My iron smelter array. Total capacity is 9600 iron ingots/minute, using the basic recipe. I actually only have Mk.4 belts, so I can only use the bottom four (of ten) floors... But I like building oversized.
The idea was to centralize the production of basic resources (ingots and concrete). Then, the actual factories making stuff could be located more or less anywhere, regardless of local resources. Centralizing the smelting would reduce the many-to-many distribution problem of resources to a many-to-one (resources to smelter) and a one-to-many (smelter-to-factory).
But actually integrating the train station was a pain in the ass and not really fun compared to the factory. I have lots of ideas for how I want factories to look and nowhere can I fit three or more train stations. Maybe this is more a Factorio style and Satisfactory is really more about building the factory close to the resources. So I may not actually end up using this lol.
That said, everything is blueprinted now, so I may end up using a smaller version of this design in a different factory.
The back, with observation tower for scale.
Shoutouts to the 1.1 vertical nudging feature, which should have been in the game from the start and the new curve mode for conveyors, which look great with the gentle curvature of the main structure.
Dubious shoutout to the feature/bug that vertical splitters now allow you to build X.5m long vertical conveyors, which is a power that I should have used more sparingly.
Interesting writeup.
The tracking of how much of a resource node goes where was supposed to be removed by everything going to the big smeltery, so I only need to track how much is going in and out of the central smelter.
I noticed the locking thing when turning on the factory. Unfortunately this would mean that there is way to get two full belts of output out a train stop all the time. If the downstream machines always consume two full belts, there is never a chance for the container to fill up. That sucks.
Trains are very cool in any game that they are in, but their infrastructure, especially the stations, is so huge and unwieldy in this game, that I will rethink organizing my factory around them, especially since there does not seem to be a huge need to move large quantities of items over long distances. I could see them on a point-to-point basis when a particular set of resources isn't close to each other.
Also Re: Aluminium: I've seen the recipes, seems like a good time. I've played Gregtech, so I'm used to worse.
This will change as you get later in the game. For example, you need quartz and bauxite for aluminum processing; there aren't many pure nodes of either close to each other, so unless you want to set up an aluminum factory multiple times, it's better to train them into a central location.
The recipes aren't so much the issue with aluminum, as is building your machines in a way such that everything flows nicely is.
I agree that trains in this game are very unwieldy. In Factorio, my favorite station design was having a rail branch up/down two rail blocks, train station, then back into the main rail. Quick, easy, very compact. No such structure in satisfactory; 5 foundations wide just to branch off the main rail, plus 2.5 more to accommodate the width of the station..