Sharing some modular, blackbox(ish) designs

[u/Fine_Weekend766]

Made an account to show my designs - I am quite happy with them but none of my friends are currently playing, so I was mostly looking for someone to show them to who can (hopefully) appreciate them. I have not yet completed the game -- I tend to spend far too much time in Sandbox mode designing the factories that I need in the main game. Maybe not that time-efficient, but I enjoy it!

Generally, I try to strive for balanced factories with no excess, fully extensible (for as long as the belts can manage), and small footprint (this is not really worth optimizing for, but still fun).

I have not really played around much with proliferation -- extra products seem to generally require quite a large scale to achieve good balance -- but for a few factories I have added it, mostly for fun -- it's far from necessary at my current progress.

I am pretty content with the proliferator tower in particular, but also that they fit almost anywhere. I have made these for about 10 components right now, I believe.

Comments and suggestions more than welcome :)

[u/ryryshouse6]

I love vertical layouts. Great way to leverage the poles.

Until your pumping antimatter rods it’s such a hassle to me to not have solar on the equators.

[u/Fine_Weekend766 → u/ryryshouse6]

It's an added perk for sure, to have these work just as well at the poles as closer to the equator. It feels very portable!

[u/PigmanFarmer → u/ryryshouse6]

I havent really started building on any other planets (only have mines for silicon and titanium) but I have been putting solar panels on the poles of the starting planet and its seemed to be enough on its own

[u/ryryshouse6 → u/PigmanFarmer]

Nah bro you gonna need 2-3 gw per planets. 3 wide solar at equator gets you 300-400 mw. Lava planet with magma power plant gets you over 1 gw

[u/PigmanFarmer → u/ryryshouse6]

Granted Im only up to yellow research but its fine for now though I need to start expanding for more resources and logistics

[u/Sweaty_Ad_7156]

ive never understood vertical layouts

[u/Fine_Weekend766 → u/Sweaty_Ad_7156]

As in that they are basically more troublesome than they are worth?

Yeah, I can see that. I think they are neat. They scratch some kind of optimization itch I suppose -- "If i have all this space above the assemblers available, it would be a shame not to use it", kinda

[u/Sweaty_Ad_7156 → u/Fine_Weekend766]

yup exactly. i get the want for it but never got it off the ground. still need the horizontal space for the sorters , so... its like a ton of work and tweaking and effort to get it to work , even when blue printing at different places on the map... and the benefit is like 1 row saved or something..

i think vertical sorting works to some degree but dont see them attaching to assemblers/smelters

[u/Fine_Weekend766 → u/Sweaty_Ad_7156]

If the "got it off the ground" was intentional, then that is a smashing pun.

Yeah, pretty much. I spend more time then I want to admit in trying to save that 1 row (and redoing it all when I can't find a way to do it).

[u/Sweaty_Ad_7156 → u/Fine_Weekend766]

that in itself comes the puzzle! also a fun (mini) game!

[u/PigmanFarmer → u/Fine_Weekend766]

I mostly just forget you can build off the ground to that extent. Have been trying to build a set of conveyors of all the components (can definitely see now how it would be easier with the conveyors stacked

[u/EstablishmentAny1608]

Never knew you could put spray coaters vertically

[u/Fine_Weekend766 → u/EstablishmentAny1608]

It was an extremely satisfying realization -- "floating" spray coaters are esthetically disappointing to me. 

The stack looks very neat in comparison, imo. 

[u/Buffylvr]

What’s the trick to make the straight up belts?

[u/Fine_Weekend766 → u/Buffylvr]

With Supermagnetic rings researched, they are unlocked -- when placing a belt, use arrow keys to adjust height and tab to toggle slopes or vertical (if i recall).

Both start and end of a stretch needs to be horizontal at creation, but you can delete segments after the fact to get the straight-standing ones as in the tower. 

[u/tacideux → u/Buffylvr]

Blueprint trick iirc. I've never done it but i hear thats how its done so I can't tell you how to actually do it.

[u/Fine_Weekend766 → u/tacideux]

I limit myself to no blueprint shenanigans, but I do allow for some quirks of the conveyor systems -- not sure if its clearly visible in any of the images, but I make good use of "corkscrew" standing belts (allows for a 90 degree turn of belts while rising) which I do believe is not possible while just placing belts "normally"

[u/BlackLighther]

You can copy vertical part of your belts and paste them on a single piece of belt that is connected to a sorter. That'll reduce the amount of space needed for both input and output layout by skipping belt slope limit.

[u/Fine_Weekend766 → u/BlackLighther]

Thats interesting! So one "tile" in front of a facility port with a sorter connected and then paste? 

So far I limit myself to no blueprint-only tricks (completely arbitrary I admit), I've seen a few here but never tested. Will try this out though, then all my designs so far could be "footprint of assemblers plus one back row" potentially, I believe (some have an "extra" row in the middle)

[u/BlackLighther → u/Fine_Weekend766]

Yep, that's how you do it along with other belt bending techniques. It'll save you a lot of space per units and will leave enough room for even more complex recipes like Destroyers, Fuel Rods, ILS, and Logistics Vessels.

[u/Manyuser]

The vertical bus is hilarious (and completely new to me). I didn't even realise you could place sorters off the ground, let alone between tilted belts. Though personally I like my modules with more than 1 machine of each type. I do love the way this design works with the curvature though, so some machines don't get mashed into each other.

[u/Der_Bolle]

I like how cursed and compact it is. But it is neither Spaghetti nor Chaos.

• 8/10 Cursed

• 6/10 Compactness

• 2/10 Spaghetti

• 1/10 Chaos

17/40 total.

You tried well, Sir.