Factorio Forums

Hi everyone, I'm gonna do my best to keep this short and sweet. I've only been playing Factorio for a few days, but during that short amount of time, I've been unable to pull myself away.
I've already posted a thread over on the Reddit and have discovered that the community is rather welcoming to new players, which isn't something I can say about a lot of games.
Here's the link to the thread over there. https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... ayer_here/
There's no need to go there as I'll post all the info here, but I figured I'd add it just in case someone was curious.

Anyway, at first I was having a difficult time keeping a world that I enjoyed, but that changed when I made my current world, but I still have some issues and I figured posting them here would be the best place to get those issues resolved.

I also wanna keep this as a multipurpose thread where I can post my progress and any issue I may come across. I find communicating to actual people an easier means of learning, so I hope I'm not out of line here.


Anyway, let's get to what I came here for.
I didn't include any blueprints as none of what I've created here is worth using to anyone.

I want to apologize for the images being so large.
I tried using the collapsible spoiler, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Also, if this is the incorrect place to post this, I apologize. I checked the forums for a more suitable spot, but didn't notice anything.

This is my current starter base configuration. It may not be the prettiest of setups, but it works. I do believe I'll end up redoing my science areas, obviously, but for now it works for just red/green. Now this is where things are gonna get a little lengthy. This is the current setup I have for my smelting columns. I set them up with a configuration that I thought was correct, but I've done some research and it appears what I have may not be the most productive.

My current ratio is: 1 Miner - 2 Furnaces

I have 36 Furnaces in each column with only 3 columns activated and as you can see, I only have 1 main belt pumping all the iron ore into 5 different splitters which splits the iron onto 6 different belts leading to the respective column.
There are currently 16 miners for the coal belt and 34 miners for the iron belt. That's going off my 2-1 ratio.
My question though, will the way I have everything set up work in the long run? After the research I've done proved my ratios wrong, I'm unsure whether or not I have to scrap everything and start from scratch.
I also have a few miners on the seam between the coal/iron and there's a small setup there to separate those two and place them on the main belt. Here's there output for the full array. Will I be able to work with the way I have this setup or will I have to move everything on to a single belt(per ore, iron on one - copper on the other) This is the factory completely filled with furnaces and inserters. I still need to activate 3 iron columns and 2 copper ones, but I didn't want to do that if my ratios are off. And just for a little info regarding productivity, here are my electric and item outputs for the last 10hrs
As you can see, things are working and what not, but I feel like they could be better.
If any of what I said up there isn't explained right, let me know and I'll get t

Hi,

Seeing you had problems with the collapsible spoilers, I edited your post, and added spoilers everywhere

Welcome to Factorio and the forum, where we give you a nice game and community in exchange for your time. All of it, and then some.

A few things:

• No matter how big you plan, you'll always need more eventually.
• If you split 1 belt into 6 belts, each of those 6 belts will only have 1/6 the throughput (actually, in your case it will be 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16, 1/32, and 1/32).
• Once you get to steel furnaces (which should be soon), your smelting will be twice as fast. You'll probably end up stopping with an exct ratio of miners:furnaces for a few reasons, such as that eventually you will be bringing in ore by the trainload and it would be too mcuh work to count, mining productivity reasearch and beacons and modules with electric furnaces change to ratios later, and your miners eventually run out of ore, constantly changing the amount of ore you recieve.
• Having multiple belts per ore is pretty mucuh a nececcity (at least at this point - that can change in several ways later on). Many people will advocate for a "main bus" of iron copper, steel, and perhaps some other things like gears and circuits running through your factory. Personally I prefer an approach more spaghetti-like, but I do have several belts running through my factories in various places.
• Sometimes, ratios matter (for example, 3 copper wire: 2 green circuit assemblers, in most early setups). Other times, just build enough. If you need more, build more, if you need less, don't build less, and so on. That's what most people do for smelting, and (most commonly in main bus setups) for things like gears and circuits as well.

Good luck!

Koub wrote:Hi,

Seeing you had problems with the collapsible spoilers, I edited your post, and added spoilers everywhere

Ah, thank you so much. I'm not entirely sure why I couldn't get them to work, but I appreciate you fixing them for me. Also, as I said in the original post, I'm not entirely sure whether this is the correct place to post this. While I was waiting for this thread to be approved, I noticed another called "Gameplay Help" and I figured my post would get moved there as this is technically a thread asking for help.

Jap2.0 wrote:Welcome to Factorio and the forum, where we give you a nice game and community in exchange for your time. All of it, and then some.

A few things:

• No matter how big you plan, you'll always need more eventually.
• If you split 1 belt into 6 belts, each of those 6 belts will only have 1/6 the throughput (actually, in your case it will be 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16, 1/32, and 1/32).
• Once you get to steel furnaces (which should be soon), your smelting will be twice as fast. You'll probably end up stopping with an exct ratio of miners:furnaces for a few reasons, such as that eventually you will be bringing in ore by the trainload and it would be too mcuh work to count, mining productivity reasearch and beacons and modules with electric furnaces change to ratios later, and your miners eventually run out of ore, constantly changing the amount of ore you recieve.
• Having multiple belts per ore is pretty mucuh a nececcity (at least at this point - that can change in several ways later on). Many people will advocate for a "main bus" of iron copper, steel, and perhaps some other things like gears and circuits running through your factory. Personally I prefer an approach more spaghetti-like, but I do have several belts running through my factories in various places.
• Sometimes, ratios matter (for example, 3 copper wire: 2 green circuit assemblers, in most early setups). Other times, just build enough. If you need more, build more, if you need less, don't build less, and so on. That's what most people do for smelting, and (most commonly in main bus setups) for things like gears and circuits as well.

Good luck!

Oooooooooh, okay, that makes a hell of a lot more sense. I'm not sure why I thought that splitting 1 belt 6 different times was a good idea. I'm gonna have to make sure I don't do that again with the new world I'm working on. I do still have the world displayed in the screenshots, but I decided to start a new world since I've learned a few things and I want to have everything look cleaner. I'll even be working with my first "bus" system and I'll be sure to post some screens here once I get to that point.

Aside from that, I don't think I'll ever actually be able to let go of the ratios and what not now that they're drilled into my mind. Every video I watch talks about how one should do their best to keep the ratios correct to maximize productivity. Plus, it keeps me thinking which isn't something a lot of games can say they make me do.

I appreciate the help/tips though. The community surrounding this game is incredibly friendly and helpful towards new players, at least from what I've experienced. For the first time, I actually want to be a part of something and become a known name around a game. Never had that desire before, but I'm sure when and if that happens, it's a long way off yet.

actually, splitting into 6 belts isnt that bad after all when you consider upgrading later. Then you already have the infrastructure in Place if you mine more ore than a single belt can handle

One of the more important lessons to learn; look into belt balancers.

Put them where you are mining so that the belts to the furnaces are filled, right before the furnaces to allow expansion of input belts, and after the furnaces to balance the output to the factory.

Jap2.0 wrote: <snip>
If you need more, build more, if you need less, don't build less, and so on.

Gold.