Ooooh that perfect ratio copper wires to chips made my head go boom, thank you for showing me the light, I was literally building a chip factory right now and struggling thinking about how to bring the cables to the chip machines because they clogged up two full belts and even then, only half of the chip machines were getting cables because they ate the cables before they reached the end.
That one is very used by most of the early mid game builds for greens... you should dive in the other videos of kos channel... Also, check out nilaus...
Oh well, this is quite a coincidence. You once played some of my Dungeon Defenders Maps years ago and i just now got Factorio and was looking for some tips and found you again.
Here an additional trick: If you have a belt with two things on each side of the belt, you can put an underground belt sideways to this belt, which makes it so that only the things on one Side of the belt goes onto the sideways underground belt (the Side with the "belt part" of the underground belt). Very advanced and niche use, still very interessting.
I use this trick for Steel production when still powering furnaces with coal. Allows me to use coal from the coal/iron ore belt for the steel-making furnaces too. @Commander Vander this is what we're talking about: i.imgur.com/lg7kr89.gifv
"Inserter appropriate to the speed of the belt": but also vice versa in case of using burner inserters: Those can struggle when having to pick up items from anything faster than a yellow belt, which can lead to them running out of fuel and consequently stopping all together. Lane balancing/the "squiggle": when limited in space it can be made to fit in two spaces by using a splitter with priority to move items to the empty side of the belt. Overall, excellent tips!
the spliter and priority thing only works if you have all the items on one side of the belt already. If items are on both sides and you want to balance them, using the priority spliter will not make it balanced
@@Brenden-H I suppose I was not specific enough: While the "squiggle" is an efficient and reliable method of shifting all items to one side of the belt, it requires three spaces. I came across plenty of situations where I've been extremely strapped for tiles in some designs, so being able to achieve the same result in two spaces was something worth mentioning to me.
@@cobba42 - Really slow inserters work better on fast belts that are full. So, I frequently change belt speeds along a belt I expect to be picking things up from to be the minimum speed necessary for the remaining things that need to pick stuff up. This means I can actually use slow inserters all the way along if they are sufficient to the needed pace for loading items. This is really the most relevant for feeding boilers powering steam engines. But there are many other situations in which this is a useful way to design things. I do it for smelting lines as well. The input side slows down, the output side speeds up.
@@Brenden-H If you want to balance a belt using both lane, then it's oustide production line (since most are only onside charging or bothside charging if they are symetrical, and therefore not need balancing). And if you are outside the production lane, then the squiggle balanced. I Hightly recommand a real lane balancer using underground and side loading. It's only 4 tiles long and 2 tiles large, so near the same size as the squiggle anyway
Yes but she forgot to mention that a single row of stack inserters are better... The main reson to use the Double red is when you need a lot of boxes per train, like the one she showed... but in almost every other case, it's better to have stack inserters
1:14 "Inserters take from both sides" Only in this case. It is absolutely worth mentioning that they take only from one side if both sides are full (which is very annoying).
Additional info on the inserter pickup lane : The inserter picks items from both lane of the belt, but always prioritize the nearest lane to the inserters. means that if the nearest lane is out of items, it'll change the pickup to the other lane
Thank you so much, new to this game. Many tutorial/tip videos go way ahead talking about stuff I dont even know existst in the game. You keep it simple and on a single topic which makes it easy to follow and I actually pick up some information.
Hey KoS. Your videos have helped me a lot with learning the game so far. Most of the time I'm staring at the screen not sure how to go about a lot of what this game offers but your tips have helped me grasp a lot of it now.
For Number 4 The Squiggle. With the new Beltsplitter and the included Filter, you can Filter the Item onto a short sesind row, which imidiatly goes back onto the Main Belt.
6:36 - You could achieve the same result a lot more simpler. Since the belt is one side charged, you can just put a belt in front of the botside spliter. It will output it's charge in the left lane of the belt, thus effectively balancing the lane. A good trick with this, is for production line, in place of your red inserter + blue inserter + lane. You put a splitter once the half belt is full, with a filter on the bot side, at a belt in the top direction and then, this fully charged lane is now on the bottom side so your inserter can still insert on the far side. An other good trick with the assembler 3 tiles apart, is that you can output an underground belt, put a slipper and then imput an underground belt. This way, both assembler can pick up goods in the splitter.
Nice trick for train loading. I never thinked about that ! It's awesome. Nice video anyway :) At start factorio with your videos and it's nice to come back to the source xD
I'm not a fan of the first method because I have seen WAY too many people think they can balance production from both of the belt that way ... which results in 75% on one side, and 25% on the other. Thus, I don't promote that specific design... it's s pet peeve for me. I prefer to show a design that will work for all cases instead.
@@KatherineOfSky I can understand that. It's true you need to put the balancer at the right place in order to make it works. To be honest, I used your method during all my learning phase on factorio, since I learned it on your channel ^^ It's only when I was confident enough that I move away with less large design. Good job, again ! I think I will watch your other tutorial, in case I found some nice tricks like your train one on this one :)
That's a pretty cool trick with train loading with long handed inserters. I used to use requester chest to request multiple items into a single chest, but this often ended up with the inserter getting stuck once I'd researched stack size for regular inserter upgrades because the inserter hand will carry three items but there are only enough space for two items in the cargo reserved for that item. So I ended up having to override the stack size to one to keep it from getting stuck, which also means loading trains takes quite a while. Long handed inserter with stack capacity bonus are faster than fast inserter with no stack bonus and you can have twice as many long handed as regular inserters, so you can end up with something like 3-4 times the speed of stackless fast/stack inserters.
To put the same item on both lanes, I like to use a splitter and then have the side closer to the assembler go away from the assembler, feeding the items onto the interior lane. I usually put those arrays every four assemblers or so. Helps assemblers further down the line place their output without having to wait for a space in a continuous line of items. EDIT: ah, I see you explain that one, although as explained above I do use it a bit differently. :)
for last tip, if used red/yellow/green chest You can skip wire cable. Just add inserter to logistic network (button before "exit" in inserter option, top right corner) and set condition. It will read all items from current logistic network.
Another tip for the inserter, maybe there is items of what you're producing but they're in some other chest (like in a storage chest) or you have multiple assembly machines creating the same item, but you still want
There’s another way I use to get items on both sides of a belt like at 4:25. Use a filter splitter and filter the items to the inside side then remerge them on the belt immediately after it goes from a 3 by 2 block to a 2 by 2 block
First time watching a vid of yours but nice tutorial video KOS! your clear and well spoken voice proves very easy to understand. But if I may add to your excellent inserter tips, there is also a method of getting an inserter to place a item onto a belt from either side of the orientation of the belt, just hover the cursor over the inserter you wish to change and then tap "shift + L" the inserter will toggle its reach from the far side to the nearest side.
Thank you for the compliment. However using that hot key combination is from a mod. I think you've been playing with bob's mobs or something similar :-) (It's not in vanilla)
@@KatherineOfSky It's not in vanilla? oops yep you caught me playing modded (krastorio to be precise) could of sworn it was vanilla oh well my apologies KOS.
Another great tutorial! ^^ In the context of the video, the lane balancer is fine, however something more relevant to experienced players is that the designs you featured don't balance the pull from the input lanes evenly, which could cause issues if the belt backs up and the consumption of the output belt lanes is unbalanced. Sadly the only fix to this is to use the underground belt sideloading trick, which I personally feel is less elegant than I'd like (but I still end up using).
The underground design is expensive, (especially in early game), and I've never had any issues like those you've described. But people should use whatever design they like (as I mentioned in the video :-)
@@KatherineOfSky That's something I really like about your videos, you like to emphasise people finding their own way and having fun, rather than "here is a blueprint"
Completely agree that in the early game underground belts are so very expensive that a less efficient design is just perfect :) I really liked your coverage of balancing miners, counting up on each side, and the squiggle - that was such a useful trick I learned from your videos back in the day ^^
Oh indeed! I saw someone splitting off the bus using sideloading and remembered that lesson until this say! I think it came from a time when we built "regular" size bases and used to have half a belt of stone, half coal, and using an undergroundy seems like a perfect solution to getting a half belt.... it's only evident later that that wasn't a great solution!
"Inserters take from both sides of the belt" but they preferentially take from the closer side of the belt. This means that if you only build on one side of the belt, you could have uneven pulling of items from the belt. This wouldn't be much of an issue if your belt doesn't have any splits, but if you do, this may cause problems in some configurations of splits as the belt may not be running at full throughput.
Inserters take from both sides of the belt, but they prefer the closest side, is one thing I would add. Not that it's particularly useful, but it makes it easier for the inserters to pick up if they can take it from the closest side. Another is that you can use the same belt for both input and output. If you for example want to make gears, you need iron plate. So you place the iron plates on the near side of the belt, then because of how the inserters work you can now output the gears on the far side of the belt. Then you can use for example a filtered splitter to siphon off the gears to wherever you need them. This can be very useful in some situations. Say you want to make engines. They need three inputs, which means you need at least two belts for the inputs. But if you use the method I described, you can also place the output on one of those belts, which means you save some space and some belts.
Indeed! I'll put that on the list for my next video! I want to try to keep these fairly short and digestable, so I'm aiming to have several videos on these topics since some of them overlap, e.g. inserters are directly related to belts, etc.
Amaizing tutorials! helped me so much playing at factorio. Can you make some tutorial about the red, green cables uses and the combinators of each type? i tryed to use them myself many times but didnt work x.x (only works when i use a specific guide but don't know how works)
I noticed that the splitter don't need the extra belt loop from the non priority output side as long as you put the splitter on the right side (usually towards the machines) or rather the left side as it seems both inserters and splitters always outputs on the right side of the belt? long inserters are quite good despite being slower than the fast inserter, in the case where you need 2 input belts it is sometimes better to use only long inserters rather than a mix of regular or fast and long. Compleatly transformed the way I built prior to setting up construction robots
This is so handy! I really appreciate it. One thing, though, if you could talk slower or pause between concepts that would be so helpful. I can slow the video down but then you sound weird... It’s just a lot to take in at once!
Please keep making Factorio videos! Suggestion: Could you pleeeease make a tutorial on roboport networks? I kinda understand that they take items off chests and then use them to build the placed ghost buildings, but apart from that... What are logistics bots used for? Would be such a great thing if you could look into that..
Logistic bots are used to move things around primarily with requester and provider chests. These can be used to then feed into assemblers without building complex belts. They're best for assemblers that you don't need to have much of, but have complex dependencies. With logistic bots you don't need to design complex belt arrangements, and just use standardized requester in, provider out assembly. Additionally, logistics bots can also help during large constructions. With bot stack upgrades, logistic bots can carry multiple items capacity than construction bots, so they can move construction materials closer to a buffer chest closer to where the construction happens and the construction bots only need to move from that buffer chest to the ghost building, rather than having to round trip back to your main storages/malls. This buffer chest can also become a cache for construction bots to automatically replace buildings that were destroyed by biters.
One stunt I saw done was a pair of belts that were used to insert iron plates and get pipes out. The key is both belts ran down the center, and the splitters were set to filter mode. This meant that for the first two Assemblers the plates were filtered to the left belt, then another filter splitter to make the iron plates on the right belt, aso. At the end the output belt was attached to the filter splitter side that was not selecting for iron plates
Hey! So I just recently picked up the game to fill in all my free time due to the virus, I just got to the point that im using trains for the first time and I cant seem to get it to work. I tried making loop tracks and having double header trains that just go back and forth. The loops I cant seem to get signaling right and for the ones that go back and forth the train that wont be getting used keeps saying no path (say my train is going west, the one one the east side of my train is saying no path). I know you have done tutorials for how to make building trains but I couldn't find one for just setting up a station for simple resource transport. If you could make a tutorial on it that would be great! So far out of everyone I have watched you seem to explain things the best. (Like it so she sees it please :) )
the easiest way to explain it is that you put CHAIN signal before ANY intersection/split and a RAIL signal right after the intersection/split. I'm sure KoS will do a vid for trains, but see if that will do for now ;)
I was pulling my hairs figuring this out, so all the best to you. But if you have only one train running on a loop or on a single back-and-forth rail, I don't think you need signals. That would only complicate it without any real benefit. The signals divide the track into blocks, but it also defines which direction the traffic is supposed to go. So if you have a single track going from station A to station B, if you for some reason placed only a signal on one side of the track, then the train would only be able to go in one direction (the direction that has the signal on the right side of the track). To make it work, you'd then have to place a signal on the other side of the track too. Essentially, you need to define blocks for both directions if you want to have your trains running back and forth on a single track. But as I said, it should work without signals if you have only one train. Another potential problem is the placement of the stations, the station has to be to the right of the engine that is at the front of the train, in the case of double-headed train. Yet another problem that I just came to think of that seems very likely given what you described, is that you may have placed one of the engines the wrong way round. It can be very hard to tell the difference between back and front of the engine when placing it on the rail and attaching it to the wagons. If both the engines are in the same direction it will not be able to go back and forth on a single rail, and it will say 'no path' in one of the directions as you describe. On a loop track, something that may cause confusion is if you place a single signal, it will start blinking. This is because the signal is now both the entry and the exit of the same block of rail, which means it doesn't know what to do. All this said, having double tracks, one for each direction, is preferable if you intend to expand the rail system at some point and have multiple trains running. A block of rail can look pretty much any way you like that is possible to build. It is only defined by how you place the signals. But the rule of thumb is that if you have a block of rail with multiple entries, and/or multiple exits, the entries to the block should have chain signals, to tell the train if it has a way to get out of the block that will also let it reach its destination. This is to avoid having trains that can't get out of the block getting in the way of trains that can. All the exits should have ordinary signals. This rule may not be strictly necessary to follow at all times, but it will always work as long as you place the signals correctly. When there is only one entry and one exit, you only need ordinary signals.
If you're making double headed trains, make sure you rotate the second train head when you place it. Otherwise, the train head will be going in the same direction, even though it may be on different ends of the train.
Good morning, do you share your blueprints? I think I found some on your Google Drive but after the update from 0.17 to 0.18 some things changed ... Your videos help me a lot, sorry for the typos, I don't speak English.
Hi! None of the ratios changed from 0.17 to 0.18. The BPs I have are in my g-drive, though atm I haven't had time to upload new ones. Really focusing on make more video content.
5:45 These belt balancers ONLY work if you have only one lane of input on the belt. If the belt has even a few items going through on the other side, the output will not be balanced.
What you said is incorrect. This lane balancer is designed to work for any amount coming on either side: it splits it in half, then routes half to either side, perfectly balancing the belt.
It is given as an example for lane balancing. In this instance you are right, it is way more compact to do it that way assuming usage of only one side. However, in the case of a full belt (all to sides are being used) design that you suggest result in unbalanced belt (bottom line would be more dense).
Think this is the first game I ever had to check a "tips for xyz" video, and honestly, I was not disappointed, this was great Question, why do you use mixed types of belts on the same line sometimes? saw at 3:58 you got a bunch of pieces of blue belt in between the same line of yellow belts
Yep! You can use that option if you are counting out specific amounts of items in combinator arrays, for example kovarex 235 counting., for example if you want to move 1 piece at a time. It's a used very seldomly, just FYI.
@@marceloa.8881 When "daisy chaining" labs that option helps a bit. If you don't know, daisy chaining is a technique that's used to feed some types of buildings that require certain items to work. (Most common ones are labs and turrets) The trick is, an inserter can take stuff from a lab and put it straight into another lab, without the use of belts, so you can have a "daisy chain" of labs all fed by inserters in between. The only problem is, labs can hold a max of 2 packs of each when fed by inserters, but the bigger stack size on the inserters makes it so at times the labs become empty of one type of pack, because the inserters are pulling 2 packs each time. If you override the stack size to 1 on all the inserters, you can mitigate that problem quite decently.
6:15 The simplest design is just to have 1 lane going straight and have the other lane to bend into the straight one. The curly thing you did is abit messier
@@KatherineOfSky Actually, if you have items on both sides of the belt, it still doesn't balance right. You need to introduce underground belts in order to make it actually balance if there are two lanes of input on the belt.
@@sweetcornwhiskey No. You do not need undergrounds to balance correctly. I've seen those over-engineered solutions, and they are expensive and completely unnecessary.
What do you mean? If an inserter is low on power, it will not pick things up properly. Also, they need to be tuned to the speed of the belt. There was no bug or anyting that needed to be patched. You just need to pay attention to power and also the level of belts/inserters. That's a mechanic, not a bug.
Both of your belt balancers are actually over-complicated. You can clearly see that your corner balancer is already doing its job before you place those two additional belts. The straight line balancer also uses three more belts than it needs to, it works perfectly with just a single belt going in from the splitter into the empty lane. So no, those designs that you're using really aren't the simplest ones, as you claim. :P
@@KatherineOfSky I did watch with the audio on, that's how I heard you say that "this is the simplest one". Sorry if that last line of my comment made it come off as demeaning or something, I was honestly trying to give a helpful tip that will save both belts and space.
The devs have stated that it would ruin the basic puzzle element of the game, and I agree with them. The game is so much more fun with figuring out how to do fun contraptions with all the machines we have.
@@KatherineOfSky In all honesty, seeing a fandom for something develop to the point where they create new content in completely other genres and media types than the base material they're centered on is an amazing thing. Few fandoms get that big, that creative, or that organized, though.
Con·cise
/kənˈsīs/
adjective
giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words; brief but comprehensive.
You nailed it.
Title: 10 Tips for Inserters!
KoS: * Gives 11 *
Love it
I love to give bonuses!
Well... Some are belt tips, but yeaa belts and inserters are inseparable
You have such an excellent speaking voice kos. You could do audiobooks and stuff heh. You're the best, keep it up !
Thank you so much!
Honestly i have to agree.
Totally agreed. I can listen to KoS for hours. ^.^
This. I'd buy a KoS audiobook.
I would definitely by one of those
When I get sad. A Kathrine of Sky video is one of my favourite things to feel ok about everything. I truly mean this. Thanks KoS
Awww, thank you so much. I hope you have a great week! 🌻🌻🌻
KatherineOfSky Well I’m off to buy a new tele today so yep! Hope you’re well too!
Ooooh that perfect ratio copper wires to chips made my head go boom, thank you for showing me the light, I was literally building a chip factory right now and struggling thinking about how to bring the cables to the chip machines because they clogged up two full belts and even then, only half of the chip machines were getting cables because they ate the cables before they reached the end.
That's one of those really sneaky designs that I just love! Have fun!
That one is very used by most of the early mid game builds for greens... you should dive in the other videos of kos channel...
Also, check out nilaus...
3:38 rocket casually passing by
why didnt i notice that XD
This is literally the only video that show the creation and show the ideas in practice and explains everything well. Thank youuuu!
Oh well, this is quite a coincidence. You once played some of my Dungeon Defenders Maps years ago and i just now got Factorio and was looking for some tips and found you again.
So good to hear from you again! I remember your maps and you with great fondness! :-)
Here an additional trick: If you have a belt with two things on each side of the belt, you can put an underground belt sideways to this belt, which makes it so that only the things on one Side of the belt goes onto the sideways underground belt (the Side with the "belt part" of the underground belt). Very advanced and niche use, still very interessting.
This is actually useful as fuck, thanks!
What do you mean?
I use this trick for Steel production when still powering furnaces with coal. Allows me to use coal from the coal/iron ore belt for the steel-making furnaces too.
@Commander Vander this is what we're talking about: i.imgur.com/lg7kr89.gifv
@@chunnil4898 holy shit, that's weird. Definitely gonna try it, thanks!
"Inserter appropriate to the speed of the belt": but also vice versa in case of using burner inserters:
Those can struggle when having to pick up items from anything faster than a yellow belt, which can lead to them running out of fuel and consequently stopping all together.
Lane balancing/the "squiggle": when limited in space it can be made to fit in two spaces by using a splitter with priority to move items to the empty side of the belt.
Overall, excellent tips!
the spliter and priority thing only works if you have all the items on one side of the belt already. If items are on both sides and you want to balance them, using the priority spliter will not make it balanced
@@Brenden-H I suppose I was not specific enough: While the "squiggle" is an efficient and reliable method of shifting all items to one side of the belt, it requires three spaces. I came across plenty of situations where I've been extremely strapped for tiles in some designs, so being able to achieve the same result in two spaces was something worth mentioning to me.
@@cobba42 - Really slow inserters work better on fast belts that are full. So, I frequently change belt speeds along a belt I expect to be picking things up from to be the minimum speed necessary for the remaining things that need to pick stuff up. This means I can actually use slow inserters all the way along if they are sufficient to the needed pace for loading items.
This is really the most relevant for feeding boilers powering steam engines. But there are many other situations in which this is a useful way to design things. I do it for smelting lines as well. The input side slows down, the output side speeds up.
@@Brenden-H If you want to balance a belt using both lane, then it's oustide production line (since most are only onside charging or bothside charging if they are symetrical, and therefore not need balancing). And if you are outside the production lane, then the squiggle balanced. I Hightly recommand a real lane balancer using underground and side loading. It's only 4 tiles long and 2 tiles large, so near the same size as the squiggle anyway
Ive played this for a while I figured I might learn a few things but not many. that red inserter for the train one was unexpected lol. very useful
Yes but she forgot to mention that a single row of stack inserters are better...
The main reson to use the Double red is when you need a lot of boxes per train, like the one she showed... but in almost every other case, it's better to have stack inserters
1:14 "Inserters take from both sides"
Only in this case. It is absolutely worth mentioning that they take only from one side if both sides are full (which is very annoying).
Additional info on the inserter pickup lane : The inserter picks items from both lane of the belt, but always prioritize the nearest lane to the inserters. means that if the nearest lane is out of items, it'll change the pickup to the other lane
I've been doing load balancing slightly wrong all this time and never noticed it, this explains a lot, thanks!
I come for the whimsical greetings, I stay for fantastic Factorio tips.
Aww, thank you! :-)
Another great video. It’s nice how you explain the mechanics of how things work, rather then the end result of what you want to do.
Thank you very much!
Thank you so much, new to this game. Many tutorial/tip videos go way ahead talking about stuff I dont even know existst in the game. You keep it simple and on a single topic which makes it easy to follow and I actually pick up some information.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience! I started playing only yesterday, super helpful tips. :)
Enjoy the game!
Hey KoS. Your videos have helped me a lot with learning the game so far. Most of the time I'm staring at the screen not sure how to go about a lot of what this game offers but your tips have helped me grasp a lot of it now.
I'm glad you've found my videos useful! Have fun!
really enjoying the new factorio videos keep em coming !
got like 1000 hours in this game and I never knew that long inserters could be placed a space out from an assembler and still work like that!
Your spoiling me with the factorio content right now
I just recently came back to playing Factorio with some friends. Well looks like you're still addicted to this game aswell :) it is just so good.
For Number 4 The Squiggle. With the new Beltsplitter and the included Filter, you can Filter the Item onto a short sesind row, which imidiatly goes back onto the Main Belt.
I saw a couple of techniques I hadn't thought of myself or seen before. Thank you!
So glad it was useful!
we love your guides & tutorials videos ☕
Glad you like them!
6:36 - You could achieve the same result a lot more simpler. Since the belt is one side charged, you can just put a belt in front of the botside spliter. It will output it's charge in the left lane of the belt, thus effectively balancing the lane. A good trick with this, is for production line, in place of your red inserter + blue inserter + lane. You put a splitter once the half belt is full, with a filter on the bot side, at a belt in the top direction and then, this fully charged lane is now on the bottom side so your inserter can still insert on the far side. An other good trick with the assembler 3 tiles apart, is that you can output an underground belt, put a slipper and then imput an underground belt. This way, both assembler can pick up goods in the splitter.
Nice trick for train loading. I never thinked about that ! It's awesome. Nice video anyway :) At start factorio with your videos and it's nice to come back to the source xD
I'm not a fan of the first method because I have seen WAY too many people think they can balance production from both of the belt that way ... which results in 75% on one side, and 25% on the other. Thus, I don't promote that specific design... it's s pet peeve for me. I prefer to show a design that will work for all cases instead.
@@KatherineOfSky I can understand that. It's true you need to put the balancer at the right place in order to make it works. To be honest, I used your method during all my learning phase on factorio, since I learned it on your channel ^^ It's only when I was confident enough that I move away with less large design. Good job, again ! I think I will watch your other tutorial, in case I found some nice tricks like your train one on this one :)
Is it time? Is she back? More Factorio videos?? Cant wait for it!
That's a pretty cool trick with train loading with long handed inserters.
I used to use requester chest to request multiple items into a single chest, but this often ended up with the inserter getting stuck once I'd researched stack size for regular inserter upgrades because the inserter hand will carry three items but there are only enough space for two items in the cargo reserved for that item. So I ended up having to override the stack size to one to keep it from getting stuck, which also means loading trains takes quite a while. Long handed inserter with stack capacity bonus are faster than fast inserter with no stack bonus and you can have twice as many long handed as regular inserters, so you can end up with something like 3-4 times the speed of stackless fast/stack inserters.
Indeed! I talk about that in my Building Train tutorial: you never want more than one item per requester chest (for train loading).
To put the same item on both lanes, I like to use a splitter and then have the side closer to the assembler go away from the assembler, feeding the items onto the interior lane. I usually put those arrays every four assemblers or so. Helps assemblers further down the line place their output without having to wait for a space in a continuous line of items.
EDIT: ah, I see you explain that one, although as explained above I do use it a bit differently. :)
for last tip, if used red/yellow/green chest You can skip wire cable. Just add inserter to logistic network (button before "exit" in inserter option, top right corner) and set condition. It will read all items from current logistic network.
Another tip for the inserter, maybe there is items of what you're producing but they're in some other chest (like in a storage chest) or you have multiple assembly machines creating the same item, but you still want
There’s another way I use to get items on both sides of a belt like at 4:25. Use a filter splitter and filter the items to the inside side then remerge them on the belt immediately after it goes from a 3 by 2 block to a 2 by 2 block
Estupendo tutorial, es muy ilustrativo
First time watching a vid of yours but nice tutorial video KOS! your clear and well spoken voice proves very easy to understand. But if I may add to your excellent inserter tips, there is also a method of getting an inserter to place a item onto a belt from either side of the orientation of the belt, just hover the cursor over the inserter you wish to change and then tap "shift + L" the inserter will toggle its reach from the far side to the nearest side.
Thank you for the compliment. However using that hot key combination is from a mod. I think you've been playing with bob's mobs or something similar :-) (It's not in vanilla)
@@KatherineOfSky It's not in vanilla? oops yep you caught me playing modded (krastorio to be precise) could of sworn it was vanilla oh well my apologies KOS.
No need to apologize. Just wanted to let you know :-)
thank you for the tips, you're awesome!!
lovely tutorial Katherine thanks
Me: "Looks pretty solid to me..."
*Green Circuits breakdance fighting just off screen.*
i have over 1000+ hours but i still enjoy watching your videos :)
Thank you!
Amazing, thanks!
really late to the factorio party, however you are great, thanks for the tutorial. Instant sub!
Welcome! Late or early, we're all crazy Factorians! Welcome to the club!
Thank you, this is very informative🙂
Glad it was helpful!
I really enjoyed this tutorial thanks!
The last tip helped me allot
Another great tutorial! ^^ In the context of the video, the lane balancer is fine, however something more relevant to experienced players is that the designs you featured don't balance the pull from the input lanes evenly, which could cause issues if the belt backs up and the consumption of the output belt lanes is unbalanced. Sadly the only fix to this is to use the underground belt sideloading trick, which I personally feel is less elegant than I'd like (but I still end up using).
The underground design is expensive, (especially in early game), and I've never had any issues like those you've described. But people should use whatever design they like (as I mentioned in the video :-)
@@KatherineOfSky That's something I really like about your videos, you like to emphasise people finding their own way and having fun, rather than "here is a blueprint"
Completely agree that in the early game underground belts are so very expensive that a less efficient design is just perfect :)
I really liked your coverage of balancing miners, counting up on each side, and the squiggle - that was such a useful trick I learned from your videos back in the day ^^
Oh indeed! I saw someone splitting off the bus using sideloading and remembered that lesson until this say! I think it came from a time when we built "regular" size bases and used to have half a belt of stone, half coal, and using an undergroundy seems like a perfect solution to getting a half belt.... it's only evident later that that wasn't a great solution!
When I was watching this video my dad thought I was watching watchmojo because y’all sound very similar but your voice is a tad bit more chill
Time to introduce your dad to KoS! :D
"Inserters take from both sides of the belt"
but they preferentially take from the closer side of the belt. This means that if you only build on one side of the belt, you could have uneven pulling of items from the belt. This wouldn't be much of an issue if your belt doesn't have any splits, but if you do, this may cause problems in some configurations of splits as the belt may not be running at full throughput.
Then you should use proper splits. :-)
You should do a new tutorial on main buses
Thanks for the Tipps, nicly done :)
P.S.: 5:45 - Your corner version already works there, no need for extra belts ;)
I was showing different versions for if you want a corner OR a straight belt.
That's so helpful for my Factorio ... curriculum :D
Great video! This really helped me! Keep up the great content!
Inserters take from both sides of the belt, but they prefer the closest side, is one thing I would add. Not that it's particularly useful, but it makes it easier for the inserters to pick up if they can take it from the closest side.
Another is that you can use the same belt for both input and output. If you for example want to make gears, you need iron plate. So you place the iron plates on the near side of the belt, then because of how the inserters work you can now output the gears on the far side of the belt. Then you can use for example a filtered splitter to siphon off the gears to wherever you need them. This can be very useful in some situations. Say you want to make engines. They need three inputs, which means you need at least two belts for the inputs. But if you use the method I described, you can also place the output on one of those belts, which means you save some space and some belts.
Indeed! I'll put that on the list for my next video! I want to try to keep these fairly short and digestable, so I'm aiming to have several videos on these topics since some of them overlap, e.g. inserters are directly related to belts, etc.
Amaizing tutorials! helped me so much playing at factorio. Can you make some tutorial about the red, green cables uses and the combinators of each type? i tryed to use them myself many times but didnt work x.x (only works when i use a specific guide but don't know how works)
Sure!
@@KatherineOfSky Thank you very much!
I noticed that the splitter don't need the extra belt loop from the non priority output side as long as you put the splitter on the right side (usually towards the machines) or rather the left side as it seems both inserters and splitters always outputs on the right side of the belt?
long inserters are quite good despite being slower than the fast inserter, in the case where you need 2 input belts it is sometimes better to use only long inserters rather than a mix of regular or fast and long.
Compleatly transformed the way I built prior to setting up construction robots
Excellent tutorial.
This is so handy! I really appreciate it. One thing, though, if you could talk slower or pause between concepts that would be so helpful. I can slow the video down but then you sound weird... It’s just a lot to take in at once!
I try to keep the videos as short as possible. It might be beneficial for you to pause every once in a while?
Thanks for the great tips!
Glad it was helpful!
HFC's that was helpful!
Please keep making Factorio videos!
Suggestion: Could you pleeeease make a tutorial on roboport networks? I kinda understand that they take items off chests and then use them to build the placed ghost buildings, but apart from that... What are logistics bots used for?
Would be such a great thing if you could look into that..
Sure!
Logistic bots are used to move things around primarily with requester and provider chests. These can be used to then feed into assemblers without building complex belts. They're best for assemblers that you don't need to have much of, but have complex dependencies. With logistic bots you don't need to design complex belt arrangements, and just use standardized requester in, provider out assembly.
Additionally, logistics bots can also help during large constructions. With bot stack upgrades, logistic bots can carry multiple items capacity than construction bots, so they can move construction materials closer to a buffer chest closer to where the construction happens and the construction bots only need to move from that buffer chest to the ghost building, rather than having to round trip back to your main storages/malls. This buffer chest can also become a cache for construction bots to automatically replace buildings that were destroyed by biters.
nearing 2k hours on steam ive actually learnt a couple new tricks
One stunt I saw done was a pair of belts that were used to insert iron plates and get pipes out. The key is both belts ran down the center, and the splitters were set to filter mode. This meant that for the first two Assemblers the plates were filtered to the left belt, then another filter splitter to make the iron plates on the right belt, aso. At the end the output belt was attached to the filter splitter side that was not selecting for iron plates
great little tutorial :) a nice world that you're showing it on as well? do you have a series where you built that factory? :) keep up the great work!
Yes! It's my Entry Level to Megabase 2 factory!
@@KatherineOfSky thanks! I know what to watch next 2 weeks ;)
Crom Approves of the FourWinds tips
Hey! So I just recently picked up the game to fill in all my free time due to the virus, I just got to the point that im using trains for the first time and I cant seem to get it to work. I tried making loop tracks and having double header trains that just go back and forth. The loops I cant seem to get signaling right and for the ones that go back and forth the train that wont be getting used keeps saying no path (say my train is going west, the one one the east side of my train is saying no path). I know you have done tutorials for how to make building trains but I couldn't find one for just setting up a station for simple resource transport. If you could make a tutorial on it that would be great! So far out of everyone I have watched you seem to explain things the best.
(Like it so she sees it please :) )
the easiest way to explain it is that you put CHAIN signal before ANY intersection/split and a RAIL signal right after the intersection/split.
I'm sure KoS will do a vid for trains, but see if that will do for now ;)
KoS has done some train tutorial videos. You can search for them on her channel.
I was pulling my hairs figuring this out, so all the best to you.
But if you have only one train running on a loop or on a single back-and-forth rail, I don't think you need signals. That would only complicate it without any real benefit.
The signals divide the track into blocks, but it also defines which direction the traffic is supposed to go. So if you have a single track going from station A to station B, if you for some reason placed only a signal on one side of the track, then the train would only be able to go in one direction (the direction that has the signal on the right side of the track). To make it work, you'd then have to place a signal on the other side of the track too. Essentially, you need to define blocks for both directions if you want to have your trains running back and forth on a single track. But as I said, it should work without signals if you have only one train.
Another potential problem is the placement of the stations, the station has to be to the right of the engine that is at the front of the train, in the case of double-headed train.
Yet another problem that I just came to think of that seems very likely given what you described, is that you may have placed one of the engines the wrong way round. It can be very hard to tell the difference between back and front of the engine when placing it on the rail and attaching it to the wagons. If both the engines are in the same direction it will not be able to go back and forth on a single rail, and it will say 'no path' in one of the directions as you describe.
On a loop track, something that may cause confusion is if you place a single signal, it will start blinking. This is because the signal is now both the entry and the exit of the same block of rail, which means it doesn't know what to do.
All this said, having double tracks, one for each direction, is preferable if you intend to expand the rail system at some point and have multiple trains running.
A block of rail can look pretty much any way you like that is possible to build. It is only defined by how you place the signals. But the rule of thumb is that if you have a block of rail with multiple entries, and/or multiple exits, the entries to the block should have chain signals, to tell the train if it has a way to get out of the block that will also let it reach its destination. This is to avoid having trains that can't get out of the block getting in the way of trains that can. All the exits should have ordinary signals. This rule may not be strictly necessary to follow at all times, but it will always work as long as you place the signals correctly. When there is only one entry and one exit, you only need ordinary signals.
Also MiniBetrayal has a great train tut - ua-cam.com/video/Co136r7pkTk/v-deo.html
If you're making double headed trains, make sure you rotate the second train head when you place it. Otherwise, the train head will be going in the same direction, even though it may be on different ends of the train.
The copper wire input to green chip assembler... dammit why haven’t I thought of that!
Now even Factorio tutorials give me voice envy
hahaha
Good morning, do you share your blueprints? I think I found some on your Google Drive but after the update from 0.17 to 0.18 some things changed ... Your videos help me a lot, sorry for the typos, I don't speak English.
Hi! None of the ratios changed from 0.17 to 0.18. The BPs I have are in my g-drive, though atm I haven't had time to upload new ones. Really focusing on make more video content.
Ok, thanks for responding your content is very good I always follow.
7:40 When you started mixing your belt it made my OCD trigger.
You might want to seek medical attention for that.
5:45 These belt balancers ONLY work if you have only one lane of input on the belt. If the belt has even a few items going through on the other side, the output will not be balanced.
What you said is incorrect. This lane balancer is designed to work for any amount coming on either side: it splits it in half, then routes half to either side, perfectly balancing the belt.
Love it
For the belt splitting example in 6:14, couldn't you have just stopped at 6:20 with just one curved side? Why curve both like 6:25?
It is given as an example for lane balancing. In this instance you are right, it is way more compact to do it that way assuming usage of only one side. However, in the case of a full belt (all to sides are being used) design that you suggest result in unbalanced belt (bottom line would be more dense).
Think this is the first game I ever had to check a "tips for xyz" video, and honestly, I was not disappointed, this was great
Question, why do you use mixed types of belts on the same line sometimes? saw at 3:58 you got a bunch of pieces of blue belt in between the same line of yellow belts
It's not on purpose. Usually because of not upgrading evenly or sometimes replacing a damaged (old) belt with one of the current tech level
@@KatherineOfSky ooh I see, thanks for reply!
Factorio Tutorio! :D
Are you getting ready for the 1.0 release of Factorio KoS?
Yep!
@@KatherineOfSky When is it?
@@KatherineOfSky Sweet! Me too!
@@voxelrifts It's going to be on the 14th of this month.
@@Breagle HYPEEEE. 9 more days to go.
great vid! Are there any tips for when to modify inserters' stack size? I've seen this option, but I'm not sure when should be used.
Yep! You can use that option if you are counting out specific amounts of items in combinator arrays, for example kovarex 235 counting., for example if you want to move 1 piece at a time. It's a used very seldomly, just FYI.
@@KatherineOfSky yeah, makes sense, for a finer control of processes. Keep the videos coming :D
@@marceloa.8881 When "daisy chaining" labs that option helps a bit. If you don't know, daisy chaining is a technique that's used to feed some types of buildings that require certain items to work. (Most common ones are labs and turrets) The trick is, an inserter can take stuff from a lab and put it straight into another lab, without the use of belts, so you can have a "daisy chain" of labs all fed by inserters in between. The only problem is, labs can hold a max of 2 packs of each when fed by inserters, but the bigger stack size on the inserters makes it so at times the labs become empty of one type of pack, because the inserters are pulling 2 packs each time. If you override the stack size to 1 on all the inserters, you can mitigate that problem quite decently.
Я плохо знаю английский, но мне всё понятно. Приятно смотреть такие ролики.
No. there is no way I am building factory like this. Sticking with my max of 2 science packs!
You can still have some entertainment, download the Disco Science mod
6:15
The simplest design is just to have 1 lane going straight and have the other lane to bend into the straight one. The curly thing you did is abit messier
Depends on the setup. If you have items on both sides of the belt, you NEED to do the curly setup, otherwise it will put most items on a single side.
@@KatherineOfSky Actually, if you have items on both sides of the belt, it still doesn't balance right. You need to introduce underground belts in order to make it actually balance if there are two lanes of input on the belt.
@@sweetcornwhiskey No. You do not need undergrounds to balance correctly. I've seen those over-engineered solutions, and they are expensive and completely unnecessary.
3:28 - Anyone else seen a rocket chased by robots?
I’m playing the demo & I’m really enjoying factorio. Is it that easy to copy a base & just paste it down
Yes, but you deprive yourself of actually playing the game and enjoying it if you do that. I do not recommend...
Did you voice cortana ? Your voice is awesome
No I did not. Thank you
Have you ever heard the game "Mindustry"? I found it as a very relaxing Factorio alternative for the free time. I hope you will try it one day =].
I find the tower defense aspect very stressful, but last time I played it was a couple years ago
At 6:18 why not just keep the top belt straight and have the bottom belt connect underneath? (like a sideways 'P' shape)
I'm different variations in the video ;-)
Fun things to do with inserters
😉
What is the outro music?
I swear to god I listened to you give a tutorial on Excel.
HAHAHA
For anyone checking this video out now, they have patched all the issues that arise with inserters having any trouble picking things up.
What do you mean? If an inserter is low on power, it will not pick things up properly. Also, they need to be tuned to the speed of the belt. There was no bug or anyting that needed to be patched. You just need to pay attention to power and also the level of belts/inserters. That's a mechanic, not a bug.
You are well enough again to play factorio? Great. I missed your voice. May I suggest a Krastorio2 game?
Thanks, I'll put it on my list!
nice- nice
Do you have a blue print book?
The BP drive is linked in the descriptions: drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BwVHGs2mds_XRUVCekwxYnNldnc?usp=sharing
Is it rational to move research packs from lab to lab using inserters?
You can.
Спасибо
"Tentacles everywhere"
You've been watching a bit too much, ermm, _anime_
Nah, I never watch anime
@@KatherineOfSky
2:21 :P
jak przekonać insertera, aby włożył do laboratorium 50 lub 100 butelek?
Im not crazy enough to do it...but I want to see someone crazy enough to build an entire base without motion belts and only inserters lol.
It's been done back in the day when Factorio first came out on Steam.
my inserter wont take from the far side of the belt :((
Good video. They don't need to be 7 hours long
I don't think I've ever done a 7 hour long video.... even streaming, I rarely go over 4 hours....
Both of your belt balancers are actually over-complicated. You can clearly see that your corner balancer is already doing its job before you place those two additional belts. The straight line balancer also uses three more belts than it needs to, it works perfectly with just a single belt going in from the splitter into the empty lane. So no, those designs that you're using really aren't the simplest ones, as you claim. :P
I think you missed what I said completely. You should probably watch with the audio on.
@@KatherineOfSky I did watch with the audio on, that's how I heard you say that "this is the simplest one". Sorry if that last line of my comment made it come off as demeaning or something, I was honestly trying to give a helpful tip that will save both belts and space.
@@tamlin420 You might have missed the bit where I say that "if you want to go in a straight line instead of using a corner", etc.
Is Shift+E to change inserter's placement a mod-only command then? For sure you'd have mentioned it here if it was in the base game... T_T
Yes that is a mod.
@almightyhydra I think you've been playing modded too long! :P Changing placement is not vanilla.
@@KatherineOfSky Shame. They should really add that to the base game.
The devs have stated that it would ruin the basic puzzle element of the game, and I agree with them. The game is so much more fun with figuring out how to do fun contraptions with all the machines we have.
10 Tips for Inserters.
There's a joke in there somewhere, I'm sure of it.
I'd love to see a Factorio-themed standup comedy show !
@@KatherineOfSky I got one.
_"Inserter?! I barely know her!"_
@@KatherineOfSky In all honesty, seeing a fandom for something develop to the point where they create new content in completely other genres and media types than the base material they're centered on is an amazing thing.
Few fandoms get that big, that creative, or that organized, though.
What about the best and most important inserters of the game? The coal-fueled inserters! =b
lol