Factorio: Captain Planet doesn't stand a chance.

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Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

When it gets Greenlit (and it will) I'd kill for workshop support. Modding in Factorio has so much potential.

# ¿ May 4, 2014 19:21

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:15

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

The Shortest Path posted:

I definitely agree that the art direction is kind of bland. I really like it, because I grew up on Command and Conquer, Dark Reign, and other similar games with a really bleak, grimdark environment, and it definitely fits the setting and such of this, but it will really hurt sales in the long run because modern gamers are used to more color in everything that isn't FPS games.

Or I could be wrong and there are hundreds of thousands of people just like me eagerly waiting to spend all their money on this.

E: I have a gameplay question. Do biter spawners only send stuff after you if you have them shown on your map, or are they hostile based on distance from you automatically? Also, what's the point of Radar in either of those situations and why is it under the military tab?

Biters are Eco-terrorists. The hostility level is based on pollution. More you make, the more aggressive they get. Too much pollution and they evolve into tougher versions. It's a great concept where you have to balance high performance, high pollution factories with more spread out, slower factories.

The radar scans sectors over time, revealing more and more of the map. It shows deposits and any biter nests. It also shows incoming blips of attacking biters. However that is a feature that will probably get some much needed love during the multiplayer addition.

# ¿ May 4, 2014 21:36

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

A version or two back I experiment with trains quite a bit. End result was what I called "The Loop". Visually it was a giant oval track that stop at each location in order dropping off components and picking up products. It was huge. It was a pain to maintain. But drat if it wasn't fun as gently caress having my own little production city to play with. Incredibly modular too with all the free space. Plus I filled the inner section with a poo poo ton of accumulators and solar panels.

Wish I had taken screens now.

# ¿ May 5, 2014 02:50

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Morphix posted:

I'm in the drilling/rifenery mode as I got bored of optimizing the factory so now I'm optimizing a different type of factory...

anyway

What do Small Pumps do? The flow-rate of the pipes doesn't seem to be affected with mine, so is my setup simply too small for them to be of any use?

Also, I'm dying to see someones fully automated setup, like from coal/iron-ore/copper to the next step of bars to wheels and all other poo poo and at the end pumping out Research beakers things.

I think it'd be kind of impossible but maybe that's what some of the smart chests/inserters are for.

Here is an example of my simple assembly setup, it's 2 rows of 5 factories being fed by a boxes at one end. I have two of these so in total I have 20 factories that can be pumping out stuff.

I end up switching the factories production quite a lot but it's nice to be able to pump out couple thousand in simple precursors like iron wheels and green electric circuits relatively fast

Here's one of my older 0.8.5 layouts. Few mods in there as well.

It's not specifically showing science packs(they are farther down the line, but the concept works for just about anything. Biggest fault of such a linear setup is that you need ALOT of raw material input to keep pace. Every time you split the line you are basicaly sending 50% prodution to that specific assembler group and 50% to the rest of the line.

This particular setup was actually tasked with feeding 12 labs with green/red packs.

Here's where the raw materials come from. Note this one is using solid fuel:

I used to run fuel right down the middle, but with it like this you can actually drop in electric furnaces at will without a complete retool of the line.

# ¿ May 7, 2014 13:39

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Elfface posted:

Without logistics robots, you can use Smart Inserters to only take certain things, so a chest with three outputs and one input can work. I've been pondering a setup with 'branches' to different mini factories, which then branch off to final products.

The tricky part is, without robots the only way to make the inserters stop is to have no more room. so you still have a big line of stuff.

Using smart inverters with smart chests and wire can do this actually. You can set <,>,etc conditions on smart inserters based on the wire network they are connected to. Typically you set a smart chest by the finished product farther down the line, but still connected to the same wire network, and set the smart inserters to trigger when the finished product in the network is less than a certain amount.

# ¿ May 8, 2014 16:02

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Filthy Monkey posted:

I bought the game yesterday, which caused yesterday to quickly disappear. Definitely fun, and I can see burning a lot of time on this. It is easily better than most greenlight games, and should be a lock for getting on steam. This game has to eventually make it big.

I spent a lot of time fumbling with figuring out how to effectively use both sides of conveyer belts. I've occasionally built a small extra extra section so that my belts can meet at a right angle rather than a curve, so that my resource is moved from the outside to the inside of the belt.

I've been good at automating red research, but have been lazy with green research so far, stocking the factories by hand. I think I need to spread my factories out more, and not be worried about keeping things compact.

Try this:

All splitters do is equally divide items between two belts, keeping them in the same lane. This trick just splits the belt into 2 and immediately merges the two so they are running on only one belt. Great way early on to increase capacity without circuits or chests/etc.

# ¿ May 8, 2014 16:25

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Filthy Monkey posted:

Managed to get myself to solar only. Spudnewt was right about efficiency modules. Makes a big difference in how much juice you use and how much pollution you produce. I would suggest picking those up pretty early, especially if you want to keep your pollution down, or plan to go solar.

One thing I am learning is that you don't really want to overbuild from the start. If you can keep two labs going all the time, you are in fine shape, especially once you get to blue science. It is easy to start laying down the plans for a giant production empire, trying to feed six labs, taking forever until you actually finish your chains, and producing mega-pollution in the meantime. A small finished loop right now is better than a huge unfinished loop.

Here is what I have meeting my modest power needs at the moment. I built it by the coast, so that biters are unlikely to walk by. Not that I am even generating enough pollution to get attacked.

I usually use solars during the day backed by smaller modular steam engines. usually I'll have 2 water pumps feeding 10 boilers feeding 16 engines. A few of these scattered around my complex is enough to provide solid power in just about any circumstance. Not too mention they are juuust small enough to not attract too much biter attention.

Plus, I usually power remote mining complexes with solar only and power saving modules to minimize any actual need for defense. Hell, after you get big power lines it's even possible to build a global power network using big towers for long distance transmission. At that point you can just bury your power plants in the safest spots you got beam it wherever.

# ¿ May 11, 2014 23:30

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Sage Grimm posted:

Essentially you only have to read the top two bars and compare them. Is your production larger than your consumption? You're good! If it's not then you need to add more energy production or add efficiency modules.

Always a good idea to have your power production higher then your theoretical maximum. Speaking from experience, if you deplete a portion of your line and suddenly ALL your inserters and AND your factories/smelter are running at full capacity to catch up, it can create a serious issue where your steam generator plants are suddenly using more fuel/water then than you thought possible when it was running at half cap.

# ¿ May 12, 2014 02:16

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Hagop posted:

Based on the road map you might want to set the game down for a bit then. Then next 2 updates look to be feature light and focused on getting MP working.

Or look into the modding scene. It's incredibly easy to mod for.

http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=43

DyTech is my personal favorite. Adds tons of content AND changes a few things enough to make it challenging.

Retro42 fucked around with this message at 02:23 on May 13, 2014

# ¿ May 13, 2014 02:19

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

LordSaturn posted:

The main thing is that you can't move liquids besides crude oil without piping them around, so make sure your refinery/chem plant is near your production lines, so you can bus-belt iron and copper into your battery machines and coal into your plastic machine. As far as getting them to their consumers, I'd probably use drones for that. But batteries and plastic get consumed slowly enough that I usually just hand-carry them in...

Honestly not trying to self-promote here. But figured I would share.

My Mod

Really nothing fancy, just adds barrels for all the vanilla oil products. Absurdly useful for logistic networks if put together right. If any intrepid goon wants to build on this go right ahead.

# ¿ May 14, 2014 02:27

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Rent posted:

Havent played this game in awhile, and re-doing the campaign to get used to it. Problem with inserters: what am i doing wrong, why won't this guy insert any fuel?

One of the big un-mentioned caveats to inserters is that they fill up the target to a point. Meaning ONLY 5 coal instead of a full stack. Also, boilers will only be fired up if one can keep the water temp high enough. Meaning only the first will be active if it's the only one needed.

Short answer: Not inserting fuel because it doesn't need to right now.

# ¿ May 15, 2014 00:40

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

The other approach is to cram as many miners as possible on that ore patch and strip mine it dry. I've been working on a new design focused on stockpiling raw materials and using smart chests/inserters to process them as needed. Oddly satisfying to know I'm typically sitting on around 15k iron/copper. Let's me focus on more huge long term projects knowing I have a stockpile like that.

I'll try to put some pics up after work tonight.

# ¿ May 18, 2014 15:52

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Hagop posted:

Does any one have the numbers on this, is it better to crack to petrol then convert to solid fuel or just go directly to solid fuel?

Petroleum gas is the biggest limiting factor in some setups. Sulfur/sulfuric acid/batteries/plastic ALL need a steady supply of petroleum gas. Yeah, you can turn a surplus into solid fuel if you want too, but it's better used elsewhere.

# ¿ May 22, 2014 21:06

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Evilreaver posted:

I did not know that, I was under the impression that horizontal was shorter, but I haven't been doing my due diligence in testing. Regardless, since trains can only be scheduled in 5 sec increments (), 12 fills it 'fast enough' with non-purple inserter upgrades.

One thing I've been meaning to try, if you schedule a train to stop at a station for 0 seconds, does it stay long enough for, say, an inserter to put one arm of coal in the engine? Gotta cram every second I can out of my train lines.

_{E: Yes I know ideally I would sneak the coal in during another stop but that's kinda a bitch in my current line}

Don't forget the inserter stack size upgrades. Offloading directly from trains to chests lets you unload 3 items at a time. Same works for loading. Have your mines preload chests before the train even gets there.

I do the same with my wire factories. Move wire from factory>chest>belt.

Obvious tip, but might still be a few unaware of it.

# ¿ May 23, 2014 22:29

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Baloogan posted:

Any interest in a communal effort to make a goon mod pack for Factorio?

I'm game. Whoever wants to lead the project can take my mod and do whatever to it. I'll be happy to contribute more, just don't expect me to head up a project.

# ¿ May 29, 2014 05:23

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

When absolutely every loving tree has to die.

http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4757

(fake) Edit:

Shintaro posted:

I've thought about modding oil to be more viscous, to avoid/address just that issue - give barreling oil (or small pumps, for that matter) a purpose. However, the trial-and-error of fiddling with the numbers in the definition files and reloading Factorio over and over puts me off.

One of these days I'll do it, if nobody beats me to it.

I tried modding in a Tar-like liquid at one point. It's an interesting logistical situation to deal with. Without very regularly spaced pumps it pretty much just pooled up by the origin within a few tiles.

IIRC fooling with this:

code:

   pressure_to_speed_ratio = 0.1,

in a fluid entry does what you're looking for. Been a while but 0.1 was moderately sluggish without being annoying.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 04:21

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Neruz posted:

Assuming accurate physics models for a liquid like tar it really shouldn't be all that viable to pump it very far; tar is the kind of liquid that you really do want to transport in barrels.

True, my playing around with modding it was more an exercise in seeing what was possible. It IS completely possible to make a liquid that is almost impossible to transport by pipe if you drop that value lower.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 04:59

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Neruz posted:

The fact that you need an entire assembler to barrel\unbarrel liquids is really excessive too; would make more sense if there was a specialized 'barrel tap' that you could build relatively cheaply and tape to the end of any pipe to put empty barrels in and get full barrels out. Requiring me to make and run power to an assembler just to put a hose in a barrel and fill it up with liquid is too much.

Honestly it could be done fairly quick and dirty. Just make a mini assembler(maybe using the small pump model?) with a new recipe class and link all the barrel fill stuff to it.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 05:20

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

FISHMANPET posted:

Really there should just be liquid train cars, and I think the devs have said it's on the roadmap. Barreling and unbarreling oil is a fun intellectual exercise, but nobody moves oil like that.

I've found that modding up the stack_size for crude oil barrels goes a long way. 10 barrels per stack just isn't profitable no matter how you shake it out.

25 or 50 OTOH...

Edit:

Just for the sake of discussion here's my wishlist of tweaks that would "fix" oil/liquids.

*Slower moving oil in pipes
*25+ barrels per stack
*large footprint barreling-only building
*small footprint unbarreling/liquid storage buildings.

Overall more focus on large scale drilling/refining operations with the capability to use barrels as ship-in resources for production lines. Slower moving oil in pipes would make long distance pipelines less feasible and make alternate methods of transport more appealing. You'd still be able to move oil long distance with pumps though.

Retro42 fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Dec 3, 2014

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 07:43

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

With all the big factories being posted out there I though I'd share my mini prefabs for early game. Doesn't hurt to have a little area set up churning out circuits/belts/inserters/etc. to get some supplies building while I plan out my production line. Just dump a few stacks of iron/copper in each and walk away.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2016 03:21

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Got a starter-level red/green factory up and running. I know it's no where near optimized or anything but it's a super cheap blueprint I make create early on with a minimum amount of preliminary research. Before I tear it apart and put it back together again multiple times in frustration, whats a good ratio to aim for when making red/green?

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 15:05

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Thanks for all the feedback. I left some of room to just slap on more assemblers when needed. First step is finding a smooth running ratio and I have a good starting point now.

It is deliberately restricted on its max capacity because it is just an early game research facility. After I move on to blue+ it'll probably be torn up and rebuilt.

REALLY love the blueprints always available thing. If I ever want a new start not on Goon Island it'll be easier than ever.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 15:43

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

God drat it.

I was just puttering about paving/expanding my previously mentioned research facility. Goon Island is an amazing seed btw.

Turns out using a seed from here has ....unintended consequences on my builds. Concrete is still in the works...Must. Pave. The. World.

I present the deliberately unnamed "Research Facility 1"

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 17:46

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Dr. Stab posted:

You could put 24 green science and 20 red science production for the amount of intermediates production you have.

Yeah, I'm slowly ramping it up as I go. Also working on a few other things so it's kind of low priority at the moment. I've actually shunted off the overflow gears/circuits/belts for now. All will come in handy when I make the changeover to red belts and start a large scale oil/steel industry.

Edit:

Is it worth sticking something to cap my power plants? Figure it might help in the occasional power request spike.

Retro42 fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Apr 26, 2017

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 20:37

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Truga posted:

That won't help with power spikes, since max output of a boiler is exactly 2 engines worth of steam.

It will hold a pretty huge buffer though, so if you suddenly run out of coal you'll have a few minutes to react.

I like redundancy so that works for me. Between the backup solars, the auxiliary coal storage, and the steam tanks I'm looking to have at least 5-10 minutes of backup power if the worst case happens.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 21:16

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Successfully automating grenades and turrets is making me way happier than it should. Great design choice by the devs to have all the different sci packs. Really opens up the game.

Plus on-demand explosives to throw around is a nice bonus.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 23:27

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Sharing in case anyone wanted ideas for Military Scipacks. Sure mine isn't the most efficient or anything. But it's functional with room to improve.

Took the threads advice and moved gears to the bus. The section for them isn't just for turrets but the belt as a whole.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 00:24

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

FISHMANPET posted:

These ratios are a disaster.

I plan my science so that I'm always producing the same amount per second of each pack, and in the long run it works out. So here's my secret. For every single item you need in the entire chain of science, that number of seconds it takes to craft? That's how many assemblers you need making that (divided by the number of items produced per assembly, science beyond blue makes 2 packs per production). So red science takes 5 seconds, so I have 5 red science assemblers. Green takes 6, so I have 6. Blue is 12, so I have 12. MilSci takes 10 (divided by 2) so I need 5. Grenades take 8 seconds so I need 4 (8/2).

Red bullets take 3 seconds so You need 3. Yellow bullets take 1 second, so 1 yellow bullet assembler can feed 3 red bullet assemblers.

I threw extra red bullet fabs in there on purpose. Plan on using them to fuel a turret wall soon. Ditto on grenades. I have a large scale deforestation project coming up and thats the fun way to do it.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 01:06

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

I don't know if its been mentioned but the stack inserter upgrades are REALLY worth researching as they do give a boost to standard inserters as well. All my fast inserters are able to move 2 items at a time right now which really changes things.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 22:39

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Reactor talk:

So if I understand the neighbor bonus correctly, 1 reactor can support 4 heat exchangers and 2 can support 4 each plus 100%. So 16?

Also, is it roughly 2 turbines to an exchanger?

At first the whole reactor thing seemed like overkill/resource sink. But my tiny little setup can handle 50MW+ right now and I KNOW it's not an efficient setup. Even pulled my coal engines off the grid for now it's working so well.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2017 23:05

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Onean posted:

Finally got this up and working. I've got it set up to just the inserter, and the inserter set to only operate under 24000 water. It works a lot better and it'll cut down fuel consumption by quite a bit. I recommend it if you're not using the full potential of nuclear to save fuel. The only thing I'd like more is if I could force the inserter to only put one or two cells in, that'd save even more uranium. That's probably getting too greedy, though.

Uranium fuel cells only start off feeling rare. After you get the reactor up to temp and humming along you should be finding more u235 than you are burning provided you run at least 3-4 centrifuges. Plus, with power no longer being a concern throw some modules on them as well.

Remember each piece of U235 turns into 10 cells @ 8Gj a piece. 80Gj per u235 vs 8Mj per piece of coal.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2017 03:47

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Tanker trucks make uranium trains totally viable too. I've got one that ships out with sulfuric acid and tops off the onsite tanks and loads up on ore for the return trip. With rail world settings that uranium field(1.1mil) is going to last me FOREVER too.

Offloads to a bank of modded up centrifuges. I use circuits to make sure I keep at least some raw u235 on hand for when kovarex enrichment is available.

And to echo the earlier point. It's VERY much worth getting at least 2 or more reactors for the bonus. The efficiency bonus pushes you from a fuckton of power to flat out obscene amounts of power.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2017 04:16

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

Vetitum posted:

Is there a mod that does the opposite of landfill? Placeable water tiles for defensive purposes?

https://mods.factorio.com/mods/GotLag/Explosive%20Excavation

I use this one. A bit too cheesy personally for me to use it on the defensive side but I do like having it there for small lake or to clean up landfill mistakes.

# ¿ May 10, 2017 15:02

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:15

Retro42: Jun 27, 2011

CanOfMDAmp posted:

now is when the game really starts, honestly.

Yeah, you suddenly hit a point where you go from expanding your ramshackle assembly line to "gently caress it, time to GO BIG"

# ¿ May 11, 2017 01:26

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