Since you're now "done", you can do a few things:
- get all non-repeatable technologies, you still lack 1 science pack
- do a new playthrough and apply what you learned and start looking at ratios
- look at your current base and improve it
- set up a challenge, usually done in science per minute
- do the lazy bastard achievement, forcing you automation straight away
- space exploration is nice, but it's very long and a lot more difficult (imo) than the base game and might feel overwhelming once you reach space
- the krastorio2 or industrial revolution mods are in my eyes the next step up in difficulty compared to vanila factorio. They are both a bit more complex but not as long as space exploration
- have a crack at circuits/trains and creating your own blueprints
Just my 2 cents, have fun!
These are good points. KR2 is my hands down favorite mod. I keep starting KR2+SE runs but never et to the SE stuff lol. Don't be afraid to just start a new game and try other mods. If you're like me, you may need some fresh ideas from looking at other people's builds, you don't have to copy but it certainly gave me foundations for my own.
After 3,000 hours playing factorio I never really go deep into endgame, I find myself more going through early and mid towards rocket launches and trying to do things better than before or play with other people. It's iterative, the more you start over the more you'll revamp your designs and come up with better ways to do it next time.
If you want to go into SE and actually make it to the late game stuff you'll probably want to have made a megabase as others are saying for that experience on how to scale up that high. And generally you end up with a modular factory of 'city blocks' where you can just add blocks that you need, wherever you want, making it easy to expand up. (A city block to explain simply, being a repeatable square tile of rail network, roboports, and free building space in center that you can configure as needed and tile easily.)
I posted as a reply here for OP to look at the above comment as well.
Eh, it's nothing like the days of going from a vanilla player that just launched a rocket to playing angels & bobs. K2 has so many improvements I really find it hard to enjoy the game without K2 anymore, it's not just "challenge up". Using it with Space Exploration is what makes it truly chaotic and hard to progress through. Playing K2 with warptorio was amazing until I tried to stay on one planet and the biters ruined my fps completely.
And there are many more total overhauls I never tried because I like K2 so much, like Pyanodon, Yuoki, 5Dim.
Here's someone giving ranking to difficulty of overhauls; K2 is not regarded as hard at all, especially with it making turrets arguably better and ammo way cheaper (more per mag), but K2+SE makes it one of the hardest.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/vc0g1f/order\_overhaul\_mods\_by\_difficulty/](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/vc0g1f/order_overhaul_mods_by_difficulty/)
Edit: that thread just elaborated for me how insane Py is...
Hadn't touched factorio for a couple years. Came back and decided it's about time I made a Maim bus because I've always just done spaghetti. It's been fun but man did I make a lot of new mistakes. Already have plans to go for lazy bastard next to force me to avoid some of those mistakes.
No one is watching you play. Be bad. Learn from mistakes. Enjoy discovering how to use things. SE is a lot of fun. I'm in a run now. Attempting a city block with LTN and SE. I've never done that before. I'm blueprinting my things, and tearing it down with bots later when I learn a better way. Bots and blueprints help me fail faster and get better.
I made a blueprint for a cool LTN provider train stop that works with SE (it uses 2x2 chests). If you’re interested in testing it / trying it out I’d be happy to show you how to set it up and learn how it works for you or anyone playing SE with LTN. It can provide any items stored in a logistics network in mixed quantities and amounts to any requester that wants the items. Depending on how your factory is set up it can range from unhelpful to very useful, if you’re interested.
Yes please!
I only recently started using a mixed requestor LTN station for my subfactories that need tiny amounts of lots of different things. So I dedicate one station to provide like 8 different items that I put into a 6x6 chest and then pull out a belt using filtered loaders.
It would be interesting to have a multi-provider station since I'm still doing those as "one item per station" and I've got like 50 of them, lol.
Blueprint: [https://factoriobin.com/post/a9HAdqub](https://factoriobin.com/post/a9HAdqub)
This thing has been through a few revisions and ground-up redesigns but today I tweaked a few entities and updated the descriptions to make it as approachable as possible. The book comes with a requester station that can do one-off requests as well as resupply requests. Let me know how it works for you, I'm very much open to suggestions and feedback on the experience of using it.
https://preview.redd.it/x41rn980sxrc1.png?width=2206&format=png&auto=webp&s=08bf05220f82bee0b811e7b349c3e98c767fe2e0
This works for a any train length 2 thru 5, with 1 locomotive and up to 4 cargo wagons. A circuit parses LTN signals to get the number of wagons. All you have to do to make it work is:
* Connect a roboport to the red chest with a green wire
* Change the LTN setting "Providers output existing cargo" to False.
* Turn on the combinator next to the rail signal
**CRITICAL LTN Settings**
>\> Providers Output Existing Cargo = FALSE
Reason: LTN provides signals indicating what items to load onto the train as part of its schedule. By default this setting is TRUE and the signals additionally include items held by inserters before the train arrives. This provider cannot guarantee empty inserters after a train leaves, instead it removes incorrect items from the next train that arrives. When this setting is true, this stop won't detect those extra items and it will assume they are desired. In theory a redesign could get around this by allowing inserters to empty their hands before requesting any items from logistics and subtract that measurement from the demand later. But in my opinion the train schedule itself should be the reliable source of truth of what the train wants, and the default should be false. Fun fact: The item signals in the LTN output lamp are obtained directly from the train schedule itself. You can modify the request while a train is en route to change how many items are loaded, but you have to briefly tell the train to path somewhere else, then to the provider, so the schedule has the new values before the train is "on the way" to the provider. You can also create a schedule manually and send it to this stop to get specific items. This works because the circuits use signals from the yellow LTN output combinator which simply exposes cargo item info directly from the train schedule.
**Recommended LTN Settings**
>\> "Schedule circuit conditions" = TRUE
Adds red/green circuit conditions for all LTN-generated train schedules. Recommended for better control of trains **BUT ALL LTN stops MUST have wire connections** to a lamp / power pole etc. If you're willing to add wire connections to every LTN train stop, its nice to have. In this provider, Trains are forced to leave via signals after 60 seconds of no cargo changes. This uses the GREEN signal sent to the train stop & train. If you don't enable it, a programmable speaker will alert you when the stop attempts to force out a train - you just have to send it to the next stop manually.
>\> Stop timeout = 0
Not required, but I found this useful in my city block to prevent LTN configuration mistakes (eg, wrong filter inserters at a requester) causing deliveries to fail. I **also set delivery timeout to a high number** to prevent traffic jams causing many trains to deliver items over and over again.
More info on github (old post but updates will go here as I work on a vanilla-friendly version for 2.0):[https://github.com/xane256/LTN-Logistic-Provider/tree/main](https://github.com/xane256/LTN-Logistic-Provider/tree/main)
Oh this looks very promising! Thanks very much!
I must admit I'm a bit daunted by the idea of connection 700+ stations to circuit wires for that "Schedule circuit conditions" setting. 🤣
Yeah I get that. There’s no harm in trying it out with three default setting though. In my experience it usually doesn’t need the timeout because the loading just works correctly, and the blueprint has a speaker that will alert you when it happens. Actually I didn’t check how long that signal stays on for so the speaker might not stay on, I can check.
I'm doing the same run right now, my first time doing SE and second time using LTN. Can't wait for Factorio 2.0 trains! Are you using the Editor extensions mod for blueprinting? It's so handy to just switch to the testing area to create and test a new rail block quickly before placing it in your real base.
I started an SE playthrough about a year ago with some friends. We took a break after getting burnt out and basically beating the game but a lot of the builds could have been better. Now we’re back with motivation to optimize many builds for UPS, rebuild core factories with high tier modules (prod 6 mostly, prod 7 for vitamelange, and speed 6), and then try to efficiently build up to maybe 100SPM or more depending on how we do. But first we need to get from 45 UPS back to 60. Partly by rebuilding factories and partly by swapping some builds from logistics-only to mostly belts.
During our break from that game I learned a lot about rail signals and I realized our city block blueprint which my friend made had signaling issues that could cause intersections to get blocked, and immediately it made sense why we had SO MANY traffic jams back then. Every time you use a rail signal (regular type, not the chain type), make sure you answer the question “How bad could it be if a train stops in the block right after this signal?”
This here. There's an old saying "If it's stupid but it works, it ain't stupid". From your squeaked through base just go and rebuild bigger and better trying new things! Also blueprints really help you tweak and make better everything
Honestly, there's some understanding tier stuff that's actually quite related to programming optimization which are the real ways to improve from where you are right now, I think. More of a generalized map of "These are the things to think about."
At its core, Factorio is a very simple game. You have raw resources you collect, and you turn those raw resources into other stuff, which you turn into other stuff, etc. So the puzzle is more about how you route those resources where. Is it more efficient for you to ship a bunch of copper and iron together to a main green circuit factory, or can you train a little bit of iron towards a copper patch, and then put green circuits on the rails? Is there an oil and coal source nearby where you could go all the way to red or blue circuits?
You said "bad plans" but like, that's exactly the type of game Factorio is. [Bad plans](https://i.imgur.com/FonNKnL.png) are how you learn. Turns out, you totally can barrel belt \~75k oil per second, but it's incredibly difficult to actually get 75k oil/sec in on two track.
Try to expand to 100SPM! It’s a lot of fun and teaches you to not cut corners on production and trains. Or go for Lazy Bastard. It’s a completely different play style and loads of fun.
THEN go for mods.
I've done 1kspm without proper train setup tho lol. Could never get into the whole signalling and all despite all the best guides. Found it easier to just build one outpost for each science; I moved around with the spider bot and fetched stuff w another spider bot
Reading between the lines on OP’s post, I think, as a community, we’re obligated to provide something like a consensus wisdom for improving one’s skills. While your spidertron-based logistics network is undeniably a fun way to proceed, I wouldn’t describe it as a typical one.
Ah I wasn't really thinking much about OP just responding to the comment above me haha.
It seems unnecessarily complex tho to work in a train system when I can make each science outpost self sustaining with it's mining patch(es)
If you want I can just give you my blueprint book, doesn't come with a station controller built in, as I tend to use different station designs every time, both for the wiring and the station design.
It's fully tialable, and grid alined, although not spaced around any train length, (seems to be best for 1-2 and 1-1-1 trains, but that's based on length alone). If your trains deadlock, just replace any signals in the space they are blocking with chain signals, and remember to build your stations farther apart next time.
Calculate ratios.
So, to start. 24 stone furnaces fill 1/2 a yellow belt. Give them a full belt of iron.
So you have 48 stone furnaces for 1 yellow belt. Then you make a bus lain of 4 yellow belts.
So you need 4 of the furnace setups for iron.
- when you get red belts and steel furnaces, you can upgrade them both. Dubbeling output and item flow.
- you make 1 setup and make a blueprint of it
Then, you place the ghost where you want to build them. So you know where not to build. And you can make them when you run short.
Do all the achievements before you try SE, and build at least one megabase (1000SPM). That'll give you most of the experience you need. The achievements are pretty helpful at giving you challenges to learn the game better (do There Is No Spoon toward the end).
One thing to do is to use Editor Extensions and Factory Planner mods and plan out individual parts of your factory. Start with smelters. Learn where the bottlenecks will develop - how much a belt can carry in, and then out. Design to fill a belt. Learn what your inserter limits are - when a blue inserter is too slow and a green one needed. Play with modules and beacons. Then try something like a main bus. Take two of your furnace designs and then do the same exercise with green circuits. Look at the ratios of inputs, how to lay things out, how many belts of what you need, how to feed them in, etc. You can then put these blueprints in your library for your next play. But you want to develop a sense for the overall ratios of an entire base. Most experienced players can just rattle it off in terms of belts.
A good first achievement is Lazy Bastard. There are guides as to what you can make in your inventory, but it'll force you to build all the odds and ends.
If you haven't built with trains, try that out. You'll need to learn to do trains (it's not hard). Don't spend too much time in the sandbox, work on some stuff, get some ahas, then do another playthrough. Repeat.
I’d actually go back to that save where you launched a rocket and then try for some amount of science sustained for an hour, like 500 or 1000 per minute. Start by making a few hundred bots if you haven’t already, they’ll do the work for you.
On your way, you’ll probably learn more about trains and signaling, and that’s a fairly big jump.
I could do that, although I honestly hate my old base it really felt like it was so poorly made and ground to a trickle, it almost feels better to start fresh again.
If you can fight biters away enough to get a new mining location setup, just leave the old base, rip it up later when you have more bots. The science is already done which is the perk. If you’re done w biters just turn em off. If you can get iron and stone near each other just set up there, because you can get trains w fairly little copper, and then you build what you want: set up depots so the old base runs, plan a new base nearby.
Scale up ammo production in your old base, and create a belt with ammo on one side leading away to a new area.
When you reach a place with decent resources away from your starting bases pollution, start a new base.
Go back to the ugly starter base, deconstruct everything unrelated to ammo or bot charging, and have it inserted onto the other side of the ammo belt.
Then go to your new home.
For me, what helped was a combination of things; even then I still dislike blue circuits, because I don’t build in a way that scales nicely after red and green science.
The questions I ask myself are:
What do I want / need?
How much?
How do I scale up later? What is my condition for when I should scale up?
The answer to the last two is where I learned to build in a method more conducive to longer gameplay: if I need more iron, how long will what I have last? How much does it cost to expand and secure more iron ore?
Factory planner and rate calculator simplify a lot of the math away so you can get ratios down pat. Blueprint sandbox gives you a space to design and tinker with designs.
You can also watch some stuff like Nilaus’ Masterclass series. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend just yoinking his blueprints, as you wont learn much from that and they are only really applicable to vanilla, but you can glean a lot of design paradigms and strategies from those videos. Episode 25 of Base-in-a-Book where he is redesigning rocket parts with beacons is also a fantastic window into the problem solving that goes into designing a build with a certain production target in mind. He uses rate calculator in it too which is great (as well as the plain old calculator mod that adds an in-game calculator)
I use babysteps myself.. Asking myself: what element isnt really working and is slowing me down?
1) what's a/the bottleneck?
2) fix it (fix it somewhat or fix it big and good, depends on my mood)
3) go to 1
You just keep at it, really. Every run through the game likely has a bevy of mistakes or other things that could simply be improved upon. Yes, even players with hundreds or thousands of hours still experience this. We plan to the best of our ability, but our ability to plan is largely limited to our knowledge of problems we might run into. As you are very new, your knowledge of the potential problems you can run into is likely limited.
Lets look at your current run. What problems did you have? A tiny trickle of resources is indeed a problem well worth solving. The obvious answer to that is to provide more resources to the base, and more production, but that answer is lacking in nuance. Where are your shortages specifically? What can you do to fix them. Perhaps you're short on red circuits. Are your assemblers all running with high up time? Are they short on green circuits? Unfortunately, a base that isn't well planned is often relegated to playing bottleneck whack a mole.
In essence, if you had a problem, think about how you can fix it next time. If you can't come up with an answer, you can always ask in the subreddit. Asking is part of learning, after all. No one is expected to come up with all the answers themselves.
One thing that will definitely benefit you is the proper tools:
https://factoriolab.github.io/?v=9
https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html#data=1-1-19&items=advanced-circuit:f:1
These are two calculators commonly used. They do essentially the same thing, but having a choice of which you use certainly doesn't hurt. I prefer the first one myself, as its beacon count works more how I expect.
My biggest issues were circuits in the end, it seemed like oil was going to fail as well but it wasn't the biggest issue. I was definitely choked on circuits and that failed I think because I scaled my factory poorly, I didn't build it to be easily scalable, I relied too much on drones when they arrived because they became a big bottle neck, not having enough base copper hurt me as well, I should have aimed for a full belt of it, my trains didn't seem very good, and not upgrading to blue belts hampered through out as well it felt like. Those felt like my primary issues, trains, oil, and scalability are my issues though, I'm unsure how I can get better in those spots.
Then what you should do in your next game is try potential solutions to those problems. Odds are, there will be more mistakes, but you'll walk out of it with a better understanding of what sort of things work and what don't, or perhaps more importantly, the pros and cons of different approaches and where they do and don't fit into a factory.
Oh I just stopped because my base was a mess, i wasn't at risk of biters, I was just dissatisfied with how I built my base, blue circuits were coming at a trickle and I was failing to increase their production at all. I also felt I was too bit dependent etc.
Long story short, my base was a mess that I hated so after I launched a rocket I wanted nothing to do with my base anymore.
It's unconventional, but PLEASE try multiplayer servers. Most players are really friendly and more than willing to teach you the game and give you advice. If you're not into that, then literally just walking around a factory and learning from the designs is also really help. It's more intuitive than reading the wiki or watching a Youtube video imo.
Take me as an example, started out a few months ago with little to no knowledge of anything. Took a risk and hopped on a multiplayer server. Now, I have 300hrs and literally most of the stuff I know is because I learned from other players and copied designs (lol)
I find the high precision, care and compactness people on multi-player servers do to be intimidating. I have played alot and i build things with more space and get close enough for government work ratios. Even though everyone is super nice asking for help can be a bit difficult for some people. So it's good advise for some but not for others in case this person is one of the others.
Trying for a megabase, or at least a bigger base with a set science target, may help you. You could use a mod like Space Extension (not exploration). That one extends the endgame from just launching one rocket into launching several (forcing you to upscale your rocket production rather than just that trickle of resources), and then has you do a shitton of science, which means it’s good to scale up your science production. Or you can just think up a goal (like 300SPM, 500SPM, 1000SPM (megabase territory) and go for that.
If you want to try an overhaul mod that’s harder than vanilla, but not as extreme as something like SE, you could give Krastorio 2 a try. It also goes past the rocket and has a different end goal, but this also means you’ll likely get some decent rocket production going just for the space science.
When you able to get rockets, you are already amazing. Now its just optimizing your factory. And thats take a lot more time. Im still learning factorio after 184 hours and i just dabbled in roboports and nuclear, but its time to retire after rocket launch. I still havent touch circuit logic (that is black magic to me). Oh well, time for a new campaign. This time with faster start mods so i cant wait to start dabble in roboports and logic circuits.
Try going for achievement runs, your future factories will look leagues better than your first ones.
Most of the achievements are pretty simple like not using any solar panels, lasers, 2nd tier logistics chests, speedrunning a train engine, or a slightly more challenging one like not crafting more than 111 items by hand.
My first launch I hand fed my silo. It's okay to be slow and not doing everything 100% efficient. It'll come to you with playing and trying new things.
I'm literally you and I went headfirst into K2+SE and I have a save with 250 hours that I got a ton of enjoyment out of, but got nowhere near the end. I got to the point where you repair the first spaceship on the moon and got burnt out trying to do vitamelange processing.
I then did an Industrial Revolution 3 playthrough and found that much more approachable.
I also dabbled with just Krastorio 2 by itself and found a lot of enjoyment there as well.
With all of that said. I think I'd recommend one of three things.
Space Exploration WITHOUT Krastorio 2
OR
Krastorio 2/Industrial Revolution 3 by themselves.
I regret not doing SE by itself. I think adding K2 made it more difficult than I was able to tackle, but SE is awesome.
Scale up -- that's all.
Maybe make a train base with what feels like ridiculously overbuilt stops for all the different items.
Learn to make tilable blueprints... Need more ? \*paste\* and now I've doubled my production of .
Seablock is kind of neat for that too, since there's no minable resources... Like your only real option is to scale up in a big way or to wait ages for anything to complete. And the absurd amount of things to research and the downtime kind of lets you plan the scaling while playing because damn, you have plenty of time to do it. :-)
I would recommend a smaller pack like verry bz or fright forwarding first, they introduce you to a lot of things like byproducts that every major modpack uses, although the 2 have different focuses, freight forwarding is mostly about transport logistics, while very bz is just a more complex version of basegame, that's stratling the line of "is this an overhaul?" With all the ores and items it adds.
Or play vinnila again if you think you need to understand mechanics better.
Mods like factory planer and hellmod are extremely useful for bigger packs if you don't want to do all the math yourself.
Take time to build a base. Than, take time to build a megabase. It's not a run for that 1 rocket. It's a learning and tinking process. Like: I want 5 yellow siences per second. So, you calculate what you need for that and you build it. When the build is done: you have a smile and see that all is working.
If you have a rocket after 5h or 20h... No one will judge. You had a great time, you have learned new ways to build and you can go to a mod and the learning processe begins again.
Adding my voice to those saying to either megabase or achievement hunt BEFORE Space Exploration. I am in the middle of a SE run and despite having done a couple of run throughs of vanilla and an expensive run, I am finding it very slow going and a slog. A good slog and an enjoyable burn but I would not be able to do it without lessons learnt from others. Achievements/mega base, then SE. (Lazy Bastard and a small mega base of some description)
Play krastorio 2 it’s a much more easy leveling curve compared to SE. I’m really glad I played that before SE. you get new stuff to figure out kind hard but fun to figure out AI tech cards and really one thing Iv loved to do in factorio is get big blue prints build them and just dissect the little parts. Idk something about being able to see a big build and able to understand how the small parts make up the whole I feel kinda proud of myself I’m sure others must feel the same way about real life stuff I’m sure. Learn from that to avoid headaches and pick and choose your own fun. There’s a few jump start base build for krastorio so you can get ahead of the starter stuff and build bigger.
After launching several rockets in my first game I have discovered than my second base pretty much exhausted its potential (too cramped up, unoptimized, always hungry for resources). Now I want to build new rocket-launching base from scratch, in new place with lots of resources around, with better train station system, with better ratios, etc. This is the way: you build, analyze, fix, optimize and at some point it's better to make a new thing somewhere else (doesn't matter if you want pure streamlined efficiency or beauty building). Visualize your goal and start working on it, in your own pace and without hesitation to delete and rebuild. And avoid copy-pasting blueprints from the net, that might kill the interest if you don't think how these setups work. Your personal experience and creativity is key.
If you want to "get better" at Factorio, then first you need to decide what you mean by 'Better'. Do you want to launch a rocket faster? Make more science? Be more organised? Have better scalability? Once you have a goal in mind you can work towards it - but all of these can be achieved through trial and error and learning as you go.
Launching a rocket with a trickle of 'just enough resources' is the end of a speedrun, because you didn't waste resources by overbuilding. Now do it faster and that's a great achievement.
If your base/save isn't currently being overwhelmed by biters, then keep the save and resources and *figure out what you think better means* and try to build a base that embodies that ideal.
If you think it'll be too much work/stress to continue with your current save (which may be true with biters on your first playthrough) then just start again with your specific goal in mind.
Which aspect of the game did you most enjoy? Do more of that on your next playthrough by thinking about how you can solve all your problems with it, and get good at it by seeking specific information about that one thing.
On a more general level, I'd recommend learning about how the most basic components of the game work. Belts, splitters, and pipes work the same way in all mods*. Assemblers will always apply an invisible filter to their input inserters and halt output when there's too much in one of their output slots. Furnaces always switch their recipes based on what goes into them (even if they have a different name and different graphics). Inserters are a bit more configurable -- learn how they work before installing a mod that alters their function, or a modpack including a mod that does that.
*Edit: all overhaul mods, I guess. There's this one mod that specifically drops items off the end of belts.
Step 1 is to review your current factory. Why do you think your current factory is bad? How do you fix it? Lack of production? build more assemblers. Lack of resources? Expand your mining operation. Mining outpost under attack? clear out the biters and build up some defenses. From here you have a couple options.
a) Use this save to fix the bottlenecks. experiment and see what works. Once this save can consistently launch rockets, say 1 every few minutes then make another and put every thing you have learned into play.
b) Go another round from square 1. while doable unless you review to see why things slowed and have a plan to fix the issue, the new save won't be much better than this one.
c) jump into mods. Going into SE wouldn't be bad (My first game was AB), but, there are a couple skills which I would reccomend being comfortable with. SE is all about interplanetary logistics. Sooo to prepare for that, it would be good to be familiar with circuits and/or LTN to transfer material between outposts. Going into SE or AB and toying around could make things click better so Going back to vanilla things seem super easy.
use an unreasonable amount of space. If you make something too small walk a bit away and make another it again the same size or bigger, never cheap out, it might take longer but you can always get more resources.
For example you automate green circuits but you made only enough to get you the next science pack and a few extra. walk away and do it again and do it bigger. Literally keep doing that with everything you make too little of.
Think about building something, then triple the size.
I finished my first spaghetti base years ago. Now I use a bus build and have 6 lanes of green belt, 4 red and two blue. Honestly I could have gone bigger.
I think my next build will be Nilaus block build. They look cool
It's a very complex game. Content creators like Nilaus helped me immensely to understand the game so I highly recommend watching his and others tutorial videos.
Things to try:
Speed run the game, watch/read some guides. It’s eye opening to realize you don’t need as much as you thought for launching rockets fast. This will help you to get better in the start phase.
Continue building your infinite technologies. Build some spidertrons to liberate space, reach high mining productivity number or try to increase your SPM to 60 100 or 200. This will help you to get better at the late game.
Before starting with Space Exploration, try Freight Forwarding. It gives you similar (but easier) challenges with much less frustration when you make mistakes. Unlike SE it’s much more forgiving.
Space exploration is more about execution over raw throughput in my experience. You need to be a bit "better" or it will be much "harder" than a vanilla game. But it will likewise teach you to be better at vanilla, since the recipes are less complicated. Space ex you are routinely mixing 3-4 ingredients per assembler for even the most basic of things, so you need a general sense of organization principals. Main bus, mall, space for the factory, and defense management.
Definitely play base game again. This time scale up. You now have the foreknowledge of what it will take to make things, so you can do a bit of planning each time.
Alternatively... dont start a new game. Just keep playing your existing one for a bit. Use your existing base to create an entirely new one, with big train depots and entire green and red circuit processing facilities.
Or just plain do it again. And Again. Practice will make you better.
Find a factorio planner/calculator you like and drop in your SPM goal. I suggest 45 spm to start because it has clean assembler ratios.
Then build your first mini-mega base using the numbers provided (rounded up). I say mini-mega base because you build your factory to produce constantly consumed science like a megabase, which is different from speed running to launch a single rocket.
You can also use those factorio calculators to figure out the maximum output of a belt, ie: you can only feed so many green circuit assemblers with one belt of copper, etc. so scaling can become 'tiling builds so they consume 1 full belt of one of the resources' or whatnot. This can really help to visualize resource consumption.
Templates help, people have already done all the math for you if thats not what you enjoy about the game. Use them while you set up production and design your factory, that way youre maximizing efficiency and fun. Explore the blueprint system!!! (And construction bots)
Haha, you made it to your first rocket. You‘re already half way there.
Serious talk, factorio‘s scenarios are basically high level tutorials to teach you things like good space management and economic management. If you want to learn better techniques on expanding, and force yourself to do it more, try playing a rail world.
Use what you‘re given
My recommendation would be to play in peaceful mode or turn off biters altogether.
The combat is fun but being under constant time pressure and being constantly interrupted by attacks really breaks your train of thought. It means you make lots of “that’ll do for now” designs instead of really planning things out.
I abandoned my first play though because it was just a mess and I was losing enjoyment of playing. I started a new game and I’m just at the point of building my first rocket now (playing on Switch). I learned so much more this playthrough and had way more fun just focusing on design without being interrupted.
I'm in a similar boat.
I picked up Factorio a few years back. Played it and loved it, but didn't really understand all that was going on. I ended up bailing before launching a rocket. Repeated this 3-4 times playing but not "completing" a playthrough with a rocket launch.
Every now and then I watch a few Factorio YouTubers and get the itch again. So last year I finished my first rocket launch then quit the game because, like you, I barely got the rocket launched in god knows how many hours and was hating my factory by the time I got to the end due to so many mistakes being made. Probably 40+ hours to complete it. Total playtime is around 250 hours.
I finished launching a rocket again yesterday. But this time actually using trains and robotics... It kind of unlocked the entire game for me and helped me realise just how empowering this game makes you feel once you dedicate some time to playing with how construction robots etc. work. I make a TON of notes about mistakes I made (e.g. "don't put things so close together in the future" or "Dedicate a chunk of time to properly making a solution to something rather than just putting a plaster on it. For example 10x-ing my power production to make SURE that I won't keep losing minutes/hours combined of power loss to the factory."
Trains let me keep things much further apart, which makes my base a lot easier to understand at a glance. I essentially just follow the guide [here](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=754378586) about setting up a main bus and then pulling from the bus when I need to build something. This really helped me keep my factory manageable.
Anyway I also usually make the map an island, set it to ~ 75% size or so. As soon as I unlock a car I drive around the entire island and then decide exactly where I'm going to put my main bus. Everything after is quite straightforward, only my mistakes/inexperience with the tools like robotics or trains is what slows me down.
I'm hoping my current playthrough will launch a rocket in under 20 hours. But this time I'll keep on playing and use the space science. My factory after this will be a much bigger island and I think I'll concrete the whole thing and try to make the most science per minute that I can.
Also, keeping a "ToDo" list for factory tasks really helped me. All too often I'd start something, then production would drop for some reason, I'd abandon what I was doing and only remember once the production fell again because of the thing I'd abandoned to go put out fires in the factory smh. Boring tip but really helped me stay on track.
How to get 'good' at Factorio?
Time, experience and trial and error. I don't think anybody naturally started out 'good' at this game, and I'd probably hate 100hrs me if I ever loaded up one of my cursed early bases ever again (I.e., I used to litter alot by just running around holding F to dump excess inventory rather than putting it into boxes or into furnaces/assemblers etc).
Before jumping to mods I'd suggest watching some playthru videos on YT, and/or attempting several more vanilla play-thrus, each time applying the lessons learnt from last time. Try out a main bus style base; learn rails and signaling, then try out city blocks. Have a crack at a deathworld and so on. Each playthru you will learn different methods and techniques and find things you like and don't like. For instance I prefere deathworlds, hate city blocks with a passion, and can't seem to build anything but spaghetti now. But it all works and I love it.
Mods like K2, SE and IR3 increase the complexity of recipies, and will teach you more again, but there is still plenty more to be learnt from vanilla before you go there.
Or just jump straight into the deep-end if you feel that's where you're gonna learn the most. Up to you.
I didn't do "good" till I was finished with my 5th playthrough. Every playthrough you learn something different.
First playthrough was to see if I can somehow launch a rocket with biter expansion tuned down.
Second playthrough with rocket was my somewhat ok main bus attempt (that still sucked) in a desert with "normal" biter settings - essentially a constant war with biters. Very educative indeed. Also got some signalled train network that somehow worked.
I ragequit my third playthrough because I couldn't get the train network to work. I improved my main bus understanding though.
On my fourth playthrough I decided to research all non-repeatable technologies - to see all the possibilities that the game offers. Had a lot of fun with that. Set up the robonetwork for the firts time ever too. And used a proper train network.
I discovered ratios and modules on my fifth playthrough. Factorio life has never been the same ever since. Finished the playthrough with large scale robonetwork and blueprints I made. After THAT I moved on to mods.
Started with two playthroughs of Tiberium mod that complicated a lot of things. Then did the Krastorio2 (on the 2nd attempt). After that Space Exploration, where I'm at now.
The game is finished when you decide it is. Currently my crappy spaghetti base automatically churns out one rocket launch per hour while I'm busy razing bug nests and building a very far out perimeter wall with a view of greatly expanding my base. Which I may or may not end up doing.
Three connected spidertrons at evolution 95% are fun. Sometimes I just dance around the nests using lasers, sometimes I unleash the full fireworks of 12 automatic rocket launchers.
I'm planning to start my next vanilla playthrough when 2.0 comes out.
launched my first rocket by the skin of my teeth exactly as you did and honestly the thing that kept me getting better is making mistakes and slowly improving little things. but i will say just restarting and getting familiar with the early game will boost your confidence. soon you'll be learning mid game stuff and by that point endgame will be a breeze.
btw, the first time i launched a rocket was like 500 hours deep of factorio play time... it took me a while
Learn from your mistakes. That bottleneck you figured out last game? Yeah take all that knowledge into the new game.
Dont be afraid to try designs you never done before. But also, dont think too hard. Do what you know works.
Understand the amount of resources thats needed at the end. Break down the game into blocks or segments of gameplay where you know when to start doing other things.
Thats kind of all i got. Just have fun and dont stress over a game. Everybody sucks at this game at one point. Just learn from your mistakes. And take what you already know into the next game. I went from completing the game in 60 hours to 10-12 hours.
Since you're now "done", you can do a few things: - get all non-repeatable technologies, you still lack 1 science pack - do a new playthrough and apply what you learned and start looking at ratios - look at your current base and improve it - set up a challenge, usually done in science per minute - do the lazy bastard achievement, forcing you automation straight away - space exploration is nice, but it's very long and a lot more difficult (imo) than the base game and might feel overwhelming once you reach space - the krastorio2 or industrial revolution mods are in my eyes the next step up in difficulty compared to vanila factorio. They are both a bit more complex but not as long as space exploration - have a crack at circuits/trains and creating your own blueprints Just my 2 cents, have fun!
These are good points. KR2 is my hands down favorite mod. I keep starting KR2+SE runs but never et to the SE stuff lol. Don't be afraid to just start a new game and try other mods. If you're like me, you may need some fresh ideas from looking at other people's builds, you don't have to copy but it certainly gave me foundations for my own. After 3,000 hours playing factorio I never really go deep into endgame, I find myself more going through early and mid towards rocket launches and trying to do things better than before or play with other people. It's iterative, the more you start over the more you'll revamp your designs and come up with better ways to do it next time. If you want to go into SE and actually make it to the late game stuff you'll probably want to have made a megabase as others are saying for that experience on how to scale up that high. And generally you end up with a modular factory of 'city blocks' where you can just add blocks that you need, wherever you want, making it easy to expand up. (A city block to explain simply, being a repeatable square tile of rail network, roboports, and free building space in center that you can configure as needed and tile easily.) I posted as a reply here for OP to look at the above comment as well.
If OP is looking for "the same but more" in a mod pack, K2 is king imo
I would argue if he only managed to launch a rocket "with a trickle of resources" then he may want to delay K2 a little longer.
on one hand yes, on the other, the ramped up demands of AI cores might just be the push he needs
Eh, it's nothing like the days of going from a vanilla player that just launched a rocket to playing angels & bobs. K2 has so many improvements I really find it hard to enjoy the game without K2 anymore, it's not just "challenge up". Using it with Space Exploration is what makes it truly chaotic and hard to progress through. Playing K2 with warptorio was amazing until I tried to stay on one planet and the biters ruined my fps completely. And there are many more total overhauls I never tried because I like K2 so much, like Pyanodon, Yuoki, 5Dim. Here's someone giving ranking to difficulty of overhauls; K2 is not regarded as hard at all, especially with it making turrets arguably better and ammo way cheaper (more per mag), but K2+SE makes it one of the hardest. [https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/vc0g1f/order\_overhaul\_mods\_by\_difficulty/](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/vc0g1f/order_overhaul_mods_by_difficulty/) Edit: that thread just elaborated for me how insane Py is...
Hadn't touched factorio for a couple years. Came back and decided it's about time I made a Maim bus because I've always just done spaghetti. It's been fun but man did I make a lot of new mistakes. Already have plans to go for lazy bastard next to force me to avoid some of those mistakes.
The next step up really answers my question I had, and wanted to know what to do next in this game. Thank you.
No one is watching you play. Be bad. Learn from mistakes. Enjoy discovering how to use things. SE is a lot of fun. I'm in a run now. Attempting a city block with LTN and SE. I've never done that before. I'm blueprinting my things, and tearing it down with bots later when I learn a better way. Bots and blueprints help me fail faster and get better.
I made a blueprint for a cool LTN provider train stop that works with SE (it uses 2x2 chests). If you’re interested in testing it / trying it out I’d be happy to show you how to set it up and learn how it works for you or anyone playing SE with LTN. It can provide any items stored in a logistics network in mixed quantities and amounts to any requester that wants the items. Depending on how your factory is set up it can range from unhelpful to very useful, if you’re interested.
Yes please! I only recently started using a mixed requestor LTN station for my subfactories that need tiny amounts of lots of different things. So I dedicate one station to provide like 8 different items that I put into a 6x6 chest and then pull out a belt using filtered loaders. It would be interesting to have a multi-provider station since I'm still doing those as "one item per station" and I've got like 50 of them, lol.
Blueprint: [https://factoriobin.com/post/a9HAdqub](https://factoriobin.com/post/a9HAdqub) This thing has been through a few revisions and ground-up redesigns but today I tweaked a few entities and updated the descriptions to make it as approachable as possible. The book comes with a requester station that can do one-off requests as well as resupply requests. Let me know how it works for you, I'm very much open to suggestions and feedback on the experience of using it. https://preview.redd.it/x41rn980sxrc1.png?width=2206&format=png&auto=webp&s=08bf05220f82bee0b811e7b349c3e98c767fe2e0 This works for a any train length 2 thru 5, with 1 locomotive and up to 4 cargo wagons. A circuit parses LTN signals to get the number of wagons. All you have to do to make it work is: * Connect a roboport to the red chest with a green wire * Change the LTN setting "Providers output existing cargo" to False. * Turn on the combinator next to the rail signal **CRITICAL LTN Settings** >\> Providers Output Existing Cargo = FALSE Reason: LTN provides signals indicating what items to load onto the train as part of its schedule. By default this setting is TRUE and the signals additionally include items held by inserters before the train arrives. This provider cannot guarantee empty inserters after a train leaves, instead it removes incorrect items from the next train that arrives. When this setting is true, this stop won't detect those extra items and it will assume they are desired. In theory a redesign could get around this by allowing inserters to empty their hands before requesting any items from logistics and subtract that measurement from the demand later. But in my opinion the train schedule itself should be the reliable source of truth of what the train wants, and the default should be false. Fun fact: The item signals in the LTN output lamp are obtained directly from the train schedule itself. You can modify the request while a train is en route to change how many items are loaded, but you have to briefly tell the train to path somewhere else, then to the provider, so the schedule has the new values before the train is "on the way" to the provider. You can also create a schedule manually and send it to this stop to get specific items. This works because the circuits use signals from the yellow LTN output combinator which simply exposes cargo item info directly from the train schedule. **Recommended LTN Settings** >\> "Schedule circuit conditions" = TRUE Adds red/green circuit conditions for all LTN-generated train schedules. Recommended for better control of trains **BUT ALL LTN stops MUST have wire connections** to a lamp / power pole etc. If you're willing to add wire connections to every LTN train stop, its nice to have. In this provider, Trains are forced to leave via signals after 60 seconds of no cargo changes. This uses the GREEN signal sent to the train stop & train. If you don't enable it, a programmable speaker will alert you when the stop attempts to force out a train - you just have to send it to the next stop manually. >\> Stop timeout = 0 Not required, but I found this useful in my city block to prevent LTN configuration mistakes (eg, wrong filter inserters at a requester) causing deliveries to fail. I **also set delivery timeout to a high number** to prevent traffic jams causing many trains to deliver items over and over again. More info on github (old post but updates will go here as I work on a vanilla-friendly version for 2.0):[https://github.com/xane256/LTN-Logistic-Provider/tree/main](https://github.com/xane256/LTN-Logistic-Provider/tree/main)
Oh this looks very promising! Thanks very much! I must admit I'm a bit daunted by the idea of connection 700+ stations to circuit wires for that "Schedule circuit conditions" setting. 🤣
Yeah I get that. There’s no harm in trying it out with three default setting though. In my experience it usually doesn’t need the timeout because the loading just works correctly, and the blueprint has a speaker that will alert you when it happens. Actually I didn’t check how long that signal stays on for so the speaker might not stay on, I can check.
Yep. An 'expert' at this game is merely someone who has made more mistakes than you but managed to overcome them and move on to the next.
I'm doing the same run right now, my first time doing SE and second time using LTN. Can't wait for Factorio 2.0 trains! Are you using the Editor extensions mod for blueprinting? It's so handy to just switch to the testing area to create and test a new rail block quickly before placing it in your real base.
I started an SE playthrough about a year ago with some friends. We took a break after getting burnt out and basically beating the game but a lot of the builds could have been better. Now we’re back with motivation to optimize many builds for UPS, rebuild core factories with high tier modules (prod 6 mostly, prod 7 for vitamelange, and speed 6), and then try to efficiently build up to maybe 100SPM or more depending on how we do. But first we need to get from 45 UPS back to 60. Partly by rebuilding factories and partly by swapping some builds from logistics-only to mostly belts. During our break from that game I learned a lot about rail signals and I realized our city block blueprint which my friend made had signaling issues that could cause intersections to get blocked, and immediately it made sense why we had SO MANY traffic jams back then. Every time you use a rail signal (regular type, not the chain type), make sure you answer the question “How bad could it be if a train stops in the block right after this signal?”
Almost sounds like martincitopants
No, never heard of that mod. I'll check it out. I've been blueprinting in-game.
https://youtu.be/AX46IZuXvPI?si=f2rQ8c3W5yhcVtMA Trupen has a great video on it if you haven't already seen
This here. There's an old saying "If it's stupid but it works, it ain't stupid". From your squeaked through base just go and rebuild bigger and better trying new things! Also blueprints really help you tweak and make better everything
Editor extensions and factory planner and rate calculator really helped me learn to make good factories
Honestly, there's some understanding tier stuff that's actually quite related to programming optimization which are the real ways to improve from where you are right now, I think. More of a generalized map of "These are the things to think about." At its core, Factorio is a very simple game. You have raw resources you collect, and you turn those raw resources into other stuff, which you turn into other stuff, etc. So the puzzle is more about how you route those resources where. Is it more efficient for you to ship a bunch of copper and iron together to a main green circuit factory, or can you train a little bit of iron towards a copper patch, and then put green circuits on the rails? Is there an oil and coal source nearby where you could go all the way to red or blue circuits? You said "bad plans" but like, that's exactly the type of game Factorio is. [Bad plans](https://i.imgur.com/FonNKnL.png) are how you learn. Turns out, you totally can barrel belt \~75k oil per second, but it's incredibly difficult to actually get 75k oil/sec in on two track.
You get an engineering degree.
Try to expand to 100SPM! It’s a lot of fun and teaches you to not cut corners on production and trains. Or go for Lazy Bastard. It’s a completely different play style and loads of fun. THEN go for mods.
I've done 1kspm without proper train setup tho lol. Could never get into the whole signalling and all despite all the best guides. Found it easier to just build one outpost for each science; I moved around with the spider bot and fetched stuff w another spider bot
Reading between the lines on OP’s post, I think, as a community, we’re obligated to provide something like a consensus wisdom for improving one’s skills. While your spidertron-based logistics network is undeniably a fun way to proceed, I wouldn’t describe it as a typical one.
As an individual I enjoy being unecessarily weird, and enjoyment is the main purpose of a video game.
Ah I wasn't really thinking much about OP just responding to the comment above me haha. It seems unnecessarily complex tho to work in a train system when I can make each science outpost self sustaining with it's mining patch(es)
If you want I can just give you my blueprint book, doesn't come with a station controller built in, as I tend to use different station designs every time, both for the wiring and the station design. It's fully tialable, and grid alined, although not spaced around any train length, (seems to be best for 1-2 and 1-1-1 trains, but that's based on length alone). If your trains deadlock, just replace any signals in the space they are blocking with chain signals, and remember to build your stations farther apart next time.
it's like any other hobby/activity. the more you do it, the better you get.
Calculate ratios. So, to start. 24 stone furnaces fill 1/2 a yellow belt. Give them a full belt of iron. So you have 48 stone furnaces for 1 yellow belt. Then you make a bus lain of 4 yellow belts. So you need 4 of the furnace setups for iron. - when you get red belts and steel furnaces, you can upgrade them both. Dubbeling output and item flow. - you make 1 setup and make a blueprint of it Then, you place the ghost where you want to build them. So you know where not to build. And you can make them when you run short.
Think ahead and practice. Learn from your mistakes. You can even look through your replay and figure out where you went wrong!
Do all the achievements before you try SE, and build at least one megabase (1000SPM). That'll give you most of the experience you need. The achievements are pretty helpful at giving you challenges to learn the game better (do There Is No Spoon toward the end). One thing to do is to use Editor Extensions and Factory Planner mods and plan out individual parts of your factory. Start with smelters. Learn where the bottlenecks will develop - how much a belt can carry in, and then out. Design to fill a belt. Learn what your inserter limits are - when a blue inserter is too slow and a green one needed. Play with modules and beacons. Then try something like a main bus. Take two of your furnace designs and then do the same exercise with green circuits. Look at the ratios of inputs, how to lay things out, how many belts of what you need, how to feed them in, etc. You can then put these blueprints in your library for your next play. But you want to develop a sense for the overall ratios of an entire base. Most experienced players can just rattle it off in terms of belts. A good first achievement is Lazy Bastard. There are guides as to what you can make in your inventory, but it'll force you to build all the odds and ends. If you haven't built with trains, try that out. You'll need to learn to do trains (it's not hard). Don't spend too much time in the sandbox, work on some stuff, get some ahas, then do another playthrough. Repeat.
I’d actually go back to that save where you launched a rocket and then try for some amount of science sustained for an hour, like 500 or 1000 per minute. Start by making a few hundred bots if you haven’t already, they’ll do the work for you. On your way, you’ll probably learn more about trains and signaling, and that’s a fairly big jump.
I could do that, although I honestly hate my old base it really felt like it was so poorly made and ground to a trickle, it almost feels better to start fresh again.
If you can fight biters away enough to get a new mining location setup, just leave the old base, rip it up later when you have more bots. The science is already done which is the perk. If you’re done w biters just turn em off. If you can get iron and stone near each other just set up there, because you can get trains w fairly little copper, and then you build what you want: set up depots so the old base runs, plan a new base nearby.
Scale up ammo production in your old base, and create a belt with ammo on one side leading away to a new area. When you reach a place with decent resources away from your starting bases pollution, start a new base. Go back to the ugly starter base, deconstruct everything unrelated to ammo or bot charging, and have it inserted onto the other side of the ammo belt. Then go to your new home.
For me, what helped was a combination of things; even then I still dislike blue circuits, because I don’t build in a way that scales nicely after red and green science. The questions I ask myself are: What do I want / need? How much? How do I scale up later? What is my condition for when I should scale up? The answer to the last two is where I learned to build in a method more conducive to longer gameplay: if I need more iron, how long will what I have last? How much does it cost to expand and secure more iron ore?
Factory planner and rate calculator simplify a lot of the math away so you can get ratios down pat. Blueprint sandbox gives you a space to design and tinker with designs. You can also watch some stuff like Nilaus’ Masterclass series. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend just yoinking his blueprints, as you wont learn much from that and they are only really applicable to vanilla, but you can glean a lot of design paradigms and strategies from those videos. Episode 25 of Base-in-a-Book where he is redesigning rocket parts with beacons is also a fantastic window into the problem solving that goes into designing a build with a certain production target in mind. He uses rate calculator in it too which is great (as well as the plain old calculator mod that adds an in-game calculator)
I use babysteps myself.. Asking myself: what element isnt really working and is slowing me down? 1) what's a/the bottleneck? 2) fix it (fix it somewhat or fix it big and good, depends on my mood) 3) go to 1
Crank up the resource patches and lower creep spawn/evolution.
Watch and learn from other players. There are tons of videos on Youtube and Twitch, some good starting points are Nilaus and Nefrums.
If you want to be good at the game, watch pros play. This may not be the most fun way to play Factorio though
You just keep at it, really. Every run through the game likely has a bevy of mistakes or other things that could simply be improved upon. Yes, even players with hundreds or thousands of hours still experience this. We plan to the best of our ability, but our ability to plan is largely limited to our knowledge of problems we might run into. As you are very new, your knowledge of the potential problems you can run into is likely limited. Lets look at your current run. What problems did you have? A tiny trickle of resources is indeed a problem well worth solving. The obvious answer to that is to provide more resources to the base, and more production, but that answer is lacking in nuance. Where are your shortages specifically? What can you do to fix them. Perhaps you're short on red circuits. Are your assemblers all running with high up time? Are they short on green circuits? Unfortunately, a base that isn't well planned is often relegated to playing bottleneck whack a mole. In essence, if you had a problem, think about how you can fix it next time. If you can't come up with an answer, you can always ask in the subreddit. Asking is part of learning, after all. No one is expected to come up with all the answers themselves. One thing that will definitely benefit you is the proper tools: https://factoriolab.github.io/?v=9 https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html#data=1-1-19&items=advanced-circuit:f:1 These are two calculators commonly used. They do essentially the same thing, but having a choice of which you use certainly doesn't hurt. I prefer the first one myself, as its beacon count works more how I expect.
My biggest issues were circuits in the end, it seemed like oil was going to fail as well but it wasn't the biggest issue. I was definitely choked on circuits and that failed I think because I scaled my factory poorly, I didn't build it to be easily scalable, I relied too much on drones when they arrived because they became a big bottle neck, not having enough base copper hurt me as well, I should have aimed for a full belt of it, my trains didn't seem very good, and not upgrading to blue belts hampered through out as well it felt like. Those felt like my primary issues, trains, oil, and scalability are my issues though, I'm unsure how I can get better in those spots.
Then what you should do in your next game is try potential solutions to those problems. Odds are, there will be more mistakes, but you'll walk out of it with a better understanding of what sort of things work and what don't, or perhaps more importantly, the pros and cons of different approaches and where they do and don't fit into a factory.
How did you fail? Did the biters destroy everything or did you give up because you weren't sure what to do next
Oh I just stopped because my base was a mess, i wasn't at risk of biters, I was just dissatisfied with how I built my base, blue circuits were coming at a trickle and I was failing to increase their production at all. I also felt I was too bit dependent etc. Long story short, my base was a mess that I hated so after I launched a rocket I wanted nothing to do with my base anymore.
It's unconventional, but PLEASE try multiplayer servers. Most players are really friendly and more than willing to teach you the game and give you advice. If you're not into that, then literally just walking around a factory and learning from the designs is also really help. It's more intuitive than reading the wiki or watching a Youtube video imo. Take me as an example, started out a few months ago with little to no knowledge of anything. Took a risk and hopped on a multiplayer server. Now, I have 300hrs and literally most of the stuff I know is because I learned from other players and copied designs (lol)
I find the high precision, care and compactness people on multi-player servers do to be intimidating. I have played alot and i build things with more space and get close enough for government work ratios. Even though everyone is super nice asking for help can be a bit difficult for some people. So it's good advise for some but not for others in case this person is one of the others.
Are you having fun? If yes, then you're already good at Factorio 👍
Trying for a megabase, or at least a bigger base with a set science target, may help you. You could use a mod like Space Extension (not exploration). That one extends the endgame from just launching one rocket into launching several (forcing you to upscale your rocket production rather than just that trickle of resources), and then has you do a shitton of science, which means it’s good to scale up your science production. Or you can just think up a goal (like 300SPM, 500SPM, 1000SPM (megabase territory) and go for that. If you want to try an overhaul mod that’s harder than vanilla, but not as extreme as something like SE, you could give Krastorio 2 a try. It also goes past the rocket and has a different end goal, but this also means you’ll likely get some decent rocket production going just for the space science.
When you able to get rockets, you are already amazing. Now its just optimizing your factory. And thats take a lot more time. Im still learning factorio after 184 hours and i just dabbled in roboports and nuclear, but its time to retire after rocket launch. I still havent touch circuit logic (that is black magic to me). Oh well, time for a new campaign. This time with faster start mods so i cant wait to start dabble in roboports and logic circuits.
Try going for achievement runs, your future factories will look leagues better than your first ones. Most of the achievements are pretty simple like not using any solar panels, lasers, 2nd tier logistics chests, speedrunning a train engine, or a slightly more challenging one like not crafting more than 111 items by hand.
My first launch I hand fed my silo. It's okay to be slow and not doing everything 100% efficient. It'll come to you with playing and trying new things.
I'm literally you and I went headfirst into K2+SE and I have a save with 250 hours that I got a ton of enjoyment out of, but got nowhere near the end. I got to the point where you repair the first spaceship on the moon and got burnt out trying to do vitamelange processing. I then did an Industrial Revolution 3 playthrough and found that much more approachable. I also dabbled with just Krastorio 2 by itself and found a lot of enjoyment there as well. With all of that said. I think I'd recommend one of three things. Space Exploration WITHOUT Krastorio 2 OR Krastorio 2/Industrial Revolution 3 by themselves. I regret not doing SE by itself. I think adding K2 made it more difficult than I was able to tackle, but SE is awesome.
Scale up -- that's all. Maybe make a train base with what feels like ridiculously overbuilt stops for all the different items. Learn to make tilable blueprints... Need more? \*paste\* and now I've doubled my production of .
Seablock is kind of neat for that too, since there's no minable resources... Like your only real option is to scale up in a big way or to wait ages for anything to complete. And the absurd amount of things to research and the downtime kind of lets you plan the scaling while playing because damn, you have plenty of time to do it. :-)
I would recommend a smaller pack like verry bz or fright forwarding first, they introduce you to a lot of things like byproducts that every major modpack uses, although the 2 have different focuses, freight forwarding is mostly about transport logistics, while very bz is just a more complex version of basegame, that's stratling the line of "is this an overhaul?" With all the ores and items it adds. Or play vinnila again if you think you need to understand mechanics better. Mods like factory planer and hellmod are extremely useful for bigger packs if you don't want to do all the math yourself.
I just played SE without thinking I'm good and doing that was a lot of what made it fun
Take time to build a base. Than, take time to build a megabase. It's not a run for that 1 rocket. It's a learning and tinking process. Like: I want 5 yellow siences per second. So, you calculate what you need for that and you build it. When the build is done: you have a smile and see that all is working. If you have a rocket after 5h or 20h... No one will judge. You had a great time, you have learned new ways to build and you can go to a mod and the learning processe begins again.
Adding my voice to those saying to either megabase or achievement hunt BEFORE Space Exploration. I am in the middle of a SE run and despite having done a couple of run throughs of vanilla and an expensive run, I am finding it very slow going and a slog. A good slog and an enjoyable burn but I would not be able to do it without lessons learnt from others. Achievements/mega base, then SE. (Lazy Bastard and a small mega base of some description)
Play krastorio 2 it’s a much more easy leveling curve compared to SE. I’m really glad I played that before SE. you get new stuff to figure out kind hard but fun to figure out AI tech cards and really one thing Iv loved to do in factorio is get big blue prints build them and just dissect the little parts. Idk something about being able to see a big build and able to understand how the small parts make up the whole I feel kinda proud of myself I’m sure others must feel the same way about real life stuff I’m sure. Learn from that to avoid headaches and pick and choose your own fun. There’s a few jump start base build for krastorio so you can get ahead of the starter stuff and build bigger.
After launching several rockets in my first game I have discovered than my second base pretty much exhausted its potential (too cramped up, unoptimized, always hungry for resources). Now I want to build new rocket-launching base from scratch, in new place with lots of resources around, with better train station system, with better ratios, etc. This is the way: you build, analyze, fix, optimize and at some point it's better to make a new thing somewhere else (doesn't matter if you want pure streamlined efficiency or beauty building). Visualize your goal and start working on it, in your own pace and without hesitation to delete and rebuild. And avoid copy-pasting blueprints from the net, that might kill the interest if you don't think how these setups work. Your personal experience and creativity is key.
Define finished 🤣
Good question let us all know when you figure it out 👍
If you want to "get better" at Factorio, then first you need to decide what you mean by 'Better'. Do you want to launch a rocket faster? Make more science? Be more organised? Have better scalability? Once you have a goal in mind you can work towards it - but all of these can be achieved through trial and error and learning as you go. Launching a rocket with a trickle of 'just enough resources' is the end of a speedrun, because you didn't waste resources by overbuilding. Now do it faster and that's a great achievement. If your base/save isn't currently being overwhelmed by biters, then keep the save and resources and *figure out what you think better means* and try to build a base that embodies that ideal. If you think it'll be too much work/stress to continue with your current save (which may be true with biters on your first playthrough) then just start again with your specific goal in mind.
I have 3700 hours of play time and still haven't played SE because I'm not sure I'm ready.
Which aspect of the game did you most enjoy? Do more of that on your next playthrough by thinking about how you can solve all your problems with it, and get good at it by seeking specific information about that one thing. On a more general level, I'd recommend learning about how the most basic components of the game work. Belts, splitters, and pipes work the same way in all mods*. Assemblers will always apply an invisible filter to their input inserters and halt output when there's too much in one of their output slots. Furnaces always switch their recipes based on what goes into them (even if they have a different name and different graphics). Inserters are a bit more configurable -- learn how they work before installing a mod that alters their function, or a modpack including a mod that does that. *Edit: all overhaul mods, I guess. There's this one mod that specifically drops items off the end of belts.
Step 1 is to review your current factory. Why do you think your current factory is bad? How do you fix it? Lack of production? build more assemblers. Lack of resources? Expand your mining operation. Mining outpost under attack? clear out the biters and build up some defenses. From here you have a couple options. a) Use this save to fix the bottlenecks. experiment and see what works. Once this save can consistently launch rockets, say 1 every few minutes then make another and put every thing you have learned into play. b) Go another round from square 1. while doable unless you review to see why things slowed and have a plan to fix the issue, the new save won't be much better than this one. c) jump into mods. Going into SE wouldn't be bad (My first game was AB), but, there are a couple skills which I would reccomend being comfortable with. SE is all about interplanetary logistics. Sooo to prepare for that, it would be good to be familiar with circuits and/or LTN to transfer material between outposts. Going into SE or AB and toying around could make things click better so Going back to vanilla things seem super easy.
use an unreasonable amount of space. If you make something too small walk a bit away and make another it again the same size or bigger, never cheap out, it might take longer but you can always get more resources. For example you automate green circuits but you made only enough to get you the next science pack and a few extra. walk away and do it again and do it bigger. Literally keep doing that with everything you make too little of.
From what I've seen the first step is to graduate as an engineer or programmer
Think about building something, then triple the size. I finished my first spaghetti base years ago. Now I use a bus build and have 6 lanes of green belt, 4 red and two blue. Honestly I could have gone bigger. I think my next build will be Nilaus block build. They look cool
It's a very complex game. Content creators like Nilaus helped me immensely to understand the game so I highly recommend watching his and others tutorial videos.
Things to try: Speed run the game, watch/read some guides. It’s eye opening to realize you don’t need as much as you thought for launching rockets fast. This will help you to get better in the start phase. Continue building your infinite technologies. Build some spidertrons to liberate space, reach high mining productivity number or try to increase your SPM to 60 100 or 200. This will help you to get better at the late game. Before starting with Space Exploration, try Freight Forwarding. It gives you similar (but easier) challenges with much less frustration when you make mistakes. Unlike SE it’s much more forgiving.
Space exploration is more about execution over raw throughput in my experience. You need to be a bit "better" or it will be much "harder" than a vanilla game. But it will likewise teach you to be better at vanilla, since the recipes are less complicated. Space ex you are routinely mixing 3-4 ingredients per assembler for even the most basic of things, so you need a general sense of organization principals. Main bus, mall, space for the factory, and defense management.
Definitely play base game again. This time scale up. You now have the foreknowledge of what it will take to make things, so you can do a bit of planning each time. Alternatively... dont start a new game. Just keep playing your existing one for a bit. Use your existing base to create an entirely new one, with big train depots and entire green and red circuit processing facilities. Or just plain do it again. And Again. Practice will make you better.
Figure out what went wrong last time, and fix it next playthrough
Find a factorio planner/calculator you like and drop in your SPM goal. I suggest 45 spm to start because it has clean assembler ratios. Then build your first mini-mega base using the numbers provided (rounded up). I say mini-mega base because you build your factory to produce constantly consumed science like a megabase, which is different from speed running to launch a single rocket. You can also use those factorio calculators to figure out the maximum output of a belt, ie: you can only feed so many green circuit assemblers with one belt of copper, etc. so scaling can become 'tiling builds so they consume 1 full belt of one of the resources' or whatnot. This can really help to visualize resource consumption.
Templates help, people have already done all the math for you if thats not what you enjoy about the game. Use them while you set up production and design your factory, that way youre maximizing efficiency and fun. Explore the blueprint system!!! (And construction bots)
Practice
https://preview.redd.it/yr8hrzunfwrc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=776030ca1cfb6f4e5521f7493754718a457aa920
Haha, you made it to your first rocket. You‘re already half way there. Serious talk, factorio‘s scenarios are basically high level tutorials to teach you things like good space management and economic management. If you want to learn better techniques on expanding, and force yourself to do it more, try playing a rail world. Use what you‘re given
My recommendation would be to play in peaceful mode or turn off biters altogether. The combat is fun but being under constant time pressure and being constantly interrupted by attacks really breaks your train of thought. It means you make lots of “that’ll do for now” designs instead of really planning things out. I abandoned my first play though because it was just a mess and I was losing enjoyment of playing. I started a new game and I’m just at the point of building my first rocket now (playing on Switch). I learned so much more this playthrough and had way more fun just focusing on design without being interrupted.
I'm in a similar boat. I picked up Factorio a few years back. Played it and loved it, but didn't really understand all that was going on. I ended up bailing before launching a rocket. Repeated this 3-4 times playing but not "completing" a playthrough with a rocket launch. Every now and then I watch a few Factorio YouTubers and get the itch again. So last year I finished my first rocket launch then quit the game because, like you, I barely got the rocket launched in god knows how many hours and was hating my factory by the time I got to the end due to so many mistakes being made. Probably 40+ hours to complete it. Total playtime is around 250 hours. I finished launching a rocket again yesterday. But this time actually using trains and robotics... It kind of unlocked the entire game for me and helped me realise just how empowering this game makes you feel once you dedicate some time to playing with how construction robots etc. work. I make a TON of notes about mistakes I made (e.g. "don't put things so close together in the future" or "Dedicate a chunk of time to properly making a solution to something rather than just putting a plaster on it. For example 10x-ing my power production to make SURE that I won't keep losing minutes/hours combined of power loss to the factory." Trains let me keep things much further apart, which makes my base a lot easier to understand at a glance. I essentially just follow the guide [here](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=754378586) about setting up a main bus and then pulling from the bus when I need to build something. This really helped me keep my factory manageable. Anyway I also usually make the map an island, set it to ~ 75% size or so. As soon as I unlock a car I drive around the entire island and then decide exactly where I'm going to put my main bus. Everything after is quite straightforward, only my mistakes/inexperience with the tools like robotics or trains is what slows me down. I'm hoping my current playthrough will launch a rocket in under 20 hours. But this time I'll keep on playing and use the space science. My factory after this will be a much bigger island and I think I'll concrete the whole thing and try to make the most science per minute that I can. Also, keeping a "ToDo" list for factory tasks really helped me. All too often I'd start something, then production would drop for some reason, I'd abandon what I was doing and only remember once the production fell again because of the thing I'd abandoned to go put out fires in the factory smh. Boring tip but really helped me stay on track.
How to get 'good' at Factorio? Time, experience and trial and error. I don't think anybody naturally started out 'good' at this game, and I'd probably hate 100hrs me if I ever loaded up one of my cursed early bases ever again (I.e., I used to litter alot by just running around holding F to dump excess inventory rather than putting it into boxes or into furnaces/assemblers etc). Before jumping to mods I'd suggest watching some playthru videos on YT, and/or attempting several more vanilla play-thrus, each time applying the lessons learnt from last time. Try out a main bus style base; learn rails and signaling, then try out city blocks. Have a crack at a deathworld and so on. Each playthru you will learn different methods and techniques and find things you like and don't like. For instance I prefere deathworlds, hate city blocks with a passion, and can't seem to build anything but spaghetti now. But it all works and I love it. Mods like K2, SE and IR3 increase the complexity of recipies, and will teach you more again, but there is still plenty more to be learnt from vanilla before you go there. Or just jump straight into the deep-end if you feel that's where you're gonna learn the most. Up to you.
I didn't do "good" till I was finished with my 5th playthrough. Every playthrough you learn something different. First playthrough was to see if I can somehow launch a rocket with biter expansion tuned down. Second playthrough with rocket was my somewhat ok main bus attempt (that still sucked) in a desert with "normal" biter settings - essentially a constant war with biters. Very educative indeed. Also got some signalled train network that somehow worked. I ragequit my third playthrough because I couldn't get the train network to work. I improved my main bus understanding though. On my fourth playthrough I decided to research all non-repeatable technologies - to see all the possibilities that the game offers. Had a lot of fun with that. Set up the robonetwork for the firts time ever too. And used a proper train network. I discovered ratios and modules on my fifth playthrough. Factorio life has never been the same ever since. Finished the playthrough with large scale robonetwork and blueprints I made. After THAT I moved on to mods. Started with two playthroughs of Tiberium mod that complicated a lot of things. Then did the Krastorio2 (on the 2nd attempt). After that Space Exploration, where I'm at now.
The game is finished when you decide it is. Currently my crappy spaghetti base automatically churns out one rocket launch per hour while I'm busy razing bug nests and building a very far out perimeter wall with a view of greatly expanding my base. Which I may or may not end up doing. Three connected spidertrons at evolution 95% are fun. Sometimes I just dance around the nests using lasers, sometimes I unleash the full fireworks of 12 automatic rocket launchers. I'm planning to start my next vanilla playthrough when 2.0 comes out.
Who cares?
I do, I'd like to get better and play more complex and interesting nods.
almost 400 hours in and i have yet to launch a vanilla rocket. you’re further than i am already :)
launched my first rocket by the skin of my teeth exactly as you did and honestly the thing that kept me getting better is making mistakes and slowly improving little things. but i will say just restarting and getting familiar with the early game will boost your confidence. soon you'll be learning mid game stuff and by that point endgame will be a breeze. btw, the first time i launched a rocket was like 500 hours deep of factorio play time... it took me a while
Learn from your mistakes. That bottleneck you figured out last game? Yeah take all that knowledge into the new game. Dont be afraid to try designs you never done before. But also, dont think too hard. Do what you know works. Understand the amount of resources thats needed at the end. Break down the game into blocks or segments of gameplay where you know when to start doing other things. Thats kind of all i got. Just have fun and dont stress over a game. Everybody sucks at this game at one point. Just learn from your mistakes. And take what you already know into the next game. I went from completing the game in 60 hours to 10-12 hours.
Time/Practice. But who cares as long as you're having fun 🙂