Devlog #4: Module Ratios
For those interested, I wanted to elaborate a bit more on the numbers behind Modulus. Specifically the module requests per building. I’ve taken the Blue Core Facility as an example because it has clean ratios. (Not all buildings will produce such clean numbers, but it’s a good way of thinking when planning the construction of a new building)
As displayed above, the building needs 3 modules to be constructed. Let’s call them Mod1, Mod2 and Mod3. Mod1 & 2 need to be delivered 32 times and Mod3 only 16 times. If we break the modules down in our minds, we can slide the blue part of Mod2 inside Mod1, creating a nice rectangle of 2x4x8. Which is 64 voxels and exactly one full base cube, tadaah! If we multiply that by the delivery amount, we can calculate that the building will need EXACTLY 32 blue cubes. That’s neat.
If we apply the same logic to the white parts of the module, we can see it also needs exactly 32 white cubes in total (the calculation is a bit more difficult as Mod2 needs to be delivered 32 times and Mod3 only 16 times). The example above shows how to get to these numbers.
By the way, you don’t have to calculate in voxels, because that’s big numbers. What helps is trying to understand how many full cubes of each color you need.
Now why is this important you say? Well, if we know we need 32 blue cubes and 32 white cubes, we can plan our Polyrock extraction based on it. Imagine placing down two fully efficient furnaces producing cubes. One for the white ones and one for the blue ones (using a painter to paint the whole cube blue). This way we know that, if our production isn’t bottlenecked in any other way, you aren’t producing any waste and the only challenge left is to optimize each module production line. You can even add furnaces later if you see you need more cubes, in a ratio of 1 extra for the white cubes and 1 extra for the blue cubes.
I hope this makes some sense. In any case, it’s a nice way of looking at things when planning construction of a new building. Maybe there’s even smarter ways slightly :) I’m all ears!
Addendum: Module AMOUNTS and cranes
Once you have your production lines set up, it’s smart to think about how many cranes should be used per module. When we look at above example, it’s smart to use twice the amount of cranes for Mod 1 & 2, as the building needs double their amounts compared to Mod3. That way, a building will never have to wait for one specific module to be delivered, because all module deliveries will complete at exactly the same time. (same goes for the production cycle). This is of course assuming that the modules are coming in at a steady flow! Thanks for reading, have fun experimenting!
If you like Modulus, please consider wishlisting it, it helps us out a lot! And don’t forget to join our Discord to be able to talk directly to us: https://discord.gg/QbTr9bFqTF
Thanks for reading, and have yourself a great day!
- David (Game Director)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2779120/Modulus/
As displayed above, the building needs 3 modules to be constructed. Let’s call them Mod1, Mod2 and Mod3. Mod1 & 2 need to be delivered 32 times and Mod3 only 16 times. If we break the modules down in our minds, we can slide the blue part of Mod2 inside Mod1, creating a nice rectangle of 2x4x8. Which is 64 voxels and exactly one full base cube, tadaah! If we multiply that by the delivery amount, we can calculate that the building will need EXACTLY 32 blue cubes. That’s neat.
If we apply the same logic to the white parts of the module, we can see it also needs exactly 32 white cubes in total (the calculation is a bit more difficult as Mod2 needs to be delivered 32 times and Mod3 only 16 times). The example above shows how to get to these numbers.
By the way, you don’t have to calculate in voxels, because that’s big numbers. What helps is trying to understand how many full cubes of each color you need.
Now why is this important you say? Well, if we know we need 32 blue cubes and 32 white cubes, we can plan our Polyrock extraction based on it. Imagine placing down two fully efficient furnaces producing cubes. One for the white ones and one for the blue ones (using a painter to paint the whole cube blue). This way we know that, if our production isn’t bottlenecked in any other way, you aren’t producing any waste and the only challenge left is to optimize each module production line. You can even add furnaces later if you see you need more cubes, in a ratio of 1 extra for the white cubes and 1 extra for the blue cubes.
I hope this makes some sense. In any case, it’s a nice way of looking at things when planning construction of a new building. Maybe there’s even smarter ways slightly :) I’m all ears!
Addendum: Module AMOUNTS and cranes
Once you have your production lines set up, it’s smart to think about how many cranes should be used per module. When we look at above example, it’s smart to use twice the amount of cranes for Mod 1 & 2, as the building needs double their amounts compared to Mod3. That way, a building will never have to wait for one specific module to be delivered, because all module deliveries will complete at exactly the same time. (same goes for the production cycle). This is of course assuming that the modules are coming in at a steady flow! Thanks for reading, have fun experimenting!
If you like Modulus, please consider wishlisting it, it helps us out a lot! And don’t forget to join our Discord to be able to talk directly to us: https://discord.gg/QbTr9bFqTF
Thanks for reading, and have yourself a great day!
- David (Game Director)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2779120/Modulus/
There’s nothing more satisfying and relaxing than sitting down with your favourite factory automation game, watching hundreds of little objects gliding around your buildings and conveyor belts in perfect (spaghetti) harmony. But as your factory grows, and the hundreds of objects become thousands, it becomes very important for the game to continue to run smoothly, and not stutter, judder, and drop frames. Factory automation games provide an enormous opportunity for players to create incredibly elegant, complex, and intricate designs which can sometimes be challenging from a performance perspective. Because of this, we need to dedicate time and effort to performance optimization on Modulus, to make sure your factories keep ticking along like clockwork.
Grass, waving gently in the wind.
Lots of items on lots of belts…
Two machines process the same amount of raw material faster!