I think it's worth knowing some of the game's version history to understand why barrels have ended up where they are. Back in 0.12 days and before, barrels were the only non-pipe way of moving fluids and they were 25 oil/barrel (but this was before fluid values were x10'd so that's more like 250 by ...

They did everyone a huge favor adding the ability to actually see the blocks when placing signals, but tbh they could do more with that overlay, a simple arrow at the ends to indicate if a train can path into the next block would explain a lot to people (no arrow if they can't path in that direction...

What are your military techs available, and what are your bonuses to your weaponry? If Laser Turrets aren't enough, that means 1 of 2 things: you're behind on laser upgrades, or you're not using enough of them. A dozen or so turrets should be enough with adequate upgrades and enough power that they ...

When you set your mining drills, just put them one tile after the mixed ores, so you end up ignoring the mixed parts. This doesn't really work nicely when the ore-to-ore boundaries aren't straight vertical or horizontal, the filtering via Splitter is the slickest solution available now. Before that...

I wish there was an option for "never create mixed ore patches" When you set your mining drills, just put them one tile after the mixed ores, so you end up ignoring the mixed parts. This doesn't really work nicely when the ore-to-ore boundaries aren't straight vertical or horizontal, the ...

I wish there was an option for "never create mixed ore patches" When you set your mining drills, just put them one tile after the mixed ores, so you end up ignoring the mixed parts. This doesn't really work nicely when the ore-to-ore boundaries aren't straight vertical or horizontal, the ...

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-264 No wonder, scenes heavy on smoke or trees can tank FPS, especially in 4K. Maybe we should do something about that... FUCK YES MR. OBVIOUS YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING ABOUT THAT!!! We have been screaming at you for the last two years to do something abou...

@bauer: The typical ore patch I see in 0.16 vanilla in the early biter-free area is under 1mil. A lot are in the hundreds of K. Not many are multiple millions. I tried all kinds of settings and the best I could find is average ore patches of 2-3 mil. I can only imagine 10mil "average" dep...

Already more organized than my first base was back in 0.12 days. It's clearly still pretty early in the game (R+G science tech being researched). So having a spaghetti-style setup at that stage is fine. However, the placement of your smeltery is such that you can't expand it to deal with increasing ...

Well I consider that the lack of smart behaviour is entirely consistent with the rest of the game. None of Factorio's components are smart. They all have simple and predictable behaviour. It's up to the Factory designer to use those simple behaviours to build their factory, adding smarts through ci...

I agree with all that. I'm on the fence about whether or not beacons should go. Maybe the important thing for the early game is to provide balance and a variety of opportunities so everything has its place. Maybe the best thing for the late game is to let megabases have as much room to expand as po...

So does building more assemblers, but people use beaconized setups instead. The reason they do so is because prod's geometric stacking when used on as many tiers of a high level production chain as possible saves on materials used per high tier item made significantly. But speed modules aren't just...

The main reason people have zero incentive to touch efficiency for late game is because energy is not the most limited resource. Energy scales as far as the player wants it to scale. SPM is limited by production, and Prod/speed will always give more production. So does building more assemblers, but...

Without beacons, you now actually have reasons to consider not just using prod in buildings, and then the idea of making energy efficient setups that are also fast (e.g. 3xEff3+1xSpd3) becomes something worth considering relative to prod modules. How would removing 8/12 modules affecting each assem...

It's worth mentioning that back in 0.14 and before, the fusion reactor was same tech level as Power armor MK1, unlike now, where it's Power armor MK2 tier. Lowering the fusion reactor to just RGB science (even if gated behind Power armor MK1 tech, and still requiring lots of processing units to mak...

Roboports should be a mid-consumer-- Roboports are already a non consumer, and I don't mean hand cranking bots with the pickaxe. Just carry a handful of roboports on you. You now have a roboport that can go anywhere a big power pole can go, and not a single suit module was needed. Personal roboport...

jcranmer is right on the money: The reason prod>others is because of geometric scaling when used at multiple places in a production chain. The only reason speed sees use is because of beacons and how they speed modules interact with productivity. Honestly, as much I as don't like the idea of removin...

Everything other than the Exoskeletons can be made with R+G science only and no processing units in current version of the game, problem is that energy usage v production with PSPs is kinda atrocious. A agree that PSPs ought to be at least twice as strong as they are now (25kW peak power seems prett...

Why go w/ half measures, I'd say in general, make subtractive effects apply separately from their additive counterparts (with a cap of -80%), then not only is speed penalty on prod modules not countered by speed beacons, but now efficiency modules can potentially save you a LOT of energy. So the new...

I confess the 20PLD loadout didn't suck the batteries dry nearly as bad as I'd expected, I take it back about "done". For clearing, I don't run with PLDs at all, switching shields and exos and reactors in and out to match the need, smaller camps are basically battery-recharge stations. Th...