Day 8 - Quickwire and Reorganizing
Yesterday, I found Caterium. Today, I harvest it and put it to good use!
At the moment, the only thing I can really make out of it is Quickwire, so the first factory is pretty simple and small. It was up and running in no time.
Of greater importance, though, is the research done with the MAM on this strange, gold-like mineral. Having caterium and quickwire, it turns out, opens a lot of doors! Thanks to MAM research, I can now run faster, jump higher, and fall further! And, I can add some intelligence to my logistics tracks with Smart Splitters!
But enough of that... back to building! I decided that, now with a Quickwire plant in one direction, and a Steel Mill in another, I didn't want to be spending all my time running from plant to plant to pick up inventory supplies for my build gun. I need a central storage solution! I need a supply depot! So I set about planning one.
Just outside the Iron Mill, there's a depression with four rock pillars at the corners. In between are nice, wide pathways for things like trucks to come and go, so it seemed the natural place to plan a central supply depot. There's also plenty of room around the other sides for future methods of delivery to the depot, so I should be good here for a while.
To get started, I built out the depot platform and set up a bunch of storage containers. I then transferred all of the stuff from my temporary storage containers in the Iron Mill to the new spot, and cleaned up some of the spaghetti belt mess by routing all storage to the new facility. I took the opportunity to put in an "intelligent" AWESOME Sink overflow system as well. Soon, all of the materials being produced in the Iron Mill were being stored in the new depot!
I was so thrilled, I even added a series of belt lines to connect the Copper Mill products to the depot as well. So now I've got 10 different materials available to me all in one convenient shopping aisle. As convenient as a supermarket! Next up will be using automated trucks to bring stuff from the caterium and steel sites. That'll be a hoot!
At the moment, the only thing I can really make out of it is Quickwire, so the first factory is pretty simple and small. It was up and running in no time.
Simple Caterium Processing Plant
Of greater importance, though, is the research done with the MAM on this strange, gold-like mineral. Having caterium and quickwire, it turns out, opens a lot of doors! Thanks to MAM research, I can now run faster, jump higher, and fall further! And, I can add some intelligence to my logistics tracks with Smart Splitters!
But enough of that... back to building! I decided that, now with a Quickwire plant in one direction, and a Steel Mill in another, I didn't want to be spending all my time running from plant to plant to pick up inventory supplies for my build gun. I need a central storage solution! I need a supply depot! So I set about planning one.
Just outside the Iron Mill, there's a depression with four rock pillars at the corners. In between are nice, wide pathways for things like trucks to come and go, so it seemed the natural place to plan a central supply depot. There's also plenty of room around the other sides for future methods of delivery to the depot, so I should be good here for a while.
To get started, I built out the depot platform and set up a bunch of storage containers. I then transferred all of the stuff from my temporary storage containers in the Iron Mill to the new spot, and cleaned up some of the spaghetti belt mess by routing all storage to the new facility. I took the opportunity to put in an "intelligent" AWESOME Sink overflow system as well. Soon, all of the materials being produced in the Iron Mill were being stored in the new depot!
Getting Started on the Supply Depot
I was so thrilled, I even added a series of belt lines to connect the Copper Mill products to the depot as well. So now I've got 10 different materials available to me all in one convenient shopping aisle. As convenient as a supermarket! Next up will be using automated trucks to bring stuff from the caterium and steel sites. That'll be a hoot!
Supply Pickup Area
Setting Up a "Mall"
As you progress throughout the game, you will require advanced materials to be produced as ingredients for even more advanced products, which in turn become the inputs for still further advanced products. But through it all, there are some materials that you will need to have in your inventory at all times - right from the beginning stages of Tier 1/2 - in order to build your factories. Every foundation you lay, for example, needs Iron Plates and Concrete. You will be carrying Iron Plates around from the minute you get your first automated machines running until you either tire of the game or get old and die.
The problem is that your "basic building materials list" will get added to as you advance, and if your production sites are scattered all over the map, this means you'll have to travel all over the map to restock your inventory. NOT FUN!!! The alternative is to establish a central place where (at least the basic) materials are brought so you can "go shopping" in one convenient strip mall.
What you put in your mall, and how you get it there, are personal choices. In Tiers 3/4, your only transport choices are carrying loads yourself, or using Truck Stations. Truck Stations can be fun, but they can also be a pain in the neck. In Tiers 5/6, you'll get access to trains, which are much more reliable and carry higher volumes. In Tiers 7/8 flying drones become a possiblity. There's nothing wrong with starting off with one option and changing to others.
The real joy of playing Satisfactory is not in simply completing the milestones and tiers; it's in building out a world. A Mall is likely to be an important part of that world, so take the time to plan it out. And as with all things in Satisfactory, never be afraid to tear it down and rebuild it better. The only resource you sacrifice is your time, and if you're enjoying your gaming experience, that's not a sacrifice. It's why you're playing in the first place.
The problem is that your "basic building materials list" will get added to as you advance, and if your production sites are scattered all over the map, this means you'll have to travel all over the map to restock your inventory. NOT FUN!!! The alternative is to establish a central place where (at least the basic) materials are brought so you can "go shopping" in one convenient strip mall.
What you put in your mall, and how you get it there, are personal choices. In Tiers 3/4, your only transport choices are carrying loads yourself, or using Truck Stations. Truck Stations can be fun, but they can also be a pain in the neck. In Tiers 5/6, you'll get access to trains, which are much more reliable and carry higher volumes. In Tiers 7/8 flying drones become a possiblity. There's nothing wrong with starting off with one option and changing to others.
The real joy of playing Satisfactory is not in simply completing the milestones and tiers; it's in building out a world. A Mall is likely to be an important part of that world, so take the time to plan it out. And as with all things in Satisfactory, never be afraid to tear it down and rebuild it better. The only resource you sacrifice is your time, and if you're enjoying your gaming experience, that's not a sacrifice. It's why you're playing in the first place.
Smart Splitters and the AWESOME Sink
The AWESOME Sink is a critical piece of equipment in your quest to construct beautiful factories all over the Satisfactory world. By "burning" (crushing, actually) all of your excess production materials, you generate coupons that can be used to buy things from the AWESOME shop. These things include recipes for your build gun to construct things like catwalks, sloped walls and roofs, better foundation ramps, lighting, signage, and all sorts of other things.Every factory you build should include at least one AWESOME sink at the end of the production line so that, once your planned storage is full, the factory can keep running and turning your materials into AWESOME coupons. (Remember, resource nodes are infinite, and power generation - once you get to coal - is irrespective of consumption. You are not wasting anything when you send materials to the sink. You are generating future factory components.
The best way to connect an AWESOME sink is to do so via a splitter that takes your final product output and sends it to either storage or the sink. A simple splitter will do this in a simple manner: "one for you and one for me". But once you get far enough down the caterium research tree in the MAM, you can use a Smart Splitter. These allow you to configure the splitter to send EVERYTHING to storage (or downstream usage, or whatever) if there is a demand there, and only send stuff to the sink if it is truly excess. You want to do this!
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