What does an average main bus contain these days?

[Jethu]

Last time I seriously played Factorio was either .16 or .17, so I'm kind of relearning the game at this point.

Back then I don't remember needing as many engines, robot frames, low density structures, etc... I do remember bussing half a belt of bricks at least, but it seems like I'll need more of them in 2.0/SA.

Are folks bussing those products, or are y'all making them where needed?

[Khaylain]

I'm mostly bussing anything that is more compact than the things needed to make them if they're used for more than 3 things. But I've been doing that a long time, so take it with a pinch of salt.

[Fel]

Not even sure what counts as "average" for a main bus.

People tend to use plates, plastic and circuits but beyond that depends on what you are doing.
Some people add a lot of things like coal, stone bricks, and you often see a pipe for lubricant as well.

What I mean by "depends on what you are doing" is that a main bus only meant to produce intermediates for science packs (possibly the rocket as well) and one that also makes things you would usually make in a mall would have differences in what materials they need.

[End of history]

My bus contains the following: copper and iron plates, steel bars, red, green and blue circuits, stone ore, iron ore, coal, plastic, bricks, water, light oil, lubricant, sulphuric acid, the science packs (towards the end).

For the base that I have now, which is about 250SPM, that means six blue belts of copper and iron plates (and the copper is clean at the end). Four blue belts green circuits, one red belt red circuits.... and.... one red belt but it's not full of blue circuits. Two blue belts of steel.

I put the mall before the science production since infinite science can strip a bus clean. Especially copper towards the end. Those low-density structures are hungry.

But as far as rails, furnaces, belts, inserters, lds, engines, flying frames, etc, I make those in the mall for general use and for the science pack production for the science packs, and i don't mix the two (I don't pilfer the science production when I need rocket fuel).

[Jethu]

Originally posted by Khaylain:

I'm mostly bussing anything that is more compact than the things needed to make them if they're used for more than 3 things. But I've been doing that a long time, so take it with a pinch of salt.

This has always been my thinking as well, but I've also had the mindset that you can't overproduce plates/circuits/plastic and so on, but you CAN overproduce things like modules, robot frames, etc.

I'm not trying to build a megabase, I'm just trying to launch a rocket in a reasonable amount of time.

I asked this question on reddit (I think we all know how that goes_), and I got almost the opposite of your answer.

[Simon]

I would recommend spaghetting in Space Age.

[Jethu]

Originally posted by SpaceWombat:

I organize my main bus by fitting five 4x lane busses into a grid block.

Yep, I have the classic 4 iron, 4 copper, a couple of green circuit, and a steel belt or two.

Now I'm getting somewhere.

Originally posted by End of history:

My bus contains the following: copper and iron plates, steel bars, red, green and blue circuits, stone ore, iron ore, coal, plastic, bricks, water, light oil, lubricant, sulphuric acid, the science packs (towards the end).

I like your style, I had never bussed sulfuric acid before, but I've been considering it...also never bussed raw sulfur before but also considering that.

This is why I love the Steam community around Factorio, always helpful, and never a bunch of asshats.

[Khaylain]

Originally posted by Jethu:

Originally posted by Khaylain:

I'm mostly bussing anything that is more compact than the things needed to make them if they're used for more than 3 things. But I've been doing that a long time, so take it with a pinch of salt.

This has always been my thinking as well, but I've also had the mindset that you can't overproduce plates/circuits/plastic and so on, but you CAN overproduce things like modules, robot frames, etc.

I'm not trying to build a megabase, I'm just trying to launch a rocket in a reasonable amount of time.

I asked this question on reddit (I think we all know how that goes_), and I got almost the opposite of your answer.

Hmmm, modules actually don't go on the bus, I think. Not sure about robot frames. Are they used for more than 3 things (and the two kinds of bots count as 1 thing)

[Fletch]

My base is crazy. My "main" vertical bus has iron/copper plates, steel, red/green/blue circuits, and friggin stone. Then I have some horizontal buses that cut across the main bus at different place: sulfur, green lube, plastic and whatever other random things I need to pipe in for whatever reason. And of course I have sciences being produced on both sides of the bus, so half the science cuts across to get over to the research labs.

The factory grows.

[back_buffer]

When I make a bus it tends to have 4 categories of items:
- Fluids (water, gas, light oil, lubricant, and sulfuric acid)
- Stuff from mines (only coal and stone)
- Stuff made in a furnace (copper, iron, steel, bricks)
- Circuits

Then each science pack gets a section off side A and the mall is off side B. The only major item that breaks this system is iron ore for concrete.

Lots of folks like having plastic in their buses but I don't. Coal is already there for Military Science so I just make plastic in the offshoots. And if you get to the point where you need more than 1 belt of coal, you're creeping into megabase territory where a bus is not really practical anymore.

[Jethu]

Originally posted by Khaylain:

Hmmm, modules actually don't go on the bus, I think. Not sure about robot frames. Are they used for more than 3 things (and the two kinds of bots count as 1 thing)

Right. I don't think I would ever bus modules, just giving an example of something that can definitely be a waste to overproduce. I like your reasoning about the 3 item rule, I had never thought of that.

[Jethu]

Originally posted by back_buffer:

When I make a bus it tends to have 4 categories of items:
- Fluids (water, gas, light oil, lubricant, and sulfuric acid)
- Stuff from mines (only coal and stone)
- Stuff made in a furnace (copper, iron, steel, bricks)
- Circuits

This line of thought is great, this is exactly what I was looking for. Never seem someone explain it so simply and logically, so this is good food for thought. I appreciate ya.

[Aluminum Elite Master]

Fluids are the wild-card.

Honestly, I have run pipelines... but I have also run barrels on conveyors. Sure, it's an investment in steel to make the barrels, but I can put barrels of crude oil, for instance, on the other side of a conveyor line that otherwise would have been the last remaining solid good and then a empty side next to it.

Like someone else wrote, I do include plastic. It's a high-output good (it can be produced in high numbers rather quickly) that also is used as an ingredient in a few others, so plastic I'd include.

[GAMING_Alligator]

I'm firmly of the opinion not to let perfection get in the way of "good enough".

So I just build my main bus up with whatever's needed. At the start that means things like plates, gears, and wires, and down the line I add new lanes for things like circuits, steel, plastic, pipes, and whatever, as I need new items for recipes. If throughput becomes insufficient on a lane, I train in back pressure to it from external "micro-factories", as and where needed.

Outside of this, things that are only needed by one or two other things just get spagheti'd across the base and eventually get replaced with drones, once logistics becomes a thing.

[Khaylain]

Wires on the bus? But they're so much more "fluffy" than copper plates themselves

[GAMING_Alligator]

Originally posted by Khaylain:

Wires on the bus? But they're so much more "fluffy" than copper plates themselves

Oh gosh, yes. All those green and red circuits aren't going to make themselves!