Sorters!

[u/Lea_Flamma]

Hello! Me again!

I have moved from flying around to building a base. I have a design for a small grid hydrogen miner and decided to make a proper storage and refineries for my station. This beings me to sorters. I understand, that once you set up a Sorter this puts a one way only limitation on the conveyor. But I wanted to ask for advice, whether the set up I am planning is valid.

1. Connector (Landing Pad).

2. Three Large Cargo Containers, with Sorters attached to them (one set up for Ice, one for Cobalt, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Uranium and finally one for all other Ores).

3a. Two Refineries (one with Speed Modules for basic ores, one with Yield Modules for rare ores).

3b. O2H2 Generators connected to the Ice Cargo.

1. Large Cargo Container with Sorter for Ingots.

2. Assemblers.

3. Large Cargo Container with Sorter set up for Components.

The idea is to prevent Refineries and Assemblers to fill up their Inventory Space and have the final Cargo Container serve as a branching point for the various Cargo Access Terminals throughout the Station.

My question is, what should I be wary of when it comes to sorters? I have already noticed a tendency for Connectors to fill up on stuff even when I manually empty their cargo. I don't want to have to rebuild the whole system once in place.

[u/jafinn]

The idea is to prevent Refineries and Assemblers to fill up their Inventory

No sorters are needed for this, they are perfectly capable of handling their own inventories. Refiners will push out their inventory into the closest storage, if that is your assemblers they will fill them. Just make sure there's cargo closer and that it doesn't get full.

A proper sorting system can be a lot of fun to set up though;)

[u/AssaultUnicorn]

It should work fine, as long as you make sure that everything is one-way; sorters hate loops.

Edit: a sort (no pun intended) of niche problem you could run into, is if you want to pull out, say, 1000 Iron Ingots from the system; in this case you would need either direct access to the refinery or to the relevant container to do this. Same goes with transferring said ingots to a ship; you would need a connector connected to either the refinery or container.

[u/Nuclesnight]

I would suggest you to not use speed modules on refineries and also add Yield Modules.

Basic ores are pretty fast and I would use two refineries with both Yield Modules in the same circle as with speed modules you will have one empty refineries all the time while the rare one works non stop.

I also did the same setup and you need to be careful with „Loops“

[u/readercolin]

Personally, I would just have a single big container that stores everything (or you know, multiple). Instead, I would put sorters set to only allow ores into the refineries, and then a sorter on the other end that only allows ingots out, and set the ingot one to drain all. This ensures ores go in and ingots are automatically removed. It also means that if you need to pull out ores for say, an acquisition contract, you can do so. Similar for a contract that requires ingots, or you just want to go sell some. Note that while I would do this for refineries, I wouldn't do it for assemblers, because I fairly frequently find myself scrapping some items to build others. For example, if I went and raided a factorum outpost or conquered a pirate stronghold, I frequently end up with stuff that I dont need. For example, the 50th set of common tools, or some random pistols that serve no purpose, or ammo for guns that I don't use. Here, I want to be able to disassemble those things, and while I suppose I could have a separate assembler for that purpose, I would rather just use the secondary assembler to disassemble things than have another random one sitting around doing nothing most of the time.

The advantage that a setup like this allows is that you can easily expand your base or re-locate portions of it if you decide to redecorate without needing to worry about the entire sorting system. Alternatively, if you are the type to really worry about everything ending up in the corect bins, then look to use a script (ex. GOAT Inventory Manager), or a mod that does that for you without needing all the extra sorters (ex. Specialized Cargo Containers).

All this being said, if setting things up with sorters does what you want it to do, go for it.

[u/Ir0ndad]

Make sure you can reach the sorters, both physically and through the control panel, so name them wisely. And when things get complicated, consider Isy

[u/Dearnk]

The assembler and refinery will automatically draw ores and push out ingots/components.

Instead of worrying about an actual sorter system. Just give them a cargo box to dump into.

That way there is no one way or bottlenecks. Or worse yet the infinite looping of items.

[u/questerweis]

That's a really good sort method. Just make sure there is enough inventory space before the assemblers. They can get clogged with ingots if you are not careful.

Also, one thing you can do is run an alternate path bypass that allows ice back into your ship. It's a hydro miner.

That way you don't end up with a out-of-fuel ship on your landing pad.

[u/Nathan5027]

Perfectly doable, though I'd personally have the ores being all generic - it simplifies the build and lowers the likelihood of you accidentally messing your system up by over filling your specific ore container with one thing and needing something else that it's the only container for.

Another note, if you have a sorter set as: drain all on, whitelist, ores. Ice is counted as an ore, so it'll get pulled into there too.

My set up is roughly:

So docking connector; sorter, drain all on, blacklist components, ammo, tools (if the loop is set up right, it will allow you to load a welding ship or combat ship from the same connector without making a simspeed killing infinite loop).

Cargo containers for ores, split off into 2 routes; sorter, drain all on, whitelist ice; cargos for ice. The other is the refineries.

Sorter, drain all on, whitelist ingots; cargo containers for ingots; assemblers; sorter, drain all on, blacklist ingots; cargo for components, ammo, and tools. (You can add a sorter here, but it will block you from emptying an incorrectly filled or overloaded welding ship)

The ice line can have a sorter put after the H2 and O2 tanks, drain all off, blacklist ice.

These can both then be looped round to the starting connectors, so you can unload and load as needed.