Crafting Tree?

[no one]

Hi all,

One of the things that always frustrated me with this game (through no fault of its own) is that when I would research a new item, it would often times require a material or product (eg, copper wire or green circuit board) I did not expect it would need. I would end up having to redesign chunks of my factory, sometimes several times, either due to inexperience or just trying to figure out the best layout for items I was currently designing, as well as keeping in room to grow the factory in the future. Building is great, but I just don't like having to go back and tear down everything I had set up previously just to get a different layout of the same setup later. It's one thing to upgrade from stone furnaces, it's another to take all your stone furnaces and set them up differently.

With all that said, what I would find most useful is to be able to see the recipes for all items at once. This would let me plan my builds ahead of time, or at least have an idea of what to expect. Does such a resource exist, or would I need to trawl through all of the recipes on the Wiki to get my plan sorted?

Haven't played in awhile but thinking I might like to play again.

Thanks in advance!

[zOldBulldog]

Your best bet is to look it up in the wiki. Just Google "factorio wiki". I also think there is a mod for exactly what you are asking.

Finally, you might want to look up factorioprints.com and the many YouTube tutorials.

[no one]

Originally posted by zOldBulldog:

Your best bet is to look it up in the wiki. Just Google "factorio wiki". I also think there is a mod for exactly what you are asking.

Finally, you might want to look up factorioprints.com and the many YouTube tutorials.

I really appreciate the offers, but I feel like downloading Factorio blueprints would ruin a good bit of the fun for me. I love trying to strategize the best way to build a factory, I just get annoyed when I have to repeatedly overhaul my design in a single playthrough. I might run through the wiki later. Thanks for the help!

[Fel]

This might be close to what you are asking, but it doesn't have ratios (I'm also not certain what factorio version it is for):
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/753xha/continuous_production_flowchart/

There are various tools, both outside of the game, and inside it (FNEI and Helmod mods being the most used ones) that allow you to view recipes and to plan how much of each you need, but everything on a single place I don't think I know about it (mostly because it would probably end up being a massive mess when ratios come into account).
Do note that using mods disable steam achievements for that save, if you are giving value to those being in your steam profile/library.

For the outside websites:
https://doomeer.com/factorio
https://www.factorio-item-browser.com/


With that out of the way, you can skip what comes after this if you are not interested in it as it is not directly about your question.

For me, a pretty big part of why factorio is a good game is because it lets you design your own factory.
Making "barely functionnal" designs, refining them as you learn more about the game, the recipes, the technologies and the ratios is an integral part of the game.
I understand that not everyone enjoys tearing their base over 10 times just because "something wasn't quite right with the previous design", but it is much more satisfying when you finally get a design that you can put in your blueprint book and be happy knowing it works just as intended.

[Jupiter3927]

You can look up crafting ingredients from the research menu.
Also using a main bus pretty much eliminates total redesigns.
I like to use trains to move stuff around so the worst case is I have to redesign the whole assembler or smelter array.

[RVWinkle]

It definitely takes some practice to set up a base properly and learn all of the dependencies. I would recommend that you look up 'main bus' designs. It's pretty easy to build a production pipeline when all of your inputs are in the same place.

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by RVWinkle:

I would recommend that you look up 'main bus' designs. It's pretty easy to build a production pipeline when all of your inputs are in the same place.

This. It's a design that makes expanding your factory and routing materials where they're needed very easy.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=754378586

[Warlord]

Originally posted by Jupiter3927:

You can look up crafting ingredients from the research menu.

I was going to suggest this. When you research something (or when deciding WHETHER to research something), mouse over the icon of the new item in the research pane and it shows the ingredients.

[[WV] SotS]

As people have suggested before, you can look up preemtively in the research menu what the item(s) you are researching require. That gives you some head start on their production.

Another think that has already been mentioned but that I want to stress again is Base Layout. For having a wel designed factory, Centralisation and Modularisation are two of the biggest Keywords.

One particular design choice that can help you achieve a more structured factory design is the usage of the so called "Cityblock" Paradigm.
Cityblocks are fixed size tiles of land, usually between 4x4 to 6x6 Big Power Pole whide . Always separated by a Concrete/Stone Path (The width of which is preference but for starters I recommend 4 tiles wide and 2 tiles space between path and power poles).

The point behind these blocks is that you try and contain certain functions of your factory within one Block, i.e. you got a block that is entirely dedicated to green circuits or science.

It also promotes the usage of a centralised location for high demand belted item transfer, also called a "Main BUS" or "Backbone". This terms originate in computer science and basicly describe a large main line of data transfer, im our case of items, with multiple Inputs and outputs. For the sake of simplicity in factorio the MainBUS or Backbone runs in one direction either vertically or horizontal and all your factories bridge off of it.

The article to how to make a MainBUS or Backbone has already been linked above.

Using Cityblocks, you can usually dedicate an entire line of blocks just for this one major piece of organisation and have your producers and consumers to either side of the bus in their dedicated Blocks. This will leave you with a clean, almost circuitboard like looking, easily expandable factory you can definitly reach a rocket with.

Additionally, there is modularisation. Every recipe in the game has a certain ratio of Input to output. For example Green circuits have an assembler ratio of 3:2. As you need 3 Wire Assemblers to perfectly feed 2 Circuit assemblers. This setup can then be mirrored and stacked vertically or horizontally, depending on your preference, and will provide you with easily expandable production.

If youd like to not play the game with a Calculator on hand for every part of your factory, Id also recommend the "Actual Crafting Time" mod. A great and simple QoL mod that lets you see the I/O rates of a machine when its opened and has a recipe set, giving you the ability to scale up the number of machines in the calculation with button presses so you can see the exact ratios.

Hope this helps you and good luck out there Engineer!