First attempt at a main bus system

[rolfba]

Hi

Ive been playing factorio a couple of times, and i finally felt i should try to create a main bus type system:

(Click the screenshot for the high resolution version)



It feels alot better than my old bases where i quickly run into problems if i want to expand.

Also i have yet to actually set up any logistics bots, but all my buffers and stuff is packed into provider chests so i guess it would be pretty straight forward.

/Rolf

[Gandalf]

Looks good.

The production is still very low though, at this point rocket defense is gonna take a lot of time to complete.
You might wanna reserve more space for smelting (although you seem to have some more off-screen) and then gradually increase all levels of circuit production in order to get those modules.
In my experience green circuits will need a very high throughput on the bus and they are the main copper sink.

Also plastic doesn't really need to stay on the main bus, since it's only used for making red circuits. A common pattern is to replace the line with red circuits at the point where they are crafted.

[SHiRKiT]

Bigger! Better! More more MORE!

[rolfba]

Thanks for the constructive feedback!

I know its still rather low production, but ive learned alot building it, im not sure if ill expand this one, or start another one and try to make that even better.

/Rolf

[Koub]

The map where I did my best main bus attempt, I realised that I had not enough throughput for all the green circuits I produced. I would advice to use the main bus for the parts that need reasonable quantities of greens, and to have dedicated green production for blue (and eventually red) circuits. This what I'll try to do next time.
Just for personal note :
To craft 1 blue level 3 module per minute, you'll need 890 green circuits per minute :
- 310/mn to craft the red circuits
- 80/mn to craft the level 1 blue modules
- 500/mn you'll need to produce the 25 blue circuits per minute needed for level 2 and level 3 blue modules.

That is only for 1 level 3 blue module/minute. You need 1080 greens/min for une pink level 3 module per minute.
One express belt (the blue one) wouln't be enough to feed both in green circuits.

Fun fact : Two blue belts wouldn't even be enough to carry the copper plates either
You'll probably want to create dedicated copper input for your modules.

[DerivePi]

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 89&p=66162

Here is a link to a previous discussion on Main Bus layout with pictures and rules of thumb which you may be interested in.

[GlassDeviant]

I enjoyed Zisteaus main bus video series and more or less duplicated it in mirror (left to right rather than right to left) because of lake placement on my map. It worked pretty good but by the end I was frustrated over the number of items left out that I would have included if I hadn't been such a neophyte at Factorio.

This factory looks promising but I can see where all the placement of solar and accumulators would get in the way of expanding the inputs with ore buffers, putting in a large train unloading network and so on, depending on the space you have available to the west.

P.S.: Plastic is also used for Cannon Shells for the Tank.

[ssilk]

I think I need to mention, that more than those items-types on a main bus doesn't make sense from gameplay. (The red circuits are already quite questionable)

[GlassDeviant]

Each person is entitled to play however they want, though. If the goal is to see how wide a bus you can come up with, the more items you can find an excuse to put on the bus, the better. If the goal is to make the most efficient/effective use of resources, then you would want to limit the bus to extensively used items like plates, electronic circuits, etc. and possibly have more than one bus line for some of them. If everyone's factory were designed the same, it would get pretty boring.

[ssilk]

I think its clear, that I dont want to shrink any play style, but I think that there are people out there, which find it a good idea and when they come to module 3 items find out, that it is not so much fun anymore.

[GlassDeviant]

Most probably, but for me the more things I have automnated (that's what the game is about after all, right?) the better. Not that I am planning on having a bus line for every single item (even I don't need 500 Cars), but I want them on the map somewhere, with the items they are made from coming from the bus.

Example:



Railroad tracks, both straight and curved, and other items are attached to the bus to get their source materials, but don't have their own lines on the bus itself. The same goes for Stone blocks and Stone walls as well as Pipe-to-ground at other points along the bus, while regular Pipe does have a (short) line because they are used in multiple other end-products as well as being a frequently used item in and of itself.

P.S.: How do you make an image that can be scrolled/expanded? Mine are always getting cropped at the right side.