Factorio: A game all about automation

[FlowerChild]

Especially BlueBottles are HARD.

I just finished automating those, and yeah, was quite interesting.

I've yet to explore the logistics system, but it begins to open up around that point in the tree and I suspect it's intended to untangle some of the spaghetti. My limited understanding is that it allows you to use flying robots to move stuff around your base.

[TheYaMeZ]

Oh wow man. Just when I was beginning to feel like I knew what I was doing with this game, I started processing oil and my head just exploded. I feel like a total noob once again.

I had a nice base design going which I likened to a circuit board. Well organized, central "bus" piping various resources down a nice wide corridor of conveyors to distribute them to various modular processing plants which I could easily expand upon as needed. Was quite proud of it.

Now I suddenly have a tangle of pipes pumping fluids all over the place in a highly disorganized fashion as I muddle my way through processing oil into various resources. Too cool :)

Oh my, I went through exactly the same thing when they first released the oil industry. I remember just laying out the buildings i'd need one by one to piece together what i'd need to do to actually start making the products. I looked at the mess I made and wondered how the hell i'd ever make something neat out of it. I've played quite a bit since but I've never gotten to the point where i'm happy with my oil industry and everytime I try to think of a way to streamline it I have an aneurysm and stop playing for a little while.

[FlowerChild]

Zoomed out on my base, and thought it looked pretty cool, so thought I'd share :)

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I think I may be screwed though. I can't figure a way off my island, and without any aliens on it, I can't collect artifacts and thus can't proceed in tech beyond a certain point :\

[devak]

Zoomed out on my base, and thought it looked pretty cool, so thought I'd share :)

I think I may be screwed though. I can't figure a way off my island, and without any aliens on it, I can't collect artifacts and thus can't proceed in tech beyond a certain point :\

Holy cow, that's cool.

(and yes, you are. There's no way off an island other than world-editing)

[murillokb]

First i gotta say I've put a couple hundred hours into this game and I'm struggling not to spoil anything so i'll just keep quiet and leave a "haha... Noob" here hehe

@FlowerChild sadly you've run into one of the major issues with world gen. On the forums they say you just need to recreate the map but sometimes you play for hours before noticing you're traped in an isle. So the only way is map edit or you just start a new game. Have you never been attacked? Because if the bitters can get in, you van get out :)

[FlowerChild]

@FlowerChild sadly you've run into one of the major issues with world gen. On the forums they say you just need to recreate the map but sometimes you play for hours before noticing you're traped in an isle. So the only way is map edit or you just start a new game. Have you never been attacked? Because if the bitters can get in, you van get out :)

Gah. Super annoying. I realized I was on an island early in the game, but since there was a tech node with a nice little airplane on it, I figured that was cool :P

And no, I've never been attacked. Guess this will give me a chance to apply what I've learned to a new game :)

[whitechaos35]

Oh man. My first game was similar. Six hours into the game I had still never been attacked. The next game, I reached a point where I saved the game, then the aliens attacked, and they destroyed me every time. I couldn't figure out a way to survive, so I made another game. Needless to say, a few games in I realized that you HAVE to build walls, turrets, and automate bullet production EARYLY.

[FlowerChild]

Damn, looks like I got it way easy then. Will definitely have to start a new world to get the full experience :)

[Gormador]

Damn, looks like I got it way easy then. Will definitely have to start a new world to get the full experience :)

Oh yeah, that's for sure. You might even want to tweak some of the world gen options, as by default I find that enemy base are very scarce. The direct consequence being that I really didn't felt threatened, despite having a full-fledged defence system, before quite some time playing the game. Like more than 10 hours into it. And really, the alien have yet to pierce a hole in my defences even though their attacks have finally picked up in pace.

[Gears]

After playing the demo for about an hour, I've got to say this game is pretty tight. At 13 dollars for the game, it's way too good of a deal for me to pass up.

I'm a big fan of technological development in games, and this one definitely provides in that regard. This game definitely falls under the balanced progression from chopping trees to running a major refinery, and I can't wait to see what more I'll be able to make as I progress onward.

[devak]

as an indication:

Aliens will roughly attack when closer than 1.5 radar dish distances. This means that if aliens are far enough, you probably won't be bothered. This also means that when polluting the aliens may grow a LOT stronger than you anticipate and your countermeasures are inadequate.

(note: this is purely observational!)

so, occasionally get out there and check the alien strength.

[whitechaos35]

Agreed devak. I noticed, then confirmed on the wiki, that the aliens get significantly stronger when you kill one of the spawners. I thought that I would save myself some trouble and set up some turrets at a spawner near my base. I took them out, but about an hour later all of the other spawners near me were making so many stronger aliens that I was overwhelmed.

[Sarudak]

So I bought the game and I have to say the demo I played really did not do the game justice. The interface is significantly better and the tech tree makes things far more interesting than the bit of the campaign I got to play.

[murillokb]

As far as I know the spawners cosume pollution and spawn attackers. So the more your pollution spreads more spawners are going to send biters towards you. Also spawners can be spawned out of nowhere (i don't know what causes it) so you may need to scout the area now and then.

I've read somewhere that trees reduce pollution but i can't confirm it. Wind directions is also supposed to affect pollution but i can't confirm that too.

My strategy for managing pollution is:

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I use efficiency modules. They reduce pollution and energy usage up to 80%. So you can also turn off your steam engines and power everything with solar panels and accumulators :)

Spoiler jut because some people like to figure things out by themselves

[Sarudak]

When are you supposed to get attacked? Because I feel like I've gotten really far in the game without facing any hostility for a game that starts you off with a weapon. I mean I scouted and found some spawners but they haven't attacked me and there's enough resources available away from them (at least 100k of each resource I would say) that I won't have any reason to aggravate them for some time.

[FlowerChild]

As far as I know the spawners cosume pollution and spawn attackers. So the more your pollution spreads more spawners are going to send biters towards you. Also spawners can be spawned out of nowhere (i don't know what causes it) so you may need to scout the area now and then.

I've read somewhere that trees reduce pollution but i can't confirm it. Wind directions is also supposed to affect pollution but i can't confirm that too.

Yeah, after playing through the non-demo campaign, with the various narrative bits that are thrown in during it, the above is my impression as well.

With regards to the wind direction, I *think* that's the case as well. I noticed early on that smoke from your industry shifts around with time and there seems to be a correlation between that and the direction attacks seem to mostly originate from. I also can't really see a reason to code up shifting wind direction unless it has that kind of effect.

Anyways, it all struck me as a rather nifty self-balancing mechanism. The more rapidly you expand (which I would think tends to indicate a more experienced player), the more pollution you generate, which increases the alien problem. It also provides motivation towards cleaner but perhaps less efficient technology like electric furnaces and solar panels to reduce your environmental footprint.

It also occurred to me that what was described in a previous post about automating ammo production as early as possible and fortifying your base with turrets might create a bit of a downward spiral. More industry means more pollution, which means more alien attacks, which expends ammo, which causes more pollution to be created when it is replenished, which causes more attacks, etc. etc.

So I'm wondering if the number of attacks there might have actually been partially due to the attempts to defend against them :)

Anyways, I find it very interesting overall that there seems to be a mechanism in place to discourage overproduction and encourage a certain amount of efficiency.

On trees consuming pollution: I hadn't even thought of that, but it totally makes sense, and would be a very cool strategic consideration if that were the case and thus building upwind of a forest was an additional consideration in base building as a result. Would also cause me to alter my strategy of clear-cutting in the early game to fuel my base :)

[FlowerChild]

When are you supposed to get attacked? Because I feel like I've gotten really far in the game without facing any hostility for a game that starts you off with a weapon. I mean I scouted and found some spawners but they haven't attacked me and there's enough resources available away from them (at least 100k of each resource I would say) that I won't have any reason to aggravate them for some time.

IMO, the cool part about it is that there is no specific time which you are "supposed" to be attacked. It's very much dependent on your own actions.

I started a new world last night and have automated up to red science bottles so far, and am working on green. So far I've only suffered one small alien attack of maybe 3 small aliens which I was able to easily fend off with a pistol.

[Sarudak]

Oh ok. My automation is very minimal at present as I've been doing a lot of the logistical stuff and crafting by hand. Basically moving the ore from the mines into furnaces automatically is the extent of it. Although I have some assemblers that I supply with goods manually. But I already have the machine gun and shotgun and haven't seen a single alien attack. I kinda wish the stacks and my personal inventory were smaller to push me to automate more earlier.

[FlowerChild]

Although I have some assemblers that I supply with goods manually. But I already have the machine gun and shotgun and haven't seen a single alien attack. I kinda wish the stacks and my personal inventory were smaller to push me to automate more earlier.

You quickly begin to feel the push towards it as you start moving up in tech. Later research is still dependent on the early research items, so one of the first things I tend to feel the drive to automate are red bottles. They take a huge amount of time to produce in the numbers required manually, and basically jam up your personal crafting inventory while that's going on.

[Sarudak]

Yeah that's what I setup my two crafters for. One turns iron into gears and the other makes red bottles. I haven't felt any pressure to move beyond supplying them manually yet though. But I'm only a few hours into it so I'm withholding judgement.

[FlowerChild]

Yeah that's what I setup my two crafters for. One turns iron into gears and the other makes red bottles. I haven't felt any pressure to move beyond supplying them manually yet though. But I'm only a few hours into it so I'm withholding judgement.

You seem to be moving forward very slowly then.

You basically have an early game period where you're operating largely manually and then the rest of the game at increasing levels of industrialization. Personally, if anything I'd like there to be more depth to that early game period and for it to be more involved. For example I find the period between when you are using coal burner mining tech, and then switch over to electrical, to be almost non-existent.

I find at present there's basically just enough low tech research projects to keep your personal crafting occupied while you set up initial automation. You may find yourself bottle necked at a certain point if you've been focusing on just the manual stuff where you're basically going to have some research downtime as you scramble to get everything automated to keep up.

[murillokb]

Oh ok. My automation is very minimal at present as I've been doing a lot of the logistical stuff and crafting by hand. Basically moving the ore from the mines into furnaces automatically is the extent of it. Although I have some assemblers that I supply with goods manually. But I already have the machine gun and shotgun and haven't seen a single alien attack. I kinda wish the stacks and my personal inventory were smaller to push me to automate more earlier.

When i'm not attacked i get paranoid because i don't know where they will come from and i find it hard to notice the blinking "you are being attacked" sign. They can destroy my base and I won't even notice :p

The next update is supposed to add many new sounds to the game, maybe they'll add a alert sound for when you are being attacked. I like the early game paranoia though.

The personal inventory is really big. I watched a minecraft stream today after playing Factorio and the minecraft inventory felt too small. I think the inventory may be big for early game but is just the right size for late game.

[FlowerChild]

When i'm not attacked i get paranoid because i don't know where they will come from and i find it hard to notice the blinking "you are being attacked" sign.

Agreed on this one. It's something I had noted myself.

Sound would help, but I think just moving the icon to a different part of the screen would help this immensely. As it is, it's just a square that looks like all the inventory squares, right next to the inventory, so your eye tends to just pass it over.

If it were say in the top left of the screen or something where you don't normally have GUI elements, it would jump out at you much more.

[devak]

As far as I know the spawners cosume pollution and spawn attackers. So the more your pollution spreads more spawners are going to send biters towards you. Also spawners can be spawned out of nowhere (i don't know what causes it) so you may need to scout the area now and then.

I've read somewhere that trees reduce pollution but i can't confirm it. Wind directions is also supposed to affect pollution but i can't confirm that too.

I haven't been attacked in ages because i was in a place with the enemies quite far away. Then, when expanding, i placed turrets and walls at locations facing the nearest enemy base. Only when expanding did i start to get attacked. To prevent being surprised, note that aliens may have spawned ages ago and did not "evolve". When you murder them, the next wave may not be so forgiving.

The rest in spoilers because it may contain information you may or may not want to find our yourself.

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the debug screen shows a "possible alien expansion" tag that shows where alien bases might spawn next. Having radar coverage seems to prevent spawning out of nowhere.

Murdering aliens doesn't seem to evolve them fast, rather destroying bases does.

Also, laser turrets are VERY powerful and far easier to set up than any ammo system. However, i lost an entire expansion because when i was turret creeping an enemy base, it literally doubled my power requirements and crashed my base power.

[murillokb]

I've reached the "rts" stage of the game on my most recent world. I'm looking foward to know what you guys think about it.

I also noticed that this time I almost never used my guns. I may use them more after i research piercing shells. I don't have near enough alien artifacts to research or armor though.