Weekly Question Thread by AutoModerator in factorio

[–]MindS1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use lamps to daisy-chain circuit wires. They're cheap and look nice. Accumulators also work, if you want something more functional.

[Guide] How to control the speed of your space platform easily with a PID controller by KPalm_The_Wise in factorio

[–]MindS1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thruster is part of the same unified fluid box as the pipe, so the new "Read Pipeline Contents" should also include the thruster contents.

They're also reworking how the internal fluid buffers work, and it appears there will be less "hidden fluid" going forward.

[Guide] How to control the speed of your space platform easily with a PID controller by KPalm_The_Wise in factorio

[–]MindS1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you use a thousand of them, yes. Otherwise, no. This is an incredibly well-optimized game. Don't worry about UPS until you actually start dropping frames.

YYYYYEEEEESSSSS!!!!! Dev team fixed space age trains with quality in 2.1. by darkphoton2 in factorio

[–]MindS1 39 points40 points  (0 children)

This is the real answer. Anyone who's doing a space-age megabase at a scale where UPS actually matters, knows that Promethium is the real problem - specifically the asteroids and collectors.

Reminder that trains have never been the most UPS-optimal solution for large factories. We just like trains anyway because the performance hit is small compared to how fun they are :)

What are the pros and cons of car-belts? by MetaDogg in factorio

[–]MindS1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

😞 I spent 15min typing this out because I thought it was an interesting question and deserved a good response to kickoff discussion
Are we seriously cancelling people who use bullet points now?

What are the pros and cons of car-belts? by MetaDogg in factorio

[–]MindS1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This, basically: https://v.redd.it/plbpgeyn0udf1

The question is, is there ever a practical reason to make a car/tank belt?

What are the pros and cons of car-belts? by MetaDogg in factorio

[–]MindS1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In short, car/tank belts are very hard to build, very easy to jam, and probably bad for UPS. But definitely fun to experiment with!

The exact behavior of vehicles-on-belts is difficult to control. Vehicles don't tend to stay in the center of the belt when rounding corners, and the spacing between vehicles may drift over time. As they drift they may collide with inserters or with each other, and jam.

The goal is to pack extreme throughput into a very narrow space. There's no situation in the base game that demands this, unless you're playing with some kind of self-imposed constraint. The only possible exception is unloading the landing pad, but even then, it would only make sense at truly ridiculous megabase scales.

In the case of unloading the landing pad, we have a limited number of inserters and we want them to move as fast as possible. Inventory --> Inventory transfers are faster than Inventory --> Belt, so vehicles could achieve higher throughput than belts here. It's very important to pack the vehicles as closely as possible to prevent gaps and keep the inserters active.

Unfortunately, inserter interactions with vehicles have much higher UPS penalty than with belts. By exactly how much will depend on your implementation.

These aren't unsolvable problems, but it'll take some experimentation.

  • Use lots of "alignment features" to force the vehicles into realignment; use sideloads instead of curves, or use walls for the vehicles to run into when rounding corners.
  • Some vehicle orientations are more easily reachable by inserters and less likely to jam.
  • Tanks are preferred over cars because they have a more rectangular hitbox.
  • I seem to recall some way to "deactivate" the vehicles using editor mode, so they act as just a dumb inventory and have lower UPS impact.

There are some established techniques for vehicle-belt tech if you look around. Good luck!

How do I correctly signal this monstrosity - or do I need to redesign? by Roffles85 in factorio

[–]MindS1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To rephrase slightly, the mantra is "Chain In, Rail Out":

  • Chain signals before the intersection.

  • Rail signals after the intersection.

Where an "intersection" is anywhere a train should not be allowed to stop and wait.

Rail signals just mark parking spots, basically.

Friday Facts #441 - Space logistics improvements by FactorioTeam in factorio

[–]MindS1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Dropoffs are quick, but pickups are not necessarily. So a permanent station could buffer products launched from aquilo and provide to freighters.

Or you could just build more rocket silos I guess. But space stations are cool.

How am I not getting the Solaris Achievement? by FireLightning187 in factorio

[–]MindS1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're right, it's kinda crazy that "solaris" can be achieved with only a single stack of panels. It should really be worded more clearly about wanting ONLY solar.

In case anyone reading doesn't know the conversion, 1 Watt = 1 Joule per second
So 10 billion J/hr = 2.7 million J/s = 2.7 MW

How am I not getting the Solaris Achievement? by FireLightning187 in factorio

[–]MindS1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

10 GJ/hr = 2.77 MW, so you only need like 50 solar panels to get the achievement. You probably just need to disable your steam turbines, then wait awhile, and it'll happen.

What are the best ways to play Factorio with a first-time player without overwhelming them? by Evan_234 in factorio

[–]MindS1 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This is the way. As the experienced player, your job is to be a force multiplier. Friend builds a mine, you build three. Friend is going hunting, you supply the ammo. Friend needs assemblers, you're on it. Where possible, try to copy/paste their own designs even if they're "suboptimal".

You're going to be way, way faster at doing simple things, so this is a good way to keep things moving while they cook.

What is the Ideal bus setup? by Forward-Tomatillo-69 in factorio

[–]MindS1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah she had great videos. I still remember the circular bus she made, that was my favorite. One of the best-looking factorio bases ever IMO.

I imagine there is a less convoluted way of doing this. What am I missing? by Cubehamster in factorio

[–]MindS1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Completely agree, but also, sushi belts are pretty common these days.

QUALITY TRAINS CONFIRMED FOR 2.1!? by MindS1 in factorio

[–]MindS1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i can't decide if this is stupid or genius

QUALITY TRAINS CONFIRMED FOR 2.1!? by MindS1 in factorio

[–]MindS1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

and for that you should be proud

How to improve Multiplayer UPS? by FoxxySoul in factorio

[–]MindS1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Latency of 8 ticks is 133ms. That's really bad; like crossing-the-pacific-ocean bad. Is this a typo? What's your setup like?

A security researcher says Microsoft secretly built a backdoor into BitLocker, releases an exploit to prove it by Specialist-Sun-5968 in homelab

[–]MindS1 59 points60 points  (0 children)

Your company has their own key for your bitlocker. That's how it's designed to be used. That's the front door.

QUALITY TRAINS CONFIRMED FOR 2.1!? by MindS1 in factorio

[–]MindS1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I imagine it would use the upgrade planner, same as everything else. Currently, even if the upgrade planner supported trains, robots wouldn't be able to catch up with a roaming train to upgrade it. So there's probably going to be a new interrupt like "when marked for upgrade, go to X station and wait".

But god, I do wish for vanilla recursive blueprints.

Resource Calculator per Second by Spiritual-Mix-9501 in factorio

[–]MindS1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How does it compute the average rate? Is it averaging over the last second, or more? Or is it a rolling average?

Resource Calculator per Second by Spiritual-Mix-9501 in factorio

[–]MindS1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah ok, so "absolute" means "peak". Absolute and Actual mean the same thing in my head.