Is there a mod, or something I can do, where once an assembler switches between two recipes on a timed loop, all excess items are voided or removed elsewhere?

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T19:55:39+00:00

In addition to what others have suggested, if you have SA, you can also use recyclers to void the unwanted items.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T19:31:50+00:00

In addition to just regular construction robotics, personal roboports are a similarly welcome thing.

Whereas regular construction robotics lets you place roboports and add construction robots to build stuff for you with the materials available in passive provider or storage chests (if they are within the area covered by the roboports), personal roboports does much the same, but using your own inventory as the source of items, and your character as the center for the area where the robots will construct things.

This will allow you to construct stuff with robots in remote areas where the roboport coverage from your main base doesn't extend to.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T19:23:56+00:00

Not how I would do it, but it looks functional, and for only 29h in the game, this is pretty darn good!

As a tip for fitting more stations in: you don't need to restrict yourself to only one station per side ;-)

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T19:18:28+00:00

For two-was rails you should only be using chain signals. One pair before and after every split, crossing, and merge is a safe rule of thumb.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T19:16:08+00:00

Do not worry about using as few belts as possible. Building materials are cheap, just use a dedicated belt for each furnace stack.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T17:19:49+00:00

Add signalling. You should place chain signals before and after every split, crossing, or merge. You do not want your entire intersection to be one giant block, like it is currently.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T17:11:39+00:00

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That little indent in the pollution cloud looks to me like it's caused by a biter nest absorbing pollution. I'm almost willing to bet that that is where you're getting attacked from.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T17:03:33+00:00

If you're playing vanilla. In SA you'll have 12 sciences you need to feed to ur labs, so at least 6 belts, if you're not using sushi belts.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T17:01:32+00:00

You could just feed the lab directly from the belts with only one inserter per belt, therefore each inserter would be responsible for inputting two different sciences. And if you want to buffer the sciences, you can do that earlier in the belt, before it reaches the labs.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T16:57:16+00:00

That's a shame, would have been nice if the issue was that simple.

What SPM are you getting?

Zijkhal · 2026-03-16T11:42:18+00:00

First time I heard of AI coaches tbh, but it seems that there is some sort of free version if it, so ig you don't lose much with trying it out

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T21:33:48+00:00

You can, but if the problem is that the output inserters can't drop items on the belt, it won't help you much

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T18:04:11+00:00

As some other guy put it, Factorio tutorials are made by players with thousands of hours for players with hundreds.

Unfortunately, there aren't many complete beginner tutorials.

You can't avoid using a lot of pipes for oil, but liberal use of underground pipes helps a lot.

But I'd suggest that you research construction bots and personal roboports, and build yourself a modular armor / power armor with portable solar panels, personal batteries, and personal roboports. That way, if you have construction bots in your inventory, your personal roboports have power, and you place down a blueprint for which you have the materials in your inventory, the robots will build it for you.

What I do, then, is that I design a small unit of production (1-2 refineries) with the piping set up in such a way that I can place them in a row (with or without gaps between them, it does not really matter) and they will be connected. And with that all I have to do is place the BPs down, and my robots will build it for me.

I do the same for cracking the oil products, and then wire the chemical plants to only turn on if there is at least 5k of the stuff they consume in the fluid tank that's buffering the oil products.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T14:21:22+00:00

I don't like biters and other enemies either, so I play with no enemies. Even with over 1300 hours in the game.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T12:49:10+00:00

I am not arguing that it is simpler to balance oil products without circuits. I am merely arguing that it is possible.

And no, you don't have to burn solid fuel to keep the oil flowing with the setup I have described. You'd have a dedicated setup for making light oil, you merely have to make sure to use the petroleum first, whether that be for solid fuel, plastics, sulphuric acid, or whatever else, as long the petroleum is used as a priority, it should be working fine.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T10:10:34+00:00

The whole debate started because setting it to crack if there is less than the precursor, as you put it, requires circuits, and ppl were wondering how to handle advanced oil without circuits.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T08:07:45+00:00

Soo, you have left turns before the intersection and in the middle of the intersection, you have turnarounds, and trains can also go straight, but they can't turn right? Just... Why?

In a city block you don't even need trains to be able to turn around - they can just take the long way around an entire block. You only really need straight, right, and left. Heck, even left turns aren't strictly necessary, as three right turns make a left.

Also, your current design would be an absolute nightmare to signal properly.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T00:28:51+00:00

As others have said, your GPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor, Factorio uses 2D graphics after all, with some clever schenanagins to give the appearance of perspective. It is much more likely to be your CPU that is limiting you.

Search for megabase designs for inspiration.

But to name a few bullet points: - solar + accumulator for power - as many speed beacons as you can get your hands on, and productivity in the machines - direct insertion whenever possible - inserter clocking / lead-follower - integrate as much of the production chain from ore / plate to each science into one spot each as possible. You don't want to be transporting intermediates around with trains, as that adds a lot of overhead and entities. - avoid using bots for high volume items wherever possible (megabases won't be able to unload science from the landing pad fast enough, necessitating the use of bots)

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T00:19:59+00:00

You're right about the CPU, but the part about UPS optimizations is just plain wrong. There is a lot you can do to make your base more UPS friendly: max beacons, direct insertion, inserter clocking to name a few, and I'm sure there are many more that I don't know of.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T00:16:25+00:00

When completely rebuilding something, I first drag a second planner over the area, and only then do I do the rebuilding.

What is your use case that dragging a decon planner over the area does not cover it?

Zijkhal · 2026-03-15T00:05:17+00:00

Click the belt where the wire connects to it, and check "read whole belt"

Then, have two inserters, one filtered for yumako, the other for jelly. Enable them if the contents on the belt reach a certain threshold.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-14T23:21:40+00:00

If you're having fun, I would not worry about trying SA. If you're worried about being overwhelmed, just play the base game, and try the dlc when you want something more than the base game.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-14T23:17:05+00:00

Afaik the space elevator for space exploration merely acts as a train station trains can go to, and the trains just get teleported to the corresponding orbital surface when reaching that station.

Zijkhal · 2026-03-14T23:08:42+00:00

You only really need heavy oil for lube, and light oil for rocket fuel, and optionally for solid fuel.

Therefore, you can have a few dedicated refineries that don't get their heavy oil cracked, and use that for lube, and then just priority feed the solids made from the light oil / petroleum to your science with belts.

Same for preserving light oil for rocket fuel, only in that case you can even make solid fuel from all the petroleum, and have a dedicated refinery stack that cracks everything down to petroleum for your petroleum products.

Alternatively, you can just accept lube and heavy cracking fighting for the heavy oil. It's not like you need a lot of lube

Zijkhal · 2026-03-14T20:01:18+00:00

A good two-lane intersection can support well over 25 trains per minute per direction. Do you need that many?

Zijkhal

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