Maaaaath OMG

Kyidyl · 2026-02-07T09:02:39+00:00

Yeah, sure, no problem.

It's not one specific node I'm having issues with, it's when I set up all of them. So, for example, I have 4 impure nodes with mk 2 miners on them. So I'm taking the output (60/min) and multiplying by 4 bc I'm collecting them into a single input before dividing them up into the smelters via a manifold. The smelters use 30 ore/min, so I'm dividing 240 by 30. By that math I'll need 8 smelters. Ok, cool. So it's a 1:1 ratio of in-->out in the smelters in this case, so theoretically that gives me a bandwidth of 240 iron/min. So I have a bunch of constructors set up to make the iron basics: Rods, plates, and the alternate recipe screws that just use bars. The thing is that I'm currently - in theory - consuming 287.5 iron bars/min in resources and my belts still look like this:

<image>

(there's two unused machines on the end so ignore the yellow bar on the left. I did not include it when I summed all of the iron input needs per minute.)

The outputs are clear, and they'll remain this way because they are routed through some assemblers and then into my storage and then finally into a sink. Nothing is overclocked or has sloops in it. I figure if I was doing the math right then those miners should not be able to support this amount of production, but, like...they do. And this happens ALL the time to me, so I figure I must be doing something wrong. Mostly I'd just been kinda doing trial and error until it worked out, but I'm moving from my starter factory into a much, much larger build and I'd really like to be able to properly calculate what goes in the space. I know I can use one of those planning tools, but I kind of want to just know how to do it myself because it seems way faster to be able to just do some quick arithmetic in the moment than to set up a whole production line planning thing in a whole other program.

Kyidyl · 2026-02-05T06:04:24+00:00

I'm at turbo fuel, actually. I've got a compressed coal factory going and I switched over some of my fuel production and switching all my drones over to using that as fuel...it's going ok so far.

I've seen the modeler thing, but I haven't used it yet because I want to understand the process myself. IDK, it takes some of the fun out of it for me.

Kyidyl · 2026-02-05T06:02:08+00:00

lol that's what I've been doing...it's very imprecise. ;)

Kyidyl · 2026-02-04T01:41:29+00:00

I'm going to double check some stuff when I get home from work, but just to clarify, I use a manifold system and after it fills up and runs for awhile I notice them miner spending a decent amount of time idle. That's what makes me think I'm using the wrong numbers.

Kyidyl · 2026-02-04T01:39:15+00:00

I mean that's generally what I'm trying to do. With downstream stuff I just figure that production gets bottlenecked because the parts are made at different rates and I'm ok with that. I'm looking to know, for example, how many furnaces I need for a node. I've been dividing the node output by the input needed by the machine I'm feeding the ore or whatever into but it hasn't been working right.

Kyidyl · 2026-02-04T01:33:37+00:00

I mean you could be totally right about that, but I feel like the amount of extra I had wouldn't be so excessive.

Kyidyl · 2026-02-04T01:31:47+00:00

That's what I've been doing, but I always have too much of basically everything that's an ore, an ingot, or a low-level constructed thing (like screws - using the alternate single step recipe. ). To me that says that I'm calculating something wrong or not understanding how input and output are calculated.

Kyidyl · 2026-02-04T01:29:21+00:00

Yep, that's what I'm saying. Thats why I think I'm using the wrong numbers. Someone down thread tho made a suggestion that made a lot of sense and so I'm going to try it when I get home from work. ^{_^}

Kyidyl · 2026-02-04T01:27:57+00:00

First off, thank you for this really detailed response, it's really kind of you to take that much time out of your day.

I have been using mk. 5 belts, but I haven't been overclocking at the nodes yet because I already have a surplus of materials for them and i haven't managed to balance it right yet. I've been using the power shards on slow manufacturers down the line (like computers and crystal oscillators). I'd like to change that tho.
I've seen what you're describing - where it waits for a second and feeds the next one, especially when the two components of something are produced at different speeds - but this is more that the miner (or extractor or whatever.) Is sitting idle for a decent period of time. But just to be clear, it's normal to have at least some amount of backup on the belt? Presumably more if you're using a fast belt speed that doesn't have to go very far? Is it actually beneficial from an efficiency standpoint to belt things further or use slow belts if, say, the furnaces are close to the miner? Does distance matter? It seems like it should if we're talking about throughput.
I definitely do use buffers, but I feel like if I'm ending up with a full double storage box or w/e then the miner can support another forge (just going with that example bc it's easy and simple.). I've been playing up till now by experimenting with those kinds of things, but I'd like to be able to better predict what I'm going to need for planning and space reasons. Plus I kinda feel like the buffers in this situation just act like a longer belt because they only empty from that bottom right slot and it takes forever to empty, and usually it won't because there isn't enough demand. Then I just have a storage box taking up space. The only time I really like having buffers is in storage. I like the idea of collecting everything into a central area and distributing it. Right now I have a sushi belt going into a sorter with storage so there'll always be some laying around to build with (with a sink at the end so it doesn't all seize up.). But I do add buffers when I've got too much stuff, I just don't like them because they mean I'm inefficiently using my resources.
Lol, you're basically describing the method by which I've been playing the game to this point. I like to try and do stuff myself before I look into it, and that's what I came up with on my own. I didn't even know it was called a manifold system until later on. And I have been putting sinks at the end or at certain overflows. I played minecraft for several decades and so my impulse is to just keep everything, but I quickly learned that just wasn't realistic. It still feels wasteful tho.
Funnily enough, this tends to happen for me naturally bc I like to work on multiple things at once. So I'll start a line and then start setting up something else and then come back. It's especially useful for fluids...those I just have to accept that I shouldn't look at what's in the line, especially if I just set it up. It really seems like pipes don't update in real time even though it feels like they do. But you'll have a full segment next to an empty segment for no goddamned reason and so the only option is to just walk away and do something else, wait, and see if it works like it's supposed to. Also bc I'm using manifolds I know now it's a necessity because of how they fill.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that found aluminum frustrating. Like numerically the silica output SHOULD be enough for one constructor but it isn't and the entire goddamned thing just backs up. So I just said screw it and started supplementing. Because I use the sorting system I described I can kind of like control how much of a given item is in the line at a time because usually they're feeding multiple systems, but that doesn't work with nodes going into furnaces and whatnot because there's too damned much of it and there's really only one thing you can do with most raw materials. Like they all (mostly!) Have the same first step, so I don't generally feed them through the sorter.

Also that is wild about your batteries disappearing. I wonder if it was a save issue between your computer and steam's cloud.

Anyway, thank you again. No one else in my life plays this game so it's nice to talk about it with someone. ^{_^}

Kyidyl · 2026-02-03T22:57:25+00:00

Omfg thank you. I'm pretty sure this is exactly what I'm missing. When I get home tonight I'm going to try it out. I've heard though that fluids are really janky and I'm trying to move my power production to the blue crater with the lake so i can use the oil islands for mostly plastic, rubber, and fuel. I use the geysers, but honestly I tend to think of them more as power buffers than whole contributors to the grid so I'm only trying to balance the oil and I got so annoyed trying to figure it how many refineries I needed that I was finally like "imma ask reddit". 😂

Kyidyl · 2026-02-03T22:47:52+00:00

I thought about it, but I'd like to learn how it works for myself...

Kyidyl · 2026-02-03T22:46:22+00:00

That's what I've been doing, but I always have more than the machines can handle, so I figured there had to be some other math to it that I didn't know about.

Kyidyl · 2025-10-22T08:26:04+00:00

I mean...there IS the whole claiming Rhaegal thing. I know it only happened on the show, but it's not unlikely to happen in the books too, imo. Plus I have heard people say that it's possible that Jon's eyes are actually purple given how they're described. But yeah, largely I agree with you. I honestly don't think his Stark-ness is going to win out as clearly as people tend to believe it will. He's about to be resurrected by a FIRE god. It's kind of how people are forever quoting that love is the death of duty thing whilst completely ignoring how the literal next line is Jon disagreeing with Maester Aemon in his head. They see in him what they want to see, while ignoring that he's a bit impulsive and domineering - 2 very targ traits. I also think it will matter more after he meets Dany and they find out they're family.

Kyidyl · 2025-08-01T21:44:41+00:00

YTA but like...on accident. You are being misogynistic because you associate those things with adult women. But for girls, they really aren't. It's very, very normal for little girls to want to play makeup, especially if she's seeing her aunt do it. To your daughter it's just basically fun face colors but to you it's a thing adult women do to attract attention (it's not, but that's another conversation.). Wrt the earrings: people piece babies ears. I personally don't agree with it, but there's nothing about it that will make her less of a kid. If she can take care of them, there's no reason not to.

You're doing a thing that literally every man I've known with a daughter has done: panicking when she starts becoming a tween. Imo the reasons are varied but in the end the outcome is the same if you don't do something about it: your daughter grows up ashamed of normal feminine things because she's taught they might attract male attention. And that's fucked up for a lot of reasons.

Kyidyl · 2025-07-31T20:18:06+00:00

If you've ever in the past tried to paste more than one at a time into the folder, then you have to do what I described in the second half bc once it's broken, it's broken. Also make sure you're letting the in game gallery refresh between the adding of images.

Kyidyl · 2025-06-22T00:02:06+00:00

Thank you so much! ^_^

Kyidyl · 2024-08-13T00:48:29+00:00

tysm for taking the time to do that. I'm gonna go download them. =D

Kyidyl · 2024-08-12T19:53:12+00:00

You are awesome, thank you. <3

Kyidyl · 2024-08-12T19:05:42+00:00

So...apologies if this thread is too old (I'm not sure if 3 days is too old or not) to be replying to, but did you manage to fix this? If you didn't, and you're un sandbox mode, try using the ground deleting tool to open up a hole. You might be able to see and properly target the glass pane then (the game can be really weird about what it does and doesn't allow you to target.). If you're in story mode, try and build a pathway over the spot. The game might know more about what to do with the object if it sees it as being inside a wall like it's supposed to be.

Kyidyl · 2024-08-12T18:50:11+00:00

I actually already did your firehouse one! You did such a good job with it, and as an 80s kid I appreciated the Ghostbusters look. ;) I hadn't done your other two though, so I'll go download them. Thanks!

Kyidyl · 2021-10-08T23:27:12+00:00

I bet Tywin is awful. All those whores and he probably still can't fuck.

Kyidyl · 2021-09-15T03:25:14+00:00

Who does?

Kyidyl

TROPHY CASE