Official Factorio Wiki - User contributions [en]

Power production/Optimal ratios

2016-03-21T19:50:40Z

H3half:

{{Languages}}
{{sublinks}}

This is about how many [[Boiler]]s, [[Pump]]s, [[Steam engine]]s and also ratios of [[Solar panel]] and [[Basic accumulator]] (and more).

== Hot liquids ==

=== Steam engines, pumps and boilers ===

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Needed number of entities in different situations
! Situation !! # of steam engines !! # of boilers !! # offshore pumps !! Comment
|-
| One steam engine || '''1''' || 2 || 1 || Could be used in very niche situations
|-
| One off-shore pump || 10 || 14 || '''1''' || A very popular and widely-used setup
|-
| Full throughput of a pipe || max. 21 || max. 28 || 3 || Total throughput depends on the length of the pipe
|}

Each steam engine needs roughly 1.31 boilers when running at full capacity.

One [[Pump|offshore pump]] can satisfy 14 [[Boiler]]s and 10 [[Steam engine|steam engines]]. 13 boilers will make the job also, but this tends to have problems to raise the temp after coal shortness or other accidents ([[Biter]]s love to attack the boilers).

To fully satisfy a pipe you need 3 [[Pump]]s or 5 [[Small pump]]s (or better 6, but that depends on pressure!). But with this setup you will find, that the length of your pipe-setup will influence this too much. This is definitely not a beginner strategy.

==== See also ====
* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5950 Research topic about energy]
* [[Liquids/Hot|Hot Liquids]]
* [[Liquids/Pipe physics]].

=== Hot liquids in tanks ===

To equalize the needed throughput (different needs of energy between day and night for example), hot water from boilers can also be stored in [[Storage Tank|storage tanks]] and used by extra steam engines during peak times or during night (if solar is in place). This energy storage technique can be used instead of or in addition to [[Basic accumulator|accumulators]].

See [[Liquids/Hot#Storing_hot_liquids_as_energy_storage|about storing of hot liquids]] how to use that.

== Solar Panels/Accumulators ==

=== Optimal ratio ===

The optimal ratio is 0.84 (25:21) accumulators per solar panel.

This is taken from [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5594 Accumulator / Solar panel ratio], which calculates this in an impressive mathematical way!

There are former threads:

* http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5168
* http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5394

And later:
* http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7619

=== Perfect placing ===

* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1865 Big solar farm]: About the perfect placing of panels

Power production/Optimal ratios

2016-03-21T19:47:46Z

H3half: rewording

{{Languages}}
{{sublinks}}

This is about how many [[Boiler]]s, [[Pump]]s, [[Steam engine]]s and also ratios of [[Solar panel]] and [[Basic accumulator]] (and more).

== Hot liquids ==

=== Steam engines, pumps and boilers ===

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Needed number of entities in different situations
! Situation !! # of steam engines !! # of boilers !! # offshore pumps !! Comment
|-
| One steam engine || '''1''' || 2 || 1 || Could be used in very niche situations
|-
| One off-shore pump || 10 || 14 || '''1''' || A very popular and widely-used setup
|-
| Full throughput of a pipe || max. 21 || max. 28 || 3 || Total throughput depends on the length of the pipe
|}

Each steam engine needs roughly 1.31 boilers when running at full capacity.

One [[Pump|offshore pump]] can satisfy 14 [[Boiler]]s and 10 [[Steam engine|steam engines]]. 13 boilers will make the job also, but this tends to have problems to raise the temp after coal shortness or other accidents ([[Biter]]s love to attack the boilers).

To fully satisfy a pipe you need 3 [[Pump]]s or 5 [[Small pump]]s (or better 6, but that depends on pressure!). But with this setup you will find, that the length of your pipe-setup will influence this too much. This is definitely not a beginner strategy.

==== See also ====
* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5950 Research topic about energy]
* [[Liquids/Hot|Hot Liquids]]
* [[Liquids/Pipe physics]].

=== Hot liquids in tanks ===

To equalize the needed throughput (different needs of energy between day and night for example), hot water from boilers can also be stored in [[Storage Tank|storage tanks]] and used by extra steam engines during peak times or during night (if solar is in place). This energy storage technique can be used instead of or in addition to [[Basic accumulator|accumulators]].

See [[Liquids/Hot#Storing_hot_liquids_as_energy_storage|about storing of hot liquids]] how to use that.

== Solar/Accu ==

=== Optimal ratio ===

The optimal ratio is 0.84 (25:21) accumulators per solar panel.

This is taken from [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5594 Accumulator / Solar panel ratio], which calculates this in an impressive mathematical way!

There are former threads:

* http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5168
* http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5394

And later:
* http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7619

=== Perfect placing ===

* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1865 Big solar farm]: About the perfect placing of panels

Piercing rounds magazine

2016-02-02T00:30:01Z

H3half:

{{Languages}}
{{Combat
|damage =5 (physical)
|magazinesize =10
|input =time, 3 + copper plate, 5 + steel plate
|technologies =military 2
|boosttechs =bullet damage + bullet shooting speed
|producers =manual + assembling machine
}}

A more advanced ammunition type for gun weapons.

More resource intensive than [[Regular Magazine]], but has higher damage.

== Usable ammunition for ==
{{icon|pistol}} [[Pistol]] 
{{icon|submachine gun}} [[Submachine gun]] 
{{icon|gun turret}} [[Gun turret]] 
{{icon|vehicle machine gun}} [[Vehicle machine gun]]

== See also ==
* [[Regular Magazine]]
* [[Enemies]]
* [[Damage|Damage & resistances]]
* [[Defense]]

{{EquipNav}}

[[Category:Items]]
[[Category:Weapons]]
[[Category:Equipment]]
[[Category:Combat]]

Firearm magazine

2016-02-02T00:28:38Z

H3half:

{{Languages}}
{{Combat
|damage =2 (physical)
|magazinesize =10
|input =time, 2 + iron plate, 2
|boosttechs =bullet damage + bullet shooting speed
|producers =manual + assembling machine
}}

The most basic ammunition for starting weapons. Cheap, but has limited damage.

== Usable ammunition for ==
{{icon|pistol}} [[Pistol]] 
{{icon|submachine gun}} [[Submachine gun]] 
{{icon|gun turret}} [[Gun turret]] 
{{icon|vehicle machine gun}} [[Vehicle machine gun]]

== See also ==
* [[Piercing Rounds Magazine]]
* [[Enemies]]
* [[Damage|Damage & resistances]]
* [[Defense]]

{{EquipNav}}

[[Category:Items]]
[[Category:Weapons]]
[[Category:Equipment]]
[[Category:Combat]]

Pistol

2016-02-02T00:26:57Z

H3half:

{{Languages}}
{{Combat
|range =15
|shootingspeed =6 /s
|ammunition =regular magazine + piercing rounds magazine
|magazinesize =10
|input =time, 1 + copper plate, 5 + iron plate, 5
|boosttechs =bullet damage + bullet shooting speed
|producers =manual + assembling machine
}}

The Pistol is the most basic weapon in Factorio. It can fire either [[Regular Magazine|regular ammunition]] or [[Piercing Rounds Magazine|piercing ammunition]].

The Pistol can only handle the smallest of enemy threats and the player will frequently take damage when trying to use it for self-defense. It is recommended to upgrade to the [[Submachine gun]] as soon as possible.

{{EquipNav}}

[[Category:Items]]
[[Category:Weapons]]
[[Category:Equipment]]
[[Category:Combat]]

Firearm magazine

2016-02-02T00:23:38Z

H3half:

{{Languages}}
{{Combat
|damage =2 (physical)
|magazinesize =10
|input =time, 2 + iron plate, 2
|boosttechs =bullet damage + bullet shooting speed
|producers =manual + assembling machine
}}

The most basic ammunition for starting weapons. Cheap, but has limited damage.

== Usable ammunition for ==
{{icon|pistol}} [[Pistol]] 
{{icon|submachine gun}} [[Submachine gun]] 
{{icon|gun turret}} [[Gun turret]] 
{{icon|vehicle machine gun}} [[Vehicle machine gun]]

== See also ==
* [[Piercing rounds magazine]]
* [[Enemies]]
* [[Damage|Damage & resistances]]
* [[Defense]]

{{EquipNav}}

[[Category:Items]]
[[Category:Weapons]]
[[Category:Equipment]]
[[Category:Combat]]

Submachine gun

2016-02-02T00:22:45Z

H3half:

{{Languages}}
{{Combat
|range =15
|shootingspeed =15 /s
|ammunition =regular magazine + piercing rounds magazine
|magazinesize =10
|input =time, 3 + iron gear wheel, 10 + copper plate, 5 + iron plate, 10
|raw =time, 8 + iron plate, 30 + copper plate, 5
|technologies =military
|boosttechs =bullet damage + bullet shooting speed
|producers =manual + assembling machine 2 + assembling machine 3
}}

The Submachine gun is an upgrade from the [[Pistol]]. It fires the same ammunition types and deals the same damage as the pistol, but has a much higher rate of fire.

This weapon can easily handle moderate waves of small biters, even with [[Regular Magazine|regular ammunition]], but destroying nests efficiently requires damage upgrades or the more expensive [[Piercing Rounds Magazine|piercing round]]. Regular and aggressive use will devour the player's ammo supply, and the high cost of producing ammo against respawning biters can stifle early game production.

Because of these issues the submachine gun is best reserved for personal defense. Players wishing to take the fight to the biters should instead invest in the assault-friendly [[Shotgun]].

{{EquipNav}}

[[Category:Items]]
[[Category:Weapons]]
[[Category:Equipment]]
[[Category:Combat]]

Belt transport system

2016-01-21T20:32:50Z

H3half: Reworked the rest of the page

{{Languages}}
The belt transport system is the first transport system available in Factorio, and together with [[Railway|Trains]] and [[Logistic network|Logistics Robots]] make up the backbone of any Factorio base. Transport belts (sometimes called conveyors) are used to transport [[Items]].

There are three types of belt, each with three different speed tiers. The three types of belt are:

[[File:Basic-transport-belt.png|link=Transport belts]] [[File:Fast-transport-belt.png|link=Transport belts]] [[File:Express-transport-belt.png|link=Transport belts]] ''' - [[Transport belts]]

[[File:Basic-transport-belt-to-ground.png|link=Underground belts]] [[File:Fast-transport-belt-to-ground.png|link=Underground belts]] [[File:Express-transport-belt-to-ground.png|link=Underground belts]] ''' - [[Underground belts]]

[[File:Basic-splitter.png|link=Splitters]] [[File:Fast-splitter.png|link=Splitters]] [[File:Express-splitter.png|link=Splitters]] ''' - [[Splitters]]

== Differences between the belt tiers ==

The main difference between different tiers of belt is the speed at which they operate. As belt is upgraded from yellow to red to blue, it gets faster and is able to move more items. The [[Transport belts/Physics|Physics]] page has some technical information on exact values for each tier of transport belt.

== General behavior ==

=== Power usage ===

Belts don't need power for transportation. This is one of the many [[Mysteries of the Factorio World]].

But, like other [[Mysteries of the Factorio World]], this is purely for gameplay reasons. If transport belts needed power, the game would be much more difficult and the player would have to worry about the entire factory coming to a standstill if power was lost.

For example, if belts needed power, a player might lose the ability to get [[Coal]] to their [[Steam engine]]. This would mean the player can't generate more power using the steam engine, which means the belts don't bring coal to the engine, etc.

This type of deadlock is avoided by allowing transport belts to operate without power.

=== Debug mode ===

Belts can be envisioned as "moving ground." Every [[Items|item]] on a belt is moved in the belt's direction each [[Game-tick|tick]].

Every item is a small entity with a collision box (to see this, turn on "collision box" in [[Debug mode|debug mode]]). When the belt moves, the item (and the item's collision box) moves along with it. When on a belt, item's collision boxes never overlap (see image below).

[[File:Belts2.png|400px]]

In the image above, imagine the items moving upward tick by tick. When the items come to the turn, they aren't rotated but are instead moved to the side.

When [[Debug mode|debug mode]] is used and the [[Lua/Game#speed|game speed is reduced]] to around 0.3, the collision boxes of moving items can be clearly seen.

== Puzzling game element ==

Transport belts introduce a puzzle-like game element. The player needs to plan the transport belt system ahead of time, or else risk having to tear them up at a later time when things need to be expanded or moved around. Transport belts have [[Transport belts#Belt Management|many applications]] that are not immediately obvious, such as merging belt lanes together, balancing belt lanes, and overcoming logistical challenges such as maximizing throughput while minimizing size.

Many of the pages below include more information on those and other advanced applications of transport belts.

== Overview ==

{| class="wikitable"
! [[Transport belts]] !! [[Underground belts]] !! [[Splitters]] !! Speed ([[tile]]s/[[Game-second|second]]) !! Needed research
|-
| {{imagelink|basic-transport-belt|Basic transport belt}}
| {{imagelink|basic-transport-belt-to-ground|Basic underground belt}}
| {{imagelink|basic-splitter|Basic splitter}}
| ~1.8
| [[Logistics 1]] Basic underground belt and Basic splitter
|-
| {{imagelink|fast-transport-belt|Fast transport belt}}
| {{imagelink|fast-transport-belt-to-ground|Fast underground belt}}
| {{imagelink|fast-splitter|Fast splitter}}
| ~3.6
| [[Logistics 2]]
|-
| {{imagelink|express-transport-belt|Express transport belt}}
| {{imagelink|express-transport-belt-to-ground|Express underground belt}}
| {{imagelink|express-splitter|Express splitter}}
| ~5.6
| [[Logistics 3]]
|-
|}

== See also ==

* [[Transport network]]
** [[Transport belts]]
** [[Splitters]]
** [[Underground belts]]
* [[Transport]]
* [[Crafting network]]
* [[Logistic network]]

[[Category: Transport network]] [[Category: Belt transport system]]

Belt transport system

2016-01-21T19:23:59Z

H3half: Rework introduction

{{Languages}}
The belt transport system is the first transport system available in Factorio, and together with [[Railway|Trains]] and [[Logistic network|Logistics Robots]] make up the backbone of any Factorio base. Transport belts (sometimes called conveyors) are used to transport [[Items]].

There are three types of belt, each with three different speed tiers. The three types of belt are:

[[File:Basic-transport-belt.png|link=Transport belts]] [[File:Fast-transport-belt.png|link=Transport belts]] [[File:Express-transport-belt.png|link=Transport belts]] ''' - [[Transport belts]]

[[File:Basic-transport-belt-to-ground.png|link=Underground belts]] [[File:Fast-transport-belt-to-ground.png|link=Underground belts]] [[File:Express-transport-belt-to-ground.png|link=Underground belts]] ''' - [[Underground belts]]

[[File:Basic-splitter.png|link=Splitters]] [[File:Fast-splitter.png|link=Splitters]] [[File:Express-splitter.png|link=Splitters]] ''' - [[Splitters]]

== Differences between the belt-types ==

Technically the only difference between the levels of the three belt types is '''speed''' and '''colour'''. In practice, there are some differences in density, throughput and handling in conjunction with inserters. See [[Transport belts/Physics|Physics]] to dig deeper into that.

== General behavior ==

=== No energy usage ===

Belts don't need energy to for transportation, and this is one of the [[Mysteries of the Factorio World]]. But like any other mystery in Factorio, this is also just for gameplay reasons. If the transport belts would use energy, your whole factory production line could be halted. For example, if you run out of coal, which needs to be transported to the boilers to heat water, and in turn, make Steam Engines run, your whole production line will shut down because the conveyor belts as well will stop.

=== Using debug-mode to see, what really happens? ===

The belt transport system can be imagined as a type of "moving ground." Basically every [[Items|item]] on a belt is moved in the conveyor belt's direction.

Technically an item is a small entity in a "box" (turn on the ''collision box'' in the [[Debug mode]] to see this) that is in motion (usually through the use of conveyor belts and inserters) and do not overlap (see the image below).

[[File:Belts2.png|400px]]

You can imagine the items moving upward [[Game-tick|tick by tick]]. And when coming to the turn, the items aren't rotated, but moved to the side.

When you use the [[Debug mode]] and turn on the collision boxes, and also [[Lua/Game#speed|reduce the game speed]] to about 0.3, you can really clearly see, how items move on the belts.

== Puzzling game element ==

Another game-element of the belts is that they introduce some kind of puzzling into the game. The handling of the [[Transport belts/Belt lane|near and far side of the belt]], [[Transport belts/Optimizing|optimizing]] and many other aspects are quite concentrated in the management of the belts. If you want to handle those kinds of puzzles, please continue to read the pages below.

== Overview ==

{| class="wikitable"
! [[Transport belts]] !! [[Underground belts]] !! [[Splitters]] !! Speed ([[tile]]s/[[Game-second|second]]) !! Needed research
|-
| {{imagelink|basic-transport-belt|Basic transport belt}}
| {{imagelink|basic-transport-belt-to-ground|Basic underground belt}}
| {{imagelink|basic-splitter|Basic splitter}}
| ~1.8
| [[Logistics 1]] Basic underground belt and Basic splitter
|-
| {{imagelink|fast-transport-belt|Fast transport belt}}
| {{imagelink|fast-transport-belt-to-ground|Fast underground belt}}
| {{imagelink|fast-splitter|Fast splitter}}
| ~3.6
| [[Logistics 2]]
|-
| {{imagelink|express-transport-belt|Express transport belt}}
| {{imagelink|express-transport-belt-to-ground|Express underground belt}}
| {{imagelink|express-splitter|Express splitter}}
| ~5.6
| [[Logistics 3]]
|-
|}

== See also ==

* [[Transport network]]
** [[Transport belts]]
** [[Splitters]]
** [[Underground belts]]
* [[Transport]]
* [[Crafting network]]
* [[Logistic network]]

[[Category: Transport network]] [[Category: Belt transport system]]

Tutorial:Quick start guide

2015-07-08T13:46:15Z

H3half: Reworded some of the introductory language

{{Languages}}
== Getting Started ==
So you've just picked up Factorio, played through the tutorial and now have no clue what to do? Not a problem, let's try to ease you into the game a little bit.

=== Starting your game ===
To begin you are going to be presented with the main menu. You'll have run into one of these before.

We want to select "Play" and "New Game". You will be presented with a nice big menu for [[Game/World generator|customization of your world]]. The default settings are fine for a first play through.

==== World generator ====

You can fiddle with these options to make the [[Game/World generator|world generate]] how you want it to. These options can greatly affect the difficulty of your world.

Each resource type, along with enemy bases, is controlled by 3 values: frequency, size and richness.
* Frequency relates to how often you'll see ore veins or enemy bases within the game world
* Size relates to how large these veins or bases are
* Richness relates to how many resources ore tiles will product before running dry, and how dense enemy bases are

For an easier beginner experience, set the frequency of iron ore, copper ore, stone, coal, and crude oil to "Very High" and the richness of "Very Good." This will ensure you have plenty of resources available, and that you will not have to venture far from your starting area to find resources. You may also want to set the size of enemy bases to "Very Small" to lower the number of enemies.

If you want to know more about the world generator, [[Game/World generator|read this article.]]

==== Peaceful mode ====

If you want to enjoy building and not be bothered by enemies, check the "peaceful mode" option. Enemies will still spawn, but they'll stay where they are until you go to them.

Once you have changed any options you want to change, press "Generate." A new world will be generated, your player will spawn, and you're ready to play!

===Useful Key Bindings===

While most of the controls and key combinations can be found in the controls of the game options, many people tend not to look there. Here are the essentials:
{{:Game/Keyboard bindings}}
Please refer to [[Game/Keyboard bindings]] to know more about keybindings and how to configure them.

== The very first moments ==

=== Resources ===

Make sure that you have these four resources close to your spawn location. You want to have [[Coal]], [[Copper ore]], [[Iron ore]], and [[Stone]] within a reasonable proximity to each other; the farther apart they are the harder it will be to use them together (trust us, they will be used together).

If your spawn area doesn't hold one of these resources, or they are too scarce or too far apart, simply hit the Escape key and choose "Restart." This will re-generate game world and you will spawn in a new starting location.

Later we will also need [[Water]], and much later we will also need [[Crude Oil]]. However, these two, being liquids, are much easier to transport over distance than the four solid resources. It's OK if your starting area doesn't have immediate access to water or oil.

Everything in Factorio is made from these six basic resources, which is why the game will be more difficult if your starting location does not have easy access to most of them (especially the four solid resources).

=== Craft a pickaxe ===

Go towards whichever resource you choose and hold right click. This will give you a small progress bar at the bottom, which when complete will give you some of those resources. You might find that chopping trees and mining ores manually is really slow. If you look at your character, he's just bashing at them with a stick! How about a tool upgrade? Press E to open up your inventory and the crafting menu. Select the gears tab up the top for "Production", and left click on the iron pickaxe in there. This will increase your mining speed by a significant amount.

=== Placing mines and furnaces ===

You begin your journey with a humble [[Stone Furnace]] and a [[Burner Mining Drill]]. What do we do with these?
First of all, you should place your [[Mining drill|drill]] on the edge of an iron deposit, facing towards a [[Furnace]].

You can change the direction of the Drill by either pressing "R" before you place it, or after by hovering over it with the mouse and pressing "R". The little yellow arrow shows where the mined iron ore will come out. You want the Furnace to be in front of that arrow, so that the drill automatically inputs into the furnace. You should get something like this.
:[[File:SimpleOre.PNG|center|thumb]]

'''Remember to press "ALT" to activate the detailed view.''' This makes it easier to see what is inputting what into where.

=== Feeding with fuel ===
Great! But what does the big flashing red symbol mean? Well, there isn't any '''[[Fuel]]''' in the drill or the furnace.

You can power them with either [[Wood]] or [[Coal]]. To collect them, you'll need to cut trees or mine coal, with right click.

Assuming that you now have a pickaxe and have found some fuel, it's about time we went and made the furnace and drill start working for you. By left clicking on the furnace or drill, their interface will open.
:[[File:Interface.PNG|center|thumb|upright=4]]
To place your fuel into the machine, simply left click it to pick it up and left click again to put it into the fuel slot.

If you want to split a '''[[Storage/Stack|stack]]''' in half, so that your furnace and drill can both get half of your fuel, right click the stack in your inventory and then place it in the fuel slot. Easy as that! Now both of your machines should be running and automatically making you some iron plates! Try also CTRL-left click: this will feed half of the stack you're holding into the machine.

You can use an identical setup for copper ore to get copper plates.

== Production upgrade! ==

You know what's better than iron plates? ''More'' iron plates! Why don't we go ahead and get them?

You'll need to craft some extra drills. If you hover over drill in the crafting menu, you'll see two lists of materials. The first list shows the components needed to make the drill; the second one at the very bottom of the tooltip window shows the raw resources needed to craft it.
Unlike other games, you do not need to create the pre-requisite items before you select the item you want to make. All required items are crafted for you.
You can see this process happening on the bottom left of the screen, where your Crafting Queue is.
You can also queue up more crafting orders, as long as you have the necessary materials on you, and they'll get carried out one after the other.
:[[File:Recipe.PNG|center|upright=2|thumb]]
Now that you can afford some extra drill and furnaces, you should automate the acquisition of both coal and stone.
These are easy to set up and work essentially the same as the iron setup.
For Coal, you can have two drills facing each other: they'll run on the coal they get fed by their partner and you can collect the surplus.

Don't forget that you can collect resources from machines without opening their inventories, with CTRL-LMB.
You might also want to activate the detailed view, by pressing the ALT key once. You can deactivate it by pressing ALT again.

[[File:SimpleCoal.PNG|center|thumb]]

And for stone you can have the drill output directly into a chest.

Once this is all setup up, you will probably want to make it go faster. Set up more drills with furnaces for the iron, setup some for copper and maybe lay more drills on the coal to cover for the extra coal production.
In the early game, the most used resource is iron, so you'll probably need twice as many miners on iron than copper, if not more. But expect copper to become more and more important the more you mess with electricity and electronics!

=== More automation ===

Ok great, so now you have 4 or so furnaces making iron, a couple making copper, some stone production and a good amount of coal production.
But you know what really sucks? having to run the coal around to all your other machines, right? Well let's automate that too!
Conveyor belts and inserters are the way of the future! The output slots on the drill can also output onto conveyor belts to be transported to your other machines.

[[File:CoalConveyor.PNG|center|upright=2|thumb]]

Now that we can take our coal to other places with no effort, we just need a way to input the coal into those machine.
This is what [[Inserters]] are for. You can use burner inserters as a cheap way to move items from anything to anything. You can move object from the ground, chests, machines and put them wherever you want.
Burner Inserters themselves require coal to run though, which makes this a little counter intuitive to have to fuel them instead of the machines you are trying to fuel anyway.
Here is a small example of inserters working. Notice that the flat line is where the inserters will pick up from, and the arrow is where they will place the item.

[[File:SimpleOreProcessing.PNG|center|upright=2|thumb]]

Ok great, so now we know how to automatically mine things and then how to automatically move things from one place to another, and then to place said items into machine or out of machines.

Next up we want to get some [[electric network|electricity]] so that we can have inserters that run of that instead of fuel.

== Electrical power ==

Electricity. This is where things start to get interesting. We're going to need a single offshore pump, some boilers and a steam turbine. These are really simple to set up, they just require twenty-some iron plates and 5 stone per boiler. The offshore pump goes in the water and needs no power to run. From there, you can either use pipes to transport the water to boilers, or you can run boilers straight from the pump. Boilers allow water to flow through them just like pipes do, except they also heat the water along the way and cannot be used as corners. The pipes or the boilers then connect to the middle of the short side of the steam engine. Make sure you connect it in the right place or it won't work. Moreover, steam engines allow water to run through them just like boilers, so you can have as many turbines as you want connected in a row. Here is a small example.

[[File:SimpleGeneratorSetup.png|center|600px|thumb]]

Now you need to use power poles to carry power to your machines. Place some down so that their coverage area (the blue square) overlaps each turbine in at least one square. If they are going to connect, the machines that use power will be shown with a blue outline around their edges.

If the turbine is producing power but nothing is using it, it'll show a yellow flashing icon: right now it's showing because we don't have electric machines yet!

[[File:LonelyTurbine.PNG|center|upright=1|thumb]]

Your power setup can look however you want it to look.
A great method is to have a line of boilers that supply a certain amount of turbines with hot water, and then you can use transport belts to bring coal to them for inserters to place inside them so that your electricity is always running.

The most often used setup is 1 offshore pump, 14 boilers and 10 steam engines. This is due to this being the best ratio between the 3 of them. 1 pump produces enough water for 10 engine, and the 14 boilers is sufficient to heat the water for that many. The example above is easily expanded into this efficient design. But hey, this game is all about experimentation and for you to be able to find ways to do your own things! So get to it, and show off your own unique designs!

[[File:steamSetupExample.png|center|upright=4|thumb|Here's my personal favourite setup. Even easier to power when medium powerpoles are available.]]

Using this power is as simple as creating a machine that runs on electricity and placing a power pole close enough to it that the blue square touches the machine, just like you have to do at the power plant with the engines. Make sure that there is a line of power poles that actually connect to your power plant.

Now that power is explained, we need to increase our resource production.

However, if you want detailed info on your power production/consumption, you can check the [[Power Production#What_can_be_seen_from_the_electric_network_info.3F|Detailed Electric Network Info]], opened by clicking on any powerpole.

== Re-thinking our resources and research ==

Next we really want to get onto automation of items, not just the smelting of ores.

Before we can get to that though, we're going to have increase our production of ores. This is where things start becoming a little tricky and there are few things you want to do at once.
We really want to be able to set the factory to make things and let it go. But for that we need some extra utilities which we don't have and need to get through [[research]].

We haven't even touched on that yet! lets start by ramping up our resource production. Now that we have electricity, we can use [[Mining Drill|Electric Mining Drills]]. These are much better than those scummy Burner ones. They work exactly the same except they are twice as fast and they don't rely on fuel, as you could guess by the names. You can have them to output your raw resources onto belts and get them to a place where you can mass process the ores into plates. Here is a small example of what you could do, but let your imagination and your calculating logic figure out other, maybe even better ways of doing it! You want ore to be split more or less evenly on each side of the belts. This helps with the amount of resources that can be carried to your base of operations on a single belt.

[[File:BasicElectricMiners.PNG|center|upright=1.5|thumb]]

This is once again easily expandable all over an iron deposit. This conveyor belt can then take all of the ore to some sort of processing area. The processing area needs some machines that we currently don't have due to limitations in our research.

Most importantly, we want the [[long handed inserter]]. This inserter is able to reach twice as far as a normal inserter! It is very useful for bringing or placing items to or from conveyor belts that are one extra tile away. So what we need to do is to make some science labs. They don't cost too many resources, but take a little while to make. Craft one or two of them and connect them to power. When you first place one, you are going to get a popup asking you want you want to research. We really want automation right now. This gives us our inserters and the Assembling machine 1, which is going to be very useful in the near future.

You'll notice that the cost for this is 10 Science Pack 1's, or "red potions" or "flasks" as some people like to call them. These are simply another crafted item, which you should craft 10 of now and place them in your labs to begin researching. While you are waiting for your flasks to craft or your research to complete, lets continue building an ore processing center. We want a line of copper, iron and coal to be available for this area. Despite being in the electric era, our furnaces still need coal until a little further down the line.

Below is another sample of how you ''could'' set up your area. There are efficient ways of making them that you might see on the forum, but if you want to learn about what they are and how they work, you can either experiment yourself or search the wiki/forum for some better designs.

[[File:OreProcessingArea.PNG|center|upright=2|thumb]]

As per usual, I leave this area with plenty of room to expand later on when demands become higher. The important parts about this is that you need the red, long handed inserters to be able to reach the coal in the middle to fuel your furnaces. You need seperate belts for your incoming raw materials to be able to be processed, and then another belt outside of them to handle the output after they have been smelted. These materials can then go straight into your base to be made into a myriad of other things. Finally, we have a steady and upgradeable supply of copper and iron plates, and we can get into further automation with the assembling machines so we can automate creation of things like Science Packs, Ammunition and every other item that the player themselves can craft, but without you involved at all!

== Automating that research ==

Ok, so a fair amount has happened. Now, to be able to progress into later parts of the game with better research we are going to want automate the process of making science packs and putting them into the labs. This way we won't have to worry about research any longer.

There are many designs that you can find on the forums, but I'll show you something simple, letting you find what works for you. I would highly recommend that you research Logistics as your next research, and in fact manually craft the science required for this. The logistic research gives you some important things: the [[splitters|splitter]], the [[underground belts|underground belt]] and the [[fast inserter]]. The splitter and underground belts are some of the most important items you'll get at this stage. They do pretty much what their names imply.

So what do science packs require? We need copper plates and iron gears. So far we have only dealt with raw resources, how do we make craftable things? The Assembler answers your prayers! If you place an assembler down and open its interface, it asks you what you would like it to craft. Once you select one, if you put the ingredients in that it requires it will craft the item and you can pull out the finished product. In the case of red science packs, we will need an assembler making iron gears, and an assembler making the actual packs. A nice way of doing this is to have a conveyor belt with 1 side containing the copper plates and the other side taking the gears from another assembler like below.

[[File:RedScienceProduction.PNG|center|thumb|upright=3]]

Now this picture uses a few neat little tricks that I will explain in detail. If you have your plate belts seperate, and you want them running side by side there can be issues with trying to grab one or the other resources from the far belt. Yes, you could use a long inserter, but in some cases you don't want this (e.g. you need a fast inserter to get resources quickly into your assemblers).

The area in red is a good way to get around this. By having a splitter, you can move the far belt from your production in close while also allowing it to continue down the line for later use. For the copper, we use an underground belt to go underneath the area that is now taken by the far line which also allows the copper to continue on. Once again, this is only one possible method of doing things and you are in no way obligated to follow it.

The area in blue is a quick way to allow copper to continue down the main line, while also splitting some off for our red science assemblers. Notice how when it joins the line that the gears are on, they only join the bottom side of the belt. The little extra belt that I added to the left stops the belt from becoming a turn, and therefore makes the items only join the side I want them to. The rest is simple: the gears and copper get pulled into the assemblers, they make the science and then it gets pulled out again on the other side. These flasks can then be transported to some labs to automatically do your research for you, for example like this:

[[File:SmallScience.PNG|center|thumb|upright=3]]

== See also ==

* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7765 Newbie Tips?]

Roadmap

2015-07-08T13:22:11Z

H3half: Removed redundant statement about the forum roadmap thread, removed sentence explaining how this page exists to hopefully change their habits; I feel that it was confusing and isn't especially helpful to people who come here looking for Factorio info

<noinclude>
{{Languages}}
</noinclude>
=== Official Roadmap (copy) ===

The official roadmap is the '''[http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=678 roadmap thread in the forum],''' which is normally updated after each major release.

* '''[[Roadmap/Coming Releases]]
* [[Roadmap/History]]
* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=7289 About the endgame content]

=== Development methods ===
: '''[http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-10 Factorio is a continuous jam session.]

Factorio is developed in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continual_improvement_process continuous development process]. This means, that the targets change with the ongoing development.

From that [http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-10 article]:

: ''Any manager would probably say this is a bad thing, that we need a roadmap for the whole process from the start to the final release with all the contents, features and graphics planned ahead including cost estimates. I personally think, that the freedom of the jam (agile) way of development that allows us to react is the best for Factorio. We are inventing and extending the best ideas on the run, ideas that would never be visible in the start.

The forum also includes a big [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6 Ideas & Suggestions-Board] which can be seen as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development)#Product_backlog backlog] for the development team.

Factorio:About

2015-07-08T13:18:03Z

H3half: Grammar changes, fixed some style issues (capitalizing some things but not others, etc.). Generally making things look nice

{{Languages}}
<onlyinclude>'''Factorio''' is a game about [[Mining drill|mining resources]], [[Version0.9#Blueprints_.26_Deconstruction|planning and building factories]], [[Assembling machine|automating production]], and fighting [[Enemies|alien enemies]]. [[Player|You]] are a survivor from a space colonization effort gone awry, and you find yourself alone on the [[Tile|surface]] of a hostile alien planet. With nothing but the [[Stone|raw stone]] and [[Iron ore|ore]] at your feet, the only hope for survival is to build your [[Automation|automated machines]] and [[Crafting network|factories]] from the ground up to produce the equipment and [[Defense|defenses]] needed for survival on this strange world. Apart from efficiently designing and maintaining your army of machines, you will need to [[Wall|protect your factory]] and [[Modular armor|yourself]] from the unfriendly alien hordes who seek to destroy your automations and remove you from the planet.<includeonly>'''[[Factorio:About|... read more ...]]'''</includeonly></onlyinclude>

__TOC__

== Roadmap ==

See [[Roadmap]]. There is an [[Roadmap|article about that]].

== Sozializing ==

* [http://ask.fm/FactorioGame Ask.fm]. Very informative.
* [https://www.facebook.com/Factorio Factorio on Facebook]. Sometimes nice new pictures here.

== Definition / Genre ==

[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage TV Tropes] have a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Videogame/Factorio good definition of Factorio].

== History ==

=== April 1, 2014: [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3026 Interview of Michal Kovarik in CanardPC] ===

This is no April fool. :)

=== July 29, 2013: [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1120 Developer Interview] ===

Interview from Myratax.

English video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuatfFHT9L0

German video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lywJUWYM3Yw

=== February 5, 2013: [http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=125195010 Steam greenlight campaign] ===

* http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=125195010
** Especially this [http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/125195010/846958001178787026/ discussion] about going steam greenlight.

=== [http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/factorio Indiegogo-Campaign] ===

* http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/factorio

=== From [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=122388.0 Dwarf Fortress forum] ===

We put that into the wiki, because it can be seen as a kind of "historical document" and a prove, that no essential point of the original vision has been lost.
Because it is over a yer since then, we added some comment, see down!

:Factorio - Factory building game « on: February 01, 2013, 12:46:49 am »

:'''What do I do in the game ?
:You will be in charge of a character that is building a factory from scratch. You will be mining resources, automating production, managing energy sources, designing the flow of items in your factory, researching technologies and defending from hostile creatures.

:'''What is the game inspired by ? [*]
:We drew a lot of inspiration from Transport Tycoon-like games, Civilization and Minecraft.

:'''Why should I care ?
:This game is made by geeks for geeks. The core of the game is building things. You can create huge almost self sufficient factories. There are machines crafting other machines. All the stuff is travelling on transport belts. There are simple means of "programming" the robotic arms that move things around. You also have little logistic robots that transport things among designated containers. The ultimate goal of course is to have self replicating factories:)

:'''When & where can I get it ?
:Public demo is available at http://www.factorio.com (win, osx, ubuntu linux). Go and try it now.
:The game successfully finished crowdfunding campaign (March 2013). The alpha version of the game can bought on our web page.

:'''What is the current state of the game? [*]
:We plan to start greenlight campaign in the start of december 2013, we are doing all the preparations needed for this to happen. (New trailer, consistent graphics, bugfree gameplay).
:The current version is alpha, but we try to fix all the reported bugs, so the stable releases (latest is 0.10.12) are quite stable.
:We put some effort to make the game moddable from the start, so you are can already choose from several mods extending different parts of the game. The modding support is made in a way that mod incompatibility isn't an issue.

:'''I want to know more [*]
:Check our website for trailer, screenshots, demo download and more information in general.

:« Last Edit: November 03, 2013, 12:36:32 pm by kovarex » Logged

==== Comments ====
; What is the game inspired by ?
: From some threads in off-topic board: we add to the above list a number of games like
* [http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ Dwarf Fortress],
* Transport Tycoon-like games, especially [http://www.openttd.org/en/ OpenTTD],
* Minecraft (especially the BuildCraft mod)
* Civilization series
* SpaceChem
* Creeper World 3
* Terraria
* Starbound
* Grobots
* Rimworld
* DayZ
* FTL
* Unclaimed World
* Into Space (shortly mentioned that the game will include elements from there)
* Dig-N-Rig
;Current state
: See [[Roadmap]] for more or less actual current state.
; I want to know more
: Look at [http://www.factorio.com/blog the blog]; Factorio Friday Facts (FFFs) have become a weekly feature and provide good information about the near future of the game.

== The game music ==

The ingame-music will change, so the current music is a placeholder which comes from free sources. See this threads:
http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2430
http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1047&p=28145&hilit=freesound#p28145