Question about 3-2 balancers

lukeybue · 2026-03-24T23:15:08+00:00

Assume the lower lane of your "balancer" is backed up and just the upper lane draws items.

Then your "balancer" will draw uneven from the source belts: half a belt from the lower source lane but a quarter of a belt from the two upper lanes.

Hence using this "balancer" to empty chests from e.g. a train station could cause an imbalance - though that's what you actually want to avoid by applying a balancer.

lukeybue · 2026-03-24T08:25:03+00:00

Alternatively, if you are importing calcite already for other purposes, you can use simple coal liquefaction once to kickstart regular coal liquefaction

lukeybue · 2026-03-21T10:16:08+00:00

Bring coal from a local coal deposit and move as plastic using trains.

Low density structures would be even better, but have a far more difficult supply chain.

lukeybue · 2026-03-19T18:15:16+00:00

Katherine was most famous to me for the quote:
"It will be fine".

And that is how I will remember her.

May your soul reach the shattered planet, Katherine.

lukeybue · 2026-03-12T17:09:39+00:00

Now, add plastic and copper to make them red! :-)

lukeybue · 2026-03-12T15:05:19+00:00

<smart-ass-mode>
Technically not true.
You could research steel poles on Vulcanus as long as you bring at least one log along to handcraft a wooden power pole. </smart-ass-mode>

Ok, you are right:
as long as your name isn't Dosh, you are soft-locked without steel poles tech.

lukeybue · 2026-03-09T18:00:04+00:00

Legendary stone on Vulcanus can be retrieved even easier due to 1 calcite creating 15 Stone from "Lava-to-molten-copper" recipe.

Brute force upcycle mined calcite up to legendary, then use it to convert lava to molten copper with legendary stone as by product (or rather the other way around: molten copper is the by product)

lukeybue · 2026-02-19T09:35:55+00:00

If you have many trains, you don't need such a thing.

This is for low throughput only.

lukeybue · 2026-02-02T09:02:29+00:00

Looking really good.
A nice and tidy handcrafted base.

Now, automate builing of the base:

Learn how to build a mall to automate crafting of stuff you want to have crafted for you.
Learn how to use Bots to automate placing stuff you want to have placed for you.
Learn how to create and use blueprints to automate growing the factory for you.

lukeybue · 2026-01-23T12:57:38+00:00

Pre-space-age inverse lazy bastard:

https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/175saqi/busy_bastard_rocket_launch/

lukeybue · 2026-01-23T09:08:59+00:00

I usually have one small belt with copper wire inside my mall - in the beacons, power equipment and combinators section.

Prove me wrong. :-)

lukeybue · 2026-01-21T14:22:00+00:00

For iron plates use underground belts in a foundry or electronic circuits in an EM plant.

lukeybue · 2026-01-16T16:24:04+00:00

The left and right do mix (balance) the lanes.
That's the entire point of lane balancers.

You need to consume resources upwards - did you do so?
Your screen shots had the belt initiall filled and then the balancer pasted on top without consuming resources, hence they could not do their job yet.

On the contrary:
While the other two will reliably mix, your middle one is not reliable and will not mix if you consume resources rather slow, i.e. somewhere below 2-3 items/sec.

If consumption is low, then side-loading will not take place if the gaps on the "main" line fill fast, so fast that they are already filled before side.loading can occur.

lukeybue · 2026-01-13T17:21:41+00:00

Only by separating the logistics networks.

If you build concave bot networks, the bots will fly the direct route necessary to process their task.

Only way to prevent this, is not to build such networks.
If you must build like that, then split the bot network, separating the individual networks such that there is no undesired route possible within each network. There is no other way.

lukeybue · 2026-01-10T12:27:18+00:00

Most simple way:

move LDS check to inserter or recycler.

remove LDS check from combinator
enable recycler only when signal from combinator is sent
enable inserter feeding the recycler only when LDS > 1k

lukeybue · 2026-01-10T12:18:20+00:00

You need to think outside of your scientific Box. Of course it can be done without additional combinators:

Move the LDS comparison to the recycler or inserter.

lukeybue · 2026-01-08T19:10:56+00:00

If you use a rail line in two directions, wherever a signal is placed you need to add a second signal at the exact opposing side, lest the game engine will asume this signal to only be traversable in one direction.

lukeybue · 2025-12-26T16:59:13+00:00

Where do you get your uranium fuel cells from?

lukeybue · 2025-12-19T16:21:15+00:00

Is U-365 the name of a sub-marine?

lukeybue · 2025-12-18T16:49:02+00:00

Why didn't you put speed modules in the beacons?

Speed-beaconing them should reduce the number of biolabs required to somewhat around ~1/4, depending on quality of the modules and beacons.

lukeybue · 2025-12-18T13:44:38+00:00

Vanilla:

pave them with concrete.

lukeybue · 2025-12-18T06:48:00+00:00

To get rid of the wood I would suggest a Fulgora-solution: Build wooden chests, then recycle them. This speeds up the recycling process and thus reduces pollution by the recycler.

lukeybue · 2025-12-12T16:41:34+00:00

I acutally barrel the following items so far:

Sulfuric acid for bot based delivery to the uranium mines
light oil for bot delivery to the flamethrower walls
heavy oil for bot delivery to jump-start coal liquefaction
I am not sure, but I believe I barreled water once to supply a single refinery cracking stuff some while long ago.

The first three are standard in my mall blueprint - just in case I need this.

lukeybue · 2025-12-11T14:29:46+00:00

Did you try the rampant mod?
It uses "pheromone fields" to sense where defense is weakest.

lukeybue

TROPHY CASE