[0.14] Scenario: Build a rocket-launching base on a platform

[ShadowTheAge]

Ouch! You are trapped in a some sort of factorissimo building! The only way out is to build a rocket to blow the ceiling, but the space is very limited!
Not only so, you also need to launch it fully automatically, including smelting, power and satellite building, without manual help. When the rocket is done and equipped with satellite - it launches.

The scenario has 2 stages - the first stage “Planning stage” - where you build the base. Your base is working while you are building it, you can even launch a rocket this way, but you cannot win this way. This is just for you to see that everything is working properly.
When you are done, you can transition to the second stage. Upon transition, your base is reset - All items on conveyors, in chests and buildings are deleted, and the timer starts ticking. You can no longer change things and you can use fast-forward buttons. Furnaces and boilers are starting with 5 coal as a fuel. You can also return to planning stage at any moment.

You have limited resources to build the base and you can’t use your factory to produce more. You have more then enough yellow belts, inserters, assembling machines 2 and other basic supplies, but your access to more advanced resources is limited - you have only a few stacks of red belts, some assembling machines 3, and some modules. These are limited resources that you can’t spam. You also have a power armor mk2 with legs and personal roboports.

Building area, resources and supplies:


The scenario is playable in multiplayer! Being able to play with friends is important. However, be careful when using fast-forward buttons, especially “Max speed” as your friend may disconnect.

There is also a scoring system - the time it takes to launch the rocket from the reset is your score. Try to get at most 100 minutes. The best known score is 69:03 if you get below an hour - you are a spahetti god and I want to see a replay! Not sure if it is possible but resource-wise it is (barely) enough.

The scenario is also featuring production statistics panel! You can see exactly how much stuff you produce in the running phase, and I have calculated resources required for a rocket and a satellite, so you can compare your production with that numbers!

Additional info and a few advices:

• You can use circuit network and circuit network state is reset when you start running your factory
• Don’t overproduce the satellite. It eats a lot of resources, especially blue circuits, that you are going to need on the rocket!
• Use provided effeciency modules to reduce power consumption of the most power-hungry buildings. In order of hungriness: Oil refinery > Chemical plant > Assembler 3 > Assembler 2.

A small spoiler-free part of my base:


Spoilers! reddit link to the 69:03 base.

If you have one of the previous versions, you don't really need to update as nothing critical was changed.

Version history and previous versions

v1.0: Initial release

minibase.zip

(39.05 KiB) Downloaded 397 times

v1.1: Fixes:
- Increased oil input from 9/sec to 10/sec to make sub-hour builds possible
- Fixed some fluidboxes not cleared when the factory starts working

minibase_1.1.zip

(39.08 KiB) Downloaded 350 times

v1.2 Fixes
- Burner inserters now start with 1 coal, similar to boilers and steel furnaces (which start with 5)

Download for 0.14 vanilla:

minibase_1.2.zip

(39.07 KiB) Downloaded 521 times

Put it into your factorio/scenarios/ folder, if there is no such folder - create it.

[NearlyDutch]

Great scenario!

I actually beat my 69:03 time by 20 seconds, so the current record is now at 68:43. Below a pixelated screenshot of the base, so no one is spoilered on the challenge without his/her will. (unedited image inside the spoiler tag at the end of the post)

I started out with a spreadsheet that essentially calculated the amount of each assembler, chemical plant, etc. I need for each item to be able to launch a rocket in about 90m. From there I iteratively moved parts of the base around to make room for production improvements to the bottlenecks. The last few runs I just moved around the speed modules to get the best and most equal production between rocket fuel, rocket control units and low density structures.

Unedited Image

[DaveMcW]

if you get below an hour - you are a spahetti god and I want to see a replay! Not sure if it is possible but resource-wise it is (barely) enough.

There is not enough oil to get below an hour.

9 oil/s * 1 hour = 32400 oil
32400 * 0.55 = 17820 petroleum gas
32400 * 0.45 = 14580 light oil
32400 * 0.1 = 3240 heavy oil = 2430 light oil

After subtracting 7700 light oil for rocket fuel and cracking the rest, we get 24026 petroleum gas, which seems to be 41 more than needed. But 41 petroleum gas is only 5 seconds of oil. Even with max speed modules at every step, it is impossible to turn oil into rocket parts in 5 seconds.

With infinite space, perfect oil management, and speed module 2 everywhere, the best you can do is:

59:55 oil supply at 9/s
+0:03.1 advanced oil processing
+0:00.5 plastic
+0:13.6 low density structure
+0:07.5 rocket part with max productivity
----------
60:20 total

I recommend increasing oil to 10/s. This puts it approximately equal to iron as a bottleneck, and allows a best time of ~54 minutes on an infinite map.

[Klonan]

Hmm i like this, sort've of a 'Frozen factory' challenge, like the cities skyline challenge: https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines ... challenge/

I will definitely be giving it a try this week

[ShadowTheAge]

Yeah, I have screwed up the calculation of oil, forgot to factor in solid fuel requirements

I don't know what is better - leave it as-is to keep previous scores actual, or change to make a tiny chance of sub-hour possibility

This will be definitely fixed for 0.15 - maybe with platform increase to account for power changes in 0.15

[DaveMcW]

Scores of ~68 minutes are too slow to be affected by the oil shortage. I am working on a sub-hour run with increased oil, and it is definitely possible.

[ShadowTheAge]

What's your current score? My best was 64:55 http://i.imgur.com/Q9KYpY6.png
EDIT: I have increased oil input and immediately got better result (64:36). Uploading it in a moment.
EDIT2: Uploaded new version, updated images. However, updating scenario does not update it in your saves. You will need a blueprint-string mod to transfer your base. The update only matters if you are going sub-65 minutes. Also, fixed a small bug, the fix makes runs more deterministic (Almost the same time between runs)

[DaveMcW]

I launched my first rocket in 61:03, apparently the 40 seconds of animation counts towards the finish time.

Back to the drawing board to make all the assembly lines 2% longer.

Spoiler

minirocket.jpg (244.44 KiB) Viewed 19850 times

[ShadowTheAge]

WOW you have a lot of free space for such a good score. Looks like i have greatly underestimated the power of speed modules (I thought that their power costs more space than saves)

About the animation counting towards the score - ... that's an interesting feedback, I've used the same event for registering launch as vanilla game. It is about 20 seconds though

[DaveMcW]

A couple questions about burner inserters:

1. Is is intentional that burner inserters are limited to 50? I would totally use 100 to exploit the extra coal and reduce electricity usage.

2. It would be very helpful to let burner inserters keep 1 coal in their fuel slot. I have to rebuild burner inserters before every run to make sure they start with full energy. Or better, make the startup script set all burner inserters to 0 coal and a full energy bar.

[ShadowTheAge]

1. They were intended as an option to feed boilers. I decided to not add additional items for the 0.14 version, but this feedback is helpful for the future 0.15 version. I also think I will add accumulators. to help covering energy consumption spikes.

2. This is a bug, and it has broken on a newer version because I've tested it when I was doing it. There is a code that sets burner inserter fuel to the same value it gets when placed manually (enough to move 2 items). You can even see when starting sumulation, the "no fuel" icon disappears, but setting fuel to positive value no longer activates it if it was zero. I am looking for a work-arounds.

EDIT: Looks like it is impossible to modify fuel value (progress bar) from the script, and the value that is modifiable ("energy") refers to some sort of additional small energy buffer below that. The work-around for furnaces is to replace them with script, but it is problematic to do this with inserters because they can be connected to the circuit network. So, filling them with 1 coal is probably the best I can do, and this still leads to non-determinism in coal consumption

[darkfrei]

If you need.

[mrvn]

Any plan to add a 0.16 version?

[darkfrei]

\with some changings, added express belts, now map is 64x64

upd v02: now you get 30 crude oil per second.

[mrvn]

Thanks.

And one more request: How about a Bobs/Angels version? Would need larger area, more buildings and the different ore and gas types.

[darkfrei]

Thanks.

And one more request: How about a Bobs/Angels version? Would need larger area, more buildings and the different ore and gas types.

How big must be bob's version, angel's version, youki version and version with 2 or 3 this mods? Maybe add free power?

[darkfrei]

Update: Now compatible (not tested) with all mods.

You are get one full belt of every resource in the game, 30 fluids/second of all fluid resource. Pumps are not detected.

minibase_0_16_v04.zip

For 0.16

(43.22 KiB) Downloaded 288 times

2018-05-23 22_51_02-Factorio 0.16.45.jpg (95.63 KiB) Viewed 14293 times

[darkfrei]

For 0.17:

minibase_0_17_v05.zip

(43.36 KiB) Downloaded 216 times

2019-12-29T16_06_29-Window.png (334.47 KiB) Viewed 10957 times

[mrvn]

1. They were intended as an option to feed boilers. I decided to not add additional items for the 0.14 version, but this feedback is helpful for the future 0.15 version. I also think I will add accumulators. to help covering energy consumption spikes.

2. This is a bug, and it has broken on a newer version because I've tested it when I was doing it. There is a code that sets burner inserter fuel to the same value it gets when placed manually (enough to move 2 items). You can even see when starting sumulation, the "no fuel" icon disappears, but setting fuel to positive value no longer activates it if it was zero. I am looking for a work-arounds.

EDIT: Looks like it is impossible to modify fuel value (progress bar) from the script, and the value that is modifiable ("energy") refers to some sort of additional small energy buffer below that. The work-around for furnaces is to replace them with script, but it is problematic to do this with inserters because they can be connected to the circuit network. So, filling them with 1 coal is probably the best I can do, and this still leads to non-determinism in coal consumption

With only the initial energy the inserter will pick up 2 iron ore ant put it into a furnace and then freez. So 1 coal is really better anyway.