#New to the game- About resources and depletion

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

eager apex
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I'm playing the demo at the moment, and what I noticed is even with Burner Mining Drills, resources will inevitably depleat. To me, this seems like whenever I set up resource gatherers, I will have to do so with the mindset that these will inevitably have to be removed or changed to continue harvesting resources.

I dislike this style of gameplay, I know infinite resources isn't realistic, but I much rather prefer that then having to replan my entire base of operations to continue playing.

I dislike having to build something only to inevitably have to tear it down at a later date.

Will this change in any way when I get further into the game or am I simply stuck with this?

queen nova
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You are stuck with it, but it's not nearly as big of an issue as you may think

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First of all: Patches can contain millions of ore, so you'll often find that only your starter patches run out before you can finish the game.

eager apex
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Currently they are around 500 per drill, which is fine for now, but I was worried I'd be stuck with that

queen nova
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Second, and much more importantly: you will always be scaling up your production, be it to increase output or to make new products. That will require you to get more ore, and this expansion happens at a much faster rate than the rate of old patches running out. So yes, you will constantly be expanding, but you will generally be doing that to meet throughput requirements, not to replenish it.

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Finally, there's mining productivity research, which can be researched infinitely after launching a rocket. This means you will get more ore output for every unit of ore you take out of the ground, effectively making patches last significantly longer

eager apex
deep pond
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If you really hate setting up new miners try the Rail World scenario. There are less ore patches overall but they're richer than normal

eager apex
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I found a mod that seems to make resources infinite, which I was considering, but I'll hold off on that for now

queen nova
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As for the logistics: with the right setup, trains can make it a lot easier to commission a new patch. Just plug it into the network and let the trains come.

eager apex
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I figured keeping my machines separate form patches, and trying to mine them out strategically would help a lot, make conveyor strips longer than necessary but easier to connect to new conveyors so I only have to remove a few when changing drills

queen nova
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You'll pretty quickly arrive at a point where you just want to fill entire patches with miners just to get enough output :P

eager apex
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Another thing that's been bothering me is fueling burner inserters, it's good that conveyors have 2 strips, so one can always be coal, but when taking from a place that isn't a convery, for example a Stone Furnace, the inserters grabbing from the furnace can't refuel themselves, and I can't think of a neat way to fix that

queen nova
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Electric inserters

eager apex
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Ah, I am not quite at electricity yet

deep pond
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Burner inserters are good for fueling boilers and thats about it

queen nova
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I generally only use burner inserters at the start of the game, and for the boilers

eager apex
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I see

deep pond
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Use basic setups like this for early game as trying to fully automate smelting immediately will be really slow

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No need to bother with belts or inserters when your factory is small enough to do everything manually

eager apex
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oh you can input things directly into smelters

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from drills

deep pond
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Yep

eager apex
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interesting

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I never thought of that

patent anvil
deep pond
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And those coal miners fuel themselves by inputting into eachother

queen nova
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For reference btw: I just created a new game with a random seed, here are the closest ore patches and their contents.

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This seed does seem to lack some copper lol

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The unlabelled copper patch north-east is 1.5M, north-west is 6M

eager apex
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my god

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that's qute a bit

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maybe depletion isn't so bad

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I'll give it a shot

deep pond
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Biters are definitely a more immediate threat than resource depletion lol

queen nova
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Gotta love it when the water eats it all though

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