Factorio [UPDATED] The Idiot Castle

UPDATED!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NEW GUIDE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

01/22/23 This guide has been entirely updated! Now featuring a infinitely cleaner build, purple science, better storage, better walls, new concrete flooring, better everything.

I am going to leave up the blueprints below for now; I might remove the pastebin links at some point.

TL;DR

Get the blueprints here[pastebin.com] .

You can get some optional landfill/concrete blueprints here[pastebin.com] .

Our rail base blueprints (some of which are used in this build) can be found here[pastebin.com] .

Preview the finished build

Place down the starting point

Build the blueprints in order

Profit.

Introduction

This is a set of blueprints that build a fully self-contained starter base. It is aimed primarily at intermediate-level players who have a solid grasp of the game mechanics but who lack the experience or the raw brain power to come up with their own production designs. I personally tend to fall into the latter category, hence the name of the book.

Is this build well optimized? No. Does it use as few belts as possible? Hell no. Does it do everything for you? No, it does not even launch a rocket. But it should set you up for a stable and productive mid game, with a decent supply of science, buildings and logistic robots. That is the point.

The base takes ores, crude oil and water and produces most buildings in the game in an orderly, logistics-compatible mall, plus the first four science packs. Labs, power, train stops and defenses are all included.

For the purpose of this guide, I'm assuming that you familiar with the very early game. The build starts at the stage where you would place your first furnace array. If that does not sound familiar to you, you might want to play around with the game first and then come back.

New players are recommended to play this build with at least 200% size and 200% richness on all resources. These settings should allow you to safely transition into trains before your starting resource patches run out.

The blueprint book contains, in order:

The Upgrades blueprint, used for upgrading to red belts and passive provider chests

The Finished Castle and Starting Point blueprints to help you plan your base

12 step-by-step blueprints to guide you through the construction process

An optional blueprint that adds walls and turrets around your base

Technical Details

This is a short fact sheet for experienced players.

Takes 5 full red belts of iron ore, one copper ore, one stone and one coal.

Consumes approximately 200 crude oil/s and 500 water/s from single pipes. All throughput rates are very generous.

Runs on up to 115 MW of steam power, consuming up to 4 additional pipes of water. This much power is optional.

Research output is 60 SPM under optimal conditions.

Meant to be used with a chunk-snapped, 2-4 double-lane train system. All inputs can be supplied with trains. You can use our rail book (at the top of this guide) or use your own.

Step 0: Starting Point

Before you start, you should take a moment to think about where to place your base. The furnaces take their inputs from the top, and you are going to need crude oil and water inputs from the sides. Use the Finished Castle blueprint to preview the shape of your base, then place down the Starting Point blueprint.

Try to position your base with its furnace inputs facing your starting resource patches, with water on one of the sides. As you are playing through the very early game, placing down some temporary steam power and a few assembling machines elsewhere and feeding them with resources can cut down on crafting time and make your life a little easier. This also a good time to throw down a few labs and get the first few technologies.

Step 1: Primary Furnaces

These are your first two furnace arrays. Place them behind the starting point. The furnaces on the very outside take copper ore, then come five iron ore inputs, then stone and then coal again on the outside.

Above is a diagram of the ore inputs for the finished furnaces. You only need to worry about the two blocks on the right, for now.

Step 2: Steam Power

This blueprint starts with its input belt just behind your furnaces. Start by building only a few of the steam engines, you can always expand them later. Water goes in from the side.

Using the Pump Anywhere mod or some sort of waterfill mod makes this step much easier, as you can just throw down pumps and be done with it. Alternatively, you can be a lawful citizen and pipe your water across the map.

Step 3: Starter Production

Tear down any temporary assembling machines from before and place them here. This step should cover most of the buildings you need for the next few steps and for expanding your mining operations and your power production.

Step 4: Basic Production

This blueprint is an upgrade to the last blueprint, and it goes right on top of your existing machines.

Red belts are produced here, but you do not need to start producing them right away! In fact, you can put off red belt production for a very long time, as they are much more expensive than yellow belts, leaving more resources for the rest of your factory.

Now would also be a good time to add a few temporary labs on the opposite side of the science belt.

This is the type of setup that I usually go for. It is not part of the blueprint because it will be massively in the way later on.

Step 5: More Furnaces

In this step, we are adding more iron furnaces, two rows of steel furnaces and a few more for stone bricks. This blueprint goes on top of your existing furnaces. By now, all buildings required to build this step should be available in your mall.

Steps 6 And 7: Industrial Production & Military Science

Here we are producing all the oil-related buildings that will be necessary for your future expansion into chemistry. From now on, all blueprints will be using medium power poles and blue assembling machines.

Military science unlocks a few helpful tools to defend yourself, and you can get piercing ammo here.

You might want to upgrade all existing assembling machines to blue machines before proceeding.

Step 8: Chemical Industry

Before you start building this blueprint, claim and fortify an oil field and pipe the stuff back here. The crude oil goes in from the side of the base.

Out of all the blueprints in this book, this one looks truly mysterious until you get the upgrade.

Now would be a good time to move your temporary labs further down the belt to be able to grab the blue science packs.

Steps 9 And 10: Flying Robots, Labs & Roboports

And here goes the upgrade! This one requires you to have unlocked advanced oil processing. As basic oil processing is morally wrong and physically painful to watch, this is a much needed improvement. The rest of this step will get you all the way to construction and logistic robots.

Throw down the first Roboport next to where more of them are produced, and upgrade all of your output chests to passive provider chests. Once you have done that, your base will be building itself.

Use your newly acquired powers to move the labs to their final and permanent location at the very end of the science belt.

Step 11: Other Products

This is an extended mall that produces most of the remaining buildings for you. Since this is at the very end of the resource belts, not much will be happening here until the rest of the base has backed up.

At this point, you need to make a decision: if you have a healthy amount of starting resources left, you can now upgrade your entire factory to red belts, which will be very expensive, but it makes everything go twice as fast (use the upgrade planner for this). Alternatively, if you are running out of raw materials, you should hold off on the red belts. This step will get you into trains and laser turrets, allowing you to set up mining outposts to feed your base and keep it alive.

In either case, the next step will take some time. Fill up your research queue and go shoot some bugs while your base is playing the game.

Step 12: Input Stations

In the last step of the build, we are adding the rails and train stops that enclose your base. Your ore belts might be in the way, so move them around or switch to delivery by trains.

From here, you can expand your rail network to deliver raw materials to your base, build new production lines and do anything else you can imagine. Your starting base will serve as the backbone of any further expansion, becoming eventually outdated, but never quite obsolete. It is yours now, so take good care of it.

[Optional] Castle Fortifications

This optional step adds a layer of walls and laser turrets to your base. This is not a primary defense! It is only meant as a last line of defense in case a few biters make it through or attack from an unexpected direction. As a general rule, you should always be defending your pollution cloud, not your base.

You can find a few more optional blueprints in the second blueprint book (at the top of this guide).

What Is Next?

Win the game! Expand your rail network, automate purple and yellow science and launch your first rocket. For the smooth-brained players such as myself, this can all be done using logistic bots and requester chests.

Make the switch to solar power and set up your steam engines as a backup source of power. There are excellent guides on how to set this up that you can find elsewhere.

Establish a solid production of blue belts, which are missing from this build, and go into the late game.

Invade a foreign country and take their oil.

All of the above.

Closing Words

I hope this guide enabled you to get off to a great start and to build the factory of your dreams! If you found any problems with the build, please let me know and they will be fixed.

Acknowledgments

Partially made with and all screenshots taken with this tool[github.com] .

Edited with inkscape[inkscape.org] .

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2799359547

[UPDATED] The Idiot Castle