Alright folks, spent a good chunk of my day messing with the chemical processing for the new factory setup, specifically after that 1.15 update dropped. Wanted to share how it went down, step-by-step, like I usually do.
Getting Started with the Basics
So, first thing, I needed to get the basic oil processing up and running again. The update tweaked some ratios, not drastically, but enough to make my old blueprints slightly off. I decided to just rebuild from scratch this time. Plopped down the oil refineries first. Went with a row of eight to start, figured that’d give me enough heavy, light, and gas to play with for the initial chemical lines.
Connecting the crude oil was easy enough, just ran a main pipe along the back. But the output, that’s where the 1.15 changes started to show. The fluid dynamics feel a bit different. Had to use more pumps than I remembered needing before, especially on the petroleum gas line, just to keep the flow consistent to the chemical plants down the line.
Setting Up Plastic and Sulfur
Next up was plastic. That’s always a big one. Needed coal and petroleum gas. Set up a line of chemical plants dedicated just for plastic bars. The recipe itself didn’t change, thankfully. The main thing was ensuring that petroleum gas feed didn’t starve. I put a couple of tanks as buffers, just before the plastic chemical plants. Seems to help smooth out any supply hiccups from the refineries.
Dealing with Byproducts
While plastic was going, I turned my attention to sulfur. Needed petroleum gas and water for that. Pretty simple setup with another bank of chemical plants. This also gave me sulfuric acid output later. The real juggling act, like always, is managing the heavy and light oil from the refineries. Didn’t want things backing up.
- Initially, I cracked all the heavy oil to light oil.
- Then, cracked most of the light oil down to petroleum gas.
- Left a small buffer tank for light oil, just in case I needed it for flamethrower fuel or something later. Solid fuel production from light oil is also an option if gas backs up.
Took some fiddling with the cracking setups. Had to make sure the pumps controlling the flow to the cracking plants only turned on when the primary products (like petroleum gas for plastic) were backing up. Used some simple circuit conditions linked to the storage tanks. The 1.15 update didn’t mess with circuits, which was a relief.
Troubleshooting and Final Setup
Ran into a bit of a snag with the sulfur line initially. The water feed wasn’t keeping up. Turned out one of my offshore pumps wasn’t quite placed right, causing lower output. Moved it slightly, added another pump inline, and that sorted it. Classic mistake, really.
After getting plastic and sulfur running consistently, I tapped off the sulfur line to make sulfuric acid. Needed that for batteries down the road. That part was straightforward, just more chemical plants and iron plate input.
So, by the end of the session, I had crude coming in, refineries breaking it down, plastic bars churning out, sulfur piling up, and a steady supply of sulfuric acid ready for the next stage. The 1.15 fluid changes needed a bit more attention to pipe flow and pumping, but nothing too crazy. Just had to be more mindful, you know?
Pretty satisfied with the layout. It’s clean, expandable, and most importantly, it works reliably after those update changes. Took longer than I thought, but getting the chemical backbone solid is crucial. On to the next part tomorrow!
