r/factorio • u/Jaherogr8 • 2d ago
Discussion Why are belts working without electricity? (Just wrong answers)
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u/not_a_bot_494 big base low tech 2d ago
They actually use 500w, they just use the motion of the belts to generate 500w so it cancels out.
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u/GingerWithFreckles 1d ago
Perpetiulum mobile or whateveryouspellthatmagicfuckery
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u/Astramancer_ 2d ago
The entire factory is at a slight tilt. Belts just roll downhill. Both ways.
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u/SchitteIndustries 2d ago
When I was your age, we had walk up the wrong direction of blue belts to go to school both ways
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u/Astramancer_ 2d ago
Did you have belt immunity equipment?
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u/toastytoast00 solar not bipolar 2d ago
*old person voice* back in my day (version 0.14), we didn't have any fancy watchacallits like belt immunity..
We had to ride the line or get outta the way! We had discipline! You yung'ins and your fancy gadgets. Hurmph
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u/SchitteIndustries 2d ago
We pulled ourselves by our bootstraps. Just walk into the lab with a firm handshake and ask for white science. That’s how I did it. Kids these days only want to complain about spoilage and frozen pipes
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u/chocki305 1d ago
Back in my day our science labs needed alien artifacts that had a little alien girl inside.
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u/ulyssesdot 1d ago
We used to dream of having belt immunity equipment! We were lucky if our dad didn't strap belt boosting equipment to us. If he did we'd go 4mph forward and 5mph backwards and end up 8 miles away from home when it was time for dinner.
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u/Jaherogr8 2d ago edited 2d ago
Just turn of physics and… done
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u/vigbiorn 1d ago
import physics
physics.off()
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u/Dpmon1 1d ago edited 1d ago
$ git diff factorio.py
diff --git a/factorio.py b/factorio.py
index 769175f..ef444c0 100644
--- a/factorio.py
+++ b/factorio.py
@@-18,7 +18,7 @@
import engineer
import biter
# import router
- import physics
+ *# *import physics
import spaceage
import numpy as np
# import reddit_markdown as AAAAAAAAA
$
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u/kagato87 Since 0.12. MOAR TRAINS! 2d ago
Ever wonder why the biters hate the factory so much?
Their smaller brethren are inside the belts, powering them hamster-wheel style.
It's not actually the pollution - they just learned that the pollution leads them to belts. The fact that they get distracted and forget the belts once the pollution gone is just a side effect of their hive mentality.
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u/The-Great-MNO 1d ago
Pollution is just the pheromones of the biters trying to call others for help
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u/Original-Document-82 2d ago
there are tiny engineers who run under the belt
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u/Abundance144 2d ago
Hamsters actually, but they do have a degree.
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u/7heWizard 1d ago
Yeah, so engineers. Why did you feel the need to point out their species? Are you speciesist?
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u/Abundance144 1d ago
Well it is a Bachelor's in Mechanical Energy Transfer system, but actually only a two week online class from The Royal Commonwealth University of Zimbabwe Online.
It's actually kind of impressive that they have email and managed to print it out.
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u/Spoon-Ninja 2d ago
Easy.
Magnets.
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u/sjaakwortel 2d ago
They use gun turrets for power.
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u/wantstotransition 2d ago
the inserters give them a little push every time they grab an item off the belt
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u/catinterpreter 1d ago
And they're lubed up to hell. If you look closely at the player sprite when they pick up objects from a belt, you can see disgust on their face as they glance down at their hands.
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u/drominius 1d ago
that sounds so cute. give that belt a little tab on the shoulder, while it waddles off with the uranium rod all proud and happy.
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u/DerginMaster 2d ago
There's Belts under them that make them go
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u/hippiechan 2d ago
They run without electricity because they're pure of heart and are filled with love for the world :]
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u/frank_east 2d ago edited 2d ago
The yellow arrows are actually extremely heavy weights that only turn on their weight once they get to the forward edge of the belt and then turn off once they are fully under the belt therfore making a perpetual motion machine.
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u/AtlasThe1st 1d ago
How? Well its simple, very powerful electromagnets. How are those powered? You guessed it, belts
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u/HeliGungir 2d ago edited 2d ago
Tidal energy, but crustal tide instead of ocean tide. The factory is slowly stealing rotational kinetic energy from the planet, which will have drastic consequences in a surprisingly-short timescale.
If we were to take tidal energy just to supplement 1% of the world's energy consumption, the rotation of the Earth would lock to the Moon in about 1000 years
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u/kylesbadatprivacy 1d ago
This is like extremely shocking to me. I've never heard of this before. Now I wonder about other energy sources, like will geothermal energy cool the entire earth's core by next Saturday and wind mills will stop all air movement by 5pm tonight? Crazy stuff.
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u/kagato87 Since 0.12. MOAR TRAINS! 1d ago
In theory, yes. However, to help you sleep better at night:
Wind mills (and generators) can never extract all the available energy in the wind, so the wind won't stop, it'll just get reduced, slowing it down,
Geothermal energy would accelerate the cooling of the Earth's core. Fortunately there's so much thermal energy down there that we'd need to tap a pretty crazy amount to have a measurable effect.
And for bonus points:
Hydro dams steal energy from the water cycle.
Solar panels don't change the amount of insolation, though they may reduce the amount directly reflected back into space.
And let's go Sci Fi:
Solar satellites beaming energy to a planet increase the total energy in the system. If the planet can't radiate it, it will increase the overall temperature. This could be really bad if the planet has a strong greenhouse effect (like, say, Venus), or good if it's a cool planet (like Mars).
Even nuclear energy is taking what was once slowly decaying uranium and converting it to a state that encourages releasing its heat quicker.
But fret not! Every single one of these is drop in the bucket compared to fossil fuels. Though that comparison requires that drop being an exaggeration, and the bucket actually being a large reservoir.
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u/BIGJake111 1d ago
Physics entropy sucks, but industrial entropy is lovely as we all well know, the factory must grow and there is usually another ore patch not too far away! Every time the engineer burns he depletes but so long as he burns into a product it’s something more useful to him than useless crude.
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u/Dyolf_Knip 1d ago
Looking over the math, this is entirely a consequence of extrapolating out future energy needs to ludicrous amounts (400 million times today's) and then assuming that we'd still be using tidal power to supply 1% of it every year.
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u/jasminUwU6 1d ago
Why do so many people assume unrestricted exponential growth? It's just silly.
Even Factorio has its limits (ups)
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u/jasminUwU6 1d ago
Why do so many people assume unrestricted exponential growth? It's just silly.
Even Factorio has its limits (ups)
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u/DanzaDragon 1d ago
They're just very sneaky burner inserters, every now and again they remove an item from the belt and burn it in the inbetweeny-gear-chamber to maintain power.
Like you'd even notice one missing advanced circuit now and again ;)
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u/fauxregard 2d ago
None of my belts run on electricity, they just hold my pants up. Why should these work any differently?
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u/Clanky_Plays 1d ago
They are actually fixed to an exact point in space relative to the planet. The planet rotates beneath them
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u/1234abcdcba4321 1d ago
In all four directions at once! And at different speeds! This is a really crazy planet...
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u/Strap_merf 23h ago
It has an end, it's a flat plane.. Navuis is a flat earth.
Even better, the belts are powered by the 15° rotational drift that exists and that can't be explained by the flat model..
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u/cseiter77 1d ago
Because we believe in them. If everyone stopped believing in the belts they'd stop.
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u/ItzGacitua 1d ago
They eat your coal when you aren't looking.
It's not like you can keep track of every piece of fuel on your factory, and the belts know this.
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u/ProfBeaker 2d ago
There are tiny gun turrets inside, and a tiny biter that's always just in front of where it's pointing.
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u/Steeljaw72 1d ago
Each belt segment is a perpetual motion machine. Sure, perpetual motion machines might be impossible, but the engineer can carry hundreds of stacks of nuclear reactors in his back pocket.
So there’s that.
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u/LilMountianDude 1d ago
Inside each belt is an intern hoping to be you, and when you die, they finally get their chance.
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u/Ecstatic_Mark7235 1d ago
We have unlimited energy devices that cost nothing. We just choose to pollute and fuck with the wildlifeÂ
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u/cardboardbox25 1d ago
Me, I've been powering them since the alpha was made, please stop playing the game, I want to see my family
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u/Anaximander101 2d ago
A hundred tiny sterling engines attached the frame.
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u/dr_craptastic 1d ago
Yeah, sun warms the top, gas trapped inside, bottom cools in the shade. Stirling engine makes too much sense though. It’s probably turtles.
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u/erroneum 1d ago
The surface of Nauvis is at all points in a quantum superposition of all possible tilts (this is why cliffs work no matter where they are located, even if placed in the editor), and belts are designed to exploit this to be always rolling the correct rate downhill.
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u/FrikkinLazer 1d ago
The top and bottom move in oposite directions, so thay cancel out, and is really standing still. There is also no friction, because the friction is also in opposite directions canceling out to zero
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u/hyrenfreak 1d ago
It’s because there is a hamster under each belt that spins, he isn’t on top cause the hamster all do a lazy workout
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u/poppi_QTpi 2d ago
It's because they have arrows pointing in the direction they're facing, the arrows tell it where to go and it goes. If it was a stop sign it wouldn't move at all.
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u/the_Athereon 1d ago
Because the Engineer is secretly able to tap into cosmic energy to power his creations. But he has power limits...
Real reason. Gameplay simplification and quality of life. There are mods that make belts need power. And they're horrible. (Unless you like a base that needs 1GW by the time you reach Yellow Science.)
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u/ThemeSlow4590 1d ago
They're powered by the mystery gas that causes friction in space within this solar system.
And also ANTS ANTS ANTS.
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u/souliris 1d ago
There are giant miniature space hamsters running on the bottoms of the belts giving their infinite energy to the factory, for it must grow.
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u/Sohjinn 1d ago
Electricity is only needed if the engineer thinks something should need power. He doesn’t consider the belts need it so they don’t. He like warhammer orc
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u/Serinat_ 1d ago
Engineer literally paints belts red to make them faster. Also purple is really invisible (no more filter insterter)
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u/Serinat_ 1d ago
Hello. We are your parents. We don't know where you will find or in what form this message, but you are in coma. Factorio is an illusion, nothing moves in it. Please wake up
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u/austsiannodel 12h ago
I mean you just spun it one day, and it kept going. The first bar spun the belt forwards, which caused the second bar to spin, pushing it forward
Basic science, really.
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u/Symbiotic-Dissonance 3h ago
Underneath the conveyors is a bunch of larva bugs forced to run to keep them turning. It is why the bugs hate us so much.
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u/Awesome_Avocado1 2d ago
Because belts use room temp superfluids for frictionless motion. It's why belts are an endgame unlock. Add extra lube for more frictionless motion.
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u/Cookie4316 fuck them trees 2d ago
Baby biters are attached underneath and push them around, in their place where they belong
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u/juckele 🟠🟠🟠🟠🟠🚂 2d ago
Because an object in motion stays in motion, and the engineer gives them a good slap when setting them down for the first time.