4 ms·
Depends how you play. If you plan out your factory ahead of time with a ratio calculator and only build what you need, then a shortage just causes a correspond
by nostrademons 5y ago
Depends how you play. If you plan out your factory ahead of time with a ratio calculator and only build what you need, then a shortage just causes a corresponding shortage in the output that goes away when the input is fixed.
A lot of Factorio newbies play with a "Spot bottleneck. Increase production. Repeat" mindset, though. The bullwhip effect absolutely shows up here, particularly if you're sharing intermediate products on a main bus. You start constructing purple circuits; that means your red circuit production is no longer adequate and you've starved blue science. You make more red circuit factories; now you're not constructing enough green circuits, and your whole factory has ground to a halt, but the red circuit buffer is filling up. You increase green circuit production; now you're starving the rest of your factory of iron and your steel production is lagging, dropping purple science production.
- Dylan16807 5y agoSo it's not the factory doing it, it's the player constantly changing things without waiting for it to hit steady state. (And not limiting boxes)
- Aeolun 5y agoMore like your suppliers can’t keep up with changing (increasing) demand. A bit like the chip factories that caused this whole thread :)
- Dylan16807 5y agoThat doesn't whiplash. They all run at normal speed, no bursts in demand getting bigger and bigger, then suddenly becoming negative demand, then jumping back up. It's just some parts can't keep up and everything after goes as fast as it can with the supplies it gets, running pretty steadily. It's what you want to happen when supplies are low, for the most part.