I moved one item with every vehicle to see which was fastest | Satisfactory

[@Steampunkifyable]

The only way to move stuff is with the factory cart. 😁

[@bensonism]

came to say this, factory cart is OP

[@Dr_Axton]

Don’t forget cyber wagon for a bit of fancy

[@daitauloable]

It would be interesting to test the the volume/time for moving mass quantities between factories. The question we would be looking to answer is: is it better to build a conveyor bus, truck route, or a train route?

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Yeah I'd love to do a follow-up video to see how long it takes to move an entire container of items or something like that.

[@charlesgreen718]

@@SatisfactoryNews I did that; let me know if I can help you with data or savefiles etc

[@JordanMetroidManiac]

This is an easy one to answer. Belts: take very little space and are relatively easy to build, but one belt can only work in one direction, and it can take several stacks of resources to build for long distances. Trucks/Tractors: the stations generally can only contain one item type unless you mathematically, perfectly balance production with consumption such that the unloading truck station storage does not overflow with some of the items (blocking out at least one item type). One truck station also can only load or unload items at a maximum rate of two belts (no more than 1560/min). For the same amount of space that the stations and truck(s), you can easily fit three belts and exceed that max throughout while also gaining flexibility with multiple item types per belt. Trains: also has throughput limit per freight station at 1560/min, but it is extendable, linearly increasing the amount of space required to haul more items. If you build a sufficiently large rail network, then it becomes very quick and easy to send anything from A to B if the two locations are near you network. However, even still, belts are incredibly superior to trains because they take far less space and are arguably easier to set up, depending on terrain, architectural design or lack thereof, etc. _It is clearly best to use belts “for moving mass quantities between factories,” assuming you solely care about logistical efficiency and not the ease of construction or other factors._ It is worth noting that the space needed for extending throughput via trains only grows at the stations, and not on the rail network itself. Adding a belt, on the other hand, would take extra space along the whole transport line. That said, there exists a point where it becomes worth using trains instead of belts because, for trains, the throughout-to-space ratio increases as the distance between points A and B increases, whereas it remains constant for belts. So if the distance is great enough, the throughput-to-space efficiency reaches and exceeds that of belts. If you really think about the math there, it turns out that the Satisfactory map is too small for that to ever become a concern.

[@thebloxxer22]

My PoV is that no one method is best: Belts for short distance, Vehicles for medium distance, Trains for long distance High throughput, Drones for long distance low throughput. Here are some factors to influence this: - Cost of Setup - Distance - Required throughput - Terrain Complexity Always choose what is best for the situation.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Well put! I think that's the ultimate lesson. Other than the distinct tiers of belts, the methods of transportation aren't designed to be "better" than another, but better in different situations.

[@zeromar4179]

I use Belts for pretty much everything execpt mass transportation from biome to biome. Cant beat Belts at anything other then super long range. Easy to setup, low cost, no maintenance. win win win!! ;)

[@typhonplume9374]

Nice to see you took the right approach and noted amount of items and distance are factors unlike similar videos done in the past on other channels.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Thanks. There are plenty of problems with this experiment but I wanted to be upfront and specific about them.

[@YelibamPlays]

Would have been interesting to include the Explorer in the tests, particularly over the short distance.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

I did think about it just to be complete, but I don't think anyone really uses them for transportation, so I skipped them.

[@gemp435]

@@SatisfactoryNews i do because I'm a madman

[@contact406]

@@gemp435 I do also because it's faster and when you have a small amount to move it's perfect.

[@johnyellow3976]

Hey. I sadly have some criticism for this test :( Although you are correct in the test regarding what's most effective for moving "1" item. the test does not really show justice for the vehicles because you have not calculated in resources transported from start to stop per minute. it would be nice to see you have a full container or two that the vehicles need to move over a set distance to reflex how belts will work best at a short distance and maybe a truck medium and why trains will shine at long distances. because if you only count in 1 item, the mk5 belt will win most of the time except if you're moving something directly up, then the drone might win.

[@Windle_Poons]

Have you tries using containers instead of belts? Time between entry and exit is almost instantaneous. So, if you line up containers and use as short belts as possible its a very quick way of getting an item from point a to point b.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

That's really funny, I kind of love that

[@Windle_Poons]

@@SatisfactoryNews give it a go, its interring. You are still limited by the belt throuput but it is also early game materials

[@oliemolie7696]

Throughput is what you should be considering not just time. What you are moving affects the method of transport as well as the distance. Moving 500 screws per inventory slot over 50 Hvy Modular Frames per slot will make a difference in the calculations. Take a truck, it can move 48 x 500 is 24K screws in 1 trip where as only 48 x 50 is 2,400 Frames. the belts are opposite, it will take belts 10 times longer to move the screws than the Frames. With a MK5 belt it takes 30.769 minutes to transport a truck load's worth of screws but only 3.076 to move the same load in Frames.

[@matthewholmquist3871]

I am curious what the ratio is of length of track to the number of freight cars a train needs to stay on par with a Mk5 belt.

[@KacproPL132]

I agree with the conclusion from the POV of the End Game, however in the earlier stages when you don't have that many resources and you are still growing, Vechicles like a Truck or Tractors are also beneficial in terms of the building cost. 100 foundations of the belts on the mk2 stage, when you have tractors available, is much more expensive than building 2 Tractor Stations and a truck! I consider using them on medium range all the time in the early / mid game due to cost exclusively, and later on I just build a massive train infrastructure :P

[@CGHawkatoo]

Personally, it depends on what you're transporting and over what distance: Trains are pretty decent at transporting massive volumes of building materials, whereas Drones are good at making quick "milk runs" to and fro, such as acquiring fuel for other vehicles. For early-game methods, I recommend sticking to the Tractor; it's cheap, maneuverable, and can carry what you need over a certain distance.

[@Silvertaurus_]

Trucks are this easy to setup initial Transport. Allow transport of stuff before you setup real, stable connection. Conveyer belts are fast and reliable .. but scale poorly with amount of goods. Single belt have it's capacity, after which you have to build entire another belt. They work great when you setup a well tought system with single purpose. Trains are ultimate solution for great distance. A connection between entire factories, main nodes and werehouses It's easier to scale up train network which then can support anything you will want in future.

[@scotlynhatt]

Great scientific approach. One thing worth considering is parallelism. If transport stations are running at say X3 versus a single station with multiple vehicles, it gives you higher volume per tick. Useful in areas where there are multiple nodes of same type.

[@Miss_Trillium]

This is a great primer! I'd love to see how they perform from one side of the map to the other--perhaps along the coast to make it as flat as possible? It would also be good to know about quantity of items

[@msbuck007]

This was a good video to show the comparisons, but it would be better if we increased the item size from 1 item to a full container, or a MK1 miner on a pure node to see how many items are transported in a set amount of time, for example an hour. I would only compare the level 5 belt, to the truck, train, cart, and drone.

[@forrestgardner4421]

I understand you were just measuring raw time from point A to point B but it would be interesting to see the time difference in mark5 belts versus vehicles to transport two large industrial containers full of material from A to B or use one full train car worth of material for the test. I’ve been wanting to do this test for a while just haven’t had time.

[@ScottGodin]

I saw something somewhere where they put containers end-to-end connected with higher-speed belts and the time-per-distance ratio was astonishingly small by comparison to a raw belt.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

That's hilarious. I love that.

[@ScottGodin]

@@SatisfactoryNews do a follow-up video?

[@charlesgreen718]

Your answer may be right, but the question is wrong. Never needed to move just one item, I need to move a container of items. Do a long-route test for a whole container of ore (or whatever) to get some usable, useful, actionable data. For example, I did train vs drone test from dune desert to grassy fields, and the winner was a HUGE difference better, and likely the unexpected one.

[@justinwhite2725]

For a single vehicle, round trip is a factor. Multiple vehicles will improve throughput on the same route faster than a belt.

[@Koljon]

good as always

[@AbsoluteHuman]

Hate to say it here, but a lesson taught by Factorio states that the "speed" at which something get somewhere is irrelevant in the factory. The only useful metric is throughput.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

You're totally right! And I'm not saying anything in this video about efficiency or anything like that. It's literally just to see the speeds of different vehicles over different distances. I would love to do a followup video that focuses on throughput, though.

[@AbsoluteHuman]

@@SatisfactoryNews I mean, the speed at which resources travel doesn't matter. Player, on the other hand... So a speed comparison here could be interesting

[@dreaminGemini]

This was very helpful. I usually don't use any of these. lol But I wanted to utilize them more this go round.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

I get that, it's so easy to just use belts and stop there.

[@danielskrivan6921]

Nothing beats the conveyor. You cannot increase throughput with vehicles. The best-case scenario is you get neutral throughput.

[@TobiasRieperGER]

The longest Belt i have build was from the north west coast oil field down to the grasslands, were the natural rock gate is. It were Mk5 belts and i transported rubber, plastic, oilbarrels and turbofuel this way. And a power cable. Was nice build, but looked very ugly, cause it runs in the gaps between the rocks and mountains. At the end, Satisfactory is a giant model train game. Build your own diorama with several little stations. I don't like MEGA FACTORIES. I like it to mine the stuff, have little factories with stations, and create another factory for higher class stuff somewhere else. And then have a central storage with all stuff. near coordinates 0:0. It's nicer to have small buildings, which are integrated in the landscape. I have senn some crazy dude, idk the name, who build a complete foundation floor stretched over the whole map. All on one level. Build miners, which bring up the resources. One simple big grey planet. Nature under roof. Oh boy, how boring was that....

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Yeah, it's fascinating seeing the differences in how people play. I'm trying to avoid the mega-factory thing as well. I have a pretty big one in the desert that I'm trying to break up and move to different areas. I like when it's better integrated into the natural world.

[@AmagiNate]

You should do 100 stacks not a single item

[@Monkey-fv2km]

Basically (from experience) trains are the only productive vehicle, the others are situational at best, but mostly just an aesthetic. I love having swarms of drones and tractors tootling about.

[@pitcheung5354]

I am using truck because i don't need to build road for it (use for transport plastics from oil factory only) but i will try train later for more iron copper and concrete staff

[@lonnierh0dgejr41]

while it is a decent video, i think a better measurement would be how many items a particular transport method can move large amounts of items. if you can load 10 train boxes and move the whole thing to your destination then that MAY actually give more than a belt. it's just an example, i couldn't say one way or the other on which would actually come out ahead. however, since everything eventually moves by belt, it's the number of belts you have feeding a particular factory that determines the final throughput. after typing all that out and thinking about my last sentence, i'd guess it's more about reducing lag than it is about which method you use. belts causing lag? switch to vehicles. vehicles not viable due to terrain? switch to trains. i think you get the idea. now subbed.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Thanks for the ideas! I would love to do another video exploring this while moving a larger quantity of items.

[@lonnierh0dgejr41]

@@SatisfactoryNews i'll watch it, that's for sure.

[@BigJMC]

Conveyers for small-medium distances. Trucks for medium distances and Trains for large distances.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

This is the way.

[@co2tel873]

Yea but the Tractor drone, truck or train brings 1 or more stacks of items, the belt must take into consideration how much time it takes to bring 1 stack not 1 item.

[@sythex92]

The fastest way is dragging a belt across the entire map

[@MagestormAllgoode]

This isn't really a fair testing. While the vehicles move slower, they do shift a fair load across at a time. So it should be a matter of transferring a load of say, 6 of the larger storage containers that autofeed in. Testing how fast it moves just one puts the belts at an unfair advantage in comparisons....

[@maddmethod5880]

yeah speed is _kinda_ irrelevant after like mark 3 or 4 belts. volume is the main thing people typically are after when they ask this kind of question

[@darkwelder9736]

I thisk you're too harsh to the truck. Remember that while mk.5 belt can transfer 780 items and that's it, truck can actually do more because of its inventory. Also, as truck's max speed is bigger that that of a belt, at some point it will actually be faster as well, so our big boy shall prevail. For me the only problem with vehicles is buggy foundations, whick looks kinda bad.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Yeah, I hoped that all my caveats I mentions would make it clear that the truck being slower than other things doesn't mean it's bad. As you can tell from my additional footage, I have a pretty robust truck network in my world. I forget if I mentioned it, but obviously the truck's biggest advantage is the same as the train's: it can haul a very large amount of resource stacks over a variety of terrains. I was going to add a while list of holes you could poke in this experiment but ended up cutting it out to keep the video short. One of the complains was that I was only using one item, rather than full stacks, because that changes the efficiency. But the results would be the same, just insert how many items per minute you could transport.

[@D3r3k2323]

Throughput is far more important than how fast a single item can move

[@SatisfactoryNews]

It definitely is. Luckily the carry amounts for each vehicle and the stack size for items is well documented so you can use that info to make more sense of these speeds. Regardless of how many items a truck can hold, it takes the same amount of time to transport 1 item or to transport its max capacity, across a certain distance. I used one item in this video purely to get the vehicles to load/unload. You can use easy math to plug in the amount of items you need to move. Of course throughout will always be limits by belts, except for trains where each individual station will be limited by belts, rather than the whole system.

[@MrLarsgren]

do you encounter any difference with vehicles bouncing around when driving on different foundation types ? im still early on in this save and just use pure concrete and they really sux to drive on

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Yeah, that's just a problem with concrete, it sucks. I hope they fix that.

[@reznovvazileski3193]

I never rly got to setting up trains rly I think the opportunity cost of vehicles with all the gas or power consumption is far too great to beat the one-time cost of a beltline. Also, I really love the look of a conveyorbelt superhighway across the map, it just triples down on coffeestains initial idea of us being the sanctuary desecrating assholes if the entire world is covered in massive conveyorbusses transporting pollution royale across our planetdestroying facilities :P Though I would like a train network just for traveling purposes at one point, it just feels cool to have.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

I love that! One thing I did not mention, but should have, was the fuel and additional factories needed to supply that fuel. Thanks for bringing that up.

[@spankylishus]

how about chaining storages with 1 belt between them --- since time would mostly be just the amount of belts it has to cross

[@shlomster6256]

Nicely done. But blades + mk 5... I like those speeds for small amounts of goods (say, while constructing a factory)

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Couldn't agree more!

[@HeHasNoName]

Im literally in the process of setting up a truck route that I KNOW would be faster and easier with MK5 belts but I hate belt sprawl across the countryside, and hey, I havent done trucks before and its created a new rabbit hole for me. I need to build a loading depot, an unloading depot, the road, solve the puzzle of crossing train tracks, and lets face it... THATS what the game is about.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Exactly, sometimes its all about fun and not efficiency, especially when it's just as effective either way.

[@MegaVoltTM]

Fastest way is by the pioneers with blade runners + jet pack 😅😎

[@pitcheung5354]

And "CTRL" button also😅

[@jreyes0781]

Great vid

[@sam5687]

Every step of this game keeps me busy. I gotta do this do that. When i do that i realise it needs to be rebuilt. In order to do that i need to do something else then it gets messy 🤢

[@PaladinodoCerradooficial]

I like trains, I think in future expansion, or 1.0 wee gonna win boats to move across islands.

[@JanzenGaming]

Doesnt matter how fast any vehicles is, you cant get more than 720 item per minute input anyway.

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Very true! A vehicle will never be better than a MK 5 belt, because you will still need a MK 5 belt to offload those items. That's something I wish I had thought of and mentioned in the video!

[@johnyellow3976]

@@SatisfactoryNews not entirely right, more carts = more mk5 belts to supply said carts, meaning one mk5 belt over distance is reduced to only 1 mk5 belt ofc. but a train with say 5 carts can load up to 10 mk5 belts (up to 48 item slots per cart) so one of the benefits of this is actually space usage if you ask me. besides with trains if the rail is so long the train cant run around the track fast enough to empty all the 10 mk5 belts incoming, you simply add another train until you have it optimal. I would say the biggest benefit is space usage between factories has rail don't take that much place. but 10mk 5 belts would take a lot of space.

[@TheProkonover]

5:44 that's the reason why i dont use trucks.

[@gdlifesteal5824]

Nice.

[@Leif-Eriksson]

Drones & Trains are good. The truck station is slowas hell.

[@pierce6456]

automated factory cart squad

[@RecklessVac]

I know an even faster method 1. Build hypertubes using Josh's method in kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmO7ZKqiq9SGnsk 2. Build 49 containers at the place you start from 3. Build one at destination 4. Mark all 49, use hyper tube and mark last. Break them. The items should be in a chest then at your last box!

[@SatisfactoryNews]

That's true! I love that method and have definitrly used it a few times.

[@de-kat]

Trucks are to buggy to use them, trains is the best way for long way and belts for the rest.

[@Yolo_Swagins]

I only use belts/pipes coz im too stupid to set up anything more

[@Freddie_06]

Best is factory cart. No fuel required.

[@huyvo1980]

"What is the fastest to move ONE item in Satisfactory?"

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Like I said, it's far from a perfect test, that's why I was upfront about it just being one item :)

[@The17thEditionGoober]

4:36 how on earth do you build that?!

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Probably one of my favorite projects since I don't have much creativity in this game. The walls are made of foundations and then quarter pipe foundations for the curve. I changed their material to reflective concrete. Then I had to put walls on the foundations in order to place signs. The lights are signs. You need to turn the brightness all the way up and tweak some other settings. Then deconstruct the walls, and it will look like the signs are mounted to the wall. And then I just made it like 100 foundations long in order to take my train across the desert, haha.

[@The17thEditionGoober]

@@SatisfactoryNews Thank you so much! Trying to recreate just on the looks was, annoying to say the least

[@SatisfactoryNews]

You got it! Shoot me a message on Twitter if you need more help! (link is in the description)

[@valentinburla8688]

Trains and drones.

[@bobbythompson6017]

Make a video on what's faster 4 locomotives pulling 5 freight cars or 2 locomotives pulling 5 cars and do those same tests on flat ground and going up hills

[@SatisfactoryNews]

I like that idea, thanks!

[@bobbythompson6017]

I have two big save files one with a lot of trains and I have one with 150 plus drones and I found out drones cause less lag

[@willemoranje]

i wish i could design and build a base like yours

[@SatisfactoryNews]

It started off pretty random and unplanned, and I'm just trying to make it look pretty now. It's hard!

[@willemoranje]

@@SatisfactoryNews yeah i know,i wish i could copy and pasy someone's base

[@TheGreatSeraphim]

You only calculated the transportation time of a single item. The real metric people would be looking for is how many items a minute something can transport. And everything beats belts over distances. Especially if you calculate the lag caused by entities on belts late game. (Honestly don't know why they don't have 'tunnel belts' or something to mitigate entity lag late game.)

[@SatisfactoryNews]

Yeah, I was upfront with that being what the test was. I know it's not perfect. I'd love to do a second test with fukk stacks.