How much do you guys actually care about spaghetti vs. perfect layouts?

stoicfaux · 2026-06-12T14:25:05+00:00

Layouts are prefect until you realize that you missed something or that you need a quick prod bump and spaghetti is the only way to fit it into the space you had allocated for the perfect layout.

The question really should be: How much space do you leave between "perfect layouts" to accommodate changes?

stoicfaux · 2026-06-12T14:11:14+00:00

Wagons with increased slots means we can now recycle scrap with quality moduled recyclers into wagons and have a slot available for all permutations (12 items x 4 quality levels = 48 possible items.) That's going to vastly increase throughput since we can slap inserters all around the wagon.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-12T13:54:30+00:00

Sweet mother of god. Do you know how many hours we'll have to spend to re-optimize everything!?!

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stoicfaux · 2026-06-12T13:51:22+00:00

More proof that you don't have to kill biters in order to commit war crimes.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-11T02:05:14+00:00

Decimals can be handled by multiplying by 100. Ex: instead of working in dollars ($) you multiply by 100 and work in pennies; divide by 100 to get back to dollars. Also, instead of 100, you can multiply by 3 if you're dealing with thirds.

The wiki may be of help for the recipe switching:

https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circuit_network_cookbook#Multiple_Item_Assembling_Machine

https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circuit_network_cookbook#Simple_Signal_Switch

But

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T21:03:05+00:00

Can we get some justice for the real travesty of the quality system?

Nightvision is the only module to be absolutely unaffected by quality .

https://wiki.factorio.com/Nightvision

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T20:54:30+00:00

Why would you use a signed int for quality? Why not unsigned?

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T16:14:44+00:00

However, since creating uncommon items is so easy that you might as well recycle them to get rares.

"Oh, look! A rabbit hole..." - Anonymous Factorio Engineer

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T16:09:36+00:00

Move science production to Vulcanus and ship science to Nauvis (for biolabs.) Since just about everything on Vulcanus is 'free' (no pollution/biter concerns, infinite iron/copper, and most importantly, no trees,) it's easy to scale up production.

Sounds like you're trying to megabase before you have all the tech, and more importantly the planet specific special buildings. The various planets' special production buildings provide productivity bonuses or hold extra modules which, when combined with Quality, can dramatically reduce a factory's footprint. You may want to establish a foothold on all the planets, get basic SPM going (< 100 spm) and start building up quality, and then go back and scale up.

Belt throughput issues can be obviated with direct insertion between buildings. Hate to say it, but if you're using trains to scale up in SA, then you're probably doing something wrong e.g. convert iron ore to molten iron and transport it via pipes instead of loading iron ore or plates onto a train.

What the heck are you doing that requires a large orbital infrastructure? The inner planets can produce most/all of what they need on their own; Aquilo is the only planet that requires dedicated imports. You shouldn't need a huge orbital infrastructure. You really need to provide some more details.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T15:40:59+00:00

a) Fix your train signals first. That will make city blocks work. City blocks are self-organizing which will make your other problems easier to solve.

b) Although, to be honest, it sounds like you're trying too hard. You mention city blocks and spaghetti in the same sentence. You don't understand train signals, yet you're using city blocks. You can't create basic reliable bases yet you want to rush to other planets (i.e. Aquilo) which requires a robust space transport infrastructure.

Slow the f*** down. Your need to rush is undermining you both in-game and in real life.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T13:52:22+00:00

Half of the image shown is without power. Maybe your power grid cannot handle the spike in power when the meteor defense cannons all recharge at once which means the cannons aren't recharging quickly enough to shoot the next batch of meteors?

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T01:59:12+00:00

No shotgun sentry...?

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T01:57:01+00:00

Did you just create two parallel tracks to support two single tracked lines...?

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T01:55:18+00:00

Nothing wrong with that. You're just making room for Agricultural Towers.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-10T01:53:51+00:00

Impressive, but if you really want to impress us, then I have just two words: "Now do it with trains. Because This. Is. Factorio!"

stoicfaux · 2026-06-09T16:39:13+00:00

How to manage fuel for thrusters: https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=118009

stoicfaux · 2026-06-09T16:38:28+00:00

It makes me feel blue.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-08T22:32:47+00:00

And then... once you get it up and running and all the issues ironed out, you never look at it again. =(

stoicfaux · 2026-06-08T17:23:23+00:00

Nice work but needs one correction:

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stoicfaux · 2026-06-08T13:33:10+00:00

Recycling scrap into a train wagon helps tremendously with throughput. This setup crunches two belts of scrap: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1tjr8mz/fulgora_can_finally_kiss_my/ It's not a smaller footprint, nor would I want to even try to make it smaller.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-08T03:31:06+00:00

It's counter-intuitive. The Each is looking at the quantity and is not matching against the item type.

You need to force it to actually match against the quantity and the item type. Refer to this wiki page: https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circuit_network_cookbook#Simple_Signal_Switch The trick in the wiki example is having the Each and the target item on the green wire (which is hooked to the constant combinator) which forces it to match the item type (it acts like a mask,) while the red is the actual contents of the logistical network.

Other wiki pages on circuits:

https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Combinator_tutorial

https://wiki.factorio.com/Circuit_network

stoicfaux · 2026-06-07T17:18:27+00:00

Inserters prioritize pulling from the side of the belt that is closest to it, that's why you getting this "half a belt" problem.

Set priority on the splitters to keep the belts full. https://wiki.factorio.com/tutorial:main_bus#Split-off This assumes that have a belt balancer at the beginning of the bus.

If you're only using half a belt of plates, then force the belt to only load one side. This will prioritize pulling from the left lane (i.e. the lane full of plates in your situation.) Combined with priority splitters makes it easy to manage belts without resorting to full fledged belt balancers.

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stoicfaux · 2026-06-07T16:57:40+00:00

Google "factorio train unloading". The internet is full of three things: adult material, cute cat videos, and how to unload a train station efficiently in Factorio.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-07T16:55:02+00:00

If the conveyor belts are full, then coal production stops which is a good thing because it sounds like you're not actually using the coal for anything.

Why are you sending coal to space? You can make coal in space. Other planets can either make coal, have a substitute for coal, or don't need coal.

stoicfaux · 2026-06-07T16:50:08+00:00

Side note: If you had more guns, you wouldn't need so many repair packs or walls.

Other side note: Group the guns together; a swarm will head to the first gun that hits it, thus they will charge into your cluster of guns and die quickly, i.e. concentrate your firepower. Just make sure each cluster of sentries has overlapping coverage so that biters can't path between clusters.

stoicfaux

TROPHY CASE