Factorio Forums

I've finished Space Ace recently, and I'm thinking about doing most of my science production on Vulcanus because of the easy access to unlimited iron, copper and sulfur. Normally, on Nauvis, I'd make a giant train grid, and at least once cell in the grid for each item. To build a giant train grid on Vulcanus is going to take a tremendous amount of foundation. Is trying to megabase on Vulcanus a mistake? Is the lack of coal going to be a long term problem? Should I keep my giant megabase grid system to Nauvis?

I'm far from megabasing currently but I have moved most of my production to vulcanus already. And thought about it too.

Biolab can only be built on Nauvis so Science consumption stays there.
Each cell could have its own rocket silos for outbound traffic. But then you need to rail in the 3 rocket components to each cell.

I currently ship in plastics from gleba and rocket fuel from Fulguro.
I never build grid type rail networks so I guess I would not put cells on large lava patches...

I love train bases so I have to say I don't find using it on Vulcanus, Fulgora, Gleba, or even Aquilo to be wrong, just challenging. That said, I am not forcing every planet to use the same train grid patterns that I use on Nauvis.
Would you consider a "grid" that is not just same size squares? For example using some larger blocks or even tetris shapes to build around the lava lakes and minimize the amount of rail that must be built on lava.
As for coal, I put a platform in orbit that delivers carbon and so far I have not had any issues using it to supplement coal.
My main science is biolabs on Nauvis so I am not having any issues trying to push materials through my landing pad on Vulcanus, not like the one on Nauvis at all.
I am making rocket fuel and blue chips on Vulcanus not relying on imports because I am not exporting much other than science and the occasional load of foundries or big miners.

Have fun and may the Vulcanus factory grow!

Serious question

Why would coal be a problem on Vulcanus?

Megabasing SA would mean 12,5x efficiency on the coal patch (8%big miner yield/destroy ore thingie with legendary miners)
And that's not even accounting for base mining efficiency research.

Is it still not enough with all the oil coming from coal?
I shamelessly put all sliders to max when starting a new game, I have no idea how "intended" coal patches look like.

Not megabasing, but am playing deathworld marathon, so I need a pretty big base:

What I can say is that vulcanus is insanely good, easily beats nauvis for large bases. One of the main benefits is not just infinite iron and copper, but that you can even build stuff from it anywhere, so this massively cuts down on trains. No need to build a mini base to ship in circuits by train when you can literally make it on the spot where you need it. Need brick? Make that on the spot too. It's almost like a cheat planet.

Like a previous poster said, speed prodded legendary big miners make resources infinite.

Personally, I would consider shipping in plastic, or heavy plastic derivatives like red circuits, from somewhere else, though.