Factorio Forums

We all have 'em. A strange habit we just can't break. Maybe it's something simple like always having an input inserter in a particular location or something more complex like how you arrange your storage.

As for me:

I never do anything that requires power until I have my 15 boiler/10 steam engines running. I've watched LPs where people have a small 2-3 boiler 1 engine set up to do some rudimentary research, but I've never been able to "get" that. For some reason, I don't feel comfortable doing anything that needs power until I have 5 megawatts to play with.

I can't stand early game and creste custom scrnarios and mods to skip burner stuff
Though I always build full 14/10 setups for steam and havent done partials since like you.

In contrast, I'll do quite a lot with a single steam engine. I don't start expanding power production until it's clear I definitely need it. The way I see it, the early game is when I'm most vulnerable, and using every scrap of iron and copper efficiently is important. So I'll prioritize what I need to get research going over another 9 steam engines.

I never use personal weapons against the bugs if I can avoid it. When invading nests, I always wait until I have constructor bots and laser turrets, and use blueprints to do rapid leapfrog construction of turret firebases to eliminate alien nests. I've heard there are people who are into cleaning them out with shotguns, capsules, and combat robots, but I never do that.

Once I start expanding, I build railroads when it's probably more efficient to use long pipelines or conveyor belts. I just like messing with rails, and I take some odd enjoyment out of setting up oil barrel loading / unloading stations. Then I'm struck by how much overkill it is when the station starts delivering maybe 2-3 oil barrels per trip. I console myself with the idea that a single oil train will end up servicing a lot of oil well depots, but I still feel a bit silly.

My stations always seem to end up a mess. They're never, ever as compact as the efficient layouts I see in the "Creations" forum. I'll build ad-hoc setups for each step, and never seem to find a way to evolve to something cleaner. So my Advanced Electronics assembly line will be near my oil processing, and I'll end up shipping those a long way to the research facility to make Blue science packs. When I think about moving it closer, there just doesn't seem to be any room to route the plastics, let alone move the multi-stage assembly plant.

While I use constructor bots extensively, I don't use logistics bots for much. I'm too aware of their low throughput compared to a simple conveyor belt.

I rarely use the blue or red conveyor belts. They're expensive, and it's unusual for the speed to make much difference. Fast inserters I use, of course, since that's often a bottleneck.

I usually build the 10 steam engine build for power before i create a single power pole. My quirk: I never get blue science materials on belts. I always put them into chests and move them by hand to chests that unload them onto belts for the assembly line. I use this until my logistic robot network is up when i just upgrade to request/provider chests. I tried to do the belts in a game recently and just gave up when I got to trying to fit smart inserter setup in the space i had left. Another quirk would be I only use 2 electric miners for copper and 4 for iron until I get lasers. I do that to prevent over-pollution and the resulting problems.

No green research until all red is done, no blue until all green is done.

ajranney wrote: I tried to do the belts in a game recently and just gave up when I got to trying to fit smart inserter setup in the space i had left.

The way I handled that in most recent game, which is the only one I remember, is that I made the smart insert setup a long, long way away from my research complex, and then used a belt to move the inserters to the assembler making the blue science packs. That's what I mean by "messy," I find it difficult to build the very complicated lines anywhere near each other, so if something requires two things with 3+ stages to construct, I'm likely to transport the end result a long way to where it's finally used.

I always lay down 13 boilers, but start with only 2/3 steam engines, then add them as I need them. That way, I don't have to dig up underground pipe to make room for more boilers when I need them.

Always use the best inserter, assembling machine, power pole etc. available even if it's not needed.

I often start whole game over when i figure out better way to build smth rather that deconstruct stuff i already have.

My quirk is, that I try to avoid them.
Leads to boring game. But I need to make it new every time.

I have a weird one with inserter placement. If I am only using one inserter I always put put it in the middle of the assembly machine. If I used two, I prefer to put them on the outer two spots and leave the middle spot empty. If I use 3 where two of them are long handed I always try to put the long handed ones on the outside with normal/fast one in the middle.

I very rarely build down unless I have to. For some reason I just find it much easier to build horizontally or sometimes up. But whenever I do a "main bus" type setup it is always always horizontal because I just can't seem to figure it out if it is vertical. Lol

I keep all my obsoleted items in a chest for nostalgia's sake. Not a single gun turret is left behind!

_aD wrote:I keep all my obsoleted items in a chest for nostalgia's sake. Not a single gun turret is left behind!

Me too. I place my chest next to first pump.

My greatest quirk is probably my desire for symmetry as well as aesthetically and functionally pleasing layouts, resulting in various subquirks that somehow became my overall design guide:

Ratios:

• Power: 14:10 = Boiler:Steam Engine Setups - with 6x2 lines of Engines building a standardized 60 MW power plant module.
• Oil Industry: 4:1:1,5:10:5 = Refinery:H-to-L:L-to-P:L-to-SF:P-to-SF - (H=Heavy, L=Light, ...) as it perfectly powers a 60 MW plant.
• Research: 6:6:12:12 = Red:Green:Blue:Labs
• Electronic Circuits: Early on 3:2 = Copper Wire:Electronic Circuits, later on with Productivity Module 3's the ratio changes to 1:1.

General Design:

• Roboports: I always place Roboports at the maximum distance from each other. Not being able to do so drives me nuts, like lakes.
• Grid: Everything build around said Roboport distance, resulting in a grid with standardized modules with roboports being the corners.
• Rail: Dual-tracks with space in between where the roboports+power poles are supposed to go.
• Assembly Lines: Single-sided In/Output with belts/chests on the same side with alternating Fast&Longhanded Inserters.
• Ore Smelting: Early on like Assembly Lines, later on Smart furnaces to improve on reusability.
• Advanced Circuits: Fishsandwich layouts, including Plastic Bars in the created gap when placing multiple instances of them back-to-back.
• Other Circuits & Modules production: Variations of the Fishsandwhich layout.
• (Underground) Belt & Splitter production: 3x3 assembler grid with direct insertion.
• Modules: Efficiency Modules in Oil Industry and Productivity Modules everywhere else, knowing it will never pay off. Can't help about it.
• Pipes: Standardized bus of parallel underground pipes with all liquids to reduce the pipe-mess and branching off whereever needed.
• Storage Tanks: 4 tanks for each liquid in a circle connected by pipes which can be replaced by small pumps if needed.

But I also share other quirks already mentioned in the thread too:

• Xterminator's inserter placement quirk because of symmetry reasons.
• Ackos research priority quirk, but also adding least to most expensive. With exceptions of course if I need something in particular.
• keyboarhack's need to always use the latest state of research items when building, even if the capacity/speed is not needed.

There are probably tons of other small quirks I always do the same way so I don't even notice them all anymore.

@MeduSalem

I also go least expensive to most, just forgot to mention it. But, i am a factorio slob, i dont care much about symmetry.

Always 15 boilers to 10 steam engines.
I go solar if I give up on using steam power.
I don't get rid of old stuff, like the first belt factory or the electric circuit build. Things with burner miners I will get rid of.
I use steel furnaces whenever possible, then use electric furnaces elsewhere to supplement it when it's not enough.

I don't use laser turrets. Solar panels aren't in for much use too, but turrets are completely off limits. (I've yet to meet new green biters.)

I do small loops everywhere. For instance, I put Coal/Iron Ore on a loop at the Furnaces, so that it always circulates. I put Copper Plates and Gear Wheels on a loop to make Red Science, and the Science Potions themselves also get a double loop (2 Belts, red/green, then blue/purple). Belts/Inserters also go on a loop to make Green Potions, and the mats needed to make Blue Potions go on a double-Belt loop of their own. Et cetera.

I'm not convinced it's particular inefficient. It takes up a bit more space, and requires slightly more than twice as many Belts compared to a non-looped approach, but the benefit is that all Machines or Furnaces can always get some mats to process since it circulates. So only a tiny bit of efficiency is lost, probably.

I never do dedicated science setups (which seem to be all the rage for a lot of people). Aside from red science which is trivial, green and blue are made from items that any factory will probably be making in obscene quantities, regardless, so I just split some off and make science out of them.

I also am fanatical about keeping logistics networks as small as possible (the thought of bots wandering off across the map and being inefficient makes my brain itch), and usually end up with tons of little ones.

I'm sort of the opposite: Rather than producing general goods, the science facilities are the core of my base and I pipe off their excesses for the other needs of the factory.

I'm very slow with upgrading and do it in stages: I'll go by hand until I have both red and green science automated, then dither around before going for blue and purple together.

With the exception of the starting area, I love lakes and oceans on maps; Being able to build defensive positions and rail lines around terrain features is a joy.

I'm fairly aesthetically driven and like things to look pretty.

Lastly I'm simultaneously driven to experiment, and very conservative: In any new factory, large swathes of it will remain as codified in previous factories but at the same time, I only start a new factory when I have something new I want to do. (For example, right now I'm experimenting with a factory based on self contained "organs" with connecting "arteries" supplying the most elemental resources even as I use dozens of devices I might as well have copied out of a standing blueprint they're so consistent.)