Episode 8 picks up the freeplay factory where the last one left it, with Electronics still researching, and this time it is streamed live. It is the episode where assembling machines take over: first gears and red science, then copper cable, circuits and inserters, and at last green science. By the end, six labs are waiting on green science for Engine, and the cable line is still short.
Waiting on the filter inserter
Electronics is still running in the research box, and the commentary is waiting for one thing: "I will have a filtered inserter." In the meantime, electric mining drills go down on the iron patch with a new belt below them, and coal backs up into a traffic jam.
When Electronics finishes, the research screen lists the filter inserter, and its recipe needs a Fast inserter. "Why would this tech tree require fast inserter if I don't even have that?" A search through the tree does not turn one up. "I'm still trying to figure out this whole tech tree, it's really confusing." Basket picks Steel processing instead. Chests and inserters go in to catch the surplus that the furnaces cannot keep up with.
The first assemblers
"When I want to make these I have to craft them myself," the commentary says, so the first assembling machine goes up and is set to iron gear wheels. A second one takes copper plates off the belt and gears from the first, and "now this thing is going to produce these science guys." Then a look at Science pack 2: it needs an inserter and a transport belt. "Well, that's crazy." A backup at the belt is fixed with three long handed inserters that move everything over to the far belt.
Cable, circuits, and a mystery
Next comes a line along the belt: one assembler for copper cable, then one for electronic circuits, which drops them right back on the same belt. "I'm learning so much." Then the plan stalls. "Why can't I make inserters from here? I'm confused." The assembler will not take the recipe. A little later the answer arrives: "I saw the assembler one and I just sort of thought that was like the name of it. I didn't realize that was like the type." The panel for Assembling machine 1 reads "Crafts items that require up to 2 ingredients."
So the assemblers go back to what they can do. Three of them make red science into a chest, and more labs go up beside them. Science still goes into the labs by hand: "oh, you can't put it right in there, you have to actually drop it in manually."
Steel and a better assembler
Steel processing finishes, which "gave us steel chests and steel axes." Steel plates will not craft in hand or in an assembler: "oh, interesting, okay, so there's some things you can craft in hand, some things you have to do." Stone is moved off the belt into furnaces for bricks, and one assembler is set to conveyor belts because "I feel like I use conveyor belts more often than I do my gun."
Automation 2 is next, and when it finishes, "in theory, will be able to build an assembler, uh, level 2." Engine starts researching. The new assembler takes the inserter recipe, and more gear assemblers go in when it runs short on gears. A chest near the line becomes a place to dump leftover items from the inventory back into the flow.
Green science, and labs that stop
"This thing is making green science." Then the labs go quiet. "These guys aren't doing squat because I'm researching something that requires green as well." The research screen shows the Engine cost: red and green science packs, 100 of each. Basket adds assemblers until three are making green science, and looks at Lab research speed 1, which "unlocks more efficient researching, that sounds cool. We might do that later."
Where it ends
The last minutes are spent chasing shortages. Copper cable piles up at the far end of the belt while the circuit assembler waits for it, and "there's just way too much stone," so the stone comes off the belt. The commentary plans a better layout next time, maybe three belts with the long arms dropping resources in different spots, and still wants to find the filter inserter. The stream ends over the six labs, with Engine in the research box and its bar barely started.
