Bases, how do you build them?

[Huillam]

I probably went a bit overboard for a my first base:
It's some sort of huge tower. The hub and the storage are a level 1. Level 2 is ore refining (with enough room to accomodate refineries) and starting from level 3 is production. Anything that requires an item from level N is built at level N+1.
At the same time the tower is split in half: the front is for production and items and sent above and behind to be sorted and ready to send up (or down for anything that ends up in storage).


While I was expecting that it would make my life easier it has been the opposite. Separating productions makes things pretty clean but at the same time keeping the back area clean has been almost impossible. Took me two days to set up production of items up to basic steel (would have been longer but in the end I switched to spaghetti design to be done with that).


As I barely expanded myself horizontally I tought that maybe I should try to to separate production into decidated areas (from level 2 I could probably cover the whole non rocky part of the dune desert without any clipping giving me more than enough room to expand) and building vertically if I ever want to saturate more than one belt.

Altough considering the amount of time I wasted so far I tought it could be a good idea to check how others are building.

[Harmor]

I just unlocked Tier 7 and I'm looking out over my layout and mentally redesigning it because it has become a mess. Unlocking Tier 7 was me running from one machine to another because I thought it be easier than taking the time to automate everything.

[RAMChYLD]

Well, I build multiple smaller factories and link everything to a central factory.

[Zombie101]

Currently lvl 4 partly unlock Redesigning Refinery, Plates, Rods, and Screws, Adding in some other stuff. Factory. After I had Designed my Coal Plant 7 Gens for my base play with and 3 self powering water and Pumps.

I designed a self power Power system So can always have water only it has to do power my water pumps and Mines.

[turvarya]

From about 140h game play, I would say, that my biggest mistake was to build too narrow. There is enough space in this game. Also using stackable Conveyor Poles is important. I don't think, you can really tidy up Conveyor Belts, but keep them from the ground, so you can walk beneath them.

[Grandaddypurple]

Yea I have the same issues as OP, I pretty much build the same way you do. I think during the tutorial, FICSIT should tell you something like "when planning your factory, try to think big. Are you thinking big right now? Think bigger. Still not big enough". It's crazy the amount of space needed just to unlock tier 7, and that's not the end. Now revamping and relocating is part of the fun, and I like doing it but it takes SOOO much time..
I think the people who don't encounter this problem are the ones building horizontally on humongous wall- and roofless platforms and don't care about efficiency (like they need heavy modular frames, they just build one machine of each part needed). And doing so they are probably more efficient than me because of all the time I spend planning, I'm not producing lol

[amok]

organically

[Huillam]

Originally posted by turvarya:

From about 140h game play, I would say, that my biggest mistake was to build too narrow. There is enough space in this game. Also using stackable Conveyor Poles is important. I don't think, you can really tidy up Conveyor Belts, but keep them from the ground, so you can walk beneath them.

It's possible to crouch (or slide) below them. I probably wasted a lot of time sliding just because the animation is cool.

[Uvirith]

In my opinion the Splitters should be programmable by default. It would make things way more fun early game.

[Grandaddypurple]

Originally posted by Huillam:

Originally posted by turvarya:

From about 140h game play, I would say, that my biggest mistake was to build too narrow. There is enough space in this game. Also using stackable Conveyor Poles is important. I don't think, you can really tidy up Conveyor Belts, but keep them from the ground, so you can walk beneath them.

It's possible to crouch (or slide) below them. I probably wasted a lot of time sliding just because the animation is cool.

I do the same. Also on x4 ramps, you can infinitely slide down, I do this all the time lol

[Dingleberry Dan]

What I'm currently doing, is a bit of a workaround to their refusal to add terraforming. From my original production platform, the 'hub' (I have the actual hub in my inventory for when i go do my next conveyer expedition.) is a 3 wall high 2 story building, made of the large foundations I am expanding out indefinitely, the ceiling made of the thin ones i am doing the same, anchoring it to mountainsides and building supports. My plan is to add Where terrain pops up through, either build walls or decorative supports to make it look nice and neat. I'm gonna have a lot of aesthetic work to do by the time i'm done....

On the flip-side it'll really help vehicle pathing if i ever decide to use the truckstops

[Sir Prometeus]

Originally posted by Huillam:

I probably went a bit overboard for a my first base:
It's some sort of huge tower. The hub and the storage are a level 1. Level 2 is ore refining (with enough room to accomodate refineries) and starting from level 3 is production. Anything that requires an item from level N is built at level N+1.
At the same time the tower is split in half: the front is for production and items and sent above and behind to be sorted and ready to send up (or down for anything that ends up in storage).


While I was expecting that it would make my life easier it has been the opposite. Separating productions makes things pretty clean but at the same time keeping the back area clean has been almost impossible. Took me two days to set up production of items up to basic steel (would have been longer but in the end I switched to spaghetti design to be done with that).


As I barely expanded myself horizontally I tought that maybe I should try to to separate production into decidated areas (from level 2 I could probably cover the whole non rocky part of the dune desert without any clipping giving me more than enough room to expand) and building vertically if I ever want to saturate more than one belt.

Altough considering the amount of time I wasted so far I tought it could be a good idea to check how others are building.

I try to choose production depending on a few resources per factory. That way you can place chunks of the same buildings, that usually make use of the space more efficiently.

Another trick is building your factory from the top floor to the ground. There's no gravity affecting buildings, and in order to have a decent looking factory (the ground level being equal or bigger than the upper floors, plus making use of most of the space) this is my recommended way

When I was building them from bottom to top, I usually had to resize the ground floor because I needed that space above. Now, I can resize the floor I'm working on and still looks cool.

Also, remember to have floors of 3 walls of height, so most of the machines fit inside.