Factorissimo Fun

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Factorissimo - Smelting.jpg (356.18 KiB) Viewed 15589 times

I've just been playing with the Factorissimo Mod. It's a 6 x 6 building that houses a much larger area.

Above is smelting set up inside a Factorissimo building. 96 smelters with barely room to squeak through.

This will saturate two red belts.

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Look how tidy things can be with this mod. 2 x Factorissimo buildings = 4 red belts of plate smelted from ore coming into this station. I like it! Not really cheating except on space, still had to make those 200 odd furnaces etc, and the buildings themselves aint cheap (500 stone bricks, 100 steel).

Factorissimo - Station.jpg (233.38 KiB) Viewed 15588 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Factorissimo - Two Stations.jpg (438.54 KiB) Viewed 15576 times

Put four of them together and it's a brand new bus. Still to design one for steel I think I can get 96 smelters (half iron half steel) with a bit of trickery.

If you got any Factorissimo setups to share by all means do so. I've thought of a 'Tardis' where a whole factory is inside as you can put Factorissimo inside of itself... Chinese dolls . Be cool to send the raw goods in one end and rocket parts come out the other hehe. It has 12 input/output slots.. hmm, is it doable...

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Nearly a whole factory in this tidy wee strip. Got to bring in stone to make it the whole deal. Then fill out the top two buildings with modules/rocket bits. But was time to have a break.

Factorissimo - Shaping Up.jpg (504.46 KiB) Viewed 15517 times

Refineries in a box. Could be tidier got sick of moving stuff about but could have been a lot worse without the blueprints.

Factorissimo - Refining.jpg (345.34 KiB) Viewed 15517 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Rocket Fuel is, in the context of rocket science, a breeze.

Factorissimo - Rocket Fuel.jpg (244.58 KiB) Viewed 15479 times

Here's the exterior view. I've used the spare petroleum to boost plastic/batteries in the petroleum facility below the rocket fuel. To the right where three types of circuits sit in requester chests will be the rocket control units.

Factorissimo - Rocket Fuel Exterior.jpg (348.2 KiB) Viewed 15479 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

That didn't take long at all. A well oiled machine. It's really nice making a base without having to deal with all the science/upgrades etc, this thing runs really sweet.

Factorissimo - Rockets for Ion Cannons.jpg (529.32 KiB) Viewed 15472 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Here's an overview. Ideally there will be one or two more Factorissimo buildings added - one for miners/assemblers/smelters and stone/train stuff, one for a robot factory - and a few advanced modules.

The plan initially was to make this my new home (done), dismantle the initial sprawl (partly done), then pump out ion cannons (4 so far) and expand across the map via rail with similar blueprinted Factorissimo factories refined to rocket output as this base will serve the expansion needs. Ultimately pumping out ion cannon producing facilities across the map... but the ion cannon auto targeting device isn't working properly I get 1-2 auto shots fired then it stops and I have to manually target to have the ion cannons working. So my idea of absolute death from above is somewhat muted. I thought that ion cannons plus the big brother mod (much better radar) would rain hell fire everywhere.

Is the ion cannon targeting messed up from using the big brother mod? I dunno?

Ah well. I really like the Factorisimo mod. Alongside of rail the scale of the buildings seems apt, and all that messy sprawl can be tucked away if you wish. Entire factories the size of outposts. Much potential.

Factorissimo - Overview.jpg (452.9 KiB) Viewed 15468 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

OK, I seemed to have solved my issues. The auto targeting still isn't working but I got the Satellite Uplink mod. At first I thought it didn't work either, I even launched another satellite in case it required it... eventually I sought out and read the instructions.... 'Enter the building'

The Satellite Up-link mod allows me to scroll the screen while I have access to deconstruction planners, blueprints, and for my purposes (so far), an ion cannon targeting device. Death from Above

The map, as you can see, has a relatively large clear space around me. With only a few ion cannons the biter migration seemed to be encroaching faster than I could kill them, now, with 8 ion cannons and counting, I am definitely knocking them back. There's huge fields of alien goop and crispy tree stumps out there.

I love this Factorissimo base it is so efficient. The distances for robot travel are so short 200 robots and two roboports are mostly unemployed while keeping both me and the base happy. Rockets are popping out ~ three per hour if I remember to launch them. Will think about automating with ion cannon insert if it can be done.

Now I'm thinking about making the modular Factorissimo bases to expand with - that make rockets/ion cannons only. A supply train with everything required for building said modular base. Also the raw requirements, and the designs and then blueprints to make the whole process simple. Then I'll retrofit this base to fill expansion supply trains as this is now home. The early sprawl can continue to make modules and do research till the research is finished and the expansion designs/retrofit of the new home are finished.

My only issue is too much plastic slowing rocket fuel. The extra petroleum -> plastic taken from the rocket fuel facility needs to be made into solid fuel too. One day I'll learn how combinators work, but not today

Factorissimo - Map1.jpg (215.2 KiB) Viewed 15409 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

This image clearly shows the power of the Big Brother mod. Three radars scanning so much room you can't see the giant ore patches zoomed out this far. Contrary to my previous opinion, this mod is a great companion to the ion cannon.

Factorissimo - Map2.jpg (155.7 KiB) Viewed 15408 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Retrofitting was easy I just added one more Factorissimo building, and some miner/assembler assembly to my existing inserter/belt factory. Still firing off rockets/ion cannons...

Here's the new building: production of Factorissimo buildings, electric furnaces, logistic bots and roboports (the robot frame assembler has speed 3 modules it'll keep up), rail, signals and stations, and even some landfill if I need it.

For the expansion...

Factorissimo - Expansion Stuff.jpg (256.4 KiB) Viewed 15402 times

I've raised the stack limits on things in the factory that I will use expanding. Instead of doing tons of math I'm going to estimate what I need, fill a train with estimated stacks, then go and build an expansion, and see what's too little and what's too much.

The rocket building outposts aren't so daunting. 12 Factorissimo buildings (including the four smelting = 1 blueprint), 6 train stations (plus a spare for parking), some mining, and some pumpjacks. Stuff for oil expansion - doh! Getting on it now...

By the time an expansion is made I figure there will be another one waiting here.

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Factorissimo - Map3.jpg (173.91 KiB) Viewed 15389 times

This is for me (and you) to compare with the earlier map and see what sort of progress two hours of (average) 10 ion cannons will do to an alien landscape. I did use one round for clearing trees near a potential new site. Get to fire a round every five minutes but I'm probably only averaging a round of death every 10 minutes due to doing other stuff.

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Not a lot of progress through the biters really Some extra room to the east and south...

I'll get some expansions in and start firing 100 rounds off and see how they fare.

Can't automate ion cannon assembly... They take 8 parts.

[Dry Hairy Tree]

From around 14 ion cannons and up my firepower is overwhelming the aliens.

I'll go for 100 ion cannons as at that point I'll be able to wipe out entire 'continents' of aliens at once - and I won't feel obliged to keep visiting the uplink station so regularly to fire the cannons.

This is all a practice run as the new patch isn't far away... Mods I really hope survive/revive after the patch are obviously: Factorissimo, ion cannon, satellite uplink, big brother...

My expansion hit a snag quickly. Forgot half the solar I needed (they stack as 50's not 100's silly) and the 800 odd plain inserters for the smelting.

Come back home there's yet another rocket to launch, the robots are now busy, and the red circuits are a tiny bit stretched, but the Factorissimo base is still performing like a champion. Rockets plus expansion supplies. Sweet.

Factorissimo - Map4.jpg (127.13 KiB) Viewed 15343 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

And here's the base with Satellite uplink and expansion-supply retrofit. You'd hardly know it's had a facelift. Did I mention I'm really loving this base

Factorissimo - Retrofit Overview.jpg (505.47 KiB) Viewed 15342 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Factorissimo - Ion Cannon.jpg (334.57 KiB) Viewed 15327 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Just like that...

Factorissimo - Outpost1.jpg (337.39 KiB) Viewed 15321 times

With a blueprint for the entire outpost/ion cannon facility minus the factorissimo buildings, and then blueprints for each building interior, I have exact numbers of what I need. I was pretty close (damn pipe).

Very close to being all ready where I just take a train, drop a solar field, an outpost blueprint, Factorissimo buildings, go in the buildings and watch my robots do their magic, plug in ores, coal, water... rockets and ion cannons get made/prepped. I'm stoked.

Stripped down to just rocket production it's pretty darn easy.

A facility for green circuits feeds a facility for red and blue circuits feeds a facility for speed modules and rocket control units. Two refining facilities one making solid-rocket fuel and plastic with the petroleum, the other advanced all geared to petroleum->plastic with some batteries for lasers/accumulators for the ion cannons. A steel facility feeding a low density structure facility...

There is one unemployed building bottom right. Maybe I'll make some more Satellite Uplink stations in it. I planned it for making ion cannon parts but there should be plenty of room sharing the low density structure facilities. So yeah, still got to design/set up ion cannon parts so that when I visit they're all in boxes waiting for me like when I go home. But the plan is very close to completion - Death From Above - the franchise.

[Dry Hairy Tree]

The trick to building a franchise is to make a system you can clone that will work for you without you having to do every darn thing yourself. Of course you do everything first and make it work, or get in experts to help. System design can be very creative fun in business, science, or factorio... But once it works you should leave it alone. That's why not many smart people are rich - they make something that works but keep trying to "fix it... "

Here it is - blueprints printed and stock tallies accounted for:

Death From Above - The Franchise.

Factorissimo - The Franchise.jpg (404.94 KiB) Viewed 15312 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Here is what it takes to make an ion cannon outpost Factorissimo style. (Some numbers rounded up to stack size)

800 inserters
500 fast inserters
150 long inserters
150 stack inserters
3100 red belt
350 red underground belt
200 yellow underground belt
50 red splitters
150 assemblers
500 pipes
300 underground pipes
110 steel chests
14 requester chests
11 provider chests
2 roboports
200 logistics robots
450 smelters
100 small poles
400 medium poles
50 big poles
15 transformers
1550 solar panels
1550 accumulators
400 miners
10 refineries
40 pumpjacks
30 chemical plants
7 tanks
6 rail stations
50 rail signals
500 rails
5 trains
5 carriages
11 Factorissimo buildings
and a rocket silo.

I don't know how many train wagons it takes as my first attempt I took a few runs for forgotten stuff. Time for a break. Next installment I'll try produce an outpost in one hit.

It will entail: Get in satellite uplink and scout suitable site. Ion cannon aliens if any left there - or clear some trees. Take train to site and start dropping blueprints - solar, mining, rail stations, base overview, factorissimo building interiors.

Build rockets.

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Using the Satellite Uplink I identify a good spot for a new expansion site (big circle), then focus the ion cannons on clearing proximate aliens (east of expansion site). Only the map view can capture the extent of one 'volley'.

Factorissimo - Expansion Site.jpg (165.63 KiB) Viewed 15261 times

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Factorissimo - Outpost Train.jpg (259.09 KiB) Viewed 15261 times

I loaded up a train with the above list. I was short of some underground pipes and a few sections of red belt. Having assemblers, speed 3 modules and 4 red belts of iron at hand I soon fixed that issue. That's another thing to add to the list - modules. 60 x speed 3 and 4 x production 3 makes the whole outpost twice as fast.

So: the above list plus more underground pipes according to if you use an oil station or not (I didn't so I need more pipe less chests/trains etc). And more red belt according to the distance the coal is.

The order filled 5 wagons and my large inventory. Time to roll out...