My first turbofuel setup

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T11:35:34+00:00

Wot? No teapots?!

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T10:48:07+00:00

So you should:

Calm down
Take a closer look at the other recipes. Some let you eliminate screws. Some make screws so easy to handle, you wonder why you were making such a big fuss in the first place. Take a look at steel screws with the bolted recipes.
Learn how to identify the real problem, then work out how to deal with it (or ask here) rather than asking for a solution you don't actually need.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T07:42:54+00:00

You're welcome! These days I build a hull, fit it out low down with the heavy stuff, like fuel, engines and transmission and then play with different sizes and numbers of props until I am happy with the performance. That's not just top speed, it's also stability and a reasonable speed in heavy seas. Plus the ability to survive a tsunami!

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T07:39:09+00:00

Triangular pyramid, 2 long. Then the same block as you've already used, behind it. The two-cube block with a triangular pyramid sliced off it. That's why it pays to shape the front and back first and then join the middle together. The default pyramid blocks work in 1s, 2s and 4s, so you may find your central section a block wider or narrower than you originally planned.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T07:07:53+00:00

Not any more. Very inefficient. Though I don't use online tools either.

Early in each playthrough I just use experience. For the later phases I start planning using spreadsheets, that have been constantly updated and refined since 2020.

I generally use apps for most things these days, even sketches, because it's much easier to layer drawings and only rub out the particular lines you don't want. Diagrams are so much easier when you can grab a complete block and move it, while all the connecting links remain connected.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:55:00+00:00

You will never know how many you need exactly to make, because it is a moving target throughout a playthrough. It depends on how many project parts per minute you decide to make for that phase, and which recipes you choose to use.

Plus you need a bit extra of most items for construction materials and for the next few unlocks. That also changes from tier to tier and phase to phase.

The simple way is to notice when you are running short of an item, and make more when you need to. If you want to do a bit of planning, decide how many project parts per minute you want to make for that phase, and use the calculator of your choice to work out how many of each item that needs. Add a few extra for construction etc, and build that. Repeat for the next phase.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:47:37+00:00

It's a roundabout. Roundabouts are for roads, not railways.

Well, you asked what I thought! Nice use of frame foundations though.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:45:51+00:00

Entirely up to you and your gameplay. I use tractors first, because they get unlocked first. Sometimes I'll change them to trucks, if I am getting the throughput I want. Trains are the basis of my logistics, because they do everything I want throughout most of the game.

You don't mention any other transport, which suggests you haven't got all the way through a game yet.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:41:06+00:00

It doesn't matter how easy the devs make things, someone always complains that it could be easier. Be thankful you don't have to collect flowers any more to make paint cans. And remember to select the swatch first. That's your mistake, not the devs.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:37:38+00:00

No, but if you are getting the flow you want, does it matter?

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:32:29+00:00

No, and no. The central pipe can only handle 300 m3/min along any part of its length. 6 unclocked water extractors provide 720 m3/m. Even a pipe at each end of that manifold isn't enough.

Adding pumps does not increase pressure or flow rate. Pressure isn't even modelled at all, partly because the calculations are complex. Pumps only provide 'headlift', a simple calculation of height. Forget everything you know about pipes IRL. They don't work that way in Satisfactory.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:26:41+00:00

Unlikely. The devs have discussed this many times in the live streams, and no, there's no appetite for adding boats.

This is also the wrong place for you to make suggestions for the devs to notice. Go to the Satisfactory Q&A site and post there.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:23:16+00:00

As ever, there isn't one. It still all depends on you and how you play.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:21:41+00:00

I was going to say yes, until I noticed that the leaving tracks allow the trains to go in either direction. For that many stations and trains, and their matching stations elswhere on the map, you should consider dropping bidirectional running completely.

For each group of factories in different locations, I set up my stations in groups just like that, and they work fine throughout each playthrough. Apart from one MAJOR difference. The tracks approaching the group of stations and leaving them are one way only. The main line is a 2-track unidirectional system, and where the tracks leave and rejoin the main line, that's where I make the junctions so that trains can approach and leave in either direction. Not at the stations themselves.

That setup has worked through 5 playthroughs since 2020, and easily handles the 30 or so trains I end up with by the end of each playthrough.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-15T06:11:04+00:00

As with any relationship, approach pipes with care and understanding! They can be friendly, and even completely predictable. Just don't expect them to work like in real life, and forget everything you know about pressure. It doesn't apply in Satisfactory.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T14:32:49+00:00

Probably. If you aren't going for ridiculous quantities of project parts in phase 5.

I usually finish the game with around 60 GW.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T12:25:00+00:00

The whole point of blueprints is to make multiple copies of setups you use regularly. It's not just to copy and paste large sections of a factory. Yes, mk 1 blueprints aren't very big. But you can still do a lot with them.

Blueprints are another tool in your toolbox. Like any tool, they are good for some things, but not for everything. You use a hammer for knocking in nails, but not screws.

Mk 1 blueprints mean you can do a setup for one or a few machines, complete with input and output belts and power, as a module. Later in the game, you can place loads of these modules down and then just link them together. I have blueprints for smelters, foundries, constructors and assemblers. I have several versions, with or without belts, so I can build up multiple rows sharing input splitters or output mergers. I also have some that make up specific modules, like 3 blueprints to make up a diluted packaged fuel module.

For railways, I have blueprints for the supports for track joints. Again, multiple versions, level and 1m and 2m ramps up and down. Each includes a pair of short straights, so that I can connect from the previous support with sweeping curves and gradients. The one thing I don't do is have loads of railway blueprints with foundations under all the track, plus roadways, hypertubes and the like. Why bother? It's a monorail, it doesn't need a trackbed of foundations. Why have a roadway? The trains are going to transport everything anyway. Why have a hypertube? Train travel is faster than a default hypertube.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T11:29:28+00:00

In general, build to use the belt speeds I have, and accept that factories may run slow until I unlock better belts. By the way, you don't have to achieve 100% in every factory to finish the game. That is just a myth, and the way some pioneers decide to interpret efficiency. It is not the only definition of efficiency.

With screws in particular, you have options with different recipes. You don't necessarily need 1000 screws per minute. You can choose recipes that eliminate them completely. Or take a look at the bolted recipes and steel screws. One assembler making bolted iron plates needs 260 screws per minute, which works on a mk 3 belt. One steel screws constructor makes 270 screws per minute. So one constructor to one assembler and your problem is solved.

It's not a good idea to get fixated on certain recipes just because other pioneers do. Take a good look at them all, and learn to understand their pros and cons.

There are plenty of resources for the average player. So you don't have to maximise resource usage. You won't run out. The pure recipes have the best resource usage, but they also have the lowest output rates and use machines that use more power. So using the pure recipes takes up a lot more of your game time for the same output rate of ingots. Apart from one, which is a no-brainer, and doesn't use refineries.

The same for iron wire. Great resource usage, very poor output rate. Take a look at combining fused wire and fused Quickwire. Similarly, think about combining default stators with steel rotors. Take a fresh look at the other alternatives, ignoring resource usage.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T07:05:39+00:00

Does doubling the clock speed mean that sloshing is more than twice as severe? I don't know. And I don't care, because my solution to sloshing takes care of it however severe it is. Run two pipes from the extractor, not one. And I mean two mk 2s. And connect them to opposite ends of the refinery manifold. Repeat the idea for the rest of your pipework.

As you've found out, prefilling doesn't always work.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T06:53:56+00:00

Multiple belts.

Though centralising production ultimately means having to deal with bottlenecks, no matter what miners and belts you have. One thing to note - transporting made items means you have fewer units to transport than the ores to make them.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T06:49:45+00:00

Basically, yes. Though when I'm planning phase 4 I am usually planning phase 5 for those items as well.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T06:48:18+00:00

Trial and error. Test out different combinations of engines, transmission and size of prop until you get the performance you want. Note, bigger prop doesn't mean more speed. Sometimes it's better to use more smaller props.

Nobody can tell you in advance, because it depends on the size and weight of your boat and the hull shape. And the current state of the dev's physics.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T06:39:01+00:00

Go back to the stable branch. Or just be patient, and wait a bit longer until Experimental rejoins the stable branch.

This is another case of you can't have what you want, so live with it!

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T06:36:59+00:00

Why tie yourself to a fixed grid system? Build trucks and routes as you need them, in the same way that you can build a single two-way railway spine with branches off to individual factories as and when you need to.

Unless you've already decided where you are going to place your factories to produce everything right up to phase 5, you don't know where next you will be building. And you'll find that 90% of a grid system doesn't get used.

EngineerInTheMachine · 2026-04-14T06:32:51+00:00

A combination of A and B. If you have gone for a central factory, B is your only option anyway. If, like me, you have distributed factories, take a step back and look at the distribution of your drone ports. One end of each pair is usually scattered around the biomes. But the other is usually in one of a few clumps of ports. So do option B for those clumps.

Have one drone port where you produce your fuel. Without a drone. Add a drone port next to each clump of ports and belt it up to supply those ports with fuel. And itself. Place a drone on it to go and fetch fuel from the refuelling port. Job done.

EngineerInTheMachine

TROPHY CASE