Why central bus? Use a circle for iron plates!

[frank2351]

People like using central bus and that's fine but i'd exclude iron plates from that and circle iron plates around the base because they are used everywhere. So i'd suggest central bus with iron circle around it. Thoughts?

[SurpriseTree]

Only one way to find out, and that's to build it.

[berry]

the reason people use central bus is because of its expandability, a circle wouldn't have the same properties

[Nailfoot]

I used to use loops as well, and there are a few places where loops still work ok (Looping science packs around research labs).

But now, I see loops as a waste of resources with little-to-no benefit. The raw resources may as well sit on the belt waiting to be used instead of looping all over the place. The central buss will get your iron plates "everywhere", too, so no need to loop those.

The game is all about how you want to build, though, so don't take this is a mark against your idea.

[frank2351]

Originally posted by BIG BREEZY:

the reason people use central bus is because of its expandability, a circle wouldn't have the same properties

Ifr you plan ahead you can still easily expand the circle by removing one side and building it further out.

The advatage of this is much easier accessibility of iron in all places. You also can monitor your supplies much easier this way.

[Nailfoot]

Originally posted by frank2351:

Originally posted by BIG BREEZY:

the reason people use central bus is because of its expandability, a circle wouldn't have the same properties

Ifr you plan ahead you can still easily expand the circle by removing one side and building it further out.

The advatage of this is much easier accessibility of iron in all places. You also can monitor your supplies much easier this way.

I am not sure how much easier it is over a central buss. You can easily look at the buss to see its status.

Material is also easily split off of the buss to direct to wherever you need it with little deconstruction.

[frank2351]

Originally posted by Nailfoot:

Originally posted by frank2351:

Ifr you plan ahead you can still easily expand the circle by removing one side and building it further out.

The advatage of this is much easier accessibility of iron in all places. You also can monitor your supplies much easier this way.

I am not sure how much easier it is over a central buss. You can easily look at the buss to see its status.

Material is also easily split off of the buss to direct to wherever you need it with little deconstruction.

The thing with the bus is: if it's very long and you're on the beginning of the line you'll not notice the line runs out of stuff until it actually happens. In a cricle you see the density of material to become less gradually.

Also a cricle needs no deconstruction at all for hooking up more factories.
Also note i don't recommend a cricle for everything. Just a circle for ironplates and everything else left on the main bus.

There is certainly upsides and downsides to both circle and main bus.

[The_Pastmaster]

I saw a guy useing loads of small loops conncted by splitters. He called it a chain. A little wider than a central bus but distributes the availible resources much more evenly.

[frank2351]

Actually a circle will tell you very precisely when you're consuming more of the stuff than producing. It can easily be seen by how much plates are being fed back to the cycle (how much plates are still left after passing a full round on the circle - if that number is low, you better produce more) - so cicles give you much better control of your materials.

[《ELIF_》]

Looping around an 8 lane bus for iron is too expensive and too much effort for the benefits, I much rather increase furnace count, then loop them around.

And what you say isn't true, about it being difficult to find out that you're no longer producing enough resources, you easily find this out once you see the resources on belts start to decrease in density.

[Colqhoun]

Originally posted by The_Pastmaster:

I saw a guy useing loads of small loops conncted by splitters. He called it a chain. A little wider than a central bus but distributes the availible resources much more evenly.

I'm doing the chain bus in my current playthrough after a failed rail bus. I love it, I can add to or pull from the bus at any point and it constantly redistributes everything.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503877266
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503877999
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503878634

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by Rubricant:

I'm doing the chain bus in my current playthrough after a failed rail bus. I love it, I can add to or pull from the bus at any point and it constantly redistributes everything.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503877266
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503877999
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503878634

Thanks for posting pics. I saw that guy's video a while back, but was seriously amused that he didn't have a working factory to who how it would be used in a practical fashion.

I'm curious -- do you have more smelting facilities along the line to feed iron and copper and green circuits?

I find that I need at LEAST 2 full belts of iron and copper and green circuits. (And I usually play with 4 full belts each of iron and copper for a regular factory).

[KatherineOfSky]

@Frank -- looping a huge bus is a complete waste of resources. This is why:

1. If you're not producing enough iron (etc.).... you're not producing enough. Looping may shift a couple extra plates back to the beginning of the line, but that doesn't solve the problem. The solution is: YOU NEED MORE PRODUCTION.

2. In fact, by creating a huge loop around your factory, you are wasting resources because they are sitting on all those hundreds of tiles of belts -- unable to be used until they loop back to reach an assembler. THAT is a waste.

3. When you have sufficient+ production, products will back up on the belts. Creating an end to the bus ensures that more product goes to the assemblers that need them.

4. I put this reason last because it isn't that important. (Resources are mined to be used): It's a waste of material to create all those extra belts to loop around. Man, I would hate to loop the 16-lane bus I had in my latest factory...)

[Nailfoot]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Originally posted by Rubricant:

I'm doing the chain bus in my current playthrough after a failed rail bus. I love it, I can add to or pull from the bus at any point and it constantly redistributes everything.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503877266
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503877999
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Colqhoun/screenshot/255957580503878634

Thanks for posting pics. I saw that guy's video a while back, but was seriously amused that he didn't have a working factory to who how it would be used in a practical fashion.

I'm curious -- do you have more smelting facilities along the line to feed iron and copper and green circuits?

I find that I need at LEAST 2 full belts of iron and copper and green circuits. (And I usually play with 4 full belts each of iron and copper for a regular factory).

I always have an ten-belt main buss, 4 each for copper and iron plates and 2 for green circuits. I can't see making a chain buss for 10 belts. And some people have 16 or more belts down the main buss. Chains just wouldn't work.

My recent factory is having problems with only 2 belts for green circuits, and I am producing more that 3K a minute IIRC. So I may start having 4 belts for those as well.

All of this is on blue express belts, too.

[Stealth]

what about plastic, red circuits, batteries, steel?

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by Stealth:

what about plastic, red circuits, batteries, steel?

Stealth, I was just giving an example for the post above.

On my main bus, I have:
4 belts of Iron plates
4 belts of copper plates
2 belts green circuits
1 belt for:
- steel
- platic
- red circuits
- blue circuits
- batteries
- gears (experimental, sometimes I make thse locally)