A 4k spm modular megabase with diagonal rail grid and some concrete art

[derpumu]

I started the base around January. My main goal was to build a megabase with independent blocks, so it could scale over time. I wanted round numbers, so I thought about having 1k spm per block at first. Since that would be quite big and require 3 rocket silos per block, I decided to go for ~333 spm with one silo and rounded that to 5.6 science per second (336 per minute).

Secondary goals I had was a diagonal train grid instead of the usual north/south east/west stuff, radars placed in a perfect grid so they wouldn't overlap, and some concrete art.

Image gallery
save game

Mods used:

• Explosive Excavation - creates water where I want it. I'd say 5% of its use is cheating to not have to transport that as well, 95% is for the looks - including getting rid of all the ores where I wanted to build something.
• Cleaned Concrete - no scrubs allowed in my base!
• Factorio reach - I had to submit a patch because some smelters were more than 10000 tiles from the mall...
• Squeak Through
• Helmod to plan the science blocks - deactivated later
• Schall Map Tag - deactivated towards the end
• Bottleneck to debug the first science block - deactivated when my ups began to fall
• Orphan finder - deactivated after the first science block was done
• Todo List - deactivated after some time

Some numbers:

• 10M concrete produced
• 1.4M landfill placed
• 369k blasting charges used to "make water"
• 146k artillery shells fired
• 23k beacons built
• 6k atomic bombs exploded
• 600 trains running

It took me around 500 hours play time in eight months to build, though much of that time was idling - thanks to build site and trash collector trains I could build a set of train stations quickly from the personal roboport, put down a blueprint and then let the bots and trains build solar fields or concrete for the next hours.

[mmmPI]

I agree with you when you say that you think it looks cool

I think it is modesty/euphemism because it looks more than just cool .

Diagonal gives it a unique look, and the decorations are awesome !

[wobbycarly]

This site should allow giving "kudos" to awesomeness. That is so impressive - fantastic job!

[Tekillaa]

Awesome factory! Very nice design and flooring, keep up the good work!

[Optera]

The whole thing is aesthetically pleasing, but the ornament solar fields are icing on the cake.

[ssilk]

Wow, this looks so nice, you made me thinking about starting a new world. my world never look so nice, they are mainly a heavy chaos.

[derpumu]

Xterm has done one of his base tours about this base: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kFcnggT4w

[Impatient]

Looking at the map picture of your creation, for me it resembles something like a magic wand. Now, on the lower side of the "wand", below the solar fields, there are some sites or production complexes. What are these? Smelting? other basic production?

Also a point of thought about reloading stations: If you know/ensure, that your trains, which come from the item source, will always be full, you can use 1 to 1 reloading. 1/1 reloading means unloading one wagon and directly loading it into another wagon. This allows unloading and loading stations to be placed right next to each other (also in ways, so that tracks for supplying and collecting trains do not intersect) and saves a lot of space, belts and assumingly UPS. No balancers and belt madness (as you wrote on one of the images) required. Also 1/1 reloading stations do scale. You need more throughput? Then you just add another pair of un-/loading stations. If supply exeed demand, 1/1 reloading works without circuitry. If supply is lower, it still works without circuitry, but it can be smoothened with some circuitry.

Ah yeah, last but not least: It is really beautiful.

[NotRexButCaesar]

I do wonder why you decide to use uncompressed belts so often.

I also wonder it you know about direct train transfer with diagonal rails: those belted train-train transfers seem less efficient.

[derpumu]

below the solar fields, there are some sites or production complexes. What are these? Smelting? other basic production?

Directly below the solar fields is one uranium mine with (way too much) Kovarex and the necessary acid production, All other sites down there are smelters directly beside the ore patches.

Also a point of thought about reloading stations: If you know/ensure, that your trains, which come from the item source, will always be full, you can use 1 to 1 reloading. 1/1 reloading means unloading one wagon and directly loading it into another wagon. This allows unloading and loading stations to be placed right next to each other (also in ways, so that tracks for supplying and collecting trains do not intersect) and saves a lot of space, belts and assumingly UPS.

It's not quite that easy because for copper/iron the trains from the smelters are longer than the ones going to production, and for coal/steel and oil/stone I have mixed trains going to production but "pure" trains coming from the smelters/oil wells. But yes, I guess that most of my missing UPS fall victim to those belts.

Ah yeah, last but not least: It is really beautiful.

Thank you!

[derpumu]

I do wonder why you decide to use uncompressed belts so often.

Not sure where you see that where it could be avoided.

[NotRexButCaesar]

Not sure where you see that where it could be avoided.

I consider it avoidable everywhere: overproduce by a small amount so that everything backs up. This is much better for ups