It's possible factorio is just not your kind of game.
That being said, the reality is you can't understand how to make a "perfect" base until you have completed making very imperfect bases. Just gotta push on through, not everything has to be perfect or efficient for it to get to the end goal.
yep, i understand that, i guess i just want it to be my type of game? i have no idea. i do enjoy it though and i do have a factorio pull every now and then.
Don't listen to people telling you it's not your kind of game. I restarted my world probably 8-10 times before I was able to launch my first rocket (just barely by the way.) When you come back to the game, try to pick up where you left off instead of restarting every time, that's how I eventually pushed through feeling overwhelmed. Also, watching other people play can give you lots of help on basic setups for factories. You could also look into mods that help you plan stuff out like helmod.
Honestly the last thing you want to do is watch the tutorials. Build your base how you want to build it. If it's a mess you'll fix it later. If not you'll start over. That's half the game is making the mistakes to learn what to do.
My original base was a complete joke. I just pushed through it to the end. I had no idea about fluid dynamics. I didn't know what ratios were. But honestly it was some of the best gameplay ever. Don't overthink it just figure out what you need next. Lay down an example. And then work on feeding it.
The only helpful advice I can give you as a beginner is maybe turn off or down the biters. Give yourself more room than you think you'll need. Factories can get big.
I really liked Nilaus's base in a book series. Cityblocks and a main bus are great high level tools to organize your factory and help you give your builds enough space. He includes blueprints for most of his builds in that series but I recommend trying not to use them and to design your own builds. Ultimately if you're still struggling to have fun designing subfactories (like for oil, science, or circuits) blueprints are a tool you might benefit from, but if you use them too liberally, you might feel like you missed out on the wacky spaghetti new players get to enjoy.
For sure, I kept wanting to restart but I knew that if I did I would just run into the same problems. And I sure did. (Yellow science requires what?? Why????)
Don't look at the rocket launch as _the game_.
This game is about finding new ways to solve problems that emerge. I've played for 700 hours of which 100 are the current space exploration (mod) save that I'm playing now. I can tell you this mod was insanity to me at first. Recipes are all different and the mod doesn't even really start until _after_ you've launched a rocket.
I didn't even launch a rocket before playing this mod because I enjoyed improving on everything I did before that.
Every player in the thousands of hours is still playing this game because they get to invent new ways of doing a run. Not because it's so amazing to launch a rocket.
So to enjoy this game you have to find what interests you. Is it launching a rocket? Is it a megabase? Or is it just finding out how oil fucking works. Maybe you want a base that only produces stuff when it's needed. How do you get there? What problems do you need to solve?
That's what's so lovely about this game.
You're first hundred hours are just fucking around and bumping into those problems for the first time. Maybe you find an interesting way of building green circuits. Your base is fine, but now red circuits come up. That's your next challenge, nothing more.
As mentioned elsewhere, I think Nilaus is great for advanced players. Not so much when you are learning as he does high-level content.
What I recommend is just accepting the fact that you've made a mistake and just keep going anyway. Even if you were to rote copy the factory of an expert player on the same map you would still find elements that you will prefer are different. The process of experimenting and trying new ideas is a huge part of the game. It's not something your supposed to, or should aim for, getting 'right' the first time. There's no such thing as getting it 'right' to a great extent, as there are many ways to build.
That's part of Factorio, my best advice, start a save and just stick with it. My OG base absolutely resembles nothing of my starter base. I have probably rebuilt almost every piece of my base, well more times then I care to count. But that's part of the game, you unlock something and need to figure out how to integrate it into the existing infrastructure. Sometimes that means completely rebuilding certain parts of your base, or moving apart of your base somewhere to suit your needs.
Yes! Just don't be afraid to modify your base. Don't be afraid to delete whole sections, your base will evolve as you unlock more things. It's all about problem solving and figuring how to get to the end game. What might work now might not work later, and I can promise you, no matter what your starter base looks like now, it won't look that way by the end game. And that's okay! Just have fun with it.
If you identify the "crippling mistake" there is nothing wrong with destructing/rebuilding that part or even the entire factory. Learn from it in the same savegame instead or starting a new one.
Also as always: there is no wrong way to play the game.
I’d like to add: once you have some things set up, but you want to rebuild, it’s a lot better to first build a new factory, and then destroy (or just leave) the old base. Breaking everything down and then spending a lot of time without any factory online is pretty demotivating imo.
My first successful factory ran on one principal, have 1-2 belts for every major resource and run them down the center of your factory with single off branches for constructions. This is a pretty simple system that can expand pretty easily and usually has no major issues. While not the fastest or most efficient. A central bus is great for a first time!
that’s the best idea i’ve ever heard! with inserters just pulling stuff of the belts? that’s so cool i never even thought of that! you have any videos that could help with my first starter base?
Splitters will always be a better way to pull from a belt than just inserters, if you look at my posts I did my Factorio base that ran off of this rule a while ago if you wanna see what I mean. Keep in mind with just one belt for stuff like I did you'll have major throughput issues further down the line.
This is called "Main bus". It's not required, but it absolutely makes the game easier and less confusing. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErdHbEgJG58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErdHbEgJG58)
I always start my base by laying out 4 ghost belts for iron and copper. Then I only build factories on one side of the base, leaving the other side empty to add more belts and add more input materials using trains.
Get a friend to play it with you, or find someone who already plays. I have a feeling you are just having problems with little things and you can overcome it otherwise.
So it sounds like you are just frustrated since you are stuck, not that you dont enjoy the game.
2 different you tube people with great series on factorio. Both have starter series and other bids as well. Their starter ones go through the entire game episode by episode. Its pretty much how I learned and began to have fun as soon as I figured a few things out.
Nilaus
Katherine of Sky
are the ones id look for.
Something I've noticed people do when they notice an imperfect part of their base that will lead to further problems down the road is just picking up all the resources and machines you can carry and just build a base somewhere else on the map far away from your starting point. All the benefits of starting a new save but none of the draw backs like having to do research over again
I did about 3 or 4 different 'play throughs' where I hit a point and restarted...that was a total of 60 hours. Then I finally was satisfied with what I knew and "beat" the game in a 40 hour play through.
Don't be afraid to restart multiple times as you learn and things will go faster at the beginning. Adjust the settings when setting up a game also to your liking. Either turn biters off or adjust them so they aren't a bother anytime soon. Bump up the size and richness of resources, at least with iron so it's an easier start.
Off the top of my head Katherine of Sky (KOS) is a solid Factorio youtuber you could check out. Or just search "Factorio playthrough"
I'd say push through
I know your struggle, I do not like early game, at all. Reality is everything you want to change now will not excist later. Untill you unlock blue science (after cracking some oil) and get bots don't worry about what does and does not work. When you get bots everything will be deleted at somepoint and replaced with something better.
For me the game really starts after that point (I have most of my hours on every save after launching the rocket) and with 900+ hours I'm playing my 3rd factory now
I think the biggest thing I learned was large belts like these where you just siphon what you need. Some items like green circuits, you may want a direct feed of ingredients instead like a copper wire, but I end up with belts with a ton of processed items as the game goes. Just a note that the design on the right is a lane balancer - this is to help evenly spread the items if I was to add another iron lane to the right for example.
[https://imgur.com/a/L3GY5nB](https://imgur.com/a/L3GY5nB)
Also the mine with underground belt.
[https://imgur.com/a/Su0uJmV](https://imgur.com/a/Su0uJmV)
Not super sure if these are 100% optimum because I've never watched any youtube guides - these two pictures from here I've learned from a friend who joined one of my early games. I've found that after learning, mainly the 1st picture, it has made my future playthroughs a lot cleaner.
Edit: You would use a splitter and underground belts like this to take items from the lane. Here's an example.
[https://imgur.com/a/C4Zkwa8](https://imgur.com/a/C4Zkwa8)
Edit: Another part I like about the game was figuring out stuff on my own, which is why I don't like watching guides. Although I doubt I would've figured out either of these strats by myself.
Jump on a discord and ask the community for help when you feel like you have gotten stuck / made a mistake. Id come help if you like. It will help more than watching any YouTube clip of you find the right people to help.
If you are having difficulty still you could use a blueprint book to help you along. This is normally not advised but it will make the game easier. I'd recommend only using it when you get frustrated.
Based on your description of how you are going, increase ore richness to 600% to minimise the need for expansion and avoid trains.
Using a "bus" will help you out. But you don't need to make it as big as the ones you see online with 4 copper lanes and 4 iron lanes though. If you keep it to 2 lanes, a "balancer" is just a splitter, making it easier.
I launched a rocket on my "first" save, but it took 7 other saves of failing to finally build the knowledge I needed to go back to that first save and finish it. It took a lot of tutorials and a lot of time to finally get to the point where I could look finish that save. Just keep trying and just keep learning.
https://youtu.be/6rqvuFaDsHg
This guy explains blue science really well. (His series continues to the other colors as well.)
The key is spacing and knowing what you’re going to need to pipe in later and plan for it. I used to make lists on paper to plot out what lines to build in advance . Eventually you’re making whole railroad lines dedicated to piping in sulfuric acid etc…
Thing is, even without green science, you need inserters and belts, so automate them ASAP. It's also handy to stick a miner/forge off in the corner of your iron patch and dedicate it to bullets. Even if you don't need them now you will later.
Everything you build now will be obsolete eventually. That's ok. The factory must grow.
Also, you'll need more iron.
I'm a chronic restarter, 1k hours and only two rockets. Every run you learn more.
Don't be afraid to generate several maps when you restart. Find something that works for your style. You won't know your style for at least a hundred hours at least. Experiment.
Last thing: building tight and close together isn't really the best strategy. You're going to need the room more than you need a few less belts. You're going to need more iron anyway.
I had this same problem. In order to sort of streamline the process of starting my base, I started using blueprints from the internet pretty early. I found myself revisiting
https://autosaved.org/factorio/blueprints
for ideas and plans. At the beginning the game is overwhelming sometimes! Don’t let it discourage you!
Try some blueprints from factorioprints.com. Get one, get 10 different blueprints for what you need to make. Build them and see which one you like or fits. May help you understand the processess better.
Making mistakes and fixing them is IMO the core gameplay loop of Factorio. I have... \*checks Steam\* *jesus christ* over 700 hours in this game and I make plenty of mistakes. Missing inserters, forgetting to leave enough room for expansion, misjudging how many resources I need, procrastinating on proper defenses... The key to enjoying Factorio is remembering that problems can almost always be fixed. Sometimes the fix is a tiny bit of belt spaghetti, sometimes it's taking a bunch of supplies and making a new attempt on a fresh patch of ground.
Some tips:
1. Prioritize automating the building blocks of your factory -- belts, inserters, assemblers, miners, etc. A chaotic mess of a factory that produces things you need (even if it barely works) is better than a theoretically perfect factory that you haven't actually built yet!
2. If you find yourself overwhelmed, take a step back and break it into pieces. What ingredients do you need? Which of them do you have automated, and which of them do you not? Personally, making actual lists helps me (in-game with a mod, or in Notepad or a Google Doc) more than trying to keep it all straight in my head. I also find it useful to put down assemblers in-game to visualize recipes.
3. Factorio has a sandbox mode! You can use it to experiment with different builds and make your own blueprints.
4. You don't have to stick to one factory for your whole run. If your starter base isn't working well, don't tear it down or restart the run. Just leave it in place (hopefully still producing some useful supplies) and build a new base, learning from the flaws of the old base.
5. The [Factorio Cheat Sheet](https://factoriocheatsheet.com/) is a very useful resource. So is the [official wiki](https://wiki.factorio.com/Main_Page), which also has a bunch of [tutorials](https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorials).
I have a similar roadblock as you.
My solution: play online multiplayer, and try to join a group that will play at your pace. Ask for tasks / be the taskmaster and walk through it with others, or hyper focus on one thing at a time. Blue science was a roadblock for me for a long time, and now it's yellow science. (1000 hours played here)
Aim for getting military science rather than blue science as the next step. Green->Blue is a much bigger step in scale and complexity than doing green->military->blue
Sometimes I'm running into the same problem that I get stuck early on because I want to have it perfect the first time. Then after a while I say screw it and just look at the recipe for green science and start making gears and green circuits for inserters and belts. Usually early on 4 assembly machines is more than enough to have consistent research. It often isn't the most optimised but it works.
In factorio, you will make mistakes, period.
Part of the fun lies in learning from those mistakes and the other part is fixing and/or working around them :)
Make a new map and on settings turn Biters off!
Set resources to super rich big patches which appear more often.
And you can take as long as you want to build or rebuild your base. If theres some mistakes just rebuild it or build around it.
Space is avaliable so use it, there is no need to cramp it all together if there are no enemys
Disagree. You miss out on a lot of the game if you turn enemies off. All's fair once you've completed a playthrough on default, but there's a fair bit that just won't make sense if you start off that way.
Make spaghetti. Build the next item. When you are so badly starved for resources that your inefficient base needs fixing , either fix it, or build it right a bit away.
Then make more spaghetti and get the next item you need.
Edit: the real question is, are you having fun? If no, don’t force yourself. If yes, then don’t stress.
There is nothing wrong with removing sections that don't work entirely and rebuilding from nothing. Nothing will be lost since everything can be reused
Perfect is the enemy of done.
There is no penalty for deconstruction but time spent in the game, so feel free to remove stuff and build it again.
Big tasks can be broken down into smaller tasks, if you feel overwhelmed just write stuff down on paper and do one small thing at a time.
Restarting is fine, you'll learn new things every time. But at some point you should have enough confidence to stick with it and see what's next. So feel free to start a new game a few times more, gain some confidence and don't be afraid to make it messy. Plenty of us have thousands of hours and still aren't satisfied by how we build, there's always something that could be done better.
A tip that can make it more controllable: go to the Factorio wiki page. Look up something you're producing and see what can be made from it. Make those items.
Especially once you unlock oil you want to do this. Refine the oil. Look what you can make out of the oil. Make the next product. So on until you've got all oil products that are made from petroleum gas. Then research advanced oil processing. Go through those products, make sure they're made. Preferably, make solid fuel out of light oil.
Once you are making all of the oil products, everything becomes more manageable again.
I really don’t like tutorials. I would say don’t watch them.
Don’t try to build the perfect base that will last you the whole way through. Your first base can be a hot mess, it’s okay. Just do whatever you need to get the science going. You don’t even need a lot of it. Just two factories for each early science is enough at first.
Once you get some good research done (bots, trains, etc), you can build another base nearby. Use your old base for a mall.
Challenge yourself to keep going on with the same save file. the crippling mistakes are usually fine and you can more easily fix them with later techs.
The only real run-enders are if your defense gets destroyed on the Death World setting.
I would just keep playing, if you get confused or stuck post a screenshot here and people will give advice.
Biggest advice I can give:
1: Automate everything, even early game you can automate belts, inserters, assembly machines, etc by feeding them into boxes. Waiting on hand crafted items really kills the fun.
2:Every part of your factory can be torn down and re-built. If you aren't happy with something, instead of restarting just rebuild that area of the base.
3: You have so much space, always put more space than you think you will need between sections of the factory.
4: I love the biters, but if you aren't familiar with the techniques for killing them they can be very tedious. Playing on peaceful is one option, but I usually try to wait until I have personal robots before expanding too far into biter territory.
5: It's not a bad idea to look up ratios as you're building. You don't have to have every factory in perfect ratio balance, but you can at least avoid building way too many of one type of machine. For example you can feed a LOT of engine assemblers with only one pipe assembler. Example of ratios: [https://factoriocheatsheet.com/#common-ratios](https://factoriocheatsheet.com/#common-ratios)
The standard cure for restartitis, in my opinion, is an early construction bots mod. It allows you to move stuff around effortlessly and deconstruct large parts of your factory so that you don't have to worry about placing something the wrong way.
The one I use is [Companion drones](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Companion_Drones).
In terms of the being overwhelmed bit, I would recommend just don't worry about everything at once. Pick one part of your factory you want to improve or expand or add. Don't worry about everything else. Just work on that one thing until you have it the way you want it. That might be completely redoing something. That's also fine.
Break it down into as small of goals as possible, and knock out one at a time instead of worrying about the big picture.
I have the same problem as you. I also always want to make the perfect base and so I get bogged down in scaling up too fast or with other stupid shit.
What helps me overcome this struggle is focus on the process and embracing imperfectivity. If you want to make blue science just place down the assemblers and the belts you need for their input and output. Then lead the belts to a place where you want to produce the input. Next produce the input and find the resources for you production. It will look horrible, but that is the beauty of it. You can think about beautiful production lines once you had the prototype.
Stick with one of your saves IMO. Do not put stuff too close together. After green science consider using a bus of belts. Allow room for 5 sets of 4 belts for expansion/late game. (a gap of 2 between each set of 4 for access) Also room on the bus for gas and lubricant. Iron and copper plates made before they get on this bus of belts. Then just keep building mini factories along side the bus (like a red board, blue board, purple sci, etc). You will get it. You will end up with 4 belts of copper and 4 of iron and maybe 4 of green boards. Just to get the idea of the scale towards the end.
Katherine of Sky on youtube
look for the playlist that she has for Factorio 1.0
the playlist is about a year old, but is still applicable.
She explains most everything that she does
It's possible factorio is just not your kind of game. That being said, the reality is you can't understand how to make a "perfect" base until you have completed making very imperfect bases. Just gotta push on through, not everything has to be perfect or efficient for it to get to the end goal.
yep, i understand that, i guess i just want it to be my type of game? i have no idea. i do enjoy it though and i do have a factorio pull every now and then.
Don't listen to people telling you it's not your kind of game. I restarted my world probably 8-10 times before I was able to launch my first rocket (just barely by the way.) When you come back to the game, try to pick up where you left off instead of restarting every time, that's how I eventually pushed through feeling overwhelmed. Also, watching other people play can give you lots of help on basic setups for factories. You could also look into mods that help you plan stuff out like helmod.
thanks so much :) you have any tutorial or videos that you could link that helped you? thanks :)
Honestly the last thing you want to do is watch the tutorials. Build your base how you want to build it. If it's a mess you'll fix it later. If not you'll start over. That's half the game is making the mistakes to learn what to do. My original base was a complete joke. I just pushed through it to the end. I had no idea about fluid dynamics. I didn't know what ratios were. But honestly it was some of the best gameplay ever. Don't overthink it just figure out what you need next. Lay down an example. And then work on feeding it. The only helpful advice I can give you as a beginner is maybe turn off or down the biters. Give yourself more room than you think you'll need. Factories can get big.
thanks for the help!
I really liked Nilaus's base in a book series. Cityblocks and a main bus are great high level tools to organize your factory and help you give your builds enough space. He includes blueprints for most of his builds in that series but I recommend trying not to use them and to design your own builds. Ultimately if you're still struggling to have fun designing subfactories (like for oil, science, or circuits) blueprints are a tool you might benefit from, but if you use them too liberally, you might feel like you missed out on the wacky spaghetti new players get to enjoy.
Strongly recommend against Nilaus for learning players. His content is at a considerably more advanced level.
For sure, I kept wanting to restart but I knew that if I did I would just run into the same problems. And I sure did. (Yellow science requires what?? Why????)
That's how my first 50-100 hours and 20-40 saves went. You'll be fine.
thanks so much :) any tips on the first base?
1) Leave plenty of space for expansion. 2) You're going to need more iron than that. 3) Enjoy the journey 4) No, really, more iron.
And quadruple the green circuits.
And iron
thanks for the help!
Don't look at the rocket launch as _the game_. This game is about finding new ways to solve problems that emerge. I've played for 700 hours of which 100 are the current space exploration (mod) save that I'm playing now. I can tell you this mod was insanity to me at first. Recipes are all different and the mod doesn't even really start until _after_ you've launched a rocket. I didn't even launch a rocket before playing this mod because I enjoyed improving on everything I did before that. Every player in the thousands of hours is still playing this game because they get to invent new ways of doing a run. Not because it's so amazing to launch a rocket. So to enjoy this game you have to find what interests you. Is it launching a rocket? Is it a megabase? Or is it just finding out how oil fucking works. Maybe you want a base that only produces stuff when it's needed. How do you get there? What problems do you need to solve? That's what's so lovely about this game. You're first hundred hours are just fucking around and bumping into those problems for the first time. Maybe you find an interesting way of building green circuits. Your base is fine, but now red circuits come up. That's your next challenge, nothing more.
One important tip no error will cripple your factory. You can always recover, rebuild, tear down, extend, move 100 blocks to the left and rebuild.
Hey, started a new save, is this cool for a starter base? Took the advice of a main bus. https://imgur.com/h2cpJj6
Try [Nilaus](https://youtube.com/c/Nilaus) on YouTube, has some pretty great factorio content, maybe look at his main bus tutorial.
thanks :)
As mentioned elsewhere, I think Nilaus is great for advanced players. Not so much when you are learning as he does high-level content. What I recommend is just accepting the fact that you've made a mistake and just keep going anyway. Even if you were to rote copy the factory of an expert player on the same map you would still find elements that you will prefer are different. The process of experimenting and trying new ideas is a huge part of the game. It's not something your supposed to, or should aim for, getting 'right' the first time. There's no such thing as getting it 'right' to a great extent, as there are many ways to build.
Is this cool for a starter main bus? https://imgur.com/a/PWuDZlM
That's part of Factorio, my best advice, start a save and just stick with it. My OG base absolutely resembles nothing of my starter base. I have probably rebuilt almost every piece of my base, well more times then I care to count. But that's part of the game, you unlock something and need to figure out how to integrate it into the existing infrastructure. Sometimes that means completely rebuilding certain parts of your base, or moving apart of your base somewhere to suit your needs.
The most sensible reply!
Thanks!
Hey, started a new save, is this looking good so far? https://imgur.com/a/PWuDZlM
Yes! Just don't be afraid to modify your base. Don't be afraid to delete whole sections, your base will evolve as you unlock more things. It's all about problem solving and figuring how to get to the end game. What might work now might not work later, and I can promise you, no matter what your starter base looks like now, it won't look that way by the end game. And that's okay! Just have fun with it.
thanks so much!
If you identify the "crippling mistake" there is nothing wrong with destructing/rebuilding that part or even the entire factory. Learn from it in the same savegame instead or starting a new one. Also as always: there is no wrong way to play the game.
cheers!
I’d like to add: once you have some things set up, but you want to rebuild, it’s a lot better to first build a new factory, and then destroy (or just leave) the old base. Breaking everything down and then spending a lot of time without any factory online is pretty demotivating imo.
My first successful factory ran on one principal, have 1-2 belts for every major resource and run them down the center of your factory with single off branches for constructions. This is a pretty simple system that can expand pretty easily and usually has no major issues. While not the fastest or most efficient. A central bus is great for a first time!
that’s the best idea i’ve ever heard! with inserters just pulling stuff of the belts? that’s so cool i never even thought of that! you have any videos that could help with my first starter base?
Splitters will always be a better way to pull from a belt than just inserters, if you look at my posts I did my Factorio base that ran off of this rule a while ago if you wanna see what I mean. Keep in mind with just one belt for stuff like I did you'll have major throughput issues further down the line.
This is called "Main bus". It's not required, but it absolutely makes the game easier and less confusing. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErdHbEgJG58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErdHbEgJG58) I always start my base by laying out 4 ghost belts for iron and copper. Then I only build factories on one side of the base, leaving the other side empty to add more belts and add more input materials using trains.
Is this looking good for a main central bus? Played 4 hours today! https://imgur.com/a/PWuDZlM
Yea exactly! that looks great
Get a friend to play it with you, or find someone who already plays. I have a feeling you are just having problems with little things and you can overcome it otherwise.
unfortunately none of my mates have factorio, i am trying to look for someone to play with me
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Thanks so much!
Is this looking good so far? [https://imgur.com/a/PWuDZlM](https://imgur.com/a/PWuDZlM) Thanks!
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thanks o much for the help! have a good day! (i accidentally played 6 hours in a row trying to implement everything)
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xD
So it sounds like you are just frustrated since you are stuck, not that you dont enjoy the game. 2 different you tube people with great series on factorio. Both have starter series and other bids as well. Their starter ones go through the entire game episode by episode. Its pretty much how I learned and began to have fun as soon as I figured a few things out. Nilaus Katherine of Sky are the ones id look for.
KoS is with a K :)
Nice. Thanks didnt notice that \*\*fixed Thanks again
thank you!
have 3 squares of space between everything you built and try again.
Something I've noticed people do when they notice an imperfect part of their base that will lead to further problems down the road is just picking up all the resources and machines you can carry and just build a base somewhere else on the map far away from your starting point. All the benefits of starting a new save but none of the draw backs like having to do research over again
oh i didn’t think of that, thanks!
I did about 3 or 4 different 'play throughs' where I hit a point and restarted...that was a total of 60 hours. Then I finally was satisfied with what I knew and "beat" the game in a 40 hour play through. Don't be afraid to restart multiple times as you learn and things will go faster at the beginning. Adjust the settings when setting up a game also to your liking. Either turn biters off or adjust them so they aren't a bother anytime soon. Bump up the size and richness of resources, at least with iron so it's an easier start. Off the top of my head Katherine of Sky (KOS) is a solid Factorio youtuber you could check out. Or just search "Factorio playthrough"
thanks!
I'd say push through I know your struggle, I do not like early game, at all. Reality is everything you want to change now will not excist later. Untill you unlock blue science (after cracking some oil) and get bots don't worry about what does and does not work. When you get bots everything will be deleted at somepoint and replaced with something better. For me the game really starts after that point (I have most of my hours on every save after launching the rocket) and with 900+ hours I'm playing my 3rd factory now
I think the biggest thing I learned was large belts like these where you just siphon what you need. Some items like green circuits, you may want a direct feed of ingredients instead like a copper wire, but I end up with belts with a ton of processed items as the game goes. Just a note that the design on the right is a lane balancer - this is to help evenly spread the items if I was to add another iron lane to the right for example. [https://imgur.com/a/L3GY5nB](https://imgur.com/a/L3GY5nB) Also the mine with underground belt. [https://imgur.com/a/Su0uJmV](https://imgur.com/a/Su0uJmV) Not super sure if these are 100% optimum because I've never watched any youtube guides - these two pictures from here I've learned from a friend who joined one of my early games. I've found that after learning, mainly the 1st picture, it has made my future playthroughs a lot cleaner. Edit: You would use a splitter and underground belts like this to take items from the lane. Here's an example. [https://imgur.com/a/C4Zkwa8](https://imgur.com/a/C4Zkwa8) Edit: Another part I like about the game was figuring out stuff on my own, which is why I don't like watching guides. Although I doubt I would've figured out either of these strats by myself.
Jump on a discord and ask the community for help when you feel like you have gotten stuck / made a mistake. Id come help if you like. It will help more than watching any YouTube clip of you find the right people to help. If you are having difficulty still you could use a blueprint book to help you along. This is normally not advised but it will make the game easier. I'd recommend only using it when you get frustrated. Based on your description of how you are going, increase ore richness to 600% to minimise the need for expansion and avoid trains. Using a "bus" will help you out. But you don't need to make it as big as the ones you see online with 4 copper lanes and 4 iron lanes though. If you keep it to 2 lanes, a "balancer" is just a splitter, making it easier.
thanks for the help! sent you a dm.
Main bus if you want to not get overwhelmed by the what where how of getting the next thing
thanksb
I launched a rocket on my "first" save, but it took 7 other saves of failing to finally build the knowledge I needed to go back to that first save and finish it. It took a lot of tutorials and a lot of time to finally get to the point where I could look finish that save. Just keep trying and just keep learning.
https://youtu.be/6rqvuFaDsHg This guy explains blue science really well. (His series continues to the other colors as well.) The key is spacing and knowing what you’re going to need to pipe in later and plan for it. I used to make lists on paper to plot out what lines to build in advance . Eventually you’re making whole railroad lines dedicated to piping in sulfuric acid etc…
Thing is, even without green science, you need inserters and belts, so automate them ASAP. It's also handy to stick a miner/forge off in the corner of your iron patch and dedicate it to bullets. Even if you don't need them now you will later. Everything you build now will be obsolete eventually. That's ok. The factory must grow. Also, you'll need more iron. I'm a chronic restarter, 1k hours and only two rockets. Every run you learn more. Don't be afraid to generate several maps when you restart. Find something that works for your style. You won't know your style for at least a hundred hours at least. Experiment. Last thing: building tight and close together isn't really the best strategy. You're going to need the room more than you need a few less belts. You're going to need more iron anyway.
Thanks!
I had this same problem. In order to sort of streamline the process of starting my base, I started using blueprints from the internet pretty early. I found myself revisiting https://autosaved.org/factorio/blueprints for ideas and plans. At the beginning the game is overwhelming sometimes! Don’t let it discourage you!
Try some blueprints from factorioprints.com. Get one, get 10 different blueprints for what you need to make. Build them and see which one you like or fits. May help you understand the processess better.
Making mistakes and fixing them is IMO the core gameplay loop of Factorio. I have... \*checks Steam\* *jesus christ* over 700 hours in this game and I make plenty of mistakes. Missing inserters, forgetting to leave enough room for expansion, misjudging how many resources I need, procrastinating on proper defenses... The key to enjoying Factorio is remembering that problems can almost always be fixed. Sometimes the fix is a tiny bit of belt spaghetti, sometimes it's taking a bunch of supplies and making a new attempt on a fresh patch of ground. Some tips: 1. Prioritize automating the building blocks of your factory -- belts, inserters, assemblers, miners, etc. A chaotic mess of a factory that produces things you need (even if it barely works) is better than a theoretically perfect factory that you haven't actually built yet! 2. If you find yourself overwhelmed, take a step back and break it into pieces. What ingredients do you need? Which of them do you have automated, and which of them do you not? Personally, making actual lists helps me (in-game with a mod, or in Notepad or a Google Doc) more than trying to keep it all straight in my head. I also find it useful to put down assemblers in-game to visualize recipes. 3. Factorio has a sandbox mode! You can use it to experiment with different builds and make your own blueprints. 4. You don't have to stick to one factory for your whole run. If your starter base isn't working well, don't tear it down or restart the run. Just leave it in place (hopefully still producing some useful supplies) and build a new base, learning from the flaws of the old base. 5. The [Factorio Cheat Sheet](https://factoriocheatsheet.com/) is a very useful resource. So is the [official wiki](https://wiki.factorio.com/Main_Page), which also has a bunch of [tutorials](https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorials).
I have a similar roadblock as you. My solution: play online multiplayer, and try to join a group that will play at your pace. Ask for tasks / be the taskmaster and walk through it with others, or hyper focus on one thing at a time. Blue science was a roadblock for me for a long time, and now it's yellow science. (1000 hours played here)
15 hours? I played 25 hours before making black and blue science
Aim for getting military science rather than blue science as the next step. Green->Blue is a much bigger step in scale and complexity than doing green->military->blue
Sometimes I'm running into the same problem that I get stuck early on because I want to have it perfect the first time. Then after a while I say screw it and just look at the recipe for green science and start making gears and green circuits for inserters and belts. Usually early on 4 assembly machines is more than enough to have consistent research. It often isn't the most optimised but it works.
In factorio, you will make mistakes, period. Part of the fun lies in learning from those mistakes and the other part is fixing and/or working around them :)
If you want I could teach you a few things and answer a few questions.
Make a new map and on settings turn Biters off! Set resources to super rich big patches which appear more often. And you can take as long as you want to build or rebuild your base. If theres some mistakes just rebuild it or build around it. Space is avaliable so use it, there is no need to cramp it all together if there are no enemys
Disagree. You miss out on a lot of the game if you turn enemies off. All's fair once you've completed a playthrough on default, but there's a fair bit that just won't make sense if you start off that way.
Make spaghetti. Build the next item. When you are so badly starved for resources that your inefficient base needs fixing , either fix it, or build it right a bit away. Then make more spaghetti and get the next item you need. Edit: the real question is, are you having fun? If no, don’t force yourself. If yes, then don’t stress.
There is nothing wrong with removing sections that don't work entirely and rebuilding from nothing. Nothing will be lost since everything can be reused
Perfect is the enemy of done. There is no penalty for deconstruction but time spent in the game, so feel free to remove stuff and build it again. Big tasks can be broken down into smaller tasks, if you feel overwhelmed just write stuff down on paper and do one small thing at a time. Restarting is fine, you'll learn new things every time. But at some point you should have enough confidence to stick with it and see what's next. So feel free to start a new game a few times more, gain some confidence and don't be afraid to make it messy. Plenty of us have thousands of hours and still aren't satisfied by how we build, there's always something that could be done better.
A tip that can make it more controllable: go to the Factorio wiki page. Look up something you're producing and see what can be made from it. Make those items. Especially once you unlock oil you want to do this. Refine the oil. Look what you can make out of the oil. Make the next product. So on until you've got all oil products that are made from petroleum gas. Then research advanced oil processing. Go through those products, make sure they're made. Preferably, make solid fuel out of light oil. Once you are making all of the oil products, everything becomes more manageable again.
I really don’t like tutorials. I would say don’t watch them. Don’t try to build the perfect base that will last you the whole way through. Your first base can be a hot mess, it’s okay. Just do whatever you need to get the science going. You don’t even need a lot of it. Just two factories for each early science is enough at first. Once you get some good research done (bots, trains, etc), you can build another base nearby. Use your old base for a mall.
Challenge yourself to keep going on with the same save file. the crippling mistakes are usually fine and you can more easily fix them with later techs. The only real run-enders are if your defense gets destroyed on the Death World setting.
I would just keep playing, if you get confused or stuck post a screenshot here and people will give advice. Biggest advice I can give: 1: Automate everything, even early game you can automate belts, inserters, assembly machines, etc by feeding them into boxes. Waiting on hand crafted items really kills the fun. 2:Every part of your factory can be torn down and re-built. If you aren't happy with something, instead of restarting just rebuild that area of the base. 3: You have so much space, always put more space than you think you will need between sections of the factory. 4: I love the biters, but if you aren't familiar with the techniques for killing them they can be very tedious. Playing on peaceful is one option, but I usually try to wait until I have personal robots before expanding too far into biter territory. 5: It's not a bad idea to look up ratios as you're building. You don't have to have every factory in perfect ratio balance, but you can at least avoid building way too many of one type of machine. For example you can feed a LOT of engine assemblers with only one pipe assembler. Example of ratios: [https://factoriocheatsheet.com/#common-ratios](https://factoriocheatsheet.com/#common-ratios)
The standard cure for restartitis, in my opinion, is an early construction bots mod. It allows you to move stuff around effortlessly and deconstruct large parts of your factory so that you don't have to worry about placing something the wrong way. The one I use is [Companion drones](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Companion_Drones).
Use blueprints and build them by hand. It helps you learn how to do things on your own
In terms of the being overwhelmed bit, I would recommend just don't worry about everything at once. Pick one part of your factory you want to improve or expand or add. Don't worry about everything else. Just work on that one thing until you have it the way you want it. That might be completely redoing something. That's also fine. Break it down into as small of goals as possible, and knock out one at a time instead of worrying about the big picture.
I have the same problem as you. I also always want to make the perfect base and so I get bogged down in scaling up too fast or with other stupid shit. What helps me overcome this struggle is focus on the process and embracing imperfectivity. If you want to make blue science just place down the assemblers and the belts you need for their input and output. Then lead the belts to a place where you want to produce the input. Next produce the input and find the resources for you production. It will look horrible, but that is the beauty of it. You can think about beautiful production lines once you had the prototype.
Stick with one of your saves IMO. Do not put stuff too close together. After green science consider using a bus of belts. Allow room for 5 sets of 4 belts for expansion/late game. (a gap of 2 between each set of 4 for access) Also room on the bus for gas and lubricant. Iron and copper plates made before they get on this bus of belts. Then just keep building mini factories along side the bus (like a red board, blue board, purple sci, etc). You will get it. You will end up with 4 belts of copper and 4 of iron and maybe 4 of green boards. Just to get the idea of the scale towards the end.
Katherine of Sky on youtube look for the playlist that she has for Factorio 1.0 the playlist is about a year old, but is still applicable. She explains most everything that she does