Doctor Archive

I don't see the general "how to make factories work" thread on top anymore, so I'll start a new one.....

I took all the tips posted in this forum and started experimenting on what would get the factories to take items out of crates (and therefore make good runs of, say, stim Bs). Here is the technique I currently use, which works (to a certain extent) for me:

(1) Make your subcomponent crates.

Obviously a prerequisite. I leave all my stuff in the output hopper of the factory until I use it.

(2) Pull your sub crates into inventory, extract one item from each. Use those to make your schematic.

Again, no big surprise here.

(3) Open up your input hopper.

Here we go....

(4) "Prime the pump", so to speak, by pulling some components out of the subcomponent crates and putting them directly into the input hopper.

(4A) Use ODD NUMBERS of the individual components

- For example, I'll put 8 BECs in, 7 CRDs, and 9 LSs.

(4B) Use BOTH crates of each item in the input hopper

- For some reason, all the posted strategies seem to require multiple crates in the hopper to work.

(4C) When "priming the pump", use at least 1 item from EACH of the two crates for each subcomponent.

- For example, for the 8 BECs I put in, 5 will be from one crate, and 3 from the other.

(5) Make sure you have enough maintenance and power to run the factory for a while.

Ending a run due to power or maintenance shortfalls seems to mess this strategy up.

(6) Load your schematic and start the run

(7) Wait until you get an email that the factory has finished

The past couple of times I've used this strategy, I've gotten LONG runs of manufacturing -- 40, 50, even 60 at once. It seems to stop working when only one item still has two crates left in the hopper -- but I'm not completely sure that this is what stops the process. In any event, I get runs that are greater than the number of subcomponents I put in by hand -- which means that the factory is taking items out of the crates.

(8) If there are subcomponents left in the input hopper -- pull any remaining crates out and hand-input them. Then run the factory again.

The method isn't perfect (yet) -- I still have to hand-input some of the items. But a lot fewer than if you put every single one from all of the crates into the hopper (which would take multiple tries).

That's the best I can come up with. The factory does still "eat" items for no apparent reason, so I've never gotten a perfect run of 100 stim Bs out of my factory. But I have gotten runs of 95+, with far less effort than it takes to laboriously put in each and every subcomponent until the hopper is full, run the factory, repeat the process when it's through, and so forth.....

Again, I hope this isn't a fix that's unique to me -- I think it makes factory work a little bit easier for all of us if it does work. Accordingly, I post it here in an effort to help my fellow doc crafters.

Update:

Using this technique for my latest Stim B run, I got a single, uninterruped run of 96 items manufactured. Woot!

Also, I want to thank all the people who have posted here on this topic in the past, who have all been mighty helpful in learning to handle these beasts.

The factory still eats one item from the subcomponents for each time the factory is started. (Which is why I'm trying to get as long a run as possible.) With my last run, I got 97 total, with two factory starts. (I guess I had a second "eaten" item somewhere along the way....)

But no, you can't avoid the factory eating at least one item, so I don't think it's currently possible to get a full run of 100 total items.

Neither of my factories have ever pulled items out of crates. I tried this though, and it made me a crate of 49 stims and pulled from the crates of components. It seemed to stop once there were no longer two crates of any component.

Still, this is a good improvement to putting everything in by hand, so thank you.

this worked kinda for me... I did what you said it ran 53 and stopped. even with 2 crates of each.

argg whys it always just me? im telling u this game hates me...

lol that didnt work for me..

the game kicked me out of my faction and i lost about 2k fp worthof ranks

then i get 2 spawns on on top of my harvesters on the same day... i got killed in my house when i afked for dinner...and the CSR hasnt answered anyof my tickets 2 of which have been open for 5 days now...

lol hahaha ne1 else think im jinxed?

/em gives Elenora a big hug.

Nobody should have to deal with that kind of horsepoop.

I'm going to try this technique on my next batch of stims (which I should run tonight or tomorrow) -- will post on whether it works again.

It worked! It worked! For the first time...EVER... on a finished product requiring components I saw this: Your manufacturing station has stopped. 99 items were produced.

Woohoo!

Update as promised:

Latest run ran off 56 stims before stopping. But -- I think there was a server reset in there somewhere, which may have stopped the run.

Still, 56 in a row ain't bad....