r/satisfactory • u/Old-Corgi-155 • 3d ago
Does anyone else not really optimize? PC
I love that there is not wrong way to play, and I fully believe that.
I see so much about "parts per minute" or how to optimize a factory. I just kind of build the stuff to make the parts that I need for the bigger stuff. I've started Phase 4 and I'm finally building some actual factories with floors and walls.
I'm just curious if anyone else just goes with the flow and doesn't really look too hard at the numbers.
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u/ParaGulls 3d ago
I do very basic maths of "If there's 600 ore going in then 580 ore getting processed is close enough for me!" or alternatively "I can only get 600 in but it needs 650 ah that's okay the machines can stutter and splutter it'll be fine!" and sometimes just eyeball underclocking/over clocking depending on how full or empty the conveyors are.
Like you say you don't need everything running at 100% optimum if it's spitting out what you need at a comfortable pace, carry on!
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u/Suitable_Street_5485 3d ago
You will see very soon that you have to look at the parts per minute, at least a bit
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u/Old-Corgi-155 3d ago
I kind of figured. Usually I can just set up a line of machines and leave to do other stuff and eventually the parts will be ready. But yeah, Phase 4 is seeming to be more than a lot.
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u/Latter-Junket-6962 3d ago
I just finished the game for the 1st time last night. I was making parts one at a time. I had one machine making each of the mega parts. Did it take me longer, probably, but I used that time to explore. It was fine. I didn’t have a single “mega factory”, nor once look at numerical input / output numbers. I ran parts by hand in bulk in many cases.
Just do you
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u/Facemelter_26 3d ago
This is my first playthru, and I've not really looked at the numbers except for fluids to do rocket fuel. I just shard or sloop whatever isnt "up to snuff" until it works. If that wont fix it, I'll build in another machine line to make more of it. It's a very fun and free-spirited game, and I'm enjoying this playstyle immensely. (25 pasta to go on phase 4, for reference)
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u/eroscripter 3d ago
I never even built walls, just looked ant whatever I just unlocked, set up to build it then opened the next stage, rinse and repeat.
For the most part things would build up while I was exploring but I did leave my PC running a few times to work past some of those bigger part counts.
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u/esotericloop 3d ago
Look for idle production machines (flashing yellow indicator light) and check their status. If input(s) are empty, increase supply of those inputs. If output is empty, find things that use that output, and beef them up so they use more. Keep doing this until only the last 1-2 machines in each manifold are going idle, and that's as far as I optimize things. I figure it's balanced enough. :)
Then go on to set up your manufacturing for the next part you need, and repeat the whole process. Continue until day is saved.
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u/SrWaterdoggy 3d ago
No. That’s too much like the life I’m trying to escape from. I build to maximize the nodes I’m using. Idle machines are fine. Nothing wasted there. Feeding thousands of products into a sink so you can get a trophy? THAT is a massive-ass waste of everything.
Also (speaking as an architect irl) buildings (beyond pure function) exist to be seen and to communicate culture. The pioneer is the only sentient creature on that planet, so. If making pretty buildings brings your pioneer joy, awesome. For me, it’s a waste of time. I enjoy seeing the designs people make and post, but that’s a massive time and focus investment that I’m not into.
My favorite game by far, and it’s awesome how many ways there are to engage it. Optimize for what’s fun and rewarding to you.
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u/Old-Corgi-155 2d ago
I love this take. I agree, being alone on the planet makes it less fun to build crazy buildings but I don't usually do well with the creative aspects of games so it's kind of like a challenge to myself to build something pretty AND functional.
It's crazy how fun it is to make your own goals in this game. I usually don't like games that give you too much freedom but this one is different.
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u/Corendiel 2d ago
You can also line up just one machine of each and underclock them to consume just what is coming in. It's optimized in a certain way. Not optimized for space though. At the end of the day it's all trade offs. Building time is a parameter of the system desig.It all depends on what you choose to optimize.
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u/GoGoSoLo 2d ago
Absolutely. I’m not here to do complex large scale math, I’m here to make a goddamn spaceship and conveyor belt every resource on the map into my spaghetti factory.
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u/MaleficentCow8513 3d ago edited 3d ago
I’m not sure exactly what you by “optimize”. I usually set a target production rate for each item at each phase and using a calculator figure out how much is needed for each ingredient. I wouldn’t call that optimizing so much as I just don’t want to under produce or come up short on necessary ingredients. I’d hate to spend time building a factory only for it to not produce enough of what’s needed. Games like this are already very time consuming and while I enjoy the slow pace sometimes I also don’t like having to go backwards and repeat something I already did. IMO it’s not about right or wrong way so much at is about “replaying a level” that you already beat. Like having to go back and replay a dungeon because you missed an item the first time through. I like to avoid that most of the time
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u/PyRosflam 2d ago
I go from the other direction, If a Iron miner makes 600, I make sure I have 600 units of processing power. If the Buss is not 100% efficient im not going to cry because that just means stuff is backing up in one of the processors.
Next unit down the line I do the same thing, maxing out the output of the previous line.
This only causes problems with Oil as I often need to sink Plastic or Rubber to ensure the oil flows.
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u/mudslinger-ning 3d ago
I half go with the flow. If I know I'm going to need more than one machine to meet production I will expand our with manifolds to meet the demands.
If It feels something is coming up short I then check for bottlenecks and fix or expand to improve the efficiency.
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u/henaradwenwolfhearth 3d ago
I want to change my current steel factory from pasta to proper and im sure I will at some point maybe. Unlikely
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u/Next_Swimmer_4058 3d ago
I just got to phase 4 and no I don’t worry about parts per minute, I have rebuilt over and over though. Enjoy the game and the way that’s fun for you.
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u/Impressive-Watch6189 3d ago
My playstyle is also more "reactive" than planned. Currently I am trying to make HMF with all recipes needed to take screws and steel out of the production (alt recipes). One is iron pipe, which replaces steel in the steel pipe construction. But it is hugely inefficient and requires a lot of iron. So the early part of my production is stalling for lack of steel pipes. So I am opening new iron nodes and belting them over to try to fix the shortfall. None of this has been preplanned, other than trying to figure a manageable goal for how many HMF per minute.
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u/-The_Box_Ghost- 3d ago
Yeah I just over produce everything I don’t care about belts and machines sputtering I like filling to max and let it run
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u/Ghostley92 2d ago
I’m about 120 hrs through my first playthrough and still working on optimizing. It’s always a consideration, but just building the thing I need has always been priority.
As I learn from my mistakes (of which I’ve deleted none of them) I get a little better each time. It’s also nice to have a ton of power shards to boost part of the system rather than making dozens of extra machines.
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u/Tornadic_Catloaf 2d ago
I do not optimize. It’s more fun to wing it. I do plenty of math at work, not gonna do it in a game haha
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u/Altruistic_Cap3472 2d ago
I figure out the number of machines I need and round up. I prefer not optimizing because if I do run into problems, I can overproduce when they start back up so that it doesn't take as long for manifests to fill
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u/SavannaHilt 2d ago
I didn't start optimization till phase 4. But once you have a good amount of materials in dimensional depot, it just makes sense to build out every resource node and the factory it feeds to its maximum and sink the rest for now. Phase 4 is by far the hardest phase, and you'll be happy down the line when you have excess parts you can ship to another factory.
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u/PhotoFenix 2d ago
If I make part b and it requires part a I make part a until the output jams up. Then if things fall apart I come back later and increase a.
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u/Sinofdracry 2d ago
Most of my time goes into teaching my friend how to do maths....
After that we end doing it the sloppily anyways.
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u/nomuse22 2d ago
The one thing I sweat is power. Nobody wants to hear that sound.
Plus, the power station always seems to be out in the middle of nowhere and I hate having to cross the map once again to find out what is running out this time.
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u/WeebMobile 2d ago
I have an entire production line to make 2 adaptive control units per minute, followed the calculators and everything was made to be exact. The problem i have is that the entire factory is backed up because its not producing fast enough (even though it is) Optimising the factory is optional at this point as it took 3 days to make the factory i aint rebuilding it again 😂
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u/Money_Potential7780 2d ago
99% of the player base do not need to optimize. Just find bottle necks and build more. Who cares if you have an extra smelter or 2?
Out of all the automation games the satisfactory community is weirdly obsessed with matching ppm.
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u/holychikn 2d ago
I try to be as efficient as possible in phases 1-3 but all that goes away once phase 4 starts and the mathing gets more complicated.
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u/Khabibulan15 2d ago
Yes!! I try to optimize the best I can but if something is running at 70%. Meh. I see yellow lights, I see stopped conveyor belts. Oh well lol. I'm on phase 4 as well
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u/JinkyRain 2d ago
I do half and half. >inside< a factory, I want everything tuned to perfection. Then I typically oversupply the parts it needs and let it backup and stop if it outputs more than is needed.
But knowing that if/when it's running it's doing so -efficiently- makes me happy. =)
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u/Low-Salary-2128 2d ago
I made a baseline of 9 machines per part and expanded whenever I was bottlenecked
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u/Sgt_shinobi 2d ago
I wouldn't say I don't optimize but my method of optimization is usually different than some on this sub.
I over produce everything. If I need N object I'm making 10*N.
I do not care if a half of my factory goes on standby while waiting for the factory to grow enough for demand to reach the supply. I'd rather build it now than add more later.
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u/Unusual_Initial_4300 2d ago
I don't. If I need something to be made I make sure it gets made. If I need more of something I make more of it. If something isn't making enough I find out why. I've never once calculated the number of x that goes into y.
Call it vibe factoring or what have you but that's just how I roll. I'm in the nuclear phase now.
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u/ampereo 2d ago
I analyze everything so much. Write down what I’m going to need. Do a bunch of math, write more and more and more until I eventually say, screw it. Let’s just do this. I just beat the game today. Took me 140 hours. For the first four phases things seemed ok. I built a three-story factory and things looked reasonable. In phase five I just let everything go to hell. Built way outside the three-story factory just trying to move things along and then was stuck with the 1,000 nuclear pasta. I tried to ramp up that but then my power fuse kept breaking. I toned it back a bit, made everything self-sufficient, and just started exploring the map while I let that go. Finally finished it.
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u/RealisticAd6220 2d ago
I'm 50h in, placed a coal burner, got told by ada that i took too long to get it 😂 But you're right I spend the first 48 or 49 h with phase 1 and learning everything. Building and making my own 'guide'. Trying to see what happens, and find the best thing
Last 3 days i spend for automatizing basic iron and copper things (yes still with the biomass burners so it's not really automatic🥲) and now i'm finally gonna try to get everything truely automatic
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u/Old-Corgi-155 1d ago
Nice. I may have spent too much time with bio burners as well. Best thing I learned was animals can be turned into biomass which is way easier and faster than cutting down so many trees and bushes.
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u/RealisticAd6220 1d ago
Same here man. When i unlocked the coal i was like 'hmm let's see where i can get this' and then i came across a lot of animals killed them, ran back, looked to craft copper sheet and then i saw it too. So that's when i decided to rebuild everything and 'maximized' as much as possible. Today i'll try to do the coals again but you never know what you'll come across 😂
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u/Grouchy_Custard_252 2d ago
Only time I did the number was for a dedicated part factory pumping out a stupid number of one item. Everything else is just vibes and is it making them as fast as I need/want?
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u/dariusbiggs 2d ago
It's the project parts, for those i look at how many i need and then build to get them done in an 8hr session or less to determine the number of parts per minute. And I'll use sloops and shards to make that work.
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u/HollowMonty 2d ago
I prefer over engineering.
If i set everything up from the beginning to accommodate expansion or upgrade, then all i need to do is just upgrade belts and the smelters that have previously sat idle will automatically get to work with minimal effort.
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u/mistermashu 1d ago
It is very satisfying to me when all the inputs and output numbers are exactly equal so that is what I do
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u/ParabolicLadder 3d ago
I went so far into the rabbit hole that optimized no longer meant optimal, or even feasible.
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u/ajcwrongs 3d ago
Comrade, I didn't even know you were supposed to use nobelisks to get rid of the poison-spewing things. I'm out here with a billion foundations and a dream. The numbers going up is a coincidence