Hi! SuperSpruce here! I wanted to give occasional progress updates of my Factorio: Space Age base, so here it is! I would’ve posted this on Reddit instead of here if it wasn’t for Reddit’s greed starting in 2023. Note that I’m not using any mods here, even QoL.
The start was quite poor, due to the dry climate, no visible chokepoints, and spaced out resources. The only good thing was a small oil patch nearby. The biters were a constant threat in the early game, so I researched military and gun turrets before automation, purposely delayed scaling up as to keep power consumption low, and rushed efficiency modules and solar power. My weapon progression has gone: SMG with yellow ammo, SMG with red ammo, flamethrower, SMG+defender capsules, and now tank + defender capsules.
Here’s the whole base. Yes, I am naming my train stations after motorcycles, deal with it.
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My 1-4 train system uses what amounts to a giant roundabout with an exit for each major resource in the main bus, with buffers to prevent traffic jams. I only have about 5 trains running currently, but I tremble at the thought of traffic jams. That’s why I plan to build a train “interstate highway” in the future. Outside of the main base, it turns into 2-lane “rural tracks.”
Here’s the main base with the main bus:
Fun fact: The belts are all yellow belts except for 3 cases where I needed more underground length where I begrudgingly use red undergrounds.
And finally, here’s my sad 2nd attempt at a space base:
My next goal is to go to Vulcanus for the cliff explosives and more powerful military options. But I first need to scale up steel…
Give me your thoughts, but don’t spoil anything!
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Good work so far! Our first space trip ended in disaster - have more guns on your platform than you think you need. Asteroids are destructive!
Thank you! I’m currently researching space thrusters after finally researching the logistics bot system. With so many light-years to go, I’m excited to see where I will be!
I would try to dump the asteroid chunks instead of excess ore - you’re paying electricity to crush chunks and then potentially throwing away the output. Of course, if you’re avoiding circuit conditions then there’s not much better way than to throw the excess ore, plate, etc off the back.
They can create an overflow path with a splitter and priority output. Priority path goes to the crusher and chunks on the other path get tossed.
It’s even better if you can know how much of the raw resources you want on your resource belt and subtract how much is there (which is now trivial), and only grab resources you need more of. The resource chunks don’t hurt when they hit you, so you can just not grab them if you don’t need them.
Instead of dumping excess resources you can use circuit conditions to limit the grabby arms from collecting the space chunks.
That also means you are potentially leaving stuff you need on the table if the grabby arms stop grabbing. Better to throw away the asteroid chunks you don’t need based on how much is on your belt(s).
No. I have a resource belt around my station, and I have a resource quota on the belt I’m trying to meet. I subtract how much is on the belt from how much I want, then just use that as a filter on the grabber. It doesn’t waste anything. It just only grabs things that are needed. Grabbing more than you need just to throw it away does waste power though, so that’s the wasteful option. Sure, some asteroids don’t get grabbed, but they would have only been thrown away had they been grabbed. They aren’t wasted.
then just use that as a filter on the grabber.
That’s pretty smart. In that case nothing is wasted, no.
Easier to just chuck excess resources into space though. :)