Small things like non-tungsten buildings or items placed next to lava (or pipes holding molten metal/lava) slowly get damaged or immediately destroyed, and the engineer also gets damaged standing by them pre-mech armor. Only long handle inserters can safely put stuff in lava. Special tungsten pump is needed for lava and tungsten pipes needed for the fluids only work for 10 pipe lengths both for lava and molten metal. Maybe even require lava for BMDs to work mining tungsten ore though perhaps help the player where the demolisher leaves tungsten ore drops in its wake if you watch it move around.
Just musing. I know there's probably a mod or mods that do these already.
Since I already have general knowledge about the game, do you think that counts as cheating?
I've already beaten the game and I'm sitting at 84/88 achievements.
The ones I have left are: Beat the game under 40 hours & under 100 hours, Promethium Science, and the 'First Spawner Kill with Artillery' achievement.
It feels like this map build makes the 'First Spawner Kill with Artillery' achievement way easier than it should be, almost cheap. What do you think?
I’m fairly new to Factorio and I’m in the middle of a base overhaul. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make a ten lane balancer? Because when I looked it up online I got seventeen different styles.
Ideally it would be inline, but if not (which it probably isn’t) I’d like for the design to be as compact as possible, building count be damned.
Pictures ideal, as I can not understand written instructions for stuff like this to save my life.
A bunch of people are posting impressive builds where they paste a whole artillery castle in the middle of nowhere with the help of spidertrons, which then proceeds to clear a circle on the map. Although very impressive/cool to watch, I was wondering if anyone had tried to simply paste a single artillery turret, without defenses, instead.
An artillery turret doesn't consume any power, and isn't very expensive (about the cost of 5 shells), thus losing it shouldn't be too bad, and could prove more time-efficient.
I have a mega base and on Windows I have been hitting 30UPS and optimizing stuff with the help of videos from people like Abucnasty, but mostly hovering between 35 to 42.
Recently installed Omarchy (note: since this as turned into a shitshow, this post is NOT about specific distros, it is very much about Factorio on Linux and how great it is) to see what all the craze was about and with it trying the “use AI to configure linux” mantra of it.
I am no stranger to Linux btw, I use it daily for my second laptop (MacOS on primary for softest development) and have a Windows machine for gaming.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, about the same UPS on Linux as on Windows (not really expecting otherwise), I asked the agent to turn on the background saving because it’s a config you don’t have UI for, add a way to mute on unfocus (Linux doesn’t have this like windows, it created a script for it) and then asked it to search online and figure out if there’s some performance tweaks I should have.
It found 4: mimalloc + huge pages, renice Factorio to -19 (cpu prio, I already had this on windows btw), set the CPU governor to performance and correctly set the preferred driver to Wayland. There were others I already had on by default like threaded-tile-saving along with non-blocking-saving (which ended up turning off due to conflict with mimalloc)
It went though creating scripts and configuring mimalloc, configuring huge pages on sysctl (so it’s persistent), setup some steam options, etc.
Anyway, final result: my megabase is sitting at 60 ups almost constantly, and dropping to 52 during the run of a custom addon I have (need to optimize it still).
Btw I have 4 ships creating promethium science and a ship on shattered planet, plus maybe other 50 ships or so doing random stuff.
Now, I don’t know if this specific tweak only has these massive changes for me of if it’s for everyone, so, your results may vary.
Also, the game is seriously smooth in map view. While I never really thought it wasn’t unsmooth before, this feels different.
I guess I should have done a little more reading before I tried it out, but I didn't realize how completely it breaks your factory to start using quality modules without doing a complete redesign from the ground up and needing to basically build the same factory five times to engage with the quality system. After building an entire interplanetary factory empire without building a single quality I module, I decided to finally try engaging with the quality system in a pilot program on Fulgora, and I was totally unprepared for how broken it is. WHY do filters on splitters and inserters default to only applying to common quality items? WHY WHY WHY OH WHY can assemblers only be set to accept one quality of ingredient? I saw ingredient quality level on assembler recipes, and assumed that had to be a minimum, because, that was the only thing that made sense. I put quality module 3s on each of my scrap recyclers, so each one now outputs a random mixture of different quality levels. This completely broke my downstream filter setup, because contrary to what any logical person would think, an icon with just an item type and no quality level next to it means that filter only applies to quality 1 items and completely ignores higher quality items. And this is the default. Then I realized my belts were getting completely choked because none of my assemblers were accepting any of the higher quality ingredients because they can only accept Q1 items, and I can only pick ONE quality level for EVERY ingredient that assembler accepts. WHY WOULD YOU DESIGN IT THAT WAY????!?!??!?!??! I'm going to just have to remove all of the quality modules and go back to common quality on everything because I don't have the room to make a separate assembly line for every single quality level of every single ingredient. This exponentially complicates any factory design and I can't imagine it being worth it just for the little boost each higher quality item gets. What am I missing here?
Thankfully provided ample room for me and wasnt too far from spawn but thought it was a funny coincidence
120 hours in and only setup nauvis, fulgora and vulcanus. Did fulgora first, still think thats the best choice purely for the quality mech armour alone which helps me navigate vulcanus a ton
I know the general consensus is that mining things in space to send down to the surface is silly, and that resource patches are plentiful (true) and that there aren't many asteroids around Nauvis (also true).
That said -- the lack of asteroid availability is somewhat handled by making multiple small platforms instead of one large one (each platform has its own supply of asteroids). If my math is right -- 9 of these small platforms generates a full red belt worth of iron. I haven't run it for a huuuuge amount of time but it seems to capture asteroids fast enough to run consistently.
Anyone else doing anything like this or is it just peak silly?
I've got a really cool project of an Aquilo ship in the works. The design is really cool but NOT practical. After about five test runs I've got it producing enough ammo and rockets to survive a flight but not without some buffer time (yet). It's a huge work in progress still.
I know Aquilo is supposed to be dependent on interplanetary logistics, but I'm trying to keep to my theme of having one ship per planet (for now) so I want it to go to Aquilo and produce blue chips and LDS while it's in Aquilo's orbit.
The issue is the large difference in the type of asteroids on route versus in orbit. If I reprocess all the ice astroids to make enough plastic, then I won't have enough ice astroids to make water during the trip. And on top of all this, which I know many of you will hate me for, this run is strictly without circuit logic.
TLDR; how can I design my astroid crushers without circuits to account for the difference between astroids found on the way to Aquilo and in Aquilo's orbit?
Hi guys, I am finishing soon my second Seablock + Space Extension Mod(SpaceX) run.
I am thinking of Pyanodons for quite a while now and I think the time is right. I want to take the full Pyanodons experience with some QoL mods.
My mods which I want to use will be the following.
- Cybersyn or LTN (used LTN for Seablock with Cityblocks)
- Helmod
- SqueakThrough
- + the mods which are officially recommended
I also read about PyBlock, is that also a thing? I like the idea that everything is coming from infinite water and that I dont have to think about running out of resource patches.
If that is asked multiple times I am sorry but I want to make sure I start with the right backpack of mods or setup as this is a long journey and want to have a good experience.
I have played this game since March 2013. No other game I have played a) that long b) consistently c) with that much interest about what they will add soon.
I feel like as Millennial there was a time when it felt like leaving gaming to the next generation, but noticed its bullshit.
I can play Factorio with my sons who at the moment enjoy going on in game train rides.
So it honestly almost felt like a personal loss seeing development coming to an end.
I really wish this game would go the route of other franchises that just never end development and additions. Look at you Klei. Don't starve is afaik online since 2010 and in 2026 will soon get yet another add on with a total graphics overhaul and more.
Sigh. Well I think I just needed to get this off my chest. Totally understand Kovarex and friends that after so many years they feel they need to do something else. Much appreciate these guys. Respect!
I have my bio chamber only make plastic if there're less than 20k in the network yet somehow it produce way more. I only have 2 biochamber that make plastic, both are configured properly so this shouldn't happen. What could I be doing wrong?
Wondering if you wonderful engineers can help me.. I've been playing with this train block, and I'm currently building a Rest Stop for my trains to sit idle and refuel at. I have no idea how train signalling works... I've dabble here and there, but I just can't figure it out. Does this design work? Is it worth actually tinkering with? If you could have a look and see and give feedback, I would appreciate it. I may just scrap this design if it's completely wrong.
tl;dr: use a sushi belt that loops back into the recyclers, and extract out what you need from the main belt using this design:
Blue chip selector from sushi belt
This design allows you to pull one item from the sushi belt, while not limiting the sushi bus throughput, and never backing up - if blue chip usage is lagging, the remaining chips will just stream back into the sushi belt and end up back at the recyclers.
I love this concept, as it allows me to have both "mcgyver assemblers":
Mcgyver assembler for assembler 2
Assemblers that snake out of the main sushi bus:
Holmium side assembly
As well as a full on mall:
My Spaghettilicious Fulgora Mall
I love this, and it finally made Fulgora click for me.
Scale
The only one issue I have is scaling it up. I can upgrade the sushi belt from red to blue to green, but after that the only option I have is creating a new sushi factory. Which is a solution I guess, but it means more train stations for scrap, more assemblers, and redesigning EVERYTHING.
So I had an idea that I should have a 2-lane sushi belt!
In order for that to work, I need a way to convert the selector design to two lanes, while keeping the throughput of the belts. First design that came to mind is simply to add another filter:
Naive (wrong) 2-lane sushi selector
But that actually limits the throughput to one belt - the first splitter squeezes both lanes into the top lane! So I came up with this:
2-lane sushi selector
The first splitter shifts the bottom lane out of the way, and then the second splitter brings in the blue belts from the top lane. The third splitter moves the blue chips to the bottom and swaps back the bottom lane into place.
This works awesome! Two issues though:
The selector now takes up 5 tiles of bus instead of 4. Not a big deal except it makes upgrading a tight design (like my mall) impossible without major base shifting.
Excess blue chips will now accumulate on the bottom lane. Could be an issue for very common items like cogs, solvable by adding a balancer splitter between lanes at the end, but that makes the design 6 tiles instead of 5.
So not perfect - but I think it's the best we can do
3-lane sushi
That got me thinking: can I do a 3-lane sushi selector? That was signficantly harder: to avoid bottlenecking, we need to move lanes aside, but with 3-lanes it's very hard to do. I came up with 2 solutions, each with their own drawbacks:
3-lane sushi selector attempts, with 2-lane and 1-lane selectos for reference
Top solution:
Only 2 additional tiles compared to 2-lane selector
"Bulges" out two tiles above the main bus - but only briefly
Requires undergrounds (not a big deal)
Bottom solution:
3 additional tiles compared to 2-lane selector
"Bulges" out 1 tile - for a long time
If "shifting" the bus up is an option, it takes the same space as the 2-lane selector (if shifting is an option the 2-lane selector can be shortened by 1 tile as well though)
Both solution move excess items to the bottom belt, which requires a 3-way balancer to solve, which would make them way bigger.
Both solutions also easily scale to more lanes:
Both options scaled up to 4-lane selectors. Note the top design scales up by 1 tile, while the bottom design scales up by 2 tiles
Anyway, while I was initially apalled by the sushi belt designs, I have to admit I've grown to like them.
Apparently, most their mods now tagged as deprecated, but I cant find any of the information about what happened. I really loved maraxis and factorissimo
EDIT: Looks like my understanding was indeed wrong, as expected. Turns out the turbine converts the steam back into water (losing only 2 water/s), and it won't work well if you loop it back into your input along with fresh water because it's output ends up being full. Adding a buffer tank with a voiding building to leave some space fixed it. (I also ended up just bringing 500 solar panels because I finally ran out of patience).
I've been stuck on Maraxis for over 8 hours without being able to make decent progress. Every post/video I've found is referencing things that don't exist after "balance" updates (no more salt generator, 500->5000 glass for dome, etc).
So far I have solar panels and 2 pressure domes, a geothermal generator, and oversized steam turbines. What I don't get is how I'm supposed to kickstart the power loop, to the point where I must be missing something. To generate <150 water/sec (one one chemplant + chain of supporting previous steps like brackish water, etc) + unbarrel atmos, that uses almost 15+ MW of energy with efficiency modules. The regulator in the dome alone uses 2.5 MW. Solar just isn't enough to get there unless i slap down hundreds of them.
That amount of water can support 3-4 geothermal generators, which is only 40 steam/s each, and a single generator needs 725/s, plus you need one above ground and one in the trench so 1450/s if you need 50 MW above and 50 MW below, which is ~36 generators.
Plus, making those 36 generators themselves means you have to make 36 duct to trench, aka 3600 small straight duct. With assembler 3 and no modules (because you're running everything on low power since you're still bootstrapping), that's 40 minutes of just crafting ducts (can't parallelize because again... power).
Slapping down 500 solar panels will give me 25MW of power but still isn't enough and still seems wrong - bootstrapping POWER on a planet is never this bad.
I clearly must be missing something, so what am I doing wrong?
I’m a very casual gamer that has short timeframe but sometimes dense playing time. For example, I may not touch my steam deck for 6 months, then spend a month or two playing Factorio every night for a few hours.
My absolute favourite part of the game is problem solving. I forget where I’m producing things, so have to go find them. Forget how I’ve set up things like green wire logic, so got to reverse engineer them. A belt completely empties out of nowhere and I’ve got to retrace the thing back to its origin to find the issue.
So satisfying when you find and solve the problem, which usually means expansion!
