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I got this game yesterday; I'd never actually seen it played before. I played through the tutorial and decided to go right into a random map with all normal settings; I made it all the way up to a single machine automating green science and sending it down to the lab before even wondering if multiple science labs would speed up research. This took hours - no more than one unit producing any one item. I built an additional lab to get the answer to my question. Sure enough, my research time was doubled. At this point I realized that I could probably use more than one miner for iron. Imagine my shock as the full weight of my folly hit me like a frying pan to the face. I quit playing for a bit to watch some youtube videos about the game, then went back to my same map and just built a new base (a proper one) in addition to the one I already had. I was busing 4 iron lines from 16 furnaces, 2 copper from 8, 1 steel from 8, and also had bus lines for gears, inserters, green circuits, red science and green science, with the science lines running up to 8 labs. I'd researched up to robotics and thought I'd build some. I looked at the parts list and saw that I'd need to get some oil going - only to find out that there was no oil for a jillion miles around my base and through swarms of biters. My minimap looked like XCOM. There's no way I'm not starting over and turning up the resources and down the enemies.
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Aug 17, 2017 23:37
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| # ? May 14, 2024 20:51 |
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KaiserSchnitzel posted:There's no way I'm not starting over and turning up the resources and down the enemies. I'm getting to that point in my first playthrough. I'm only maybe 25 hours into my first map and I'm already wanting to switch to a train map with boosted resources and biter expansion turned off. But I need to finish this one so I can get the achievements for researching all the techs, using no logistics system, no laser turrets, and no solar panels.  Just a bit longer and I'll be free of those shackles, and then it's endless laser light shows forever. EDIT: I just checked and nope, I'm about 80 hours in, minus time for the tutorials and a bit of idling. Jesus christ, I did not realize that. 
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Aug 17, 2017 23:55
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KaiserSchnitzel posted:I got this game yesterday; I'd never actually seen it played before. I hope you weren't plannng on doing anything else for the near future  Factorio is rather addictive in a 'why are the birds so drat noisy so late at night' kind of way. First make sure you're running the latest version (I think 0.15 went stable but check anyway). Right click in steam, properties and look at the Betas tab. You should have 0.15.33 as the latest stable (I just checked mine).To get an ideaof what's possible and how people solve common problems, take a little time to cruise the multiplayer games. Go Play->Multiplayer->Browse Public Games. Then when the window pops up, set the filters on the top right to No passwords and No mods. Dive into any game you like and look around. If you destroy things and act like a dick you'll get yourself onto the blacklist but that's your choice.
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Aug 18, 2017 01:02
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KaiserSchnitzel posted:At this point I realized that I could probably use more than one miner for iron. Imagine my shock as the full weight of my folly hit me like a frying pan to the face. Holy poo poo, you must have the patience of a saint.
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Aug 18, 2017 05:58
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redleader posted:Holy poo poo, you must have the patience of a saint. also known to regular players as the no hand crafting challenge
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Aug 18, 2017 06:23
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Zo posted:also known to regular players as the no hand crafting challenge I'm only doing my first proper run but the farther and farther I get the more horrified I become by this prospect.
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Aug 18, 2017 06:26
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GreyjoyBastard posted:I'm only doing my first proper run but the farther and farther I get the more horrified I become by this prospect. It actually teaches good habits. Once your base is established you should only be hand crafting stuff when you're far from home and run out. Automate and stockpile. No handcrafting run just adds an extra two hours off the starting block since you won't have any extra miners or assemblers.
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Aug 18, 2017 06:41
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i did the no hands challenge and i think it was actually easier than crafting poo poo by hand. it forced me to create factories to make poo poo i usually would make by hand on the fly, which actually saved me time running around and gathering poo poo, and it was always ready. when i got to logistic robots i just replaced my 1-slot storage chests with provider chests and now i don't gotta worry about poo poo anymore. like i used to just make power poles by hand when i needed them, but because i had to set up a factory to make them it was easier just to run and grab them, now they're delivered to me.
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Aug 18, 2017 19:47
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M_Gargantua posted:It actually teaches good habits. Once your base is established you should only be hand crafting stuff when you're far from home and run out. Automate and stockpile. I guess, but I fairly frequently have to create just a couple chemical factories or whatever that never feels like it would be worth setting up the inserter line. that said I now have an infinite supply of pipes and whatnot anyway, so maybe next time I'll try the challenge
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Aug 18, 2017 19:52
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for the few things you gotta make, have a lone assembler where you can drop in some supplies, make 1 or 2, then reset it. i had one of those.
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Aug 18, 2017 20:11
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yeah for lazy bastard i had a section of "generic" assemblers that i'd just set to whatever i'd need to make right then and there, maybe with another assembler or two working on intermediate products, until i got enough of a base setup to actually bus things
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Aug 18, 2017 20:15
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A nice way to get a leg up on the Lazy Bastard achievement is to play with friends. Each new player who joins the world starts with a few Iron Plates and a Burner Miner. As long as everyone doesn't hand craft a pick right away, and you all pool your resources, the slow start can be somewhat mitigated. 
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Aug 18, 2017 21:03
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Lazy bastard let's you craft like 10 extra items so I used a few in the beginning to get up faster. An extra burner mine is very helpful
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Aug 18, 2017 22:10
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What naming convention do you all use for your train stations? I've got everything ready to start building a mega-base but I'm finding it difficult to keep track of my mines. I started doing a basic coordinate scheme such as 'Iron-E50-N05' with the center of my base defined as 00,00. It's kinda clunky and was wondering what everyone else does.
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Aug 19, 2017 00:02
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Purely chronologically. Iron Home Iron 1 Iron 2 Iron 3 ... Copper Home Copper 1 ... Edit: For my Uranium mines, I have the stations set to only "wake up" when they have a full train ready, so I just have "Nuke Home" and twenty stations named "Nuke"; Oil can be handled in a very similar way. Evilreaver fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Aug 19, 2017 |
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Aug 19, 2017 00:05
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sharkbomb posted:What naming convention do you all use for your train stations? I've got everything ready to start building a mega-base but I'm finding it difficult to keep track of my mines. Anything you want really! Though if you're doing something where multiple trains can go to multiple destinations, i try to keep stuff relatively standardized. So I'll have iron ore trains go to "Iron mine" and "Iron Refinery" Then the Iron plate trains will be programmed to go to "Iron Plate Pickup" and "Iron Plate dropoff" Trains will go to the nearest available location with that name. You can also turn off stations via logic wires if a pickup doesn't have enough to fill a train, or a dropoff is filled up and doesn't need/can't take more goods.
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Aug 19, 2017 00:06
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sharkbomb posted:What naming convention do you all use for your train stations? I've got everything ready to start building a mega-base but I'm finding it difficult to keep track of my mines. X Load X Unload Depot where X is whatever is being loaded onto the train. Having unique station names sounds like total torture, since you'd have to keep track of all the stations and update your trains' orders whenever a deposit dries up. The Depot is a special station I keep to "store" trains that don't have anywhere to go right at that moment (usually because all the stations on their route have been turned off for whatever reason). It doesn't get much use, but it can be nice to have if there seem to be traffic problems on certain lines.
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Aug 19, 2017 00:24
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sharkbomb posted:What naming convention do you all use for your train stations? I've got everything ready to start building a mega-base but I'm finding it difficult to keep track of my mines. My Dumb Opinion: All stops for loading items are the same name, e.g. "Iron Plate Load". That way, I can use circuits to selectively disable stops if there aren't enough things there to warrant sending a train, and trains will path to stops that are online (or spin their wheels at Iron Unload if there's nothing to do.) All remote, train-serviced areas have an automated train stop as above, and also a Human Occupied Vehicle stop nearby, so I can nip out there in a passenger train (literally just two locomotives in opposite directions) if I need to travel to that area or fix something. I name these "# Iron Alpha HOV", and so with Bravo, Charlie, etc. to distinguish them. The train list sorts ASCIIbetically, so # makes the HOV float to the top. Main base is denoted with ## Main Base. I do temporary stops and defensive outposts prefixed with %, which sorts after # but before letters.
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Aug 19, 2017 00:29
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I use "PAX" instead of HOV, and almost universally use generic "Iron Ore Load" type stations with circuit control as others have said. I might have dedicated trains in certain areas, such as the power station fuel train, but it'll still be a "Coal Load" at the other end for whichever nearby station has a load ready. I should start using a Depot/Parking station though.
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Aug 19, 2017 01:02
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I name based on what it does, supply or produce So "Supply - Iron Ore" is for iron mines, since they're supplying iron ore. "Produce - Iron Sheets" is for a station where the ore gets dropped off and turned into useful poo poo (if i'm not smelting on site). it works pretty well to help me remember what each station is doing.
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Aug 19, 2017 01:07
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crabrock posted:Lazy bastard let's you craft like 10 extra items so I used a few in the beginning to get up faster. I don't trust my basic addition skills.
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Aug 19, 2017 01:21
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XkyRauh posted:A nice way to get a leg up on the Lazy Bastard achievement is to play with friends. Each new player who joins the world starts with a few Iron Plates and a Burner Miner. As long as everyone doesn't hand craft a pick right away, and you all pool your resources, the slow start can be somewhat mitigated. I'm a person who enjoys Factorio. I don't have friends.
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Aug 19, 2017 01:24
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Thanks everyone for the advice about train station naming. I think it's a fact of life with Factorio that you'll inevitably discover that you've been doing something the extra-difficult way after 100's of hours of gameplay. I renamed all of my stations with the standard 'Iron-Load', 'Copper-Load', etc. Then I connected a circuit between the station and a loading buffer chest to turn the station on only when the contents reached 1000. The Evil Thing posted:X Load I really like this depot idea. Not because I'm having traffic problems (my rail system is god drat huge) but because it's another cool thing to build. Actually, as I think about it, the depot will solve a problem I've been having with the new train network configuration: if a train fully unloads and doesn't have a new station to go to, it will idle at the unloading station and prevent full trains for entering and unloading. At this point, I'm basically tinkering with preparations for my mega-base that will be used to churn out rockets. I've got an entire ocean filled in with landfills for the base location and a gigantic rail network for access to future mines. My old base will function as a boot-strap and is essentially dormant because I've already stockpiled tons of modules, blue chips, etc, and I've maxed out research prior to science tech packs. I need to stop loving around and just make the new base already. sharkbomb fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Aug 19, 2017 |
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Aug 19, 2017 13:33
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Once you get going reactors are so easy to overbuild. What's the easiest way to test where this thing tops out? I don't think it has enough water supply for the whole gigawatt of turbines and my factory peaks at about 0.2 GW.
Xaintrailles fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Aug 19, 2017 |
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Aug 19, 2017 13:35
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One other standard thing about train stops -- if you can help it, don't transport ore by train. Smelt it on premises, and load plates/U238 into the train instead. You'll get a ton more throughput this way.
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Aug 19, 2017 13:41
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sharkbomb posted:Thanks everyone for the advice about train station naming. I think it's a fact of life with Factorio that you'll inevitably discover that you've been doing something the extra-difficult way after 100's of hours of gameplay. If you connect all the station content chests (Say, 2-car system, six chests each) you can set up a single combinator for each set of chests to pass a 1 when the total ore in the chests (summed due to wires) passes close to what a full trianload is. For single sets of chests, it's super easy, but with 2 or more, I combine the outputs of those via another combinator to ensure all cars can get a full load of ore. Thank god you just have to keep the combinators on-hand and blueprinting via bots auto-fills in wires and poo poo.
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Aug 19, 2017 16:14
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Xaintrailles posted:Once you get going reactors are so easy to overbuild. What's the easiest way to test where this thing tops out? I don't think it has enough water supply for the whole gigawatt of turbines and my factory peaks at about 0.2 GW. The Creative Mode mod has everything you need but, with only two pipes, you definitely don't have enough water coming in. Also: that is an insane reactor to exchanger ratio. Most of them will be burning fuel for no reason. Check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/67xgge/nuclear_ratios/
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Aug 19, 2017 16:49
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The super lazy way that I set up my train uploading was that the train at the unloading station waits until either its inventory is emoty OR another train is waiting to unload. This is wasteful in the sense thay you get trains that are 90% full driving their cargo around for no reason, but it works well because it's self balancing for consistent output. If all your trains load at the same time and then all go to unload at once, this logic will naturally space them back out. I think. At least it never backs up.
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Aug 19, 2017 17:24
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90% of my learning how the circuit networks worked involved hooking up the warehouses to a stopping point for each train that had them wait until the storage in the warehouse dropped below a threshold and then the trains deposited and reloaded. I've never had very complicated bases but it's worked well so far!
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Aug 19, 2017 19:00
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I just ran around scouting for an hour looking for a sulfur deposit. hahaha
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Aug 19, 2017 22:09
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That's awesome.
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Aug 19, 2017 22:12
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seravid posted:The Creative Mode mod has everything you need but, with only two pipes, you definitely don't have enough water coming in. That worked thanks! With endgame power so easy to generate it's funny that there's no in-game electricity sink tech. Yeah, too many reactors but I've got uranium for days and probably not taking that world further.
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Aug 19, 2017 22:19
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The Evil Thing posted:X Load Okay, so I built a gigantic train depot. I then realized I don't have an answer to the following problem: How do I arrange for trains to idle at the depot, and how do I get them to leave? What scheduling trick do I use
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Aug 19, 2017 22:24
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sharkbomb posted:Okay, so I built a gigantic train depot. I then realized I don't have an answer to the following problem: How do I arrange for trains to idle at the depot, and how do I get them to leave? What scheduling trick do I use Trains will idle if they have nowhere to go. You can achieve this by turning off stops using the circuit network. Once the circuit network turns a stop back on, any trains that have that stop on their list will rumble back to life and head that way.
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Aug 19, 2017 23:01
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Gwyneth Palpate posted:Trains will idle if they have nowhere to go. You can achieve this by turning off stops using the circuit network. Once the circuit network turns a stop back on, any trains that have that stop on their list will rumble back to life and head that way. Right now I have my trains ordered: Iron-Load Iron-Unload Iron-Trainyard When the 'Iron-Load' station is turned off it just establishes a loop of traveling between 'Iron-Trainyard' and 'Iron-Unload'. I wanted my trains to just park at the Trainyard and stay put until the mining stations are ready, instead of idling at the Unload stations. Actually, I was typing this I realized I could probably just set up a circuit at 'Iron-Unload' to turn off the station if the buffer chests are already full. Then, both my loading and unloading stations would be turned off and trains will idle at the Trainyard. I wonder what cool problem this will create....
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Aug 19, 2017 23:09
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What's a good design for a trainyard that doesn't require one stop per train and each train having a specific assigned stop? Also when will they add train stops being able to report whether a train is at them via circuits? That seems like the most basic thing...
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Aug 19, 2017 23:13
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sharkbomb posted:Right now I have my trains ordered: Hrm, that's weird. I thought that a train would just spin its wheels if its next stop was offline, regardless of whether the stop after that was valid. Maybe I was wrong.  That being said, it's pretty rare for me to have a train route with more than two stops anyways.
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Aug 19, 2017 23:16
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Gwyneth Palpate posted:Hrm, that's weird. I thought that a train would just spin its wheels if its next stop was offline, regardless of whether the stop after that was valid. Maybe I was wrong. Nah, if you have 3 stations, and 1 of them is offline, the train will skip the offline station and move to the next in the sequence. I tried out my idea and just established a loop between my mining stations and the trainyard, so that doesn't work... I need some way to control launching from the Railyard station
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Aug 19, 2017 23:19
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I've always set up trains to just have one loading stop and one unloading stop, but now I'm thinking about having all my trains have all the loading stops on there, but have the stops only turned on when they are buffered. So when a loading station is ready to load, that station turns on and a train sees it and goes there. As soon as the buffer starts to empty, the station turns off, so no other trains will try to go to it while it's loading. Since trains wait at loading stations until they are full, the train will just pass through any later stops, since its inventory is already full. Combining this with my filter stack unloader that takes copper off one side of the train and iron of the other, I could get rid of dedicated trains all together and just have a pool of trains that bring all the iron and copper back to my base as it becomes available. I'm gonna play around with this and see if it works the way I want it to...
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Aug 19, 2017 23:21
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I'm not even sure what the "trainyard" is supposed to do. Why not just have two stops, load and unload?
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Aug 19, 2017 23:30
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