Simple Questions and Short Answers

[Pi-C]

Quick question to players of MP games: Suppose there is a multiplayer game with players A, B, and C on force FA and players X, Y, Z on force FB. The game has run some time, then everybody logs off. Next day, A resumes the game. As A is the host, no other player has joined the game yet. What would be the result of game.forces["FA"].players and game.forces["FB"].players at that moment? Would it be just {A} for FA and {} for FB, or would it still be {A, B, C} and {X, Y, Z}?
(I believe I've already asked something like that before, just couldn't find the answer immediately.)

[eradicator]

would it still be {A, B, C} and {X, Y, Z}?

Yes. game.players and LuaForce.players are not "dynamic". For that both of them provide "connected_players".

[Pi-C]

would it still be {A, B, C} and {X, Y, Z}?

Yes. game.players and LuaForce.players are not "dynamic". For that both of them provide "connected_players".

Great, so there still is something to improve my patch. Thanks for confirming my supposition!

[Voidedfactory]

I just got myself a new laptop to play Factorio on (so far it's looking amaaaaazing, although I haven't quite done the real stress test I want of a save with many mods), and I want to know how I can transfer blueprints from my old laptop to this one, or something like that. Would I Need to have them located in the "game blueprints" side of things for it to be transferable to different computers?

(also, playing a game without the Long Reach mod feels so damn stifling. I"m so used to having it reach basically everywhere and pick stuff up/put stuff down/insert or remove from chests from across the map that to only have, like, 20 units to work with feels like such a hindrance. I will put it back in soon, though.)

EDIT: Actually...if I uninstalled Factorio from my old laptop so I could play it on the new one, are those blueprints all gone now? If so, I think I'll need to search for BIlka's balancers again as I don't remember how I found those (though they're an immense help in doing, like, 24x24 balancers. I can't seem to find anything on balancers bigger than that, though.)

[Impatient]

... how I can transfer blueprints ...

The BP storage is in "%AppData%\Roaming\Factorio\blueprint-storage.dat" . On windows that should still be there after you uninstalled the game. On linux I don't know. Maybe it is gone if you purged the game.

[Voidedfactory]

I had them on the right side of the blueprint menu in-game (My blueprints), not on the left (game blueprints). Searching through my old laptop only brings up the ones on the left (which was just two of them), so I guess it doesn't have them. I suppose I can hope that a re-install still finds them, but it's possible they're all just gone. Damn, I wish I had remembered them like I did my mod folder.

At least I found the github link to Bilka's balancers and am copying those to the "game blueprints" side this time!

[DJQuad]

What's the correct ratio for train engines to artillery wagons? I've seen everything from 1-1 to 1-2, to 1-4.

[astroshak]

Correct ratio, in terms of what?

One L to 4 or more A’s gets the job done. 1:1 only makes the train accelerate faster.

But does that acceleration matter, really? Either you are using the Artillery wagons as giant cargo wagons for hauling Artillery Shells around for your fixed-piece Artillery, or you are having the train circle your perimeter stopping every once in a while to launch attacks. Either way, increased acceleration is not going to make all that large an impact upon your perimeter defenses.

[DJQuad]

Great point. I got the design from Zisteau https://imgur.com/a/6LPhip2

[Voidedfactory]

I had them on the right side of the blueprint menu in-game (My blueprints), not on the left (game blueprints). Searching through my old laptop only brings up the ones on the left (which was just two of them), so I guess it doesn't have them. I suppose I can hope that a re-install still finds them, but it's possible they're all just gone. Damn, I wish I had remembered them like I did my mod folder.

At least I found the github link to Bilka's balancers and am copying those to the "game blueprints" side this time!

As a follow-up, I did find them via re-installing Factorio on my old laptop and then copying the string.dat to an external drive! I'll just have to remember to copy that alongside my mods and saves in the future!

[Impatient]

As a follow-up, I did find them via re-installing Factorio on my old laptop and then copying the string.dat to an external drive! I'll just have to remember to copy that alongside my mods and saves in the future!

so that means the bp-storage was still on that windows insta. check the path I wrote about earlier.

[XTF]

I'm playing demo / introduction/level-01 and I'm stuck on producing Science packs.. there's the Repaired assembling machine, but it seems it can only produce gear wheels. How do I produce Science packs?

Update:
Nevermind, I restarted the level and noticed a second assembling machine..

[digit777]

What is this grid of red squares on the map? I've seen it many times but have no idea what it means?

5x5 grid of red squares on factorio map.jpg (110.57 KiB) Viewed 4249 times

[Honktown]

What is this grid of red squares on the map? I've seen it many times but have no idea what it means?
5x5 grid of red squares on factorio map.jpg

Looks like a debug option. Hit F4 and see if there's a show-"something" option that has a checkbox. Turn them off one-by-one to see if it's one of those (turning them all off is fine).

[digit777]

What is this grid of red squares on the map? I've seen it many times but have no idea what it means?
5x5 grid of red squares on factorio map.jpg

Looks like a debug option. Hit F4 and see if there's a show-"something" option that has a checkbox. Turn them off one-by-one to see if it's one of those (turning them all off is fine).

Thanks! It was "show-bad-attack-chunks", which someone on reddit claimed to be "somewhere the biters want to attack from but don't have a path to do so", which makes sense with when the boxes appear.

Appreciate the help!

[Factorian85]

Hello,

how can i move objects with robots. I want to change the location ob an object. (right beside)

Is it possible, that robots destroy an object an place it directly to the new blueprint without using chest? At the moment they destroy, put into chest, put another item from chest and build new.

I want directly destroy and use that item on new blueprint.

Thanks

[valneq]

how can i move objects with robots. I want to change the location ob an object. (right beside)

Is it possible, that robots destroy an object an place it directly to the new blueprint without using chest? At the moment they destroy, put into chest, put another item from chest and build new.

I want directly destroy and use that item on new blueprint.

This is not possible, as far as I am aware. The closest you can get is having the robots in your personal roboport do that work for you. Then they will take it only into your personal inventory and move it out again. Logistic chests are normally further away, making it necessary to wait for longer times.

Otherwise, you can place more logistic chests close by or make sure that you have buffer chests close by that can provide the items you need.

But in any case: a construction robot will always

1. pick up entity
2. place item in inventory (of chest or of player)

or

1. pick up item from inventory (of chest or of player)
2. build entity

But never pick up entity and then build entity without goving via an inventory first.

[DJQuad]

Given the choice between speed and productivity modules, what outputs the most?

I generally use speed modules in assemblers, until I get beacons, then productivity modules in assemblers and speed in beacons. I know it varies per resource (like some assemblers can only get speed), but generally is what I mentioned the best practice?

[valneq]

Given the choice between speed and productivity modules, what outputs the most?

I generally use speed modules in assemblers, until I get beacons, then productivity modules in assemblers and speed in beacons. I know it varies per resource (like some assemblers can only get speed), but generally is what I mentioned the best practice?

The answers to these questions will depend on a lot of things and will be different, depending on the situation.

Speed modules increase the product output, but also increase the resource consumption.
Productivity modules decrease the product output, bat also decrease the resource consumption.
The latter cannot be used for all recipes, as you mentioned already.
Beacons require additional space but cannot accomodate productivity modules.

Note, however, that you can always mix and match! Assembling machines 3 take up to four modules. So you could put a combination of speed and productivity modules in them, without requiring to change the design of your factory to accomodate beacons.

When you have beacons unlocked, you can furthermore come up with new factory designs that have space for beacons to increase both productivity and speed.

Generally, I like the combination of one speed monule with three productivity modules in assembling machines 3 whenever they don't have beacons around them. With modules 3, this results in +5% speed and +30% productivity. Thus you get higher productivity without sacrificing speed. At lower tiers of modules it is obviously worse, but can still give you that edge you may need.

How you decide which modules to put for which assembly lines may even depend on the availability of resources and throughput capabilities of your factory and its supply logistics. Maybe it is situational and will change with the tiers of modules that you unlock or can produce, or to get enough science packs of the one type you currently lack so that you can unlock a specific technology you need to improve your base.

As a rule of thumb: analyse your base and its deficiencies to come up with the answer for your factory. That is the best practice. Other people cannot solve problems they don't see or they don't have.

[Serenity]

Generally, I like the combination of one speed monule with three productivity modules in assembling machines 3 whenever they don't have beacons around them.

Same here. I use that for science in my starter base. That way I don't have to rebuild the overall configuration, but just to have to adjust the number of assembly machines

3 PM3 and 1 SM1 can also work if you want to save resources. It decreases the overall output by a tiny bit, but not much. For example 7 AM3 doing yellow science produce 75 SPM. With those modules it goes down to ca. 73, which is negligible. If you replace the SM1 with a SM3 it goes up to around 102 SPM. Which is nice, but also needs a lot more resources that you may not have at that point.
And of course you can also achieve 73 SPM with 5 assemblers using 3 PM3 + 1 SM3, which requires less modules

Speed modules can be attractive in some situations for end products that don't take productivity, so you don't need as many assemblers. Productivity modules are usually worth especially in expensive, high end products like rocket parts (the silo), science labs, blue circuits, yellow science, purple science or rocket control units. Also some things that are produced very fast and you need a lots of: green circuits and gear wheels. Those are well worth the modules without beacons. Certain others things take a very long time to repay the cost of the modules, so they can wait until you have a beaconed design.