Modular factory vs. Mega factory

[Agent Frank Horrigan]

Trying to decide which one I should do. Right now im building a really big base that so far is going to have my storage and power. The question is, I have a good amount of room to expand but resources are a bit spread out. Should I have different factories for different materials like iron, copper, steel aluminium, ect.? Or should I have it all fed into this one big factory. Or there is a third option where I craft the more advanced stuff in the mega factory and craft the basic stuff on sight by the resource node. Idk, what do you guys think?

[SkiRich]

I do both. My starter factory is a big mega factory up to a certain point and then I spread out after my train network is established.

[DrNewcenstein]

It's the eternal question, and one that has no definitive answer.

Each one has Pros and Cons that outweigh each other.

Modular Pros:
Easy to expand in its own little corner of the map

Modular Cons:
Inconvenient to manage (traveling/walking simulator)

Mega Pros:
Everything within easy reach (less time spent traveling)

Mega Cons:
Expansion problems due to space constraints

Personally, I do a mix, depending on the location.
The center of the map is ideal for the Space Elevator, because it's in the middle of the map.
The surrounding lands hold all the resources you need, but requires you to expand radially, not linearly, to keep everything balanced.

Up one ridge you have the pink forest which has all the bauxite and uranium, down the other ridge you have the northern forest which has an abundance of iron, copper, and limestone, and some coal, caterium, and quartz.
There's oil in the swamp nearby, and of course lots of water.

However, the entire region requires leveling out with foundations/platforms, and a massive transport network to move things around (you will need trains, trucks, and drones).

You also have to consider whether you want to build close to the elevator to start, or do you want to reserve that space for late-game manufacturing that is slower, requires a larger factory, but can be more easily delivered?

I left the largest land nearest the elevator for late-game production because of this concern, and it worked out fine. I was still building core components farther away, but gradually bringing them towards the center of the map for advanced processing, and then final composition into the last tier's components.
I could expand my outer factories outward and upward without reconstructing my rail network, I just expanded it when needed. And I could build the inner circle factories as big as I wanted, even reaching out to the outer rim factories if needed.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, can your system handle a mega factory? That's a lot of moving parts to keep track of and render.

[Agent Frank Horrigan]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

It's the eternal question, and one that has no definitive answer.

Each one has Pros and Cons that outweigh each other.

Modular Pros:
Easy to expand in its own little corner of the map

Modular Cons:
Inconvenient to manage (traveling/walking simulator)

Mega Pros:
Everything within easy reach (less time spent traveling)

Mega Cons:
Expansion problems due to space constraints

Personally, I do a mix, depending on the location.
The center of the map is ideal for the Space Elevator, because it's in the middle of the map.
The surrounding lands hold all the resources you need, but requires you to expand radially, not linearly, to keep everything balanced.

Up one ridge you have the pink forest which has all the bauxite and uranium, down the other ridge you have the northern forest which has an abundance of iron, copper, and limestone, and some coal, caterium, and quartz.
There's oil in the swamp nearby, and of course lots of water.

However, the entire region requires leveling out with foundations/platforms, and a massive transport network to move things around (you will need trains, trucks, and drones).

You also have to consider whether you want to build close to the elevator to start, or do you want to reserve that space for late-game manufacturing that is slower, requires a larger factory, but can be more easily delivered?

I left the largest land nearest the elevator for late-game production because of this concern, and it worked out fine. I was still building core components farther away, but gradually bringing them towards the center of the map for advanced processing, and then final composition into the last tier's components.
I could expand my outer factories outward and upward without reconstructing my rail network, I just expanded it when needed. And I could build the inner circle factories as big as I wanted, even reaching out to the outer rim factories if needed.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, can your system handle a mega factory? That's a lot of moving parts to keep track of and render.

Yeah I have a beefy PC so performance wont be an issue. But yeah, im gonna settle for both. Gonna be hard to expand for me cause I only explored 25% of the map and Im still working towards getting my main base up. For now I think I will place all items that need a manufacturer inside the base and everything else will go into a separate factory.

[Khirareq]

I find a mix of both useful. I've tried the "Mega factory" approach about 5 times now, and I just run out of space

I go find a copper node, dump a miner on it, then build upwards, refining in to copper wire - Then find another copper node, build up again and refine in to copper sheet

If I'm lacking say, steel pipes, Ill go find another spot with iron and coal and make more at that location

I do this all over the place, building up and refining the core basics in multiple mini towers - Then I ship them off to other medium bases to produce other more complicated parts

My "mega factory" stuff is only really to make things which requires Assemblers - Anything smaller I try to build at the nodes

I figure the map is pretty big - I'm going to use all of it to make stuff

[Malidictus]

I find a particular mix of both to work best. That is to say, I'll build smaller "megafactories" which pull resources from a larger area around them, but usually not for more than 1-2 resource types. One factory for iron products, one for steel products, one for copper, etc.

It took me a while to settle on a design, personally. Initially, I tried to do what I would in Factorio - make each stage of production as a separate mini-factory on its own lot. I quickly ran out of space because the Satisfactory map is a lot smaller and less flat. Then I tried making rectangular tower blocks. That failed because a fixed footprint size doesn't scale well.

My current design is a unified vertical tower block. Each stage of production inputs from the bottom and outputs back to the bottom, with a "mall" on the ground floor. The forward face of the building is always flat and a fixed size to accommodate belts and an elevator, but the rest of the floors can vary in size wildly. It actually makes a neat-looking tower, especially with the inclusion of slanted walls.

So one tower block per resource chain, and trains or trucks to transport between them.

[kLuns]

always dedicated to the area and make the items compact on the node for transportation if possible.

[Kackstift]

i make 3-4 products per factory cluster.
And anything is produced local and is transported via drones to my storage

[Agent Frank Horrigan]

I really like the tower idea, think thats what im going to go for.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Nemesis:

I really like the tower idea, think thats what im going to go for.

I'm having a ton of fun with mine:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2872020034

The best part about this is I didn't spend any time making it pretty, aside from blending a few corners with slanted walls. This is all dictated by how large each floor needs to be in both directions. This might not work great with larger structures since floor height is fixed (not a lot I can do about that), but I can easily merge the space of two floors - especially with "soft clearance".

Only modded thing about this screenshot is the elevator, but that can be replaced with a mile-long ladder or an endless staircase - if you need some cardio.

[goemerick]

Do both, not like you're starting with mega factory to begin with. I just build around "Space Elevator" as a rule of thumb. Because that's where all your items are going in the end. Depending on your map and location (Space availability.)

I've started the game over like 10 times myself and ended up finishing, what I begin with. Try not to get off tack and stick with build order. Also don't delete factories to make a new one, just chain everything to another spot. You will understand later.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2871987282

[DivineEvil]

Personally, I always find a middle between the two. If a given source have only a specific processing step (such as Caterium, which have to be smelted and then turned to wire regardless), then I make a tiny factory on the spot, that encompasses that procedure and can be expanded with new tech.

After that, the processed resource is brought to the main factory via a most fitting principle depending on the distance. That resource would have a dedicated color-coded building that produces derivates (such as Quartz converted to crystals and silica), and then those resources are distributed to other buildings or to a core factory, which turns them into the final products.

I've previously tried to play via a giant factory - I built on top of foundation platforms supported by columns, so expansion was not a problem, but it eventually became a bit laggy and was harder to navigate. Thus, I usually end up making a stilt town with truck roads running between. It looks better, preserves the look of the biome, and is a bit easier to manage in terms of conveyor lines.

Overall, I feel that pure mega-factory is too performance-demanding and difficult to navigate, while pure modular factories needlessly exaggerate logistics for when you really should just make a single end product in the same hall.

[Eternal Darkness]

My dream factory was ~250000 blocks in size. Just the outer shell. Reaching up to the fog zone. I would describe it as a big cube, made look interesting. Not my design though I just liked the idea and sized it up times 8 (double length, double wide, double height) for my needs. Long story short my PC didn't like it. Had to delete it. 3 month of work, without mods, gone (have still the save file though). Another problem is the logistic cause you can imagine such a factory to be very hungry. So yeah, I would advice against it. Strongly. But maybe my Mega isn't the general idea of "mega" and I went to the Moon when we are talking Mt. Everest here who knows. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2872122445

[Jay]

I know I am late to this conversation. Given the current state the only way to go is Hub factories. Example. I smelt almost everything on site. No sense in transporting ore that I'm just going to smelt. Unless I'm doing steal or some kind of bonus recipe But I will only transport ore so far as I feel it's a waste on the belt. Some might think well you have to transport the ingots anyway and while true if you smelt everything at the mine it cuts your factory footprint by up to 30%.

Here is an example. I'm in the purple/pink forest where the quartz and sulfur is in the south mid of map. I have unlocked the coper/silica circuit boards. So I have a maxed out lvl 2 miner on the copper and quartz and I am building 120 ish circuit boards per min here.

But then over by the easy starting area I have a mega factory where miners just bring in T5 belts of ingots that I still haven't made a choice on what to do with. It's a 5 story tall 4 walls per story building that is massive on each floor. I'll slowly fill it with all those resources around there and make end game products.

Just have to feel it out.

[wcc]

Modular. This doesn't mean the modules cannot grow big, e.g. for later tier frames, but especially then you'll be glad it's not all cluttering your main base. And it also helps avoiding belt spaghetti, and can be scaled easily.