[0.9.8] The Oasis

[Meorwow]

(click for larger resolution)
A common complaint I hear from my factorio-playing friends is that the game is simply too easy - you just sit in your base, fending off the occasional biter attack, and once you have built some advanced weaponry you move out and bulldoze all enemies in your way. I have attempted to rectify this problem by making a map in which you are forced to constantly battle challenging, if not overwhelming, enemies. A map in which, with the exception of some starting stone and iron, every resource field is guarded by the enemy. Most importantly though, a map in which you are on the offensive from the very first minutes. The result, which I called The Oasis, pleases me enough to release it to the broader Factorio community. It's a save file, not a scenario, so put it into your Factorio\saves folder.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o9cmtrz8o50e1zx/oasis.zip
The result of an 16 hour play-through are seen in the tab below. I've used no mods in it.

Spoilers

[Club Sandbox]

Hi,
After some try i would like to ask you how do you pass through the medium bitters from copper ores ?

[Meorwow]

How to gain access to the first big copper ore field

You will have to use a sub-machine gun and armour piercing bullets (about 40 clips) in conjunction with building a tiny (3-by-3 or 4-by-4) walled-off area around yourself (once you have provoked the medium biters). I highly recommend that you save all the armour piercing rounds for the medium biters and attack the small biters and the spawner using normal bullets

[Club Sandbox]

How to gain access to the first big copper ore field

You will have to use a sub-machine gun and armour piercing bullets (about 40 clips) in conjunction with building a tiny (3-by-3 or 4-by-4) walled-off area around yourself (once you have provoked the medium biters). I highly recommend that you save all the armour piercing rounds for the medium biters and attack the small biters and the spawner using normal bullets

Hi, thx fast for reply.

What you say is... strange because

Okay that i'm afraid you don't realisze something for get this tech (sub machine gun and armor percing bullet) you must have copper first to research the tech so what you say it's just impossible to realize.
1rst time when i've launch the game i get a but with all tech avalaible but i'have relaunch and it's goes normal after that btw even with the all tech you need copper bar to craft item so it's not possible !

To resume :
Without "cheating" you cannot get this copper ores spot because you must have copper to craft item to kill medium bitters who are sitting the copper ores at the begining of the map...

I'have missing something maybe ?

[Meorwow]

Oh, but I do realise this
I have played through this map and won without using any cheats.

Explanation

If you look at the map, the single biter nest to your north-west sits close to a tiny copper deposit (some 300 copper in total in there). If you make yourself some 70 normal bullets and build 18 walls, you can run there, kill the initial biter wave, wall-off the copper field and start mining, killing biters as they spawn.

Further explanation

You will also need to make some spare iron axes and, to speed things up, bring 2 burner drills with you. The 18 walls you use here are the same walls you will later use to attack the bigger copper field, so make sure to take them with you once you are done.

[Club Sandbox]

Oops...

Oh that right we have copper and non medium bitters !
Thanks, next time i should buy new glass !

I go make some test and a spotlight see you in few hours ^^ !

[Club Sandbox]

Sorry for double post but :

It's done you can read (french only but you can see "note") : http://factorio-fr.com/mod-spotlight-2/
Or watch here my video : https://www.youtube.com/user/ClubSandbox

Thanks for this sweet map and keep going i realy enjoye it.

Ps : You really should take care of your formating, because your first post doesn't take a good image of your beautifull map

[Meorwow]

Heyah, sorry for the delay, but I was waiting for a French-speaking friend to look at your review and translate it for me.

The reply

I agree that this is a very survivalist map - the player needs to watch their pollution, resources are scarce and building huge, sprawling bases is not an option. Many players will struggle with it, but then again that was the whole point of creating a "hardcore" map. Having said that, soon I will release an easier map, catering to a larger audience.

[Club Sandbox]

Re,
Hehe glad to do it i like the map it's hard i'am trying some twiking with couple of mod to get the "true hard mode" but at the moment it get very very hard (unless you activate some mod after).
When my testing will be concluant i will post the mix of each "mod" get to my "true hard mode"

Maybe...

Maybe you can make 3 versions of your map and "casual", "medium" and like this one "hard" ?
I thinks the medium one can be great if you put some another "hard mod" !