Everytime I play factorio I get overwhelmed by planning of the factory. Every production line a build I think “but will I be able to expand this? am I blocking myself in? is this efficient?”. I let the perfect stand in the way of the good and it drains the fun out of it massively. Does anyone else have this problem, and how do you overcome it?
For me, the starter base can be spaghetti. It’s main job is to bootstrap science and production enough to start producing a main bus setup.
Once I can, I start building a main bus. Iron and copper are produced first, then fed into the bus. Allow space for significant expansion. I tend to use 4 rows of belts, with a 2 width gap. This lets me use yellow belts to skip under the main bus. 6 is also an option, if you can jump up to red belts for undergrounds.
Capacity wise. Factor in for 12 belts of iron and copper, with 2 belts of steel. Also stick a belt of iron ore and 1 of stone on there. You don’t need much, but it makes concrete a lot easier later. Don’t build it all out to full capacity at the start, just factor it in for space.
Factory wise, go tall, from 1 side only. This lets you expand upwards as demand increases, you can also duplicate areas, if you need even more production.
You can also put fluids onto the bus. I wouldn’t put construction, or supplementary items on it. E.g. yellow belts for science are made at the point of use. The big exception is gears. They are needed so often in large numbers that they are worth the effort.
End result, if you need more factory space, expand forwards, if something you’ve belt needs expanding, expand upwards. If you need more belt space, expand downwards. If you need more smelting, expand backwards.
Eventually, you will hit the limits of the main bus. At that point, I switch to a train based grid arrangement. It’s a lot more viable at that scale, particularly for quality in the DLC. At that point I’m already multi-planetary however.
Embrace the spaghetti! I’ve had multiple times where I blocked myself in. I Had to process locally and train back the specific good I needed. Efficient? Expandable? Who cares. I had fun and still launched rockets.
I think you just get over that with experience and intentionally expandable designs. The main bus is a simple example for how to build an expandable factory, although it has its own problems.
Everytime I play factorio I get overwhelmed by planning of the factory. Every production line a build I think “but will I be able to expand this? am I blocking myself in? is this efficient?”. I let the perfect stand in the way of the good and it drains the fun out of it massively. Does anyone else have this problem, and how do you overcome it?
For me, the starter base can be spaghetti. It’s main job is to bootstrap science and production enough to start producing a main bus setup.
Once I can, I start building a main bus. Iron and copper are produced first, then fed into the bus. Allow space for significant expansion. I tend to use 4 rows of belts, with a 2 width gap. This lets me use yellow belts to skip under the main bus. 6 is also an option, if you can jump up to red belts for undergrounds.
Capacity wise. Factor in for 12 belts of iron and copper, with 2 belts of steel. Also stick a belt of iron ore and 1 of stone on there. You don’t need much, but it makes concrete a lot easier later. Don’t build it all out to full capacity at the start, just factor it in for space.
Factory wise, go tall, from 1 side only. This lets you expand upwards as demand increases, you can also duplicate areas, if you need even more production.
You can also put fluids onto the bus. I wouldn’t put construction, or supplementary items on it. E.g. yellow belts for science are made at the point of use. The big exception is gears. They are needed so often in large numbers that they are worth the effort.
End result, if you need more factory space, expand forwards, if something you’ve belt needs expanding, expand upwards. If you need more belt space, expand downwards. If you need more smelting, expand backwards.
Eventually, you will hit the limits of the main bus. At that point, I switch to a train based grid arrangement. It’s a lot more viable at that scale, particularly for quality in the DLC. At that point I’m already multi-planetary however.
Embrace the spaghetti! I’ve had multiple times where I blocked myself in. I Had to process locally and train back the specific good I needed. Efficient? Expandable? Who cares. I had fun and still launched rockets.
I think you just get over that with experience and intentionally expandable designs. The main bus is a simple example for how to build an expandable factory, although it has its own problems.