Do most players supply their machines the same way?

[Jeff]

I've played a lot of co-op's. So I've played with players that have anywhere from a couple hundred hours to over 5,000. Every single one of these players supply the resources to their factory machines the very same way. Its like they all watched the same "bad" video. Its like the blind leading the blind.

Every player I have played with connect the resource supply belt to either end of a long set of smelters, coal generators, etc. The first couple of machines get all the resources they want while the rest of them are starving for it. Now eventually they all may fill up (like an hour or three), but this is a crazy way to build a factory.

Let's say you have 5 smelters side by side all connected via belts and splittters. They would feed the far left or right one and let the resource feed through them all taking the longest time to fill. The further away from the supply belt is, the longer it will take to get supplied. So if you fed the middle smelter, the resources only has to go through two machines vs four. Now the supply is cut in half, but still all of the machines get a much better chance to receive some resources at almost the same time.

I just built 27 coal generators side by side with three Mk 2 supply belts coming in to them. All 27 generators received coal within a couple seconds of each other. They all filled at almost the same time (within seconds). How did I accomplish this?

Hint: I only used 36 splitters

Note: Using Mk 2 belts I had to shut off three of the generators so that the rest would run at 100%. As soon as I upgrade to Mk 3 belts, all coal generators will be online.

[Losco]

I'm not in a hurry. Manifold is simpler

[Mangocaine]

Not sure how this is a problem if you've calculated the total demand? You'll wait a few minutes tops, depending on the amount of machines, for the final one in the row to start receiving and then everything will work as normal. There's no point in filling the machine if steady throughput begins no? If you want to use splitter designs go ahead though.

[DB]

I never use "manifold" which I believe is the system you're describing. In time, after the first machines fill up, it will balance eventually, but I ALWAYS use find the last machines never seem to hit 100% even after that. I've always used load balancing. Just feels more logical. Takes a little more space but for the sake of 2-3 rows....meh

[Rezznor7]

Why would you do that? Unless you are completely starved for power and need all those generators right away, the manifold system is the better way to go. Far simpler with a much smaller footprint.

Although I once did the same thing, just to see how it looked. It looked fun, but impractical in terms of space saving. I tried it again going vertical instead. A massive wall leading down to to tier upon tier of splitters, more and more fanning out the further down and forward the wall went. It was fun. But impractical for my designs. So I scrapped it, and went with the manifold.

[baerra]

You're saying everyone you see builds one way, but that's only because they watched a bad video, so it must bad and you're incredibly smart and unique for building things perfectly balanced or something? Manifolds are easy to build, easy to expand, are very compact and great for modular factories. They have the exact same throughput as a balanced setup, it just takes longer to complete.

In fact what's even better about them for new players is you can overbuild your factory and you will be able to actively see that you built too many of one thing or not enough of another quite easily. I'd say the further in the game you progress the more clearly perfectly balanced setups become a headache.

[chuckberts]

I don't use manifold because it feels and looks boring. It is superior to what I'm doing but I'd rather have fun making spaghetti that hurts my eyes than a perfectly uniform building.

[Fenix]

I would “prime” the machines.
Turn off all but the end machine. Let it fill, turn on the next, then the next, etc.
Or just just have stacks of the stuff to put in the machines so I don’t have to wait for them to saturated.

[Antarez]

Manifolds have a smaller footprint, are easier to diagnose issues with, are easier to lengthen to increase production capacity when you unlock new miners or belts, cheaper to build and in a game with infinite resources and production which should rarely if ever come to a standstill, balancing is a complete waste of time (minus a few niche use-cases like feeding nuclear plants).

Your 'clever' solution takes longer to build, longer to fix, longer to expand, costs more resources, while being harder to build and troubleshoot all to save a small amount of time as belts fill up? I mean yeah, sure it might save some time assuming you can build it as quickly as I can build a manifold and add extra machines to it as quickly as you can with a manifold, though I doubt it.

I'd rather let the manifold saturate while i work on other productive things, you're stepping over pounds to pick up pennies, have you ever thought everyone uses manifolds for a good reason?

edit: also you can just 'prime' your machines with some small amounts of what they take for input, if you desperately need them to be up and running instantly at 100% capacity

[Liquid Todd / Slash]

On another part of the forum there is some ass clown telling us he seen a guy use 36 splitter when his technique works just as good if not better. Morale of the story, as long as they are having fun and not out stabbing or getting stabbed who cares?! Back under your bridge please.

[Kimo]

There's a space in between:
In my last save I finally had the coal generators inputs balanced, because the last one every now and then shut down.

For most of the rest I use manyfold for said reason.

In other words: if my live depends on it, I go balanced. :)

[The Big Brzezinski]

This is probably representative how how I do things.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3253463133
I don't like waiting for unnecessary ramp-up times, but I do like having control.

I'm one who plans out a factory completely before constructing it. The idea of not then carefully controlling the flows of parts from each group of machines to the next goes completely against my mindset. I'm not just tossing some machines together. I'm tuning whole factories as finely as possible for maximum uptime and efficiency. Then I never touch them again, except to restock my inventory from their end products bins.

[Crunchy[Daz]]

Cool. And how much more time do you think you spent on that as opposed to someone using a manifold?

[The Big Brzezinski]

Couple minutes, I guess? I build fast. I make these things from memory at this point.

[Torgonius]

Hand feeding each machine is the way

[Kairi ♡]

I find it much easier to balance by using slower belts, if machine needs less resources.