Having a hard time finding good science pack 3+ layouts

[dimmu1313]

I think I'm good on science 1 and 2, but am now need to start making science 3. I'm not sure if its just a matter of writing down each of the ratios and building that many assemblers for each ingredient, but very often i see layouts that use, for example, two inserters to share the output of an assembler, etc. and science pack 3+ is pretty complex so i want to start building those in a whole new area of the map so that they have dedicated raw materials. the question is: what configuration of assemblers do i use?

[Nailfoot]

There are blueprints for this. But, personally, I like to build my own.

I usually just put down a whole bunch of assemblers, and leave room for more. If the production is too slow I add to it.

I dont calculate much, even after 2000 hours in!

[impetus_maximus]

one thing i do when creating a layout. go to settings> interface settings> 'show combinator settings in ALT mode' and enable it.

i then put all the materials needed for whatever assemblers i'm placing into a constant combinator(s) (with ALT mode on) so i can better imagine what belts need what materials.

for ratios i just lay things out so if i need more of something, it gets tacked on to the end.

[Malibloo]

It'd help if you'd point out if you mean Military Science packs or Production Science packs.

In short: The only way to optimize things is by creating one/multiple packs per second.
This means you need to figure out how many assemblies you need per pack.

The first (Automation) pack takes 5 (game) seconds to make. If you want to make 1 per second, you'll need 5 assemblies. This way you get 5 every 5 seconds. Meaning 1 per 1 second.

When you look at the military packs, you'll make 2 every 10 seconds. Meaning you'll need 5 to make 10 every 10 seconds.
And with production packs it's 2 every 24, meaning 12 (yes, 12) assemblies to make 24 packs every 24 seconds.


Now you might wonder: "But how many materials do I need for every pack?"

Well, seeing you're making 1 pack every second, you need to make the materials for the pack every second.

A simple example is the very first pack:
You need 1 gear for 1 pack.
A gear takes half a second to make. Meaning you technically only need 0.5 assemblers for 1 Automation pack per second.

This gets a bit more confusing with further packs, like the military pack that creates 2 packs:
This means you need 1 grenade every for every 2 packs. But you make 1 pack per second.
This could quickly get confused to 1 grenade per second, but because you're making 2 packs, you only need half a grenade per second!
Grenades take 8 seconds to make, so 8 assemblers. But seeing you only need half a grenade, you also need half the assemblers, meaning you only need 4!

In short: Divide your necessary materials needed by the amount of packs that the assembler creates.

This can get confusing real quick with the later packs where you need things like productivity modules, which take 15 seconds to make, but you make 3 packs at the same time, so you can divide it by 3, so you only need 5 assemblies for the productivity modules.

This might all sound very confusing, but once you figure out how to do this, everything becomes ridiculously simple.
...up until you need to make 20 assemblers for the Low Density Structures.
Heck, you could even calculate how much raw material you need for literally everything. I'm sure someone has already done this.

Anyone not doing this is missing out on massive downtime and resource wastage.


tl;dr: Calculate everything on a per-second basis to figure out how many assemblers you need for everything. And don't forget the amount you create per craft and divide it by that.

[dimmu1313]

Автор сообщения: Malibloo

Calculate everything on a per-second basis to figure out how many assemblers you need for everything. And don't forget the amount you create per craft and divide it by that.

Super helpful, thanks!

[dimmu1313]

Автор сообщения: impetus maximus

one thing i do when creating a layout. go to settings> interface settings> 'show combinator settings in ALT mode' and enable it.

i then put all the materials needed for whatever assemblers i'm placing into a constant combinator(s) (with ALT mode on) so i can better imagine what belts need what materials.

for ratios i just lay things out so if i need more of something, it gets tacked on to the end.

I've never used combinators successfully. Despite all the guides (and even being an electrical engineer who uses logic circuits all day long!), I just get super super confused and they don't feel intuitive at all.

[impetus_maximus]

Автор сообщения: dimmu1313

I've never used combinators successfully. Despite all the guides (and even being an electrical engineer who uses logic circuits all day long!), I just get super super confused and they don't feel intuitive at all.

fair enough, but the way i'm describing the use of them, it's more of a little sign. they aren't doing any actual circuitry. ;)