Space Platforms

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spiral_power
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by spiral_power »

My promethium ship. 32k tons.
Two ships run alternately to handle 30kspm.
It will turn around at about 550,000 km. At that time the operation is heaviest and UPS drops to about 35.

/screenshot 2500 3500 0.1
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EAXP wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2025 1:35 pm my cargo ship
Factorio_1377_12_0_34403238979872222.png
and my promethium science ship
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To improve UPS, I would like the next ship I create to have a steeper diagonal angle like yours.
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adam_bise
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by adam_bise »

That is awesome. I wondered if a wedge or pyramid would be optimal. Curious what is the capacity and how quickly is it filled by the wedge setup?
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spiral_power
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by spiral_power »

adam_bise wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 10:26 pm That is awesome. I wondered if a wedge or pyramid would be optimal. Curious what is the capacity and how quickly is it filled by the wedge setup?
In terms of UPS optimization, I expect a sharp wedge shape is better. For UPS optimization, I try to minimize promethium take-up as much as possible. This is also why I want to make the angle steeper. Other than that, I slow down as I go deeper. And try not to read items on belts, as reading them lowers UPS.

I don't know the exact number, but a ship in its current form brings back about 1.8M promethium in one voyage.
=Promethium SP 2.16M
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gGeorg
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by gGeorg »

Top speed 290, cruise speed 150, weight 286tons, width26 tiles. (speed is heavily influenced by width of the ship)
The most interesting is crusher & resource system. It mostly use all sources, discard over board is possiblee, but very seldom. Well only thing thrown overboard regularly is used fuel cell.
The crasher system selects most needed items of three (iron ore, carbon, cubes) then assign 2 crushers to it. Next two crushers are used for next two items needed. OR next two crusher are used for first item if it is the only one missing thing. OR next two crushers are used for one item if only two items are missing.
Long story short, it tries always crush something which is needed (max of each 3 item is capped on 200 pcs) and use as many crushers as possible.

Also interesting system is, the crushers are fed from two sided, belt and hub. Each of them has his own system managing overflow /underflow.
Four collectors are of course set to gather resources in ratio 1:1:1, storing 13 pcs of each inside.
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waBenzi
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by waBenzi »

Space science (~180/s) platform, my homage to symmetry. Should also work with non-legendaries, just slower.
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waBenzi
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by waBenzi »

Legendary Red Science Ship

Pretty boring ship which flies between Nauvis and Vulcanus crafting legendary red science. Could use more crushers to run at full capacity, but I dont like flying bricks and this was the most I could bear - feel free to extend. Fun fact: The ratio of production recipes in the crushers is based on a Markov chain simulation with starting probabilities corresponding to the average chunks attained between Nauvis and Vulcanus (0.156, 0.31, 0.534).
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mmmPI
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by mmmPI »

Legendary solar taser
An attempt at getting a decent compromise between "fastest speed" and "lightest-weight", in order to reach the solar system edge only using solar pannel for energy. It works using the level of research granted by the command /cheat all when using the editor, which was used for the purpose of making the ship to explore if it was possible/realistic/feasible. It's a bit old now but was tested again in version 2.0.34, i forgot to post it when it was made possible to have blueprint with foundries without receipe that will nonetheless remember their previous orientation, but that's a thing now !! it's the "legendary version" of the 2 previous small ship i posted on this thread, the logic must be similar but i didn't left any notes on this one and i wanted to illustrate how bad it feels, don't do this, always leave little notes on your combinators !

To use it, just place the blueprint and wait until it doesn't move, ( with speed x64) and then click the destination in the schedule, ignore the red signal ! It goes at around 100 km/s so it takes a while !

( oh and there's no way back ! )
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solublefish
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by solublefish »

solublefish wrote: Mon Feb 24, 2025 5:36 pm I've ironed out the last few hiccups and my first large Space Age base is running stably at its designed level. It's 3600 per minute (60 Hz) of each of 12 science
Most of my current craft are variants of the "2B" platform (It looks a bit like a B2 bomber but backwards. OK, I'm bad at naming things.)
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It's got a lot of engines, simple turrets, and a handful of rocket launchers. It relies on a high asteroid and military productivity and mostly legendary machines. This isn't necessary but makes it small and very fast so I don't need many. I use 4 on an Aquilo/Fulgora/Nauvis loop.

I use a few quality weapons, but for the most part I found the extra range resulted in more wasted ammo rather than better defense. Notice the static grabber filters - metal only on the left, carbon only on the right.

A version of this ship handles the inner planets - 3 for each route to Nauvis mostly for science, plus a couple for assorted construction materials and such. Occasionally while waiting in orbit a rock will hit the rear and do a little damage. It just imports some repair packs once in a long while. One small fusion plant. (Overkill but smaller than solar.) 423 tons. 500+ km/s.
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by solublefish »

solublefish wrote: Mon Feb 24, 2025 5:36 pm I've ironed out the last few hiccups and my first large Space Age base is running stably at its designed level. It's 3600 per minute (60 Hz) of each of 12 science
My "Voyager" platform. This is the big extrasolar ship for promethium science.
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It hauls about 60K promethium chunks back to Nauvis orbit, then imports biter eggs and makes science until the rocks are gone. It does make it back out to space with some eggs left but that's really just a small supplement.

Bristling with railguns of course, and otherwise mostly rock storage. I'm using 2 layers of belts - 16 rocks per tile. TBH it does feel a bit like cheating but at least I'm not using multicolored belt weaving. Doing it with cargo bays would work the same way and just take more ships.

Voyager does rely on high asteroid productivity and military upgrades. This one uses explosive rockets for the dense big asteroids. Each of these can make about 70K science in a roughly 1 hour round trip. That's about 19 Hz so I use 4 to comfortably cover my 60 Hz target. 2302 tons. 780 MW fusion. Throttled to ~200 km/s in outer space. ~420 km/s in-system.
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adam_bise
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by adam_bise »

Here is a B2 plat I use for AG science
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FasterJump
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by FasterJump »

These are my 4 ships. I tried to build small-medium sized ships, all are below 400 tons. They could work with lesser quality machines and modules. My current research level is: Asteroid productivity 5, Laser weapons damage 6, Physical projectile damage 8, Stronger explosives 8, Railgun damage 3, Railgun shooting speed 2.
  • Kestrel is my starter ship, used to unlock the first 3 planets. It also transports non-perishable science from Vulcanus and Fulgora, Bioflux, and harvests Calcite.
  • Hauler is my fast ship to carry Gleba Science. It also transports Bioflux to Nauvis (and Vulcanus), and harvests calcite.
  • Daedalus is the ship designed to reach Aquilo. It's still Solar powered but can sustain the journey with just 6 accumulators. It transports cryogenic science and ingredients from and to Aquilo, and harvests iron, copper ore and calcite from asteroids to drop it to Aquilo. It also transports Foundations ingredients to Fulgora and Vulcanus. The more dangerous the route, the slower it travels.
  • Prometheus, as its name suggests, is the ship designed to transport Promethium ore from the Shattered planet. It is powered by fusion, which allows the use of foundries and 8 beacons to support production. It can carry 3000 promethium chunks and make promethium science above Nauvis from fresh biter eggs. When it has used all promethium ore, it will leave orbit and throw away unused eggs. It refills its quantum processor inventory and fusion power cell above Aquilo The more dangerous the route, the slower it travels. It also harvests calcite.
Ship Stats

Code: Select all

Ship Name -->         | Kestrel           | Hauler                  | Daedalus                 | Prometheus
----------------------+-------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------+--------------------------
Main mission          | Starter + science | Gleba science + bioflux | Aquilo science + ore     | Promethium + science
Tonnage               | 249               | 260                     | 310                      | 377
Footprint             | 38x35             | 42x36                   | 48x34                    | 64x30
Cruise Speed (km/s)   | 190               | 260                     | 140 (Aquilo), 290 (Gleba)| 70/120/190/250
Avg Speed (incl. stops)| 115              | 125                     | 94                       | 278
Cycle (km)            | 60000             | 45000                   | 90000                    | 500000
Cycle Period          | 08:40             | 06:00                   | 16:00                    | 1:30:00
Reach                 | Inner Planets     | Inner Planets           | Aquilo                   | 60000–100000km to Shattered
Energy                | Solar             | Solar                   | Solar                    | Fusion
Cargo (slots)         | 85                | 123                     | 209                      | 97 + 3000 Promethium
Kestrel
Kestrel
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Hauler
Hauler
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Daedalus
Daedalus
03-24-2025, 12-52-33.png (3.18 MiB) Viewed 2677 times
Prometheus
Prometheus
03-24-2025, 13-31-51.png (3.03 MiB) Viewed 2677 times
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Zanthras
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by Zanthras »

My ship that took the run to the shattered planet at maximum speed the entire way.
to the core shattered planet.png
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by FMP_thE_mAd »

Hello there.

I'm proud to show you my very long ship that's bring me to the shattered planet :

Image

All legendary stuff, but with only 2 railguns in front, it was very slow.
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by mmmPI »

Small Cigar
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Uses solar and accu to save on ice/water in early game, because current game is slow.
Carries artillery shells and defense material on all planets on top of Gleba Science.
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the_potty_1
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by the_potty_1 »

I encountered quite a niche case in spaceship design, because I started a rampant deathworld run on nauvus, but managed to build a basic starter ship which I took to Fulgora. I barely got off nauvus myself, I couldn't make enough blue circuits for another launch. I dismantled the ship on arrival at fulgora, because it didn't have enough smelters on it to produce enough bullets to keep itself alive long enough to build a rocket silo. I dropped everything down to the planet, and then rather than letting the asteroids get it, I blew up the platform myself.

So, now I need to build a platform from scratch in a hostile environment. The first thing I discovered is I need a second rocket silo dedicated to shipping bullets up, while my main silo was used to send up buildings, foundations, and so on.

I've just reached a point where the platform is self-sustaining, that is, its producing enough bullets to survive. Time for a small breather. I next need to modify it to produce 4000 space science so I can research planet discovery vulcanus, then modify it for travel so I can move to vulcanus, and then I'll finally build a megabase and push some serious research.

Gladiator.png
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EDIT I did a total redesign in a different save, then deconstructed the entire thing and dropped this on instead, much better now. I didn't have enough foundations
to build the entire thing, but I chopped the engines off and just put solar panels.
Glad2.png
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EDIT EDIT to be clear, the first ship is (probably) required to get some basic production going while uploading enough stuff to build the second ship.
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h.q.droid
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by h.q.droid »

Image

My ship to produce ~1.5k legendary blue science per minute. Requires asteroid productivity 30. BP is too large for the post but the main idea is to replace carbon asteroid cycling with basic asteroid processing and yeet all the carbon. This has the same 80% yield at productivity 30 while always producing a carbon chunk in return. Running rounds between Nauvis, Vulcanus and Gleba at 460km/s, this produces enough legendary sulfur to be science-viable.
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by coffee-factorio »

Pink Husky
My first Aquilo special and first ship I had to hit end of solar system.
I got extremely sick while making this and that run kind of fell apart. I had a line capable of 100ips which was burning along at around 27 ips (pretty sure I got sick and forgot to put down more labs, because I have enough buildings to get it). So that run has a partially capable line hitting 10k espm. Edit: today I realized I made an ADHD error and attacked the problem with the wrong constant. I did 10K/3.6K for science per hour. And got really confused. The actual number is 10Kespm/60espm = 166 ips, and the higher number is because of production bonuses on labs. But it's poorly organized, and I don't really want to continue that game because of it, I feel like I'd be chasing bogeys instead of problems.

Unfortunately the sick is back and it's laying me up again. So I kind of thought I might play catch up on the "what I've done with platforms while dealing with life." Husky was done as a 8 nuclear cell, and that's kind of the mark of the extremely sick that will appear on some of what I put up. 8 is overkill.
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It was the first to feature a quality automall section, but this proof of concept level. There where a number of issues that showed up on other builds (and I believe they where eventually patched in).

What this one manages to do is gather material crafted from a generic component section and put it through a default upcycle on an assembler 3. It's managed by a priority queue system (basically I have a combinator setup so it goes chemical plants: 1, engines : 2, ... and builds things in that order).
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Husky also featured a pretty okay automall setup and multi-material feeds. Made it out to the system edge, and it's main job has been to run slightly increasing amounts of material science.
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14kt ~170kms flight speed after upgrades.
Last edited by coffee-factorio on Wed Jul 23, 2025 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by coffee-factorio »

Johnny Boy Conway

JBC was my first platform. And this is it getting choked by quality the first time. Prior to Aquilo I got the bright idea that I should operate a quality line. I didn't do any math or read up on the subject, just had at it.
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On the plus side, I got most components in the game working at rare quality. On the downside I had an entire class of ships that jammed due to RNG shenanigans and probably were individually responsible for driving the "won game" part of the run to 405 hours.

The ship does both material upcycling and then it works on upcycling through rare parts, but it's way not optimal. I count about 8 kinds of quality in the pic below alone, and while that can work... it just doesn't work in this style or in a foot print of 8kt. And you should choose one thing: raw materials or just upcycles at that size.
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The thing I'm most proud of about it ends up being the cluster of foundries making belts - that pattern of on-demand manufacturing stuck around because of the volume of them I like to have. Another thing is that it was the first set of ships I did on a standardized 15 meter side, which worked out pretty well.
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There's a very primitive automall on this one, about as capable as the one on the factorio wiki. Preceded the Pink Husky build.


8K, 200kms.
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Re: Space Platforms

Post by coffee-factorio »

Iko Uwais

Sometimes things get a funny kind of energy. Every time I had a platform with a class of ship, I'd look over at the Iko Uwais and look for where that issue was occuring. And soon enough I'd sort the bug out. So Iko Uwais ended up being the slayer of bugs in my run.

Eventually I had the problem of "How does one ship 100 ips normal quality science from Vulcanus to Nauvis". And I made this 27kt hull by doubling the size of an existing design. About 400 hours of play and in another run I noticed that I wasn't doing optimal fuel calculations on the engines, and I'm wondering if I couldn't get it to perform as a single line. Getting fluid to all the engines was a nightmare, because they break the pipelines. It still goes ~300kms between its stations of Nauvis and Vulcanus.
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And see, the thing is. Once it completed it's mission of 100 ips science, I started to ask "well what else can this thing do". It'd had a better automall installed on it that let it handle tiered recipes, so there's an upcycle station that will handle ~128 thrusters (but not chemical plants, that's a story for another sick day or weekend). It upgraded most of itself using that.

As it did I got legendary quality 3 modules going at 1 ipm on vulcanus; and started producing quality beacons and modules there. Since it's always circling back and forth to Nauvis I put space science on it.
And it fit, so I started added material driven upcycles. One is iron from red belts. That's next to the 100 ips space science line.
iko_uwais-1-2.png
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Well I still had space so I added legendary blue chips, and since I had some red chips left over I also did energy shields and personal batteries to upcycle and equip vehicles. I didn't LDS shuffle on this build, though I used a related technique on another one. This was made as I was becoming aware of rng deadlocks and how to solve those. So this ends up locking but there's space to fix it. I really need to just add 1 more include guard to the red chips line. The equipment line probably needs a redesign to work unfortunately.
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The thing is that it was very productive, and locks where being put in place as needed. So the thing ended up dropping blue chips, legendary red and greens - and if I had overages of reds and greens those became copper wire and iron. Steel was done as a boxes upcycle, and through the personal equipment upcycles. This thing added a 100 ips utility and production science to Nauvis.
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