Steel production efficiency advice...

[intenselygoodtime]

My Steel production just to create a single side-to-side layer seems to take about 100-120 days in all my current games...

1. My Crusher & Metal Refinery are both just above/outside the top of the main base, alongside my power generation bus and bulk-heat&cooling sections, specifically so the Steel is produced nearby for immediate deployment to the Bunker Wall.as it's built. (I don't "dig up" until I have about 20 tons, and I start building that layer about ~20 tiles below the first Regolith I find. Then those meteors start chipping away...)

2. Long before I've even excavated "up" (thus triggering the meteor showers), I tend to craft as much Lime from eggshells as can be found (just leave the Crusher in Lime-from-Eggshells mode for the first ~200 days it's available). But Lime is *always* the gating factor.

3. From the moment I have my first Atmo Suit, it's placed down-center in an access-room into the Oil biome. The ONLY thing I do with that oil is create a VERY long pipe run up (around, not through) my main base, to bulk crude storage alongside the aforementioned power/bulk heating/cooling/refinement.

Here's where I think I have a lot of opportunity for more efficiency:
--Should I be storing the mined Fossil in a container up near the Crusher, or in a container just inside -- or outside -- the Atmo Suit entrace to the Oil biome down below? One way or another, I'm going to lose time due to that Atmo entrace. But once the Miner has done the digging they're non-blocking for Sweepers (Plumbers), it's unclear where that bottleneck is the most/least efficient. Should I change my Miner to Plumber with 100% of work-time spent sweeping Fossil at a 7 or 8 on that container, and "bite the bullet" for a handful of cycles?

--I figured out awhile ago that in the "late-mid-game", when all my dupes were already pre-trained to level 2 Supply, that having 3 of 9 dupes be tier-2 Operators (EEs) solved the "operate Crusher + operate Metal Refinery + Operate Oil Refinery" bottleneck, so I'm not lacking in people to pull those 3 levers. But I still wonder if that can be made even faster with auto-sweeping or something, or if that's just "more material cost because it's fun to tinker."

--Are there a few items or containers you like to build right near your Bunker Wall for efficiency's sake? I've still maintained the notion that all those morale-boosting main base rooms are too convenient to relocate, but since all my "fun stuff" moves to Rocketry, maybe it's time to rethink a whole-hog relocation... Or just spend the resourcecs on transit tubes to/from the Rocketry area....

[Strygald]

well it's just my opinion but I would crush all the fossil down in the oil biome... 100kg fossil turns into 5kg lime.. so you can either lug up 30 tons of fossil to your crusher at the surface or lug up 1.5 tons of processed lime up to your refinery at the surface.

[Ellip]

Originally posted by intenselygoodtime:

2. Long before I've even excavated "up" (thus triggering the meteor showers), I tend to craft as much Lime from eggshells as can be found (just leave the Crusher in Lime-from-Eggshells mode for the first ~200 days it's available). But Lime is *always* the gating factor.

3. From the moment I have my first Atmo Suit, it's placed down-center in an access-room into the Oil biome. The ONLY thing I do with that oil is create a VERY long pipe run up (around, not through) my main base, to bulk crude storage alongside the aforementioned power/bulk heating/cooling/refinement.

Here's where I think I have a lot of opportunity for more efficiency:
--Should I be storing the mined Fossil in a container up near the Crusher, or in a container just inside -- or outside -- the Atmo Suit entrace to the Oil biome down below? One way or another, I'm going to lose time due to that Atmo entrace. But once the Miner has done the digging they're non-blocking for Sweepers (Plumbers), it's unclear where that bottleneck is the most/least efficient. Should I change my Miner to Plumber with 100% of work-time spent sweeping Fossil at a 7 or 8 on that container, and "bite the bullet" for a handful of cycles?

--I figured out awhile ago that in the "late-mid-game", when all my dupes were already pre-trained to level 2 Supply, that having 3 of 9 dupes be tier-2 Operators (EEs) solved the "operate Crusher + operate Metal Refinery + Operate Oil Refinery" bottleneck, so I'm not lacking in people to pull those 3 levers. But I still wonder if that can be made even faster with auto-sweeping or something, or if that's just "more material cost because it's fun to tinker."

--Are there a few items or containers you like to build right near your Bunker Wall for efficiency's sake? I've still maintained the notion that all those morale-boosting main base rooms are too convenient to relocate, but since all my "fun stuff" moves to Rocketry, maybe it's time to rethink a whole-hog relocation... Or just spend the resourcecs on transit tubes to/from the Rocketry area....

2. Setting up a ranch early also helps with getting more lime especially an open ranch since then you'll have a bigger limit on critter that are born and are less limited to the ranch size. Doing this early will net you a lot of eggshells by the time you are ready to make steel. I setup a hatch ranch at around cycle 15-20 and by cycle 300 I have tons of eggshells on top of the fossils to make into steel.

3. I tend to process my oil in the biome right above the oil biome since it's easier and I don't have to move any more oil then necessary unless I need it for other purpose. This is also where I place my petro generators and plastic as well as natural gas generator since they all complement each other and are right next to each other so I can easily move things between them. It also make it a lot easier to cool everything all at once since they are so close to each other so I only require 1 cooling loop for everything. I also use the biome as a container for excess oil as well since it's convenient and you can easily do it by just building a large tank with walls in the biome.

--Personally I think storing mined fossil depends on how many dupes and how many atmo suits you have available. If you do not have a lot of dupes and atmo suits then I would definitely store any and all fossil near the crusher for easy access. Just do as you said and get it all done at once so it'll be easier later on. Mine all fossils you can find in the oil biome and them dedicate 1 or 2 dupes for 10 or so cycle do sweep everything up.

--You store your lime and metal right next to the metal refinery and have 1 auto sweeper to continually top up your refinery as dupes are using it. This is will make it so they don't have to stop and get more lime and metal after each job and can just keep making more steel as long as you have material and coolant.

--So I like to make a few containers to store refined iron from meteorites near the entrance to space. This allows me to sweep for refine iron every so often on the surface and then have an auto sweeper and conveyor belt move it closer to my base(keep it outside the base though the iron is hot) so any project that needs refine metal can use the iron and it's convenient and next to the base. You can upgrade this system later on when you start using bunker doors and autominers as you can set up auto sweeper to sweep up any refine iron that fall through the bunker doors when they open.

[zoarionprime]

With your surface area and rocketry, you just need to start with a small steam making area under your steam engine, make a place to set up your liquid oxygen maker next to your petroleum engine and then later your liquid hydrogen set up next to your hydrogen engine which will also need to set next to the liquid oxygen maker as well. There are of course solar panels that you can put across the top and you may want a gas grass farm/gassy moo stable area(which must be at the surface). Dont worry about living areas or anything, my surface area is pretty full with turning gases into liquids and vise versa, battery banks, full steel rocket launch bays so you dont have to open and close doors for rockets and so on...

[Ellip]

Yea eventually when you get everything I think the surface gets really crowded with all the stuff you have to put up there fore Hydrogen rockets. Not to mention the amount of horizontal space that a solar panel farm requires, most people like to use the vacuum to make LOX and LH2 tanks as well as steam engine rooms to cool and make the LOX and LH2. Then you add in the rockets(2 or more) and the cooling loop for the launch pads as well as the telescope and radar and suddenly you're hard press to find space to fit everything. Though at this point I think you've pretty much done everything in the game and are probably at cycle 2000+ or more.