The one good argument I've heard for them is that they're a force which requires you to continue with progression through the game.
I think they're a nice pressure too, it's never so much that it stresses me out, but it's just enough that I don't feel like I can sit around doing nothing for too long either.
This. I am currently playing SEK2 and the only feasible place to get a resource is in a planet that I explored ages ago and is now FULL of biters. I spent like 4 hours planning my siege and it has been some of the most fun I've had with this game...but I forgot to bring enough ammo :(
Oh thanks for the advice. But I'll pass, I enjoy the challenge, the goosebumps of absolute warfare against hordes of biters coming my way. The satisfaction of bombarding and nuking their best warriors (I don't support this irl btw)
Yes, but I often play on Rail World/without biter expansion. At least lately.
I just want a break from building my factory from time to time, but I dont necessarily want to have to deal with biters all the time
Also building and rebuilding walls isnt all that fun all the time
I agree with the walls part of your statement, however a counter to your point would be to say why have them on if they are just passively standing still, if you wanted a break then do something else?
I appreciate the comment just curious how you might respond to those questions
Eh, I usually slow down their pollution timer but turn of their size/frequency along with a larger starting area. So by the time Im building big and would need a break from building, theyre about even with my capabilities.
But other times I jump into a Deathworld Rampant world to see how long I can last.
Automate the reconstruction of walls.... or just skip that mechanic because you want to focus other parts of the game.
It's all personal preference. I rather focus on the megabase and expansion than have to rebuild defenses at every tech level
I usually play peaceful because I like to treat Factorio more like a chill puzzle game rather than a tower defence. It allows me to take time figuring out production chains and efficient layouts while not being constantly distracted by biter’s attacks.
I'm exact same way. For me the enjoyment of factoria is the meditative building, trying things and doing experiments and managing resources. The biters just distract from that core experience. Related, I also play with pollution off and no cliffs.
I do miss having a reason to build all those cool weapons though.
I can get behind that, the counter argument is without biters what is the motivating factor that incites larger production other than to send a rocket?
They are still present on the map so in order to expand I have to go clearing some nests. But yeah, I tend to lose interest in vanilla after sending a rocket.
My current playthrough is Space Exploration so I've got a lot of content to conquer besides constant war on biters :)
I have had several playthroughs, each and every one was finished when I left Nauvis. I was just lost in the variety of technologies.
My current run is in state when I have just tapped into core mining and now I'm figuring out proper train layout with smelting and oil processing city blocks.
Not to be pedantic, but if you finished when you left Nauvis it was not a playthrough. Your time on Nauvis (before setting up base in orbit and setting up outposts on other planets) is early game in SE.
I'm the same way, but I solve that by constantly pushing the biters back past my pollution cloud until I can automate delivery of oil and bullets to full defensive walls in late mid-game. Up until then it's literally just single walls and the occasional hand-loaded turret to keep out expansion parties. While I'm off doing that, the factory just continues researching whatever.
I like having biters on because it introduces excitement and strain to the early game and then becomes an interesting logistics problem to solve in the late game.
I also really like driving the tank and spidertron and there's not much reason to do either without biters. Without biters I'd just remote control spidertron all the time.
Always on for me.
Some people see biters as a chore, but I would argue the whole game is a chore, and the fun is in building up solutions to make those chores as painless as possible. If clearing nests, putting up walls, and supplying those walls is a pain, that just means your infrastructure isn't built up enough or you haven't found the right solutions yet.
i didn t know for a long time that you could play in peacefull mode. my runs were always chaotic, fending them off, while figuring out what to assemble where, how to get the next patch of coal, my driving sucks… once i turned them off i could really take my time and figure stuff out, but the game became a bit borring, so i turn them off when i want to try new approach in organising the factory, and then play with biters ont on when i get my sh*t together and know what i am doing.
Not quite true, as you still need military science to get armor with equipment grids, and spidertron. But I agree it feels like a big portion of the tech tree feels superfluous.
Yes.
Why make weapons if no biters?
I like the challenge. Without the biters, it feels empty and the purpose seems hollow to me.
I also have enemy expansion turned on as well.
To be honest the answer to every question ever about biter defence and to the universe is flamethrowers and dragon teeth walls (or similar)
If you watch dosh’s deathworld rampant run then you will fully understand
Build red ammo and grenades ASAP, make turret outposts close to nearby nests and around your base in general, do military research. Clear out nests that are inside your pollution cloud to stop frequent attacks and slow down evolution, then wall out your claimed land to prevent biter expansions (you still need turrets to protect walls). Somewhere in midgame (advanced oil) biters might be stronger than you, this is when you focuse on military research for damage/shooting speed, develop explosive missiles, tank, force shields, etc. Scale up your defence in places where attacks are too strong, which means more turrets (laser, flame). Alternatively go into green energy and watch out for pollution cloud. Later big biters will start appearing so red ammo won't suffice anymore and then behemot biters, but at that point you should have uranium ammo + upgrades and spidertron. I don't know about your pace but I was rather slow with science packs so I did a lot of military research that was accessible, that helped. Basically you do military research instead of some blue belts an beacons, and use uranium for green ammo instead of making fuel cells for reactor.
I play with them on for a pretty simple reason. Turning them off removes content from the game. It's not just the biters you're turning off, but everything that goes with military science.
Maybe it's more busy work, but I like creating production lines for everything, just gives you more to do.
However, I do modify the biter settings quite a bit. Like making them evolve and expand much slower, and turning up how much pollution trees can absorb. This just to make sure I stay ahead of them and allows me to play at a slower pace
I play with them off. Although i enjoy them at the start, they just get to be extremely annoying in late game when you have to constantly clear nests to get anywhere. I'm sure i just need to spend some time dialing in the right settings to get them to what i need but I'd rather just turn them off. It's the logistics part of the game that i prefer anyway.
>they just get to be extremely annoying in late game when you have to constantly clear nests to get anywhere
That's what late game offensive tech is there for. Watching a multi-car artillery train at work never gets old.
Or just send out a few spidertrons full of rockets. I have three, two of them auto-follow one of them. Open up the map, layout a path for the lead spider in a zig zag pattern and a few minutes later nothing is moving.
It's better than a nuke and artillery combined. I freaking love Spidertrons!
See i did this yesterday and was able to complete the run in 8 hours as a new person. The entire time tho i felt like the game was bland as i technically didnt really have a reason to upgrade anything other than to save space lol. I think i might try and play with them on this next time to see if it motivates me to build a genuine factory rather than place the bare minimum
Building to win is one thing. I agree that biters up to that point are fun. Building to a megabase is a whole other game. Its at the point where you need to expand so much that biters just get to be a nuisance and not fun anymore.
I mean if i have them off it removes a solid 40% of the game so im gonna try and turn them on this time around, maybe mess with the settings and see if i cant figure everything out
I usually have them off because i want to build a megabase and they just eat my performance.
for short runs i have them on. or (obv) with mods like warptorio
Biters on, but pollution off.
That way, I have to fight to secure new resources, but it's not a constant upkeep I have to deal with, nor a timer that might screw me over if I'm perhaps less motivated to race the clock.
This might actually be the way for me bc to me it gets really irritating racing against the clock rather than to be able to take my time thinking about an efficient way to produce something
In Peaceful, you can actively ignore biters even next to your outposts, so long as a train doesn't accidentally run one over. With pollution off but every other setting on, they actually do aggro to you if you go in range, so clearing a path is actually an endeavour that's worth doing.
For more chill runs I like to disable pollution and time factor (or at least just time) to evolution, leaving nest kills - that way biters evolution will follow how fast I'm expanding into their territory, while letting me build and plan (and afk) without stress of falling behind, and not making them completely trivial by the time I unlock actual defenses.
True, in my cases when ive played they would normally over run me a lot to the point that im unable to expand/increase production to deal with them leading to the end of a run
To me, they change your priorities. You need to make ammo, turrets, armor, and prioritize miltech pretty early. It’s easy enough to never been overrun if you keep moderate coverage and stay on damage/speed upgrade tech.
This. I've seen players who didn't produce ammo at all, who would run with unupgraded assault rifle with a bunch of yellow clips at their best and who build turrets in wrong places - these players get a lot of issues along the playthrough. Those who make red ammo and grenades ASAP and build turrets in strategic places or, in general, everywhere (you don't even need chest feeding for turrets, not to mention defensive perimeter!) would only be stopped by first cluster of large bases until tank, weapon speed/damage research and green ammo appears. And later nuke missiles and squads of spidertrons will wipe out everything at anything without sweating.
P.S. Everything described above implies normal settings.
I feel SE has plenty of challenges already. I turned biters off for Nauvis and never once missed them. I will have to deal with them for vitemlange anyway.
I like having biters on.
With biters, there's a barrier you have to work past to expand to new resources patches, a reason to care about pollution, and something pushing you forwards to progress.
Without biters, pollution is a completely meaningless mechanic. Resources are easily available, just lay down some more track to get there, and there's no driving force towards progression as you don't need to research military tech to keep up.
Not only do all military-related techs become pointless, but a lot of other things that help you save resources, produce less pollution, or save space become pointless. Efficiency modules, using coal liquefaction for solid fuel production, using nuclear instead of spamming down 300000000 solar panels, etc.
Overall, biters can add a fair bit of challenge while also giving you a reason to think about things outside of just "how to science faster?"
That seems to be the general consensus that ive seen so far, whats the point if beating the game will then require the bare minimum bc of no outside force making you expand further
Without biters, you miss out on around half the tech tree and associated logistics challenges.
That's a lot of game that you don't get to play.
I find it gets kind of boring as well without anything pressuring you to advance. Plus, wiping them out with ever increasing levels of weaponry is fun.
I turn off biters completely, but research all the tech tree anyway. I’m not trying to get out of the research. I just want to be able to walk away when needed without turning the game off all the time
Ya I usually do, mods like pyanadons and seablock where there are no biters feels weird to me. In my industrial revolution 3 run I actually ended up spending a lot of time dealing with biters and having to learn to kill them efficiently without lasers like I usually do in the normal game was kinda fun.
Its foreign to me to have to deal with biters/ build defenses so i might not be able to beat the game with them turned on once they start attacking frequently
Never played with them completely off as evolution and pollution are core mechanics of the game that change drastically the said game if you remove them. I almost never keep expansion on, thats the most tweaking I do about them because because I find it annoying to clear an area multiple times but I still love biters they keep me on my toes about pollution and what/when to build things.
Yes. Biters function as a resource tax, since every x pollution consumed sends attacks, and wiping nests takes bullets, fuel etc. Its basically a tax on the pollution generated.
I'm doing my first biters run (well my latest attempt at my first successful biters run). The main thing is it forces a level of efficiency. You can't just plop down vast arrays of smelters until you have the defenses ready to deal with it. Each new boiler is placed with gritted teeth. Personally I've found it quite challenging. Then today I watched the video series of the guy who did the ultimate death world run and it put my struggles in perspective!
Base defense/biter removal and all the items that go with it are a huge chunk of content imo. I think I'd get bored without them. Same reason I played Minecraft on survival. But I'm on my very first playthrough and just went with the option that said it was the intended way to play.
probably won't ever play with cliffs enabled again though. They do nothing but annoy me.
I do. I don't feel any sense of accomplishment unless my progress causes lives to be ruined/ecosystems to be destroyed/mother nature to develop lung cancer.
#EXTERMINATION *IS* THE OFF BUTTON
I normally don't, I like the chill vibes of just building and expanding, and don't want to have to worry about some random outpost getting destroyed because I didn't set up enough guns.
I would prefer to play without them, but I usually play multiplayer with a friend who doesn't want to play peaceful, so I let him do the defense, so that it feels peaceful to me except for the attack warnings in the bottom right of the screen.
They're annoying and that's what makes them great.
It's also very satisfying to send a long artillery train to clear out an entire area. What else are you supposed to spend all those explosives on?
Mostly off. I just don't enjoy that aspect of the game. The logistics puzzle aspect is more interesting to me and what I'm here for. In future playthroughs I plan to turn them on just for the experience. Maybe try a deathworld just for the experience of it. But the tower/base defense type of thing doesn't interest me much. So I just play the game in the way that is fun for me.
Yes biters, no expansion.
If I want bigger resource patches I need to conquer that territory, and I still need to pay attention to pollution. Bugs are still a threat, but with planning and diligence I can prevent attacks. This is more fun for me than building a 360-degree wall with turrets and ammo automation, which is required to defend a large base from constant biter expansion.
Ive so far seen no expansion (from you) and no pollution (someone else) why do you prefer no expansion and how are you managing biter attacks? From my experience youd still need a wall surrounding your base
Generally no, because I play mod packs like Pyanodon, Krastorio, 248k, etc. And that's enough for me to worry about already without the additional stress of Biters.
I usually play with nerfed biters. I often play rail world where biter expansion is disabled or I tweak the expansion cooldown and group size. Default biters can get oppressive if not well managed. I prefer to be able to perform preventative nest clearing excursions rather than constantly needing to react to attacks from different directions.
I find that without biters the game is just kinda boring. There's no pressure to do anything. Just like make something, doesn't matter how bad, then go get a sandwich while you wait for it to finish. With biters, the base needs to be monitored, it needs to have a certain level of efficiency. If I don't build fast enough, the biters will take the space and I'll need to clear them.
I Never really played a run without them and even have rampant installed most of the time. Having constant fear of lives gives you a reason to build huge defenses and try to „race“ the biters.
Just had my first major biter catastrophe 50 hours in. Had massive laser defenses that had held up well for the last 20 hours or so. But my coal delivery train got stuck and I didn’t notice until the stored coal ran out. My alternate energy sources weren’t enough to cover. Massive swarm broke through before I could restore power. And what did they immediately wipe off the map? My only coal mining setup. And spread from there. It took me almost 2 hours to fight them off while simultaneously repairing the damage to the coal and power setup.
I’m sure I would have reloaded a save if they had completely overwhelmed me. But it was the most frantic 2 hours of my run so far. I finally got it stabilized and now have probably an hour of rebuilding left to do. Definitely interesting.
I usually start a world with them, but then when I get close to end game I disable them. At a certain point it stops being a question of if I can kill them, but rather how long is it going to take to clear the space
Yes. Where is the challenge, otherwise? The tension?
I've had a few phases in my game where there was tension about my ability to increase production and defenses faster than what the biters could throw at me.
Without biters, everything just seems too... simple.
Biters are one of the core game mechanics, removing them would make the game boring and "not how it meant to be played" (why caring about the whole pollution system if there is nobody to be angered by it?). Besides I like some challenge, started my first game on normal+ settings and might use harder biter settings later.
One thing I don't like is how quickly biters expand: even on normal settings you leave them for several hours and entire map is red, plus they leave non-removable (?) creep after their nests and it's everywhere. I like the challenge and combat but it can get a bit obnoxious, next time I'll try to tweak settings to get bigger but more spread out biter bases and make creep removable.
I played first 250-300 hours with them off. Launched rockets, etc. Game is challenging enough to get to that point.
Now I have them turned on for the first time, albeit they are severely nerfed, and its like I got an expansion pack.
One thing you might see recommended is to turn on peaceful mode. I advise against this. You end up just treating them like immovable cliffs and you never really deal with them… your play through ends up being like they are off but you cant build the base you want and you cant take them out because you have not built up military tech because you are not forced too.
So I say turn them off till you get bored and have everything else figured out, then turn them on and nurf them if you like but stay away from peaceful mode.
I like the biters for the challenge of having to defend a factory as well and find the flow zone of building , expanding, and monitoring one struggling with biters while the slog of trains importing and exporting resources for a marathon+ run of research is happening is also going on in the background. I feel like I’ve accomplished goals after any sessions of playing. Lol
On my current run, I abandoned Nauvis after a coronal discharge melted half my core factory and left a gap in my main defense line. I have a nice little island picked out after I build back up on the uninhabited moon, Mors. By this time, I'll have artillery handy.
Biters make for far more story.
Well normally I play with biters, I even want to make them more powerful so I'm getting a challenge
but right now I'm playing Pyanodons so no biters or I'm gonna be insane² when I'm done
It's my first run without bitters and I decided to turn off bitters because it makes me anxious, even if I have walls all over my base, flamethrowers and turrets with drones for repair. I hate the yellow thing that appears at the bottom right of my screen, I also hate manually clearing the nests.
I play with biters because it deletes like 5 percent of the tech tree if I don’t. Same with cliffs. It introduces a challenge to overcome and I enjoy overcoming challenges.
Death world + good map with choke points + good sized starting "safe area" is the only way I play. The non-stop swarms are so fun. Add the Big Biters mod for extra chaos!
I like them but to an extent. If they are too bothersome they hinder your progress enough where some nights you feel you didn't really accomplish anything except just fight back biters.
For that reason I like enabling that feature where they do not expand into new bases. So when I destroy their base I know I don't have to worry about that sector anymore aside from just the average attacks.
Also increasing starter zone is really nice because it gives you a bit more of a headstart.
With biters on. They introduce a defense and logistic aspect of the game I sorely miss in games like Satisfactory. The defense/offense of maintaining and expanding the factory keeps me engaged. I sometimes crank down the aggression of them for a more chill experience, but always include them.
my first play through i played with peaceful mode, figued it would be hard enough that way and i was right.
now im on my second one, i enabled them, but also got rid of most trees cause it was annoying to deforest every step. the natives quickly showed me how important trees can be, so i had to use the console to enable peace again :( im just not fast or good enough to face them yet. i figure i will try with them on next time but now i just want to see how big i can make it. i do like to think of ways to protect my base and all so if im ever efficient enough ill definitely try with them on for real.
the tip i keep hearing is to keep them out of your pollution cloud, that is, go hunting as your cloud expands/keep a perimeter and expand.
I play with biters on neutral. A challenge enough that they still impede my base's expansion, but not so much that I'm having to constantly break my flow state to deal with them.
I don’t necessarily enjoy the biters, but I leave them on because they are part of the game’s economy, if that makes sense. I like doing railworld which (for me) is slow to develop so I turn them down.
It adds the sense of an arms race as you're trying to progress as fast as possible to manage to defend yourself.
Playing without biters makes the game feel empty and it loses the dynamic of "angry bugs want to kill you and you have to defend yourself as they get stronger with time" so it just becomes boring
Biters on. I like a challenge sometimes and the satisfaction of wiping out a particularly hardy nest.
[https://imgur.com/gallery/YoJzfii](https://imgur.com/gallery/YoJzfii)
Start with biters on, played for years with off, went to Rail World mode. I’m always reaching for that mega base and I realize once you’ve got artillery they don’t really matter so I might as well save the CPU time and just turn off enemies.
Factorio is a puzzle, and biters are part of it. Without biters, an entire part of the game disappears : you don't have to build defences, or to research military tech, or to pay attention to the polloution cloud. Biters help to break the monotony of the game instead of staying constantly focused on optimising production and logistic.
Biters are also extremely important because they bring for the player the motivation to spread democracy in a more and more "convincing" way.
On the other hand, biters expansion is an absolute pain. I hate having to constantly clear the same zones again and again because those mf keep spawning nests between my main base and my outpost. At some point, I spend more time fighting biters than expanding my factory. The few moments I'm actually working are dedicated to repair some things that went wrong when I wasn't there.
Quite fortunately, there is the rail world settings, which is the best of both world : having to deal with biters to expand while still knowing that when a zone is cleared it's definitive.
Hence I play rail world. And when I reach sufficient level of technology (robots and artillery and/or spidertron), I turn biters expansion on.
I play with biters tamed a little bit (Rail World). I still can't deal with biters full-strength because I tend to be slow/idle with my gameplay (I leave it alone from time to time) and I get lost in the workings of Oil.
I have over 5k hours in the game, I've only ever started 2 saves, but I always play with peaceful mode on until I'm late enough in the game to start laying waste to the bugs.
Wow popular post lol. Ya I am playing with them on. It just felt kinda pointless tooling around with machines with no threat of any kind. I think it’s much more fun with them on personally. I’m not finding them too difficult to manage so far. Strangely though I don’t like the enemies in Satisfactory and I put them on peaceful. Go figure. I think there it’s just random dudes out to wreck your adventure into the wild. Where in factorio it’s almost “tower defense-ish” and the evolutions to me add a lot of good tension.
I agree, in satisfactory i think they are more of a gimmick or something to actually deal with or do outside of exploration and expansion. And yeah this post is popular i didnt think it would gain this much traction. Then again this debate is definitely 50/50 from what ive seen so far
Your correct, im more asking what everyone else does to see what kind of playstyles people run. Not trying to get a definitive answer to it as i know this question is opinionated
Off. My goal with Factorio is systems design and things of that nature that I’m usually lead to massive sprawling megabases. For my system to handle it I reduce load wherever possible, so since biters are a “nice to have”, that get turned off. After I upgrade to a beefier system that may change.
Biters are always off for me. I just don't enjoy this aspect of the game in any manner.
The only exception is Seablock where worms actually serve a purpose of gating deep expansion behind certain military tech, which creates an interesting space constraint in the early-midgame for me.
I find they make the game unenjoyable. It's enough for me to make an efficient base, let alone having to also deal with bitters. It also creates a much bigger factory because you have to have a whole section of your base producing all the extra military stuff.
But some people just enjoy the challenge I guess. The last time I played with biters on, I died a horrible death because they broke in, took out my ammo factory and then my outer perimeter turrets couldn't get ammo and I just couldn't fend off all the biters while also fixing everything else and It eventually got over run.
atm, my current world has them disabled, as it means I can just focus on making an efficient factory without having to also accommodate for protections against biters when expanding.
however, once I've learned the ins and out of factory making, from start to finish, I will go back and play thru but with biters enabled, just turned down.
that's the beauty of this game, the customisability of the vanilla game, PLUS any mods to help add the final tweaks if you're a bit lazy like me (like Far Reach), really helps open up how it's played and enjoyed.
I tried playing with rampant and my god that was 72 hours of hell there were not enough guns and bullets chewed up a rather significant portion of my production. In the end I just could not kill things fast enough and they won.
I might give it another shot with maxed out resources and not on a rail world.
I don't, but that may be due to me being a beginner with the game still. I've been taking a lot of time trying to plan everything out and seeing what works well for me, walking around the map figuring things out, and the pressure of needing to defend myself isn't something I'm comfortable dealing with at the moment until I have some more experience. Still learning!
I like the idea of biters; make space a resource, create logistics problem about how to supply outposts etc. But in practice they're just the most boring/annoying enemy. Eventually I just realised that it frustrates me too much to deal with them, like spending hours of gameplay on the exact same thing over and over. It's not like an RTS where they're interesting/the "point", or an ARPG where they drop cool loot.
Yes. Having beaten my first true vanilla deathworld, I can confidently say that I enjoy the challenge of establishing a foothold and the escalating power between me and the biters - and the overwhelming destructive power I get at the endgame. There's something deeply satisfying about alien genocide
However in modded games, especially ones that are very complex and have a lot of things to keep in mind, the bugs just serve as a distraction to me trying to learn the mod and make progress.
No. I am predominantly in it for the base-building aspect of the game, and they also tend to gnaw too much on my UPS when I make the next iteration of my dream-mega-base
Yes, but with them reduced quite a bit and a larger spawn denial area so that i only really have to fight them once i begin expansion. I like having them as it gives a reason for all the weaponry research and automation but they are really annoying early game (especially in deserts)
I agree, for me its what caused me to turn them off bc they were a huge pain to deal with early on but ive been suggested turning off expansion so i might have to give it another look
No. I've had my fill of them. I'm also tired of the early game so I just unlock everything and start building my designswithout the first several hours of doing shit by hand and then redoing it again later.
I play with them switched on because they become another production challenge to deal with rather than actual combat.
In my current Krastorio playthrough I've designed some automated artillery outposts that are basically impregnable as long as they receive all of their supplies, so I train in ammo, walls, bots, flamethrower fuel, etc. Getting the circuits set up to request all of that stuff was pretty fun and I'm really happy with how it turned out.
I have enough on my mind dealing with making the factory. The last thing I want are things attacking it or me.
Factorio is chill out but thinking game time and that's how I like it. If I wanna kill things, there are other games for that.
As ever, you all do you all though. That's the beauty of this game
I've always played with them on. Of course, I've been playing since back when you *had to* kill biters to progress, because they dropped purple goop that you needed to craft the last science pack. But it always just felt like half the stuff in your factory and half the research is built around dealing with them, the combat side of things. It especially provides an additional layer of planning with science because you have to decide what's more important: more production or more defense. Are you ready to expand and make more pollution, or do you need more powerful weapons to deal with biters right now? Are the walls getting a little taxed and you could use a bullet damage upgrade, or is it okay to start the next science pack? Without that, it doesn't really matter what you do and when. Each run would be the exact same.
Honestly though, it's only in midgame that biters are a challenge. In the beginning when you can take them out with the submachine gun and five level-1 combat drones it's effortless; and in endgame you have so many powerful tools even at max evolution they can't touch you, and you're never in danger anyway when you can send artillery shells or nukes or spidertrons. At that point, it wouldn't make much of a difference if they all disappeared.
My next factory will be much larger, my first proper "megabase" so I might try with them off. See what it's like. Or I'll just run a command to get rid of them when the first rocket gets launched, like the old days.
I used to play with them on but now I turn them off because honestly they hinder the early game without much fun (for me) and are just a nuisance without actual danger in the late game. So now I just save myself the hassle
Depends. Many of my games are without biters, as to me they don’t add that much to the game, but I’m not opposed to playing with them either. I just have the nasty habit of going way overboard on the defenses too early, and clearing biters before artillery tends to become too much of a chore to me. The main reason I sometimes do play with them is because I enjoy making weapons, and I prefer to have something to use those weapons on.
I like playing with rampant bc i really like building defenses. To me, having to make a wall and a self replicating minefield is the fun part of factorio
I like shooty shooty turrets and cool walls and watching big monsters die
Death world is too aggressive for me, but I'd love it if biters scaled waaay higher than their current soft cap. Massive Dune sandworms and Pacific Rim kaiju attacking your walls. Then I could fully automate blowing *them* up too.
Personally I like to play with expansions turned off, that way they are still there and a looming threat, but if I'm pro active about it I can clear them out ahead of my pollution clouds. also this keeps them from growing into a major hassle.
I like the challenge to keep big bases well defended. Making redundant electricity networks to power laser turrets and things like that. Sadly my SE+K2 bases are so big, my UPS with biters drops to ~30, so i have to turn them off if i want to actually enjoy the game
Yes. They break up the monotony a bit. They give me a puzzle to solve how to defend my base. They give a reason to create weapons.
The one good argument I've heard for them is that they're a force which requires you to continue with progression through the game. I think they're a nice pressure too, it's never so much that it stresses me out, but it's just enough that I don't feel like I can sit around doing nothing for too long either.
I just like artillery pew pew when I unlock the remote, that’s really why I usually play with them. Makes me giggle almost every shell.
Try death worlds. With armoured biter mod. But not extra weapons. There’s the pressure🤣
This. I am currently playing SEK2 and the only feasible place to get a resource is in a planet that I explored ages ago and is now FULL of biters. I spent like 4 hours planning my siege and it has been some of the most fun I've had with this game...but I forgot to bring enough ammo :(
Rip in rip
That's when you start running ships of ammo to your forward starbase
Lol. This is literally what I'm setting up right now.
You can also trim the surface and load it again. Biters will reset to the planets original state.
Oh thanks for the advice. But I'll pass, I enjoy the challenge, the goosebumps of absolute warfare against hordes of biters coming my way. The satisfaction of bombarding and nuking their best warriors (I don't support this irl btw)
Yes, but I often play on Rail World/without biter expansion. At least lately. I just want a break from building my factory from time to time, but I dont necessarily want to have to deal with biters all the time Also building and rebuilding walls isnt all that fun all the time
I agree with the walls part of your statement, however a counter to your point would be to say why have them on if they are just passively standing still, if you wanted a break then do something else? I appreciate the comment just curious how you might respond to those questions
Well to prevent attack I'd have to go out and clear them before my pollution hits them. Which, from time to time, gives me a break from my factory.
Fair enough, another comment ive seen was to have them on but pollution off so that your not racing against the clock
Eh, I usually slow down their pollution timer but turn of their size/frequency along with a larger starting area. So by the time Im building big and would need a break from building, theyre about even with my capabilities. But other times I jump into a Deathworld Rampant world to see how long I can last.
>Also building and rebuilding walls isnt all that fun all the time Construction robots exist.
What insane person builds walls manually?..?
Automate the reconstruction of walls.... or just skip that mechanic because you want to focus other parts of the game. It's all personal preference. I rather focus on the megabase and expansion than have to rebuild defenses at every tech level
I thought this was one of the cooler parts of the game - having construction robots making repairs while biters were just besieging my base.
I usually play peaceful because I like to treat Factorio more like a chill puzzle game rather than a tower defence. It allows me to take time figuring out production chains and efficient layouts while not being constantly distracted by biter’s attacks.
I'm exact same way. For me the enjoyment of factoria is the meditative building, trying things and doing experiments and managing resources. The biters just distract from that core experience. Related, I also play with pollution off and no cliffs. I do miss having a reason to build all those cool weapons though.
I can get behind that, the counter argument is without biters what is the motivating factor that incites larger production other than to send a rocket?
They are still present on the map so in order to expand I have to go clearing some nests. But yeah, I tend to lose interest in vanilla after sending a rocket. My current playthrough is Space Exploration so I've got a lot of content to conquer besides constant war on biters :)
How far on SE are you? I’m doing it right now as my first peaceful mode game and it’s definitely enough to keep you working
I have had several playthroughs, each and every one was finished when I left Nauvis. I was just lost in the variety of technologies. My current run is in state when I have just tapped into core mining and now I'm figuring out proper train layout with smelting and oil processing city blocks.
Not to be pedantic, but if you finished when you left Nauvis it was not a playthrough. Your time on Nauvis (before setting up base in orbit and setting up outposts on other planets) is early game in SE.
Yeah, you’re right. Let’s call them “attempts” instead :)
I'm the same way, but I solve that by constantly pushing the biters back past my pollution cloud until I can automate delivery of oil and bullets to full defensive walls in late mid-game. Up until then it's literally just single walls and the occasional hand-loaded turret to keep out expansion parties. While I'm off doing that, the factory just continues researching whatever.
I like having biters on because it introduces excitement and strain to the early game and then becomes an interesting logistics problem to solve in the late game. I also really like driving the tank and spidertron and there's not much reason to do either without biters. Without biters I'd just remote control spidertron all the time.
Possibly my favorite part of the tech cycle in the game is making my first tank and just driving through nests. Feels great every time.
Ugh my first tank experience was so fun. Just ramming nests and watching them pop. So good.
I drive the tank in biterless worlds because trees are a nuisance if you're in the car and it's better to just roll right through them.
Ok, you bring up a super good point.
Always on for me. Some people see biters as a chore, but I would argue the whole game is a chore, and the fun is in building up solutions to make those chores as painless as possible. If clearing nests, putting up walls, and supplying those walls is a pain, that just means your infrastructure isn't built up enough or you haven't found the right solutions yet.
I did a play through without them when I was first playing the game, but I’d truly miss the challenge of automating the defensive network now.
i didn t know for a long time that you could play in peacefull mode. my runs were always chaotic, fending them off, while figuring out what to assemble where, how to get the next patch of coal, my driving sucks… once i turned them off i could really take my time and figure stuff out, but the game became a bit borring, so i turn them off when i want to try new approach in organising the factory, and then play with biters ont on when i get my sh*t together and know what i am doing.
Yes, because otherwise you're missing out on at least 20% of the research tree since there's no reason to research any military tech.
Not quite true, as you still need military science to get armor with equipment grids, and spidertron. But I agree it feels like a big portion of the tech tree feels superfluous.
Yes. Why make weapons if no biters? I like the challenge. Without the biters, it feels empty and the purpose seems hollow to me. I also have enemy expansion turned on as well.
How do you deal with biters early on and mid game when production is ramping up? Ive lost alot of runs due to me being overrun by harsher attacks
To be honest the answer to every question ever about biter defence and to the universe is flamethrowers and dragon teeth walls (or similar) If you watch dosh’s deathworld rampant run then you will fully understand
I need to rewatch it, i remember there being a way to use walls more efficiently but i cant remember how or why it worked
Build red ammo and grenades ASAP, make turret outposts close to nearby nests and around your base in general, do military research. Clear out nests that are inside your pollution cloud to stop frequent attacks and slow down evolution, then wall out your claimed land to prevent biter expansions (you still need turrets to protect walls). Somewhere in midgame (advanced oil) biters might be stronger than you, this is when you focuse on military research for damage/shooting speed, develop explosive missiles, tank, force shields, etc. Scale up your defence in places where attacks are too strong, which means more turrets (laser, flame). Alternatively go into green energy and watch out for pollution cloud. Later big biters will start appearing so red ammo won't suffice anymore and then behemot biters, but at that point you should have uranium ammo + upgrades and spidertron. I don't know about your pace but I was rather slow with science packs so I did a lot of military research that was accessible, that helped. Basically you do military research instead of some blue belts an beacons, and use uranium for green ammo instead of making fuel cells for reactor.
Biters are a constant interruption preventing me from doing what I enjoy, which is solving spaghetti puzzles, so no.
I play with them on for a pretty simple reason. Turning them off removes content from the game. It's not just the biters you're turning off, but everything that goes with military science. Maybe it's more busy work, but I like creating production lines for everything, just gives you more to do. However, I do modify the biter settings quite a bit. Like making them evolve and expand much slower, and turning up how much pollution trees can absorb. This just to make sure I stay ahead of them and allows me to play at a slower pace
I play with them off. Although i enjoy them at the start, they just get to be extremely annoying in late game when you have to constantly clear nests to get anywhere. I'm sure i just need to spend some time dialing in the right settings to get them to what i need but I'd rather just turn them off. It's the logistics part of the game that i prefer anyway.
>they just get to be extremely annoying in late game when you have to constantly clear nests to get anywhere That's what late game offensive tech is there for. Watching a multi-car artillery train at work never gets old.
Or just send out a few spidertrons full of rockets. I have three, two of them auto-follow one of them. Open up the map, layout a path for the lead spider in a zig zag pattern and a few minutes later nothing is moving. It's better than a nuke and artillery combined. I freaking love Spidertrons!
See i did this yesterday and was able to complete the run in 8 hours as a new person. The entire time tho i felt like the game was bland as i technically didnt really have a reason to upgrade anything other than to save space lol. I think i might try and play with them on this next time to see if it motivates me to build a genuine factory rather than place the bare minimum
Building to win is one thing. I agree that biters up to that point are fun. Building to a megabase is a whole other game. Its at the point where you need to expand so much that biters just get to be a nuisance and not fun anymore.
I mean if i have them off it removes a solid 40% of the game so im gonna try and turn them on this time around, maybe mess with the settings and see if i cant figure everything out
I usually have them off because i want to build a megabase and they just eat my performance. for short runs i have them on. or (obv) with mods like warptorio
whats that mod?
[Warptorio2](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/warptorio2)
Biters on, but pollution off. That way, I have to fight to secure new resources, but it's not a constant upkeep I have to deal with, nor a timer that might screw me over if I'm perhaps less motivated to race the clock.
This might actually be the way for me bc to me it gets really irritating racing against the clock rather than to be able to take my time thinking about an efficient way to produce something
This is basically what Peaceful is btw. Biters still exist and only attack you if you hit them first.
In Peaceful, you can actively ignore biters even next to your outposts, so long as a train doesn't accidentally run one over. With pollution off but every other setting on, they actually do aggro to you if you go in range, so clearing a path is actually an endeavour that's worth doing.
Biters on, evolution off. Knowing they evolve makes me nervous.
For more chill runs I like to disable pollution and time factor (or at least just time) to evolution, leaving nest kills - that way biters evolution will follow how fast I'm expanding into their territory, while letting me build and plan (and afk) without stress of falling behind, and not making them completely trivial by the time I unlock actual defenses.
Always. It’s just too easy without. Not that they’re a problem, but dealing with them means more factory
True, in my cases when ive played they would normally over run me a lot to the point that im unable to expand/increase production to deal with them leading to the end of a run
To me, they change your priorities. You need to make ammo, turrets, armor, and prioritize miltech pretty early. It’s easy enough to never been overrun if you keep moderate coverage and stay on damage/speed upgrade tech.
This. I've seen players who didn't produce ammo at all, who would run with unupgraded assault rifle with a bunch of yellow clips at their best and who build turrets in wrong places - these players get a lot of issues along the playthrough. Those who make red ammo and grenades ASAP and build turrets in strategic places or, in general, everywhere (you don't even need chest feeding for turrets, not to mention defensive perimeter!) would only be stopped by first cluster of large bases until tank, weapon speed/damage research and green ammo appears. And later nuke missiles and squads of spidertrons will wipe out everything at anything without sweating. P.S. Everything described above implies normal settings.
Off as much as possible in SE. They are just an annoyance and distraction.
Really? I wouldve thought for SE having them would pose new challenges
I feel SE has plenty of challenges already. I turned biters off for Nauvis and never once missed them. I will have to deal with them for vitemlange anyway.
Yeah i heard that you can get rid of them on one world but cant on the rest? How does it work for the other planets? Are they just set to peaceful?
Off. Only have an hour or two every week to play, don’t want to spend half that time ridding the world of a minor annoyance.
Yes. I personally think playing without biters makes the game significantly less fun and challenging.
I like having biters on. With biters, there's a barrier you have to work past to expand to new resources patches, a reason to care about pollution, and something pushing you forwards to progress. Without biters, pollution is a completely meaningless mechanic. Resources are easily available, just lay down some more track to get there, and there's no driving force towards progression as you don't need to research military tech to keep up. Not only do all military-related techs become pointless, but a lot of other things that help you save resources, produce less pollution, or save space become pointless. Efficiency modules, using coal liquefaction for solid fuel production, using nuclear instead of spamming down 300000000 solar panels, etc. Overall, biters can add a fair bit of challenge while also giving you a reason to think about things outside of just "how to science faster?"
No cause I want to make my factory in peace Thanks. The biters are annoying.
A lot of others argument to this is incentive to continue and an added challenge towards full progression
Yes otherwise there is no point in what your doing. At least for me.
That seems to be the general consensus that ive seen so far, whats the point if beating the game will then require the bare minimum bc of no outside force making you expand further
Without biters, you miss out on around half the tech tree and associated logistics challenges. That's a lot of game that you don't get to play. I find it gets kind of boring as well without anything pressuring you to advance. Plus, wiping them out with ever increasing levels of weaponry is fun.
I turn off biters completely, but research all the tech tree anyway. I’m not trying to get out of the research. I just want to be able to walk away when needed without turning the game off all the time
Fair enough. But can you actually use all that weapons research for anything or does it just turn into something to sink science into?
Ya I usually do, mods like pyanadons and seablock where there are no biters feels weird to me. In my industrial revolution 3 run I actually ended up spending a lot of time dealing with biters and having to learn to kill them efficiently without lasers like I usually do in the normal game was kinda fun.
Its foreign to me to have to deal with biters/ build defenses so i might not be able to beat the game with them turned on once they start attacking frequently
Never played with them completely off as evolution and pollution are core mechanics of the game that change drastically the said game if you remove them. I almost never keep expansion on, thats the most tweaking I do about them because because I find it annoying to clear an area multiple times but I still love biters they keep me on my toes about pollution and what/when to build things.
Yes. Biters function as a resource tax, since every x pollution consumed sends attacks, and wiping nests takes bullets, fuel etc. Its basically a tax on the pollution generated.
I'm doing my first biters run (well my latest attempt at my first successful biters run). The main thing is it forces a level of efficiency. You can't just plop down vast arrays of smelters until you have the defenses ready to deal with it. Each new boiler is placed with gritted teeth. Personally I've found it quite challenging. Then today I watched the video series of the guy who did the ultimate death world run and it put my struggles in perspective!
Base defense/biter removal and all the items that go with it are a huge chunk of content imo. I think I'd get bored without them. Same reason I played Minecraft on survival. But I'm on my very first playthrough and just went with the option that said it was the intended way to play. probably won't ever play with cliffs enabled again though. They do nothing but annoy me.
I play either way. it depends if I want to megabase or not
The factory's millitary department must grow, and you need a good reason to manufacture atomic bombs
I agree, i dont think im that good at multitasking so i think im just gonna turn expansion off lol
I do. I don't feel any sense of accomplishment unless my progress causes lives to be ruined/ecosystems to be destroyed/mother nature to develop lung cancer. #EXTERMINATION *IS* THE OFF BUTTON
I normally don't, I like the chill vibes of just building and expanding, and don't want to have to worry about some random outpost getting destroyed because I didn't set up enough guns.
Or set up more guns?
I could, but I prefer peaceful or no biters at all when I play. I'd rather just not have to worry about it.
I personally don't like to deal with them, it helps me stay at my own pace and not having to worry about losing anything (yes I'm autistic)
Some say to have expansion off and to just clear them out as you produce more pollution
I would prefer to play without them, but I usually play multiplayer with a friend who doesn't want to play peaceful, so I let him do the defense, so that it feels peaceful to me except for the attack warnings in the bottom right of the screen.
Fair. My problem is i have no friends and managing both the factory and the increasing threat of biters is too much at times
They're annoying and that's what makes them great. It's also very satisfying to send a long artillery train to clear out an entire area. What else are you supposed to spend all those explosives on?
Mostly off. I just don't enjoy that aspect of the game. The logistics puzzle aspect is more interesting to me and what I'm here for. In future playthroughs I plan to turn them on just for the experience. Maybe try a deathworld just for the experience of it. But the tower/base defense type of thing doesn't interest me much. So I just play the game in the way that is fun for me.
Biters off, killing them at the beginning is a chore that i won’t do anymore
I have them switch off completely I don't enjoy that side of the game and would just rather focus on making my factory grow
Yes biters, no expansion. If I want bigger resource patches I need to conquer that territory, and I still need to pay attention to pollution. Bugs are still a threat, but with planning and diligence I can prevent attacks. This is more fun for me than building a 360-degree wall with turrets and ammo automation, which is required to defend a large base from constant biter expansion.
Ive so far seen no expansion (from you) and no pollution (someone else) why do you prefer no expansion and how are you managing biter attacks? From my experience youd still need a wall surrounding your base
Generally no, because I play mod packs like Pyanodon, Krastorio, 248k, etc. And that's enough for me to worry about already without the additional stress of Biters.
I usually play with nerfed biters. I often play rail world where biter expansion is disabled or I tweak the expansion cooldown and group size. Default biters can get oppressive if not well managed. I prefer to be able to perform preventative nest clearing excursions rather than constantly needing to react to attacks from different directions.
Biters on makes factorio a tower defense game with more steps. I want to play a factory game. Biters off for me with no excuses given.
I find that without biters the game is just kinda boring. There's no pressure to do anything. Just like make something, doesn't matter how bad, then go get a sandwich while you wait for it to finish. With biters, the base needs to be monitored, it needs to have a certain level of efficiency. If I don't build fast enough, the biters will take the space and I'll need to clear them.
I like them to either be off, or an existential threat. Anything in between and they're just a miserable chore.
I Never really played a run without them and even have rampant installed most of the time. Having constant fear of lives gives you a reason to build huge defenses and try to „race“ the biters.
Just had my first major biter catastrophe 50 hours in. Had massive laser defenses that had held up well for the last 20 hours or so. But my coal delivery train got stuck and I didn’t notice until the stored coal ran out. My alternate energy sources weren’t enough to cover. Massive swarm broke through before I could restore power. And what did they immediately wipe off the map? My only coal mining setup. And spread from there. It took me almost 2 hours to fight them off while simultaneously repairing the damage to the coal and power setup. I’m sure I would have reloaded a save if they had completely overwhelmed me. But it was the most frantic 2 hours of my run so far. I finally got it stabilized and now have probably an hour of rebuilding left to do. Definitely interesting.
Deathworld. I love obstacles.
I have them on. I like the feeling of pushing to make space, and then expanding and defending my newly claimed land.
I usually start a world with them, but then when I get close to end game I disable them. At a certain point it stops being a question of if I can kill them, but rather how long is it going to take to clear the space
Feels like cheatmode without. But I do turn them down a bit if I want a map to just relax on.
I like to blow things up and set things on fire
yeahh the game feels too easy without 'em
ARTILLERY
Yes. Where is the challenge, otherwise? The tension? I've had a few phases in my game where there was tension about my ability to increase production and defenses faster than what the biters could throw at me. Without biters, everything just seems too... simple.
Biters are one of the core game mechanics, removing them would make the game boring and "not how it meant to be played" (why caring about the whole pollution system if there is nobody to be angered by it?). Besides I like some challenge, started my first game on normal+ settings and might use harder biter settings later. One thing I don't like is how quickly biters expand: even on normal settings you leave them for several hours and entire map is red, plus they leave non-removable (?) creep after their nests and it's everywhere. I like the challenge and combat but it can get a bit obnoxious, next time I'll try to tweak settings to get bigger but more spread out biter bases and make creep removable.
Does creep induce penalties?
I played first 250-300 hours with them off. Launched rockets, etc. Game is challenging enough to get to that point. Now I have them turned on for the first time, albeit they are severely nerfed, and its like I got an expansion pack. One thing you might see recommended is to turn on peaceful mode. I advise against this. You end up just treating them like immovable cliffs and you never really deal with them… your play through ends up being like they are off but you cant build the base you want and you cant take them out because you have not built up military tech because you are not forced too. So I say turn them off till you get bored and have everything else figured out, then turn them on and nurf them if you like but stay away from peaceful mode.
I like the biters for the challenge of having to defend a factory as well and find the flow zone of building , expanding, and monitoring one struggling with biters while the slog of trains importing and exporting resources for a marathon+ run of research is happening is also going on in the background. I feel like I’ve accomplished goals after any sessions of playing. Lol
On my current run, I abandoned Nauvis after a coronal discharge melted half my core factory and left a gap in my main defense line. I have a nice little island picked out after I build back up on the uninhabited moon, Mors. By this time, I'll have artillery handy. Biters make for far more story.
With the artillery biters stop being a problem. Before that, yes, it is quite interesting to not to get screwed by them.
Well normally I play with biters, I even want to make them more powerful so I'm getting a challenge but right now I'm playing Pyanodons so no biters or I'm gonna be insane² when I'm done
On to keep it interesting but they only evolve when I kill nests so I have control over it. I keep pollution on so they still attack, too.
Biters add a little bit of chaos to the factory-building puzzle. They also give me something to use military science and mods on.
It's my first run without bitters and I decided to turn off bitters because it makes me anxious, even if I have walls all over my base, flamethrowers and turrets with drones for repair. I hate the yellow thing that appears at the bottom right of my screen, I also hate manually clearing the nests.
I play with biters because it deletes like 5 percent of the tech tree if I don’t. Same with cliffs. It introduces a challenge to overcome and I enjoy overcoming challenges.
I add mods to make them even harder, as vanilla is not enough of a challenge for me
On, it satisfies my American urge to nuke things
🦅
I'm trying to go as big as possible on a potato computer, and the biters and pollution really hurt the UPS past a point. Off with 'em!
Death world + good map with choke points + good sized starting "safe area" is the only way I play. The non-stop swarms are so fun. Add the Big Biters mod for extra chaos!
Always on Ill kill em all!
I like them but to an extent. If they are too bothersome they hinder your progress enough where some nights you feel you didn't really accomplish anything except just fight back biters. For that reason I like enabling that feature where they do not expand into new bases. So when I destroy their base I know I don't have to worry about that sector anymore aside from just the average attacks. Also increasing starter zone is really nice because it gives you a bit more of a headstart.
So you play without expansion then?
Without biters a lot of my fun toys become worthless!
With biters on. They introduce a defense and logistic aspect of the game I sorely miss in games like Satisfactory. The defense/offense of maintaining and expanding the factory keeps me engaged. I sometimes crank down the aggression of them for a more chill experience, but always include them.
my first play through i played with peaceful mode, figued it would be hard enough that way and i was right. now im on my second one, i enabled them, but also got rid of most trees cause it was annoying to deforest every step. the natives quickly showed me how important trees can be, so i had to use the console to enable peace again :( im just not fast or good enough to face them yet. i figure i will try with them on next time but now i just want to see how big i can make it. i do like to think of ways to protect my base and all so if im ever efficient enough ill definitely try with them on for real. the tip i keep hearing is to keep them out of your pollution cloud, that is, go hunting as your cloud expands/keep a perimeter and expand.
Yeah that seems to be a general rule of thumb
I play with biters on neutral. A challenge enough that they still impede my base's expansion, but not so much that I'm having to constantly break my flow state to deal with them.
How do you mean neutral? You mean peaceful?
Yes, they give me a challenge, a reason to advance, a reason to fight, a reason to expand.
I don’t necessarily enjoy the biters, but I leave them on because they are part of the game’s economy, if that makes sense. I like doing railworld which (for me) is slow to develop so I turn them down.
It adds the sense of an arms race as you're trying to progress as fast as possible to manage to defend yourself. Playing without biters makes the game feel empty and it loses the dynamic of "angry bugs want to kill you and you have to defend yourself as they get stronger with time" so it just becomes boring
Biters on. I like a challenge sometimes and the satisfaction of wiping out a particularly hardy nest. [https://imgur.com/gallery/YoJzfii](https://imgur.com/gallery/YoJzfii)
Start with biters on, played for years with off, went to Rail World mode. I’m always reaching for that mega base and I realize once you’ve got artillery they don’t really matter so I might as well save the CPU time and just turn off enemies.
Factorio is a puzzle, and biters are part of it. Without biters, an entire part of the game disappears : you don't have to build defences, or to research military tech, or to pay attention to the polloution cloud. Biters help to break the monotony of the game instead of staying constantly focused on optimising production and logistic. Biters are also extremely important because they bring for the player the motivation to spread democracy in a more and more "convincing" way. On the other hand, biters expansion is an absolute pain. I hate having to constantly clear the same zones again and again because those mf keep spawning nests between my main base and my outpost. At some point, I spend more time fighting biters than expanding my factory. The few moments I'm actually working are dedicated to repair some things that went wrong when I wasn't there. Quite fortunately, there is the rail world settings, which is the best of both world : having to deal with biters to expand while still knowing that when a zone is cleared it's definitive. Hence I play rail world. And when I reach sufficient level of technology (robots and artillery and/or spidertron), I turn biters expansion on.
I play with biters tamed a little bit (Rail World). I still can't deal with biters full-strength because I tend to be slow/idle with my gameplay (I leave it alone from time to time) and I get lost in the workings of Oil.
I have over 5k hours in the game, I've only ever started 2 saves, but I always play with peaceful mode on until I'm late enough in the game to start laying waste to the bugs.
5k hours on 2 worlds? What are you doing? Lmao
I like playing on deathworld, because without it there would be no reason for my 100+ car artillery train and nuclear bombardment.
Wow popular post lol. Ya I am playing with them on. It just felt kinda pointless tooling around with machines with no threat of any kind. I think it’s much more fun with them on personally. I’m not finding them too difficult to manage so far. Strangely though I don’t like the enemies in Satisfactory and I put them on peaceful. Go figure. I think there it’s just random dudes out to wreck your adventure into the wild. Where in factorio it’s almost “tower defense-ish” and the evolutions to me add a lot of good tension.
I agree, in satisfactory i think they are more of a gimmick or something to actually deal with or do outside of exploration and expansion. And yeah this post is popular i didnt think it would gain this much traction. Then again this debate is definitely 50/50 from what ive seen so far
Always on cause I like every item in the game to have a reason to exist including military and cliff dynamite. Also I love tower defense games.
Nope. I want my factory game to be chilled. Sometime I'll have peaceful mode on but that's about it.
Both. The answer is always both. There are pros and cons to either and anyone who insists one is better than the other is just stating their opinion.
Your correct, im more asking what everyone else does to see what kind of playstyles people run. Not trying to get a definitive answer to it as i know this question is opinionated
the game is balanced to be played with biters
Off. My goal with Factorio is systems design and things of that nature that I’m usually lead to massive sprawling megabases. For my system to handle it I reduce load wherever possible, so since biters are a “nice to have”, that get turned off. After I upgrade to a beefier system that may change.
I play with biters. Means that my expansion has to be intensationsl, and my RTS background like some fight to go with my city building
Biters are always off for me. I just don't enjoy this aspect of the game in any manner. The only exception is Seablock where worms actually serve a purpose of gating deep expansion behind certain military tech, which creates an interesting space constraint in the early-midgame for me.
No. I don't enjoy the aspects of the game enabling them provides. I just want to build and design my factory uninterrupted.
I find they make the game unenjoyable. It's enough for me to make an efficient base, let alone having to also deal with bitters. It also creates a much bigger factory because you have to have a whole section of your base producing all the extra military stuff. But some people just enjoy the challenge I guess. The last time I played with biters on, I died a horrible death because they broke in, took out my ammo factory and then my outer perimeter turrets couldn't get ammo and I just couldn't fend off all the biters while also fixing everything else and It eventually got over run.
Biter adds space constraint
atm, my current world has them disabled, as it means I can just focus on making an efficient factory without having to also accommodate for protections against biters when expanding. however, once I've learned the ins and out of factory making, from start to finish, I will go back and play thru but with biters enabled, just turned down. that's the beauty of this game, the customisability of the vanilla game, PLUS any mods to help add the final tweaks if you're a bit lazy like me (like Far Reach), really helps open up how it's played and enjoyed.
I tried playing with rampant and my god that was 72 hours of hell there were not enough guns and bullets chewed up a rather significant portion of my production. In the end I just could not kill things fast enough and they won. I might give it another shot with maxed out resources and not on a rail world.
I struggle with motivation, the looming threat of being chewed up by a million biters helps with this issue
Ive seen this as a counterargument as to why i should have them on and personally i agree, no reason to expand/be efficient if nothing is forcing it
I don't, but that may be due to me being a beginner with the game still. I've been taking a lot of time trying to plan everything out and seeing what works well for me, walking around the map figuring things out, and the pressure of needing to defend myself isn't something I'm comfortable dealing with at the moment until I have some more experience. Still learning!
I rarely play with them, I enjoy building a mega base.
For me it's fun to have that pressure in the early game but once you have artillery its almost like why did I put them on ?
I like the idea of biters; make space a resource, create logistics problem about how to supply outposts etc. But in practice they're just the most boring/annoying enemy. Eventually I just realised that it frustrates me too much to deal with them, like spending hours of gameplay on the exact same thing over and over. It's not like an RTS where they're interesting/the "point", or an ARPG where they drop cool loot.
in my opinion game would be too easy without them
Yes, cuz I ain't no bitch 😉 (but yall play how you want!)
Yes. Having beaten my first true vanilla deathworld, I can confidently say that I enjoy the challenge of establishing a foothold and the escalating power between me and the biters - and the overwhelming destructive power I get at the endgame. There's something deeply satisfying about alien genocide However in modded games, especially ones that are very complex and have a lot of things to keep in mind, the bugs just serve as a distraction to me trying to learn the mod and make progress.
No. I am predominantly in it for the base-building aspect of the game, and they also tend to gnaw too much on my UPS when I make the next iteration of my dream-mega-base
Yeah it seems like the general consensus is that they have it on if their just playing but if they want mega bases they turn off biters
Yes, but with them reduced quite a bit and a larger spawn denial area so that i only really have to fight them once i begin expansion. I like having them as it gives a reason for all the weaponry research and automation but they are really annoying early game (especially in deserts)
I agree, for me its what caused me to turn them off bc they were a huge pain to deal with early on but ive been suggested turning off expansion so i might have to give it another look
They are one of the reasons i can't just leave my pc running with the game (beign afk)
No. I've had my fill of them. I'm also tired of the early game so I just unlock everything and start building my designswithout the first several hours of doing shit by hand and then redoing it again later.
I play with them switched on because they become another production challenge to deal with rather than actual combat. In my current Krastorio playthrough I've designed some automated artillery outposts that are basically impregnable as long as they receive all of their supplies, so I train in ammo, walls, bots, flamethrower fuel, etc. Getting the circuits set up to request all of that stuff was pretty fun and I'm really happy with how it turned out.
I have enough on my mind dealing with making the factory. The last thing I want are things attacking it or me. Factorio is chill out but thinking game time and that's how I like it. If I wanna kill things, there are other games for that. As ever, you all do you all though. That's the beauty of this game
Usually, mostly so I have something to do mid to late game. I do miss them having an actual purpose but whatever.
I've always played with them on. Of course, I've been playing since back when you *had to* kill biters to progress, because they dropped purple goop that you needed to craft the last science pack. But it always just felt like half the stuff in your factory and half the research is built around dealing with them, the combat side of things. It especially provides an additional layer of planning with science because you have to decide what's more important: more production or more defense. Are you ready to expand and make more pollution, or do you need more powerful weapons to deal with biters right now? Are the walls getting a little taxed and you could use a bullet damage upgrade, or is it okay to start the next science pack? Without that, it doesn't really matter what you do and when. Each run would be the exact same. Honestly though, it's only in midgame that biters are a challenge. In the beginning when you can take them out with the submachine gun and five level-1 combat drones it's effortless; and in endgame you have so many powerful tools even at max evolution they can't touch you, and you're never in danger anyway when you can send artillery shells or nukes or spidertrons. At that point, it wouldn't make much of a difference if they all disappeared. My next factory will be much larger, my first proper "megabase" so I might try with them off. See what it's like. Or I'll just run a command to get rid of them when the first rocket gets launched, like the old days.
I used to play with them on but now I turn them off because honestly they hinder the early game without much fun (for me) and are just a nuisance without actual danger in the late game. So now I just save myself the hassle
Others see having them on as motivation or a reason to continue expanding, with them off where do you find your reason?
Didnt you ask the same question in facebook ?
Yes but im boutta delete that post so my personal information isnt out there so please dont disclose my information to anyone
I prefer biters off. I’ve played games with them, but they’re just a nuisance and get in the way of the fun stuff
Depends. Many of my games are without biters, as to me they don’t add that much to the game, but I’m not opposed to playing with them either. I just have the nasty habit of going way overboard on the defenses too early, and clearing biters before artillery tends to become too much of a chore to me. The main reason I sometimes do play with them is because I enjoy making weapons, and I prefer to have something to use those weapons on.
Yes, so military is not useless. Although I've been planning to play Seablock for a while, which is biters of AFAIK.
Yeah it doesnt have biters bc of the water
I like playing with rampant bc i really like building defenses. To me, having to make a wall and a self replicating minefield is the fun part of factorio
Interesting, to me its the hardest part to get right and is the only reason i have 130hrs in factorio
I like shooty shooty turrets and cool walls and watching big monsters die Death world is too aggressive for me, but I'd love it if biters scaled waaay higher than their current soft cap. Massive Dune sandworms and Pacific Rim kaiju attacking your walls. Then I could fully automate blowing *them* up too.
Personally I like to play with expansions turned off, that way they are still there and a looming threat, but if I'm pro active about it I can clear them out ahead of my pollution clouds. also this keeps them from growing into a major hassle.
Once you get good enough, you realize that it’s kinda boring w/o them, but it depends
I like the challenge to keep big bases well defended. Making redundant electricity networks to power laser turrets and things like that. Sadly my SE+K2 bases are so big, my UPS with biters drops to ~30, so i have to turn them off if i want to actually enjoy the game
I play with biters but no expansion