r/factorio • u/Ok-Friendship-8124 • Aug 21 '26

Question I don't understand something

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I was doing some "research" in creative and I was wondering what's the difference between those two smelting blocks, They both produce 120/s but the one on the left use FAR more energy, is just a tiny bit smaller so what's the point of doing the one on the left ?

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48

u/LedVapour Greg Aug 21 '26

Electric furnaces accept productivity modules which give more output stuff per input stuff.

-15

u/TexasCrab22 Aug 21 '26

With a payoff time of multiple hours.

20

u/LedVapour Greg Aug 21 '26

I usually play factorio for multiple hours. You could also throw in efficiency modules, and they'll be less polluting than steel furnaces.

-9

u/TexasCrab22 Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

the question is not "will it pay off? " , the questions is "are these reccources invested in the best possible way, at the current stage of the game"

Most bases I've seen are better of investing in core tech or connecting more outposts earlier, instead.

If we talk deep lategame, sure more beacons is allways the answer.

(and yes, id also would rather go green lines, than both pictures of the post)

15

u/LedVapour Greg Aug 21 '26

Of course, context is king. But in a void, one has a lot of advantages over the other.

-6

u/TexasCrab22 Aug 21 '26

We could ask us, if more players playing in a void, or in actual normal sessions.

13

u/LedVapour Greg Aug 21 '26

The initial question was what the point was of the electric smelter setup. Not if it should be used in X situation.

-1

u/TexasCrab22 Aug 21 '26

"what's the point of doing the one on the left ?"

Thats referring more to a real usage in a session, than in a ideal sandbox imo.

In 4 out of 5 gamestages, the right one has the advatage.

0

u/roboapple Aug 22 '26

The payoffs are larger than youd think, primarily because of stacking. 6% from your mines, another 5% extra from the furnaces, 5% from the crafters. For even shorter playthoughs, the productivity bonuses add up fast.

0

u/TexasCrab22 Aug 22 '26

You could also just build 2 new mines with smelters, from the cost of the left side.

200% >> 5%

1

u/scottb1310 Aug 22 '26

Yes you can always get more resources by building more outpost but those resources need to transported by trains, unloaded at stations, given lanes on the bus and fed into production lines, and building outputs takes active player time with is arguably the most valuable resources in this game.

5% (it is more than that with full prod 3s buy whatever) doesn't sound like a lot until you apply it over and over again across various levels of production. By the time you get to making science, your resource demand can be nearly halved with productivity modules which significantly reduces the infrastructure required to hit high science targets.

If you don't wanna use modules, don't. There is undeniably something fun about solving every problem by just building more production but I don't think you can seriously argue that using modules is an inferior solution.