This is quite a big and complex blueprint (eg, it contains more than 4000 smart splitters, about 75000 buildables). Many browsers will run out of memory while importing it. On windows, it can be imported using firefox. I am writing a "little" user manual for this blueprint, which you'll find below. If anything is not clear or not working, just let me know and I will clarify or fix (Allaess on Reddit).

What is this?

This blueprint is no factory. It is a mega logistics hub that handles all the logistics for your world. You still have to build your own factories and connect them to a World Eater. The World Eaters will, in that sequence:

  1. Receive the produced goods
  2. Distribute them to the local factories needing them
  3. Distribute the remaining to the remote factories needing them (remote = connected to other World Eaters)
  4. Distribute the remaining to the local storage
  5. Distribute the remaining to remote storages (in other World Eaters)
  6. Use the remaining for preventing similar items to be sent to a full storage
  7. Shred the remaining for FICSIT coupons

If you use a single World Eater, pay special attention to section "Exporting/Importing items between hubs". Indeed, the system will try to do that even if it makes no sense. You need a small adaptation to make it fully work.

The hub in numbers

The hub has everything necessary to connect up to 24 factories. Each factory has a connection port featuring 3 mk5 input belts and 1 mk5 output belt. If that is not enough, you can use more than one connection port to the same factory. Besides that, every factory connection port also features 1 hypertube and 2 electrical outlets (one is always on, the other is connected to a switch in the control tower).

The hub also features a storage ready for 68 distinct items. It will store up to 3 industrial containers of each item. You can program any slot to contain the item you fancy (44 preprogrammed slots already provided).

The hub features a total of 23 train stations, split as follow:

  • 1 station for you personal transport.
  • 1 station to handle manually harvested items (or anything you want to handle out of the pre-built logistics system).
  • 2 stations to balance the storage content with other hubs.
  • 7 stations to export the local production to other similar hubs.
  • 12 stations to import production from other similar hubs.

As provided, you can import up to 7 copies of this hub, connect them via rails (double track, right-hand-side driving), program your trains, connect your factories to your local hub, program some smart/programmable splitters as explained below and there you go. The logistics should be up and running for your world.

The idea behind this build

I wanted to try something different, completely avoiding the usual mega-factory but instead going for a large number of smaller factories, making maximum usage of sushi belts. The factories are not required to use sushi belts, but they may do so. About the trains, I wanted to run many short trains, so that I do not have problems with ramps. The longest train has 4 cars and 1 locomotive. The hub contains two major systems:

  1. 68 copies of a logic system that allows hubs to communicate about what items their storage needs. This same system is also able to let a hub only send to another hub the items it requires.
  2. a huge 24 x 48 smart splitter matrix that will route the necessary items to your (maximum) 24 local factories. It can pick items from the local factories or from the other hubs (you do not have to care where they come from to program this matrix).

The hub is fully belted to support everything described above, in any possible combination.

Finally, I like to be able to go everywhere easily, even if there is no power available. The build is fully walkable.

This is a quite massive build containing a total of more than 4000 smart splitters for a single logistics hub, so expect an impact on game performance depending on your computer's muscles. But let's enter the meat of this post: how to use this hub?

Finding your way in the hub

The topology of this build may make it difficult to find your way. So here is a quick guided tour. I engage you to walk in the build following the instructions below. That will help you to find your way.

The station named "Here" is the station for your personal train. It is located just in front of the main entrance. Once you entered the main gate, you will be in a hallway, populated with some belts, lifts and stairs. Let's ignore them for now. Just note the four light switches on your left. You may want to switch off the one labelled "Outside Lights" if you need to increase your FPS. Do not take the stairs and head for the other end of the hallway. You are now entering the local storage.

You can now see 35 stacks of industrial containers. The stacks have two signs showing the items stored in the 3 top and 3 bottom containers (some containers are under the floor so that you can access all items easily). The center of the room is occupied by conveyor lifts and hyper tubes. You can actually walk to the center and you will see two staircases, one is going up to the control tower. You can take this stair or take the hypertube in the center of the circle (jump just in front of it).

You are now in the control room. You can see 24 switches allowing you to power individually each factory. In front of each switch is an hypertube entrance, leading to the corresponding factory. These are currently unpowered for you own safety (no factory is provided in the blueprint which means that they now lead in the void and would likely kill you). The floor is glass, and when standing in front of a switch, and looking through the floor you will notice that you can see a conveyor belt. This belt carries the output produced by the corresponding factory. You can then easily check if your factory output looks good.

Let's go back down to the center of the storage room and take the staircase down. It leads to the containers room (floor -3). From there, follow the arrows on the containers to find the doorway. You are now entering the Lower Storage Balancing Room.

This room hosts the belt logic that decides what items it must send to another storage. The room is shaped as a ring going around the storage containers. This room only handles the lower half of the storage containers. There is another similar room just above it that handles the upper half of the storage containers.

Please note the stairs in front of you when you entered the Lower Storage Balancing Room. Let's climb these stairs. You are now on a circular balcony, with more industrial containers. These are the blocking containers and they wear signs indicating what item they are blocking. When the concrete blocking container is empty, it will allow concrete being sent to another storage. When it is not empty; it will prevent concrete from being sent to that other storage.

Please head to the balcony's railing and again notice that the floor is glass. Through the floor, you see a sushi belt, which is the belt sending items to that other storage. Let's go down from the balcony through the staircase. Immediatly down the stairs, do a U turn and go through the gate to the Upper Factory Sorting Room. This is another larger ring shaped room that hosts a part of the 24 x 48 smart splitters matrix. There are two other similar rooms just below this one. Climb on the walkway balcony for a better view. In this room, the lower circular belts are the ones coming from the remote factories and the straight radial upper belts are the ones that feed the local factories. These are grouped by 3 and can be recognized from the beryl nut, paleberry and bacon agaric signs. Each group also has a number on the wall: this is the local factory number (ranging from 1 to 24). Take the staircases down form the balcony and keep going down to the next floors as low as you can. The floors below are very similar and serve the same purpose. When you have reached the lower floor, you will notice that each radial upper belt is connected to a container. It acts as a buffer to regulate the flow of items towards your factories. Again, notice the beryl nut, paleberry and bacon agaric signs helping you to identify what belt is connected to what container.

Now take any door towards the center of the build. You are entering the Connections Ring. The sole purpose of this room is to route the belts to and from the factory connection ports as well as to the control tower (for display of factory output). If your factory needs more than the 3 inputs and 1 output belts already provided, this is the place to reroute some belts from a neighbouring factory connection port. It is advised to limit the throughput of any factory input belt as low as your factory will tolerate. I usually do that by replacing a belt segment with a lower Mk belt.

Let's now climb on a walkway. From there, you can easiliy see the factory numbers which is great to navigate the build. Let's head up again towards the center of the build. You are now entering the Doors Room. This room as no specific function except as a transit point. If you go to the center of the room, you will see the familiar stairs. Let's head down one last time to the Factory Connections Star.

This is the lowest level. It just gives you access to the factory connection ports. Let's croos any of the gates up to the metallic walls. You can now see infront of you everything that is available in a standard factory port. The three lower belts are the factory inputs (corresponding to the Beryl Nut, Paleberry and Bacon Agaric signs). The top belt is the factory output belt. You also see the hypertube and two electrical lines. The line on the left is controlled by the power switch in the control room. The one on the right is always on.

Let's now head back to the center of the build and and take the stairs up to the Doors Room. Take any door, follow the walkay up to it's other end. You are now entering the Middle Factory Sorting Room. Climb on the balcony and climb up two floors. You will traverse the Upper Factory Sorting Room, then land on the Belt Routing Floor. The sole purpose of this floor is to route belts from the floors below (the Factory Sorting Rooms) to the floor above (where they will connect to the train stations).

Let's again climb one more floor up. You are now in the Stations Buffer Floor. This floor features buffer containers that are connected to the Freight Platforms on the surface. They smoothen out the in and out flows when the trains are loading / unloading. If you go around one of group of containers, you will see a ramp going up. It will bring you back on the surface, where you started this visit.

You have nearly seen everything. For completeness, let's head back again to the main entrance of the building (in front the "Here" train station) and this time let's climb the stairs in the hallway. They bring you on a circular balcony where you have a nice view on the the Upper Storage balancing room and on the local storage room. The guided tour is now over, let's focus on how to use this damned thing.

The storage logic

Just pick items from the containers and they will refill automagically. The container is empty? Well, maybe you need to wait some time, or you can head to another storage.

The filling logic of the storage is as follows: all items that are produced locally and are not used by any other factory will land in the local storage. The minimum guaranteed throughput for the unused local production entering the local storage is 480 ipm, but it may occasionally go up to 780 ipm. If you exceed the available throughput, the excess will be sent to an AWESOME Sink. When the first industrial container (the one accessible to you from the Storage Room) is full, the system will try to send the items to another storage. If all other storages also have at least one container full, the system will start filling in the two other containers in all storages. If at any time, the storage level of one item goes below one full industrial container, the system will start prioritizing filling up that container as much as it can.

If for any reason there is one full container of one item and that item cannot be sent to another storage, then the two other local containers will start filling up with that item (there are three industrial storage containers for each item).

If at any point the storage has filled up all three industrial containers of one item, and the storage still receives more of this item, then it will use the superfluous items to signify that he does not want to receive them anymore from another hub's storage.

One container row has a special function. Its containers are painted in another color (palette 4) and its signs show a trash bin and a recycling symbol respectively. The lower container (trash can) is a "drop all" container. You can throw anyhting in there and the system will handle it according to its programming. Meaning that these items can be:

  • sent back to the storage,
  • recycled as if they were freshly produced by a local factory,
  • shredded,
  • handed over to the "Harvest" train (to be handled out of this logistics system),
  • used to notify another hub that this hub cannot store this item anymore, or
  • sent to the recycling container (the one with the recycling symbol).

Programming a new item in the storage

That involves changing some signs settings and reprogramming 5 smart splitters. For your ease, the smart splitters are painted with palette color 15. Make sure that color has a high contrast with your build color for easy identification.

Storage containers that are already in use have their 5 smart splitters pre-programmed. Storage containers that are unused have their 5 smart splitters pre-programmed for the FICSMAS Star. All 5 smart splitters are in front of the selected storage container, on the other side of the wall. It may be easier to dismantle some walls and rebuild them later. First go in the Storage Room and identify the container that you want to use. Change the appropriate sign to indicate what item you want to store. Are you using the upper or lower half of the storage?

If you are using the upper half of the storage:

  1. Go in the entry hall, climb the stairs and look for the smart splitter in front of your selected container and change the currently defined item to be your stored item.
  2. The second smart splitter is in the middle of the contraption just below you and the balcony (hoverpack is helpful), always in front of your selected container. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item.
  3. The third smart splitter is against the inner curved wall, on the ground. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item.
  4. The fourth smart splotter is against the outer curved wall, next to the blocking container. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item. Also, edit the settings of the sign on the blocking container to display the stored item.
  5. The fifth smart splitter is outside the building, just against the wall, in front of the blocking container. Your can access it's settings through the hole in the wall. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item. Also update the sign (you need to go out of the building for this one).

If you are using the lower half of the storage:

  1. Go in the center of the Storage Room and take the stairs down to the Containers Room, then follow the arrows on the containers to go to the Lower Storage Balancing Room. Using the large signs on the outer wall, identify the contraption in front of your selected storage container. The first smart splitter is on the floor, against the inner wall. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item.
  2. The second smart splitter is against the same wall, on the ceiling, slightly more on the right. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item (hoverpack recommended).
  3. The third smart splitter is in the middle of the contraption. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item (hoverpack recommended).
  4. Change the large sign on the outer wall to display the stored item.
  5. Go on the balcony and find the blocking container (look at the sign on the containers to indentify the right one). Change the sign to display the right item. On the other side of the container is the fourth smart splitter. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item.
  6. The fifth smart splitter is on the other side of the wall. You can access it's settings via the hole in the wall. Change the currently defined item to be your stored item. Also update the sign (you need to go out of the building for this one).

Defining how to handle non-stored items

You can program this logic up to some extent using programmable splitters. They are currently preprogrammed the way I am using them but you preferences may be different. All these programmable splitters are painted with color palette 14. Make sure this color contrasts with you build colors to easily identify them.

  1. The first programmable splitter is located on the balcony of the Upper Factory Balancing Room (accessible via the stairs in the entry hallway). It is directly on you left when you arrive on the balcony. This smart splitter only receives items that have no dedicated containers in the storage. Even when the storage is full, the items will not go through this programmable splitter, which means that you should define no rule for items that have dedicated storage containers. The programmable splitter should be programmed as follows:
  2. Left should always be "Any Undefined". Items going that way land in the recycling container.
  3. Center should list all items that should be shredded or recycled as fresh production (do not ever program anything item that could clog an AWESOME Sink here!).
  4. Right should list all items that should be handed over to the "Harvest" train.
  5. To find the second programmable splitter, go out of the main building via the main entrance, and go around the "Here" train station. You will see four AWESOME Sinks on your left and two on your right. Go around the two on your right and you will find a ramp going down. Take it and then head towards the center of the building (as far as you can without leaving this floor). Against the wall, you should see two programmable splitters painted in the palette color 14. The one on your right is the second one. It receives all items from the center output of the first programmable splitter. It's left output joins the local production (factory 1) and the right output goes to an AWESOME Sink. Program it at your best convenience so that it handles correctly all items listed on the Center rules of the first programmable splitter.
  6. You guessed it, the third programmable splitter is the one on your left. This one can receive any type of item as input. It's left output goes to an AWESOME Sink and should list all items to be shredded. The center output is not connected and the right output should be "Any undefined".
  7. Let's follow the belt connected to the right output and you'll find the fourth and last programmable splitter. It's left output should list all items to be handed over to the "Harvest" train. That must at least include anything that could clog an AWESOME Sink. The center output should be "Any Undefined" and the right output is unconnected.

Connecting hubs for storage balancing

You first need to connect the hubs using train tracks. Connecting them with double tracks and right hand side driving is the easiest.

Then you need to decide how to logically connect your hubs: they need to be logically connected single direction loop. This has nothing to do with trackwork, bur rather with how you schedule your trains. Let's work by example on this one.

Let's say you have imported three hubs and named then Hub1, Hub2 and Hub3 (how original ;-) ). The system is built in such a way that every hub storage will "overflow" into the next one on the logical loop. Lets decide that Hub1 will "overflow" into Hub2, Hub2 will "overflow" into Hub3, and Hub3 will "overflow" into Hub1. I put "overflow" between quotes because this is not a simple overflow. It follows the logic explained in the section "The storage logic" above.

We will implement the "overflow" with 3 two cars trains:

  1. Train1 goes back and forth between Hub1's "Here Overflow Load" and Hub2's "There Overflow Unload".
  2. Train2 goes back and forth between Hub2's "Here Overflow Load" and Hub3's "There Overflow Unload".
  3. Train3 goes back and forth between Hub3's "Here Overflow Load" and Hub1's "There Overflow Unload".

These 3 trains should normally always travel with a single car loaded. The first car carries the overflow from on Hub to the next one. The second car carries back items that should not be sent anymore (destination storage is full). These items are headed to the blocking containers of the overflowing hub and they will prevent further overflowing of the items for some time (the more items, the longer the blocking).

Hooking up a factory to the hub

First the easy part: each factory connection port has an hyper tube connection that will connect your factory to the control tower. It also features 2 electrical outlets. One outlet is meant to power all machines. It's power can be shut off from the control tower. The other electrical outlet is always on and is meant to power the hypertube entry, the factory lights, er anything else that should stay on even when this factory is shut down.

The logistics hub is built on the assumption that every factory will export less items from the hub that it will import from it. That's why every factory connection port has 3 factory input belts, but only one factory output belt.

First thing is to check if that's enough for your factory. If you need to import more than 3 different items or if the input belts do not provide enough throughput, then you need to steal evailable factory input belts from a neigbhouring factory connection port. The factory output belt may be a sushi belt, so the number of different items that you are exporting from the factory is not relevant. On the other hand, if the total output throughput exceed 780 ipm, you will also need to steal an available factory output belt from a neighbouring factory connection port. You will have noticed that the hub does not handle fluids. Fortunately, we can package them.

It is recommended to min/max factory input belts as that will help the buffer containers to regulate the flow on these belts. You can for example replace the belt segment connected to the output of the buffer container so that you do not have to replace the whole belt. Doing it systematically the same way will help avoiding problems later.

Next, you need to let the hub know what items your factory needs as input. Take note of the number of your factory connection port and head up to the Lower Factory Sorting Floor, in front of the right factory connection port number. You should have your 3 buffer containers just in front of you (with the beryl nut, paleberry and bacon agaric signs). They are connected each to one of your factory input belts.

Let's say your factory produces steel stuff using a local coal node but it needs to import Iron Ingots because you are using the Solid Steel Ingot alternate recipe. Let's say you decide to use the paleberry belt and container to input Iron Ingots to you rfactory. In front of the container, on the ground, is a row of smart splitters that are currently programmed to pick up paleberries from the circular belts and bring them to the buffer container. You need to reprogram each of them to pick up Iron Ingots instead. There are 16 of them in the Lower Factory Sorting Room, 16 of them in the Middle Factory Sorting Room and 16 of them in the Upper Factory Sorting Room. This means that you need to reprogram 48 smart splitters.

That may sound as a lot of smart splitters to reprogram, but please remember that it allows you to pick up these Iron Ingots from any factory connected to any logistics hub on your map. If your local hub already receives enough Iron Ingots from another local factory, the setup is complete. If the Iron Ingots need to come from a factory connected to another hub, you also need to make sure that your local hub imports these Iron Ingots, which is the topic of the next section.

Finally, you need to go up the control tower, look for the switch handling your factory, turn it on if not already done, and connect the corresponding hypertube entry to power. There are 4 Mk3 electrical outlets forming a square on the roof. Do NOT use the center one, connect to one of the four corners.

Exporting/Importing items between hubs

Exporting is easy: all goods produced locally and not used by another local factory are automatically loaded on a train station, ready for export. As there are maximum 24 factories, there are also 6 four cars trains, totalling 24 cars. The 6 export train stations are named "Here Prod Load 1" up to "Here Prod Load 6". look at signs on the belt side of the freight platforms to see what factory goods go where.

Let's say that in Hub1, factories 21 up to 24 produce goods that must be exported to Hub2 and/or Hub3, depending on the goods. All unused goods produced by factories 21 up to 24 will be waiting in train station "Here Prod Load 6". To handle these items, you need to build a four car train and schedule it as follow:

  1. Pick up all goods from Hub1's "Here Prod Load 6" train station.
  2. Unload all goods required by Hub2 to Hub2's "There1 Here Unload" train station. It is strongly advised to use a selective unload (only unload goods that are requires by Hub2) as to limit the necessary throughput.
  3. Load back all of these goods that were not used. You will load them back from Hub2's "There1 Here Load" train station.
  4. Unload all goods required by Hub3 to Hub3's "There1 Here Unload" train station. Selective unload is strongly advised.
  5. Load back all of these goods that were not used. You will load them back from Hub3's "There1 Here Load" train station.
  6. Head back to Hub1 to unload all unused goods at Hub1's "Here Prod Unload" train station.

Please note that the starting Hub has 6 stations for exporting it's goods, but only one train station to collect the unused exported goods. It is clearly expected that most exported goods will actually be used by their destination.

What if I have only one World Eater? I do not need to export/import goods!

Indeed, but you still need to bring the goods from the exports train stations ("Here Prod Load 1" up to "Here Prod Load 6") and carry them to the station collecting the goods not used anywhere else ("Here Prod Unload"). You can do that with trains or with belts.

Anyway, the unused exported goods will now head to the storage. In most cases, there is nothing else that you need to do for the system to work. However, in some cases, it may be useful to look at the next section.

Defining how to handle the local production

To summarize what we have seen up to now and to complete the flow:

  1. Items are produce in up to 24 local factories. Each of them has one Mk5 belt of output available, which is a maximum total of 24 x 780 ipm = 18720 ipm exported items from the local factories to the local hub.
  2. From these 18720 ipm, some unknown amount will be used as input for local factories. The rest will be loaded on the 6 export trains (still up to 18720 ipm).
  3. An unknown amount of items will be exported by these trains to other hubs and the remaining unused items will be collected from the single local "Here Prod Unload" train station. The available throughput from each freight platforms to it's buffer container is slightly below 780 ipm, which means a total of 4 x 780 ipm = 3120 ipm.
  4. However, the output of all buffer containers are merged together on a single Mk5 belt that will itself further merge with other belts, leaving a guaranteed available throughput of 480 ipm to the storage.

We can clearly see that there is a real possibility for the buffer containers to saturate and clog the system. Would that happen, there is a special contraption that handles the situation. Let's have a look at it. For that sake, head up to station "Here Prod Unload", take the ramp down next to the four AWESOME Sinks and lets have a look at the buffer containers located just below the freight platforms.

Notice that each belt coming down from the freight platform first goes through a programmable splitter. It should always have at least these rules programmed:

  • Center output set to "Any Undefined"
  • Right output set to "Overflow"

You are however free to add named item rules to any of the 3 outputs. Here is their meaning:

  • Left output are items that should never have reached this point and should be recycled as fresh production.
  • Center output goes to the storage and it's balancing system. Items going this way are subject to the handling defined in sections "Programming a new item in the storage" and "Defining how to handle non-stored items".
  • Right output goes to the AWESOME Sink.

The left output is useful when your world produces no or little excess of some item and this item is not stored in any hub's storage. It will address the problem describe below. Think of one input belt for a factory, programmed to carry concrete. It is fed from the Lower, Middle and Upper Factory Sorting Rooms from 48 smart splitters (see section Hooking up a fectory to the hub). Each smart splitter picking up concrete from one Mk5 sushi belt. We can say that the system picks concrete from 48 Mk5 sushi belts and puts that concrete on a single Mk5 belt (input to your factory). But the content of the sushi belts can be very irregular. It could be that at some point the 48 belts carry together more concrete than a single Mk5 belt can hold, resulting in "unused" concrete overflowing. At some other time, there may be no concrete at all on the 48 belts. That is the reason for the buffer container, but that does not solve everything.

Let's think indeed of the following situation. You world produces exactly the amount of concrete that you are consuming in your factories (and you do not store concrete in your storage - not very realistic, I know, but that could be any other item). Thinking of the phenomenon described in the previous paragraph, it means that at some point some concrete may overflow and not reach your factory while there is indeed not too much concrete produced. To say it another way, your factory will sometimes starve for concrete with no reason and some concrete will be unused and come back to its producing hub as an unused item. I call that effect "spilling".

If that situation arises (and it will), you will want to send the concrete back into the import/export system to increase the amount of concrete being exported. That will eventually balance out the amount of concrete being spilled and the problem will solve by itself. All you have to do is program concrete on the left output of the four programmable splitters (replace concrete with approprate items according to your world production statistics).

Ok. We have defined the purpose of the left output. What's the purpose of the right output? That one is simpler. It corresponds to the case where you are overproducing an items in large quantities. Let's say for example that your hub is producing an excess of 500 Iron Plates per minute (not used neither locally neither in a remote factory). Because the available throughput towards the storage is only 480 ipm, that will be a problem and will not leave enough bandwith for other items to reliably reach the storage. The solution is simple: program Iron Plates on the right output to send them all to the AWESOME Sink. If you want to keep some plates for the storage you can also have different programming on the four programmable splitters and/or program Iron Plates both on the center and on the right ouput of the programmable splitter to split them evenly between the storage and the AWESOME Sink.

That's it folks, have fun with the World Eater Logistics Hub.

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  • Created on 5.9.2022 13.57.39