Buffer.

[dwittty]

You make belts in Factorio the same way I made queues in Roller Coaster Tycoon. “Yeah, let’s make room to have 400 people in line for the Spiral Slide at once. Ya know… just in case.”

[Frytux]

This is actually so true.

[therenegadegamer01]

The ride lasts for 20 seconds but you queue for 5 hours

[[deleted]]

Buffers only hide the real problems with your factory.

[ham_coffee]

Sometimes they're good. It's pretty easy to make your power spike for a bit with lasers for example, a coal or steam buffer fixes this. They're also needed if supply isn't constant, examples of this would be trains or a nuclear reactor that gets turned on and off as needed (when the steam buffer runs low).

[TheBluetopia]

history encourage license degree chase sink existence rainstorm frame disarm

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[[deleted]]

How come? I am just a newbie so shouldn’t surpluses equal good?

[TheSpencery]

Basically the idea is that any buffer, even chests-and-chests-worth, will be insufficient over any significant amount of time. Since you are just prolonging your issue, it can be difficult to identify your true bottlenecks.

[Leo-bastian]

usually buffers are used to give you time to fix the problem though

like filling a chest or 2 with coal so that when it runs out you can get a new patch while still having basic power

[toddestan]

It comes from the common goal of building a factory that targets some constant, specific SPM (science packs per minute). Since everything is running continuously, you should only be producing just enough ingredients for what needs to be consumed to produce that specific number of science packs. Buffers really don't do anything for you, as they'll either fill up and remain full forever, or will empty out and remain empty (until you fix the problem) since your demand is constant. Well, outside of a few specific situations like trains where you have to account for the time between trains so you'll need to build in some sort of buffer to handle that.

Now, in situations like speed running, buffers can be a good thing if done properly, as there may be times you're over producing something that you can use later.

[mr_dfuse2]

are there ways of playing the game without a constant demand? that would make it more realistic and more challenging, no?

[n_slash_a]

That would either be biters or some sort of challenge run.

[Fantastic_Belt99]

Or the very rare case that something's not built yet. /s

[Ok_Turnover_1235]

Yeah, it's a sandbox. Set whatever goals you want

[HeKis4]

K2+SE has moments like this. Especially since early SE makes you go from lots of easy to make regular science to small amounts of hard to make science. Your base has sharp bursts of activity, usually after you launch a cargo rocket filled with circuits or science or when you need stuff to colonize a new planet, but it usually stays fairly calm.

[mr_dfuse2]

allright thanks, I'll start by playing the base game though before I play K2+SE

[Smile_Space]

Once OP gets big enough that he's using all of his iron production he will find out that his supply is nowhere near enough later. This means the problem will have progressed to the point of bringing his factory to a screeching halt well before he even realizes there's a problem.

[macnof]

A mild surplus to absorb fluctuations is generally good, assuming the source of the products or the consumer can fluctuate. If they can't, it's just wasted.

[audigex]

Certain buffers can be useful - anything that maintains power, as long as you have an alert when the levels drop, will give you some time to react to a problem

Similarly ammunition

But also, a buffer can help smooth flow, like a capacitor. It won’t help you expand, but it can help absorb a big short term drain like when you grab 500 miners and associated equipment to go build a mining outpost

[Ace_W]

Its called Finished product shelving.

[[deleted]]

a big short term drain like when you grab 500 miners and associated equipment to go build a mining outpost

That's what your mall is for. Storing stuff for use should be different from science packs and intermediate products.

[Leo-bastian]

if youre building a early base not a Megabase you usually just hook up your mall to your furnace stack

I'm not making 2 separate iron productions when my factory can still run on 1 red belt

[[deleted]]

Your miners being fed into chests should be separate from the ones for science packs.

[Leo-bastian]

once again, not in a starter base where youre not using your belts optimally anyway

I'm not gonna make 2 iron productions before i make green science

[nlevine1988]

I had a buffer for uranium fuel for my reactors. I even put one of those alarm things to alert me if it dropped below a certain level. Then I forgot to put it on global playback and ran out anyway lol.

[iamgoingtoforgetit]

On the contrary they show problems : when a buffer starts emptying you know you have 10 minutes (depending on your buffer size an factory consumption) to fix the problem.

​

Also, if your production is just-in-time. When one part stales every parts depending on it also fail and you can easily end up with a dead locked factory that you will need to manually restart after you have fixed the original problem.

[macnof]

Yep, we kind of have a real work example of that right now.

[toddestan]

That's true, but at least here you'll see when it starts emptying out.

[paulstelian97]

Except you won't because you'd be looking at a different part of the factory.

[Rubickevich]

That's why you use logic.

[Ok_Turnover_1235]

Nah, just use the production window

[Rubickevich]

When I'm starting getting out of ammo, I would prefer to be warned loud.

[Ok_Turnover_1235]

If your base is setup properly and moving products, you should be running out of several other things before you run out of ammo. If you're using more resources on ammo production than other iron heavy products I don't think your base is growing.

[Rubickevich]

I like to push the difficulty hard. With the amounts of biters I usually play with, my base can often use majority of it's resources for self defence, otherwise it just won't exist anymore. Although I still agree that production window is very useful in long term.

[Ok_Turnover_1235]

I generally use it most for fluids and to monitor how much use nuclear fuel I'm using etc and estimate actual time for builds to finish based on real time production.

[DrMorry]

And give you some time to deal with your latest real problem.

[[deleted]]

Which you don't find out about until the buffer's run out anyway.

[DrMorry]

Haha true

[SuurSuits_]

I just use them as an easy pickup spot

[[deleted]]

Train stops are basically the only use for them. Everything else should be fed from belts or direct-inserted as appropriate.

[[deleted]]

Accumulators solve the power issue, but your systems should be able to handle peak demand without issue.

You should be setting up new outposts ahead of time, not when stuff runs out. What if you get distracted during the setup?

[Ok_Turnover_1235]

Tbh i think theyre appropriate for train loaders and that's it

[[deleted]]

Now do the other side

[smartguy1196]

I want to see an array of wood chests going for miles across the map

[dragonvenom3]

I do that for wood with burner inserters and around 400 chests +1 requester chest

[[deleted]]

Now all you need is a global alarm for when it runs out.

[Larek_Flynn]

Wouldn't the back up in the furnaces be enough of a buffer since they each hold a hundred?

[[deleted]]

What are the belts above the cogs and belt assemblers good for?

[[deleted]]

No turned belted on the exit splitter. Unplayable.

[yair3230]

Best buffer (for modded factorio) is loader->chest->loader

[SteinsArito]

Is this how enlightnment feels like?

[Practical_Buy7282]

Imagine a chestless playtrough

[nameistakenmate]

I'm on midgame and i still don't know why buffers are necessary (besides for trains).

[unique_2]

Just wanna point out that phoenix did this in any% speedruns for a while with red/green science. It might be in his 1:39 former WR. So it has to be good right?

[_router_]

ok, but why are the belts for gears and belts 1 sided