Belt question

[ColonelSandersLite]

Do you continue to use old belt types for low throughput situations or do you generally just use the highest tech belts you have because you don't want to carry 3 different belt types or due to plain old simplicity?

Part of me says I really should just use the cheapest belt I can to get the job done. In practice, I just don't really feel like messing with it.

I do tend to continue to use yellow inserters where they will work. A couple of stacks of yellow inserters will go a long ways. A couple of stacks of yellow belts? That just won't get you very far at all.

[Bauer]

Same here. At some point I use blue belts only because I don't want to carry all the yellow and red stuff.
I do feel a little guilty as well...

[Lav]

I usually carry two types of belts with me, even if only a single stack of each, in case I need to weave a bit. One set is at active toolbar, another at inactive toolbar, switchable with a single key as needed.

So I spend a lot of time with yellow/red, then eventually switch to red/blue and completely dump yellow.

[Hannu]

I use all belts and inserters (also with Bob's mods which have 5 tier of belts and superfast version of all inserter types). I know that they are free from practical point of view at late game but it is just aesthetics and rolegaming. It gives more diversity and feels more like real engineering. That's also why I like mods which gives tens of different production entities, hundreds of item types and complex production chains with sideproducts.

[Xtrafresh]

I use the cheap ones in situations where they are needed. For instance, burner inserters only pick up from yellow belts, as they are too slow for red and blue. I even have situations where I want to limit throughput.

[WeirdConstructor]

Yellow belts all the way until rockets! I only occasionally use a red belt to upgrade a slow ore belt in my spaghetti. Even though I love how far the red underground belt reaches. So much opportunity for new spaghetti!

[Bauer]

Yellow belts all the way until rockets! I only occasionally use a red belt to upgrade a slow ore belt in my spaghetti. Even though I love how far the red underground belt reaches. So much opportunity for new spaghetti!

Funny thing. I just realized that I build in three phases. Yellow, red, blue.

Yellow:
A base with the goal to run through the science tree. Yellow, purple and white science only slowly because they're not needed to proceed fast up to this point. This takes about 8 hours. I mainly use yellow belts, a few upgrades here and there, but no automated red belt production.

Red:
A base that builds the megabase. Basically a big smelter array with 8x iron and 8x copper input, red belts. Bots, automated production of everything, focuss on stuff like bot infrastructure, modules, production buildings. Nearby mineral deposits are depleted and transported to the base with red belts. The yellow base is still there, potent enough to produce the structures needed for this base and slowly tickling through the rest of the science tree. Another 8-12 hours. Final step: Tear down the yellow base.

Blue:
Megabase phase. Big train infrastucture, blue belt (high throughput and intermediate distance) and bots (low material flow or short distance), focuss on xxx SPM. The red base provides all the building material, even though tier 3 module production is always behind and the power of the megabase needs to support with red and blue chips. Timeline: Infinity. Opimization never stops. The red base is converted to the mall as much bigger chip production renders the facilities in the red base useless.

[ColonelSandersLite]

Funny thing. I just realized that I build in three phases. Yellow, red, blue.

Yes, I do very much the same thing, but my phases are totally different.


Yellow:
Bootstrap phase. This will last until I have red belts, red ammo, trains, and maybe a tank.

Red:
The base I build to get me to the endgame phase. With biters, this probably will last until I've got a few artillery range upgrades under my belt.

Blue:
Used pretty much exclusively by the time I'm building structures I intend to be permanent towards whatever goals I'm after.


The sole exception is, as Xtrafresh points out, that burner inserters can only really work well with yellow belt. The only place I use burner inserters is the emergency backup steam engines. If I wanted to limit throughput, I would just use a circuit condition simply because I always have those items on me.

[zOldBulldog]

I usually carry two types of belts with me, even if only a single stack of each, in case I need to weave a bit. One set is at active toolbar, another at inactive toolbar, switchable with a single key as needed.

So I spend a lot of time with yellow/red, then eventually switch to red/blue and completely dump yellow.

Active/inactive toolbar?

Do you mean the top/bottom part of the toolbelt? Or are you saying there is a second toolbelt you can switch to with a keystroke? If the second, that might just be the best hidden secret of Factorio.

[5thHorseman]

I use yellow through to the endgame for low throughput things. I have a strong moral problem with splitting a red belt into anything other than 2 yellow belts

Very roughly, I use yellow belts when I can get away with it, blue belts when it's needed, and red for everything else.

[Lav]

Active/inactive toolbar?

Do you mean the top/bottom part of the toolbelt? Or are you saying there is a second toolbelt you can switch to with a keystroke? If the second, that might just be the best hidden secret of Factorio.

There's only one toolbar I'm afraid. But after researching Toolbelt you get a second row of quick access slots, and the rows can be switched with a hotkey ("X" by default) that's configurable on the Options/Controls/Inventory page.

[zOldBulldog]

Active/inactive toolbar?

Do you mean the top/bottom part of the toolbelt? Or are you saying there is a second toolbelt you can switch to with a keystroke? If the second, that might just be the best hidden secret of Factorio.

There's only one toolbar I'm afraid. But after researching Toolbelt you get a second row of quick access slots, and the rows can be switched with a hotkey ("X" by default) that's configurable on the Options/Controls/Inventory page.

Thank you, I thought it might be that. I use it the same way, the main belts on the top and the second on the bottom. And actually hate it when I accidentally hit X and they swap positions as I prefer to use the mouse instead of the numbers to select items.

But the way you wrote it made me hope. A true second toolbelt (even as 2nd toolbelt research) would have been awesome,

Maybe someone will make a quality of life mod for it. I t is probably not even all that hard to do.

[evopwr]

Once I have gotten to about "blue science stage", and have sufficient iron plates being made, lubricant available, and maybe a dozen or 2 logistic bots, then I tend to put my "belt blueprint" down, and this then makes all 3 colours of belt, underground, and splitter.

After then I get really lazy, tending to never use red belts, just yellow for misc/low stuff, and blue everything else.

If there is a chance I will need more throughput of whatever I'm doing in the future, then I don't want to have to come back later and upgrade the belts, so I just go blue straight away.

[mergele]

I just build everything in the newest belts I have. Sure it may be unnecessarily expensive, but it's factorio - if costs are an issue it just means that you need to up your production capabilities anyways.