Satisfactory

[coopasonic]

However, have a map of a hard drive location still means I have to get there, and since I'm addicted to hovering now it meant I'm adding powerlines running all over the place.

Considering most hard drives require power to fetch, that's a good thing anyway. One warning though, that power draw for the hard drive will continue forever so don't forget to disconnect them or you are paying a hefty power tax for the rest of the game.

[jztemple2]

However, have a map of a hard drive location still means I have to get there, and since I'm addicted to hovering now it meant I'm adding powerlines running all over the place.

Considering most hard drives require power to fetch, that's a good thing anyway. One warning though, that power draw for the hard drive will continue forever so don't forget to disconnect them or you are paying a hefty power tax for the rest of the game.

Whaaa....? Rats,now I have to go travel across the map disconnecting them . At least I can use the SatMap to find the power lines I've made.

[Blackhawk]

I just travel with a stack of solid biofuel and the parts for half a dozen burners.

[jztemple2]

Started playing again with the goal of setting up nuclear power. One of the first steps is sulfuric acid, here's the facility which I decided to make pretty.

[coopasonic]

Nuclear is pretty much the only thing in the game I have never done... well that and drones... oh and vehicles other than trains... ok I guess there is a lot I've never bothered with.

[jztemple2]

Nuclear is pretty much the only thing in the game I have never done... well that and drones... oh and vehicles other than trains... ok I guess there is a lot I've never bothered with.

Drones and nuclear are the two big subjects I've avoided and actually I haven't seen that much need for drones. However, nuclear sounded like an interesting challenge.

I built that pretty factory to make sulfuric acid as part of the nuclear project, but the joke's on me. After spending a relative lot of time making it pretty, I discovered that bringing raw uranium ore to my home base was a mistake due to the radiation. So the factory is shut down . Instead I'm sending sulfur up to my train station near the uranium mine and I'll make the encased uranium cells there.

And speaking of trains, I pulled a real boner. I expanded my home base train station to accommodate the encased uranium cells being sent to it. Since the station is pretty well surrounded towards its front, I added the new platform to the back. Later on I expanded the station near the uranium mine and since there was plenty of room to expand it forward, I did that, adding a new platform ahead of the others. Then I added the cells to the timetable and sat back to watch it work...

...it took me a little while to realize that by adding a platform to the back of one station and to the front of the other, it messed up where things were being offloaded . So now I have to track down the items that were offloaded to the wrong storage and belts and move things around so they match up again. But the good news is that I'll never, ever make that mistake again

[jztemple2]

This is cool, the online sat interactive map that uses my save game let's me know that the container I filled with uranium ore and left has a danger zone.

[jztemple2]

Got more done tonight than I expected. I finished up my work and got my first nuclear reactor running. Part of the production line involves getting Electro-Magnetic Control Rods from an existing factory to where I was making the uranium fuel rods. Rather than run a bunch more belts, I built two drone ports and a drone and that now flies those rods to where they are needed. However, the drone needs batteries and so I'm still doing some hand carrying to bring the batteries from where I am making them to the home drone port (you only need batteries supplied at one drone port of a connected pair). I'm thinking that there must be a way to put another drone port over where I'm making the batteries and bring them over to my drone port home, but that's a problem for another day.

[malchior]

When I set up my drone empire I set up a drone port at my main 300/min battery factory whose sole job was to feed the drone network batteries. At each drone location then there was a minimum of 2 drone ports. One was a drone that fetched batteries and fed them to a local belt that fed the additional drone port(s).

[jztemple2]

When I set up my drone empire I set up a drone port at my main 300/min battery factory whose sole job was to feed the drone network batteries. At each drone location then there was a minimum of 2 drone ports. One was a drone that fetched batteries and fed them to a local belt that fed the additional drone port(s).

I'll have to try that. I don't think my battery factory is anywhere near 300/min so I'll have to up my game.

Meanwhile, with no nearby open water sources for my new nuclear plant I had to tap off the water going to the eight coal power plants, but it wasn't enough so I'm using 12(!) Powershards to boost the water production. I think the better long term solution is to build a second nuc plant and turn off the coal burners.

[coopasonic]

I am not sure I used 12 power shards total.

[jztemple2]

I am not sure I used 12 power shards total.

I keep a list of where I'm using my powershards so I can move them to where they are most useful. Once everything gets more steady I'll probably stop moving them.

[jztemple2]

Here's where I'm using my ~70 Powershards:

3x Plastics refinery
2x Upstream refinery for rubber
2x Water Extrator at main base
1x Iron Miner feeding Arcade Plant for Steel
3x Modular Frame assembler feeding Heavy Modular Frame manufacturer at shopping arcade plant
3x Impure Iron Ore Miner near Bolted Plate Factory
3x making Iron Rods at HMF complex at arcade
6x at Iron Ore Miners feeding arcade complex
12x Fuel Refineries also making Poly Resin
3x Aluminum Ingot Foundry
3x Aluminum Casing Constructor
8x At Cooling System Facility, 4 in copper sheets, 3 in Heat Sink assembler, 1 in Cooling System Blender
3x Radio Control Unit factory
3x Heat Sink Assembler
3x Original Coal Mine
3x Battery Factory
3x Uranium Fuel Rod factory
6x Nuclear Reactor Water Extractors

[jztemple2]

I've now got two reactors up and running. Much as I tried, the damn fluid mechanics are such a pain that I decided that each reactor will have their own dedicated water supply. I've used color coding to keep everything straight:


Speaking of color coding, I'm using the colors to differentiate between different facilities that are located adjacent.


Finally, I've decided to bite the bullet (which tasted nasty, by the way) and start building the Phase 4 projects for the Space Elevator. First up is the Assembly Director System, of which they need... four thousand? According to the wiki, one Assembler can make 0.75 a minute, which means I'd need just under ninety hours to satisfy that first of the four Phase 4 requirements . And according to the production planner, just to make that 0.75 a minute, I'll need 74 constructors alone . I'll have to think about this.

Has anyone else done the Phase 4 requirements?

When I set up my drone empire I set up a drone port at my main 300/min battery factory whose sole job was to feed the drone network batteries. At each drone location then there was a minimum of 2 drone ports. One was a drone that fetched batteries and fed them to a local belt that fed the additional drone port(s).

Your suggestion works great! I didn't realize that while one drone port can only deliver to one other drone port, that destination drone port can also be sending to a third drone port. Very nice!

[malchior]

I've completed Phase 4. I fully automated it and built enough capacity to complete it in about 30 hours (hence the 300/min battery facility). The hardest part is the copper powder tbh which is onerous. I had so many places making copper powder.

When 8 drops I have ideas about how to do it better (they are hoping for June now but it's touch and go apparently). Much better. As a side note, the water mechanics are widely believed to be broken. At the battery facility every 20-30 hours or so I have to go there and flush the water out. Battery generate water and there is not any way to drain it or balance it automatically. Which is one of my biggest pet peeves.

As to the drone ports you don't need to chain. Multiple drone ports can have the same *source*. I label them Battery Source for instance. You dont build a drone on it.

When I build a new Drone setup one Drone Port is dedicated to grabbing batteries. You program that one to use the other as a Source. The drones from the various Battery destinations will automatically queue up at the Source side as needed.

For phase 4 assembly I built the inputs elsewhere the same way. I build droneless Source ports at the factory and then built Drone Ports in a centralized location to grab the inputs and feed assemblers/particle accelerator/etc.. Saved me a ton of headache dealing with rail congestion.

[jztemple2]

Those are some good suggestions, thanks for posting them. I think I understand now the idea with the central battery drone supply. That certainly will come in handy.

Until now I haven't used that online production calculator and was just doing it empirically, but for those Phase 4 builds I think I need to do more planning. Also I think I need to find a whole new area to build in so I can better visualize the layout. And I guess I really need to put things on foundations

[Blackhawk]

I am in the process of setting up a complete line of production with the idea of expandability built in, so that should I need to set myself up with new assemblers (or whatever), I will just take off one set of walls and expand laterally.

Out of curiosity - for those who are further along than I am (I'm idling at the beginning of supplying phase 3 right now), how many of each post-constructor production machine are you using?

[jztemple2]

Out of curiosity - for those who are further along than I am (I'm idling at the beginning of supplying phase 3 right now), how many of each post-constructor production machine are you using?

I think I've used all of them.

[Blackhawk]

Out of curiosity - for those who are further along than I am (I'm idling at the beginning of supplying phase 3 right now), how many of each post-constructor production machine are you using?

I think I've used all of them.

No, I meant how many assemblers did you end up needing, and how many manufacturers, etc.

[malchior]

Honestly a couple hundred of each at leaat to get through Phase 4. Blueprints help a lot to make setting that up manageable. Through Phase 3 is relatively easy and probably 20% of the required inputs compared to Phase 4. Phase 4 is a massive leap. It's probably close to logarithmic growth in power/complexity in the end from Phase to Phase.

[Blackhawk]

Hundreds of manufacturers? Did you pave over the ocean?

[jztemple2]

Honestly a couple hundred of each at leaat to get through Phase 4. Blueprints help a lot to make setting that up manageable. Through Phase 3 is relatively easy and probably 20% of the required inputs compared to Phase 4. Phase 4 is a massive leap. It's probably close to logarithmic growth in power/complexity in the end from Phase to Phase.

Using the Production Calculator for the Assembly Director System and setting it for an output of three units per minute, which will still take twenty-two hours to build four thousand of them, I get the following building list:

295.25x Constructor
108.32x Smelter
82.4x Assembler
46.8x Refinery
22.748x Miner Mk.3
18.167x Foundry
17.8x Manufacturer
11.7x Oil Extractor

That's for only one of the four Phase 4 milestones and doesn't include the many other buildings I have running right now. And power needed for this production is 6,675 MW. I produce about 9,000 MW right now but use about 4,000 MW. So basically I need to add another reactor at a minimum just for that one production line.

[jztemple2]

Oh, and I found this last night. Update 8 is coming soon. It won't invalidate saves, but they're reworking several zones, and it might result in parts of bases suddenly growing rocks in the middle of them, or ending up hovering above the ground. Luckily, they released a map of what areas are most affected.

Spoiler:

That map above is for the Post Update 8 changes, meaning later this year. There is also a map of the Update 8 changes planned and that's in the spoiler tag below. Update 8 could be in the next month.

Spoiler:

[jztemple2]

Just had a brainstorm and made these pylons in the 3D printer, then put the icon for them on the quick bar. Three clicks, one for the pylon, one for the hypertube and one for the powerline and I've got an easy (or easier) way to get to the farther parts of the map.

[malchior]

Hundreds of manufacturers? Did you pave over the ocean?

Actually yes. Building over the ocean is the best place to lay out unobstructed flat foundations/railways. My mega-battery factory, aluminum production, fuel generators, plastic, rubber, computers, super computers, and rods are over the water on the west with a main chunk of the rail line there.

I just looked up the total count of buildings from starter factory through automated Phase 4:

656 Constructors
275 Assemblers
20 Blenders
75 Foundries
82 Manufacturers (thought there were more than this!)
6 Packagers
5 Particle Accelerators
163 Refineries
454 Smelters
192 Fuel Generators (~29GW)

Logistics wise - there are approximately 35 train stations each with 4 platforms. Probably 50 or more drone ports. I have about 10 truck runs going as well.

[jztemple2]

I've built a very long hypertube out to a new radar tower. Enjoy the ride back from the tower to the hub!

[TheMix]

Hmmm... I don't know. I saw 6 merely long hypertubes...

So how come you didn't just link up all the sections?

[Blackhawk]

I've come to the conclusion that I need to turn my current base into a first-stage production and storage facility, and move my actual 'active' base elsewhere. I started in a great location, and I love the scenery, but I just don't have the contiguous space I need.

The tricksy part is the phase where the old base isn't functioning, but the new hasn't started up yet.

Also, I need to unlock and learn to use vehicles. So far all I have is the 'tractor', and I've yet to mess with that. As it is, I'm doing everything via conveyor belt. I just finished upgrading this kilometer-long, ten-belt monster to MK3 (click to embiggen):

[Blackhawk]

Another not-obvious tip I wish I'd known earlier:

When using the workbenches, you hold down space to craft things. That's simple enough. What I never knew is that if you just tap space it locks it to 'on.' Great for processing piles of protein.

[jztemple2]

Another not-obvious tip I wish I'd known earlier:

When using the workbenches, you hold down space to craft things. That's simple enough. What I never knew is that if you just tap space it locks it to 'on.' Great for processing piles of protein.

Huh, I didn't know that either, thanks for posting about it.

[jztemple2]

Hmmm... I don't know. I saw 6 merely long hypertubes...

So how come you didn't just link up all the sections?

I found from experience that it is handy to have breaks so if later on I want access to some feature (like a mine) near the tube I don't have to "manually " travel all the way from an end.

[Blackhawk]

Hundreds of manufacturers? Did you pave over the ocean?

Actually yes. Building over the ocean is the best place to lay out unobstructed flat foundations/railways. My mega-battery factory, aluminum production, fuel generators, plastic, rubber, computers, super computers, and rods are over the water on the west with a main chunk of the rail line there.

I just looked up the total count of buildings from starter factory through automated Phase 4:

656 Constructors
275 Assemblers
20 Blenders
75 Foundries
82 Manufacturers (thought there were more than this!)
6 Packagers
5 Particle Accelerators
163 Refineries
454 Smelters
192 Fuel Generators (~29GW)

Logistics wise - there are approximately 35 train stations each with 4 platforms. Probably 50 or more drone ports. I have about 10 truck runs going as well.

Well, then. My plan for a factory with 24 constructors (compared to my current 10) seems pretty pointless. I'm honestly not sure that I'd want to build a factory(ies) for 650 constructors. I just did some measuring, and if I were to pave the largest space I have available, I'd still have to build it ten stories high, and that's just for the constructors! Or else make it three stories high and build 3 of them (plus change.) And running all of those logistics - I want to build a factory, not a Dyson sphere!

[jztemple2]

I'm honestly not sure that I'd want to build a factory(ies) for 650 constructors. I just did some measuring, and if I were to pave the largest space I have available, I'd still have to build it ten stories high, and that's just for the constructors! Or else make it three stories high and build 3 of them (plus change.) And running all of those logistics - I want to build a factory, not a Dyson sphere!

I'm building my production chain for the 4000 Assembly Director System units over many, many acres. I can't see putting a lot of anything in one factory building. But maybe I'm approaching this game differently than others, since I've only ever put walls up on one factory which contains just a refinery

[jztemple2]

Actually yes. Building over the ocean is the best place to lay out unobstructed flat foundations/railways. My mega-battery factory, aluminum production, fuel generators, plastic, rubber, computers, super computers, and rods are over the water on the west with a main chunk of the rail line there.

I've been thinking about building over the land, but that water on the west does look inviting.

[Blackhawk]

I wasn't planning on a single building, just trying to get ideas for the buildings I am planning on. Apparently this game is meant to be played at a much, much bigger scale than I've been doing.

[jztemple2]

Hundreds of manufacturers? Did you pave over the ocean?

Actually yes. Building over the ocean is the best place to lay out unobstructed flat foundations/railways. My mega-battery factory, aluminum production, fuel generators, plastic, rubber, computers, super computers, and rods are over the water on the west with a main chunk of the rail line

Question, when you were building your big production chains for the Phase 4 requirements, did you start with the end part of the chain and build backwards, or at the initial start and build forwards? I've always built forward but I'm thinking it might be easier to do the backwards approach for this.

[jztemple2]

Three nuc plants up and running:

Hmmm... I don't know. I saw 6 merely long hypertubes...

So how come you didn't just link up all the sections?

I found from experience that it is handy to have breaks so if later on I want access to some feature (like a mine) near the tube I don't have to "manually " travel all the way from an end.

I just went through my long run from the Hub to my petroleum area and added five breaks, so I can stop near several places on the Western Sea where I'm going to build my new production area as malchior suggested. I'm also adding intersections:

[jztemple2]

I've decided to work backwards for now, building the assemblers for the Assembly Director System and putting a big billboard over them.


And to help me find places on the new stops on my hypertube line, I'm adding some billboards there too


I'll probably change the name of this one to make it more descriptive, but it appealed to me now

[malchior]

If I understand the question, my plan at the outset was to stand up a Phase 4 assembly area. I don't recall it exactly but I tend to skeleton out lines and likely did that here. It worked out as 4 separate "lines" all leading to the Space Elevator. At the head of the line were drone ports. All inputs were built somewhere else and flown in. Next iteration I'm going to build out 4 factories in the "sectors" *surrounding* the space elevator. Same idea but more compact.

[jztemple2]

This is an in-work project, the Assembly Director System production line for Phase 4 of the Space Elevator. I've installed the production buildings, color coded their areas and put up signs so I can find my way about.