Base is a mess!

[Kakihara]

I just bought this game.

Currently trying to automate making red and green sciences.

I have green automated (albeit slow) and now I'm trying to automate red but my base is spaghetti junction.

Trying to find a conveyor belt route through my base for the red materials (which are already being used to make green) is a nightmare!

Any hints bros?

[Vixx]

Check a guide on how to make a main bus.

[Morsk]

The main bus works, but if you don't want to copy it, at least pay attention to the idea of making builds with space between them. A whole build to smelt iron, a build to make a lot of circuits, etc. I like to leave 4 spaces between things.

[Nico]

One thing that might make it easier to control your spaghetti would be to leave more space inbetween the different places where you craft stuff. It also makes it easier to later scale the production up a bit.

[shadain597]

Also, try to group things up. For example, don't have the belts + inserter assemblers on the far side of the factory from where the green science assemblers are. And some materials end up being easier to craft on-site than having to run a bunch of belts for distribution, like copper wires or iron gears.

[brian_va]

If you think you left enough space, double it, and maybe double it again.

[Cynimatic]

ignore main bus, embrace spaghetti

[knighttemplar1960]

Organize things into groups and leave additional space (about 4 times as much space as you think you'll need) for new expansion and more organization as you research new production chains. If you group like belts of product together and get them all going in one direction, you've made a main bus.

If you put smelting columns at one end of the belts and make groups of belts no more than 4 wide you can use splitters and underground belts to take materials of those supply belts at a 90 degree angle and run those materials into banks of machines that are grouped either by function or by resources required. If you build circuits on one side and every thing else on the other you can expand your main bus belts in the 4th and final open direction pretty much as far as you want to go.

If you leave gaps of 4 tiles between your banks of machines you can add roboports later in the game to supply you material so that you can go back and build. If you leave 6 tiles open between banks of machines instead of 4 tiles you can put roboports in and still have room to bring trains in with material and merge them with your main bus belts any place that the material gets thin.

[valenti_scott]

You can do a smaller bus if you don't want to do the "main bus" as directed. Just make sure you have a nice straight conveyor for important things like iron plates, copper plates, etc.

[Troll Norris]

Learn from your mistakes. You can use sandbox mode and try some custom made designs. There you will find how to make it organised. :) Or you can rebuild your base as many times as you want. :)

[BruceXue]

In my opinion, the most effective way to build a base tidy and have more space for expansion is these steps:

Firstly ,you should observe your map carefully, especially the direction of important resources such as coal, iron copper and water(to making electricity more convenient).

Secondly, gather a few resources to build boiler and steam engines, straightly get into the electric era without any heat machine arm, because they are useless. I suggest you build your engines near the poor because coal will be used to produce plastic, grenade, etc. You need more space. Please remember never to build producing line above unmined minerals.

Thirdly, before you build your automatic flow line, I'll tell two important design method.
The first method is a little workshop. In each producing steps to put a single assemble machine, to make a single produce, so that the resources supply won't be too difficult. This method is used to low-needs district, and it's hard to upgrade to produce more, but it uses little space. The second method is to supply a lot resources, put a few assemble machines in a line to produce a same product. This is a more effective way, but it needs a lot space, it's a big factory. Then, the products are moved out by machine arms and be transported to the next step. Based on these two method you can build a huge factory.

Finally, to make great use on support belts, you should both use the two sides, such as the belt with coal on its left and iron on other side. Then you'll save a lot space , belts and machine arms. You should correctly calculate how many products and spaces you need, then build the belts in the correct place, with arms and power supply.

[(N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★]

Man, I miss the early days of not understanding the game and not knowing how complex things are going to get because moments like OP is having was some of the most fun memories I have in this game.

[Jackal]

Originally posted by (N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★:

Man, I miss the early days of not understanding the game and not knowing how complex things are going to get because moments like OP is having was some of the most fun memories I have in this game. :ss2heart:

lol im there right now and its agonising

my brain is close to overheating at many points

[(N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★]

Originally posted by ehhh homes:

Originally posted by (N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★:

Man, I miss the early days of not understanding the game and not knowing how complex things are going to get because moments like OP is having was some of the most fun memories I have in this game.

lol im there right now and its agonising

my brain is close to overheating at many points

Well, I recommend you don't look up builds or anything.
I think doing that takes away a lot in the long run cause it was fun figuring out a big design that would just work everything out for you.

My first I just snaked a bunch of things and that got hectic so I had to let that run while making a new setup next to it then plugging it in and then just shortly after realizing I didnt realize some new stuff so I ended up getting robots to fix everything and that is just putting a bandaid on the problem xD

It wasnt until my 3rd serious run where I found out a 'trunk' system where copper, steel, plastic, and iron were all going in one big trunk line where I can split it off to get what I need and then it wasnt until like my 5th playthrough I found out a huge 'bus' idea people here are recommending.

I still miss those early days though cause my god was it a glorious mess!

[Jackal]

Originally posted by (N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★:

Originally posted by ehhh homes:

lol im there right now and its agonising

my brain is close to overheating at many points

Well, I recommend you don't look up builds or anything.
I think doing that takes away a lot in the long run cause it was fun figuring out a big design that would just work everything out for you.

My first I just snaked a bunch of things and that got hectic so I had to let that run while making a new setup next to it then plugging it in and then just shortly after realizing I didnt realize some new stuff so I ended up getting robots to fix everything and that is just putting a bandaid on the problem xD

It wasnt until my 3rd serious run where I found out a 'trunk' system where copper, steel, plastic, and iron were all going in one big trunk line where I can split it off to get what I need and then it wasnt until like my 5th playthrough I found out a huge 'bus' idea people here are recommending.

I still miss those early days though cause my god was it a glorious mess!

ive only just realised how much ratios matter and am just starting to work on a main bus

before that I nearly launched the rocket with the worst spaghetti base you can imagine then I got wiped out by biters cause I didnt invest enough in defenses - funnily enough about to lose the same way on this base

[(N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★]

Originally posted by ehhh homes:

Originally posted by (N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★:

Well, I recommend you don't look up builds or anything.
I think doing that takes away a lot in the long run cause it was fun figuring out a big design that would just work everything out for you.

My first I just snaked a bunch of things and that got hectic so I had to let that run while making a new setup next to it then plugging it in and then just shortly after realizing I didnt realize some new stuff so I ended up getting robots to fix everything and that is just putting a bandaid on the problem xD

It wasnt until my 3rd serious run where I found out a 'trunk' system where copper, steel, plastic, and iron were all going in one big trunk line where I can split it off to get what I need and then it wasnt until like my 5th playthrough I found out a huge 'bus' idea people here are recommending.

I still miss those early days though cause my god was it a glorious mess!

ive only just realised how much ratios matter and am just starting to work on a main bus

before that I nearly launched the rocket with the worst spaghetti base you can imagine then I got wiped out by biters cause I didnt invest enough in defenses - funnily enough about to lose the same way on this base

Oh yeah. I highly recommend making a big wall and having a turret line just fed with a belt backed up with ammo so it feeds into the turrets.

Ugh.... it is fun being having everything being a lot more optimized but I really do miss those early hectic designs xD