Automating building Assemblers and Foundations

[Rosenthal]

Sorry if this is mentioned elsewhere, but I couldn't find it.

I've routed concrete and iron plates to an assembler but there isn't a recipe for it to follow.

Am I supposed to just carry stacks of plates and concrete all day?

[MetalDad]

I'm afraid you're right... Didn't even think about it anymore, but I always have at least 5 stacks of each in my inventory.

[Lawn-Mower]

Anything you build with your build gun requires the necessary ingredient items to be in your inventory. No, you can't automate things you build with your build gun.

Is that what you mean?

[kLuns]

You can't make foundations in assembler. You need to carry the materials in your inventory. The assembler makes two items into one other item, which you can build other stuff with.

[Fenix]

Unlike other games where you need to pre-build things before placing them, here you just need the stuff to make them in your inventory.
I buy the Concrete Foundations from the Awesome shop ASAP.... They look better (IMO) and only require 7 Concrete eliminating the need for plates

[MetalDad]

Before Satisfactory I played DSP for a while and in that game it's normal to pre-build everything. Most of the time you have foundations, smelters, assemblers, conveyors, and so on in your inventroty. I was pretty dissapointed when I found out that in SF you can't do that and have to carry all the materials with you. On the other hand, the SF way, though a bit messy and unclear, makes more sense and is more flexible.

[Fenix]

Originally posted by Godhand:

Please elaborate why you think the option to pre-build machines and stack them along with having raw materials in your inventory is bad?

I never said that, it was bad, just different.
I just said that other games (Techtonica, Foundry, and Factorio, to name a few) Have you pre-build the machines/flooring 1st, then you can place them.
Here you can just place them if you have the right parts in you inventory.

Here you can delete a Machine in get the base materials back and re-purpose them in another entirely different machine, which is cool and unique within the genre.

[Jack-o-Lantern]

Satisfactory way is way better.
You could think that "material" occupy more space than a virtual item like a foundation or a machine.

Yes it's true if you look at math, but is wrong in practice....
Why? Because same "base" items are used for different machines and structures... So all you need is to carry a few (or many) of this and that.. to be able to cover about everything you need to build.

[Lawn-Mower]

Yeah, I've also not (consciously) considered this aspect before. Is satisfactory the only building game that does this? Feels more natural/immersive and less clunky to me... Though, given how many different placeables there are (just look at the various foundations alone), having to pre-build would certainly make things a bit more challenging.

Other games cut the immersion by allowing manual craft wherever you are, in the background of whatever your doing and at a fast rate.. So automating them isn't as attractive until you're in mega territory. The requirement of a craft/work bench where focus is needed is much more immersive.

[Rosenthal]

Originally posted by Lawn-Mower:

Yeah, I've also not (consciously) considered this aspect before. Is satisfactory the only building game that does this? Feels more natural/immersive and less clunky to me... Though, given how many different placeables there are (just look at the various foundations alone), having to pre-build would certainly make things a bit more challenging.

Other games cut the immersion by allowing manual craft wherever you are, in the background of whatever your doing and at a fast rate.. So automating them isn't as attractive until you're in mega territory. The requirement of a craft/work bench where focus is needed is much more immersive.

Different strokes I suppose.

My problem with this approach is the overall workflow involved. Why carry stacks of material when it's much more space and time efficient to have assemblers ready to go. When you're up against scale of economy you need to automate basic stuff asap. Carrying basic stuff is fine but only if you need to make something ad hoc. A clean inventory makes for a lot less busy work and makes it easier to focus on designing layouts.

I don't know I've played quite a bit of Factorio. The explicit nature and complexity of its systems makes is incredible, meanwhile I'm fumbling with placement in this game in how things like belts still clip.

[Sasheria]

I do like Satisfactory method because when you "deconstruct" you get all your parts back and you can use for something else.

In some other games you get "some of it back" which you lose some items from "repacking/reprocessing. OR you get the structure back where you can place it again, but you do not get materials back.

[Aven]

Originally posted by Rosenthal:

Originally posted by Lawn-Mower:

Yeah, I've also not (consciously) considered this aspect before. Is satisfactory the only building game that does this? Feels more natural/immersive and less clunky to me... Though, given how many different placeables there are (just look at the various foundations alone), having to pre-build would certainly make things a bit more challenging.

Other games cut the immersion by allowing manual craft wherever you are, in the background of whatever your doing and at a fast rate.. So automating them isn't as attractive until you're in mega territory. The requirement of a craft/work bench where focus is needed is much more immersive.

Different strokes I suppose.

My problem with this approach is the overall workflow involved. Why carry stacks of material when it's much more space and time efficient to have assemblers ready to go. When you're up against scale of economy you need to automate basic stuff asap. Carrying basic stuff is fine but only if you need to make something ad hoc. A clean inventory makes for a lot less busy work and makes it easier to focus on designing layouts.

I don't know I've played quite a bit of Factorio. The explicit nature and complexity of its systems makes is incredible, meanwhile I'm fumbling with placement in this game in how things like belts still clip.

This thread predates 1.0, but with the addition of dimensional depots carrying around materials is really only a thing early game. Once you've got 60/minute or more of your construction materials being fed to depots, you can forget needing to carry, or traditionally store, anything.

[Rosenthal]

Originally posted by Aven:

Originally posted by Rosenthal:

This thread predates 1.0, but with the addition of dimensional depots carrying around materials is really only a thing early game. Once you've got 60/minute or more of your construction materials being fed to depots, you can forget needing to carry, or traditionally store, anything.

Moving the problem elsewhere. But at least the game is built around it.

[Seb]

Dunno if it has been mentioned, but sink stuff until you can unlock concrete foundation.
You'll only need to carry concrete. Plus it kinda looks better, but that's just me. :)

[Jack-o-Lantern]

You can automate building assembler and foundations and anything you normally build....

It's called blueprint....
You make a set of all needed once and save it....nthen you can recall that setup and build it in one go

[Dwane Dibbley]

Originally posted by Seb:

Dunno if it has been mentioned, but sink stuff until you can unlock concrete foundation.
You'll only need to carry concrete. Plus it kinda looks better, but that's just me. :)

Theres a thing called dimensional depot. You dont need to carry stuff for building.