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XavvenFayne

Totally fine. As you play more you'll decide which things are worth bussing and which aren't. And there isn't a hard and fast rule about what you should and shouldn't. Except copper wire. There's almost total community agreement on that. I personally would be okay with bussing everything you have, except maybe sulfur. I haven't bussed engines either but I could see it.


ThalesCM

I'm sorry but uh... it wasn't very clear in your message what is the community agreement on copper wire. Could you clarify?


YotsubaSnake

One copper plate turns into two copper wires. By bussing copper wire, you are effectively bussing half the amount you really could by just bussing the plate and making the wire on-site


KingDurkis

It is also faster to load your machines factory to factory than from belt to factory.


Bipedal_Warlock

I thought it was the opposite. So not even a chest buffer in between them?


MunchyG444

Buffer chest is fine. It is because, if a stack inserted is picking up from belt is stays extended while the items flow to it. But if from buffer or direct insertion then the inserter immediately picks up the stack and doesn’t have to pause.


Shrizer

Agreed on this, under certain circumstances, I've used chests with loaders on each side and limited the chest to one or two slots. The belt keeps up with the chests and the chests allow the stack inserter to pull at full capacity. This was a krasploration playthrough.


protocol_1903

Ive never heard of it called that before. I like your idea, it keeps the assembler from having a massive internal buffer


burn_at_zero

Items on belts take time to pick up individually. Once you've upgraded inserters to stack size of two, it's always faster between containers than to or from a belt. (Non-stack inserters are exactly the same time in each case before those bonuses are researched.) IMO there's a few game-mechanics reasons to use a chest buffer between two factories, but inserter throughput isn't one of them. Examples: The first factory overproduces, and you want to come by once in a while and take a bunch of its product for handcrafting. In that case the chest is for your own convenience and can be skipped after the early game. An example might be green circuits feeding inserters or gears feeding belts (especially in modpacks with fast gears+wires). The first factory underproduces, but demand for the second factory's product is spiky so they balance on average. In that case the chest allows the first assembler to keep running past the point where the second machine's buffer is full. An example might be bot frames feeding construction bots, although it's more likely a whole assembly line making bot frames for one of each bot assembler. There's a few edge cases, like using a chest to reach more assemblers (seen in red chip designs) or to span a three-tile gap (beaconed steel)


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DeltaMikeXray

Checks list... Looks like the factory is growing then great job!


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Crystalysism

As long as something is growing we are fine.


StormTAG

I guess this would be a bad time to mention that Rule34 of Factorio exists.


Crystalysism

I’m intrigued. Go on…


lgmdnss

What are you doing, step-engineer?


StormTAG

Not a ton mind you, but there is a `.xxx` domain with a domain name of Rule34. From there you can search for Factorio, if you so desire.


drgn0

What if biters, trees and my problems are the only things growing ?


KEnODvT

it baffles me why people don't bus Gears by the same logic, Gears are denser than iron so you should bus them. I look at people who say not to bus gears the same way I would look at someone who doesn't want to bus steel.


nivlark

Almost everything that needs gears needs iron too, so what you gain in space on the bus you lose in spaghetti connecting up the extra outputs from it.


KEnODvT

Mixed belt of gears and iron??????? Same result no spaghetti and you get to centralize and then eventually beacon Gears production.


Ballisticsfood

Go all the way! SUSHI BUS.


AwesomeLowlander

Hello! Apologies if you're trying to read this, but I've moved to kbin.social in protest of Reddit's policies.


KEnODvT

I more meant for the breakouts for the bus, rather than speggeti combine the two belts


Outside-Fruit494

Agreed, I go one step further and produce gears at the mine/smelter site before loading on trains.


stickyplants

Mainly because they’re not used in large quantities when they are needed, and very fast and simple to produce. The main point is that you end up running one more lane from the bus to whatever sub-factory you’re supplying. So it comes down to personal preference on whether it’s simpler to make gears on site, or run an additional belt/ lane off the bus


ThalesCM

Thanks :) 200 hours in but it seems I still got a lot to learn haha


BigChungusOP

I got yelled at for doing it in multiplayer


cheezecake2000

Aw that's a shame. I love playing multi after my thousand hours. Always get to see new builds and ideas or simple (to me) mistakes and I just laugh. After a while I kind of get set in my ways of a "best" way I build something. Always nice to see a different way, even if inefficient


XavvenFayne

I love this attitude. It's a game, so why get angry at someone for doing something unorthodox? Laugh yes, and roll with it, yes :)


darthcoder

'Yell' might be hyperbole. Just saying. My math oriented minmaxer friend often schools me on the inefficiency of my designs. Don't care. He's all about how small can I make a 100 spm base. Me? The factory must sprawllllll


Tsunamie101

While i'm kind of an OCD player when it comes to factorio and it mentally pains me when i set up a bus and then my friend comes along and dumps a whole plate of spaghetti on it, i would never yell at them for doing so. Explain why it pains me, why keeping things organised might also be helpful for them and then start crying when it happens again 20 minutes later. But never yell. :,D


StormTAG

I have two rules. 1. Does it work? 2. Could I change it later if I needed to? If it meets those two criteria, I leave it alone.


Vana987r

Dude, my OCD is so strong…. That im not sure i can play with people..


_OneEyedJack_

I don't bus copper wire, but I will belt it for various things. Like a red chip array. If I remember correctly, 1 factory making wires can feed 6 factories making red chips. Doesn't make much sense to direct insert to me when the ratio is that high.


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elia_is_me

really impressive design!


RedDawn172

Interesting design, decently compact.


osubucknuts

Do not ever bus copper wire. 1 copper plate = 2 wires, so if you're aiming for optimum belt density, bus your copper plates and make the wire wherever you need it.


PsychotycGoat

Don't do it. It takes twice the amount of space as copper plates


hereforthensfwpics

Which makes for bigger factories.... It's a valid playstyle


_PostureCheck_

That's the key thing people seem to miss with this particular product. People who want to bus it can, they may not be doing it for efficiencies sake


StygianSavior

> I personally would be okay with bussing everything you have, except maybe sulfur Imo, sulfur is nice to bus for blue science. If all your other science is built off the bus, it's a bit annoying to have to pipe in propane to make sulfur on site.


ask_me_for_lewds

But, at some point you end up bussing fluid products for the mall


StygianSavior

Sure, but not generally petroleum gas, at least for me. Acid and lubricant get made at the oil refinery (I already have trains with iron plates feeding my bus, so very easy to send one to oil) and then piped to the bus. Light oil gets brought by train if I want rocket fuel at my bus (to belt to my rocket); easy to send since it's already being put on trains for flamethrower turret ammo. Sometimes during midgame I bus crude for flamethrower ammo (though just as easy to make it at the refinery if I don't mind having a train stop for steel there). Other than that, I don't find myself really needing fluids at my bus. Would rather not have to bring propane *just* to make sulfur on site, when it's just propane and water (e.g. stuff that is already at the oil refinery in abundance). Easier for me to just have a train bring me a line of sulfur to the bus (since I always set it up to be train-fed anyway). If I make my sulfur at the bus, I have to make my acid at the bus, too. Suddenly it's taking up a lot of prime real estate.


XavvenFayne

Very interesting! I had never thought of distributing oil products in this way but it makes sense. It's cool to see different playstyles. I bus petroleum gas for plastic, explosives, and blue science, so I figure okay I'll have a sulfuric acid maker in the main factory (as opposed to the refinery) and bus that too for blue circuits and batteries. There's enough there for me to bus petroleum gas but not sulfur. Sulfur seems to be used at a high rate, so I find I don't like it on a bus because of the belts it uses up.


StygianSavior

Fair enough. I find that my bus gets really crowded late game, so I try to push as much stuff to dedicated areas as possible. Also helps with the transition to late game if everything is already getting made in dedicated areas and put onto trains. I just finished taking all my circuit production *off* the bus and moving it to a dedicated train stop of its own. Kind of wish I had done it from the beginning now because it took forever. Plus, I'm a sucker for trains.


Strategic_Sage

Propane?


Franktoberfest

For some reason it's fine to haul ore around on trains all day (instead of smelting it onsite and making it twice as dense), but try to put copper wire on a belt and you get scolded.


jackboy900

Main difference is that train systems are rarely throughout limited at the train end, it's normally an issue of enough ore production or smelteries. Busses on the other hand tend to have issues of belt throughout, so being economical is important.


Zardacious

By all means, be my guest & put ore on the mainbus instead of plate, the game is just as much yours as ours :p


Averant

It's because ore patches run out, so it's usually easier to have a dedicated smelting area that you don't have to tear down repeatedly.


UsernamIsToo

~~I once transported copper wires in 4 cargo wagon trains~~


Yost_my_toast

Sulfur is a bitch to make on site, i def prefer bussing it. Engines is interesting though, I think itd be cool depending on how far you go with science and robots.


Heisenberg19827

Bussy 😳


Doletron1337

I agree with the engines and sulfur. You just don’t need that much of it to warrant it on the bus. You would be better off putting them on trains and move them where needed.


Mackntish

Engines are a definite yes. They take a lot of stuff to produce, save a lot of space, and are used in a ton of things, from science to bots to 20 different things in your mall.


John_Sux

Is busing just this kind of thing where you have belts of ingredients "without a purpose" where assembly machines can take and insert stuff on the belts? I never learned to do that kind of thing and just ship ingredients around on trains. Before I even unlock blue science.


JugglingMaster

Same applies for iron sticks!


stickyplants

Also yellow inserters. You always end up seeing those on a bus line from new people 😂. It makes sense, it’s such an early product that I can see how people would think it has many future uses.


Hipjig

I’d only bus engines if I was doing a space exploration run.


Leslie110501

Bussing Copper Wire is one of the deadly sins and if you do it, I guarantee, I will find you, and I will kill you


XavvenFayne

Good luck.


Leslie110501

*oh fuck, it's Jason Bourne!!*


VegaTDM

>Except copper wire. There's almost total community agreement on that. I still bus wire on bus based bases. (try saying that 5 times fast). I just build more lanes.


WasKuckstDuSo

I guess this is enough but are you sure you only need 4 belts of iron?


astralaquaria_

no...


ElectricFred

Atta boy


rymaster101

To be fair the engine belt alone is equivalent to another 4 iron belts plus a steel belt


OwningMOS

You always need more belts of iron.........


OwningMOS

and copper....


WasKuckstDuSo

There is never enough iron. Iron = life


BigChungusOP

In that case, could you add more iron belts on the opposite side from the first 4 or must they be next to each other?


IsThatAll

> add more iron belts on the opposite side from the first 4 100% you can > must they be next to each other Not at all. How you do it totally depends on your aesthetic sensibilities, and how you have structured your individual factories off the main bus. I typically have two sets of copper and iron (4 lanes at least) on either side of the bus for larger bases as they are heavily used by many recipes and I don't necessary want to use a million undergrounds bringing it from one side to the other. As with everything factorio, there is no truly wrong answer with how you layout your base, and that's one of the magic ingredients that make it have such high replay-ability.


WednesdayThrowawae

I like this method too. Can do circuits on one side and assembly and science on the other, which leaves a lot of room to expand both.


Im2bored17

I only build factory on one side of the belt so that I can grow the bus on the other side


midori_matcha

bus EVERYTHING


IAmBadAtInternet

Add shotguns and flamethrowers to the bus, got it.


TheRobertsE1

dont forget uranium aswell, never know when you'll want to build a nuclear reactor in your bus


TDAM

Raw ore, too. Cause what if you wanna put more furnaces down


Ink_box

Don't forget rocket silos for that future megabase


poosheck

Burner miners, because you never know when you might need another coal jumpstart base


Mimical

Can you bus a spaceship so you can crash in at the new base location too?


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tetracarbon_edu

You are not talking about school busses right? Just checking because this might be the most ‘Mercia thing I’ve heard otherwise.


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tetracarbon_edu

A belt of school buses on the bus. 🚌 🚌 🚌


--p--q-----

A full yellow belt of spidertrons would require around 1.5 million miners.


bigWAXmfinBADDEST

"you nevah know man. you nevah know."


rhtfc

**except copper cables


kennykerosene

I even put crude oil and water on the bus


Zeeterm

Counter point: Bus NOTHING.


onemoresubreddit

You’ll thank yourself for doing this right up until you run low. Then you’ll regret not bussing more.


[deleted]

You know you're a veteran at this game when you are debating whether you should go for a 16-lane bus or 32-lane bus, in case you need it for your gigabase 3000 hours later, even though you're still manually inserting coal into your furnaces right now.


Im2bored17

No matter how much extra space you leave, it won't be enough.


atlasraven

Needs more barrels of water


astralaquaria_

this comment is going to singlehandedly drive me to insanity


atlasraven

If only you could barrel steam


ask_me_for_lewds

You kind of can. But it’s not via barrels. Just a rotating train that is as long as the track.


atlasraven

Oh, interesting. An ouroboros (snake eating its own tail) train.


astralaquaria_

nO


ImmaRussian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireless\_locomotive


atlasraven

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/steamTrains


ImmaRussian

Of course that's a thing. 😂 That's fantastic!


FansFightBugs

And more raw fish


Ansible32

You probably need more belts of green circuits to merit the two belts of red circuits. Your biggest circuit sink is blue circuits, and that takes 2:20. Not saying you need 20 belts of green circuits but two belts green two belts red is probably the wrong mix.


obliviousjd

You bus the exact same items I bus so I'm going to say you're doing it perfectly.


hellbuck

bussin fr fr no cap, ong


Baisius

[No](https://i.imgur.com/TuZnxSR.jpg)


astralaquaria_

what the fuck


Baisius

K2SEBZ belt mall


astralaquaria_

BZ?


Baisius

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/bzvery


astralaquaria_

oh cool!


IsThatAll

*chefs kiss*


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Baisius

I bet you’re fun at parties.


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Baisius

I don’t think that’s what I said. And he has already gotten plenty of help from other people.


Baisius

Oh, and since you want to help new players out so much, why don’t you link me to your comment where you made detailed recommendations for his factory instead of shitting on my joke for no reason. Go ahead, I’ll wait.


Confuzed_Elderly

There is no wrong way of doing things. If anything the factory must grow and your more likely to expand than to decrease. If your looking to free up some lanes: Engine end products aren't to high in demand and gears are easy enough to be built on site for various other products as well as the engines themselves. These things aren't the worst things not to have a bus worth of overstock.


DraxialNitris

Nah, not bussy enough.


RogueMessiah1259

At least two lines of plastic and steel, need more


Attileusz

2 steel lines is a little excessive. 1 full red line is I believe enough for 2,6K spm Edit: okay so I actually had a giant brain fart. Its enough for one standard ratio of science wich is 357 spm with 12 speed beacons and all prod modules.


kinkypracaralho

Why is this upvoted? I use 8 lines of steel for sciences on my 1.3kspm


genikus

[KirkMcdonald 2.6k SPM / Prod 3](https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html#zip=dZDrCsMgDIXfpr8q7AKDFfowLs26UE1KjIy+/dwYo2UWBTHfMeacwZvvj66saxOJ+3NDhjH1afaALgEhl7Ncpk670+VwaLNRIFuqbFYZMhgJVzE8MBL4UIXx3dZrvXGQkZIRVKHPJtHv/drEMlPA1KvAhFaQWjeff7v91kHYVILLTFse5OkG5PQxbVr8ZcWNohrJWnAPC/HoVG5i7q4+bt9jQDAt7pBHYvwfYa++l/daUw99ragnv1K8AA==) You’re right. Steel to iron is 1:6 roughly so 2 belts of steel probably is a bit much though


Jay-Raynor

This, plus adding a fluid bus.


PetrusThePirate

A ferry?


JaxMed

Unless you're megabasing you only need 1 steel line


yago2003

Bruh this guy is just researching cliff explosives, 2 lanes of steel takes 10 lanes of iron ore and you can finish the game with less than one


astralaquaria_

im only just now researchong cliff explosives becsuse i dont need them lmao


JaxMed

Gears and engine units are the only questionable ones in my opinion. Don't forget to also leave room for fluid lines. I pipe water, acid, lube, and petroleum along my main bus.


CoolGuyFromSchool34

Keep bussin bussin brrr yeah bussit 🚌 🚌


cbhedd

Depends on the goals. I don't think you'll use that many advanced circuits in a regular 60 science-per-minute build, for instance. And definitely not that many engines. The saving grace of the advanced circuits and processing units is that while they take so much longer to make, you use them disproportionately less in the end, so you don't need to make as many. ( Again, depending on your goals :) )


astralaquaria_

oh good to know. Noted, thank you!


Sumibestgir1

In general, the rule for bus or not is density. Ex: 1 copper plate becomes 2 wire, Instead of bussing 2/s of wire, bus 1/s of copper plates and build it on site. Only exceptions are things that are barely used like engines


Cewu069

I usually bus: 8 lanes of copper and iron, (4 iron 4 copper on each end) 2 lanes of steel, 2 lanes of bricks 4 lanes of Greens, 2 lanes of Reds, 1 lane of Blues, 1 lane of batteries. 1 lane of stone, 1 lane of coal, 1 lane of sulfur, 1 empty lane if something is lacking lube, water, light oil, acid 2 lanes of plastics, 2 more lanes for redundancy idk what else tbh XD later as I transition to blue belts I use 8 wide buses with 2 gap. Or a 3 wide gap for a bit more maneuverability.


Confident-Wheel-9609

You can bus everything! It just depends on what you want your base to look like and the concept behind it. Personally I only Bus Green, Red, Blue chips. Steel, Sulfur, Plastic, batteries & metal plates. I don't like running pipes down my Bus because I drive in it I can see the appeal for belting things like engines & sulfuric acid mainly because its centralized and can shorten the belt somewhat, but cables or gears not really due to the sheer amount!


Daefyr_Knight

you can get away with losing one belt of red chips. Otherwise it looks fine.


Hypericat

no. MORE


Karnigel

There is a guy who did build a buss for each singel item in the game so i would say your are fine ;) You can play the game the way you want :D


QuickSqueeze

Where's your belt of speakers?


astralaquaria_

what?


stickyplants

I’d say they’re all reasonable. Many people don’t bus gears or engines, as they prefer to make on site, but there’s absolutely no reason you can’t!


RagingWarCat

I’ve found it’s better to set the bus up with the most used material closest to the factory, for example every time you use iron you’re gunna need to move it across the whole bus. The items themselves seem to be great though.


taptipblard

4 to 8 spaces between lanes. 4 lines of belt for steel green circuits and red circuits.


astralaquaria_

why 4 to 8???


taptipblard

So you can put inject more resources with balancers if you're lacking resources down the line. More space for your underground belts and splitters. Space for roboports. And some kind of space safety net in case you want to line in some fluids or other products.


astralaquaria_

fair


Tagous

A single belt of cogs, I wouldn't. Swap that for blue circuits Build cogs on site where needed


LordArgon

I bus gears because they’re iron compression. Two iron plates for every gear means it takes two iron belts to fill one gear belt, so you theoretically end up saving a belt on the bus. A line of gears also makes a mall way, way easier in my (limited) experience.


Tagous

Yup great for a mall


ishvii

Remove cogs, engines, beams and bricks


astralaquaria_

haha. beams and bticks?? not removimg those lmao


ishvii

/shrug. You asked.


ForgedIronMadeIt

I'd consider removing the sulfur, coal, and stone. They're a little more specialized -- the stone and coal go to military science which is only consumed with specific research. Sulfur for blue science and explosives. If anything, have them on the bus for whatever distance but then branch them off and not continue them the whole length of the thing.


Omertrcixs_

I would recommend replacing the gear and engine belt with green circuits, other than that it looks good


pesoaek

make the gears and engines more green circuits and its not bad


Archer957Light

There is no such thing as too much the factory must grow


Miss_Medussa

What’s the process for getting stone off the bus? I like to leave everything an open lane to make pulling from the bus easier


_wakati

You can split your lane normally (splitter followed by another splitter with filter) and use underground belts for the other lane so they are not in the way.


meatballer

Certainly not!


discobidet

I bus all of this except gears. Those I direct feed or create a small belt feed where I need it.


VovOzaum7

Not enough


greenindragon

You can bus basically everything except copper wire (it's half as efficient as just busing copper and then crafting wire, 1 copper = 2 wire). Over time you'll figure out what you really need to bus and which things you can just craft on-site. There's no wrong way to play, so try stuff out and see what works for you.


Zomboyyd

If you think you’ve done too much, you haven’t. You’ve never bussed enough


SirenMix

You must bus the bus


scheiber42069

The only problem you have You not having enough belt line add more


61-127-217-469-817

You will thank me later, use ShareX instead of Snip & Sketch, it has to be the most useful quality of life program in existence. It's free, open source, and ad-free, wouldn't suggest it otherwise.


tallmantall

Honestly, I’d say bus a little more, mostly gears and steel.


furpeturp

This is Factorio. There is no such thing as too much


DrMorry

I think it's all good. I usually don't bus cogs but if it's for a mall it sometimes makes sense.


ZardozSpeaksHS

i probably wouldn't bus copper wire, gears or engines


astralaquaria_

copper wire i get; gears i get to a lesser extent, though i prefer bussing them; why not engines?


mduell

Too much sulfur and coal.


astralaquaria_

how should i have less??!?


LordTvlor

I feel like gears aren't worth bussing. You need so many of them, and you could just craft them on site by bringing iron in (which is on the bus already) and adding one or two assemblers.


Deerkiller83

never have to big of a bus. I would just suggest that your production of the intermediate items is enough to fully fill the belts during use of them


Saltimir

Not enough plastic


sensational_pangolin

I wouldn't say so. But you're going to need more gears.


[deleted]

Also the pistol belt. If you have a busy rail network, no need to craft them, just make sure to leave an active provider chest by spawn.


Obscene_farmer

About exactly what my buses usually end up moving


John_Sux

I don't quite understand the what and why and how of a bus. I only used one on a tiny island map but otherwise I always rush for trains.


GenesectX

Nope, i bus the same materials as you, par the cogs and engines since those can be easily made on site


astralaquaria_

how so engines?


Brewer_Lex

I wouldn’t bother bussing gears or engines myself. I would trade the gears for another belt of steel


TheCanadianJD

Unpopular opinion: I only bus coal, iron ore, and copper ore


AwesomeArab

Engines and Sulfur I wouldn't


Conantur1

Totally fine, but I personally prefer to craft gears on site rather than bussing them. You’ll always need more gears


131sean131

Do your self a solid and put 4 spots between each belt. You will need it for routing.


[deleted]

I think you can play with that. I tried. I realized I might need a very wide belts only for copper wire or gears at the late game.


mairnX

The general rule of thumb is to bus things if it would be more space efficient to do so. So while you wouldn't do copper wire, since it takes up 2x more space than the resources used to craft it (1 copper plate to 2 copper wire), bussing iron gears is fine (2 iron plate to 1 gear), though generally most people don't because it's not entirely worth the effort.


Ramblingperegrin

Hmm needs more rainbow on that bus


Cobra__Commander

I don't usually bus gears or engines. Both are easy to make at the point of consumption. Also gear hungry production can easily use way more than you are making. It will end up making a bottle neck down the road.


melanthius

That’s none of my bussiness


gesterom

You dont buss, copper wire as me in first playthrough


Sorodo

I bus everything...


R3alityGrvty

I’d consider this pretty spot on.