Simple Questions and Short Answers

[RikkiLook]

You put down a blueprint containing modules, Those icons will go away after robots put the modules into the machine.

Thank you!

[brunzenstein]

I'm looking for a combinator rated solution for switching on to solar when evening coming, off as soon as dawn is breaking, and /or turning to steam as soon as accumulators round dry or daylight is on.

[Deadly-Bagel]

Uhhh solar power won't work in the dark, so there's no point switching it on in the evening and off in the morning...

If you meant the other way around, hook one of your accumulators up to a power switch and route all the steam engines through that switch (ensure it isn't otherwise connected to your main grid). Tell the switch to activate when accumulators are below 20% or something (the accumulator outputs its current percentage as a signal so just test [signal] < 20)

[aubergine18]

What does the blue LED on circuit connectors mean?

[brunzenstein]

What does the blue LED on circuit connectors mean?

Its active calculating

[BlackHat]

The Tech popup window...

When ever I complete researching a tech, the Tech window pops open so I can chose a new tech to research....
99% of the time I am in the middle of something I think is important. (fighting, counting out X number of squares/things/rails buildings, etc.)

As a result, the auto pop-up gets so incredibly annoying.

IS there a way to disable the auto pop-up? Either by editing a config? or a console command, or option or setting?

I could have sworn in earlier versions of the game it did not auto pop.

[daniel34]

The Tech popup window...

When ever I complete researching a tech, the Tech window pops open so I can chose a new tech to research....
99% of the time I am in the middle of something I think is important. (fighting, counting out X number of squares/things/rails buildings, etc.)

As a result, the auto pop-up gets so incredibly annoying.

IS there a way to disable the auto pop-up? Either by editing a config? or a console command, or option or setting?

I could have sworn in earlier versions of the game it did not auto pop.

Go to Options --> Other and disable Singleplayer game pauses when a research is completed

[BlackHat]

Go to Options --> Other and disable Singleplayer game pauses when a research is completed

Thank you very much!

[Tobias]

i used to be able to set my game in ver 12 to always day. Kinda of had to because my display is so dark as it is. So why cant i use the same command in 13. Did the command change?

[siggboy]

i used to be able to set my game in ver 12 to always day. Kinda of had to because my display is so dark as it is. So why cant i use the same command in 13. Did the command change?

I recommend to use the "TimeTools" mod which allows you to do this very easily (and a few other useful things).

If you do not want to use a mod, try "/c game.player.surface.always_day=true"

[everythingisnominal]

Hello,

When I use the flamethrower to burn the forest down, is there a way to "force" the game to destroy ALL the trees and not having these half burnt trees left behind ?

Thanks

[kinnom]

Hello,

When I use the flamethrower to burn the forest down, is there a way to "force" the game to destroy ALL the trees and not having these half burnt trees left behind ?

Thanks

no, the closest thing is to use construction robots

[Deadly-Bagel]

Alternatively use grenades (or cluster grenades if resources are plentiful), with some research they instantly destroy all trees in their AoE

[Kaiku]

What's the advantage of a multi-lane bus? To clarify, I mean having 4 lanes for copper plates, 4 iron lanes, etc.

I've seen some big youtubers sticking by this and discussing optimization of load balancing in all complicated ways and to great lengths, but it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. Either your bus is saturated (100% production), or it's not, which means you need more income. Having multiple lanes and load balancers isn't going to change that either way, as all it seems to do to me is act as storage when you're saturated.

So, what's the point? Why not just a single lane with single splitters bringing the materials to the assemblers?

[kinnom]

What's the advantage of a multi-lane bus? To clarify, I mean having 4 lanes for copper plates, 4 iron lanes, etc.

I've seen some big youtubers sticking by this and discussing optimization of load balancing in all complicated ways and to great lengths, but it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. Either your bus is saturated (100% production), or it's not, which means you need more income. Having multiple lanes and load balancers isn't going to change that either way, as all it seems to do to me is act as storage when you're saturated.

So, what's the point? Why not just a single lane with single splitters bringing the materials to the assemblers?

each lane can transport a limited amount of items every second. larger bases can easily consume multiple belts of resources

[Deadly-Bagel]

As an example, if you want a saturated belt of Electronic Circuits you need to consume a saturated belt of Iron (1 Iron Plate per Electronic Circuit) and half as much again Copper. If you only have a single saturated belt of iron it would all get used up in circuits and you wouldn't have enough for anything else. Thus, most players run four belts so even if one is completely used up there is still plenty more going down the line.

[Kaiku]

Thanks guys, I think I get it.

But, just to get a sense of the scale involved... are we talking absolute ridiculous mega-factories here? I've launched a couple of rockets in different playthroughs with just single-lane busses (blue belts—I assume they have more throughput?), and while these were admittedly small and inefficient factories, they did seem to run quite smoothly and I didn't notice parts of the factory getting starved.

So for the average newbie-playthrough, is this more theoretical, or would that even benefit from 4-lanes? Or does this only become a necessity when building a megafactory? (Because in those youtube playthroughs I never see those 4 belts come even close to saturated. So I assume it's future-planning and theory-crafting/min-maxing.)

[Deadly-Bagel]

In a previous game I had four iron belts and two copper, both with a constant supply, and while I found the iron was sufficient I was constantly running out of copper. The sheer number of electronic circuits required to build the rocket just chewed through everything I could give it.

So for the first few runs where you're taking your time and getting to know the game, sure two belts is probably fine, but once you get faster at doing things you'll need 4 belts to keep up. That's not to say they'll all be active all the time but when you're building thousands of solar panels to maintain your new laser network you do get through it. Remember that of those four belts, at least one belt of iron will be redirected to steel and I'd recommend three belts of copper and two belts of iron be redirected to electronic circuits.

"Mega base" is a tricky term to quantify, some players have 16+ belts of iron but I'd say having 8 belts for a single component is excessive for a normal run so would qualify for a mega base.

[Kaiku]

I have another dumb question!

Aside from being awesome, what benefit is there to using trains over belts?

Even with ore depots incredibly far away it still seems more efficient to me to just belt the goods over, both in initial cost and (especially) time spend laying the infrastructure. Of course, trains themselves are fun and the reward of having a functioning network is reason enough in itself, but aside from that?

[Deadly-Bagel]

Well, if you're only planning on doing that one outpost, belts will do the job.

However if you're planning on mining anything else in outposts belts become very expensive and time consuming. A rail can be used by any train carrying anything, and to expand it you simply add more trains. To expand belts you need to add more lanes, and if you're creating outposts for coal or stone or something you can't just branch off the existing network, you have to build a whole new set.

Also once you get into adding more throughput, trains become much cheaper than belts. For example if you want to double the throughput from an outpost 1,000 tiles away, that's 11,500 iron to add a single lane of belts, in oppose to 560 iron and 15 copper for a locomotive and two carriages. BIG difference.

But I'm not sure where you got the idea belts are cheaper, to cover 2 tiles with red belts you need 23 iron, to cover it with a rail you need 5.5 iron and one stone. Sure I guess you could use yellow belts but that would be very low throughput.