Factory system[]
To create a factory system, you need to collect or buy some stuff:
- Factory Input
- Factory Input Enhancer(s) - optional
- Recipe
- Power! (potentially quite a lot)
Place the Factory Input block (not on a ship, not doable) and give it some power (if it is on a station, it will use station power).
Aim the Factory Input (in astronaut mode), then open the "Block inventory" (default key "R").
You normally will see a GUI similar to the PlexStorage.
Put your recipe in the upper left corner and add ingredients next to it. It is important to note that recipe in any other slot will not produce items!
Every 5 or so seconds (factory tick), 1 item (per recipe level) will be outputed given that ingredients are provided and you have your basic factory!
To increase output of your recipe, place some Factory Enhancer blocks around it, and connect them by pressing "C" on Factory Input and "V" on every Enhancer. This will give you +1(x recipe level) item for every connected Enhancer block, and use appropriately more resources per factory tick.
Example: "Recipe for 1 of PlexLight(55)" requires 2 Protein 2000B for 1 light; With 2 enhancers, you will get 3 PlexLights every 5 sec and it will use 6 Protein 2000B every 5 sec. **
Also note that in previous example, if you factory is fed 4 Protein 2000B's, it will not make anything. Original recipe would allow it to make 2 PlexLights out of it, but with 2 enhancers minimum would now be 6 for any production.
Second way to increase output in to increase Recipe Level seen under "Next level progress:". By producing output indicated number of times, you will get more output per tick that same amount of provided materials. For more info see Recipes page.
Example for L3 recipe: "Recipe for 3 of PlexLight(55)" requires 2 Protein 2000B for 3 lights; With 2 enhancers, you will get 9 PlexLights every 5 sec and it will use 6 Protein 2000B every 5 sec. **
In order to chain your factories, select the factory (with "C") that is going to recieve the item, and link it (with "V" again) to another factory that will be the output. In previous example, if we would connect another Factory Input block (lets call it "Output") to one with PlexLight recipe in it ("Input"), and fill Output with Protein 2000B's, Input would automatically pull enough proteins from Output every cycle to produce its item(s).
If factories are separated with free space in-between, connection is usualy visible as a cable with glowing particle indicating direction in which materials are traveling. Sometimes cable remains even after connection is undone!
You could also make Output produce Protein 2000B's, and feed them at same time, which would make a production line, so whether you use it for cleaner storage or production line, it doesn't matter.
It's done. Now, your factory will produce its recipe at level you want it to, the way you want it to! (**As recipes have random ingredients, this recipe is purely an example)
Tips, Tricks and Trivia:
- If you don't have enough power, there will be a small red message that said "not enough power" above Factory Input (like text for Damage).
- With some good Recipe with High level, it's possible to create inifinite matter.
- Try to obtain recipe that need basic ingredients like Red Rock/Red Dirt/Sand/etc.
- Beware that large factories need a lot of power per cycle, and as so, you will need high power capacity and enough regeneration to replenish it in under 5 seconds! (will try to add some charts :))
- Remember, not every recipe is good, don't go all out on leveling bad recipes, try to buy another one and hope for the best.
- Mineral "Refine" and "Coarse" recipes do not level.