Assembler inventory pain point

[Kauldric]

I love how I can manage inventory and out full stacks in an assembler.

Is it possible to reduce the stack size that an assembler grabs before it is “full, or let us define how much it will grab?

With the current way of doing things, and for larger factories, an assembler like can take quite a long time to “warm up” as it tries to grab up to 200 items of..whatever is on the belt. This causes downstream assemblers to get starved for X minutes, and with a line of K assemblers this could be K*X minutes.

[Kauldric]

With a slow belt that will take about 10-15 seconds, as most assemblers will load about 30-40 plates. With a long belt, let’s say a mall, then the whole thing can take 2-3 minutes to fill out.

[Fenix]

Originally posted by Kauldric:

With a slow belt that will take about 10-15 seconds, as most assemblers will load about 30-40 plates. With a long belt, let’s say a mall, then the whole thing can take 2-3 minutes to fill out.

Yeah it satisfactory. Does it in like 30 minutes

[Kauldric]

Yes but satisfactory doesn’t need a mall because buildings are made on the fly from components. Therefore it matters less in that game.

[Fenix]

Originally posted by Kauldric:

Yes but satisfactory doesn’t need a mall because buildings are made on the fly from components. Therefore it matters less in that game.

the only things I make in bulk it belts and Power Floors.
I automated parts and have a small container at the end of each line.
Buildings I just craft as needed.

[Kauldric]

That’s how you do it. Plenty of people are going to want to create malls.

[cardzy]

Originally posted by Kauldric:

That’s how you do it. Plenty of people are going to want to create malls.

You can create a mall just fine. What people are saying is a loader will INPUT from a belt 2 or 3 cycles worth of items and let the rest pass by to other machines. It will continue to do this until it's OUTPUT (the item being made in the assembler) is full and then it will stop all together and not grab anything from the belt.

As with any factory game, you need to manage the input with what is being used. If you are providing enough resources for 8 machines, then all 8 machines will get enough to run as each will only 'pull' from the belt enough for 2-3 cycles at any given time and let the rest pass on to later machines.

fyi: red belt is 160/m and yellow is 320/m. To fill a red belt use 4 miners (technically 3 but I go with 4) to insure it is a full belt. Then you can see how much each machine will 'use' per minute and subtract that from the 160/m. So for example, one red belt of 160/m can feed into 4 crushers with refined ore processing, which in turn will feed into 8 smelters, which in turn will output 240/m so you will need a yellow belt on the output of the smelters.

Without refined ore processing then one red belt will feed 8 smelters and they will output one full red belt of 160/m.

With this said, as the ore travels down the belt to the smelters, each smelter will ONLY take 2-3 ore to smelt at a time and not 'fill up' on the input while starving other machines.

Anyway, I hope this helps explain it a bit.

[Stellar Remnant]

Originally posted by cardzy:

So for example, one red belt of 160/m can feed into 4 crushers with refined ore processing, which in turn will feed into 8 smelters, which in turn will output 240/m so you will need a yellow belt on the output of the smelters.

Or 5 smelters on one belt, then the other 3 on another with a splitter set to prioritize the first 5 belt input/output and then combine the other side with another 8 set for 3 belts of 160.

[cardzy]

Originally posted by MiniHerc:

Originally posted by cardzy:

So for example, one red belt of 160/m can feed into 4 crushers with refined ore processing, which in turn will feed into 8 smelters, which in turn will output 240/m so you will need a yellow belt on the output of the smelters.

Or 5 smelters on one belt, then the other 3 on another with a splitter set to prioritize the first 5 belt input/output and then combine the other side with another 8 set for 3 belts of 160.

Yes, there are ways around needing a yellow belt there. But I was trying to simplify the explanation for the original poster, not complicate it.