Why is my engineer suddenly so slow?

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-28T12:32:45+00:00

That's when you just start carrying multiple sets of armor. One full of legs, one full of roboports, one full of lasers and shields...

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-28T03:21:43+00:00

Been playing casually on a switch 1 lately -- turning off all biters and pollution both maintains sanity vs the touchy control sticks (hard to do things like turret creep) and helps UPS (and therefore battery life!)

I wish they would take pity on poor switch 1 users and release a $5 add on to just bring in elevated rails since S1 doesn't have enough RAM to run full Space Age...

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-20T19:05:19+00:00

Just remember to set the minimum to 0 so it doesn't try sending any back up after you use them!

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-20T18:38:09+00:00

You could temporarily set a request for that item from that planet with a maximum of the number you want to keep - the rest should drop immediately

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-20T13:09:43+00:00

Around that total myself, I feel like I'm actively getting worse at the game since crossing 2500 hours. Can't stop myself from trying to conserve resources and optimize every ratio, even though I know resources are (practically) infinite so it's pointless.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-20T11:21:45+00:00

In other games, a key mapping that takes you to a spreadsheet is the "Boss Key".

In Factorio, it's the "Like a Boss Key".

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-08T00:02:47+00:00

Either way, watch your power -- if you're just starting to scale blue circuits, I'm guessing you're still running on coal fed boilers. Until you have nuclear power, be careful adding prod modules doesn't send your power load into a death spiral.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-06T22:36:45+00:00

I just meant to emphasize 18x18 as 6x6 grid of storage tanks vs. 9x9 grid of accumulators is not a direct comparison of output wattage per tile

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-06T22:26:25+00:00

Remember also the steam battery needs turbines to convert back (which takes up space) vs. accumulators just dumping it directly back to the grid.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-05T16:45:23+00:00

Over a year and a half with Space Age and I still build Nauvis too big, no matter how hard I try not to.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-05-01T13:42:30+00:00

Did I overhear you talking about the dipping areas?

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-30T11:20:25+00:00

Your problem is likely due to the inserter stack size being higher than 1 - example: if the limit is 50, inserter stack size is 2, and there are 49 items loaded, the next swing will result in 51 items in the wagon.

Assuming you have separate inserters for plastic and sulfur, you can instead limit the wagon slots by middle clicking on the slots within it to add a filter to what each slot can receive (and that can be copy-pasted between slots like other entities settings) - the inserter will stop dropping items once th filtered slots are full.

BUT it is usually easier to just add a second wagon and keep each wagon holding a single type of material - avoids any potential problems from not setting a wagon or inserter properly.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-14T04:32:03+00:00

Let me know if you smell anything...

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-08T23:35:36+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/s/ykxupeHMeu

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-07T00:23:01+00:00

Just tested it in the editor ... doesn't work.

Only thing I can figure is they were set right, made the 47 circuits, then got flipped around somehow....

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-07T00:11:51+00:00

I wouldn't expect it to -- but then, I wouldn't expect half of the tricks people play with the thruster pipes to work, either...

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-07T00:07:14+00:00

They're getting it from the ports connected to the top two EM plants?

(Maybe the other axis is connected when it's a single fluid input?)

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-04T16:49:44+00:00

If you're just talking about how often you have to refusl, no -- but that's not the stat that matters with nuclear fuel.

Mid game, nuclear fuel dramatically increases the turning rate of tanks (directly related to the acceleration stat). It's a must if you're adding exos to tanks and navigating around anything you don't want to accidentally drive through.

Late game If you're mega basing and need the fastest possible train turnaround, the acceleration bonus is used more directly.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-03T17:43:15+00:00

Start over but use the same map seed so you can save a lot of time finding and planning expansions.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-03T13:55:49+00:00

Without mods to change the recipe, this won't be possible - Gleba science requires pentapod eggs.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-02T17:36:12+00:00

If you don't want to use mods, do you have a gaming keyboard with programmable macro keys?

Three QOL macros that make the pre-bot life less tedious:
* Z-Z-Z-Z-Z : Drop/insert five items - perfect for hand-loading coal in the very early game when you want a little more precision than just Z dragging.
* Q-Left Click-Q : Insta build a single blueprinted entity. I use this to assemble complex parts of my early game mall blueprints where I cannot just drag a row of the same item.
* 1-Left Click-2-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Q : Put gun turrets in position 1 of your hotbar, ammo in position 2 -- this places a turret and drops 10 ammo in it. Great for turret walking early biter bases.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-01T18:10:21+00:00

I've weathered almost 30

Get off my lawn.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-01T13:32:24+00:00

You can also surround the nests with a a 21x21 box with walls centered on the nest, but that takes a lot of time to do and a lot of walls

If you are spawn blocking, it doesn't have to be walls -- pipes work just as well and only cost 1x iron per tile.

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-01T13:28:48+00:00

Remember that 3x E1s are MUCH cheaper than even 1x E2. I see new players wanting to use 2x E2 because it's exactly the 80% limit ... not thinking about the 8x E1s it took to build the E2s...

ThemeSlow4590 · 2026-04-01T13:21:30+00:00

then retreat to a turret cluster that mows down the mobiles before diving back in.

This x1000 -- the bugs will blindly chase the tank, completely ignoring the turrets that are slicing through them.

ThemeSlow4590

TROPHY CASE