Does aynone else have issues with splitters/mergers coming from factorio?

[Rosethorn]

Not in any game breaking bug sort of way, rather I just am very used to how factorio's splitters work and having the one input, three output, and vice versa, is driving me nuts when designing lines

[Lawn-Mower]

Been a long time since I played factorio, so can't really provide help there..

Splitters and mergers work the same, but in reverse of one another. A splitter will evenly distribute across the connected outputs.. They also have a small buffer that can fill when outputs are clogged.

[DivideNull]

search Satisfactory Balancers

[Daerious]

Originally posted by Rosethorn:

having the one input, three output, and vice versa, is driving me nuts

Splitters and mergers only utilise the conveyors to which they are attached -- attach only one input and output and it is like the splitter or merger is not really there. Therefore on a splitter if you use only two of the three outputs then it will split the components in half while using all three splits the components into thirds. Mergers conversely can combine two or three conveyors depending on how they are connected.

There are numerous YouTube videos that discuss the advantages and disadvantages of load balancing versus manifold factory layouts; however, in the end it really comes down to you and your game play style. Personally, I lean toward manifold layouts since they are easier to build and expand plus you really do not need to worry too much about the splitter/merger ratios except for insuring that your conveyors have enough throughput.

But to each their own...

[Xelephant]

Yes, i miss beeing able to control merge priority. Especially for nuclear power and the fuel for it.

[Goblin]

To summarize the info Daerious told you to look up:

Coming from Factorio, you're probably most used to manifolds. You just place a row of machines, a row of splitters in front of each machine's input with the splitter's input pointing to the last splitter, and just belt all of them in a straight line and into each machine. One downside compared to in Factorio is that machines don't take only 2 crafts worth of resources, so it takes a lot longer for a manifold to fill up and work at 100% efficiency. Output manifolds with mergers are fully efficient right away, as long as you don't exceed the belt capacity of course.

If you want to do it more Satisfactory-like, efficient from the get go but requiring considerably more space, you would use multiple splitters and mergers to get belts that are split perfectly for each input. For instance a belt of 60 into a splitter, with 3 outputs, puts 20 on each belt. With 2 outputs it'll do 30 on each. You can split the 30 in two again to get 15. Etc.
Later on you can get fancy with different belt speeds per output, for instance a mk 1 belt and a mk 2 belt as outputs will output in a 1:2 ratio. And there's advanced splitters that you can use for even more control.


As was said before, which method is up to personal preference. I personally use manifolds for early game factories and precise splits in permanent endgame factories, with belt spaghetti on hidden floors-between-floors going into belt floor-holes into machines.

Originally posted by Xelephant:

Yes, i miss beeing able to control merge priority. Especially for nuclear power and the fuel for it.

You can kinda make priority mergers, they're just really bulky and not 100% perfect. And of course, there's mods for it, but those aren't working in 1.0 yet.

[Omega420]

Once mods are working again, I would look for the Modular Load Balancer mod, it basically solves every issue anyo e has ever had with splitters and mergers.

[Ur Dragon]

Originally posted by Omega420:

Once mods are working again, I would look for the Modular Load Balancer mod, it basically solves every issue anyo e has ever had with splitters and mergers.

I understand that Mods can solve the problem, but it would be nice if the main game did it too.
Balancing the recources that go into any production line that starts on a number of machines that is a prime number bigger than 3 is very annoying.
Having a splitter that divides into proportions (75% to one side, 25% to the other, for example) would fix that, but at least a 5 lane splitter/merger would mitigate it a lot, considering how many times I have production lines with 10 machines.

[kLuns]

You can overflow them.
Initially a splitter divides equal over all connected outputs. Once one output filss up, the overflow will be divided over the remaining outputs.
No need to balance everything out, just make numbers match.

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by Ur Dragon:

I understand that Mods can solve the problem, but it would be nice if the main game did it too.
Balancing the recources that go into any production line that starts on a number of machines that is a prime number bigger than 3 is very annoying.
Having a splitter that divides into proportions (75% to one side, 25% to the other, for example) would fix that, but at least a 5 lane splitter/merger would mitigate it a lot, considering how many times I have production lines with 10 machines.

That's because there's no need to balance anything in 99.9% of scenarios in this game.

Functionally there is zero difference this and say, a smelting column in Factorio. The first smelter in the line takes more than it requires until it caps out, so does the second, the machines progressively further down being starved for resources. Then it caps its internal storage and the surplus moves down the smelting column, gradually slower each time since there's less material, until the last smelter is always receiving the exact correct quantity of resources.
The only thing of significance is that the internal storage in Satisfactory is always a single stack of material, so it can take longer to fill up.

[deltahazer]

Originally posted by Xelephant:

Yes, i miss beeing able to control merge priority. Especially for nuclear power and the fuel for it.

A "Smart Merger" similar to the Smart Splitter would be useful in some scenarios, depending on playstyle. I'm thinking in terms of a merger where you set the inputs to rankings like L1C2R3- Left always goes if it has something, Center only goes if Left is empty, Right only goes if BOTH others are empty. That seems like it would be simpler to code than setting it up to choose based on what items were at each input.

[Ur Dragon]

Originally posted by Evilsod:

Originally posted by Ur Dragon:

I understand that Mods can solve the problem, but it would be nice if the main game did it too.
Balancing the recources that go into any production line that starts on a number of machines that is a prime number bigger than 3 is very annoying.
Having a splitter that divides into proportions (75% to one side, 25% to the other, for example) would fix that, but at least a 5 lane splitter/merger would mitigate it a lot, considering how many times I have production lines with 10 machines.

That's because there's no need to balance anything in 99.9% of scenarios in this game.

Functionally there is zero difference this and say, a smelting column in Factorio. The first smelter in the line takes more than it requires until it caps out, so does the second, the machines progressively further down being starved for resources. Then it caps its internal storage and the surplus moves down the smelting column, gradually slower each time since there's less material, until the last smelter is always receiving the exact correct quantity of resources.
The only thing of significance is that the internal storage in Satisfactory is always a single stack of material, so it can take longer to fill up.

The problem is that machines only even out one another on a group if they are all feeding into the same production line. If you are using the same group of machines to start two separate production lines the line fed by the machines further from the start of the split will always lag and the ones closer to the start will fill.

For example, if I have a line of refineries producing Caterium ingots and want part of them to feed into constructors making quickwire and the other part feeding into constructors making wire, if I start dividing the caterium ore closer to the refineries that produce ingots for the quickwire and end on the refineries that make ingots for the wire, the quickwire production will be fine, but the wire one will lag.

That is the reason I use splitters to control how many resources will go to each machine and try balance them. It takes some math and it would be easier if the splitters were more flexible or easier to control.

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by Ur Dragon:

The problem is that machines only even out one another on a group if they are all feeding into the same production line. If you are using the same group of machines to start two separate production lines the line fed by the machines further from the start of the split will always lag and the ones closer to the start will fill.

For example, if I have a line of refineries producing Caterium ingots and want part of them to feed into constructors making quickwire and the other part feeding into constructors making wire, if I start dividing the caterium ore closer to the refineries that produce ingots for the quickwire and end on the refineries that make ingots for the wire, the quickwire production will be fine, but the wire one will lag.

That's because to put it simply, you are either doing it wrong, or you are looking in completely the wrong place for the solution.

The belt is irrelevant, you have total control over every single smelter and constructor in the system.
You only want 5/min of the material going towards the Wire machine? Either underclock the smelter that is being branched off to it and direct feed it, or underclock the constructor so it can only use 5/min. Doesn't matter if you manifold it and send 120/min towards it, it can only use 5/min. The rest goes straight past it to the Quickwire machines. And again, set those up to consume the correct amount of ore that you have available, the system will work correctly.

Underclocking/overclocking is a major part of balancing a system properly in this game.

[DaBa]

It's really only a problem if you try to play this game like you did play Factorio. Satisfactory works differently and gives you different tools to solve your problems. So you need to adapt to what you're given and plan your bases with this in mind, then there will be no issues.

[Bobucles]

manifolds are king. Think of splitters and mergers the same way you use factorio inserters. Use splitters to insert items into a machine, and mergers to grab items out of a machine. Makes life pretty simple.