Assemblers... tier 1, 2 and 3

[Yehn]

Aside from crafting speed, power drain, and module slots... each assembler also has ingredient restrictions. Tier 2 assemblers, ie "the blue ones" can accept 4 which is not too bad (though they cannot craft refineries, and tier 3 assemblers need oil industry to already be established). The first grey assemblers can only accept a mere 2 ingredients... which cannot craft even burner level tech.

The end result is every player is always forced to rush blue/tier 2 assemblers. They are pricey and require a few research steps (that are also pricey for very early game), but the player simply has no choice.

My proposal: Let any assembler craft anything (remove ingredient restrictions). I think the crafting speed bonuses and module slots should be motivation enough to upgrade.

This change opens up a progression option: A player can delay and use cheaper tier 1 assemblers in early stages of the game (eg burner phase, early electric) if they wish to conserve, instead of being forced to rush tier 2 assembly machines right from the beginning.

[greep]

Eh, assembler 2 is really easy to have finished by the time you need that one inserter assembler for green science.

Incidentally, if you think this is really a problem, it can be solved by just bumping assembler 1 to 3 ingredients.

[Yoyobuae]

Have you attempted the "Lazy Bastard" achievement? The recipe limitations is kinda what makes it interesting.

[greep]

Well, I don't think the game should be balanced over an achievement. If anything, the achievement should be more generous and use a round number like 200. Which is still orders of magnitude less than in a normal game which would be around 50,000 crafts.

Edit: Ah thought you were saying the achievement is too much of a pain. It does look annoying in the early game, I probably won't bother xD

[Xeanoa]

Well, I don't think the game should be balanced over an achievement. If anything, the achievement should be more generous and use a round number like 200. Which is still orders of magnitude less than in a normal game which would be around 50,000 crafts.

Edit: Ah thought you were saying the achievement is too much of a pain. It does look annoying in the early game, I probably won't bother xD

Afaik it can be done with as little as 100 crafts, with current assemblers. Moving assembler 1 to 3 items restriction would make that a lot less even. But I also think that's a useful improvement. A lot of early recipes use 3 ingredients, but not 4.

[Deadly-Bagel]

Why is the player forced to rush T2?

Belts, red science packs, Electronic Circuits, pretty much anything you need to automate that early is only 2 components. I can only think of Electric Mining Drills but not sure why you'd be trying to automate them so early. Also trying to make Inserters to automate green science, but trying to get that before Automation 2 would be called rushing itself, no? =P

[Zemerson]

Finished the game building only 102 items, so you can easily do it within 111. Takes 99 items to get to lvl 2 manufacturing, which allows you to build everything but oil processor, Rocket, and Satellite.