u/amarao_san

Normally this block won't be interesting to post, but there are two new things I did there:

1. Sparse station placement (like the last time) and no belt compressing. I definitively love this approach.
2. I found a new two high-speed belt approach, no splitters. Not sure if it will scale for other situations.

So, new connection type:

Production version:

https://preview.redd.it/8u76o4dvngth1.png?width=1085&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5aeffbda5d59125fc9285bd019212ff56670015

Theoretical version:

https://preview.redd.it/6xccx667slth1.png?width=2536&format=png&auto=webp&s=32991782503dfd2689e47997f92f7f4b51e6ab35

https://preview.redd.it/daqlucaeogth1.png?width=1516&format=png&auto=webp&s=029d44e0e703c89dee9ba179d430d6e61500ad38

Just wave back and forth two belts. In production version there is third input.

The production is slightly below expected (math said 2.75 assemblers per row, I cut it to 2, because doing 4 would be too much of wasted everything).

https://preview.redd.it/rkooby1rogth1.png?width=1231&format=png&auto=webp&s=f5327a363d98b303888c610571b8bc2a1a7032a1

The central part:

Resulting block. It was build in the same block as cliff explosives (which is low volume, because I myself is a single consumer for it). Note how different stations are coming from different sides.

https://preview.redd.it/d86ajcdrngth1.png?width=1495&format=png&auto=webp&s=c06a10bd2796b33d6cafb38dd569c10a5aab6392

The commenter was right. Mixed ores has only one consumer (to the Cobalt Extract) so I had to bolt-in an extension. It's no longer the pinnacle of design, but still do the job. Note that I had to build 2 warehouses to get rid of accumulated Mixed Ores. Yes, it's more than warehouse of Mixed ores. I forgot to set the limit for production and it run for some time.

https://preview.redd.it/7q9dfrp9slth1.png?width=2536&format=png&auto=webp&s=184bc2121c18523cf203e9dfac6a48bdb97b1cf6

While I'm battling with more complicated stuff, I have some wait time which I used to do simple things. One of them is rare earth ore -> rare earth dust processing.

It is simple. You get ore, there are two byproducts, you get dust. No backfeed, no skewed ratios, etc. A bland simple recipe, which is good to practice the basics.

Math:

Ore: 60/s (4 belts), produces 30/s of powder and 30/stone.

30/s powder is converted to minuscule amounts of gravel and dust.

What is interesting here for me.

1. First time I realized that I have 'less than a full station' of byproducts and final product. Occasionally I did it for the final products, but before products were always full stations, which is overbuilt. Here is the perfect ratio (60 ingress, 30 egress for stones), so half station.

2. I decide to spread stations on sides, and do it without bidirectional input/output. It's super neat and saves a lot of real estate in the block. Input and output are buffered (there is more space for the second train).

3. There was a gas station on the block, so I have to work around it, but I found no issues at all.

Powder part. Note, that the belts are almost perfect (I wish I build everything two blocks lower to make intersection better). I thought about having this block rotated 90°, but I have gas field below, so a little more belts.

https://preview.redd.it/v2lp0dne8fth1.png?width=2591&format=png&auto=webp&s=9f1d15544ea5b8fa1dcafd7cda9d3e0533a30c83

4. On a picture above, there is one more interesting observation. I have 30/s stone byproduct, but I put 4 belts with a balancer instead of compressing it into two. I found that not compacting (and not de-compacting for 4 warehouses) make scheme more elegant. I waste a bit of space and belts, but I save a lot on compression ugliness, and flow is more harmonious. 4 sparse belts instead of 2 full belts is a good thing.

The ore distribution is follow usual 4-5 pattern (4 belts, one belt is split into two to feed half amount of left-right parts of stacks). I found that bottom crossing is the least ugly solution:

https://preview.redd.it/f0jijgo29fth1.png?width=1790&format=png&auto=webp&s=23c023f5faac7cc1e430ed1ae6b7c1aa8a854e21

Upper link is more ugly. Also, I could have done 5 outputs and 4 inputs, but then I have to do the same to collect results. I did it in the dust section (see below), basically, the same, but on output side.

Dust section:

https://preview.redd.it/pfhnkixb9fth1.png?width=1891&format=png&auto=webp&s=f11d755e3190b3faa6503c0082c7deb04895d48e

It has a very simple trap of having more assemblers to process 30/s powder, than needed to process 60/s ore, but it's very common in Py, and hard to call a trap at this stage (of mental development of me).

The same 'do not compress' idea, which I find very neat. Belts are very unsaturated (I'm not sure, maybe it's even one belt), but I need some distribution anyway, and 4-to-4 cleanness is attractive to me:

https://preview.redd.it/zx9u67vn9fth1.png?width=1271&format=png&auto=webp&s=f6b0dbd3ecc412bab2425ab013671e4553764e3e

The promised 4-in 5-out solution:

There are 4 inputs, and 5 outputs (inside of stack, outside of stack), and they joined with a simple down-to-up belt running close to he stacks:

https://preview.redd.it/3x3si3m3afth1.png?width=421&format=png&auto=webp&s=79e5ea28d8d33d296f1a7651d0c890787d380a40

I did not put balancer between ore->powder and powder->dust parts, because they should not unbalance in normal situation, input is balanced, output is balanced, so in-between should be naturally balanced.

One more thing: why did my block stopped at dust? The reason is:

https://preview.redd.it/8g3nxqpoafth1.png?width=555&format=png&auto=webp&s=11ea2ac714f257d8d56b2369f235e46962c15f2e

There are 3 different recipes using it, so it's natural to use block logistic to make them modular. I usually do this, (or cut recipe chain into few blocks if it's too complex), because in the past I had to redo few blocks, when I upgraded second part of the recipe chain. Now rule is simple, if there are multiple consuming recipes, the product is available on the block network.

Stations.

Because it's a single producer recipe (there are no alternatives), there is no point of having conditions on output. Input is conditional, by products are conditional:

https://preview.redd.it/5c0n2c84bfth1.png?width=2083&format=png&auto=webp&s=4858c4db66892179a684465608ed2bb6556ddb0e

Station is activating when there is a full train-load of the stuff to move. Warehouses are unbounded, so they absorb as much as they can (this is byproduct!).

Output is non-conditioned, but has limit on warehouse, 5 trains. Why 5 trains? I suspect a lot of use of it, so I want to smooth out lower throughput of the ore mining block (I have one atm).

https://preview.redd.it/xo09ijrjbfth1.png?width=590&format=png&auto=webp&s=f876dd5f626eb9a261331853909a906033e48d8d

Input is conditioned to have about more than train load in buffer, but warehouse is unbounded, to allow full unload even if station is disabled. I found this the most optimal: station is disabled when there is more than train-load of stuff in the input, but current train will be unloaded in full.

https://preview.redd.it/qyezxy7xbfth1.png?width=2243&format=png&auto=webp&s=6ba919751def97d78639eedde40e67d5755024d9

Resulting scheme:

https://preview.redd.it/m6w6f6296fth1.png?width=1547&format=png&auto=webp&s=06cb0ca262c2c47a0828adcf1cfd6ce5bdc4374d

My last invention is 'sun' stations. Before they were construction stations I removed at the end. Now I don't do this, I rename them by the block name. They don't have normal trains, and they are in-line (they on the inter-block rails). They are used for my personal navigation.

https://preview.redd.it/36zzas17cfth1.png?width=2020&format=png&auto=webp&s=be5508b35a6554249822165d63d6e92c88f69fa7

(it's ore, because ore is left and processing is right, I saved one station).

I got myself in a very confusing situation.

I converted a pair of disks in raid1 (xfs) into two disks with btrfs. Few weeks later (I can't say when exactly) I found that btrfs is not mounting:

[119272.940143] BTRFS: device fsid 4e018703-083b-4fe7-a2d7-2e924c3dcb21 devid 2 transid 41842 /dev/mapper/leg1-protected (254:4) scanned by mount (453095)
[119272.940486] BTRFS info (device dm-4): first mount of filesystem 4e018703-083b-4fe7-a2d7-2e924c3dcb21
[119272.940490] BTRFS info (device dm-4): using crc32c checksum algorithm
[119272.941159] BTRFS error (device dm-4): devid 1 uuid 74fc8b02-1b3d-4254-b3ca-2463ef620752 is missing
[119272.941167] BTRFS error (device dm-4): failed to read the system array: -2
[119272.941323] BTRFS error (device dm-4): open_ctree failed: -2

But second disk in somehow is raid1 with missing pair and no recognizable filesystem.

I run photorec and it sees the content of the btrfs (at least, some images).

I'm pretty sure btrfs was replicated on two disks (by btrfs means) and will try to recover it.

But I wonder, how it come that overwritten raid member (wipefs -a) was able to assemble as degraded raid1 after mkfs.btrfs (specifically, after I joined it into existing btrfs), and run rebalance...

Given the previous argument that dried biomass is cheap and pretty good for most kinds of solid fuels (and no ash!) I decided to make a block of it.

It was fun! The funniest thing is that I made 4-belts block in a quarter of the block. I don't now why I decide to do uber compact, but I liked it and I can't stop been proud of it.

https://preview.redd.it/pdjakvy7m3ph1.png?width=3140&format=png&auto=webp&s=d69cf33114aaf69e9582dea0c5b41e5f2d1ae49c

Puzzle analysis.

Problem 1: Intermediate recipe (fine powdered biomass) is producing byproducts which are ingress products for itself and for previous stage. At very low quantities.

This puzzle is input bounded (more input than output), so any backfeed into input would slow down throughput.

I solved it with a smaller secondary two-units (on the left), which repeat the setup (for biomass byproduct), and back-feed itself. It's totally safe, as byproducts are minuscule (0.24 + 0.12 per 6 inputs), and one assembler is enough to cover all combined output, and own output.

Also, to save two lanes on height I mangled 4x4 lane balancer:

https://preview.redd.it/ymqzdctdn3ph1.png?width=952&format=png&auto=webp&s=d2e039a013b610f1a7c2d4812393cb2ab5ab5e66

Probably, that's all for the problems.

But I made the most odd looking but crazy efficient train station. It serves two stops, each with a waiting area and two independent entrances (to both directions). It is silly but not silly. I'm proud of it.

I looked at 'used for' and I have no idea what it's needed for, except for breeding itself. Is there a point? Did I miss something?

UPD: Thank you. MK2,3,4 are better modules. They are not used as ingredients. Thanks.

Last time I wasn't able to grok Hot Air 2 problem.

This time, after long fight with bees (report is coming, I still short on some of the important inputs, one of which is hot air, as soon as I stabilize it, I will show you 4-train of queens), I got some more intuition and ability to reason.

Hot Air 2 problems.

Problem #1 is bi-directional flow of consumables.

Hot Air 1 is producing warmer bricks (needed for Hot Air 2), but it consumes 250°C gas, which is produced by Hot Air 2 as byproduct (without consuming it everything will stall).

This problem is trivially solved by underflow valve and enough of buffers to absorb spikes (those 20% should be enough to make non-blocking output for Hot Air 2). 2x40k is doing it just fine.

Note, this underflow valve is essential:

https://preview.redd.it/020vb51faroh1.png?width=828&format=png&auto=webp&s=6e2bcb8485094b7cf6ddc82fea588f2ea8b7403b

Other side of this problem, cooled bricks (output) must not block. If they block, everything stalls.

Solution: buffers. I literally throw about a train of bricks into warehouses, and there is plenty of space to absorb all bricks, so no locking. I also went crazy on loading/unloading, but it's not exactly needed, as bricks ingress is less than 4 long l2 cranes.

https://preview.redd.it/jf2qp4n1croh1.png?width=860&format=png&auto=webp&s=b2c0b2a297c4a057606b852342e7ac87acef4e32

The third problem is loose 100->500 gas. It must be injected, and if we try to compensate it by supplying more 250 gas, it will deadlock output of either hot air2 (250 gas), or output of hot air1 (too many warm bricks, not producing enough 100 gas).

The solution is independent injection system (hot gas 1), with underflow valve and buffer after it (again 2x40).

https://preview.redd.it/wzyjdgjhcroh1.png?width=911&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c891d69a385b6c14c5ad738b362dd4fb6e2fc02

Note, that this is my old hot air 1 build with "blueprint" bricks inserted between units in limited quantity (40 bricks per pair).

The rest is kinda natural. We burn raw fiber (kickalk produce crazy amount of it), looping salt. To help with debugging (I had to drain pipes few times), molten salt is provided via underflow valve from a station:

https://preview.redd.it/0af7vc3ycroh1.png?width=3054&format=png&auto=webp&s=6fa0b9440d4a37e44f2a0fb5b4f86f07113f88c5

Hot salt tank is usually full and blocking, this is okay, as long as we don't have full molten salt (white). Hot salt is direct product and white molten salt is byproduct, so it must be non-blocking.

Boring and nothing interesting to see here.

The problem #4 is that warmer bricks is the bottleneck. We need 10 of them per cycle. I have a rather arbitrary, but mostly respected rule to keep things to four belts, which is 60 per seconds. Everything else is build around throughtput of 40

60/s for warmer bricks is 7.5, I was very tight on space in the block, so I decide to give up and do 7*8 = 56 warmer bricks per second.

(now I realize that I could have done 8 by 8, and reduce warm bricks by one lane... I won't redo for small increase),

https://preview.redd.it/aw2lhz3feroh1.png?width=1297&format=png&auto=webp&s=48f178c30df9381eeb94f644a455d77bd8ba4f4f

There is direct feed of warm bricks (from below) to warmer bricks (to above). 250 gas is flowing down (every second pipe column).

It was, actually, problem #6. Mental struggle to deal with 3 identical gases with a difference only in temperature, which is not that obvious in all places.

Finally, hot air production. I love this beasts. Look how tightly but nicely it is packed on the leftovers of other sub-blocks.

A single subblock:

https://preview.redd.it/vdpcbae0froh1.png?width=1069&format=png&auto=webp&s=8015d5738fe83b7a0f00a75f80b586f67cf55ac2

Set of four, tightly packed:

https://preview.redd.it/vtw6iif3froh1.png?width=653&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b3be4329b4178058a0f2c782b769fc37c5390d0

Whole scheme:

https://preview.redd.it/stejnod8froh1.png?width=1631&format=png&auto=webp&s=482ea9ac0b49c7379be0ccf306bc6e14aa8ecbcb

(Yes, input train station is overbuild, 2 lanes input is enough, I made 4. But I hate to remove filled warehouses...)

This is my hot air production. Those lows is when I got output filled, and I manually drained it to show that it is sustainable.

https://preview.redd.it/vxfbxfiofroh1.png?width=1438&format=png&auto=webp&s=8cafa7522a89cc928a6aff6c7318f500dbd6d239

https://preview.redd.it/l66lzbrqfroh1.png?width=733&format=png&auto=webp&s=5942cd0a046d86cc225c5defac82c60bba0c4e7e

I consume crazy amount of hot air, because all my wax products goes through 'wax' stage... My bees start to throttle (on it too, but vrauks are still need expansion...). Also, my next recipe is molten steel, and it's better to be casted with hot air, so I definitively needed it.

https://preview.redd.it/3feynbqufroh1.png?width=1450&format=png&auto=webp&s=b9e3e33f452de1d8e270ddfddff3b32729dd8c95

Bonus: a sketch I made while developing a block. Looks crazy, but listen to me: blue box is 100°C gas, yellow is 250°C gas, and red is 500°C gas.

https://preview.redd.it/8dyynv7egroh1.png?width=2165&format=png&auto=webp&s=21e6d1dcaa97a0467562bd46db38b557558e9c1f

I loved it this time. This counter-flow (problem #1) is really nice and unusual. Lossy gas made a closed loop into much more fun puzzle.

But, I hate 3 types of the same gas with the same icon. Maybe there is another solution to this puzzle with temperature mixing?

Final view (as much as can fit into screenshot):

https://preview.redd.it/08fsh94zgroh1.png?width=3137&format=png&auto=webp&s=e005966e4ddb1273629b2e45da49f21107c041f4

There are breakers with zigbee function and with built-in electric meter (consumption).

I wonder, how much this thing consumes for itself? If I replace all breakers with it (~20), how much electricity will be wasted on those devices.

Is here someone with access to internal numbering plans of Cyta, or to the ACLs on the network equipment?

I found a very interesting routing quirk for Cyta and is eager to know why.

10::  \
20::   } 0000::/10 -> CYTA core -> ICMPv6 !N
30::   }
38::   }
3f::  /

40::  \
41::   |
50::   | silent discard
80::   /

Traffic to 10::, 20::, 30:: networks is routed with network unreachable ('!N' in traceroute), but everything else is silently dropped.

Somehow there is different treatment of subnetworks in the IETF reserved 0::/8 range, and I can't understand why.

Both are legal and correct behaviors, but why are they different at 0040:: network boundary?

Due to previous mistake I got two sources of bitumen - from emptying combs and from oil sands. Second was a mistake, but, why not use it anyway?

It was pretty hard. 7 liquids! 7!

This is tiling block of my build. It was hard to design, I even invented few simple ideas for large liquid building (like passing pipes in the middle to the lower sides of the buildings).

https://preview.redd.it/nht3tpykr0ih1.png?width=1482&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6fe95436d89d783fc24d08a9261ef6f2e9c8c75

Logistic was kinda non-trivial too (I have niobium pipes, but the problem was not to wave through, but to manage all of it, so I stayed on iron pipes).

https://preview.redd.it/kqy1z8x1s0ih1.png?width=2055&format=png&auto=webp&s=e878859981181308400cced73cf503a71ac64d75

My Bitumen -> Medium Distillates block (plan). Planned for 4800/s (like 4 belts, but for liquid).

https://preview.redd.it/n0t3w89gr0ih1.png?width=1956&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e56321d50ae64c4cd92548d6d02cbe61e0a2210

And, my very compact 7-liquid train station

https://preview.redd.it/9m039edcs0ih1.png?width=2140&format=png&auto=webp&s=b221cee73d7ea77a2042cf747b52f9e31469b2ad

With this small ... discovery?

Seems like a legit exit...

https://preview.redd.it/0vuwes1ns0ih1.png?width=1331&format=png&auto=webp&s=f1b2a990a7ab651fcb1fe913be22932d785f9d76

For those, expecting bees from me, I did 189 crafts of the bees in the initial process (with codexes) and still got none. Seems like I need to set up the proper queens production line...

It is a true challenge and I proud to report that I solved it at 4.9 out of 5. The last 0.1 is for few not perfect placements and turns.

It is 60/s for moss (consumption). It fits into a block.

But, most importantly, it bystep few traps. The biggest trap is that 6 solid ingredients with 4 belts for largest input become 24 belts. Which is a lot of space.

The trap looks like 'no space for belts logistic'. I wanted to show a photo, but Gimp crashed and killed all screens of all my intermediate (bad) approaches.

Basically, we need 24+4 = 28 belts of input and output, plus some space for pipes of a liquid ingredient.

Automated factory is 7 blocks, so we need 4 factories wide bus. And this is not counting safety margins for turns and underground belts.

Second trap is that recipe is slow. I need 15 factories to consume a belt. And with 6 ingredients, we can't do 'both sides', so the row should be 15 factories. Which is fits in my block, but barely, definitively not with 28 belts logistics.

The solution for the last trap is row bending. Row bending continue a slow row onto the second row without separate inputs:

https://preview.redd.it/tp27yj1di6gh1.png?width=1311&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c1ff90771c6ed1eee007304c9792ad6ff8caa97

Separate inputs will require splitters, and splitters needs additional space or more underground belts, and, generally, about 30% thicker than plain belts. Which means, 28*1.3 = ~36 wide logistics, which really kills everything. Turning is local, so it's not dependent on number of rows, and I pay fixed price of 6. (not 7, because product is not turning).

The second small saving is that I do 'insert before' approach, which allow me to not to put last 'exit' for underground belt, therefore, allowing crossing belt to pass without protective gap. To do so I have to turn intake (not mirror it), so there is a shift between forward and back fabs, causing 4-long pipes. If I had 'exit' it would spill on the nearby belt.

https://preview.redd.it/c40n1to4j6gh1.png?width=1183&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd727cf0de031cf83b8cba1e312ebccab5533ff3

I also noticed that some ingridients are in range [0.6-1], and some are in range [0.1-0.4] (per sec), which means, there are ingridients which are twice less needed than 1 (<0.5), so I can have half-sized stations for those.

But I split them into four belts earlier to make it easier to trace (and no tight splitters).

https://preview.redd.it/slsioc6mj6gh1.png?width=2585&format=png&auto=webp&s=9067f80bb8edd841f91face32aa03e1e12fcd7b5

Belt logistics is my precious here.

https://preview.redd.it/2trxha0qj6gh1.png?width=1020&format=png&auto=webp&s=c33b5732ff232573dc23ab57ec72b757bd597382

Almost perfect (with few small hacks due to small miss-traces). I imagine an alternative 8-rows split-merge logistics and it looks scary to me. This one is dead simple. Thanks to bend rows. Also, if you look extremely carefully, you can see, that I changed order of inputs on some rows, to reduce ugliness of bad intersections. With 'through' belts, order does not matter.

Production zone (64 for needed 60):

https://preview.redd.it/17g84k71k6gh1.png?width=2231&format=png&auto=webp&s=52e1dcdf045a056ae7c9c2779d43f8e951d31a58

Scheme:

https://preview.redd.it/qhyw6le5k6gh1.png?width=1313&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c3ccb29befe291e8f9a8ff21e07f8a87a8ff92f

After this I start getting much more assure about my work with multi-ingridient schemes. Before it was a mess. Now I pay respect to the belt logistics and I do row bend for making it simple.

It was always hard to me to explain, but I think, I found the way.

Left-handed: stations and signals inside.

Right-handed: stations and signals outside.

https://preview.redd.it/wtq7gxkkp0gh1.png?width=1197&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa500ceb6539030636b3a10fa127616eee33e03f

I've build oil sand slurry block, and called it a day, but after deciding what to do next, I realized, that oil sand slurry is used ONLY for bitumen froth, which is used only for bitumen, and nothing else.

Which means, there was no reason to do it in three blocks, and I have to do it in one. To my surprise it all fit into a single block, and without much of struggles with placement.

Removing old overbuild was easy part. Doing a block with three interestingly interconnected dependencies (including math) was fine.

The thing I almost broke at, was pipe logistics. Normally, pipe recipes are fun and easy (except for 150°C steam output), but here there was too much of brown liquid. I solved it completely (means, the block is 60/s consumption, per my standards, that's a good block), but it was honestly hard and tiring. Air and water, 2 intermediate liquids, etc, ingress, egress, just too much of it.

The central part (to see some of each subblock):

https://preview.redd.it/ko9wh69190gh1.png?width=3550&format=png&auto=webp&s=4a45f0c5b7cbe28a9da306946b16ec3f7404263f

Block map

https://preview.redd.it/z3x362w490gh1.png?width=1892&format=png&auto=webp&s=e77131e768051ef5abff4c0653228b2df49b4b4f

Train logicstics

https://preview.redd.it/iitccwd890gh1.png?width=2570&format=png&auto=webp&s=9162505c22de5d8c42061a9744f3ac54d49cebce

Oil sand slurry

https://preview.redd.it/3nfkifnh90gh1.png?width=3202&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1df57e285ee8ed98e26e87f90e899e28a1a4b1f

Bitumen froth:

https://preview.redd.it/0axyi6wl90gh1.png?width=2051&format=png&auto=webp&s=2626c45f82c660897dc3a8e03e50fbebb909d97e

Bitumen

https://preview.redd.it/cv853aqo90gh1.png?width=1922&format=png&auto=webp&s=c928e8a136be9269d95511d09548f74c204411da

Solved bitumen means, I can start producing filled combs, and my bees are step closer to a normal 4-train of queens. 60/s... Will see.

UPD: Solved. If there is nothing, 'Anything' signal renders ANY logical operation FALSE. '<', '>', does not matter.

I don't understand this condition.

Empty box. Condition for station is 'anything is less than 100k'. Box is empty, so there is nothing which is 100k.

Why this condition is false? For a specific item it works.

https://preview.redd.it/2n2xmxftaxeh1.png?width=2226&format=png&auto=webp&s=6633d7de55b9eb888ef6a986217232b30b477dd8

Moreover, reverse does work (3 pipes is more than 2 of anything, 1 pipe is less that 2 of anything).

https://preview.redd.it/wj859wzcfxeh1.png?width=2342&format=png&auto=webp&s=c8c443ec1ca89dd43d0e8e05a8d1d56fed54c7af

https://preview.redd.it/yl2wf0jgfxeh1.png?width=2342&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b12e62616ddae636b8d9d331380d10ce9019060

Please, help. I don't understand why inverse ('<') does not work.

Let me clarify:

anything < 2:

• 1 pipe: false
• 3 pipes: false

anything > 2:

• 1 pipe: false
• 3 pipes: true

Why it works for '>', but not for '<'?

The recipe is biting in an unusual way.

It's slooow. 0.06/s per assembler, to handle 40/s you need 666 assemblers.

I already produce Vitreloy for 30/s, so there is no reason to build 40/s block, although it try to pretend to be so (4-lanes, etc). Due to dire lacks of assemblers here, it's only 15-18/s.

Second problem: we need 8 rows, so we need to split each belt, which adds belt logistic. Solvable, but it's not mindless tracing.

Block is productionally bound (read: too much ingress, full belts).

https://preview.redd.it/rpabxjpcdndh1.png?width=3033&format=png&auto=webp&s=33d52a07991e05bbfe9a2ec5b8a4f2f92dbd2852

The plan

https://preview.redd.it/xmq9gs0kfndh1.png?width=2027&format=png&auto=webp&s=15715d2f5087507c0a82f151978a2c8e5710504b

Now, I can enjoy my 1k/minute production of intermetallics and never return to this problem ever.

This peak in consumption - attempt to produce bots. Dried off completely, without running bots at full speed, until I solved this. For real.

https://preview.redd.it/t1kpxh6tfndh1.png?width=1456&format=png&auto=webp&s=be4518b4ddaf8602fb01382c584c9e627869c19f

Video:

https://reddit.com/link/1uydwv0/video/0x62mpqzfndh1/player

My request to mods, please, allow pictures in the comments. It's so easier to show something instead of describing it...

Behold, this madness:

Factory must produce

This recipe is notable for 3 properties:

* Huge smelters (as buildings)

* Low throughput (0.3/s input)

* Relatively large number of inputs (5 solid, 1 liquid)

The mistake I almost did was attempt to cram into a single block. It's not possible. Also, because of the large number of ingredient, doing 4 belts each would require three blocks, which is overbuild even for me. So, it's half-production (only 30/s consumption for the fastest ingredient instead of 60).

Which brought us to the belt logistics problem. Half of the block size is dedicated to logicstics.

https://preview.redd.it/tqop4xc3ztch1.png?width=3565&format=png&auto=webp&s=aec91d2b31994150318e6b788469730695d8e6eb

I also had to invent a new compact station for many solids:

https://preview.redd.it/a4cc1lumztch1.png?width=1682&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5259eb665848702a1c587a11eeebedd1870c031

And even make this beauty:

Nothing to see here, just an intersection 4 to 7

This is well-ordered intersection. Don't call me weirdo, please.

https://preview.redd.it/c26gf42fztch1.png?width=1685&format=png&auto=webp&s=f5cf560e6f5234d9a9a4ce5e5635b03a90a3e408

(for comparison, the compact duralumin block on the left)

Block scheme

Nothing to overbuild here, 60/s of duralumin. A very simple recipe of py1 age. It's actually even easier than before, because of 3 liquids input. The single deviation from original plan is 'liquid fuel' station on the left, which is afterthought (I forgot about fuel). I already offloaded two trains of casting into warehouses, so moving station to the left was too much of waiting, therefore, a little imperfection is there.

https://preview.redd.it/t8tampgxdlch1.png?width=3012&format=png&auto=webp&s=db81e66b13b9156d18d330df598be9f67ebb0bd3

The single interesting thing here is lack of mirroring symmetry (red vs yellow inserters for casting). Three liquid inputs on one side is slightly more tricky to build than in two sides...

https://preview.redd.it/8k1v40e7elch1.png?width=2538&format=png&auto=webp&s=36018b0ce476843640674b43f9e2d5c883efc3c8

The reason I need to build it as block, because I want to solve intermetallics in block scale (4-train of them, etc). I have mall production for it, but it's meager and died off instantly as soon as I decided to make 10k bots.

Boring recipe, nothing unexpected from Py.

One personal discovery, I start to think about fuel energy value. 10MJ for 5MW furnace is 2 seconds of burning, which is 0.5/s of coarse coal consumption. If I went for a normal coal (raw coal, 3MJ), it would mean 1.66/s consumption. Given that I balance for 4 lanes of the highest input/output, instead of borax, I would be limited by coal consumption, and drop block productivity from (theoretical) 420/s molten copper down to 189. By a lot. So it was important.

Switching to higher class fuel give me upper hand here. And less ash.

https://preview.redd.it/pt5vgrnci1ch1.png?width=3551&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc7de6f703b1bd5cfb0e9e4460402c9a9243136c

grade2->grade4 (right), molten copper (left)

https://preview.redd.it/6bf0mov5j1ch1.png?width=2996&format=png&auto=webp&s=16c1d25ff8c241df12f371af3836756af1fc9105

Next is duralumin, for which I don't expect any problems. The goal is to feed my logistic bots production. ...Oh, that's not duralumin, that's Intermetallics, which is Vitreloy...

Well, few more blocks to build.

Also, I don't like that my factory looks so organic. I will go for making it more square (I mean, block placements):

https://preview.redd.it/fk5rhp65k1ch1.png?width=2021&format=png&auto=webp&s=16f8ea2c3957a43e3d1c3cba011048791b51f879