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Circular Vertical Bus - Satisfactory
(hackertalks.com)
Introducing a vertical circular bus - A giant O of belts and lifters fully connected allowing for input / output anywhere along the bus.
Pros :
- Modular, you can build anywhere on the vertical bus stack
- Limits spaghetti by providing a clear and easy to access API for all players.
- Very fast to reach all parts of the factory since everything is very concentrated into a cube of productivity.
Cons :
- Satisfactory netcode doesn't like SUPER dense areas, so it could become problematic for multiplayer.
- There is no priority mergers yet in Satisfactory, so if you want to prioritize a input to the bus you downgrade the belts/lifters feeding INTO the priority input, that way the belt will back up and the priority input will provide the bulk of the material.
Details/Photo Galleries:
- Vertical Bus Details https://hackertalks.com/post/4670602/5288896
- Demonstration of the Vertical Bus in a base: https://hackertalks.com/post/4670602/5288887
- Prototyping details https://hackertalks.com/post/4670602/5288866
Vertical Bus
Access to the vertical bus is done via vertical stacks of merger's and splitters, a label blueprint keeps the interface organized.
Using floor holes helps create compact access to a vertical lifter.
The top and bottom of the bus are connected with belts that bridge the gap, as well as provide a nice visual indicator of bus activity. For lifters the delete tool will tell you how many items are in a segment to help narrow down issues.
Extensive use of blueprints is necessary in multiplayer to ensure the API is maintained across sessions. It is recommended to have a label on the blueprint with a version number - this will ease refactoring and upgrades later.
Note:
Mall / Depots
At the top of the Vertical bus is a Mall that provides a industrial storage container for high volume and early game resources, labels showing where every input comes into the bus, and a dimensional depot for late game access. The industrial storage container is attached to the circular bus and acts as a item buffer for the bus itself. A recycling loop threads through smart splitters attached to every organizer to ensure precious resources are not wasted early game.
Here is a side-view of the mall blueprint stamp, note the input and output belts are kept straight for easy future maintenance.