Stuck in a dependency loop

[gregdonald]

I'm a beginner, learning how to play.

I'm currently on an objective that requires making 5 electronic circuits. I can't make any electronic circuits because I don't have any copper cable. I have lots of copper plates but I can't make any copper cable because copper cable can't be made by hand. I read online after Google'ng that if I make an assembling machine I can then use it to make copper cable. I can't make an assembling machine because it requires electronic circuits that I can't make for all the reasons I already explained.

I have an assembly machine that currently makes iron gear wheels. I read online that I could switch an assembling machine over to make something. It tells me to "click on a circle with an arrow in it" and choose the copper cable recipe, but I don't see how to do that anywhere.

I'm using Version 0.17.41 (0.17.41) if that helps.

[Koub]

If you're playing vanilla, copper cables are craftable by hand from the start :
https://wiki.factorio.com/Copper_cable

Resetting the recipe in an assembling machine is :

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[gregdonald]

In my crafting menu when I right click on copper cable it says "This recipe cannot be crafted by hand".

I don't have a circle arrow button on my assembly machine:

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[eradicator]

If you're playing vanilla, copper cables are craftable by hand from the start :

It's the new campaign first mission where you can't hand craft the stuff as usual.

I remember being puzzled by the "dependency loop" as well, and it took me like 2 minutes to figure it out despite having played thousands of hours.

@gregdonald
The solution was indeed to use a single assembler to first make cables, then switch it over to circuits, but i think i did have *one* standard assembler at that point (i.e. a freely placeable one, not the fixed red ones). Have you searched the wrecks in the area? maybe one of them contains some free circuits?

[gregdonald]

Searching the wrecks yields zero electronic circuits.

[eradicator]

The big wreck in the center should have exactly the 3 circuits you need to build a single assembler.

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[gregdonald]

Mine does not.

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[eradicator]

You do have one circuit though, so maybe you lost the other two. You can cheat them in if you want:

Code: Select all

/c game.player.insert{name='electronic-circuit',count=2}

Not sure how you *can* lose them though. And the fact that you do have at least one means you probably had the three from the wreck before. Maybe they're stuck in one of the "feeder"s? In that case try holding down "F" and walking over the feeders.