Life in times of uranium shortage

[vanatteveldt]

I'm playing a "death-train-world" (max biters but no expansion, very low frequency resources).

In retrospect, I should have probably put uranium and oil on low instead of very low, but I was lucky on the initial draw and had a patch of uranium within reach. This has been powering my base for the past hours and has yielded a lot of uranium ammo and 2.4k U235 (after kovarex) to be turned into fuel or bombs.

My plan was to scout for the next patch of U, and use the nukes from this patch to secure that patch, which would hopefully be substantially larger. So I blasted my way through the biters with cluster grenades in the four cardinal directions and build radar outposts. No luck. Then I installed the advanced radar mod, and upgraded my radar ouposts so I could see a very larger area. No luck. So I went diagonal to fill out the gaps in the "plus" shape:



And what did I find...:



40 flippin' k... Which will yield 4k ore...

I will still acquire this patch because I shot through my U238 and now I actually have a shortage of 238 for making fuel cells... But this will be nowhere enough for my big expansion plan (which will require a large supply of nukes, as it is already getting quite tedious to clear nests), and I'm afraid I will have blackouts before I get somehwere (and I really don't want to move back to coal...)

What to do? Continue scouting? Create a patch manually? Is there a good lua command to turn the coal patch next to the U patch into U?

[darkfrei]

For example you can delete all empty chunks (without your entities) and all patches will be restored.
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/darkfrei ... mptyChunks

Save game will be also much tiny.

[vanatteveldt]

For example you can delete all empty chunks (without your entities) and all patches will be restored.
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/darkfrei ... mptyChunks

Save game will be also much tiny.

My radar outposts will just scan the chunks again, right?

Can I set the U frequency to "low" before I destroy the chunks?

[darkfrei]

My radar outposts will just scan the chunks again, right?

Can I set the U frequency to "low" before I destroy the chunks?

No, just same ore at the same place. If you don't change the version.

[saturn7]

Since alien bases are already as packed as possible, but resources become better the further you go away from spawn, I would try to push as far as possible in one direction, and then scout from there.

[featherwinglove]

What to do? Continue scouting? Create a patch manually? Is there a good lua command to turn the coal patch next to the U patch into U?

I'ma say, er... sort of.

[Hannu]

I made same mistake in my current railworld. I have seen annoying amount of small uranium patches in some videos and selected very low frequency and normal density. I had to explore several square kilometers to found one 100 k patch which gave me Kovarex process and first nukes. Then I loaded map in editor and searched larger pathces. There are couple of patches about 2 million total at maximum distance of 2.5 km. That is OK, because I want to make long rail lines to outposts, but finding them are too annoying because there are almost impenetrable forests and insane density of biters (they prevent clearing paths in forests by bots) everywhere.

Here are practical commands, for example to create ore patches.
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... h=e7093fa3

[vanatteveldt]

I made same mistake in my current railworld. I have seen annoying amount of small uranium patches in some videos and selected very low frequency and normal density. I had to explore several square kilometers to found one 100 k patch which gave me Kovarex process and first nukes. Then I loaded map in editor and searched larger pathces. There are couple of patches about 2 million total at maximum distance of 2.5 km.
[..]
Here are practical commands, for example to create ore patches.
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... h=e7093fa3

Yeah I already cheated in a U patch. I really did not feel like spending more hours cleaning out biter bases to blast a scouting path using cluster grenades. Now I have nukes and mowing the lawn became so much easier

That is OK, because I want to make long rail lines to outposts, but finding them are too annoying because there are almost impenetrable forests and insane density of biters (they prevent clearing paths in forests by bots) everywhere.

If you have nukes, why would you clear forests with bots?

[Hannu]

If you have nukes, why would you clear forests with bots?

I had not nukes because I was exploring area to find uranium. I do not yet have them so much I could afford them for forest clearing. The safety may also be an issue when you are in forest and launch an atomic bomb with portable rocket launcher. Grenades are better but I am not very used to use them and often forget them.

[Nich]

Yep I have to say this screams solar conversion

[vanatteveldt]

Well I guess the lesson is also to not put U (and crude) on very low frequency unless you really enjoy scouting very far to get enough (which combines badly with deathworld maps).

Now that I have enough uranium clearing biter areas is much easier:



You can see the lua'd in Uranium mine in the southeast on the location of the tiny uranium patch.

(NB About clearing forests: the nuke comment was (mostly) tongue-in-cheek, but using bots to clear forests in enemy areas is generally not optimal. I use cluster grenades if I'm in a hurry, and poison otherwise. You can easily throw a cluster grenade centered on yourself if you have good shielding, so you can blast through forest almost at running speed)