FWIW, there are a variety of optimization criteria.

E.g. if you commit to using lots of productivity 3 modules, but aren't yet at the point where production costs are trivial, speed beacons are valuable in the way that, for a particular production target, the extra cost of speed beacons is ...

I remember it being surprisingly satisfying to work out a design pattern that would let you cover an entire mineral patch with burner miners while being fully automated and not wasting too much space.

And working out how to build it efficiently by hand. Pro tip: super force build can rotate ...

but you're trading 3 1/3 biter eggs' worth of nutrients for a nutrient source that lasts four times as long before it spoils, and that doesn't spoil into an attacker.

Now if you're turning bioflux nutrients into fish directly then sure, it's not such a good deal. So, don't do that.

Yes, this was ...

Another good option is to ship fish. Even though one fish only yields 20 nutrients, a fish also has a spoil time of just over two hours, vs. 30 minutes for a biter egg. Then you can save the biter eggs for overgrowth soil instead.

Fish are nutrient negative. On average, 100 nutrients gives you 1 ...

I don't like that the correct solution is to overproduce and void extras, not when it creates pollution that permanently contributes to evolution .


If I were doing this over I would have to spend many weeks deciding that evolving the enemies is fun,

I don't understand the fixation on the ...

I'm trying to setup a circuit where the biochamber crafts whatever signal is sent to it. This works pretty well for most of the time. If I send it a plastic signal, it picks the bioplastic recipe which uses mash and flux. It doesn't pick the chemical plant recipe which uses coal and petro gas. This ...

Ultimately, these bullet points converge on having to be informed about the upcoming challenges in advance - watch videos, have a creative test world, use someone else's blueprints. In other words, on spoiling the challenge, while many would prefer to approach it blind. And you can play Factorio ...

Thank you for your quick answer.

But isn't the whole point of those “waiting areas” (which I've seen in a couple of YouTube videos) that the trains can wait there if the actual train station is occupied? If the path is calculated at the time of departure, then the whole point of the waiting areas ...

You also keep using the US as your baseline, which is an odd choice. Wube is not an American company, they are a UK company with a Czech branch.
As an aside, I'm pretty sure Wube chose to use the USA regional price as the baseline. And as far as I know Steam recommendations are based off of that ...

To be clear: I'm not advocating piracy or "theft." I'm talking about accessibility and community growth. Many people want to support developers but simply can't afford the conversion to US dollars. When a price is adjusted to the local reality (purchasing power parity), it transforms potential ...

And my point is you are overly dismissive of the cons of your proposal.

The "keep the stats on the regular inserter" has the same problem that you are still eliminating the cost/performance tradeoff considerations of early gameplay. But in addition to that, just like there is an early-game need for ...

In the early game, inserters being cheaper to make than fast inserters is not insignificant.

The lower throughput of the inserter is very useful for some designs -- e.g. a common sort of early-game mall -- so that the leading assemblers don't hog all the resources and starve the later ones.

With so many logical challenges, it is definitely not the kind of "rush against the clock" game.
rushing against your own factory.
Isn't this self-inflicted, though? There isn't really any intrinsic time pressure in building a factory on Gleba: scenarios where you feel the need to rush against ...

It's worth observing this would be an incredible nerf to early game quality: the rerolls at 10% quality are far more valuable than the piddly 2% quality roll you'd get from putting quality 1 modules in an assembler 2.

And, incidentally, tier 2 modules are already very important in the status quo ...

FWIW, the specific application can be achieved by separating your steam engines into a separate electric network and connect it to the main grid through a power switch.

Depending on your tastes, IMO you should give each of Vulcanus, Gleba, and Fulgora a try where you don't bring anything with you except some basic QoL stuff: i.e. your armor, materials to make some bots to use with your personal roboports. Maybe a stack of belts if you're impatient.

By working ...

I've noticed some other users ship in their fruits using trains? Gleba is the only planet where I don't use trains at all due to the spoilage issue but I saw some one else make a comment that you can use circuit logic to harvest fresh fruits upon request? I'd love to see the circuit setup for that ...

It sounds like OP is using a mod so they have more refinery recipes.

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OP: you're talking about the "set recipe" option? And I assume you mean the "circuit network" rather than the "logistics network"?

One feature you may be overlooking is that if you are not supplying a recipe signal, a ...

IMO, the biggest problem with Gleba is visual clarity. (and the other planets other planets too)

On Nauvis, the only thing that matters much about a tile is whether it's water or not water, and the distinction is extremely clear.

Tile type matters a lot more now in Space Age, and this is most ...

FWIW, I'm pretty sure (back in 1.x) I've rolled ribbon world maps where one of the basic resources was absent in the entire preview. That's on Nauvis, just to emphasize, so you couldn't even start automation without having to walk out of the preview area (and dodging biters!).

IMO, you definitely ...