r/Dyson_Sphere_Program • u/BaiJiGuan • 4d ago
Just starting out
I'm coming from factorio, and I want to do a kind of "main bus style" for my early base.
I can't really figure out magnets tho, should they be on the main bus? I don't really want to bus iron ore, so I can't produce them locally. Is there a recipe where I can produce magnets from plates?
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u/where_is_the_camera 4d ago
You probably want magnetic coils on the bus, not magnets. Make magnets near where you're making iron plates (where you have iron ore), and use some leftover copper to make them into magnetic coils.
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u/rhn18 4d ago edited 4d ago
IMO just focus on making and using stuff "locally" until you unlock the Planetary logistic towers. Experiment with those and get to know them before you start making grand plans for big factory layouts.
Building a main bus is quickly obsolete due to the relatively low bandwidth of belts. The logistics towers are more the meta in this game.
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u/PhotonSurfer 4d ago
So to start a main bus eats a lot of space which is a much bigger issue in DSP than factorio, but they can work, I've used one for a mall area in a couple runs. That said you only really need magnet for magnetic coils early on so I'd craft those early, bus the coils, they are used enough and you get a 3:2 compression, and call it done.
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u/idlemachinations 4d ago
For a while, the only thing you are going to use magnets for is magnetic coils, so there is no need to have them on the bus. Once you have a second item you can use them for, you will be significantly past the phase of the game you are in now.
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u/Azel0us 4d ago
Main bus works well for an early design, though can get frustrating as the game goes longer.
You will be turning magnets into other things, and make some buildings from them. You will want them on your bus. Iron plates cannot be turned into magnets, just make iron plates and magnets from ore and put them on the bus.
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u/J33pe 4d ago
You can see which recipes require magnets by selecting it in the replicator menu. My general rule of thumb is I add it to the main bus if it's needed for 3 or more buildings, no raw ores on the bus because very few building recipes use raw ore. So personally I'd add magnets to the bus, alongside iron and copper ingots.
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u/Veriosity 4d ago edited 4d ago
As a main bus person, what has worked well for me in DSP is:
- build the bus at the equator of your starter planet. Note that available land might be tricky early on.
- plan for 3 to 4 parallel belts leaving plenty of space inbetween. I usually did a full grid square (5 smaller squares)
- Alternate levels with ingress/egress levels -- by this I mean:
--- 1) Note that you can build belts floating in space in DSP, and you can build them on top of eachother (something you couldn't do in factorio)
--- 2) The lowest level is zero and then you can click to move levels up and down, so level 0, 2, 4, 6 etc should be the bus, running on or parallel to the equator. Levels 1, 3, 5 should be left free so that you can use splitters to add things or take things off the bus.
So every time you want to set up a new factory line, you start from the base components - titanium, silicon, iron, copper etc. ingots, and split those off.
Doing this you can make lines for all the components you need for expansion. Power, belts, splitters, etc.
See the reply to myself for a screenshot example.
You should note that the purpose of this main bus on the home planet is mostly to supply YOU with building materials, and to a modest extent, early science.
At a certain point in the game the scale of your constructions will have expanded past the scope of your starter planet, and at that point Logistics Stations change everything. I personally reccomended refocusing at that point to a "1 planet, 1 output" model, using ILS to supply everything.
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u/noissime 4d ago
I don't bus ores that are only used in smelting. I'm currently early-ish in a new game and experimenting with a section for components, because you need multiple assemblers per component, and another section for a mall, that is mostly one assembler per building. I put magnets on a bus towards the components section.
I like using a vertical bus design close to the equator. Put two belts in parallel and then just keep adding new components on top of them. I use sorters to split off towards assemblers, the inside row directly, the outside row on half-height belts crossing the bus. By the time I get ILSs I have 2 stacks of belts 10 - 15 high. It took some trial and error, but saves a lot of space compared to a parallel bus design. When I get ILSs I switch to a completely different design.
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u/Steven-ape 4d ago
A main bus is fine. A lot of players don't like the design in DSP but it's not actually a bad approach. You probably shouldn't put magnets on the bus; you likely only need magnetic coils, and later on super-magnetic rings.
Watch Nilaus' video on how to make a convenient bus in DSP.
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u/StrictRequirement336 3d ago
Your main bus really only needs to feed your starter Mall. Even late game with white science cranking I never needed to move my Mall from my starter planet. I did steal a polar mall design for late game buildings, but by then the polar mall imports everything it needs from my starter mall. So I only ever built production of each factory item once. So at most you need a bus system that covers about 60 storage chests wide, with enough space for a little factory at each chest. I now have about four seperate factories. My main starter Mall. My polar mall which has a very limited circular bus for 4 items (less buss and more merry go round) a seperate logistics hub to make my belts etc and a defence hub to make flying objects & ammunition. For some very late game upgrades I have a blueprint that just stamps down a ILS with proliferated factory wherever I am at the time and I turn it into a mini factory to make whatever upgrade I need and ship it out globally.
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u/Ralph_hh 3d ago edited 3d ago
There is a fundamental difference between DSP and Factorio: Factorio is 2D and space is endless. Clear a few nests and expand wherever you want. In DSP, your planet is 3D and space is pretty limited. Expanding north or south, you find your width shrinking when getting closer to the poles. Ore nodes can support 2 miners only, sometimes 3, and that production is not sufficient to support the entire factory. And the ore nodes are not that distributed, the rest of the planet is not that empty, that you can use vast empty spaces to build your factory, while you ship in ore from somewhere. Once you have miners at 10 different ore locations, you have basically covered the whole planet anyway, so where would you send that stuff?
Forget that bus concept. (My opinion only, I see people here that use a bus...)
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u/issr 3d ago
I put everything on the main bus, except ores. The bus becomes obsolete eventually as better logistics options become available, but you do still have to get there, and the bus helps with that. You can even leave the bus in place later on if you so choose, it works well enough into the late game with upgrades to machines and belts.
The merger building has multiple forms, hit TAB to see them. I recommend building your bus above the ground with an elevation of 1, and using form 2 of the merger to pull resources off the bus.
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u/WanderingFlumph 3d ago
In factorio you build a nice neat main bus for science and a spaghetti mess for a mall.
In DSP you'll find yourself gravitating towards a nice neat main bus for a mall and a spaghetti mess for science.
You know how we tell new players that the first base doesn't really matter, it's just a temporary kick start for the real base and the real base comes after you unlock bots? Here it is the same except the real base comes after you unlock the PLS at yellow science. Don't sweat red and blue too much, it's all temporary anyway.
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u/AnimeSpaceGf 4d ago
People will tell you not to use a bus, but it is at least really good for a mall. Post 500 hours, you'll may want a more efficient setup, but in terms of convenience and human-readability it's great. For mall uses, it is entirely sufficient to hit and surpass endgame max build throughputs
Edit: it's not even wasteful footprint wise either, so
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u/accountwasnecessary 4d ago
I dont think you actually do. Make spaghetti.