What is your most underrated alt recipe?

[Wolfgang]

Pretty much what I am asking is:
Which alt recipe are you actively using in your factory/production of which others would ask "Why?" and that is kinda important to your production. So all the alt recipes like diluted fuel or cast screw are out because they are very likely the most used alt recipes.

[Mojo]

"Wet" Concrete

[DaBa]

There are no underrated alt recipes. There are only good ones, bad ones and useless ones, and you can objectively tell which one is which by comparing the crafting costs, crafting times, and the materials required.

[chronobomb]

The epiphany moment for me was when I realized I could cut out a ton of resources coming to a production area. I needed 6-7 going to an area, but now I can cut that down to 3-4 because of alt recipes. They are all useful, just some are more situational than others.

Anything that adds water to get a lot more resources are the best once you have refiners.

[nfgman]

1] Motors with control rods. Since the rods were droned in, saved a cramped factory.
2] Silicon circuit boards. Much less plastic.
3] Solid steel. When you need all you can get.
4] Pure copper./ Steamed copper sheet, Ditto
5] Diluted fuel. Transforming.

[Electricbluebee]

Originally posted by DaBa:

There are no underrated alt recipes. There are only good ones, bad ones and useless ones, and you can objectively tell which one is which by comparing the crafting costs, crafting times, and the materials required.

Whilst this might be a model answer, it lacks humanity.

[Termagant]

Originally posted by Mojo:

"Wet" Concrete

That is actually a recipe i use all the time. Its awesome to get rid of excess water if you dont want to fuel it into the system again.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by chronobomb:

They are all useful, just some are more situational than others.

Pretty much what I meant so I might have worded the OP wrong (English is not my native language).
E.g. if someone uses the alt recipe "Fine Concrete" then I am all ears to know what the situation is in which that recipe became worth using.

[Icepawthewolf]

I'd say recipes that go backwards as far as progress. Like I'm sorry I can't think of one off hand but isn't there one that what uses steel for something you can make with iron?

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Icepawthewolf:

I'd say recipes that go backwards as far as progress. Like I'm sorry I can't think of one off hand but isn't there one that what uses steel for something you can make with iron?

I think you mean the alt recipe "Steel Rod" to make Iron Rods. But you get quite some Rods out of that.

[DrNewcenstein]

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

Originally posted by Icepawthewolf:

I'd say recipes that go backwards as far as progress. Like I'm sorry I can't think of one off hand but isn't there one that what uses steel for something you can make with iron?

I think you mean the alt recipe "Steel Rod" to make Iron Rods. But you get quite some Rods out of that.

Quantity generated must exceed the total cost of production, though. One iron ingot makes one iron rod. How many iron ore PLUS coal does it take to make one steel ingot? It's 2 and 2, right? How many rods come from one steel ingot? You also have to consider you're going miner-smelter-constructor with iron rods, but 2x miners-smelter-constructor for steel rods, so now more power and time are consumed. If you need rods somewhere based on a schedule, then there's a slow-down. Or is it rods made from steel beams? In that case, the time it takes to make beams, which is one of the first slow parts you make.

And does any construction demand steel rods? This is the biggest drawback to alt recipes IMO: where do you need wet concrete, steamed copper sheet, or pure anything? There's no demand specifically for those items, and almost all of them have a faster and simpler way to make. Copper ore->ingot->sheet. You cannot beat that by introducing water and refinery unless the output is exponentially higher than the input.

[Schalimah]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Quantity generated must exceed the total cost of production, though. One iron ingot makes one iron rod. How many iron ore PLUS coal does it take to make one steel ingot? It's 2 and 2, right? How many rods come from one steel ingot? You also have to consider you're going miner-smelter-constructor with iron rods, but 2x miners-smelter-constructor for steel rods, so now more power and time are consumed. If you need rods somewhere based on a schedule, then there's a slow-down. Or is it rods made from steel beams? In that case, the time it takes to make beams, which is one of the first slow parts you make.

And does any construction demand steel rods? This is the biggest drawback to alt recipes IMO: where do you need wet concrete, steamed copper sheet, or pure anything? There's no demand specifically for those items, and almost all of them have a faster and simpler way to make. Copper ore->ingot->sheet. You cannot beat that by introducing water and refinery unless the output is exponentially higher than the input.

Steel rods is more resource efficient if you also use solid steel bars.

If you think the increased resource efficiency isn't worth it, than you are not building big enough or you like to haul raw resources half way across the map.

Power is rarely an issue in mid to late game.

[Grandaddypurple]

Depends on how you play. The wiki wrongly spread the idea that any alt adding oil or quartz is a bad receipe because the author assumed everyone uses every single node to maximize turbomotors production, while only a tiny fraction of the player base will do that.
I for instance always produce an excess of plastic/rubber because turn heavy oil into turbofuel, so I'll gladly use some of that for rubber concrete, rubber cable or coated iron plate. I like the versatility of it

[kLuns]

Copper rotor, rubber concrete.

[Empath demon]

I use the set of recipes that minimizes builds, but I don't think it's that unusual. I cut so much stuff out of the build tree. It's a lot of fun cutting out screws, rods, plastic, all crystal except silica, etc. Nothing very surprising, but it gets me replaying from scratch for each big update. It was a temptation to hack in all the alt recipes this time but I'm glad I didn't.