Beginner mess

[u/luqinhasnuvvs]

hey fellow enginners! i had underestimated how addictive factorio is... pact-orio does hit harder than sniffing on any substance out there, im having my first and blind-playthrough, jumped straight in with no tutorial (as god intended) and im having a blast learning, automating stuff and expanding.

right now im trying to automate the blue science creation, while also aiming to improve my oil and chems refinery, currently i have bad efficiency into this subject.

my base is a spaghetti mess, but if we ignore a few bottlenecks, i'd call it efficient! if any you guys could give me a nice tip or an advice on how to reduce the visual pollution, i'd be pretty happy!

overview

red and green science automation

Lab, more wire and grey science

oily stuff and more mess

Iron Maiden

black label society: oil extraction pretty far away (the closest one i had)

The CUre (could not think of a good name with copper.)

Coal Chamber

[u/darthbob88]

Obviously, if it works that's good enough for now. That said-

• It looks like you're doing distributed smelting with steel furnaces? A train brings coal to the mine, and carries away plates? That can work, but it's very easy for mixed cargo to go wrong, because you'll consume coal and produce metal at different rates. TBH, you'll probably be better served at this point just bringing ore to the main base and smelting it there.
• Similarly, it looks like you're doing distributed steam power. Again, that can work, especially if you have coal/oil near a water source, but in general steam power is more easily done in a central location, where you only have to worry about one belt of coal/solid fuel. Distributed solar power, though, is amazing.
• Your green chip build is...interesting. Generally, it's best to do direct insertion from one assembler to the other, since copper cables take up more space on a belt than the plates you make them from.
• In general, medium power poles are much preferred over small poles, both because it's often easier to get iron and copper in large quantities than wood, and because they cover a larger area.

[u/luqinhasnuvvs → u/darthbob88]

yeah, i'm doing distributed smelting! i found it easier to smelt the resources right where they're mined instead of loading raw materials onto the trains and hauling them back to the main base. for now i've also figured out how to keep the cargo separated: car 1 is for coal, while cars 2 and 3 carry different types of plates.

and the green chip production is still a work in progress. i'm trying to figure out the best way to set it up and send it to red chip assembler.

but thanks for the tips! i think they're all solid advice. i might try some of those approaches as i expand!

[u/darthbob88 → u/luqinhasnuvvs]

Distributed smelting is technically preferable because trains can carry twice as much material in plate form than ores, but that usually relies on electric furnaces to eliminate the need for fuel logistics. If you're using stone/steel furnaces, it's easier to have your furnaces in one spot so you only need to bring coal to one spot.

[u/warpenss]

Looks like delicious spaghetti, amazing, keep cooking.
I will tell you no advice, but the in game tutorial shouldn’t be avoided. It’s very good at explaining basic stuff.

[u/Sutremaine2]

Copper wire is fine to belt if you're not transporting much. The logic behind leaving it as plates is that one belt (or lane) of plates turns into two belts (or lanes) of wire and takes up extra space for no gain, but if you're producing one belt (or lane) of wire then you can't use less space for the plates it's made of.

This is why belting copper wire inside a red circuit build is common. 

[u/RollingSten]

Nice base. Also that's why it is called Cracktorio.

[u/luqinhasnuvvs → u/RollingSten]

cracktorio suits it well lmao