Satisfactory: A Factorio/Subnautica Hybrid about to be in Early Access
- Thread starter Tegid
- Start date
Since I'm doing this on a per job basis, and not hooked up to other buildings and running 100% of the time, some of the parts wouldn't even saturate one or two of the machines, while other parts (like screws and quickwire) would saturate their input and flow into the machines that never got the first parts. This would lead me to having to clean out the machines halfway through.
So for my mini-modular quadraplexes (assembler and constructor, the duplex-manufacturer failed, since I was trying to make the belts the same length for both machines, so I just made a single floor mini-manufacturer) the inputs have to be balanced.
Now, with more room, it would be pretty easy to build a duplex manufacturer that was balanced with even belt lengths, I would just have to do it in a larger than 4x4 grid. I can do that later.
For now, I just want to rush to the next tier, so I can unlock the fastest belts for really tricking out my blueprints. Once I can see bauxite nodes, then I can start to determine a good railway system. I think a key will be keeping it far enough off the ground that I can make due with gentle slopes and few turns.
Does anyone know where I can go to get detailed dimensions of the buildings? Like how high off the foundations the inputs are and how tall the buildings are? I'm sure everything is done on a 1m grid, so I would assume the inputs are 1m off the ground, but determining the heights of the buildings by stacking foundations is a bit of a pain, so if the information is already out there, it would help.
The last of the milestone parts are constructing now...
Okay, unlocked bauxite... man the refinement process is a LOT more complicated. I'll see about setting up a base location, maybe run some materials over to get it started, then I'll have to move forward with the train system.
OH! I had a shower thought and I think I get train systems now. Before, I was thinking one-dimensional. If I have time later, I'll draw up a picture which MIGHT help people in the future when the game comes out. Long story short is I think I can start making this work, but I'll need a LOT more set-up.
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You can get overall dimensions from the wiki and calculator sites. It's less 3D than you might be looking for though. There's also a cool layout project.
Reusing lines is only going to get you so far though. The game's about scale, and to achieve scale you need fixed throughput which means confronting the ultimate enemy...physical space. That's why building up is such a game changer vs. something like Factorio. It's both simplifying and complicating as you negotiate belt spaghetti in a new dimension.
Reusing lines is only going to get you so far though. The game's about scale, and to achieve scale you need fixed throughput which means confronting the ultimate enemy...physical space. That's why building up is such a game changer vs. something like Factorio. It's both simplifying and complicating as you negotiate belt spaghetti in a new dimension.
I would very highly recommend moving away from this methodology. As CuriouslySane mentions and I tried to convey with my SCIM screenshot, the demands of each tier increase exponentially, and at the final elevator tier attempting to fill machines by hand will end up taking up the majority of your time.
This is coming from personal experience.
I agree, I've looked at the requirements for this elevator and pretty much figured I didn't need to even begin messing with it until I could get my network set up. But I've also looked at the rewards for sending up this last elevator, and I don't think I will bother with it.
I can set-up a mini-aluminum factory to try and get enough stuff to set up a full sized aluminum factory. A LOT of the explanations I've found for first aluminum factories make a few assumptions, like that you already have an aluminum factory, alternate recipes, and a map wide railway system so the aluminum factory has power and access to all materials you would need like quartz, coal, copper, water, and such. I'm wondering if it MIGHT be easier To pipe the bauxite over to a place where you have coal, quartz, water, and copper... like maybe Power Base Alpha? I have that wide open water area that I didn't take up with coal power plants. Once I have a working aluminum plant, I can work on unlocking nuclear power and see about no longer having and power troubles. I'm still only using about half my power, but it says that the max consumption is getting close to what I'm making.
What I will do (when I get the chance) is unlock the radar tower. It is the last thing I can unlock before getting aluminum. I've found and marked some aluminum nodes from my regular scanner, and I realize I've only seen about 25% of the map. What I need to do is set off to explore, but NOT like I did before. Before, I tried to bring one stack of EVERY item I had to be able to unlock the wrecks I come across. That worked, but it also meant I had to return sooner rather than later.
This time, I'm just going to head out with essentials. Ammo, jetpack fuel, rods for ladders, concrete and iron plates for foundations. When I get to a wreck, I just mark it on the map and note what it takes to open it. I should be able to get much farther that way. Also, if I do get full up with stuff for some reason, I'll build a chest, store it, and mark it on the map. If I run out of a material (like rods, which I use a ton of for ladders while exploring) I'll scan for an iron node, build a crafting bench, and make some more. I need to explore this place. There is just a TON of verticality on the map, and I tend to run out of stuff.
And while I do sort of understand why I was looking at the train stations wrong last time, I still haven't figured out the right way of getting the tracks across the land. Should I just build train stations in the sky and have all the tracks build on foundations? Should I build them a bit above the land and then run the tracks on the ground where I can? I've had very little luck laying tracks so far. I could try a mixture of both where I follow the land, but on 4m foundations, and try to just go up and down with 1m ramps when needed. Not sure how feasible that is when there are like 50m drops.
I can set-up a mini-aluminum factory to try and get enough stuff to set up a full sized aluminum factory. A LOT of the explanations I've found for first aluminum factories make a few assumptions, like that you already have an aluminum factory, alternate recipes, and a map wide railway system so the aluminum factory has power and access to all materials you would need like quartz, coal, copper, water, and such. I'm wondering if it MIGHT be easier To pipe the bauxite over to a place where you have coal, quartz, water, and copper... like maybe Power Base Alpha? I have that wide open water area that I didn't take up with coal power plants. Once I have a working aluminum plant, I can work on unlocking nuclear power and see about no longer having and power troubles. I'm still only using about half my power, but it says that the max consumption is getting close to what I'm making.
What I will do (when I get the chance) is unlock the radar tower. It is the last thing I can unlock before getting aluminum. I've found and marked some aluminum nodes from my regular scanner, and I realize I've only seen about 25% of the map. What I need to do is set off to explore, but NOT like I did before. Before, I tried to bring one stack of EVERY item I had to be able to unlock the wrecks I come across. That worked, but it also meant I had to return sooner rather than later.
This time, I'm just going to head out with essentials. Ammo, jetpack fuel, rods for ladders, concrete and iron plates for foundations. When I get to a wreck, I just mark it on the map and note what it takes to open it. I should be able to get much farther that way. Also, if I do get full up with stuff for some reason, I'll build a chest, store it, and mark it on the map. If I run out of a material (like rods, which I use a ton of for ladders while exploring) I'll scan for an iron node, build a crafting bench, and make some more. I need to explore this place. There is just a TON of verticality on the map, and I tend to run out of stuff.
And while I do sort of understand why I was looking at the train stations wrong last time, I still haven't figured out the right way of getting the tracks across the land. Should I just build train stations in the sky and have all the tracks build on foundations? Should I build them a bit above the land and then run the tracks on the ground where I can? I've had very little luck laying tracks so far. I could try a mixture of both where I follow the land, but on 4m foundations, and try to just go up and down with 1m ramps when needed. Not sure how feasible that is when there are like 50m drops.
I think this is a fundamental playstyle question. Tracks are much easier to build on Foundations, and those foundations can just be zooped to infinity above the ground. Some people (like me) don't care and just leave the platforms floating. Some people like to keep everything as close to the actual terrain as possible. Some people split the middle and build structures to "support" the platforms. The devs have taken the stance that any of these options are "correct" so it's really up to you.
IMO, trying to design train stations without starting from a floating 40x100 platform is a special hell, and once that platform is up there, fuck it I'm zooping.
I don't see a problem with floating platforms, but may go back and provide pillars later if I decide to make it look nicer.
In the meantime, can someone check my work as far as railway design? As I mentioned, I never played with toy trains, or was interested in how trains ran, so I'm kind of trying to figure it out from first principles, and probably not doing a very good job. So this is pretty mcuh what I've gotten to:
So I THINK the idea is that you are building a network that more than one train can be on (I already have seen tutorials about the signals, that isn't the problem I'm struggling with). So stations can only be pulled in to from one direction. But the train may want to come from the left and leave to the right, or come from the left and leave to the left, or any combination. So that is why I keep seeing people setting up two rails together (I think) is because one is like a ring going clockwise and the other is going widdershins. Then, if there is a nearby station you are adding, you might just run two lines out to it (maybe some track magic at the end so the train can return back to either track. For further away bases, you might run an entire loop of two lines out and two lines back elsewhere, particularly if you might be expanding off that loop again.
Now, can anyone tell me if I'm right, or at least close? Or where I can go to learn this better? The train tutorials are almost all focusing on the signals rather than track layout theory.
(edit: I went to check what the name of the place I call Power Base Alpha is named, and it looks like I'm wrong about 25%, I have between 15% to 20% of the map explored. I have: Grass Fields, Snaketree Forest, Dangle Spires, Western Dune Forrest, and the outer edge of Islands (the first two Oil nodes and I stopped) PBA is just an unnamed pond in the Snaketree Forest.)
Edit2: About the train stuff. They are saying you should have a bypass for your stations so that if a train doesn't need to stop there, it can drive past it. Still looking into it...
Edit3: A video on track building!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_y3cn99pY8
In the meantime, can someone check my work as far as railway design? As I mentioned, I never played with toy trains, or was interested in how trains ran, so I'm kind of trying to figure it out from first principles, and probably not doing a very good job. So this is pretty mcuh what I've gotten to:
So I THINK the idea is that you are building a network that more than one train can be on (I already have seen tutorials about the signals, that isn't the problem I'm struggling with). So stations can only be pulled in to from one direction. But the train may want to come from the left and leave to the right, or come from the left and leave to the left, or any combination. So that is why I keep seeing people setting up two rails together (I think) is because one is like a ring going clockwise and the other is going widdershins. Then, if there is a nearby station you are adding, you might just run two lines out to it (maybe some track magic at the end so the train can return back to either track. For further away bases, you might run an entire loop of two lines out and two lines back elsewhere, particularly if you might be expanding off that loop again.
Now, can anyone tell me if I'm right, or at least close? Or where I can go to learn this better? The train tutorials are almost all focusing on the signals rather than track layout theory.
(edit: I went to check what the name of the place I call Power Base Alpha is named, and it looks like I'm wrong about 25%, I have between 15% to 20% of the map explored. I have: Grass Fields, Snaketree Forest, Dangle Spires, Western Dune Forrest, and the outer edge of Islands (the first two Oil nodes and I stopped) PBA is just an unnamed pond in the Snaketree Forest.)
Edit2: About the train stuff. They are saying you should have a bypass for your stations so that if a train doesn't need to stop there, it can drive past it. Still looking into it...
Edit3: A video on track building!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_y3cn99pY8
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I made it to the pure bauxite! But there are little red trees around it I can't cut down. So I just build a ramp up and over them. Then I built a foundation path leading all the way back to Power Base Alpha. I figured the back half of that pond was wide open for an aluminum refinery, and I have water, coal, sulfur, iron and copper nearby. Quarts isn't THAT far and I was planning on belting it over anyway. So my current plan, because railways are difficult at this point is to just build a long conveyor belt.
Edit: Yay! I have raw bauxite in my base! Funny thing, there is a portion of my 'road' to the bauxite that is apparently too close to some radioactive stuff. I take damage every time I go through there. Now what I need to do is get the recipes for aluminum processing that make things easier. If I can find the one that processes without silica, and the one that makes ingots in a smelter, I'll be set for aluminum for now. Then, I want to build a fabric making machine (I have the recipe researched already), and unlock hazmat suits. At this point, I figure I'll have my aluminum being used to produce three things: Ingots, Alclad Aluminum Sheet, and Aluminum Casing. Then I'll start making my rail system. I TRIED to make my road to the bauxite rail system friendly so that I could have a train do it rather than a belt, but it is just too high and in order to try and get it down to near water level, I'd have to build a spiral railway. It might be possible... but later. At this point, I'm still working on making "straight" railways. I think I've got most of the info I need to work out my tracks. Just going to make a loop going from Main Base, PBA, and Oil Island. Anything else can be tacked onto that later.
For trains, I know it is my personal preference, but for you guys, have you found any troubles building your tracks two foundations wide, or do you use three?
Edit: Yay! I have raw bauxite in my base! Funny thing, there is a portion of my 'road' to the bauxite that is apparently too close to some radioactive stuff. I take damage every time I go through there. Now what I need to do is get the recipes for aluminum processing that make things easier. If I can find the one that processes without silica, and the one that makes ingots in a smelter, I'll be set for aluminum for now. Then, I want to build a fabric making machine (I have the recipe researched already), and unlock hazmat suits. At this point, I figure I'll have my aluminum being used to produce three things: Ingots, Alclad Aluminum Sheet, and Aluminum Casing. Then I'll start making my rail system. I TRIED to make my road to the bauxite rail system friendly so that I could have a train do it rather than a belt, but it is just too high and in order to try and get it down to near water level, I'd have to build a spiral railway. It might be possible... but later. At this point, I'm still working on making "straight" railways. I think I've got most of the info I need to work out my tracks. Just going to make a loop going from Main Base, PBA, and Oil Island. Anything else can be tacked onto that later.
For trains, I know it is my personal preference, but for you guys, have you found any troubles building your tracks two foundations wide, or do you use three?
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I will admit, I use Satisfactory as my train building sim. The space elevator and factory is secondary. They exist as something for my trains to do.
What do you do about all the up and down areas in Satisfactory? I'm finding it difficult to make a path that can handle the extreme changes in altitude. Do you make spirals, or find long areas for ramps?
I'm not going to be able to play very much for a few days. Even this morning I barely got a couple hours in. But I tried doing some exploring with that time.
So I've been planning out my aluminum processing. I really want to find those alternate recipes first. I figure that now I've unlocked aluminum, and I've already pulled out quite a few of the previous recipes from the list, I should have a pretty good shot of finding the ones I want, hopefully within a handful of hard drives. However, as a chicken and egg thing, I'm finding it difficult to get near the wrecks I've located because of radiation. So I think I may have to do a quick and dirty set-up to get the aluminum parts needed to unlock the hazmat suit, then I should be able to find the hard-drives with the recipes to make the aluminum better.
I am setting up the back of PBA pond with a two layer setup. One is a six meter floor for piping and conveyors, and then the floor above it for the buildings. I've done this before with a blue print and it seems to work well. I got it from a youtube video. They called it a logistics floor.
I'm probably just going to be just doing a little sneaker-net set up for silica and coal until I can unlock those recipes. Then I can make a real setup. I might even set it up back at my home base with a handful of stacks of bauxite, silica, and coal. I have a giant half of a platform that already has a pump and a water tank that isn't used at all when I'm not feeding it leaves and wood. I might as well make use of it as a temporary place to churn out aluminum ingots.
It's like Tony Montana said, "On this planet, you gotta make the aluminum ingots first. Then when you get the aluminum ingots, you get the hazmat suit. Then when you get the hazmat suit, then you get the hard drives." Or something like that...
I use switch backs with 2m ramps and the thin foundations if I need to change altitude for areas with limited space. Other than that, it’s just 1m or 2m ramps. Trains struggle to make up 3m ramps with just two full cars. 2m ramps are about as steep of an incline as you’ll want, ideally you’d use 1m ramps.
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The factory and feeder rails
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I run a single rail with occasional passing lanes. One foundation wide, two when they split to pass.
I'm thinking of making a loop that is high enough to run a circuit without running into anything, then having different parts spiral down to local routes. Of course, this is just armchair engineering as I haven't even gotten half the map explored.
But I have made a great stride towards that today. My limited run of aluminum ingots was perfect except for one thing. the last batch didn't come out. The refinery sees 4/4 alumina solution, but best guess is it is 3.9999 and it is waiting for an extra drop or something. Isn't really an issue. I don't mind losing a bit here and there.
I have made the hazmat suit and a handful of filters and was able to clean up the uranium that was damaging me every time I ran to my bauxite node. Turns out there was a LOT of it down there. I built a box and dropped it all in the box with a map marker to find it again later.
There was also another crash site, so I got that going for me, which is nice. Only issue is it requires items I haven't even unlocked yet to open. So that is off the table. I cleaned up around it anyway.
So I figured, there are a number of starting points around the map. I'm expecting crash sites near the starting areas will have easier to open requirements. Maybe the middle of the map with the bauxite is like... the end game, so the crash sites are surrounded by a lethal amount of radiation and hard to open doors. Perhaps what I need to do is start exploring the outer edges of the map better.
I've also finally set up a fabric making machine. I've just been using fungus. but I had a whole container of polymer that was just being sunk, so I fed it into a refinery and hooked up the output (through an overflow splitter) into a container. I mean, I just need to grab a few stacks every now and then to make some gas mask filters. It doesn't seem like worth it to set up a supply line and a machine to make filters. I make a whole bunch of stacks at once either by hand or through a temp machine. Then turn two-thirds to three-fourths of them into ionic filters, because if breathing through a filter is good, then breathing through two filters is TWICE as good.
Speaking of which, I had a alpha boar attack me near some poison trees and it was funny because I didn't realize they would kill the boar. It was effective enough I need to look into toxic grenades.
But I have made a great stride towards that today. My limited run of aluminum ingots was perfect except for one thing. the last batch didn't come out. The refinery sees 4/4 alumina solution, but best guess is it is 3.9999 and it is waiting for an extra drop or something. Isn't really an issue. I don't mind losing a bit here and there.
I have made the hazmat suit and a handful of filters and was able to clean up the uranium that was damaging me every time I ran to my bauxite node. Turns out there was a LOT of it down there. I built a box and dropped it all in the box with a map marker to find it again later.
There was also another crash site, so I got that going for me, which is nice. Only issue is it requires items I haven't even unlocked yet to open. So that is off the table. I cleaned up around it anyway.
So I figured, there are a number of starting points around the map. I'm expecting crash sites near the starting areas will have easier to open requirements. Maybe the middle of the map with the bauxite is like... the end game, so the crash sites are surrounded by a lethal amount of radiation and hard to open doors. Perhaps what I need to do is start exploring the outer edges of the map better.
I've also finally set up a fabric making machine. I've just been using fungus. but I had a whole container of polymer that was just being sunk, so I fed it into a refinery and hooked up the output (through an overflow splitter) into a container. I mean, I just need to grab a few stacks every now and then to make some gas mask filters. It doesn't seem like worth it to set up a supply line and a machine to make filters. I make a whole bunch of stacks at once either by hand or through a temp machine. Then turn two-thirds to three-fourths of them into ionic filters, because if breathing through a filter is good, then breathing through two filters is TWICE as good.
Speaking of which, I had a alpha boar attack me near some poison trees and it was funny because I didn't realize they would kill the boar. It was effective enough I need to look into toxic grenades.
Okay, I found that if I don't accept one of the three options they give me and press escape, I get the hdd back and can scan it again for another chance. I've got six hdd (well, five after Heavy Encased Frame, I'm not going to pass that one up). It may take awhile, but I'll get the recipes I want!
I also NEED to find the ones with fuel because trains take a lot of power.
I also NEED to find the ones with fuel because trains take a lot of power.
My rough tier list for alt recipe/combos below. I will SCIM-scum these if I don't have them yet by the time I'm ready to go nuts.
- Recycled Rubber + Recycled Plastic + Heavy Oil Residue + Diluted Fuel (and Diluted Packaged Fuel before T7)
- Allows for massively efficient Rubber and Plastic production.
- Sloppy Alumina + Pure Aluminum Ingot
- Allows you to make Aluminum Ingots with only Bauxite+Water
- Heavy Encased Frame + Encased Industrial Pipe + Solid Steel Ingot
- Encased Frame eliminates screws, the other two are just way more efficient methods to make Encased Beams and Steel
- Caterium Circuit Board + Caterium Computer
- Eliminates Copper from this chain
- Iron Wire
- More efficient and eliminates Copper, though it produces at a weird ratio
I was just going by https://satisfactory-ranker.kpwn243.com/results (which is coming down in about 10 days, so if you are interested, copy it early).
Yeah, I've gotten the fuel ones now, so I'm going to blueprint my fuel building and then start mass producing fuel generators. Should get me enough power until I'm ready for nuclear.
Still rolling for pure aluminum so I can build my aluminum processing plant.
Also, I'm still missing encased industrial pipe. I'm not sure about the caterium thing. At least where I am there are a lot more copper nodes than caterium nodes. But we'll see once I get the rest of the ones I need.
I wish I had known you could just reject the hdd scan results earlier. I was thinking I may have to save scum, which is just a waste of time. Instead I can do stuff while the HDD is scanning and it doesn't go poof if I don't get what I want...
Being able to reroll is technically a bug. It was introduced in Update 8, patched out (and noted as such), and then reintroduced in the next patch without any notes. They haven't come out and said one way or another whether it's supposed to work, so don't rely on it continuing to work through 1.0.
Eh, I prefer thinking of it as a feature! 
Anyway, so now that I picked up the other fuel recipe I needed for maximizing my power from oil wells, let me just plug in the numbers to see what I need for a single pure oil extractor running at 250%...
Looks like about 133 fuel generators... is that correct? I'd have to overclock one of them to 133.333%. And that is 20,000MW? I'm currently running under 1100MW, and if everything attached to the grid was turned on at once, it would only take 2091MW. I am currently producing 1950MW. So this would increase my power by about 11 times (20,000+1950).
Well, I don't think I'll be able to build all of those at once, even making a large, multi floor building. Even without overclocking, it looks like I would need 53 generators.
I'm going to need a few more heavy modular frames... among other things. At least I have enough computers, I think. Oh wait, the radio control units ALSO take computers.
OK, I THINK I have enough overhead to do the aluminum factory first. Then I'll make the fuel factory.
Anyway, so now that I picked up the other fuel recipe I needed for maximizing my power from oil wells, let me just plug in the numbers to see what I need for a single pure oil extractor running at 250%...
Looks like about 133 fuel generators... is that correct? I'd have to overclock one of them to 133.333%. And that is 20,000MW? I'm currently running under 1100MW, and if everything attached to the grid was turned on at once, it would only take 2091MW. I am currently producing 1950MW. So this would increase my power by about 11 times (20,000+1950).
Well, I don't think I'll be able to build all of those at once, even making a large, multi floor building. Even without overclocking, it looks like I would need 53 generators.
I'm going to need a few more heavy modular frames... among other things. At least I have enough computers, I think. Oh wait, the radio control units ALSO take computers.
OK, I THINK I have enough overhead to do the aluminum factory first. Then I'll make the fuel factory.
Assuming you go Oil > HOR > Diluted Fuel, yes it's 133.3 generators to 600 Crude.
But if you have the Turbo Blend Fuel recipe, you can turn 600 Crude into 800 Turbofuel, which will power 177.777 generators at 100%
I just don't have any sulfur nearby, and I didn't want to pipe it in at this point. I mean, I COULD, I have been working on a rail line between them in order to move black powder and compacted coal. But let's face it, I'm not ready to build 50 fuel generators, 133 was outside of my reach. 177 is just crazy. Once I'm done unlocking things (which is going faster now) I'll put it on my 'to-do' list. Also, the idea of my entire grid losing power because I messed up something on the train tracks would give me nightmares.
I finished working on my aluminum plant. So to get materials TO your bases, you guys are fine with piping resources around with belts, right? I mean, I've done a few crazy things with the bauxite and the coal. Even the sulfur at PBA is coming in on a long skyramp. Each iteration of my sky ramp is a bit better, but I think I'm missing a trick or something. For one, conveyor belts just don't seem to work well on ramps. The stands are only made to go horizontally, so it gets wavy going down long ramps. I suppose I could do a vertical lift or something, but that doesn't help me much, as I need to get up as well, AND power. Should I make a tower blueprint with a spiral staircase and the wall outlets? Maybe for my next building, which is starting to look like it will be that freaking fuel plant. Also, everyone says to build it UP, not OUT, and to pump the fuel to the top and then let gravity take it down from there.
Everything was going great with my aluminum plant up until I got to the end and had to figure out how to handle overflow to the shredder. Three belts running side by side until they split up at the very end to go into storage containers. I couldn't think of an elegant solution, so it is back to being spaghetti. Three smart splitters in a diagonal line, with the non-overflow going up and forward into the storage, with the overflow heading to the right. The only other idea I had was to shuffle any overflow to the belt next to it, then have a programmable splitter or something send all overflow and unauthorized materials to the shredder. For the price of a supercomputer in the thing, I would have preferred if each door could be set as an input or output along with the rules, but you work with what you have. I think this might work, I'll need some mergers, one smart splitter and two programmable splitters. And that will make the final part of the aluminum plant look neater... hmm, thinking about it now, I COULD probably do something similar with just several smart splitters and mergers. Since they would be in a line, they wouldn't look... bad. I'll try it both ways.
Also, just unlocked the Hover Pack, and was disappointed that high tension lines don't allow you to hover. Has to be the small power lines.
Edit: Ugh... tried running all my temp assemblers at the same time making circuit boards and computers... blew a fuse for the first time in a while. The new aluminum factory means I don't have as much headroom as I did before, so now I can't run everything at once. The computers are, of course, for the processing plant. I'm still not really sure how I'm going to make this, but I had some idea of a giant octagon, with two generators per side going up several floors. Have to make the processing plant first. Main issue I'm seeing is I want to make it a top down facility, which means I sort of have to start at the top. This is going to take a LOT of foundation...
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Re using Belts for long-distance transport - as I mentioned last weekend, it's perfectly OK to do so as long as you've got the willpower to run long belts everywhere. Just keep in mind that if and when you decide to upgrade those belts to a higher tier, you'll need to walk the whooooooooole length again and upgrade each piece individually.
Re building up vs out - this is, in general, the optimal plan in this game. Building up allows you to avoid any terrain bullshit, with the important caveat that if you're trying to get liquids up you need pumps (note: this does not apply to Nitrogen since it's a gas). That said, once the liquid is pumped up, it can always go back up to that height as long as you don't reset the head lift with another pump. Additionally, pipes fill from the bottom up, even if they're being fed from the top. For these reasons, it's ideal to pump liquids as high as they're needed to go first, and then drop the feeder pipes down from there.
Re your splitter situation - can you elaborate? Handling overflow is usually as easy as just merging all of your optupts, tossing a Smart Splitter onto the belt after your last Merger, and assigning an Overflow output to go to a sink. This is very important for Aluminum to keep the machines running at 100% in order to prevent an Alumina Solution backfill that will stop all of your production. Can you explain what you're trying to accomplish and how your machines are set up, because it sounds like you may just have them set up suboptimally and it's pretty easy to troubleshoot.
Re hover packs - they attach to power connections, not power lines. This is extraordinarily irritating.
Re building up vs out - this is, in general, the optimal plan in this game. Building up allows you to avoid any terrain bullshit, with the important caveat that if you're trying to get liquids up you need pumps (note: this does not apply to Nitrogen since it's a gas). That said, once the liquid is pumped up, it can always go back up to that height as long as you don't reset the head lift with another pump. Additionally, pipes fill from the bottom up, even if they're being fed from the top. For these reasons, it's ideal to pump liquids as high as they're needed to go first, and then drop the feeder pipes down from there.
Re your splitter situation - can you elaborate? Handling overflow is usually as easy as just merging all of your optupts, tossing a Smart Splitter onto the belt after your last Merger, and assigning an Overflow output to go to a sink. This is very important for Aluminum to keep the machines running at 100% in order to prevent an Alumina Solution backfill that will stop all of your production. Can you explain what you're trying to accomplish and how your machines are set up, because it sounds like you may just have them set up suboptimally and it's pretty easy to troubleshoot.
Re hover packs - they attach to power connections, not power lines. This is extraordinarily irritating.
This is outside the factory. I have three belts running side by side for the three things this factory is producing (ingots, casings, and alclad sheets) over to the base in the area (where I will be building a train station eventually). At the end of the belt are three storage containers (actually six double storage). The issue is I wanted to keep it all together and neat and preferably on the same level. It's only a problem in 2D because the right and left belt prevent a smart splitter in the middle to reach the outer edges. In 3D, it is easy to work around, which is what I did, but the result looks messier.
Since my belts are all MUCH faster than required (they are mk3, but I'm only producing at 60 per minute) I figured I could use a combination of smart splitters and mergers to just sort of shift overflow to the next belt to the right until it was on the right belt then throw it into the shredder. Since a smart splitter can only work out overflow OR undefined, I was thinking of using a programmable splitter, or two smart splitters in a row (first to pull out undefined to shred, and the second for overflow).
I just noticed that the power draw of the processing plant for this new fuel plant is just about ALL the power I'm already making. Basically, I need to set up some sort of power priority switch thing so that the base turns on in quarters. Perhaps I'll just design it in quarters, so that the first one can power the second and so forth.
I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be hitting any sort of building height issue, but when we start talking about super high buildings my issue is often how to get to the top and the bottom. I know there are the chutes and ladders. Or stairs. I was thinking of running power studs on the walls just to let me use the hover pack.
Anyway, I'm in the process of getting enough materials together to make the first quarter.
... Ok, I think I have them.
In addition, my current plan is to build 32 generators, and just overclock three of them to get the 33.3333 generators I would need for this to start working (by 144.4444%).
So my current idea is to plan for four buildings around a central hub. And each building is comprised of four buildings around a central hub. So sort of like a fractal checker board. Using 32, it works out much cleaner.
Eh... I could but that would feel worse than my current solution of running the belts to the second entrance of the industrial container.
I'm laying out the foundation for all four portions of the finished tower, though I'll only be building the first quarter right now.
Arg... okay, I'm going to have to break out the graph paper...
OK, first quarter complete. That's an extra 5000 MW. I had to put a power switch on my main base and shut it all down to have enough juice to wind up this place. Provided I don't wait too long for the second quarter, I shouldn't have to do that for the next one. The pipes are what took the longest. Found a bug with the floor hole where the bottom pope could connect to the top of it, and the top pipe could connect to the bottom part, and it would look pretty normal, but almost no liquid would flow. That and I missed one of the 'snap on' cross sections, where you have to go back and delete the pipes, then add them back in. It was on one of the water pumps and I had to figure out why it was backing up. Didn't take as long as the floor hole bug trouble shooting.
I'm not really sure I want to go through that again. I did find that at 5m for a floor, it is the perfect height to run half the pipes on the ceiling, and half the pipes on the floor. It was clean enough that I didn't feel bad about it.
I also let it run with the generators off long enough to fill the industrial reservoir on the roof. Even if something goes wrong and it stops producing, it should have enough to run for five more minutes. The fluctuations have smoothed out, and I don't see anything turning yellow. The waste product is being turned into plastic and stored in a triple industrial container array, with the overflow piped to the Oil Island shredder.
Now, I didn't put up walls or anything. I suppose I can go back and do that once it is all over. At this point I'm probably going to want to be able to see how I solved problems the first time when I go to make the second one.
One thing I need to do is pull apart my first oil generator and redo it. It's two impure oil wells, and together they are making plastic, rubber, fuel for turbo fuel and smokeless gun powder. Except I'm full up on smokeless gunpowder and packaged turbo fuel, so it is mostly getting shredded. Need to rethink how I'm doing that WHOLE mess.
But then I get to start playing with trains again. And now I understand what I was doing wrong with the tracks. I may not remember how to do it right, but I know at least what I was doing wrong.
I'm not really sure I want to go through that again. I did find that at 5m for a floor, it is the perfect height to run half the pipes on the ceiling, and half the pipes on the floor. It was clean enough that I didn't feel bad about it.
I also let it run with the generators off long enough to fill the industrial reservoir on the roof. Even if something goes wrong and it stops producing, it should have enough to run for five more minutes. The fluctuations have smoothed out, and I don't see anything turning yellow. The waste product is being turned into plastic and stored in a triple industrial container array, with the overflow piped to the Oil Island shredder.
Now, I didn't put up walls or anything. I suppose I can go back and do that once it is all over. At this point I'm probably going to want to be able to see how I solved problems the first time when I go to make the second one.
One thing I need to do is pull apart my first oil generator and redo it. It's two impure oil wells, and together they are making plastic, rubber, fuel for turbo fuel and smokeless gun powder. Except I'm full up on smokeless gunpowder and packaged turbo fuel, so it is mostly getting shredded. Need to rethink how I'm doing that WHOLE mess.
But then I get to start playing with trains again. And now I understand what I was doing wrong with the tracks. I may not remember how to do it right, but I know at least what I was doing wrong.
Came down with something and wasted most of my saturday getting over a fever.
I still have bills, taxes, the lawn, and fixing a toilet. Real life sucks and as I get older the graphics get worse while the lenses on my headset get thicker.
When I was able to get on the game without experiencing vertigo, I decided to take a break from building for a bit by exploring. I made it back with 12 harddrives this time. I'm still decoding them. While I am, I am making some crystal oscillators, circuit boards, cooling systems, and computers. Already ran another large batch of motors. I'm going to probably easily have enough items on hand to do the next tower.
But I also just unlocked nuclear generators. I think I want to unlock enrichment as well before building one so that I can make an entirely clean operation. Ideally I'd like it to work without ever needing to mess with it. If I could just find the recipe for iron wire, I could start making a lot of things with all these impure nodes just sitting around. I'd probably build the second tower, then decommission the coal plant near my base to change it to wet cement, and maybe making heavy modular frames
PS: The Sprint button makes you move faster on zip-lines... somehow.
I still have bills, taxes, the lawn, and fixing a toilet. Real life sucks and as I get older the graphics get worse while the lenses on my headset get thicker.
When I was able to get on the game without experiencing vertigo, I decided to take a break from building for a bit by exploring. I made it back with 12 harddrives this time. I'm still decoding them. While I am, I am making some crystal oscillators, circuit boards, cooling systems, and computers. Already ran another large batch of motors. I'm going to probably easily have enough items on hand to do the next tower.
But I also just unlocked nuclear generators. I think I want to unlock enrichment as well before building one so that I can make an entirely clean operation. Ideally I'd like it to work without ever needing to mess with it. If I could just find the recipe for iron wire, I could start making a lot of things with all these impure nodes just sitting around. I'd probably build the second tower, then decommission the coal plant near my base to change it to wet cement, and maybe making heavy modular frames
PS: The Sprint button makes you move faster on zip-lines... somehow.
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Lies. The Switch’s battery would have depleted before that demo ended. If they needed an Ouya, they could’ve had mine
Not a bad April Fools joke, but it still makes me believe Swedish is a made up language.
Not a bad April Fools joke, but it still makes me believe Swedish is a made up language.
Just went into the game... and the doggos are HUGE!
So there are probably a few other April Fools Jokes around...
So there are probably a few other April Fools Jokes around...
Sorry I have been AFK. SUUUUUPER sick.
OK, so I tapped a nitrogen well not far from Power Base Alpha. This let me start mass producing some things I need at the end, like fused modular frames first and later cooling systems. Let that run for a while and then finished up the last of the milestones. So technically I could set up a nuclear power plant. But there is a lot of homework involved in it, first to make the fuel and then to be able to sink the waste. I don't want to make stuff that I need to worry about filling up a dump, even if I could make the dump large enough to last for the game running for a year or something.
I figure once I know what I need, and what pieces are required, I can see about setting up a train line high in the sky to connect the points where things are being made with where ever I decide Power Base Gamma is going to be.
I REALLY don't feel like running around and exploring for a good uranium deposit, so instead I'm working on a blueprint that spirals down a walkway with a 4m foundation every 32m so that I can run pipes, belts, power for pumps, etc. I made something like that from scratch to get the nitrogen gas down to the water where I needed it.
I've gotten it to work pretty well from the bottom up. The key thing to remember is the foundation block from the blueprint has to be there for you to target for the next floor. Not sure how it is going to work from the top down.
I had a 32mx32m one that used foundation ramps and a 27mx27m that used the walkways which I liked much better, I've also played around with the idea of adding walls and or doors. One idea I had for making a blueprint that would work bottom up or top down is one with sacrificial foundations, basically some 1m foundations that are meant to be deleted after it has been constructed, Will probably also make a cheap version and then the version with walls.
I'm just farting around with the small stuff cause I can't wrap my head around the big stuff yet. The oil power plant is relatively easy compared to this, and they were the largest build I had ever done. And technically I've only built 1/4 of one. I'm not really PLANNING on finishing the space elevator milestone during this play through as that would only stress me out and doesn't really give you anything for it. I'll save that for once 1.0 comes out and we get more plot, alien artifacts, and something to do with SAM ore.
In fact, I don't really NEED to do anything else in the game. I'm just looking to do stuff for fun and so that I'll be familiar with it when 1.0 comes out. So far I hadn't found anything annoying enough that sneaker.net was was more annoying that figuring out train tracks. But with nuclear power, I'm pretty sure you are going to HAVE to use trains as there probably isn't anywhere where everything you need is together. Though I don't know that for sure, I've gotten about 50% of the map uncovered while looking for hard drives. Technically I'm able to make everything in the game at this point, so I should be able to open any hdd I find... eventually. For example, if one needs me to run 400MW to it... I probably won't be able to do that with bioburners, so I'll either have to wait until I expand out there, or run a power line out/up there just for that.
Hoping I'll feel better tomorrow. I think I may have spent more time typing this up then I did playing. Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive, just wasn't able to play for while.
I've had COVID before (though weakened by the vaccine) and adult chickenpox hit me MUCH harder. I went to the doctors and they gave me stuff to take, but there were some times I thought I'd be heading to the hospital. Couldn't breathe for several days. Medium fever that wouldn't break (over 102 but under 105). Couldn't eat. Blisters all over my body, including places I didn't even know I COULD get blisters, like my tongue, my throat, my scalp. It apparently hits adults a lot harder, but is so contagious that most kids get it when they are young. I never did. Was only even able to start playing again today. Also ate the first time since Monday. Though even bread felt like I was swallowing gravel, so I couldn't eat much.
Enough with the pity party. Here is what I've done.
Enough with the pity party. Here is what I've done.
OK, so I tapped a nitrogen well not far from Power Base Alpha. This let me start mass producing some things I need at the end, like fused modular frames first and later cooling systems. Let that run for a while and then finished up the last of the milestones. So technically I could set up a nuclear power plant. But there is a lot of homework involved in it, first to make the fuel and then to be able to sink the waste. I don't want to make stuff that I need to worry about filling up a dump, even if I could make the dump large enough to last for the game running for a year or something.
I figure once I know what I need, and what pieces are required, I can see about setting up a train line high in the sky to connect the points where things are being made with where ever I decide Power Base Gamma is going to be.
I REALLY don't feel like running around and exploring for a good uranium deposit, so instead I'm working on a blueprint that spirals down a walkway with a 4m foundation every 32m so that I can run pipes, belts, power for pumps, etc. I made something like that from scratch to get the nitrogen gas down to the water where I needed it.
I've gotten it to work pretty well from the bottom up. The key thing to remember is the foundation block from the blueprint has to be there for you to target for the next floor. Not sure how it is going to work from the top down.
I had a 32mx32m one that used foundation ramps and a 27mx27m that used the walkways which I liked much better, I've also played around with the idea of adding walls and or doors. One idea I had for making a blueprint that would work bottom up or top down is one with sacrificial foundations, basically some 1m foundations that are meant to be deleted after it has been constructed, Will probably also make a cheap version and then the version with walls.
I'm just farting around with the small stuff cause I can't wrap my head around the big stuff yet. The oil power plant is relatively easy compared to this, and they were the largest build I had ever done. And technically I've only built 1/4 of one. I'm not really PLANNING on finishing the space elevator milestone during this play through as that would only stress me out and doesn't really give you anything for it. I'll save that for once 1.0 comes out and we get more plot, alien artifacts, and something to do with SAM ore.
In fact, I don't really NEED to do anything else in the game. I'm just looking to do stuff for fun and so that I'll be familiar with it when 1.0 comes out. So far I hadn't found anything annoying enough that sneaker.net was was more annoying that figuring out train tracks. But with nuclear power, I'm pretty sure you are going to HAVE to use trains as there probably isn't anywhere where everything you need is together. Though I don't know that for sure, I've gotten about 50% of the map uncovered while looking for hard drives. Technically I'm able to make everything in the game at this point, so I should be able to open any hdd I find... eventually. For example, if one needs me to run 400MW to it... I probably won't be able to do that with bioburners, so I'll either have to wait until I expand out there, or run a power line out/up there just for that.
Hoping I'll feel better tomorrow. I think I may have spent more time typing this up then I did playing. Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive, just wasn't able to play for while.
Good that you’re on the mend. You do not want to see Ficsit’s medical plan.
I had a theory that all the crashed pods on the planet were all you, and they just keep cloning you and sending you to your death with the idea that you'll eventually make enough progress to succeed. The plot twist is that this process was automated, and has been left running and that the strange artificial structures are from some of your earlier attempts and the artifacts are messages you've left yourself, but they've been corrupted.
I'm sure that plot has been used somewhere already.
Dude, chickenpox as an adult is no joke. Glad you're doing better.
There's one spot in the world where Uranium, Sulfur, and Water are all very close to each other, and then the makings for all of the Steel products and AI Limiters are within belting distance. The problem is if you want to utilize those nodes you'll almost definitely need to spin up brand new factories since none of it is near a spawn.
The good news, though, is that if you're looking at Nuclear power it means you're within spitting distance of Drone tech, and the same place also has Bauxite so you can build a Battery factory on-site and set up your first large-scale Drone depot instead of worrying about trains.
Thanks for the well wishes!
I had heard drones were fairly slow with small inventories and were really only good for hauling small quantity items like finished products.
Either way, I've already unlocked everything (other than alternate recipes). All the Hub milestones are complete. I also have a Heavy Modular Frame production and Fused Modular Frame production. Granted, I don't have them hooked up to each other. If I want to turn some HMF into FMF, I just carry them over there and chuck them in the machine. About the same thing with Cooling Systems, I just need to chuck in some heatsinks. As a side benefit, the HMF factory is also where I'm making my concrete depot. It will have the largest storage of concrete (and fastest replenishing one). But seeing as ALL the rest of the concrete I've been using up until now has been from one normal node, and it has been mostly used for encased beams, I figured I needed another source.
Once the HMF factory is up, I'm going to use the two impure nodes on the hill to make a motor factory.
After that, I'll probably go back to building up my oil power plant so I can decommission my coal plants so I can use the water and coal for other things.
For the HMF factory, I tried something a little different. I made it on one floor, but used both the top and bottom of the floor. So when they line up well, I use conveyors on the top. But if they need to go through other things, I drop them under the floor and run them on he ceiling. It made it a little easier to design. For such a complex design (having to make steel, encased beams, modular frames, and concrete then combine them) I think I did a decent job. It doesn't make them fast, but then again I'm not using them up for anything, I just figured it was easier if they were always being made in the background rather than in batches when I needed them. In fact, most of my factories have backed up now, because I'm not really making anything. The few that are running are sinking all of their stuff in excess of what they can hold. I'm going to finish exploring. I'm going to finish enough of my oil plant that it is covering all my power with enough left over to make trains and spin up a nuclear power plant, then I'll probably do trains and a nuclear power plant. After that, I guess I wait for 1.0.
I understand Planet Crafter is about to its 1.0 release. I might run through it again. It is like a child's game compared to this one though.
That's completely false. They're best at hauling finished products, but they still have a max throughput in the hundreds of items per minute, which is plenty good for nearly everything you're going to be bringing into a Uranium Fuel Rod factory. Assuming you already have factories for Concrete, Stators, Encased I-Beams, and AI Limiters elsewhere, just ship those to your Nuke plant ready-made via Drone, and all you need on-site for your Nuke plant is Sulfur, Water, and Uranium.
There's something a little bit surreal about reading posts about managing trains, when you've just fully realised how MUCH plastic you're going to need.
To be fair, I came to Satisfactory from Factorio (like a lot of us, right?), and this whole "you can build in 3D" thing is fucking with my head. Frankly, it was when I really got into oil processing that I started going vertical, and manufacturing supercomputers was where I finally fully embraced "up" as a way to build. Suddenly the "coupon sink" mechanism makes sense!
Incidentally, given I'm a construction worker, my appreciation for the dependence on concrete and steel to get anywhere? Chef's kiss
To be fair, I came to Satisfactory from Factorio (like a lot of us, right?), and this whole "you can build in 3D" thing is fucking with my head. Frankly, it was when I really got into oil processing that I started going vertical, and manufacturing supercomputers was where I finally fully embraced "up" as a way to build. Suddenly the "coupon sink" mechanism makes sense!
Incidentally, given I'm a construction worker, my appreciation for the dependence on concrete and steel to get anywhere? Chef's kiss
Okay, can someone tell me if this is a bad idea for some reason.
1) Find a location I can make a battery factory. Then do that. Worst case scenario is I can't find bauxite, coal, sulfur and water together. In which case I could set up a mini-train set that just hauls one three-car train in a circle collecting the materials and dropping them off at a water supply. In fact, it might be fund to do that anyway.
2) Build multiple drone ports there that only have the job of delivering batteries to other locations I want to make drone hubs (like my aluminum factory, which can then distribute aluminum products anywhere in the WORLD! BWaahahaha!)
I mean, it seems it would work. I can send 1800 batteries per flight, and only be using a handful to do it. The battery factory would only need power and would be powering its own deliveries.
Playing with the planner, it looks like the number 600 works real well with the recipes and can produce 180 batteries a minute. I... don't know how many I will need. I mean, the idea of moving my parts around with drones is nice, but so far I don't really have a reason to do so other than the nuclear power station Or to get some stuff back to my main base...
I can just make a HUGE depot for the batteries, then sink the overflow. Then I just need to keep an eye on the depot quantity. If it starts dropping, then I need to start moving things with trains.
In the meantime, I'm starting to look at the nuclear power plant and what the drones can do for me. One thing is that if I just pipe in the Encased Industrial Beams and the Electromagnetic Control Rods, it greatly simplifies the process of making the fuel rods.
Hmmm... over by Oil Island, I know I have a few of the nodes I need... I could tap that second pure oil node in order to make steel... along that beach would be a good place for the ECR factory. I think I have all the alternate recipes I need, and the polymer resin can be used to make rubber, which I'm falling a little behind on...
Okay, I'm going to do a little exploring, then I'm setting up a huge Electromagnetic Control Rod factory just offshore of the Oil Island base. I wasn't going to need that second pure oil node to make another power complex anyway if I'm going to use the ECR to make nuclear power...
Edit:
With some tweaks to the ECR factory, it will be able to make circuit boards, stators, and even some excess rubber. On the other hand, my Encased Industrial Beam factory, which was making MORE than enough for me, isn't making enough for my 5 fuel rods a minute uranium factory. I'll just have to make a separate EIB factory that makes them fast enough.
1) Find a location I can make a battery factory. Then do that. Worst case scenario is I can't find bauxite, coal, sulfur and water together. In which case I could set up a mini-train set that just hauls one three-car train in a circle collecting the materials and dropping them off at a water supply. In fact, it might be fund to do that anyway.
2) Build multiple drone ports there that only have the job of delivering batteries to other locations I want to make drone hubs (like my aluminum factory, which can then distribute aluminum products anywhere in the WORLD! BWaahahaha!)
I mean, it seems it would work. I can send 1800 batteries per flight, and only be using a handful to do it. The battery factory would only need power and would be powering its own deliveries.
Playing with the planner, it looks like the number 600 works real well with the recipes and can produce 180 batteries a minute. I... don't know how many I will need. I mean, the idea of moving my parts around with drones is nice, but so far I don't really have a reason to do so other than the nuclear power station Or to get some stuff back to my main base...
I can just make a HUGE depot for the batteries, then sink the overflow. Then I just need to keep an eye on the depot quantity. If it starts dropping, then I need to start moving things with trains.
In the meantime, I'm starting to look at the nuclear power plant and what the drones can do for me. One thing is that if I just pipe in the Encased Industrial Beams and the Electromagnetic Control Rods, it greatly simplifies the process of making the fuel rods.
Hmmm... over by Oil Island, I know I have a few of the nodes I need... I could tap that second pure oil node in order to make steel... along that beach would be a good place for the ECR factory. I think I have all the alternate recipes I need, and the polymer resin can be used to make rubber, which I'm falling a little behind on...
Okay, I'm going to do a little exploring, then I'm setting up a huge Electromagnetic Control Rod factory just offshore of the Oil Island base. I wasn't going to need that second pure oil node to make another power complex anyway if I'm going to use the ECR to make nuclear power...
Edit:
With some tweaks to the ECR factory, it will be able to make circuit boards, stators, and even some excess rubber. On the other hand, my Encased Industrial Beam factory, which was making MORE than enough for me, isn't making enough for my 5 fuel rods a minute uranium factory. I'll just have to make a separate EIB factory that makes them fast enough.
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This is the normal way to do it. There's a spot at the western edge of the Swamp that has Bauxite, Sulfur, and Water next to each other, and coal nodes about 500m away. Uranium in a cave right next to it as well.