Factorio Forums

I also played around a bit with asymmetric grids, i.e. having an extra space in one direction down the grid, then an extra space down the other direction for the purposes of fitting a roboport in the (new) 4x4 blank in the middle. it works about the same, but I didn't like it much because of the offset.

I could see optimization going in one of two directions:
1) Smaller, localized grids, where everything is carefully manipulated to stay on the belt for as little as possible. Gives you a relatively large belt storage buffer as well.
2) Large grids, (I played around with 30x30-the length of a tall power pole), with almost self sufficient individual cells on the inside. Maybe even a filter belt bilayer, that is separately regulated, and has dedicated inserters to maintain a homeostasis between the inner and outer belt. Just a thought. Might try it out in this factory. Downside is that the longer the space between roundabouts, the less accurate the count becomes. 30x30 may be a fairly natural stopping point due to power pole range, but the true efficiency limit may be *much* lower.

So I spent the evening field testing. It was fun playing, results are as follows:
- Not useable as base production, only for special low quantity items (I was doing science throughout the play but it takes ages to produce)
- At first I was trying to just rely on a stable copper/iron supply, I added green circuits later due to lack of available space and general superb inefficiency
- I have no idea if this will ever go beyond the proof of concept stage but it certainly is fun if time is of no importance

Gertibrumm wrote:- Not useable as base production, only for special low quantity items (I was doing science throughout the play but it takes ages to produce)

Somehow I'm not surprised about that. With that concept the items are... everywhere... but not where you actually need them. So there is a huge delay until the system gets overflown/saturated with a particular item which then finally starts to increase throughput.

To make it work more efficiently you would have to distribute all assemblers producing the same good all over the place, and also all machines consuming a particular item all over the place. Then the chance is increased that maybe the right item will pass by.


That said I think for that kind of contraption to work more efficiently you really would need something like Smart Splitters that allow you to reroute items in a certain direction where they are needed. But the devs will never implement something like it and I don't know if you are into mods or if there's even a mod available to do that properly.


I once had a concentric ring-shaped bus factory with dedicated rings for all intermediate items... and all departments drew from the ring... and items that weren't used circled around forever. I started to hate it eventually because when you ramp up throughput it takes quite a while until the ring dries up and you start to realize all the bottlenecks your factory has. So I think a regular bus is probably the best way to do things when it comes to belts because you realize quite fast if something is a bottleneck or not.

One thing I've enjoyed about this is it is a very hands-off friendly factory, perfect for MP. Normal factory design is all about output in single player, since you're there pretty much all the time, (unless you're like me and AFK/plan for AFKing a lot), but in multiplayer I've found that it is much more important to have a reliable defense that will stand the night (or day, or whenever you aren't on). All your resources will build up, and when you log back on, your stocks are full, and due to the relatively inefficient production, and therefore low pollution, you base is still standing.

I still like this a lot for building buildings. I don't need constant throughput for assemblers and inserters, but when I need them, I'll need 500 at a time. This provides a slow trickle to fill up the supply chests.

MeduSalem wrote:That said I think for that kind of contraption to work more efficiently you really would need something like Smart Splitters that allow you to reroute items in a certain direction where they are needed. But the devs will never implement something like it and I don't know if you are into mods or if there's even a mod available to do that properly.

It can be done in vanilla factorio. Use this: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=29444

I cannot see the full post put I assume there is residue on the locked splitter side which has to be recirculated until it lands on the other, correct side
Thinking..thinking..

hansinator wrote:It can be done in vanilla factorio. Use this: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=29444

Yeah, it can be done, but it becomes completely inefficient for that many different items Gertibrumm's design has to handle.

Ill just stick to my sequencer factory, Im getting the logic done for version 2. Highly promising!