Hi, and welcome to belt hell

[Canyew]

This is my new factory. I learned quite a bit off my first build and this feels like it runs much smoother than the last. It still has some minor issues but... I feel like the design improved quite a bit.
So what do you guys think of belt hell?

[iklarazu]

It's very tight on space.

Where you have a red splitter for your cog machines, is there any point in looping back? Just put your splitter 1 tile up as to not cause delays on the bend (or upgrade to red belt but again, no point in the loop.)

Also, I dislike copper cables on a belt. 1 plate makes 2 cables, thus 2 rotations for an inserter to remove. It's better to feed cable directly into another assembler, specifically when you research the inserter stack bonus, from container to container - basically means an inserter can pick up like 5 items at once, but only if transferring box to box (or assembler.)

Same with yellow into blue into green inserters. Green inserters can support like 12 machines making blue science packs (or potions, lol.) 4 seems excessive.

[Canyew]

It's actually 5-6 assemblers per science pack... Which might sound excessive, but when you have 12 labs and seeing how fast tech gets done, you appreciate it.

Now that red splitter off the main iron plate feed near the cog machine is actually the feed for the transport belts.

Iron always seems to be the bottleneck in my factory. And even though I am outputting copper cable on a belt, I never really run out of the stuff. The T1 circuit board production line keeps suffering from a lack of iron plates. And thats from 10 sped up electric furnaces running that line

I am still pretty new to the game, maybe it would be interesting having a high-tier player coming in and looking at my work and giving me suggestions. Actively looking over my work. etc.

[iklarazu]

I don't disagree with the 5-6 assemblers making science packs, I'm saying that smart inserters take 0.5 seconds to craft in hand, whilst science pack 3 takes 12 seconds. If you were to round up the figures, accounting for raw materials in and finished product out, 1 assembler crafting smart inserters should be able to support 12 assemblers crafting science pack 3. You have 4 assemblers making smart inserters. Hope this makes sense!

I've attached the red splitter, as I'm not sure you understood what I was referring to. Essentially, you can move the splitter 1 tile north and remove the horse shoe in the belt heading west. I've marked it with a X. You may have a legitimate reason, but I feel it's unnecessary.

I build my base pretty big and spacious. I build with the mind set that if I want to expand, I can just throw a few assemblers on the end.

Some people play for a speed run, I play for survival and persistence. I specifically restrict the number of labs to slow things down! Traditionally, I would build huge solar fields with my duo partner, with 3000+ solar panels, but it gets boring when you're on near infinite power, so I now create huge fields of steam engines, dubbed Steam Gardens, and the challenge now is to keep it fuelled!

The world is supposed to be infinite, so don't worry about fitting everything into a tidy block.

Perhaps instead, you could join someone else's game, and take inspiration from how they play. I could post a screen when I get home.

[n9103]

I would say it's been aptly named

[Piranha]

I am still pretty new to the game, maybe it would be interesting having a high-tier player coming in and looking at my work and giving me suggestions. Actively looking over my work. etc.

Just want you want
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =54&t=5355

[Canyew]

I could post a screen when I get home.

Now that I see it. I understand it. The thing Is... I was trying to build with room in mind, then when you add more and more assemblers things get more and more compact and it's like "Where do I put this thing now that I put all these things with the other thing" So pretty much that U shape came from me struggling to figure out how to fit that correctly to feed the transport belt assembly line. Which I did figure out. I just realized how bad it was to fix it it.

[Cdr.MaS]

I ran into similar problems first few times I played sandbox mode
I overcame the problem with an ancient technology, pen and paper to draw layouts and think ahead
if you are not quiet sure about decent spacing use a simple rule, use 10% more tiles than you think you might need

[iklarazu]

I overcame the problem with an ancient technology, pen and paper to draw layouts and think ahead

Planning Mode would be great here, as in games like Prison Architect or RimWorld. I usually use transport belt for this, as it's cheap to make.

[Canyew]

Planning Mode would be great here, as in games like Prison Architect

PA does have a planning mode. and dear god it's SOOOO useful

[Cdr.MaS]

as long as you do not have bots ready you can use ghostbuilding for planing

[iklarazu]

as long as you do not have bots ready you can use ghostbuilding for planing

Automated Construction/Blueprints are a quite deep into the robotics tree. I agree on their usefulness during mid to late planning, but this is not available as soon as you enter a new world.

[Cdr.MaS]

Automated Construction/Blueprints are a quite deep into the robotics tree. I agree on their usefulness during mid to late planning, but this is not available as soon as you enter a new world.

you're absolutly correct

just been playing my lategame factory for so long now (100+ hours) that I simply forgot about that

[Darthlawsuit]

Let's contribute to this belt hell thread of yours. This is after I cleaned the belts up a little.

[iklarazu]

This screen shows me that everything needs tearing up and starting again

The map is infinite, use it!

Also, copper cable on the belt is a no-no.

[Garm]

stop with "copper cable - belt - no" adage: it is not always true.

While these who dont understand complexity about copper cable should stick to it, there are ways to avoid the problem (or never have said problem if you use Productivity modules)

[n9103]

The only time it's not a sin is for advanced circuits.
All other cases, productivity or not, are damning.

[Darthlawsuit]

I have never had a problem putting them on belts. You just have to make sure to feed them enough copper, equalize throughput to the input of there factories, and use express everything. Works very well. I'm not using productivity modules or any beacons because I have an infinite map with infinite resources, why bother being efficient when I can rape the natives and strip mine the world.

Heck right now my factories aren't even producing at 100% because I have an iron plate shortage, I need to add a 3rd iron plate production line just to keep up with demand

[iklarazu]

stop with "copper cable - belt - no" adage: it is not always true.

While these who dont understand complexity about copper cable should stick to it, there are ways to avoid the problem (or never have said problem if you use Productivity modules)

Always true. Genuinely no reason cables should be on the belt. Nor sulfur for that matter. One material goes in (copper plate,) two come out (cables.) 2 rotations to empty the assembler.

It is more effective to deposit the cable directly into another assembler, as they benefit from inserter stack bonuses. Even with productivity modules.

[Garm]

There are designs, that allow having 2,3, and more inserters bringing in materials.

There are designs where it is much more preferable to conserve space.

and finally there are priority belt designs that allow fine-tuning production on a level impossible with inserters alone.

yes 9 items out of 10 ill end up bypassing the belt, but that does not mean we should forget about other options that are still available to us.