Humble beginnings

[martinuzz]

Hi!

Since I got this game 3 days ago I've been hooked to my screen, watching gameplay videos and browsing the wiki, while fooling around a bit with the first level of the campaign.

So now I decided I want to have a swing at freeplay mode, and try to make a bus design. I setup a double line of furnaces for both iron and copper, turned it on, researched the level 2 factory and fast inserters, and build this by hand. I turned it on, and so far it seems to be working. I do need to research the smart box and wiring though, to improve the production of the various inserters. They aren't getting quite enough green electronics as is now. conditions on the fast and smart inserter boxes should fix that, if I understand things right.
Please comment. Did I do something horribly wrong yet? Excuses for the many tunnels, which might obscure the main 4 iron / copper plate lines a bit.



Here's a closer up view of the basic production hub. I added a few spliiters to balance out the main lines after I posted the first picture:

[-root]

Looks ok to me. Good job!

I could smash out a ton of suggestions on how to make it better, but thats up to you to discover for yourself . I would give just one piece of general advice: give yourself more room. Step your assemblers back from the central bus. The main problem i see in rookie's factories is that you don't give yourself enough space.

[OBAMA MCLAMA]

How many labs do you have?

I agree with root, as i believe we all experienced it.

We start and learn by reading what the tooltips say, It tells us we need a gear, we make a simple thing just to do it. We later learn how to optimize such a method.

[LordFedora]

heh, looks better then my factory

(if you care here's the aforementioned root "touring" our factory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4R_L517Sk

(shameless self-promotion)

[cathril]

Looking pretty darn good for a first free build factory! first time ive tried that i failed so hard that i decided to do the campagin first.
I can also recommend doing the campagin first! there are some good thing in the campaing like basic furnaces setups, but since you allready are familiar with a lot of terms arround i think you know most standard things.

Like the others allready mentiond give yourself space. I still make that mistake giving myself not enough space. Ending up with semi working things that are just not covering it.

Second thing i want to mention is try to get to green science ASAP, that way you can run arround and actually try things out. Working with green science gives you so much more options in the factory. You will bet getting things like oil and such! Really nice things to look forward too! Once you got green science, try building different setups. Now you are working on a main bus idea, but also try other building that are not main bus orientated. Building things on the spot.

Third thing! keep having fun in this game! Try playing with the difficulty, im not a big fan of modding this game, but you can try those as well.. I recommend that doing after youve finished your first Rocket launch

GL in your journey!

[martinuzz]

Looks ok to me. Good job!

Thanks! If you are the same -root that made the video tutorials, I must thanks you for those too. They were *really* informative, and fun to watch. I actually watched them all in one sitting lol.

And yea, it's a bit cramped. Although I intentionally put those basic production facilities inside the main bus line. Most examples I saw had the 2 iron and copper plate lines running right next to each other, I just wanted my bus to look a bit different.

I have my blue research production set up now, it all still fits. I do need to find a creative solution to increase inserter production though. Setting a green wire condition to prioritize green electronics being delivered to inserter production helped a little, but not enough. I need at least one more yellow inserter factory, maybe a blue one too. Having some trouble branching iron plates to where I want them for that.

As for OBAMA MCLAMA's question: at the time of those pictures, I had two labs. In the top picture there was a problem with red science bottles, fixed in the second picture by adding some balancing splitters.

[Xterminator]

Definitely not bad! Quite a bit better than my first factory, that's for sure. :p haha
As for advice, I can really only agree with what everyone else has said. Most importantly in mind is, give yourself more room. If you think it is enough space when your about to build something, then double the space. I didn't give myself near enough room in my first game, and it caused endless headaches and problems throughout the whole game. Lol

Also, you are going to want far more than 2 labs. :p I would suggest like 8-12 if you have the science pack production to support that.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[Blackspectre]

Using a main Bus design, my biggest recommendation is to think modularly. Design repeatable sections that can be added to the main bus as needed. This way, if you need more of an item, rather than trying to sqeeze more in between existing structures, you can slap a self sufficient design down as many times as needed for the output desired.

[-root]

Looks ok to me. Good job!

Thanks! If you are the same -root that made the video tutorials, I must thanks you for those too. They were *really* informative, and fun to watch. I actually watched them all in one sitting lol.

Tis me. Thank you, I'm glad you found them helpful.

I have my blue research production set up now, it all still fits. I do need to find a creative solution to increase inserter production though. Setting a green wire condition to prioritize green electronics being delivered to inserter production helped a little, but not enough. I need at least one more yellow inserter factory, maybe a blue one too. Having some trouble branching iron plates to where I want them for that.

Now that's impressive. Blue science on the first go through? It took me three or four before I got even close to automating it. You're learning quite quickly.

If you ever have something you want help with, I play factories and offer suggestions on how to improve them. Lord Fedora linked in one of my "fixits". I'd be happy to have a look at your factory and see what I could do.

Be sure to have a crack at the issue yourself though