Should I put a container after the constructor or straight in the assembler?

[Metam0q]

which is faster? will i create a backlog of items if i skip the container?

[ShelLuser]

Depends... what are the stats?

If you make sure to match the output and input ratios then you don't really need a massive storage; the constructor also has an internal buffer of one stack which it can use.

Always check the stats of a machine... 120 ores out and your smelter can only do 60? Then you probably want to split your assembly line in 2 (not to mention use mk2 belts).

Of course, setting up a storage buffer can never hurt. Because what happens if your output stack gets filled up?

This isn't so much an issue about speed, but more so about efficiency and possible failsaves.

[Demonist187]

If you need the buffer for a specific reason, than sure. Example would be if you are trying to save a lil before dumping off into a sink or something. Another would be if it is early game and you need a lil extra for manual crafting to fast tech up. IMO of course.

[NocheLuz]

If your factory has the exact ratio, you will not get any extra by adding the container. It'll only accommodate if your next factory stops working (mostly due to max output).

For example, if you have 2 screw factories and 2 iron bar factories. The iron bar is 30 iron bars per min and the screw only uses iron bars 20 per min. It'll have an extra 10 iron bars per minute. In this case, placing the container between each factory will accommodate the iron bar at the rate of 10 per minute until it is full. But if you use 3 screw factories, you'll use all of them and the container will only accommodate only if the screw is full.

So, you don't have to build containers between each of the factories if your ratio is right. Also, each of the factories can backlog 1 stack of items in the factory if it cannot output the items.

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by Metam0q:

which is faster? will i create a backlog of items if i skip the container?

The container being there won't change anything.
If the machines its supplying are using everything that's been supplied, it'll never back up until something further down the chain fills its storage and stops producing.
If the machines don't use everything, the storage just adds a huge buffer to the production chain that you can readily grab material from.
The only time it'll make a difference is if the machines you're supplying are starving for resources. When they eventually fill up whatever storage they have, the container will steadily fill up. Then if you take the advanced material, you'll have a large buffer of material to produce at full speed for a time.

That said, you always want to be overproducing basic materials in the early game. Rods, plates, wires and cables are used in a ton of buildings.

[DivineEvil]

Originally posted by Metam0q:

which is faster? will i create a backlog of items if i skip the container?

Containers do not have an effect on production process. Containers basically work as a section of conveyors, that can store items they cannot pass along. You can store a massive stock of items compared to personal storages, and you can place them temporarily where you haven't setup an input from somewhere, but for the purposes of production chains, they're entirely redundant.

[Huren Ogeko]

if your production output equals the input needs then there is no need. I usually just straight belt because there is no real benefit from a storage in between unless you want to store some of that product for say building materials. And in that case its better to just use a splitter rather than an inline storage.

the only case where an inline storage might be useful is if your production line has variable inputs where it may produce more or less at different times. The only case where I run into this is my biomass production line where I have many biomass constructors overproducing and storage biomass that a single solid biofuel constructor then pulls from. So I get a steady supply of solid biofuel while on the other end wood and leaves are quickly processed as I bring it in and idle when I am not bringing it in. Other then that situation I cant think of much use for an inline storage.