Need a lab blueprint

[pat]

I've just developed yellow tech, but my lab layout has turned into a spider web, and I'm looking for something a little more elegant, preferably something that can be tiled.. I looked online, but everything I saw was either for just a few techs OR it incorporated beacons, which I haven't tackled yet. Yes, I'm sure they're wonderful, but it's a deep and complex game with many nuances and I'm only a week in so far. It takes time to fully grasp it all and I've still got many facets of the game to assimilate.

[Hedning]

Part of what is fun about playing a game is playing it yourself and not have other people play it for you.

Here's one of my designs. Removing the beacons changes nothing, it just makes it slower.

https://i.imgur.com/u2Gtslf.png

[GMC]

Originally posted by pat:

I've just developed yellow tech, but my lab layout has turned into a spider web, and I'm looking for something a little more elegant, preferably something that can be tiled.

2 belts, row of labs, 2 belts, row of labs ..., with science packs alternating; so:
12 34 (labs) 56 78 (labs) 12 34 (labs) 56 78 ...
Each row of labs has access to 4 belts containing all 7 types of science pack.

Other options include

• Sushi belt: i.e. a looped belt containing more than one type of science pack on each side, using the circuit network to maintain a balance of types.
  
• Braided belt: alternating yellow/red underground belts so you effectively have two belts in the space of one belt.
  
• Logistic bots.
  
• A triangular layout with all science packs fed to the lab at the apex, with inserters removing packs and passing them to the adjacent labs in the next layer down.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by GMC:

Other options include

• Sushi belt: i.e. a looped belt containing more than one type of science pack on each side, using the circuit network to maintain a balance of types.

You don't need any circuitry for this. Balancing is an in-built function of splitters:
https://i.imgur.com/3q7EPID.png

if you are thinking of the input side then input priority for the returning flasks is enough.

[pat]

Originally posted by Hedning:

Part of what is fun about playing a game is playing it yourself and not have other people play it for you.

That philosophy can be used throughout all aspects of the game. Following it to its full extent, I shouldn't be on this forum at all and should only learn by trying different things within the game. But I'd have gotten tired and frustrated on the first day had I done that. I find that I learn a lot by looking at a blueprint that works.

You get your mind focused on a specific task, and here is a good example... I was running low on copper and needed to pull some down from a vein that was WAY far to the north. To do this required a good deal of equipment. Turns out, I'd pretty much run out of green circuits. My green circuit area was running at full tilt, but I simply needed a much bigger area built. I *could* have spent the next few hours figuring out how to create a much larger green circuit factory, after which time, I'd probably have totally forgot most of my North Copper Mine plans.

Instead, I found a very nice green circuit blueprint, plopped it down in an open area, fed iron and copper into it, green circuits out of it, and ten minutes later I was back up north working on the North Copper Mine.

Same is true now. I've just established a yellow tech factory area, but there's simply no room to efficiently get it all in. And what's already there is a nightmare that I developed early in in my Factorio education. Sure, I could redesign it right now, but I'm currently working on learning railroads and I simply don't want to change focus.

[Grumpy Old Gamer]

Originally posted by pat:

I've just developed yellow tech, but my lab layout has turned into a spider web, and I'm looking for something a little more elegant, preferably something that can be tiled.. I looked online, but everything I saw was either for just a few techs OR it incorporated beacons, which I haven't tackled yet. Yes, I'm sure they're wonderful, but it's a deep and complex game with many nuances and I'm only a week in so far. It takes time to fully grasp it all and I've still got many facets of the game to assimilate.

Check out - https://factorioprints.com/view/-LBYeqyzwzLD1s3OaMr9

It has a lab array which is pretty common.

[Woody]

Here is mine:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1386535556

It sends 1 belt of red science and 1/2 of each of the rest to the labs. It is easy to expand it vertically or horizontally if you want to. I usually start of sending one belt split with red and green science serving 6 labs. Then expand it as I progress.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by pat:

I *could* have spent the next few hours figuring out how to create a much larger green circuit factory, after which time, I'd probably have totally forgot most of my North Copper Mine plans.

Instead, I found a very nice green circuit blueprint, plopped it down in an open area, fed iron and copper into it, green circuits out of it, and ten minutes later I was back up north working on the North Copper Mine.

Yes, and by skipping through a movie you get to the end faster, but is that the point of watching a movie?

You can of course do what you want, but the factory isn't going anywhere, so there is no problem focusing on one thing for a long time.

[pat]

Originally posted by Hedning:

Yes, and by skipping through a movie you get to the end faster, but is that the point of watching a movie?

Sorry, but that analogy doesn't apply at all here. With the exception of a few spectacular movies, once the movie is over, you don't watch it again. Once I launch the rocket, I'm not uninstalling Factorio. Like pretty much everyone else who has ever played it, I'll start again and utilize what I've learned in past games. Perhaps with my new knowledge, I'll come up with a tremendous lab layout. But regardless of how I make the journey, I'm enjoying myself tremendously throughout the game.

[Xilo The Odd]

one thing to keep in mind is that, labs can pass science from one lab to another now. so any excess science packs can be throwin into other labs.

another good piece of advice, underground belts are your friend for minimising your lab areas footprint. red and yellow underground belts do not connect to eachother, so you can alternate between then and run 4 kinds of science down 1 row. the catch is its a straight shot making a turn wouldnt be very efficient by doing this. but you wont need to if you setup neighboring labs to pull from the labs near the mainline.

i'll start a creative file and set it up for a screenshot when i get home

[Teh Freek]

Here's mine. It's not very material efficient and adding space science around the sides is your problem, but it's reasonably compact and there's not much contention between labs for the same science pack.

http://fbpviewer.trakos.pl/b/cJRk_qxGU9o2SAIcTSrnio04Jlg

[Xilo The Odd]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1386693864 this is the setup i eventually get goin. minus the chests and grabbers pulling from them. that usually happens later when active and requester chests become available. otherwise its all belted in and fed in the same such way. its usually a big knot up at the top of conveyors but you can get all 6 science types fed into this setup, and off to the side is how you expand outward from it, though more effeciently than what i got. i just put those there as an example.

but the multi colored belt system like that is a good way to feed many things down one line. things you produce a lot of and use a lot of are best on the slower lines i find. while the harder more time consuming stuff is better on the fast belts. just keeps production priorities in order.

[pat]

Thanks everyone. Looking forward to trying some of these.

[InstableMonster]

Originally posted by Hedning:

Yes, and by skipping through a movie you get to the end faster, but is that the point of watching a movie?

You can of course do what you want, but the factory isn't going anywhere, so there is no problem focusing on one thing for a long time.

Bad analogy

A movie doesnt stop when you are stuck and you dont miss any plot point by checking up a more optimised blueprint

[Xilo The Odd]

alright i looked around and when i saw this i remember this thread.

my suggestion? a good start, but the way this man has his science belted, is far more efficient.

https://factorioprints.com/view/-KxYQGi1mO-P82kXjAwj

ignoring the MASSIVE production off tot he side for the moment, they way his labs are belted is as optimal as i can think of. all science gets thrown into the central lab, then grabbers pull that science into 4 other labs. and its layout is easy to expand and extend indefinently as well.

once i gotten far enoguh on my lazy achievment run, im probably gonna get this setup after ripping everything else up. everything is pretty much accounted for, aside from beaconing speed on the factories and putting production modules in everything that takes em to reduce the amount of materials consumed.

[The_Pastmaster]

This is how I do it:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1390160204

I half-belt each science.

I screwed up the design in the middle as it's supposed to be two circular belts here as well.
Need more labs? Add another one next to it.