Need help with scale of factory

[Aussiesoldierboy]

So i'm not a fresh noob at the game but my problem is not knowing the scale of things. So for example not knowing how many constructors i need so i make the main bus to small. some things i already know than like the green chip things are used in lots of things but things like oil/ liquids i don't know how many refiners i need.

[Fel]

You have several ways to deduce how much of everything you need.

The most basic is to watch the belts and add more production to everything that is lacking until you over-produce it.

You can also do some math from the data you have from the recipes and the machine speeds (and modules if you use them).

You can use mods to do that math for you like Helmod:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/helmod

You can use an external website for a similar result but only for vanilla:
https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html

[fractalgem]

WHile only building off of one side of your bus forces you to make it a lot longer, it also makes sure you can easily widen the bus if needed.

Generally speaking you'll probably want 2-4 belts of iron and copper plates each, plus a belt of steel. (so extra belts of iron if you want to turn it into steel); that's enough to just launch a rocket in a reasonable time frame, at least. You don't necessarily need all four belts right away, btw.

[RiO]

fractalgem님이 먼저 게시:

Generally speaking you'll probably want 2-4 belts of iron and copper plates each, plus a belt of steel. (so extra belts of iron if you want to turn it into steel); that's enough to just launch a rocket in a reasonable time frame, at least. You don't necessarily need all four belts right away, btw.

That's sort of a bare minimum though.

Typically, it's more like:

• 8 belts of iron plate
  
• 8 belts of copper plate
  
• 1-2 belts of steel (depending on how much you can muster. Know that purple science is a steel-guzzler and can totally suck a single line dry on its own.)
  
• 1 belt of bricks
  
• 1 belt of raw stone
  
• 2 belts of plastic
  
• 1 belt of sulfur
  
• 1-2 belts of coal (depending on whether you deliver coal through plastic into the bus, or need to deliver it to plastic from the bus)
  
• 4 belts of green circuits (immediately takes ~3 belts of iron + ~4 belts of copper)
  
• 1 belt of red circuits (swallows a good deal of your green circuits)
  
• 1 belt of blue circuits (really; more like half a belt, at these numbers)
  
• 1 belt of low-density structures
  
• 1 belt of rocket-control units
  
• 1 shared belt of accumulators & solar panels
  
• 1 belt of rocket fuel
  
• 1 pipe of petroleum gas
  
• 1 pipe of lubricant
  
• 1 pipe of light oil
  
• 1 pipe of sulfuric acid
  
• Optionally: 2-3 pipes of water (depending on whether you pull it centrally and distribute it via the bus, or just source it separately for each sub-factory module that needs it)

This also assumes crude oil is brought in directly to refineries 'from the side' and does not travel along the bus.

Anything else can be produced on site as part of the sub-factory modules you attach to the bus.

[Aussiesoldierboy]

Thanks for the help everyone.

[pazartesi_gorusuruz]

@rio Are these belts supposed to be yellow or red? Or god forbid blue? Zero-hour noob here.

[fractalgem]

pazartesi_gorusuruz님이 먼저 게시:

@rio Are these belts supposed to be yellow or red? Or god forbid blue? Zero-hour noob here.

Once you get robots you can use an upgrade planner to tell your bots to upgrade the belts to red really easily. Start with yellow, then upgrade to red once you actually feel the pinch.

You *probably* won't need blue for just launching your first rocket, at least if you give yourself four belts for iron plates and copper each.

You should eventually hit the point where you are using red or even blue belts even where they're not strictly necessary becuase you don't care about the negligibile iron cost of red belts compared to your science costs.

[RiO]

pazartesi_gorusuruz님이 먼저 게시:

@rio Are these belts supposed to be yellow or red? Or god forbid blue? Zero-hour noob here.

Red for the most part. Though you'll find that it'll still be constrained and you won't be able to provide full belts of components rolling up to the rocket silo with it, it'll suffice.
(Production of LDS and blue circuits really eats a lot of resources.)

[Fel]

To be fair, by the time you can really produce 8 full yellow belts of iron plates and one of steel you can probably afford the upgrade to red belts significantly faster than you would be able to double your plate output.

[SkeletonCrew]

Aussiesoldierboy님이 먼저 게시:

So i'm not a fresh noob at the game but my problem is not knowing the scale of things. So for example not knowing how many constructors i need so i make the main bus to small. some things i already know than like the green chip things are used in lots of things but things like oil/ liquids i don't know how many refiners i need.

Asking as a newbie: what the hell do you mean by "bus?" Like a literal bus? Or is it special lingo?

[fractalgem]

SkeletonCrew님이 먼저 게시:

Aussiesoldierboy님이 먼저 게시:

So i'm not a fresh noob at the game but my problem is not knowing the scale of things. So for example not knowing how many constructors i need so i make the main bus to small. some things i already know than like the green chip things are used in lots of things but things like oil/ liquids i don't know how many refiners i need.

Asking as a newbie: what the hell do you mean by "bus?" Like a literal bus? Or is it special lingo?

It's a term used in computer architecture at least.

Instead of having wires going *absolutely everywhere*, semi related wires can be bundled together in a nice flat ribbon, the bus.

[SkeletonCrew]

fractalgem님이 먼저 게시:

SkeletonCrew님이 먼저 게시:

Asking as a newbie: what the hell do you mean by "bus?" Like a literal bus? Or is it special lingo?

It's a term used in computer architecture at least.

Instead of having wires going *absolutely everywhere*, semi related wires can be bundled together in a nice flat ribbon, the bus.

Ohhhhh! Okay thanks

[Anthelm]

Ok, here is what you need to calculate your goals:

1) Define how much science you are going to produce / minutes:
Ratios are 10-12-10-24-14-14 as shown here:

https://factoriocheatsheet.com/#common-ratios
(Very useful, keep it)

Meaning if you make 10 assemblers for red science and 12 for green, 10 for military etc, you gonna produce the same amount / second.

(You can also aim for twice these numbers, and probably should: 20, 24, 20, 48...
As you notice, blue science is very slow to build compared to others)


2) Enter those numbers here, we'll see how much items, and even how much belts you gonna need for all this:

https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html#zip=dY1LCgJBDAVv0yubQcXFDPRhYiZosH8kr0Fvr7NvebsqqLcTKJ3jb2swgiQPRWu6hrtkJHl3E/cIo+q9GeKBg0KKJxpohaCtRmeVyhI78Wuz7bZcTrk91KE8c0Wzguwzc/yUokx55rq1ffC/x4EjO4t+AQ==

I didn't set modules on it:
If you gonna use some on your furnaces and on your green circuits factories, take those in account in the calculator. (And beacons too, obviously) It's very important and will reduce drastically the number of buildings and materials needed.

Play with the calculator to see different modules and look how much furnaces, belts, energy, is gonna be needed for the differents outputs you aim.