Please allow mining drills to store at least ONE ore! :(

[Dragony]

Hello,

I am really frustrated by not being able to get a 100% duty mining drill system while maintaining a somehat sane looking setup.

With the introduction of mining productivity the problem gets even worse. This is my setup:

Code: Select all

M=Mining drill
B=Blue belt
P=Power supply

P   P   P   P
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
P   P   P   P
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
P   P   P   P

Sorry for not providing a screenshot, but I am sure you get the idea. The problem is that the mining drill stops mining as soon as the drill can not release the ore to the belt. Unfortunately its not possible to avoid this problem without using a blue belt system like this:

Code: Select all

B   B   B   B   B   B   B
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
B   B   B   B   B   B   B

But this means three lines wasted with a not-sane looking belt system. Not to mention the problem that you cant reach the ore under the mid-belt anymore.

While roasting my brain trying to find a solution, which still is nice to look at. I wonder why the heck you are not simply allowing to store at least ONE ore in the mining drill? Whats the deal behind it?

[whitecold]

You can have your miners load into chests, and unload from those, or unload onto side belts which feed into the main. There are plenty of solutions already other than changing the game.

[Koub]

Wouldn't this setup do what you want ?

screenshot

Factorio - No need for mining drill buffer.JPG (338.37 KiB) Viewed 4456 times

[Edit]

Or this

Factorio - No need for mining drill buffer - 2.JPG (208.98 KiB) Viewed 4454 times

[d3x0r]

(err ya, what he said)

You can also use underground belts - the input from the drill takes precedence over the belt attached to it...

M
BUUB ->
M

[Dragony]

Wouldn't this setup do what you want ?

screenshot

Factorio - No need for mining drill buffer.JPG

It would function as desired, but honestly, it looks ugly to me because no factory planner in the real world would do it that way. It looks like a work-around for a problem which should have been solved by the game itself. IMHO its the same problem as with the buffer chest written about in yesterday's FFF. There are work-arounds existing but still the devs decided to address the issue by implementing a new chest type. Why did they do it, if there are ways around it already? Because it just feels better that way, and in my opinion it just would feel better if the drilling mine would be able to buffer at least one ore.

[d3x0r]

Wouldn't this setup do what you want ?

screenshot

Factorio - No need for mining drill buffer.JPG

It would function as desired, but honestly, it looks ugly to me because no factory planner in the real world would do it that way. It looks like a work-around for a problem which should have been solved by the game itself. IMHO its the same problem as with the buffer chest written about in yesterday's FFF. There are work-arounds existing but still the devs decided to address the issue by implementing a new chest type. Why did they do it, if there are ways around it already? Because it just feels better that way, and in my opinion it just would feel better if the drilling mine would be able to buffer at least one ore.

Well - can put a chest in front and use loaders to the belt... but that uses a lot of space (1 for the chest, 2 for the loader...)
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Optera/LoaderRedux

There was a player that was building a high production factory that did that, which is why I know the trick to insert into an underground that prioritizes it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkdq8E1y5Yk (in the first couple minutes)

[d3x0r]

https://youtu.be/9udxyPuWjaQ?t=5m43s another example from a year ago...

[m44v]

The problem is that the mining drill stops mining as soon as the drill can not release the ore to the belt.

Wouldn't that mean that you have some backpressure? Drills do store one ore though, if you rotate a stopped drill it will release 1 ore in the new spot before resuming drilling, is just that the UI for drills doesn't show that for some reason, unlike everything else.

[Sicnarf]

I think what he is worried about is mining efficiency you can correct me if I' wrong Dragony
Imagine a drill 10 mines down a mining belt and the mines before it due to randomness spit our all their ore in just the right way that all 10 ore is snuggled up against each other nice and tight on the belt. This 10 ore "block" passes in front of the 11th mine just as it is about to spit out it's ore, so of course the ore cannot come out now and the mine stops mining and waits until the 10 block of ore has passed at which point it resumes mining.
This means that mines that are further down the belts have more and more blocked time where they will stop mining for small periods as little groups of ore passes them. If they had a 1 ore cache they would no longer have these micro stops as ores pass them just as they are about to spit our their ore.
Never really though about this before, but as far as I'm aware this kind of issue could only happen when the mines are first switched on. (Excluding productivity bonus)
Since the mines all have the same mining time if a mine gets blocked from spitting out ore it will spit it out at the next available slot and then resume mining. Since the mines ahead of it are all mining at the same speed the ore will come down the belt in the exact same pattern next time and the mine will spit out the ore at exactly the right time to find it's place on the belt this time round. If you wish to test this try 13 electric mines on a yellow belt (will fully saturate one side) and they will all sync up in a few minutes and saturate perfectly with no stops.
EDIT Now that I think about it even with the mining productivity bonus since they all have the same bonus it should still sync up after the initial blip caused by the first extra ore coming out would require testing to be sure though.

[Koub]

When inserting an item on the entrance or the exit of an underground belt, the insertion has priority over the belt's content. So you'll ALWAYS be able to insert whaterver you're trying to.