too much iron for express belts

[DerStilleBob]

Hi,

i just calculated the iron needed to satisfy the needs of one assembly machine producing express transport belts:

4.94 iron plates/second

To produce that, one would need:
50 furnaces and to saturate those, one would need 67 iron mines!

I personally think this is too much. Sure, i can edit a map and add lots of ressources, so that i can sustain such a high need. But i suggest rebalancing the ressource-needs and ressource deposits on the map.

The details of the calculation:
ib = iron bars
io = iron ore
s = seconds

Code: Select all

1 express belt: 41.5 ib/23s  = 1.80 ib/s
1 fast belt:    11.5 ib/ 7s  = 1.64 ib/s
1 belt:          3.0 ib/ 2s  = 1.50 ib/s
========================================
                               4.94 ib/s

(1 ib needs 1 io)

1 furnace = 1 ib/10s = 0.1 ib/s

50 furnaces = 5 ib/s 

1 mine = 0.75 io/s

67 mines = 50.25 io / s
 

[kovarex]

We did want the express transport belt to be really high-end item, it also forces to player to actually think what is the place he really needs to use these belts, and not just switch to using express transport belts everywhere too easily.

But I agree, it might be little bit cheaper.

[MF-]

Basically..
You are complaining that the express belts are made too quickly.
I actually agree. Attaching all those gears should take some time.

[kovarex]

Yes, the crafting time could be increased.

[DerStilleBob]

Ahoj,

thanks for the fast response. OK, i can see your point.

And increasing the time is also an option (als MF suggests).

But i think i would prefer a much richer resource distribution for sandbox games (or just make an option for infinite ressource-blocks).

In scenario games i totally want ressource management / -shortage as part of the game.

Regards
BoB

[syneris]

Wouldn't you also need 15 gear factories to do 1 belt per second?

[Mysteria9]

They should be expensive, they are the fastest!

[ficolas]

They are expensive enought, but the time they need to be created is short.
Also, They arent sooo usefull, I almost never use them

[FreeER]

There are few times that you need them, even though I've pretty much converted my whole factory to them because i'm lazy and haven't felt like using my 100k+ worth of copper to set up more labs/assemblers yet... almost reached the point where if we had blueprints and a builder I could probably actually start duplicating my factory, Though I'd probably build a smaller more efficent one before doing so...

[Blackmoor]

They should be expensive, they are the fastest!

They aren't so useful that I would want to make 50 furnaces and 67 iron mines.

I'd rather fewer resource requirements and longer manufacture time, as others have suggested.

[Dakkanor]

They should be expensive, they are the fastest!

They aren't so useful that I would want to make 50 furnaces and 67 iron mines.

I'd rather fewer resource requirements and longer manufacture time, as others have suggested.

what about putting the express belt at the end of a BUS? that way thy only use what isn't used bt the rest of the factory, your excess becomes useful without interfering with the rest of the factory

[Holy-Fire]

Your numbers are way off.

According to my measurements a furnace generates 0.3 ib/s, a mine generates 0.47 io/s. So for 4.94 ib/s, you'll need 17 furnaces and 11 mines.

But 4.94 ib/s isn't right either. The figures of 41.5 ib and 23 s include the time and resources required to build all the intermediate items. If you have an assembly machine 2 producing express belts at 100% capacity - together with all the machines needed for gears and lower-level belts - you'll generate 0.9 etb (express transport belt) per second. Since the total cost of this belt is 41.5 ib, you'll need 37.35 ib/s to get the whole thing running - 125 furnaces and 80 mines.

On the other hand, you get about 1 etb per second for this, and you don't need that much. You can scale down the operation to as many etb as you need (for example, by having just 2 gear machines instead of 20, or using a circuit to run in bursts when stock is low), with corresponding ib generation.