why... But probably it is because I am sick of having to deal with the belt mess and bottlenecks within the departments and on the other hand I avoid robots having to go all over the place. So it is the best of both worlds I guess.

[vanatteveldt]

I'm trying to combine the ideas of MeduSalem and Dr.Who, by making a beltless factory consisting of subfactories linked by rail line.

So every factory will have a station, where goods are loaded from/to trains into logistic chests. Then, the factory makes a certain class of goods, and the materials are transported between the subfactories by train.

One things which I'm not quite sure how to handle is inventory management. How do you control how much of a good needs to be produced, and how much should be shipped where?

I'm thinking the best solution is probably to give every factory dedicated delivery trains for each input good, which are unloaded using smart inserters set to a logistic condition, e.g. green circuits < 5k.
The trains are set to wait indefinately until empty (using smart trains), so they will only activate when the stocks are low.

Output of a (sub)factory is then controlled by filling up the requester chests at the train stop, plus smart inserters inserting into the provider chests with a logistic condition, e.g. green circuits < 10k. If the station has 14 requester chests set to request 1k circuits, total output buffer would then be 10+14x1=24k circuits, plus the input buffers for each factory the circuits are delivered to, plus the train contents (non-trivial for circuits at 48x200=10k each).

(I guess it is also possible to have a single "circuit train" servicing all factories that need circuits, which would use fewer trains but wastes more fuel if the stock is not depleted quickly, and has less throughput if stock is depleted very quickly)

Does that make sense? Is there a better way to control inventory and inter-factory logistics?

[DoctorWho?]

Hm...Took me a minute to understand what you meant, but I get what you're trying to do. What I would do for inventory/backlog management is this: Do what you've suggested, except instead of do backlog for the entire sub-factory, limit how much is in the output chests using a curcuit network. If you need I can post a picture tomorrow.

[vanatteveldt]

Right. Why not just "cross out" some of the capacity of the output chests?

Also, do you centralize goods that the player would want (e.g. weapons, outpost building stuff) in a sort of "reloading" station?

[DoctorWho?]

Yep, works best that way. I still have PAX station(s) at every subfactory just in case I need ridiculous amounts of stuff, but most of the time I have a centralized storage/pickup station.

[vanatteveldt]

(see viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20663&p=131435#p131435 for some screenshots of a more "compartmentalized" factory with lots of trains )

[Keplergamer]

I love to play withouth making a pre-organized main bus. Or planned assembly machine placement. So it's a belt maze everywhere. Also, no Logi bots, tunnels as short as possible and the belt that was built previously stays as it is, the new ones that should go below it with a tunnel. Only destroy and redo an old belt if its the only way to get trough.