When building small space ships in Factorio, energy efficiency becomes important. The question is, should you use an assembler 2 or 3 when making ammo on a small ship where power is a precious commodity?
I used one accumulator to power an assembler making ammo with an input and output inserter, then counted how many magazines were made by each setup.
(See also: Testing Factorio inserter energy efficiency)
When building small space ships in Factorio, energy efficiency becomes important.
I used one accumulator to power each type of inserter, then looked at how many items they moved.
(See also: Testing Factorio assembler energy efficiency)
Here's an overview of my Factorio ship designs which can be built inexpensively.
These ships are designed for use within the first four planets.
| Image | Name | Cost | Furnaces | Thrusters | Width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
The Foam Hand | 7 Launches | 4 | 1 | 16 tiles |
| The Stomach | 8 launches | 5 | 1 | 18 tiles |
The Foam Hand is a 4-furnace, single-thruster, 16-tile-wide Factorio spaceship design. It can be built in 7 launches.
The Stomach is a 5-furnace, single-thruster, 18-tile-wide Factorio spaceship design. It can be built in 8 launches.
The Mini Falcon is a 6-furnace, dual-thruster, 22-tile-wide Factorio spaceship design. It can be built in 9 launches.
The design principle behind the Mini Falcon was to have only a single turret enabled when the ship is parked.
The Tanto is a 10-furnace, single-thruster, 8-tile-wide Factorio spaceship design. It can be built in 13 launches.
Huge thanks to reddit user Symbol_1 for their tweaks!
Unfortunately, its speed needs to be limited. When doing laps between Nauvis and Fulgora, it will lose a forward solar panel about once every four hours when hitting 144km/s in a dense asteroid field.
The Revolver is a 6-furnace, dual-thruster, 16-tile-wide Factorio spaceship design. It can be built in 12 launches.
It uses ammo count to regulate its speed, so it can be cruise between the first four planets indefinitely.
The Space Needle is an 8-furnace, single-thruster, 8-tile-wide Factorio spaceship design. It can be built in 20 launches.
It is an experiment in finding the fastest speed while using only one chemical plant each for fuel and oxidizer, without using any fluid storage tanks, while also being a fully functional cargo ferry (i.e., with on-board ammo generation).