Is steel furnance used by anyone?

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libik
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Is steel furnance used by anyone?

Post by libik »

I have never used it before and its fine, all of us has different way to play.

However now I started 100x science run (which is amazing by the way, highly recommended if you already finished factorio once or more times).

So now each "era" takes much longer, making any tech viable for quite some time. Still steel furnances come quite late and are quite expensive. So even with 100x science it was easier to wait a bit more and then switch to electric ones (which are close in tech tree to steel furnance, even on 100x science).

So am I missing something? :)
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TurtleZ
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Re: Is steel furnance used by anyone?

Post by TurtleZ »

I use steel furnaces in every save. In fact, with the release of space age, I normally transition straight from steel furnaces to foundries!

The reason I find them so handy is they're a great in-place upgrade to stone furnaces. I unlock them pretty early into green science, at which point I normally have 1 furnace stack for copper, 1 stack for steel, 1 for stone, and 1-2 for iron. Upgrading stone furnaces -> steel furnaces and yellow belts -> red belts allows me to immediately double all my resource output without building any new stacks.

Without modules, steel furnaces are actually more fuel-efficient than electric furnaces + boilers. So rather than invest time and resources in building electric furnace stacks after blue science, I usually build additional steel furnace stacks to get me to space - once the inner planets are conquered, I build an entirely new base with foundries + other space age tech.
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mmmPI
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Re: Is steel furnance used by anyone?

Post by mmmPI »

I very often use steel furnaces as i build my stone furnaces array with yellow belt, and upgrade them to red at the same time as i upgrade the stone furnaces because as mentionned it feels "fast" , little actions to double ressources rather than doubling the size of the factory with cliffs , trees , walking around more as negative consequences. I tend to go Fulgora first in most game, and upgrade the steel furnaces to electric ones with modules and beacons from there in map view, when Nauvis has recovered from making the first space platform and i see some machines underused.
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angramania
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Re: Is steel furnance used by anyone?

Post by angramania »

Is it joke? Actual question should be "does anyone still use electric furnaces?". They were not popular before SA and are even more optional now.
And you deliberately lying about "wait a bit", especially with 100x science.
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Tertius
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Re: Is steel furnance used by anyone?

Post by Tertius »

I made an extendable design that minimizes the effort for extending and rebuilding the smelter line. Of course it includes the steel furnace, because it doubles throughput on the same layout. No upgrade is easier.

1st design is for the early game and contains 24 stone furnaces. Consumes/produces 1 yellow belt lane (7.5/s).
2nd design is the upgrade to 24 steel furnaces. Identical layout to 1st design. Just replace the furnaces, no rebuild required. Consumes/produces 1 full yellow belt (15/s).
3rd design is the upgrade to 48 steel furnaces. Double length, upgrade the outer belts and the splitter to red belts. No need to replace any inserters - manual placement stays easy. Consumes/produces 1 full red belt (30/s).

All tileable (easy chained coal supply) and designed for not too tedious manual placing (just lines of yellow inserters and the whole line points just in one direction).

The 3rd design lasts until Vulcanus and is replaced by foundries. Electric furnaces have marginal use only. Even on space platforms I use foundries as soon as Advanced asteroid processing is unlocked.

Same approach for stone (half length due do double stone consumption) and steel (alternating inserters required, but still manageable).
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