Colossus One - megafactory

[Minsc&Boo]

After about 100 hours of playtime I was wracking my brain to come up with the most efficient robot run factory i could envision.

Mind you I'm not smart enough to use combinator's but i think someone else could really make it shine with a few tweaks.

I present to you: COLOSSUS ONE

• Colossus's shape is based upon the roboport, substation and beacons area of influence. Also, on reducing transport time between chests.
• Each factory gets an IN (request) and OUT (passive) box. Nestled together in a single line, forming a cross spanning from the center.
• The single conveyor belt carries resources around in a loop while passive storage chests are constantly refilled. Long term storage sits in the middle.
• Robots choose where to get their resources as needed. They are close to everything and restock in the middle near a roboport.
• Red blue and green research parts are made near the center, and their support parts are made from the outer edge inwards.
• Beacons support nine factory's per block.
• One substation powers an entire block.
• For every block there are two factories with a space allowing liquid resources, like sulphoric acid etc.
• Easily change things around to suite your needs, on the fly by changing the requester chest items and factory recipe.
• Easily optimize by restricting OUT and IN chests via X symbol.
• Run around the outside and reconfigure for emergencies, while retaining inner permanent recipes.

[Jupiter]

Interesting. You could build an entire factory out of these 'units' as the whole thing seems to be tileable. Have you tested the throughput/production capacity?

One thing though, you seem to store copper and iron plates in the middle AND you loop it around. In my eyes you don't need both. And if you want storage just for the sake of storage then just lump it down somewhere else outside the ring.
It would save some space.

There is also the thing with steel. You can swap out either iron or copper for steel but that would mean that a block can't use all 3 at once. This might become a problem (or not, I have not memorized all recipes in the game).

[Minsc&Boo]

Interesting. You could build an entire factory out of these 'units' as the whole thing seems to be tileable. Have you tested the throughput/production capacity?

Yes its definitely tile'able. Basically, 1 tile = One substation's area of effect. You will see the substation AOE overlaps in my design, to keep the chests tightly packed.

I never got round to testing throughput, I ended up with 250+ logistic robots and adjusted the assemblers and their IN/OUT boxes accordingly. The recipes changed all the time, but I could keep recipes for research intact towards the center while mucking about with assemblers on the outside.

One thing though, you seem to store copper and iron plates in the middle AND you loop it around. In my eyes you don't need both. And if you want storage just for the sake of storage then just lump it down somewhere else outside the ring. It would save some space.

Good question! I wanted multiple pickup points for iron copper and steel. A robot would then choose the closest resource chest in proximity to requester chest, as opposed to going back to the center. Also, the outer resource chests supply the outer edge of assemblers faster than the center.

You can't see it in the photo but I have massive array of chests that hold most of the resources. I'll snap another screenshot so you can see it. The yellow long term chests are just there to get rid of my junk as I run around the outside and configure recipes.

There is also the thing with steel. You can swap out either iron or copper for steel but that would mean that a block can't use all 3 at once. This might become a problem (or not, I have not memorized all recipes in the game).

Your right! I was lazy, I could of used smart inserter's and categorized the outer resource chests into steel copper and iron, but just ended up with fast inserter's instead. Next time I'll use smart ones and just one fast inserter to pickup any debris. In the end I had way way way way more resources than I needed to finish the rocket.

Screenshot:
Warning: 8000x8000 - 2.9 Megabyte
[ Factorio Version: 0.12.35 Build 18124, win64, steam ]


To get a screenshot like above:
1) Type [ %appdata%\factorio ] into your start menu. Then create a [ script-output ] folder if there isn't one there already. This is where the screenshots will be stored.

It should look like this:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Factorio\script-output\

2) Start up factorio and configure console hotkey here: Main menu/options/controls/game tab/toggle Lua console.

Then while in-game, press the console hotkey and paste this in, then hit return:
Note: change the 8000's to whatever you like.

Code: Select all

/c game.take_screenshot{resolution = {x = 8000, y = 8000}} 

Get a lot more info here.

[Jupiter]

Thanks for the screenshot tip and the link. Very usefull!

Now a couple of things I've noticed:
HOLY CRAP that is a lot of storage.

Secondly, I see you're suffering from a particular problem in that screenshot.
The whole loop is full of copper. There is no place anymore for iron. You do have those trash chests (which you empty by hand I assume) but the whole loop is setup in such a way that everything on the inner lane AFTER the split leading to those chests is going to remain there. That is because in the top left of the loop you do a side merge but only the outer lane will actually merge (unless you are resource starved, creating room for the inner lane to merge as well).

Thirtly.
It might be the case (I haven't checked so I would know) that a single roboport is not enough the required number of drones. It might be worth while to do the math and see if you've got enough recharching capacity there. (I see you already added a second at the top outside of the loop)

Next thing,
In each corner there are 8 inserters for 9 yellow assemblers which have modules and a beacon and all that. Would 8 + everything in the center be enough for ingredient intensive recipes like green circuits?

I love this idea very much and I'm just trying to help you improve it

[Minsc&Boo]

I do apologize for my tardiness, (cripes its been almost 3 weeks!)

I'll try to answer as best I can!

Thanks for the screenshot tip and the link. Very usefull!

No Problem! It was a learning experience for me to.

Now a couple of things I've noticed:
HOLY CRAP that is a lot of storage.

Yeah, i got tired of running around to chests all over the place. So I thought its time to make fort knox.

Secondly, I see you're suffering from a particular problem in that screenshot.
The whole loop is full of copper. There is no place anymore for iron. You do have those trash chests (which you empty by hand I assume) but the whole loop is setup in such a way that everything on the inner lane AFTER the split leading to those chests is going to remain there. That is because in the top left of the loop you do a side merge but only the outer lane will actually merge (unless you are resource starved, creating room for the inner lane to merge as well).

Oh that is by design, it just keeps going around and around and the chests at each corner fill as needed. I never ever had a problem with iron or copper, not once. No my problem was OIL and plastic. I just didn't make it fast enough.

Thirtly.
It might be the case (I haven't checked so I would know) that a single roboport is not enough the required number of drones. It might be worth while to do the math and see if you've got enough recharching capacity there. (I see you already added a second at the top outside of the loop)

I think in the end I had around 250 logistics bots, and that was fine for moving things around. Ultimately, I would probably tile the entire thing twice and have roboports between then North South East and West.

Next thing,
In each corner there are 8 inserters for 9 yellow assemblers which have modules and a beacon and all that. Would 8 + everything in the center be enough for ingredient intensive recipes like green circuits?

Your probably correct, 8 would be enough. But what I found out is this setup is really good for changing things quickly. For example, if i find there are too many nuts being made and not enough green circuits, I can shut down 1 and replace its recipe with a green circuit, then i change the requester chest to the green circuits ingredients (SHIFT+RIGHTCLICK the assembler) then (SHIFT+LEFTCLICK the requester chest), and that will place the exact needs of one green circuit (copper iron etc) into the requester chests request system.

Not only that, but while I've optimized the above for green circuits, I can go on making other things using the assemblers on the outside near the corners. It's a lot easier to do this then have to make a new setup for every type of item.

I love this idea very much and I'm just trying to help you improve it

Thank you! its nice that it helps someone!. But keep in mind, its very much end-game material. it will take a long time to get the resources together to make this setup efficient.