Iron Rods or no Iron Rods?

[Rezznor7]

I have acquired alt recipes for the Rotor, Screws, and Modular Frame, all of which take out the need for Iron Rods. So it appears as if I only to have one small constructor making iron rods for when necessary, but otherwise I can leave them out of my production line. It increases a heavy load on my Screw requirements, but I appear to have enough being generated to make up for the new requirements.
Is there any reason why I would want to keep Iron Rods in my production line?

[DaBa]

It's not always to your benefit to use alternative recipes. Sometimes, even though the recipe is less complex it will either require more resources, or will substitute common resources like iron for more rare ones like oil or coal products. Iron rods are very easy to make and they only require iron, make sure you actually want to use those alt recipes and if they are worth it.

For example the cast screw and bolted frame recipes are excellent, first one is less complex and the second one produces much faster, even though it requires slightly more iron most people consider that a good trade. But the alternative rotor recipes are not as good. They both require you to add copper or steel, which from resource perspective is not smart. Being able to produce purely from iron is a really huge benefit. It also makes logistics easier as you only have to worry about a single raw material.

Also, just a general advice: don't overproduce materials you don't need. You're wasting throughput that you could be using for something else. Just the production of iron rods to what you actually need, then expand it once you make something that will require more of it, like Motors that will need Rotors.

[upshot8888]

Keep a healthy amount of rods as it is a common item used to make a number of items =. There are sites you can get to like Daniel's Satisfactory Took where he has an excellent material database that show you what each material or component is use to product. Iron Rod is a very common item use in a lot of other items that you might need.

Check this link to see Iron Rods and you get what I mean.

https://daniel2013.github.io/satisfactory/items/iron-rod

I use his website to gauge how big a factory I need to produce a certain item. I try not to make those mega bloated factory and his site help me plan the size i will need to build instead. Including planning what machinery you need to do the entire build from miner to the finished product item type. If you are new to this game this site has a lot you can benefit from to help enhance your game play.. be it to build something totally huge, fully automaticed and making excessive amount of each item which justify mega builds just so you have more then enough component to build anything you can dream of.

[sansee]

Not really. You can see from the list that it's just those you mentioned that needs rods and once you exclude them there are no reason to have it in the main lines at all.

https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Iron_Rod

I personally like to have options and on the session I'm on now I make everything I need without bars. Sure, the massive vertical lines I have with screws to build stitched plates and frames takes some space, but all in all I think it outweighs pretty well horizontally.

Another thing, with big enough buffers you don't need to make the same amount you need out, sort of a cheat. I do that with screws and it really works wonders. And since the nodes are infinite there really isn't something that is called "wasted" here.

Here it's 5*50 in, and "2*250" out
https://ibb.co/N7XwYLc
https://ibb.co/fXNtpTS

They fill up as I build, and the buffers on the frames and the plates fills up before the screws runs out. That's the funny thing about mathematics - when applying time to the equation anything is possible ;)

[Liobuster]

I didnt know there was an alternate that let you build any of the explody things without beacons which require rods iirc

[Rezznor7]

Originally posted by Liobuster:

I didnt know there was an alternate that let you build any of the explody things without beacons which require rods iirc

As far as I know there isn't, but since you really don't need 40,000 explosive devices you don't need to build a production line for them, just make them as you need them at a work bench. Same as other items that require minimal amounts of Iron Rods, such as building machines and other hand-held items.

[Liobuster]

I see you still haven´t learned the most important of all things factorio satisfactory:

"automate ALL the things"

[Faustus]

Originally posted by Rezznor7:

Originally posted by Liobuster:

I didnt know there was an alternate that let you build any of the explody things without beacons which require rods iirc

As far as I know there isn't, but since you really don't need 40,000 explosive devices you don't need to build a production line for them, just make them as you need them at a work bench. Same as other items that require minimal amounts of Iron Rods, such as building machines and other hand-held items.

I think it is worth setting up a small production line for nobelisk and rifle cartridges as there is a synergy there - for me it would be a real pain to hand craft.

[Tenebris]

Originally posted by Faustus:

Originally posted by Rezznor7:

As far as I know there isn't, but since you really don't need 40,000 explosive devices you don't need to build a production line for them, just make them as you need them at a work bench. Same as other items that require minimal amounts of Iron Rods, such as building machines and other hand-held items.

I think it is worth setting up a small production line for nobelisk and rifle cartridges as there is a synergy there - for me it would be a real pain to hand craft.

It's still easier to do rifle cartridges manually imo. Considering it takes 2 freaking Manufacturers to automate them. Plus I'm never gonna need THAT many of them

[bsampson0330]

Originally posted by Tenebris:

Originally posted by Faustus:

I think it is worth setting up a small production line for nobelisk and rifle cartridges as there is a synergy there - for me it would be a real pain to hand craft.

It's still easier to do rifle cartridges manually imo. Considering it takes 2 freaking Manufacturers to automate them. Plus I'm never gonna need THAT many of them

Bro, I've had a rifle for a day and a half. I've already used almost 3000 rounds of ammo, and not just firing at nothing. I fire at everything, and usually miss every single shot, resorting to melee.

[Geck0]

Once you can circumvent rods you may still want them for some buildings.

[Shahadem]

Why wouldn't you want 40,000 Nobelisk?