Introduction, quick thoughts and a few questions:

[fliberdygibits]

Hello all!

I've been playing for a bit, just now decided to jump on a forum. I'm at something like 500 hours game time. Not sure how I didn't find this before but OMG!! I've built a few factories early on but more recently I've just been tearing down and rebuilding the same factory each time I decide to tackle some new key thing (logistics, trains, etc...). I'll build a factory for a while then BLAM.... spaghetti..... then I'll tear down and rebuild bigger than last time and learning some key thing but then eventually BLAM... spaghetti and I start again. Right now I have a rudimentary train network with about 10 trains gather minerals but NONE delivering within my factory. I'm also realizing I need to start giving some attention to belt balancing in the next rebuild. I'm curious:

I see many factories online with rails gathering supplies off into the distance for miles and miles, all laid out so neatly and in some cases very complicating mining sites/loading bays. How do people with big train setups like this compensate for the fact they are constantly going to changing up their nicely laid out track as mineral patches dry up?

So eventually my factory seems to go BLAM spaghetti.... How do YOU deal? Am I best backing up and redesigning when I see that? Or am I safe letting it be as long as it works? How gung ho are YOU to deal with speghettification?

Thanks guys!

[zOldBulldog]

Personally I find that design is the most fun part of Factorio.

Trying new and better ways of doing things is what keeps it fresh, always keeping the best and replacing the worst. And some things I just keep redoing because even though they worked they never felt "just right".

For example, most of my factories now have a small circuit that measures power supply and shuts them down if power drops below a certain %. I also have a system that alerts me if incoming belts are low. For the rebuilding side... I've redesigned my jumpstart base about 7-10 times, but I finally like my current blueprint.

[Lav]

I see many factories online with rails gathering supplies off into the distance for miles and miles, all laid out so neatly and in some cases very complicating mining sites/loading bays. How do people with big train setups like this compensate for the fact they are constantly going to changing up their nicely laid out track as mineral patches dry up?

Easy. You don't build railway lines to your resource patches. You simply build a global railway network from the start - and just prioritize the sections that go close to the resource patches you need, and then build small branches to the actual patches. Once the patch dries up, you tear down the mining outpost and branch railway - but your global network stays.

This approach works on all levels actually. Don't build a factory that you need right now - build a factory that you will need 100 hours down the line, and just prioritize the sections of that megafactory that you actually need right at this moment. It makes for a more sprawling and seemingly illogical setups at the start, but once your big factory starts taking form, it all fits and you don't have to rebuild again and again.

[Bauer]

It happens to everyone.
You start to make plans.
Everything runs nicely.
The complexity of factorio screws your plan.
You add a (very small) interim solution.
Out of a sudden. Bam! spaghetti.

There is no way out.

Really.

But it helps to think big.

[fliberdygibits]

Easy. You don't build railway lines to your resource patches. You simply build a global railway network from the start - and just prioritize the sections that go close to the resource patches you need, and then build small branches to the actual patches.

This is actually what I do... vaguely:) There are a few spots where I got lucky and my track ran right THRU a patch but generally belts cover the last mile from the mineral to the track and trains do the heavy lifting back from there.

[eradicator]

So eventually my factory seems to go BLAM spaghetti.... How do YOU deal? Am I best backing up and redesigning when I see that? Or am I safe letting it be as long as it works? How gung ho are YOU to deal with speghettification?

I think for general play (I.e. if you're not building a fully planned out megabase) it's best to apply "never touch a running system". So, when you see that your green circuits are spagetthi, you just build a new green circuits plant somewhere else that hopefully is less spaghetti. That way you both decrese the general percentage of spaghetti factory and increase your production capacity ;).

I know the urge to "tear this shit down and do it right", i do/did it far too often myself. But ultimately it just slows you down on your way to build a big factory. And you're never going to build something "perfect" anyway, regardless of how often you redesign it.

So when i redesign now (after playing too many hours) i don't tear down a single plant. I build a completely new factory next to the old one and then tear down the old one. Ohhey...i think i'm trapped in the redesign-loop again, just on a larger scale :p.

[adam_bise]

There are so many ways to achieve your goal. That is one of the best features of the game.. the freedom to come up with your own clever solution.

My advise is to just think about how you would _like_ to see your base and work towards figuring out how to make that happen. You will gain little tips and tricks along the way anyway.

Some people actually enjoy making their base as spaghetti as possible! Others are infuriated if their factories are not modularized, and others still must have symmetry.

Most will come up with their own little design and blueprint it for later use, but will constantly be tweaking the design and layout.

Some people focus on the parts and pieces and the whole base is sort of an emergent manifestation, and others figure out how they want the big picture first and sort out the details second.