Does anyone know how make this plain shape? it's code P-P-P-P-

[arctic kraken]

there are 3 or 4 main ways

most use ||crystals||

but its a fun puzzle to work out on your own, too

really make use of the mechanics in the game
there are some tasks that give hints towards this too

[wanton igloo]

Just made a blueprint yesterday that converts shapes into half as much pins. Not well optimized, but it will work for a while.

[queen valve]

With only shapes, the pins can be easily produces at 1:2 ratio (two full shapes into one 4-pin shape). The ratio can be improved to 5:3, but it's much more fiddly, and such a ratio is not very friendly to the belt system. I don't know if it can be made any better, though.

[wanton igloo]

5 pins per 3 solid pieces?

[queen valve]

No, 5 solid pieces into 3 4-pin shapes. Or 5 shape quarters into 3 single pins.

[wanton igloo]

yeah, not worth it.

[queen valve]

Agree. It was more for an intellectual workout, trying to maximize the pins output. If I could get 1:1 it would be great, but not sure if that's possible.

[wanton igloo]

16% less shapes consumption, but a nightmare spaghettis and unhandy ratios.

I think 5->3 is optimal, and I most likely will switch to crystals anyway.

[queen valve]

I thought about the crystals, but I don't like how you still need a shape to build it. So instead of a small compact platform near an asteroid, you have to mine both shapes and paint, and bring them together.

[wanton igloo]

No, it only needs few pins to warm up. I already use recycle mixers everywhere. And I definitely will use recycle pins.

[queen valve]

I thought about looping them back. Kinda, get a single pin, create a full layer crystal from it, pin it, destroy the crystal. 1 pin -> 4 pins; out of each 4 full pin-shapes send one to recycle into single pins, and 3 on its way to the factory.
But you still need to bootstrap it, so an external connection is needed. Plus you can't start it up and then remove the connection, because if you happen to clean up the shapes, you'll have to bootstrap it again. For me it sounds a bit more hassle, than just slapping a platform near a shape asteroid miner and leaving it be.
But each to his own. It's actually great that the game lets us do many things in so many different ways!

[wanton igloo]

I just realized you can easily achieve 4->3 with recycling.

[queen valve]

Hm... That's interesting. Although I can't immediately see how to do it, but I will try to find a solution later. I have been considering shape recycling already, but still could not get above 5:3 ratio. However, I have not included pin recycling in my shape-based scenarios...

[arctic kraken]

It would be 4:3 not 5:3

[queen valve]

Yeah, I realized how to make 4:3 from shapes with pin recycling. Probably there are more ways to do that, but what I arrived at is:
||As a bootstrap, create a collection of "pin towers": 4 pins on top of each other in one quarter, and the rest of the shape is empty. These towers will be going in an infinite loop within the factory, so they have to be supplied only once at the start (or after a cleanup). Then we take one full shape, put it on pins, and drop on top of the tower. This step is actually not obvious, I didn't think it'd work. Our pinned shape now occupies layers 5 and 6, and according to the game's laws, both layers should be destroyed. But what actually happens, looks like only the top 6th shape is destroyed first, then the pins drop under gravity, and only after that the layer 5 is destroyed, which by now contains only one extra pin in the tower. Now we simply cut the tower out of the shape and send it back, and the rest 3 single pins are ours to grab. ||

[wanton igloo]

parts don't stick vertically, so pins fall off before height limit is applied.