Satisfactory

[Unagi]

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.

Looking good !!

[jztemple2]

I got a little burned out on my Assembly Director System production line work, so I decided to tackle the problem of what to do with all the uranium waste I'm generating. Some research indicated that the only practical way to get rid of it is to process it through several steps to make plutonium fuel rods, which can be sunk. However, I needed to stop making uranium waste for the time being, so I've just added another eight coal power plants. I can actually add more since I have the coal production nearby, but first I want to do more research on this plutonium fuel rod production, which looks to be another project that will consume a half-dozen hours

[Unagi]

I am probably going to take a little break here soon myself.
I've got a number of things unlocked that I've not yet dived into at all (Trains, Geothermal, Drones, Nuclear), so I may be drawn back to start tackling those or maybe wait for the update (if the wait for the update is too long, I will likely not wait).

Here are some recent shots of my world...

Inside (one of) my steel production lines... This one acts as a 'dominant surplus' to my feeble original line of Steel Pipes and Steel Beams.

Same facility, outside:


Locally known as "The Greenhouse", this is my Solid Biofuel/Liquid Biofuel facility, input takes wood or leaves, and sorts them inside. Output is packaged liquid biofuel and solid biofuel for my chainsaw.
(in the day)

(at night)

I don't use that stuff, but I make it... /shrug

Aluminum Production


Quartz Crystals, Silica, and Coal Truck Depots in the jungle.


Coal, Rubber, Silica, and Quartz Crystal Delivery back at the main Hub.


A pair of 'ad hoc' Manufacturing plants that feed into the Space Elevator.


The 'Main Store':
(at dawn)

(night, other angle)


And then sorta my current favorite, the Plastic Delivery Truck Depot:

Spoiler:

[Unagi]

Oh, and I went way out (near) where you went long ago and took a 'copycat' photo looking back at my main area:

[jztemple2]

The 'Main Store':
(at dawn)

(night, other angle)

Wow, that puts my shopping arcade to shame

I'm almost done with my production line that will transform uranium waste into plutonium fuel rods that can be sunk. As expected, I've put in almost five hours and I'm almost done, but it's late and I'm getting groggy.

Meanwhile, here's a lot at part of my main base from the new processing area, which I built quite a ways above ground level to avoid bumping into the radiation.

[jztemple2]

From the interactive map, a look at the radiation from my uranium waste treatment line. The green, red and blue circles at the bottom left are my three nuclear reactors.


I'm off now to start adding drone ports to complete the last part of the processing line which will manufacture plutonium control rods which can be sunk. The processing line won't be optimized, but I can use powershards for the time being to help.

[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).

Dammit, I'm trying to set this up but I can't seem to get the drones from the "need" location (that with two drone ports) to go to my battery "supply" location. I think I have the settings wrong. This is my "BatteryIn for EMControlRod Out" drone port and I'm trying to get the drone to go to "Battery outbound", but the drone is just sitting here. How do I tell it that I don't need anything to go from here to there, but I want it to bring back batteries?

[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).

Dammit, I'm trying to set this up but I can't seem to get the drones from the "need" location (that with two drone ports) to go to my battery "supply" location. I think I have the settings wrong. This is my "BatteryIn for EMControlRod Out" drone port and I'm trying to get the drone to go to "Battery outbound", but the drone is just sitting here. How do I tell it that I don't need anything to go from here to there, but I want it to bring back batteries?

Nevermind, I finally got it working by deleting both drone ports and starting from scratch. Apparently once a drone is created it remembers its assignments and that's what was messing everything up.

[jztemple2]

I'm working backwards from the final tier of construction of the ADS and I'm almost done with the fourth tier from the bottom (or side, depending on how you orient the diagram). No belts or anything yet.

[jztemple2]

The Particle Accelerator fires up for the first time

[jztemple2]

I now keep an 8.5x11 sheet with a list of my "loadout", what I want to take with me when I'm working remotely at the ADS site. The list reflects the order of the shops at the shopping arcade so I can avoid running out of something silly... unless I forget to add it to the list

I'm now building eighty-six constructors that will supply the wire to my processing line. Sheesh.

[jztemple2]

Oh man, this whole task of setting up the Assembly Director System production is making me think that Satisfactory has jumped the shark for me. Eighty-six freaking constructors, all placed carefully, all wired, all with recipes set. And I still have to run belts to the inputs and outputs...


Here's the interactive map look at the facility.

[Unagi]

Ok, you are burning ME out.
Also, I am not aware of this interactive map ??

[Blackhawk]

I now keep an 8.5x11 sheet with a list of my "loadout", what I want to take with me when I'm working remotely at the ADS site. The list reflects the order of the shops at the shopping arcade so I can avoid running out of something silly... unless I forget to add it to the list

I use the 'personal' storage boxes for that. I have one for exploration, one for construction, and a couple for specific projects, labeled. I keep a full set of supplies in each. If I have been working around the base and I want to go exploring, for instance, I dump my entire inventory into the 'Construction' box and take everything from the 'Exploration' box and I'm good to go (in this case, the 'Exploration' version of my inventory has extra ammo and explosives, supplies for crashed pods, basic construction materials, etc., while the 'Construction' version has fewer of those things, but much more of the materials I regularly use while tweaking the base.) And yeah, that means I do have a few items that are duplicated in each box.

Ok, you are burning ME out.
Also, I am not aware of this interactive map ??

I need to quit posting and start building, but I just found that the calculator/interactive map lets you upload your saves and adds your current content to the map. It's actually really handy, as you can zoom in and it will show you every building, every conveyor (animated when you hover over them), what every building is working on, where you shards are, everything.

Rocky desert map spoilers:

Spoiler:

My main area:



When you hover your cursor over a machine:

Link to the map. The save upload is in the upper right. Path to the saves is C:\Users\[NAME]\AppData\Local\FactoryGame\Saved\SaveGames

[Blackhawk]

I actually think I'm going to take a break for a little while. My mindset going into this wasn't in line with the game's expectations, and it threw me for a loop. I was approaching it as the wrong kind of game, looking at it at 1/30th of the scale at which it's meant to be played. I need to let those assumptions clear themselves out of my head before I go back in with a different mindset.

[jztemple2]

Oh man, this whole task of setting up the Assembly Director System production is making me think that Satisfactory has jumped the shark for me. Eighty-six freaking constructors, all placed carefully, all wired, all with recipes set. And I still have to run belts to the inputs and outputs...

During my morning walk I thought about this and realized that my mistake was worrying about how long completing my 4000 ADS would take. So I'm going to scale back the construction to one-fourth of my initial design which should make it more manageable.

[malchior]

I now keep an 8.5x11 sheet with a list of my "loadout", what I want to take with me when I'm working remotely at the ADS site. The list reflects the order of the shops at the shopping arcade so I can avoid running out of something silly... unless I forget to add it to the list

I'm now building eighty-six constructors that will supply the wire to my processing line. Sheesh.

I had a full train network and had something I called in my head as the "build train". It had cars loaded with whatever materials I thought I would need and just drive it from the central depot to the "work site". Some players create drone nodes at the central depot and then drop a drone port or two at a work site and have it fetch materials.

[Unagi]

Also, I am not aware of this interactive map ??

I need to quit posting and start building, but I just found that the calculator/interactive map lets you upload your saves and adds your current content to the map. It's actually really handy, as you can zoom in and it will show you every building, every conveyor (animated when you hover over them), what every building is working on, where you shards are, everything.

Rocky desert map spoilers:

Spoiler:

My main area:



When you hover your cursor over a machine:

Link to the map. The save upload is in the upper right. Path to the saves is C:\Users\[NAME]\AppData\Local\FactoryGame\Saved\SaveGames

Dang, I missed that part of your post, as I think I read 'calculator' and assumed I knew that webpage (I'd not yet looked into the satisfactory calculator, as I wanted to explore things a bit myself). I apologize.

[coopasonic]

I tell the game what I plan on building, let it tabulate the necessary materials, then add a bunch plus some stuff for extra wiring and belts and hit the road.

To be fair, I have never even considered building to the scale that you guys are talking about. It's not really necessary (ads long as you are willing to let the game run for days while you check in on occasion.

I reinstalled the game so I could take a video, and need to check that map thing to get stats for my curiosity... but Tears of the Kingdom...

[jztemple2]

I had a full train network and had something I called in my head as the "build train". It had cars loaded with whatever materials I thought I would need and just drive it from the central depot to the "work site". Some players create drone nodes at the central depot and then drop a drone port or two at a work site and have it fetch materials.

Those are a couple of great ideas, thanks!

[Unagi]

I had a full train network and had something I called in my head as the "build train". It had cars loaded with whatever materials I thought I would need and just drive it from the central depot to the "work site". Some players create drone nodes at the central depot and then drop a drone port or two at a work site and have it fetch materials.

Those are a couple of great ideas, thanks!

heh... I hadn't thought of it here... but I do/did that 'build train' in Factorio all the time.

[jztemple2]

I actually think I'm going to take a break for a little while. My mindset going into this wasn't in line with the game's expectations, and it threw me for a loop. I was approaching it as the wrong kind of game, looking at it at 1/30th of the scale at which it's meant to be played. I need to let those assumptions clear themselves out of my head before I go back in with a different mindset.

I made a mistake with my Assembly Director System production. I sized it originally to make 22 units a minute which would make those 4000 units in 22 hours. Then, when I realized the scope of my task I sized it down to have only one final production building instead of four, making 0.75 units per minute, being done in 88 hours. However, I'm realizing that this is still way, way too much work that's just not fun

What I should have done what just make the production line single string, in other words, at each step just have a single production building. That would have made the production painfully slow, but it would have meant that in just a couple of hours I could have a running production line. Instead, I've put in way over a dozen hours and I'm still hours and hours away from completing it. So I'm not going to do that again.

So basically I'm waiting for the next update to drop, but in the meantime I'll do some exploring which ought to be more fun.

Update: Oh, and also I should have avoided putting all those production buildings together. I should have put the buildings of each step in their own separate area so running belts would be a lot less trouble.

[Blackhawk]

Were you using the blueprint machine?

[jztemple2]

Were you using the blueprint machine?

No, I've found the blueprint machine to be of limited usefulness when installing a dozen or more buildings close together. I got more use out of it when placing my hypertube/rail pylons; I made a sample one and put the blueprint on the quickbar. That way it was just a single click to drop a pylon.

The 3D printer would be of more use to me if it was larger. For instance, if you put down a one meter foundation, you can't even put a refinery in it.

That reminds me of another thing I'd change when/if I ever build on a large scale again. I'd put in all the belts, horizontal and vertical, when plopping down the buildings. That might make the 3D printer more useful.

[Blackhawk]

My approach was to simply have a separate floor for the belts. Machines were attached to elevators through floor holes, then all of the belts could be manipulated where there were no machines in the way (in other words, the spaghetti was out of sight.) It also made it a thousand times easier to get around the machines.

[jztemple2]

My approach was to simply have a separate floor for the belts. Machines were attached to elevators through floor holes, then all of the belts could be manipulated where there were no machines in the way (in other words, the spaghetti was out of sight.) It also made it a thousand times easier to get around the machines.

That's what I've been doing for my mega factory:



But for my next big build I'm going to use all the beautiful sea level area in the west to spread out a lot more so I don't have to spend so much time building belts at higher levels. Also if I built smaller at first I could use the lessons I'm learning as I place the buildings.

By the way, that four-way sign you see in the upper center of the image, the one on the pylon, I also built that in the blueprinter so I just drop it into place with one click. Then configure one of the signs, then use Cntl+C and Cntl+V to configure the other three signs.

[Blackhawk]

I'm trying to decide if I'm ready to go back in prepared to 'think big', or if I should play some Planet Crafter and give it a little longer. I have to say, this one has really stuck in my mind.

[jztemple2]

A two and a half minute tour of my completed Assembly Director System Facility. Re-scaled to a smaller size after my first dozen or so hours on it, I now have a facility that is up and running.



Oh, and after I did the video I moved the Space Elevator next door so I could send the ADS units directly to it.



And an image of my handwritten flowchart with highlighting to confirm which parts had been completed. Only missed one branch, the cable facility supplied three other facilities, but I only had two on paper

[jztemple2]

I'm back working at my ADS production line. Using the online production planner I did a pretty good job of anticipating all the needed items going from A to B, but for facilities that split their output to two or three downstream users, it's hard to get that split to be accurate; usually one leg gets a bit shortchanged. So I'm back to tweak the outputs, but first I'm going to up the resources a bit (ingots) so that it is less of an issue.

[Unagi]

I'm just going to say that this game obviously can be played A LOT of ways.

I don't know if I even understand what it is you are trying to achieve (I probably missed a key part of it way up above). Is it a certain production/min you need from the ADS? (For a second I thought you had said "I'm back working at my ADHD production line." , which made me chuckle.... when, ironically, I dare say it's almost the opposite.)

[jztemple2]

I'm just going to say that this game obviously can be played A LOT of ways.

I don't know if I even understand what it is you are trying to achieve (I probably missed a key part of it way up above). Is it a certain production/min you need from the ADS? (For a second I thought you had said "I'm back working at my ADHD production line." , which made me chuckle.... when, ironically, I dare say it's almost the opposite.)

No, I don't need a certain production rate, I'm just trying to make the flow as efficient as possible with the given buildings.

[Unagi]

Gotcha. It's an epic build - I've not got a thing like it.

Do you know what its power draw is/will be?

[coopasonic]

My method for building end game materials.

1) Build the Assembler that puts it all together connected to the space elevator.
2) Check the inputs, if I have some being built and stocked, connect them up, otherwise build the machine that makes the input component.
3) Repeat 2 until the full chain is set up.
4) go to the top and check what is preventing the machine from working at 100% and source more of that, by repeating the process all the way down the chain
5) repeat 4 until the final assembler is getting everything it needs to run at 100%
6) do the math on how long until I have enough of the thing, if I am happy with it, move on, if not, make another assembler and do it all over again

Actually that is pretty much my process for everything. What am I short of? How do I get more of it? Do that until something else distracts you.

[jztemple2]

Gotcha. It's an epic build - I've not got a thing like it.

Do you know what its power draw is/will be?

The production planner web page gives the power usage. And part of that is mitigated by the dozen fuel generators that burn the residue from the plastic production.

[malchior]

[coopasonic]

...and for those of us at work that date is?

[Blackhawk]

...and for those of us at work that date is?

June 13.

Has anyone done experimental releases before? Does the eventual full release just update it and let you continue? If not, I may just wait for the full update release before I make another attempt.

[malchior]

...and for those of us at work that date is?

June 13.

Has anyone done experimental releases before? Does the eventual full release just update it and let you continue? If not, I may just wait for the full update release before I make another attempt.

I've run on experimental since Update 3...I think. Their QA process is pretty solid. He advises you backup your saves which makes sense but it'll be end of summer at least probably for it to make it out of experimental.

[coopasonic]

Yup same, though they have warned before that this experimental release may be MORE experimental due to the engine change.

...and for those of us at work that date is?

June 13.

Thanks!

[jztemple2]

He advises you backup your saves which makes sense but it'll be end of summer at least probably for it to make it out of experimental.

That's an important takeaway, it will be some time before you want to give up your old saves... that and in Sweden they get five weeks of vacation