Do resource nodes run out?

[KASS!]

I quit the demo because the mineral spots ran out so my entire factory stopped working. Is it the same in the full game?

[CasualGamer]

yes

[Deadoon]

Yes, but you can use mods to make the resources to never deplete, or increase their density to the point where it isn't going to be an issue for a while.

[malogoss]

In the full game, you'll always find new ore patches though.
The map is practically infinite, nothing to do with the demo on that aspect.

[Whispdragoon62]

I feel like being a contrarian and saying technically no. The map expands infinitely in all directions and thus spawns an unlimited amount of resources. You just have to capture the land for it.

At a certain point you travel so far the nodes become extremely gratuitous.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by Whispdragoon62:

I feel like being a contrarian and saying technically no. The map expands infinitely in all directions and thus spawns an unlimited amount of resources. You just have to capture the land for it.

At a certain point you travel so far the nodes become extremely gratuitous.

The map is 2 million tiles by 2 million tiles (4 trillion square tiles). The largest base I've made used less than 0.02% of the map. The farther you get from the center that larger and denser the deposits get. Infinite mining productivity research make patches last longer. Mining productivity 50 gives you five free ore for ever one ore you mine. Mining productivity 100 gives you 10 free ore for every ore you mine. You never get to infinity but it keeps getting harder to run out the longer you play the same map.

[Mike Garrison]

Ore deposits getting used up are actually one of the main mechanics of the game. They push you to expand your exploration of the map.

You start in an area that is guaranteed to have a smallish deposit for iron, stone, coal, and copper. It's enough to get your base started and to make trains. That's important, because trains are very much the best way to deal with the need to bring resources from distant locations in to where you need them.

If you are just playing the game to the nominal "win" (launching a rocket), you probably never really have to work more than your starting ore patches and maybe one or two more of them. But if you want to just keep building a bigger and bigger base, you'll likely need to have several ore patches all running at once for each resource, constantly bringing in more materials to your train stations.

[Fate]

Single spots of reyources run out. Just leave it behind and make some drills and belts and exploit the next one. It's what makes you actually do stuff in the game, because there are 2 threads:

Biters and resources running out. The game makes you play your cards to get rid of the biters without overspending your resources on guns and turrets until you reach the winning condition.

[Khaylain]

Originally posted by Whispdragoon62:

I feel like being a contrarian and saying technically no. The map expands infinitely in all directions and thus spawns an unlimited amount of resources. You just have to capture the land for it.

At a certain point you travel so far the nodes become extremely gratuitous.

Then you'd be technically wrong. The map is limited in size, and thus spawns a limited amount of resources. The amount is just so absurdly large that it practically is infinite for all scenarios I can think of. Practically infinite, technically finite.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by Khaylain:

Originally posted by Whispdragoon62:

I feel like being a contrarian and saying technically no. The map expands infinitely in all directions and thus spawns an unlimited amount of resources. You just have to capture the land for it.

At a certain point you travel so far the nodes become extremely gratuitous.

Then you'd be technically wrong. The map is limited in size, and thus spawns a limited amount of resources. The amount is just so absurdly large that it practically is infinite for all scenarios I can think of. Practically infinite, technically finite.

Yep.

They're only finite in the conceptual sense or if you hard limit your map size with borders. You will never, ever, EVER run through all of the material in a single map. You'll A: Run out of hard drive space long before hand, and B: wouldn't be able to in your lifetime even if you had limitless hard drive space.

The map is 2 million tiles by 2 million tiles, 4 trillion tiles total.. and resources get richer as you move away from center.

So, before productivity and on default richness and spawning values, it's like 20~ quadrillion iron/copper/coal, ~8 quadrillion stone/uranium, a trillion oil wells.

To put it in perspective, A few years ago it was theorized that 30k spm would basically be the limit of a perfectly tuned megabase- At that point, you're losing UPS, and by proxy, slowing the simulation and making higher speed production impossible. I'll just round that up to 50k spm to account for interim optimization and better CPUs.

Just looking at iron for convenience sake since it's the highest consumption currently, You need 8,143,417 iron a minute to maintain 50k spm. To run through 20 quadrillion iron (again, no productivity) at that pace would take 2,455,971,492.07 minutes. That's 40,932,858.2011 hours. Or 1705535.75838 days.

..Or 4672.7 Years.

So, You aren't going to run out of minerals on a single world.. Not even if you dedicate your entire life to it. They are not 'Finite' in any sense but a conceptual one. Practically infinite- Technically finite.

And if you increase richness or utilize productivity in your mines and machines, well..

[Vyndicu]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

*snipped*

Just looking at iron for convenience sake since it's the highest consumption currently, You need 8,143,417 iron a minute to maintain 50k spm.

*snipped*

Is iron the highest consumption? Everything else in your post is correct.

I know that copper is in greater demand than iron.

9,164,375 copper per minute vs. 8,493,416.7 iron per minute.

6,806041.7 copper per minute (74%) goes to crafting copper cable. The lion's share of copper wires goes to crafting electric circuits.


All science packs at 50k spm.

https://factoriolab.github.io/list?z=eJwrcC7VMjUAgniXECjD2Q.KSIbSTjAlMAknAwhDLc0w3jneI95TrcwSAIxCEcI_&v=9

[Петров]

Yes, nodes run out, it's one of the challenges. You have to expland, claim and protect land from locals, and to deliver resources by train

[🤡]

It depends.

[malogoss]

Originally posted by Vyndicu:

Originally posted by Shurenai:

*snipped*

Just looking at iron for convenience sake since it's the highest consumption currently, You need 8,143,417 iron a minute to maintain 50k spm.

*snipped*

Is iron the highest consumption? Everything else in your post is correct.

I know that copper is in greater demand than iron.

9,164,375 copper per minute vs. 8,493,416.7 iron per minute.

6,806041.7 copper per minute (74%) goes to crafting copper cable. The lion's share of copper wires goes to crafting electric circuits.


All science packs at 50k spm.

https://factoriolab.github.io/list?z=eJwrcC7VMjUAgniXECjD2Q.KSIbSTjAlMAknAwhDLc0w3jneI95TrcwSAIxCEcI_&v=9

Come on... that's not how things work.
If you are going to throw theoretical calculations about a, quote, "50k spm" production, at least have the intellectual honesty to use tier 3 productivity modules wherever possible. Assemblers, furnaces, chemical plants...

You'll then be using near 30% more iron ore than copper ore.

In the end, even that changes absolutely nothing to the conclusion. The point was that you'll never run out of any resource if you keep exploring.

[Vyndicu]

1,806,333 productivity tier 3 to fill all machines (minus electric-miners/oil-derricks) for a theoretical 50k spm megabase.

Each productivity tier 3 module consumes ~770 copper plates + ~556 iron plates.

We're talking about mind-bogging 1,390,876,410 copper plates and 1,004,321,148 iron plates to equip a megabase. Yes, that is over a billion for both, with a higher consumption bias toward copper.


Shurenai's own number doesn't factor in any modules. If it did, it would be at least less than half of what they calculated.

[Chindraba]

Originally posted by Vyndicu:

1,806,333 productivity tier 3 to fill all machines (minus electric-miners/oil-derricks) for a theoretical 50k spm megabase.

Each productivity tier 3 module consumes ~770 copper plates + ~556 iron plates.

We're talking about mind-bogging 1,390,876,410 copper plates and 1,004,321,148 iron plates to equip a megabase. Yes, that is over a billion for both, with a higher consumption bias toward copper.


Shurenai's own number doesn't factor in any modules. If it did, it would be at least less than half of what they calculated.

I believe the lack of using modules and productivity bonuses was to prove a point. At the worst possible case, using the max possible ore, it's going to take a few millennia to exhaust the supply of ore in the full map. Using it at half that rate only makes the ore last a few more millennia. Either way, well beyond the life expectancy of any players, now or in the future.

Heat death of the universe might happen sooner.