SOLUTION, based on a combination of the information discussed in this thread and my personal design:
https://factorioprints.com/view/-LBLVHe1Xk2_ghVGn8Se
Full description and usage instructions are included in the FactorioPrints page.
Enjoy.
----
It seems to me that whether we build separate ones or we tear down and upgrade in place, we typically go through 3 bases:
(1) Starter base, a throw-away little base whose main purpose is to provide power and produce the things needed to build the main base.
(2) Main base, typically built around a bus, that carries us to launching the first rocket. This base could be further broken down into:
(2.1) Before solar (and/or nuclear?), bots and electric furnaces, during which building is cumbersome and we are often resource-constrained. Things built in this stage often end up torn down and upgraded later.
(2.2) The main build-up and scaling of the base, during which things are rarely rebuilt.
(3) The Mega base. Where the focus is on either major throughput upgrades or building a separate high-volume production base.
In the very early days of playing Factorio I came across the concept of a throw-away starter base in a KoS tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouWUxGDNNds around minute 12). I tried playing without it and going to building the main base as quickly as possible, but things were not pretty... much too slow and lots of running around since I like spread out and organized bases. I tried it with the starter base and loved it, usually completing all Red/Green science before even being ready for the next step. I then expanded that little starter base with a few extra things like making red track and steel, resulting in a much more comfortable and enjoyable experience. I ended up using yellow belts/inserters only for the starter base while the main base started at red belt, blue assemblers, blue/red inserters.
So, I am now toying with the idea of designing a slightly beefier starter base that can carry me up to the point where I have the assembly lines for 2.1. I'd have to verify it, but I think that requires a 24-steel furnace smelter each of iron, copper and steel (later recycled into electric smelters for "some" ore), oil processing, plastic, sulfuric acid, batteries, green/red circuits, green/red science, blue science, solar and bot production lines.
My expectation is that (once designed) the time to build such a starter base would be very short and far more than compensated by time saved building the main base to the 2.1 level plus minimize "refactoring" the smelters and production lines for higher capacity. Plus, I hope it will allow postponing building too much capacity until 2.2 where it can be done in a fairly final form quickly with bot assist.
So, I think the following are things that this "beefed up" disposable starter base would produce (none for the main base bus unless specified, most of it is low-speed/volume production and capped at the chests, and the produced items are those that are used extensively in building the main base.
- Wood and Coal-fired Steam power (prioritized to wood).
- Low volume smelting of Iron, Copper, Steel, Brick. For starter red/green science and chests.
- Gears, yellow track (underground and splitters can be made by hand), yellow inserters, Green circuits. For starter red/green science and chests to build starter base and mines.
- Red/Green science.
- Medium and Big electric poles.
- Electric mining drills.
- Lamps
- Red track, underground track, splitters.
- Blue, Red and maybe green inserters.
- Blue assemblers.
- Steel furnaces.
- Landfill
- Rail, train stop, rail signal, rail chain signal. (locomotive and wagons built by hand)
- Pipe, underground pipe, engines, pumps. (red/green wire needed by oil processing built by hand)
- Chemical plant, Storage tanks. (Oil refineries built by hand)
- Grenades (for clearing trees), Ammo (Piercing Ammo if feasible at this stage), Gun turrets, Radar.
I suspect this is probably something that speed runners do (stamp down a blueprint for something like this, build progressively, keep going to the main base).
Questions:
- What do experienced players think of this?
- I am sure there are some flaws in my current thinking, as in maybe missing some needed supply or worse not noticing that I might have a pre-requisite that I didn't take into consideration?
- Has someone already done this? Is there a blueprint or screenshot I can look at for inspiration?
