Oil Refining

[Kamata]

I've not seen anyone post oil in this layout before but I actually like it. What are your thoughts?

[DragonHeart996]

Looks nice, even if it's not very compact!
However, I can't help but notice that the left refinery's heavy oil output is not connected.

[Kamata]

Looks nice, even if it's not very compact!
However, I can't help but notice that the left refinery's heavy oil output is not connected.

Hah, you're right. Either way it's generating more oil than I know what to do with right now so it's not too much trouble

[Neok]

From looks perspective it looks good, little refinery spiders.

From production perspective its not very good though.
- lot of space for just looks.
- If oil is in barrels, store it in barrels. Maybe just 1 storage tank. A proper chest has only 1x1 footprint and stores more oil in barrels then a storage tank.
- 1 unbarreling assembler is more then enough.

[DragonHeart996]

In my worlds, my factories at peak production need over 50 refineries worth of oil products! Also, I store my oil in tanks because storing barrels seems a bit cheaty, and I generally only use ~0-4 tanks for crude, but with generally ~9-36 tanks for each fraction.

[DragonHeart996]

Also, you could move the refineries 1 space closer together and not have any problems

[ratchetfreak]

if you rotated the refineries you can put them even closer together with inputs on top and outputs on the bottom. That way they only need 1 tile between them

[DragonHeart996]

if you rotated the refineries you can put them even closer together with inputs on top and outputs on the bottom. That way they only need 1 tile between them

I believe that his point is that that is how almost everyone does it, and that he just wants to show off how he did it, because it is something unique

[AutoMcD]

In my worlds, my factories at peak production need over 50 refineries worth of oil products! Also, I store my oil in tanks because storing barrels seems a bit cheaty, and I generally only use ~0-4 tanks for crude, but with generally ~9-36 tanks for each fraction.

On my game I had just 1 refinery going, still had more plastic and suffer than I could use. Hardest part was figuring out how to turn the crackers on and off automatically to keep things flowing smoothly. I can't even imagine the scale of iron and copper smelting if you need 50 refineries..

[DerivePi]

I've always been a fan of this kind of configuration -

ADVREFINELAYOUT.jpg (503.1 KiB) Viewed 7214 times

[Kamata]

From looks perspective it looks good, little refinery spiders.

From production perspective its not very good though.
- lot of space for just looks.
- If oil is in barrels, store it in barrels. Maybe just 1 storage tank. A proper chest has only 1x1 footprint and stores more oil in barrels then a storage tank.
- 1 unbarreling assembler is more then enough.

I didn't do this just for looks, I actually find this much easier and more manageable, especially when expanding production of oil.
I totally agree with what you're saying about storing it in barrels, this is the first time I tried this build so it could do with more improvements for sure.
The number of unbarreling assemblers is simply to ensure there's plenty ready for expansion since I'm planning to expand this factory as large as I can.

In my worlds, my factories at peak production need over 50 refineries worth of oil products! Also, I store my oil in tanks because storing barrels seems a bit cheaty, and I generally only use ~0-4 tanks for crude, but with generally ~9-36 tanks for each fraction.

Yeah, sometimes I require quite a lot, this felt like a great way to do it for me as it just feels easier to expand oil production and it doesn't take me long at all to add more.

The oil barrels are simply because the oil was really far away in my map and I wanted to add the liquid to my bus. I feel the train makes this so much easier.

Also, you could move the refineries 1 space closer together and not have any problems

Yeah, I didn't really notice that. This was the first attempt of the build. I'll definitely look at improving it more!

if you rotated the refineries you can put them even closer together with inputs on top and outputs on the bottom. That way they only need 1 tile between them

I believe that his point is that that is how almost everyone does it, and that he just wants to show off how he did it, because it is something unique

Honestly, I find it difficult to manage the refineries in that fashion, I really just don't like it at all. That's what got me to try this one out in the first place. It's super easy for me to expand when needed.



Final Note
I'm still rather new to Factorio and really only just got a good idea of how to use the main bus idea efficiently, knowing what types of items I personally should be bussed or made locally etc. All in all I made this design to make it easier on myself. I'm pretty comfortable with it and I'd actually suggest you give it ago yourself just to see how you find it (Barreling the oil is your choice, this was just simpler at the time due to distance of the oil to where I wanted the refineries).

[ilostmahbucket]

Nice layout derivepi. Looks expandable is that the ratio you use? Of refineries to cracking? Could it be adjusted for beacons next to the refineries on the outside?

[DragonHeart996]

As for what to bus, a general rule is that you can bus anything that takes more inputs than outputs (basically anything but copper cables) that are used a lot. But if you want, a anything can be bussed.

Also, your design looks like a good one for ribbon-worlds, as you could compress all the input and output pipes into the width of the refineries. Actually, I think I need to build this and try doing that - a 5 tile wide infinitely expandable refinery would be an awesome design! After all, shrinking a build from 10 tiles to 5 can mean freeing up half of the space in a ribbon-world!

P.S. Sorry for the slightly off topic post

[DerivePi]

Nice layout derivepi

- Thanks!

is that the ratio you use?

- no. For 6 refineries I'd need 14 L oil crackers and probably 1 more h oil cracker. For beacons, the OPs design would probably be easier to integrate since its not as tight.

[Kamata]

As for what to bus, a general rule is that you can bus anything that takes more inputs than outputs (basically anything but copper cables) that are used a lot. But if you want, a anything can be bussed.

Yeah. Though sometimes I like to bus certain items and other times I like to make it locally (Like gears) Now I mostly do bus gears.

I have actually just started a Bobs Mods game and I really don't know what to expect for items to go on the bus so I've taken extra care to make the bus more expandable:

[AutoMcD]

I've also considered bussing wire and gears. The way I see it, it's another buss, but you're cutting demand significantly on the plate buss. This is assuming you split off a dedicated feed from the furnaces. So overall much more throughput, and easier to spot if more gear or wire assembly is needed.
This also reduces redundant assemblers in the various factory areas by pooling the basics.
I also had underestimated my steel demand, your setup looks much better.

The expandable refinery configuration is nice.

[Kelderek]

I've also considered bussing wire and gears.

You almost never want to put wire on the bus - it simply cannot be extracted from a belt fast enough for how it is consumed.

[mooklepticon]

I've also considered bussing wire and gears.

You almost never want to put wire on the bus - it simply cannot be extracted from a belt fast enough for how it is consumed.

True. Largely, the limit is because the inserter can only pick up 1 thing at a time. Also, it's less dense because 1 copper = 2 coil, though they occupy the same space on the belt.

Gears are the inverse! I bus them.

[DerivePi]

Kamata -

For Bobs Mod I typically separate my factory into plate processing, chemical processing, electronics department, research department, power supply and then the factory proper. For the factory proper I've done pretty well with 6 sets of 4 belts plus 2 sets of 4 pipes. At some point in the later game I give up and then just go to bot logistics.

Leave 5 belts free for your electronic circuits.

For the main electronics department you need:
- 10 belts in for copper plate, tin plate, plastic, raw wood, gold plate, silicon, lead plate, carbon, glass pl and calcium chloride
- 5 belts out for finished circuits
- pipes for Ferro Chloric Acid, H2SO4, water and Nitrogen
For the added mod department you need:
- Aluminum Plate and finished Gems (6 different types)

Great mod - played through 3 or 4 times now.

[DragonHeart996]

on the topic of copper wires: the main reason, to me, that they shouldn't be bussed is that only a few recipes use them, and most of those are one-off recipes:
-electronic circuits
-advanced circuits
-beacons
-small electric poles
-combinators

that's all i can think of. if they were used more, i probably would buss them, even though it is less efficient, because of convenience. but as it stands, copper cables fail to meet my #1 criteria for bussing: used by a variety of items (that i usually automate)


also, the only time storing oil in barrels is more efficient is if you are using a bot-based storage system, because while 9 steel chests can hold ~4.25 times as much as a tank, the infastructure for a simple belt-based system would require:
-1 chest for full barrels
-1 chest for empty
-4 inserters (in+out for each chest)
-4 belts (in+out for empty/full barrel lines)

already that is 10 tiles, just to store 1 chest worth of oil in barrels, or about 1250 oil, in a size larger than a tank that holds 2500 oil