Satisfactory: Manifold vs Load Balancing for Belts + Tutorial 

If you're watching this, let it be known that I made a few mistakes which all of you helpful commentors have pointed out. Here is my follow-up video where I elaborate on the mistakes and important points that I missed: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bNdn5aLkdh0.html

Manifold has one major advantage over load balancing - it's much easier to expand. Just add more machines onto the end of the manifold line.

the idea of the loop back belt just gave me the biggest lightbulb moment for load balancing ever. i highly appreciate the way you explained it

god bless the new "straight belt" mode

I had been doing load balancing intuitively since starting this game and it can get so complicated and had never even considered the manifold approach. It seems like I could create so much cleaner setups with it. Definitely going to start using it, glad I found this.

5:38 : "And then everything will be running smoothly." In the background, the setup screeches to a halt at this precise moment.

you can also use different belt speeds at your splitters to help load balance your manifold system to make them start up faster

I've always referred to these as "serial" and "parallel". Works kind of like an electrical circuit. Serial mode (like a bunch of resistors in series) requires higher "voltage" (belt speed) to carry current to the end of the line. Just another way to think about it. Good video!

great video man. i hadnt even considered manifold loading before but this was a great explanation of the two methods. the way you showed 5 way load balancing was really helpful too

I'm just going to point out that there's a third option here - A Hybrid of the two. For example: Suppose you're feeding an array of coal generators via a mk4 belt. 480 coal per minute / 15 = 32 generators. You *could* do a manifold and wait for it to stabilize. You *could* do a big complicated 1 to 32 balancer. You could also do a simple 1 to 8 balancer and feed 4 generators off of each of the 8 lines. The pro's and con's should be fairly obvious but just in case: This sort of thinking will let your array stabilize much faster than a straight manifold while still being way easier and more compact to build than a 1 to 32 balancer.

Hey, a slight error at 1:18. The last 2 belts in manifold each output the same amount, in this case both 1/16. Otherwise you would have 1/32 of the items phasing out of reality as 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 = 31/32 Great video for beginners though

For a coal power plant or something similar, I like to use a "smart manifold". I use smart splitters to fill up the first, or first few, power plant(s) completely before allowing the coal to overflow to the next few machines. This makes a nice smooth ramp up in my power graph and prevents sputtering of the last few machines that are fed inadequately by the other two methods.

During the building process of a manifold I try to get resources moving early and each machine powered on accepting resources as soon as I can - this helps fill up the machines as I go creating the backup of resources that we want - it's also bizzarely helpful to make mistakes and end up with a surplus of items in your inventory to top up machines, which is helpful since I tend to make a lot of little mistakes

I usually don't have too many issues with the manifold. I'll typically use an MK4 belt to feed the splitters and I'll use an mk1 belt to feed the machines. The rate at which the MK1 belts pulls the items off the MK4 belt can not keep up with the rate at which the MK4 belts moves the materials. I typically do the same on the outputs except I may use an MK2 or MK3 belt feeding into an MK4 belt on the merger side. The builds are typically much easier and cleaner looking and faster to set up. There are some cases where using the balancing method is the better option but more cases than not, the manifold is just fine. Also with early stage productions such as smelting and or construction of basic materials or parts, I'll usually add a storage buffer both before and after each stage of the production line. This helps to minimize shortages when starting to build more complex pieces that involves assemblers and manufacturers. There will typically be an ample supply of materials that are ready to be used instead of having to wait for the production lines to catch up. It does help to reduce bottlenecks.

good video :) Another good thing to keep in mind is combining this logic with the intentional use if lower grade belts (closer to the input rate) to lessen the time it takes to flow throughout the system. you can even use the difference (aka spare capacity) of these belts, split them off and rejoin them in order to expand production while remaining efficient..

I was struggling with understanding load balancing outside of 2's and 3's but this makes it sound super simple

I usually build factories from resource node to end product, planning the numbers beforehand, but building 1 layer at a time, this way, by the time I get to the end, every line will be long saturated. In my first game I mostly did load balancing, but I progressively switched over entirely to manifold method for scalability and upgradability. But with you mentioning nuclear waste I realise that it was probably this, why I kept having problems with waste buildup in my first nuclear power plant. Next time I make one I think I'll load balance them and make every particle accelerator and mixer a little overclocked to ensure no waste pile-up. Yeah. Putting both the mixer and accelerator on the same line was too sloppy in the end.

It’s important to note that just about everything in satisfactory can be automated without any decrease in efficiency, meaning you can perfectly sync resources in a way that always keeps the first link in a production chain running achieving perfect equilibrium between every link in the production line.

when your belts are not moving enough materials for the machines: on a manifold system; the last machines will consistently starve for materials, while on a balanced system, they will all get materials but at a slower rate. If the starvation is really bad on a manifold system the last machines will almost never run. This of course applies to both but it's far more pronounced on a manifold. This might sound obvious which is why it's good to know this function for any reason you might be intentionally running a lower through-put, such as a production line up-grade but you've not expanded your input line yet, or if your just winging it and slapping down machines and hoping it works lol. For when you are moving enough materials: you can get around the slow startup of a manifold by pre-filling the machines...if you have the materials of course. Thank you for the video.

I used to use load balancing when I can, but when I need 11.456 heat sinks to go into 7 assemblers manifolds just make it so much easier

You balancing method is better then my method. I normally just create a complex chain of splitters and mergers that produce the same result but costs more time resources and space thanks for the help

That trick with balancing awkward numbers is so obvious in hindsight. And a balancer can be a way cooler factory feature if designed nicely, far more satisfying symmetry and consistent insertions.

I didn't know about the manifold system. The more compact nature gives me a lot of ideas.

You can jumpstart your manifold by powering your factory as you build it from the bottom up, thereby ensuring the base machines have full components before the next layer of machines are finished. If you're too quick a builder and it hasn't caught up yet, you can also add stuff from your inventory into the inputs/outputs to help reach peak efficiency quicker.

I somehow already learned this, but boy, this was a great video. I would really like to see more tutorials like this. I’m good enough at this game to get through the basics. But the intermediate stuff really slows me down. I just built my first fully automated modular frame assembly line. It was a monster. I had to use external resources to know how to balance the constructors. I really would like to be able to do that sort of thing on my own. But I have no idea how to do the math, even in a spreadsheet, to figure out how many constructors to place at which points, etc. Anyway, enough about that, this was a great video!

A manafold man myself but I'll admit, load balancing is a MUST for train loading buffers. Very helpful 101 video, thanks!

Saw a comment about manifolds on reddit searched up the term found this video left pretty satisfied on what I learned

this was seriously the best way i have ever seen this explained.... it finally clicked.

when doing a Manifold you can use smart splitters to make it so it fills up the first machine before going to the second machine. it's very handy

I usually use the manifold system. But I sometimes apply power to the first set of machine to prime them while I'm building the second set of machines that take the output of the first set of machines. So they're usually filled up already before the second set comes online.

You explain this in a way that is so easy to understand. Thank you!

While Manifold is certainly space efficient. I have a hard time adjusting my thinking/play style off load balancing and I actually find the challenge of designing the system and shaping it with the world's surroundings an additional fun quirk to the design.

For manifold efficiency, use your fastest belt for the core line, then slower belts into each of the machines. If the machine only needs 30 items a minute, you can use a 60 item per minute belt for example. This way the core line will back up much faster.

with a manifold I power each one up after the last one in line is full. I also manually fill each machine sometimes. As long as your input is equal to or slightly higher than consumption you are fine.

I also use manifold most of the time but when you get to aluminum scrap for large setups the load balance makes life easier because the mk 5 belts cant handle the amount of items on them , this is when i start load balancing my lines , great video and info keep up the good work with this great game 👍

Both systems work reliably for almost every situation in my experience. I almost exclusively set up everything with a manifold. Be it 2 machines or 20. Manifold takes more time to equalize, balancing uses more real estate and brain power. I would say that it comes down to preference and how organized/complex you want your factory to look really.

It's funny how all this information was out there, and these methods were what I just figured out through brute force of playing before realising they existed on the wiki 🤦‍♂ Very good and clean guide though, I think you captured each perfectly! For me personally, I always use the belt balancing system for coal power, and always use the manifold (with oil pipes) for fuel generators. When it comes to production of items I usually get my available input in ingots, then use my big manual ingot:item ratio list to find out how many of the item I want that I can make, then will use balancers in that situation to get that amount. The great thing about this is that the efficiency is fantastic. The bad thing about this is that it's not expandable, so if you ever want to start producing more you need to either redo your system, or essentially get enough input to "double" your system capacity, which is very expensive in both resources and space. Based on this, I think for me the best system to use is balancers when you know you are using your full capacity and don't expect to need to expand for a while e.g. I use a bunch of balancer systems for my Iron Ingot -> Heavy Modular Frame plant. However if you know you want to constantly be expanding a certain production (for example Fuel Generators, or say you have a factory that exclusively produces Screws to be shipped around) then the manifold is the best bet. Chances are in this situation you have no reason to get up and running instantly and are alright to let it run a bit before full efficiency. However it also makes it super easy to expand, so for example Screws are needed in massive quantities for a ton of different items, and so it's a good candidate for regular expansion. Using the manifold here means all you need to do is add on the extra constructors and input as necessary, and also lets you overclock at will since efficiency isn't so much of an issue as long as you know you have "enough" being output.

Manifolds for collection, Balancing almost everywhere else. I love seeing my efficiency at 100% on a machine after I build it. Its more satisfying then waiting hours, or possibly never if the feed line can't over produce for the next tier.

I had been doing load balancers to try to maintain efficiency from start-up, not realizing that manifold eventually balance out. I recently starting converting most of my basic production to manifolds, and I gotta say that opens up so much more space in my factories.

Yours cadence and the topic of efficiency was like a episode of How its Made and it is perfection for my inner child. With your first option you could split from the first splitter and merge back in further down the line to boost those later constructors (rather than feeding from a storage container).

Manifolds save a lot more space, which is very important when making blueprints. You can get most of the benefit of load balancing by using a single load balancing splitter, and manifolding the rest. Once your machines are backed up with resources and your belts are full, they will operate similarly to load balancing setups. If the last machine ends up not getting enough resources, I believe that would be a symptom of not having enough flow rate of resources for the entire setup, rather a load balancing issue.

the day i found out about the 5/1 splitter system, this game became a million times more fun for me and the reason i tend to prefer load balancing.

I like to have the manifold input in the middle. Helps reduce the logarithmic fallout. Oh.. You covered it as I was typing. Manifold injection.

I often use the load balancing for nearly everything. math is pretty easy for them plus I like the consistency but the couple of times I have done the manifold method I have been pained by having to wait for the long start up which when combined to making modular factories. I want that thing working before I leave because if there is any issue I could have an important process I though I had up and running then I come back to it like an hour or two later to find out I had forgotten to have the recipes set on a couple of machines making it work at only partial efficiency. (I almost always load balance for any power solution because I like a reliable power grid that will never hiccup like I have had some in the past do.) On that note: I believe super factories would benefit by the manifold system best while modular factories would benefit more from balancing overall due to the need of making the most out of your space on the super factories. The easy expansion of the manifold works better for the super factories while with modular factories you want to know it is working and at that efficiently before you leave it so the balanced method may be favorable. I would really be curious if speed runners would have a category created for tutorial-stage 4 of the space elevator. (Yes, they would be long speed runs but it really interests me to see how optimized they could get and one of the biggest things would be the manifold versus balanced conveyors, heck at some point I may be the first submission into such a category just because that is how interested with wanting to see others optimize the process. The most fun part would be to compare their runs to what I predict it would look like from thought experiments.)

I knew how to use both methods but I didn't know taht loan blanacing would be balacend using loop. Now I know, thank you.

The only advantage of balancing vs using a manifold is that the production can start at 100% speed immediately. For a manifold system (especially if you do not optimize belt speeds) you have to wait for the whole production setup to reach 100% speed, at which point it operates exactly the same as if you perfectly balanced the belts. That's it, I wouldn't even call it an advantage personally since it doesn't really give you anything in a long run. Meanwhile manifold is easier to build, takes up less space and is SIGNIFICANTLY easier to scale up. Outside of some niche applications with particular recipes that you want to ensure perfect rations for, manifold is THE way to go.

Thank you for explaining the load balancing method since I wasn't completely clear on how it worked.

For the balancing technique To simplify if it is not divisible by 2 or 3... Under clock all the machines in order to get 1 or 2 extra machine Cost a few extra ressources and machines ( which will get cheap as time goes on ) And saves you a major headache .. which is always welcome in satisfactory

I've been using Manifold mostly, but load balancing where convenient. The difference in how I used it was that I didn't build a belt of higher tier unless I needed it. Let me explain. Let's take a case of Manifold method. The input belt is a tier 4 at 480/min speed. But a singular machine needs only a fraction of that, it can be handled by a tier 1 belt! And so, if you use a tier 1 belt, aside from saving a miniscule amount of resources, you also change the ratio of resources machines get from the beginning. First machine will start filling up its buffer at 60 items per minute, and the rest (420/min) goes to the next splitter in the manifold. And so, that goes up to 8 machines. But that's just the half of my approach, the second part (which might've actually caused more imbalance, still pondering on that) is changing the belt tier as you go down the manifold. Let's say that a machine consumes the item at a rate of 15/min. Then, the belt that goes to the fourth from the end splitter will only need to be tier 1, as the max these machines can take combined is 60/min. But, that can make the manifold's weakness even worse - the last machines may be starving of resources for a small amount of time. I think I've faced this in my compacted coal power generation facility, where the last 3 or so generators had a little fuel starvation problem. I've changed the belts that go from splitter to splitter to tier 3 and haven't noticed the problem since. I have a steady supply of a full tier 3 belt of compacted coal, so it definitely wasn't lack of actual supply. This information mostly applies to a case where the supply meets demand exactly, and you engineered your setup to go at max throughput. There are uses for manifolds and there are uses for load balancing. Good luck, have fun!

Im now 100 hours into sastifactory and i honestly never knew manifolds existed , but im gonna try them out and hopefully my brain doesnt melt

I have been doing manifolds for a very long time, I tend to be a bit more interested in a clean setup then absolute efficiency. You can add a little bit more efficiency to the manifold by feeding your input into the center splitter in the lineup.

Manifold method with smart splitters is the best of both worlds. It starts up relatively quickly and is infinitely more scalable. Imagine having to tear down and rebuild all your production lines whenever you upgrade conveyer belts. With malifold you just add more machines.

The ramp-up time for the factory to start up is a feature. You don't instantly hit your power grid with the full load.

Ah, an age-old question with a simple answer. I hadn't thought of it that way, but I'll make sure to remember! Thanks!

I set up manifolds for my coal power and didn't even realize it. My buddy didn't think it would work, but I told him to just turn it on and come back later. All 6 in 1 line stayed full. Even explained the math to how I knew we could over clock each one without running out of materials. Fun stuff. Still haven't built a proper factory yet though.

I like load balancing because it means the way my factory is built matches the shape of the flow chart in my head which makes it easier to keep track of

Really no major downside to manifold method if you simply don't connect the machine output until they are all fully capped on both raw material and end product. Secondly the best way to deal with load balance is the Modular Load Balancer mod. At least until they add a function to programmable splitters to set desired item/min in vanilla.

Copy-paste from my response to someone else (re: how I've always done load-balancing and never even considered manifold): The first time I saw the production rates vs conveyor rates (both back in update 4, and just recently when 1.0 dropped), I just instinctively started running the math to equalize all the belts and match the mining/construction buildings. Just splitting everything off of the same production belt never even occurred to me. Since I don't mind waiting, wanted an excuse to just upgrade all my conveyors and never look back, and favor simplicity and compactness over the dopamine rush of watching every belt run smoothly 24/7, I think I'll start incorporating manifold. Then basically the only rates I'll care about are total materials extracted/produced. Granted, that will only work with materials that _can_ be backed-up without issue (and not things with fluid byproducts or, like you said, uranium), but it will still make things so much easier to plan out!

I just learned how manifolds work, thanks.

Manifold is good for high throughput / low stack size factories. It doesn't matter if it takes a few minutes to start up. It's when you get to the end game and you have very low throughput, complex factories that load balancing becomes essential. Otherwise, most of your machines won't be running for a LONG time.

Something to help mitigate the slow start up of a manifold system is to hook up power while your still building, let your smelters build up while your building constructors, let your constructors fill up while building assemblers and etc.

I always knew the Manifold method as the Overflow Method and is the only way I set up my factories. With Lane mathatics and utilizing belts of different speeds, you can fill your line of machines to the max.

The manifold method is good for designing _very_ compact smelting foundries and constructor factories that you can plop down with one click of your mouse, hook it to the grid, connect the input/output belts, and be done with it. Take the dimensions of the Smelter and Constructor, for example. In the blueprint designer you can lay a 4x4 foundation, then upon that foundation you can squeeze in a two-story microfactory with any combination of SIXTEEN smelters and/or Constructors with all of the necessary belts, splitters, lifters, and power poles with virtually no clipping save a for a few yellow splitters on the output side of the buildings. And the best part? The blueprint preprograms the buildings to the input resource, output resource, and clock speed they were set at when you saved the blueprint. Want an iron foundry with an i/o rate equal to a mk 4 belt? Sixteen smelters at default clock speed. Did you unlock mk 5 belts? Upload the existing blueprint, add some power shards, upgrade the i/o belts, and reconstruct your new blueprint over the old one. Don't want to use shards? Just upgrade the belts on the existing module and drop a new foundry on top of the first one, hooking the input belts via a lift. Manifolds are great for easily building upwards, and the tutorial straight up tells you to prioritize building UP and not OUT. Wait, you wanted a copper foundry? Just load your iron foundry into the blueprint designer, set all the smelters to copper, and save the new arrangement. Boom, you now have a 480/min copper foundry, all within a tidy 4x4 footprint. With this design philosophy you only have to build a specific input/output factory once, on the blueprint platform; the rest is just fiddling with belts, clocking, and chaining. Does it take time to fill up? Yes, but you are plopping down a compact microfactory with a _tiny_ footprint and connecting it to the supply chain in less than twenty seconds. I know this can be done with balancers, but feeding an entire supply chain a with a single input belt and cramming it with splitters and buildings is so much more space efficient. Multi-input buildings fare better with balancing, but I'm an insufferable contrarian and have vowed to manifold *everything*. I will not rest until my entire factory runs purely on sushi belts.

Ah, load balancing, some of my favorite servers . . . oh wait, we're talking about the game. Good stuff.

When I first started playing Satisfactory, I used the load balancing method, because I didn't even know about the manifold method. It didn't even occur to me that you could use splitters and mergers any other way until I saw someone build a manifold on RU-vid. I understood immediately what I was seeing and had a "Duh, I'm an idiot!" moment.

As someone who loves math, i see load balancing as an absolute win

late to the party here, but the main downside to manifold is eliminated by setting up your first-phase production before setting up the rest of the factory. your factory won't produce anything until it's finished anyway, so letting the first-phase production fill up their buffer inventory as everything else is being built ENTIRELY does away with the slow startup speeds. even if you don't do that, using your fastest tier of belts between splitters (and only the speed needed as the input into your machines) solves the problem. a low-speed belt can only hold a fraction of what a high-speed belt can, so the drawback of slow-startup is mitigated. this solution is probably the one that requires the least change in playstyle, so personally, i think it's the best option. to add to that, you should really only use load balancers on raw item input and output. as in... ores onto belts, ores into ingots, ingots into belts, and ingots into factory input. only balance your load where the load needs to be balanced. think of a belt splitter more like factorio's inserter rather than its splitter. yes, it does still perform the function of a factorio splitter, but you aren't placing splitters EVERYWHERE in factorio.

I also like to use a manifold for a long line, but insert midway instead of at one end. That would be a hybrid where the injection method supplies left and right

I think that the manifold is better, it occupies less space and if you have stable productions and a regular amount of material arrives it is better, you just have to balance the line with different types of conveyor belts for balance, before starting production they have to be full It is more difficult to achieve this in productions that depend on gas or liquids, but for me it is a better system.

I like to use Load Balancing whenever it is possible. And not only for Inputs, but also for Material Outputs. It can save Building Material because you need less Splitters or Merger. For Example: If i want to feed 6 Machines in a efficient Way, i only need 3 Splitters. One to Split the Incoming Main Belt into two and the other two to Split these into 2x 3 Belts. I don't know if I'm right about that, but I think, each splitter and merger that you place on the map must and will probably be calculated individually. The fewer of them I place, the longer Satisfactory stays smooth. So I always try to place the amount of splitters and mergers as low as possible. For 6 melting furnaces with a manifold I would have to place 6 splitters at the entrance and 6 mergers at the exit. Here I prefer to choose load balancing, placing only 3 splitters at the input and 3 mergers at the output. As your own factory grows, the difference will certainly be felt over time.

If you can wait to start your production, you can create a manifold, connect all your machines to 1 unpowered line, then when it backs up, power them all. This way you aren't pulling from the resources required to back up the belts, and the machines won't be able to store material indefinitely

Worth to note that load balancers with loopbacks don't work right on full and near full incoming belt since create a choke point where additional resources merge back. As for example, you have 1 to 5 and 780 belt filled to 700 (140 into 5 directions). This won't work right because 1/6 will follow back and choke incoming flow since reach belt speed limit, back up and cause uneven split. At this point may as well use a manifold. Furthermore, final speed of a loopback is actually higher than 1/6 of the incoming flow since flow is now faster due to loopback.

for a greater and very considerable issue with balancers is that they are limited by the through put of the belt your using where as with manifolds you can easily feed a group of machines using more than the belts through put with one belt.

This works for the endgame pretty well, when you've already unlocked belts that are so fast/have so much throughput that it's no big deal to use a manifold, but in the early game you're often limited by belt throughput. Using a loop-back in your balancer also hits this issue in the spot between the loop-back merger and the first splitter. If you're belt limited, this whole thing is a problem. A multi-input, multi-output load balancer can get around this limitation, if you're clever about it. tl;dr: The loop-back you showed here and the manifold shown here can have an overload issue with early belts.

Another way to make manifolds easier is "system flooding." By having the lines running before the machines are even turned on and also manually inputting the resources into the machine to get the system started up the manifold should run flawlessly as the belts catch up with you manual loading.

Hybrid systems are also viable. Especially when dealing with high-ratio production like steel screws. When the 260 screws leave the constructor, it is better to balance them into the next stage (e.g. reinforced iron plates) because using manifold for the output of 20 steel screw constructors will require a ridiculous amount of mk5 belts

Great Video! For me the only way is Manifolds because I build my factories in steps for example: Iron Ore to Ingots then to screws and so on and while I am building the screw Part the Ingots can already fill up. At the end I just wait until every last machine is full and then connect to a storage or Train Station

I use smart manifolds for all my setups. I also overload on machines so I will have more consumption than input available. the smart manifold makes sure only 1 machine is in that half on half off state. everything else will be running 100% or 0% and I can see which easy by looking at the lights on top. (as long as all the material is being used or consumed on the output)

i used manifold because it looked aesthetically pleasing. I realized it's flaws as I saw how materials would need to wait but didn't know what load balancing was.

Watching this now that 1.0 has Straight snapping for conveyors really emphasises how much time the snapping saves.

Manifold mostly. But given the slowness of early game belt speed. I use the reverse of injection. Rather than trying to speed up the end, I speed up output, by adding an extra splitter in between the third and fourth splitter. This is then fed to the injection system further down the line, where delivered its seem to take forever to reach. You can tell when this is needed. The factories will be filling up with the item being made, and the items are backing up along the belts. As a bonus of doing it this way, you can easily remove these extra splitters and belts, when you get faster belts. This will make the entire thing more pleasing to the eye!

Manifolds are nice because of their compact and expandable layout. I remember when I first started playing Satisfactory a few years back (well before vertical belts were added) I naturally gravitated towards Balancing Belts because I never heard of a manifold, but when I did some reading I fell in love with it. Balance Loading is still good in the early game when you don't have a lot of material to process, but once the production goes up I had to start using space my efficiently because Balance Loading for larger amounts requires more space for the belts.

If i need to split into 5, i build 6 machines and reduce the clockspeed to 0.83, works always without any problems.

if we could "underclock" belts, so that say - a belt only moved 30 or 15 items per minute, this would be so much easier. the blockage would balance itself.

There are two options for this: Perfect Manifold, we need splitters with system that determines how much IPM for a certain side. Working like valve, this'll evenly split the manifolds like perfect split or load balancing. Second option is to get the mod "Buildable Resouece Nodes" and feed all machines with their own resource node.

I use manifold by building the machines first, then manifold and then i set up the energy so when i finish it all the machines have a lot of material in the belts to start with a kick in case i need materials right away After than i dont really need it to be working 100% for a while

For the manifold, use the fastest belt as the main one and the slowest belt possible for the factories. This greatly speeds up the launch.

load balancing is sometimes required in the early game where the material you need to move to be most efficient is significantly higher than the speed of your belts. You could have a manifold, but you'll essentially be wasting sometime 50% of your ore. Also I default to load balancing because it's more challenging and makes every factory its own unique web of spaghetti

My D&D Brain imagined balancing as if you're trying to roll a five-sided dice, but you only have a D6. you just roll your D6, and if the result is a 6, you reroll. That will always result in an even spread of 1 through 5.

I feel like next tips should be Factory set up, mini or standard versus mega where all the materials are pulled in

My manifold cubes stack both horizontal and vertical - i refeed everything through the front, so connection is as easy as linking the front wall ports down to the bottom

I like to use industrial containers to balance things. Put the containers into 2 rows. The first row is for inputs. The output of each container in the first row should go to the bottom input of the 2nd row. The top row of the 2nd row should form a circle. I.e. The top output of the first container connects to the top input of the second container, just continue adding containers for as many outputs as you need and make sure the last containers output in row 2 connects to the input of the first container in row 2. What will happen from there is that parts will always be in motion on the top track of the 2nd row auto balancing materials in the entire row so the outputs of the 2nd row can go directly to something else. Basically 2 tier klaus architecture for satisfactory.

3:20 the belt struggle is real 😂 Thankfully we now have Auto 90 degree angles

For most setups Manifold is sufficient for my purposes, but in power plants I will only accept balanced inputs because usually I need that power yesterday

Where applicable, I use manifolds with different speeds of belts. If the destination inputs are

Slight correction on the Manifold at 1:20, the last two belts in the manifold will always receive the same throughput as each other. So in this example, the furthest two belts are both receiving 1/16 of the total throughput. Once you get to the last splitter, all that remains is simply being split in half - so they are getting equal amounts. If you want to think about it mathematically, the fractions at 1:20 don't add up to 1. 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 = 0.96875 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/16 = 4/8 + 2/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 = 1 Of course, this all matters very little on any sufficiently large manifold :)

Being a Factorio player myself I've never thought of manifolds haha ^^". I alredy have an idea of where one can be useful in my current factory.

In the early game, I naturally jump to load balancing, because it’s more expected. But as soon as you start needing 1/3rd of a say constructor, that gets thrown out of the window lmao

manifolds can be balanced a little bit better if you input into the middle of the manifold and split out to two different manifold sections. won't be a big deal for 3-5 machines, but for large numbers it will be helpful.

My defense for manifold is that you rarely have the next section ready for input while the manifold is still balancing