What's the thought process behind mid-game items like computers?

[Qdude]

I'm struggling how to get over creating items that require stuff from multiple resource types, like computers, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. It's hard for me to articulate my questions clearly so bear with me.
I've never gotten this far into the game and it just gives me a headache trying to figure out how to get it done neatly. This also goes for steel, I've always made factories that create the higher tier iron items like Reinforced Plates at the steel factory itself, but most other people seem to create the basic steel items like beams and pipes and ship them off somewhere else to make stators and motors, etc. How do you go about making items that require multiple types of resources?

[cswiger]

You work backwards starting from the thing you want to make, building out everything needed to keep it running at 100% or whatever production speed you want. You might use vertical lifts and build two out of four inputs to a Manufacturer on one floor, and the other two on another floor.

There are also production planners which will show you what's needed.

[Die Hand Gottes]

oh jeh if you already have problems with computer or steel, then get ready for something.
supercomputers turbo engines radio control units are still to come
not to mention the master parts for the space elevator.

https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Items

[Qdude]

Originally posted by cswiger:

You work backwards starting from the thing you want to make, building out everything needed to keep it running at 100% or whatever production speed you want. You might use vertical lifts and build two out of four inputs to a Manufacturer on one floor, and the other two on another floor.

There are also production planners which will show you what's needed.

But how do you go about getting all the items to the computer factory? Do you send them all by train or by tractor? Do you construct basic items for each resource and then send off the ingots or whatever off to more complex factories? Do you for example, with steel, do you construct all the iron stuff like rods, reinforced plates, rotors at the steel factory or what? This is my main question.

[Mr.America]

Here's an example of how I worked out a setup for thermal propulsion jets

Thermal Propulsion Rocket, Nitrogen Analysis

1 TPR = 2.5 ME + 1 TM + 3 CS + 1 FMF /MIN

2.5 ME = 0 N
3.75 TM = 1.875 PCC + 45 Packaged N gas
1 TM = 0.5 PCC + 12 Packaged N gas = 0.5 FMF + 48 N
1 TPR = 0 N + 0.5 FMF + 48 N + 3 CS + 1 FMF = 48 N + 1.5 FMF + 3 CS 
3.75 CS = 45 N + xxx => 1 CS = 12 N + xxx
3 CS = 36 N + xxx

1 TPR = 48 N + 1.5 FMF + 36 N = 84 N + 1.5 FMF

3 FMF = xxx + 24 NA + 30 F = xxx + 96 N + 30 F
1.5 FMF = 48 N

=> 1 TPR = 132 N + xxx

Available N: 9984 (8976) => 75.6363 TPR (68) => !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 75 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Needed Fuel => 3403.6363... => !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3375 F/min !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Available Fuel at northen reef ~ 8000 => -3375 = 4625 left over for recycling.

It's basically stochimoetry learned from chemistry. Note, I calculated the nitrogen cost of a single thermal propulsion rocket when looking at it's components being made from (assumably) the most efficient production pathways, using nitrogen. Then I looked at how much nitrogen I have available on the map as a whole (overclocked) and divided supply by cost. A single TPR costs 132 nitrogen, I have 9984 nitrogen available (a significant part goes away for nuclear) thus I can make 75 TPRs per minute and a bit more, but I'll leave I can accept that efficiency loss lol.

In this example I did the analysis this way, because nitrogen is used for two things: nuclear waste recycling and the production of high-tier items, culminating in TPRs which give the most points when sinking them. Looking at the recipes available for the different paths you can take, the nitrogen path seems to be the most energy and ressource efficient, thus I take the high-value item TPR and analyse the maximum production available from the seemingly limited nitrogen supply map-wide.

Originally posted by Qdude:

But how do you go about getting all the items to the computer factory? Do you send them all by train or by tractor? Do you construct basic items for each resource and then send off the ingots or whatever off to more complex factories? Do you for example, with steel, do you construct all the iron stuff like rods, reinforced plates, rotors at the steel factory or what? This is my main question.

Yeah, exactly. I make items from local sources, as high as it allows, then transport them to where I need them. This way you can take a train station or a truck station and simplify it in your head as a ressource node, e.g. this train station produces 480 screws per minute for example (bad example btw). If you want to not have to think about the exact values, here's a tip: Take stations and connect them to industrial storages via 2 belts, then have your container only have one belt exit (same for filling a station, but in reverse). That way you circumvent the un/load cycle downtime and get a nice and continous supply.

[Die Hand Gottes]

Originally posted by Qdude:

But how do you go about getting all the items to the computer factory? Do you send them all by train or by tractor? Do you construct basic items for each resource and then send off the ingots or whatever off to more complex factories? Do you for example, with steel, do you construct all the iron stuff like rods, reinforced plates, rotors at the steel factory or what? This is my main question.

That's a good question and depends on your play style.
Many build everything in one place and deliver the material for it.
I make it rather so that I it on the spot Herstelle and the final product on mostly with trains Ander build mega conveyors everyone just as he likes the game leaves everything open for you.

[CryptEarth]

I'm just about 200h in and had restarted half a dozen time - so not that far into it myself. Currently I still have to play around with the new blueprint stuff and maybe start over again or use my current save and rebuild much stuff.
As I also have only few alternate recipes unlocked I'm bound to default stuff - which is quite distributed on my current location (I'm in the north west rocky desert) so I have to lay down lots of belts (just got trains unlocked but not resources for them yet).
It also depends on the stuff you want to make: For the early tier stuff that's rather compact - but as you start to require coal, quartz or even sulfur it changes to "The resource are just spread apart and often you need the basic stuff.".
So for steel, as you need raw iron ore, it doesn't work to build a factory which as it's first step already smelts iron ore into iron ingots - as you can't use them for steel anymore - at least not unless you got lucky and found the one alternate recipe allow you to use iron ingots instead of raw iron ore.
Follow this way to required resources to build a computer: Plastic, Iron, Copper - with multiple steps in between. At some point I guess one has to build a big main factory which gets all the basic raw resources delievered to it and then process it all in one. At least I think I may will chose to go this route.

[SourHammer]

On one of my saves I think I have 4 different computer factories. I ship them where they need to go by both train and drones depending on how far they need to go. My suggestion to you is to slow down, stop producing elevator parts and focus on setting up things like circuit boards, high speed connectors, crystal oscillators etc... then set up a method to move them around the map where they are needed. Also if you plan to use drones your going to need to have lots of batteries. And your going to have to ship those batteries around the map to different drone ports. Drones are fantastic for shipping late game items to a manufacturing facility since most of the late game parts are producing less than 2 per min and require less parts. Unlike making the alternate reinforced plating that requires like 250 screws per min where trains would be the preferred shipping method.

[Qdude]

Originally posted by Mr.America:

Yeah, exactly. I make items from local sources, as high as it allows, then transport them to where I need them. This way you can take a train station or a truck station and simplify it in your head as a ressource node, e.g. this train station produces 480 screws per minute for example (bad example btw). If you want to not have to think about the exact values, here's a tip: Take stations and connect them to industrial storages via 2 belts, then have your container only have one belt exit (same for filling a station, but in reverse). That way you circumvent the un/load cycle downtime and get a nice and continous supply.

Lemme just pick your brain a little more. Do you literally do a factory for one item, like one modular frame factory, one rotor factory, etc? How do you send those items off to other factories? Wouldn't it get messy and inefficient having a ton of tractors or trains going everywhere around the map to tens of factories? Do you have a central hub where these items go and then get shipped?

[Qdude]

Originally posted by CryptEarth:

So for steel, as you need raw iron ore, it doesn't work to build a factory which as it's first step already smelts iron ore into iron ingots - as you can't use them for steel anymore - at least not unless you got lucky and found the one alternate recipe allow you to use iron ingots instead of raw iron ore.

So do you suggest making a factory that does steel beam & pipes and those get shipped off to a factory that makes stators and motors, etc?

[Mr.America]

Originally posted by Qdude:

Lemme just pick your brain a little more. Do you literally do a factory for one item, like one modular frame factory, one rotor factory, etc? How do you send those items off to other factories? Wouldn't it get messy and inefficient having a ton of tractors or trains going everywhere around the map to tens of factories? Do you have a central hub where these items go and then get shipped?

Well, more or less, yeah. But I did say I produce what I can locally, so, production lines for manufacturer items can become very... extensive, making it more or less neccessary to pile up all the ressources of an entire region. For example, at the northern end of the dune desert, there's a very nice spot with quartz, iron, copper, limestone and water. If you do the numbers correctly with some nice alt recipes, you can turn all the local ressources into just silica and crystal oscillators, meaning, you have reduced the extracted ressources of 7 nodes into 2 items, one of which is in neglibly tiny numbers. I take those things and move them via train to a regional centre at the edge of the swamp/desert/forest where I sort them and move them where I need them.

Or, at least that's the idea, at the moment new found recipes and unanticipated problems due to underestimated magnitude of transport has me rethinking my local hub design and transport lines, but essentially I have a single (going to change that to double) rail going around the desert with multiple pick-up stations that put everything onto a 7 cart train. The throughput is adequate atm, but looking at the numbers with new recipes it might overload my current setup.

All I can say rn, if you start building your system, start with a double rail system from the getgo and don't mix belts unless you immediatly sort them out afterwards. Oh, and put up signals early, they're clunky but important. Make your stations large.

[Mr.America]

Originally posted by Mr.America:

Originally posted by Qdude:

Lemme just pick your brain a little more. Do you literally do a factory for one item, like one modular frame factory, one rotor factory, etc? How do you send those items off to other factories? Wouldn't it get messy and inefficient having a ton of tractors or trains going everywhere around the map to tens of factories? Do you have a central hub where these items go and then get shipped?

Well, more or less, yeah. But I did say I produce what I can locally, so, production lines for manufacturer items can become very... extensive, making it more or less neccessary to pile up all the ressources of an entire region. For example, at the northern end of the dune desert, there's a very nice spot with quartz, iron, copper, limestone and water. If you do the numbers correctly with some nice alt recipes, you can turn all the local ressources into just silica and crystal oscillators, meaning, you have reduced the extracted ressources of 7 nodes into 2 items, one of which is in neglibly tiny numbers. I take those things and move them via train to a regional centre at the edge of the swamp/desert/forest where I sort them and move them where I need them.

Or, at least that's the idea, at the moment new found recipes and unanticipated problems due to underestimated magnitude of transport has me rethinking my local hub design and transport lines, but essentially I have a single (going to change that to double) rail going around the desert with multiple pick-up stations that put everything onto a 7 cart train. The throughput is adequate atm, but looking at the numbers with new recipes it might overload my current setup.

All I can say rn, if you start building your system, start with a double rail system from the getgo and don't mix belts unless you immediatly sort them out afterwards. Oh, and put up signals early, they're clunky but important. Make your stations large.

edit: Oh, and consider always leaving one empty slot at your stations, preferably at the front, so you may later add an easy fuel delivery system to your trains.

[miadel]

this is a good question! And yes it really depends on your playing style. Whatever is fun for you ;) This is what I ended up doing:

1. I picked a spot with both iron and copper nearby.
2. I built a giant floor, like 14 x 18 squares
3. I lined up a bunch of smelters on the narrow end. about 8 for iron, 2 for steel, 6 for copper
4. I built a looooong conveyor belt bringing coal in. With MK3 it was already fast enough to feed 2 smelters and 3-4 coal generators
5. I connected the raw iron, coal, copper to the smelters
6. Important - a row of containers after the smelters, to you can redistribute the bars between the different production lines
7. next a row of constructors, often feeding into other constructors (for cable, screws etc). Of course this creates a spaghetti so leave plenty space between the machines!
8. after the constructors are 8-10 assemblers
9. I built a second floor
10. at the end of each line, I put another container to receive the motors, circuit boards, steel frames etc. The output of these go up through the roof, to supply the second floor. I lined all these at the end of my floor.
10 second floor has 6 of those large factories, lined 2 by 2. The closest make computers, reinforced frames etc which feed into the farther ones to make the more advanced components
11. the only exception is oil; I built a separate base to have it supply power to my main plant, using two patches of oil to fuel 6 generators

sooo to resume, I prefer having everything in one spot. I have one truck line, just for fun. Im trying to figure out where to put aluminuim next, oof. I find playing containers as buffers between lines really helps keeping things running smoothly, and makes it easy to reajust - spread out production.

funny fact: organizing manufacturing plants is my day job! And here I am doing it at night too. I must be crazy, but i REALLY love this game ;)

Hope this helps.

[Qdude]

Originally posted by Mr.America:

Well, more or less, yeah. But I did say I produce what I can locally, so, production lines for manufacturer items can become very... extensive, making it more or less neccessary to pile up all the ressources of an entire region. For example, at the northern end of the dune desert, there's a very nice spot with quartz, iron, copper, limestone and water. If you do the numbers correctly with some nice alt recipes, you can turn all the local ressources into just silica and crystal oscillators, meaning, you have reduced the extracted ressources of 7 nodes into 2 items, one of which is in neglibly tiny numbers. I take those things and move them via train to a regional centre at the edge of the swamp/desert/forest where I sort them and move them where I need them.

Or, at least that's the idea, at the moment new found recipes and unanticipated problems due to underestimated magnitude of transport has me rethinking my local hub design and transport lines, but essentially I have a single (going to change that to double) rail going around the desert with multiple pick-up stations that put everything onto a 7 cart train. The throughput is adequate atm, but looking at the numbers with new recipes it might overload my current setup.

All I can say rn, if you start building your system, start with a double rail system from the getgo and don't mix belts unless you immediatly sort them out afterwards. Oh, and put up signals early, they're clunky but important. Make your stations large.

Thanks for the advice. I'm still questioning how I should go about mid-game items but I guess there is no answer because it's up to what I choose. Whenever I play this game I just get a weird form of anxiety and a nagging voice in my head saying that I'm doing everything wrong & inefficiently. I should probably just calm down and go with the flow.

[cswiger]

Originally posted by Qdude:

But how do you go about getting all the items to the computer factory? Do you send them all by train or by tractor?

Belts to start with, later trains as needed. I don't care for using vehicles.

Do you construct basic items for each resource and then send off the ingots or whatever off to more complex factories? Do you for example, with steel, do you construct all the iron stuff like rods, reinforced plates, rotors at the steel factory or what? This is my main question.

I construct as much as I reasonably can locally, and then send advanced products like Heavy Modular Frames or such via belts. My steel factory in one spot sends belts of Steel Pipes and Steal Beams along. Another steel factory is local to a place dedicated to making HMFs.

By contrast, I move Caterium ingots by belt until I get them locally to whatever needs Quickwire. Likewise, don't build screws far away, build them locally in the quantity that you need them.

[mansman]

In the early game when you're using most of what you make to build more production don't be afraid of just running a long conveyor stack from some crystal mines all the way back to your initial base. Or back and forth from your steel factory to your iron/copper base. You can always get fancy with tractors and trains later when you have a nice stockpile of components needed to build things right and the power production to support them