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My Main Bus Bob's Mods Factory

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 6:57 pm
by JDCollie
I know it is the antithesis of efficiency, but I really like the Main Bus style for factory design. I've seen some on Youtube (Zisteau and Bentham) and some others on the forum, and I've realized that no one I've seen does their mainbuses quite the same way I do. With that in mind, I figured I'd share :D


How it differs:

I split my main bus into two halves. "Smelting" is on one side, and "Manufacturing" on the other.

The basic factory plan is as follows:

Smelting Manufacturing
<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>
<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<< >>>>>

Where the ">" are belts.

Materials being consumed by the smelting processes flow outward from the middle, while smelting products flow toward across the middle into the manufacturing side. All manufacturing materials and products flow outward from the middle opposite from the smelting. (I design my factories in such a way that no item from manufacturing is ever needed on the smelting side)

Uh, Why?
I think the reason I originally did this was that many "smelting" items are not used in production, such as copper ore or whatever, so I didn't want them taking up space in the main line. At the same time however, I still needed to be able to add items on to the smelting area, just as I did the manufacturing end. Thus the "split" evolved.

The Current Factory
Image
This is my factory as she currently stands. I've set my resources to very low frequency, but very high richness, forcing me to expand outward at least a little. I also have radar coverage of all active areas of the factory minus a small extension directly North of the main line which I haven't had time to provide radar coverage yet.

One of the major challenges with this factory has been defense. I don't even have access to blue science yet, and the factory is already massive. Surrounding the entire structure with walls and turrets would be prohibitively expensive, so I have opted instead for small groupings of 2 - 4 Sniper Turrets (Mk I's) and 2 - 4 Gun Turrets (Mk 3's) spaced so that the sniper turrets have just barely overlapping fields of fire. To date, I have never had a biter attack make it past the turrets, though there are some areas of the defensive line that require regular maintenance. The Zinc outpost in particular draws a lot of heat.

I can built laser turrets, but the standing power cost to replace my gun turrets with laser turrets would be excessive, as would the material cost of producing the turrets in the first place. I do plan to make the change over once I have tier II or III laser turrets, but that won't be happening for quite awhile.

The Split
Image

Everything North of the train tracks is considered the Smelting wing, while everything South is considered Manufacturing. Currently Iron, Copper, Steel, Tin, and Brass plates are flowing into the manufacturing wing, along with Resin, Explosives, and Plastic Bars. The steel pipe is also flowing from Smelting and contains Ferric Chloride Solution for creating Phenolic Boards.


The Trains
Image

In making this factory, I decided that each raw resource would have an individual train input. Currently the factory only brings in Tin, Zinc, Sulfur, Nickel, Lead, and Crude oil by rail, but I have plans to bring in many many more. Currently Bauxite and Tungsten are next on the list.

The delivery system has to be fairly compact in quite a few places, so I've opted for a twin headed train system without loops. It seems to be working pretty well so far, though I'm a newb when it comes to trains (this is the first factory I've used them in) I also have Player Access Sidings for each outpost I build.


Manufacturing Wing
Image

This is the current end of the manufacturing wing. As you can see, my factory plan groups the belts in sets of four, with two spaces in between each. The reason for this is the span of a basic underground belt. this way I only have to mess with a single group of belts to remove or add items to the main line. Of course, the downside is that this makes my main bus even bigger than it would otherwise be.

The lone belts on the far right are still in groups of four, but the items they will be grouped with are not yet being manufactured. (My current factory plan has something like nine groups so far >.< )


Plans for the Future

This is actually my first play-through using Bob's Mods, so I don't have a really good grasp of what will be needed in the future (hence why I opted for such an extensible design). I've planned out until about Tier III roboports, but beyond that I'm in the dark. It'll be fun to see what comes after. :D


In general, the factory has been really fun to build so far, even though the huge number of items added by Bob's Mods has made it much more challenging. Thanks for reading!

Re: My Main Bus Bob's Mods Factory

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 12:30 am
by DerivePi
I like your thinking - Here is my current attempt at a Bobactory -

Up to level 4 modules - more to come
module dept.jpg
module dept.jpg (383.67 KiB) Viewed 23563 times
All 4 circuits produced here in the electronics department
electronics dept.jpg
electronics dept.jpg (699.53 KiB) Viewed 23563 times
Some chemical production, science production and on the right ore processing and the beginning of my rail import station.
chemical science ore proc and delivery.jpg
chemical science ore proc and delivery.jpg (599.99 KiB) Viewed 23563 times

Re: My Main Bus Bob's Mods Factory

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:17 am
by Boogieman14
How are you planning on dealing with harvesting all the different ores and sorting/storing it? That's probably one of the biggest things that sorta puts me off of these huge overhaul mods. In the past, I've tried harvesting single patches and transporting it separately. I've also at some point replaced all bobores-patches with one kind of patch that simply outputs all types of ore - sorting it either through a belt sorter or just pushing it into logistics network. Somehow I always end up with one kind of resource overflowing while others are running out.

Re: My Main Bus Bob's Mods Factory

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:53 am
by Neotix
If you want to sort raw materials, you should do it when you're loading them into wagons. Every sorter I ever used had some kind of problems. Even Wagon Sorter that I designed wasn't free of them.
Now I'm using train network to sort and deliver materials. Each train and station are specialized. Even if train have mixed material's, each type is unload in specific station. So when I have too much of one material, entire system is still working without problems.

Re: My Main Bus Bob's Mods Factory

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 12:16 pm
by DerivePi
The only place I currently have for sorting ores is the receiving station from galena mines (mining galena gets lead and nickel ore). I will smart insert lead up out of the wagons and nickel down out of the wagons. Even that is a bit of a process since nickel and lead production is not balanced and is prone to backing up.

I've messed around with sorters before, but they have limited throughput and require wiring to the outposts in order to prevent jams. With this many ores, it makes more sense to distribute the ores to multiple stops anyhow.

Re: My Main Bus Bob's Mods Factory

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:48 pm
by NorNogaAdmin
I really like that 4-belt bus design... i wish i could organize a factory that good.... look for pictures of my factory to come...

Re: My Main Bus Bob's Mods Factory

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 12:47 pm
by Karosieben
Your bus-design looks really nice, but I would build everything to be totally scalable. Your module department blocks some, but I think it's okay, becaus you don't need so many modules, right? ;)

Anyway, keep going! I'm looking forward to see more progress of your factory.

Regards,
Karosieben

Re: My Main Bus Bob's Mods Factory

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 2:27 am
by DerivePi
Just a couple more pics
Leveling up furnaces, electrolysis, etc...
ADVANCED FACILITIES.jpg
ADVANCED FACILITIES.jpg (685.61 KiB) Viewed 22773 times
more shipping of the different ores
RAILROAD SHIPPING.jpg
RAILROAD SHIPPING.jpg (519.5 KiB) Viewed 22773 times