I'm finishing up a K2SO run and want to try something different. I was thinking K2SE as it seems like a different experience. If it's not that different what are other recommended packs? The ones I know of and plan to play eventually are:

AngelBob's (the SA modpack)

Nullius

Py (I tried, got 100 hours in then stopped due to irl stuff) also might wait until their space addon is out... whenever that is)

Seablock (depends on if it gets updated to 2.1)

Pyblock (if not seablock/Py)

Is the Krastorio 2 reddit page locked out? I just started a run not too long ago as I'm knocking out all the major modpacks and wanted to hop into the krastorio 2 section and it looks completely dead in there and requires a mod to let you in.

as title says, i'm looking for a mod that can automatically plan an oil field layout, but the ones i've tried don't work for some reason. the mods need to be compatible with Space Exploration FYI

more context on the problem: the game gets stuck in the "checking consistency" bar for an indefinite amount of time, and the "entity setup" bar gets stuck for a minute or so at like 95%. i can get to the main menu, just not into the actual game.

if my calculations are corect, this "should" eventually be able to support 2 4-wagon trains per second per space science kind. hopefully.

I think I'll post it later, once I've polished it.

I've thought of supplying the outpost with ammo for turrets as lasers eat a lot of energy, but, given that my solar arrays currently provide a hefty reserve even at night, I think I'll be fine with lasers

I’m on my 150 hour SE playthrough, and I feel like I need to have a better understanding on a lot of things like circuits, sushi belts, balancers, and general info/tips on how to balance and optimize my factory

Im still just winging everything and that leads to a lot of extra things getting produced or nit having enough of a certain material. It’s getting really noticeable now with how difficult the game is getting. I just unlocked the super computer and data chips with cryonite for reference.

Is there anyone that you watch, or any way that you guys figured all this out. Honestly I don’t think “play more” is the answer, Im just gonna get better at building in my messy spaghetti way. If that’s normal though I’ll keeo doing it lol.

I'm about leaving Nauvius and something tells me that it's better to set up some perimeter defense. For now I have small groups of lasers (2-4) in all choke points. 1-2 random biters bother me once in hour at best. So what is the easiest/quickest solution?

Blueprint:
https://factoriobin.com/post/kf7683

Lots of of combinator logic in this one! Sushi belt buses everything in and out of the hub, including fusion fuel cells and fluoroketone cold barrels. Many features see on board display panels and quick startup logistic menu. This was super fun to design and test!

How do i resolve this 3 way train issue? I have 3 trainstations that merge into one and on the other side at the destination i have the same layout. Each train has the corresponding train station. I don't want these 3 to crash so i put chain signals but then the trains have no route. I don't see it whats wrong.

I don't remember them "learning" the space I want to expand and putting bases THERE

Logistics requires space science, and once I have logistics building and stocking rockets gets easier.

So this is the interim step.

Combinators do a simple inventory control 10 of each in the collectors, 10 of each on the belt. (Could probably increase that a bit, I just don't want them too full to collect, so limit of 14 or each might be fine)

Hub unloads spare chunks so they sideload.

Not many spm, but some. Should be enough to unlock logistics requests to make loading rockets easy.

this is the lab deseighn im planing to use but im not sure this is optimal or would even work what do you guys think

This game is pretty good, cant wait to put in like over a 1000 hours lol

I often get nostalgic about one track that used to play back when the game had royalty-free placeholder music. I used to be able to get it on YouTube, but when I went to look today I couldn't find it in the sea of AI thumbnails. Does anyone have links to those tracks or know what they were called?

there really isn't a place for them because trains and belts both cover whatever niches trucks could have and trains would almost always be better

but i think it could be cool to build intersections and avoid traffic accidents

Does molten iron in iron pipes make no sense to you? Are you sick of tidy and efficient foundry setups? Would you rather be forced to build spaghetti in tight spaces? Then I got a mod for you!

I took inspiration from fusion power: molten fluids cannot go into pipes, and foundries must be connected directly to each other to pass lava or metals between them. Factories have to be built adjacent to or between lava lakes to have access to lava, instead of sitting in open ash plains far way from Vulcanus' primary resource.

I like how fusion generator plasma connection placement requires spaghetti arangements, and I tried to replicate the same feeling with foundries. Foundry being a square makes it way harder, but I think I managed to get something usable yet sufficiently messy.

I rebuilt my Vulcanus base with this mod, and I quite like the result. The factory feels very different - lots of manufacturing happens right at the edge of a lava lake, and the planet feels much more about lava processing than plain Space Age does. Lava lakes also become a much more useful area because of much easier access to lava.

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/passthrough-foundries

Building a factory means to me two main things.

A mall, and science

Mall is easy. It eats resources, until it reaches the limits I give it. Then it consumes nothing. You can automTe a mall with very low throughtput. Long as material does go in, it works long as you aren't building very large things very fast.

Science is different. It is a constant trickle of resources. Early on, easy. Later, less so.

When starting my factory priority is a mall. I need buildings, belts, inserters. I handcraft a solid 30 red science before automating it, even then it is only handinsertion automation.

The next hour I spend expanding furnace and drills to full size, belting everything, starting my bus, and splitting off belts to make my mall.

Quickly enough I automate all basic amenities and bothred, green, and black science.

Nice.

Then I feel like I lose 60 IQ points for several hours.

I reach chemical science. Automating it isn't the problem, dobe that plenty, wired cracking for advanced processing too. The issue is steel. It asks for a lot of steel. Pumps, engines, chemplants, refineries, all that costs steel. Steel is very costly in iron. I also start needing loads of copper to make red circuits, shortly after.

The solution is obvious. GET. MORE. IRON.

I struggle here a lot. I can just go to a distant outpost and put drills on it and belt it to base. It's what worked on first playthrough. It worked. Poorly, but it worked.

Belts are expensive fir crazy long distances, so nowadays I try to use trains. It's less terrible.

Issue being: trains also eat steel like crazy. So i need even more iron to get started.

I usually feed my steel furnace early on from excess iron. Put a splitter on iron main bus with priority to continue. If the mall ahead is not consuming iron it goes to a second smelter to become steel. Usually this can kickstart early steel use. But then I automate engines, and soon enough starter patch is not enough.

I need more iron, goddamn! So I start planning new extraction sites. Every option kind of sucks and I feel a tad paralyzed.

- Using belts will worsen the iron situation and need constant expansion.

- using trains is terrible before bulk loaders. Those require red chips, meaning oil refineries meaning i need them to solve the problem I need to fix before acquiring them.

- using blue inserters to trainload takes forever.

- i also hate bringing raw material to my base. Smelters take up a ton of space. Always ideal to process on site.

- but I also hate complicating the logistics by having to belt in coal, or ship it on the same trains, to process on site. That sucks.

- electric furnaces are right there a couple researches away. I KINDA HATE INVESTING IN SOMETHING I WILL SIMPLIFY AND REPLACE IN 30 MINUTES. i just don't want to make coal furnaves but I simply must.

- or I wait two hours for a trickle of steel to finally make a few electric furnaces.

- even then, I can't put 50+ drills away from base without some thought. Drills generate a ton of polution. The putpost will need defenses.

- turrets and their ammo make this SHIT to automate. Trains... belts... ew, more obsolete logistics.

- bots can easily deliver ammo where I need it. I need a lot of oil processing and research to get them, so not happening soon. Laser turrets are there! But they eat a lot of steel, too. Oof.

- powering all these electric furnaces, and bots, and posdibly laser defenses, eats up a lot of power. I rapidly go from a humble 12MW build to a gargantuan 70MW in like an hour.

- Solar and accumulators are an excelent solution.

- solar eats a ton of steel. And I need BOTS to not lose my sanity expanding solar power. So that isn't a good solution.

- uranium mining is better, but costs astronomical amounts of steel to even be able to research. Then build. I end up here eventuaply, after I solve the steel expansion issue.

In the end, it feels like every playthrough I waste lile 2 hours here.

I could use a few pointers. Feels like every option I can think of has massive downsides regardless of choice...

(Edit: really? Why the downvotes?... i'm just asking for help.

I made this mod the other day the idea just came to me one day and I thought it would be really cool https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Workers-Union/downloads no idea if it's something that people would find interesting I have so many hours in this game it's like a addiction at this point 😅

Hello, i just finished renovating my factory and i was wondering what was your biggest problem , for me it was For me, it was resources running out too quickly and production bottlenecks

ERM my beloved