copper, steel, or normal rotor?

[tdogoh9]

which one is the best one to do? i have them all unlocked and really need a production boost.

[mansman]

I really like the original recipe since it's iron only. I've got better things to do with copper and steel than make rotors from them.

[Dreadlow]

If you want lots of rotors with less machines, use the copper recipe.

[Die Hand Gottes]

It all has advantages and disadvantages and depends on your discretion there is no better or worse.

[kLuns]

Copper rotor is the most resource friendly but requires dedicated screw production.
Copper rotor also makes the most with one machine.

Steel rotor is good for making the layout easier
Steel rod makes the most screws per resource and makes the standard recipe more attractive.

Steel screws is also a nice alternate for rotor production because you use less machines at the cost of more resource.

[Vectorspace]

I like steel rotor because then it has the same ingredients as the stator, which simplifies motor production lines

[0x124BSOD]

Copper - the worst imo. It requires a lot of screws, and a lot of players hate screws (because they need lots lots of belts, especially in a large factory). It's ok for a starter base if you have some spare copper sheets, note that you'll soon need sheets for circuit boards and ai limiters.

Steel - the best imo. It does not require screws and has perfect input overlap with original stator recipe, with which you'll make motors. It'll probably the end-game recipe for you unless you are a min-maxer.

Original - the gain here is not requiring copper, which is limiting resources in the end-game. However, an average player won't hit this limitation, unless you are planning to farm over 100M/min points in the AWESOME sink.

[SourHammer]

If you have not found the alternate steel screw recipe then just forget the copper rotor. You need to make like 195 screws a min for just one machine. I have a rotor set up using the copper sheets and screws, feeding 2000 screws a min into it. So that allows me to run 10 machines making 112 rotor per min. But you need to have that alternate screw recipe to do it.

[Omega420]

Originally posted by Vectorspace:

I like steel rotor because then it has the same ingredients as the stator, which simplifies motor production lines

This, plus by using steel rotors, you avoid the need for screws which we all know is the most pain in the @ss part...

[DrNewcenstein]

If steel screws require steel rods first, then it's much less efficient. I prefer Copper Rotors (screws and sheets) because (!) you can generally find a copper and iron node close enough to each other to dedicate them to the task, and (2), the production time per piece is much lower. While you may have to wait longer for the bundle to be dropped on the belt, it is a bundle, as opposed to a single piece taking the same amount of time as that bundle.

When you get to stators, I find Quickwire Stators to be most efficient, due to Quickwire having a fairly high output, fewer items that need it, and the inevitable excess a single node can generate. In my last run, I had a single railcar of Quickwire feeding 2 Industrial Containers which split out to make Circuit Boards in 2 places, Quickwire Stators, and 2 drone ports for more items, and my containers were still backed up.

Iron ore nodes are the most plentiful in any region, and with the right alternate recipes, a single node can produce Stitched Iron Plate with a single miner. Since most iron nodes appear in pairs, at minimum, you can dedicate any grouping to screws, and in turn dedicate a pair of nodes to screws which are themselves dedicated to a single product. There's a spot in Grassfields which has 6 Iron nodes in a cluster, and a 7th within sight of those. There's another spot with 4 in a cluster and 2 more a stone's throw away, closer to the green forest. There is no need to spread Iron nodes thin.

[Omega420]

Originally posted by kLuns:

Originally posted by Omega420:

This, plus by using steel rotors, you avoid the need for screws which we all know is the most pain in the @ss part...

This entire hate thing for screws goes past me. To me it's another bulk item like quickwire, silica or wire. And transporting bulk is easy to avoid by making them on the same place where it gets used.

Removing bulk from a recipe is nice but any recipe serves a different goal.

OK, I and others based on posts like screws, its just the recipes we don't like. Depending on your progress and what recipes you have, screws are like a mini satisfactory game in itself.

For me, I just can't accept the insane number of screws every recipe requires compared to every other item that any other recipe requires. Why does a reinforced iron plate require more screws instead of plates?

After so many plays, I just see screws as a mechanic to encourage the player to search and use alt recipes so they can in fact avoid them.

I'm not 100% sure but Id almost bet that every recipe that requires screws has a ALT that cuts them out and at the same time either cuts costs of whatever the alt to screws is or by offering higher production rates. I don't think that can be said about any other recipe.

The great thing about this game is you can play how you want but if I or others know a ALT recipe is better because it sole purpose was to avoid screws, why not say so?

[Illuminia]

What bothers me about screws is thinking about the actual amount of screws involved.
If you look at the icon, 1 "screws" item is a HUGE BIN full of screws.

So it's not that reinforced iron plating takes "50 individual screws", it takes 50 HUGE BINS that probably have at least 100 actual screws inside that bin graphic, maybe thousands depending on individual screw size.... .

So in my mind, the Reinforced Iron Plate is literally full of at least 5,000 large screws drilled through the plates involved.....

I try not to overthink the literal side of "magic material factory product", but "Screws" bother me.
/ end stupid soapbox

As for the OP's actual question - Yes, most ALT have good and bad points. Producing screws in large quantities takes a lot of machines and conveyor spaghetti; but it's simple. Which is "better" may be personal choice, or may depend on where you are building.
If there's no Copper nearby, that makes Copper Rotors less appealing.

Some ALTs use more power; which can be bad if you are early game and don't have a lot of power to spare; but after you build large fuel plants, you'll gladly burn more MW for faster production or simplification of a production line.

While there are some ALT plans that may be "Better" with little argument, a lot are more situational.

[Omega420]

Originally posted by Illuminia:

So it's not that reinforced iron plating takes "50 individual screws", it takes 50 HUGE BINS that probably have at least 100 actual screws inside that bin graphic, maybe thousands depending on individual screw size.... .

So in my mind, the Reinforced Iron Plate is literally full of at least 5,000 large screws drilled through the plates involved.....

So I'm over thinking it and I just need to call them reinforced screws with the wrong picture attached to them. lol