Discovering the obvious

[Jarin]

So, new discovery today. I started a new world to test a few things while waiting for .13 next week, and found myself without a single spot of coal anywhere nearby. But hey, I was right smack on top of a huge oil field, so I figured hey, I could push my way up there with wood fuel, right? Turns out I was more right than I knew. I was completely unaware that I could get to solid fuel production with just two tech unlocks. I mean sure, I had to hand-build 40 green science, but still. I did not realize that oil processing was only 2nd tier.

I should note, I have several hundred hours into this game at least, and never realized this.

So, anyone else trip over "new" discoveries after playing for a while that are particularly obvious in retrospect?

[Xeorm]

It took me a surprising number of startups to really look into coal versus wood. Given that the initial scenario/tutorial has you mining coal by hand in order to fuel burners, I did that each time. Then randomly saw some factorio video to see him mining lots of wood, then looked at actual values. Twice as quick to mine wood over coal and clears those pesky forests.

[Afforess]

Sure. Don't automatically use your starting area as your main base. It's fine while the early resource patches last, but often it is not the most strategic spot, especially if you have biters enabled.

Don't be afraid to relocate.

[Xterminator]

Yeah it's actually surprisingly easy to get to oil processing when you actually realize only requires a couple techs. Haha
For me at least, it just seems to take a really long time because I get distracted by so many other things on my way to getting the tech that it takes like 5x as long as it should. xD

[Ghoulish]

.... because I get distracted by so many other things on my way to getting the tech that it takes like 5x as long as it should. xD

The curse that is Factorio!! Think we're all guilty of this one, spot one thing to fix, then it snowballs into a million other things, and you then remember 1 hour later what it was you were originally going to do.

[DedlySpyder]

Sure. Don't automatically use your starting area as your main base. It's fine while the early resource patches last, but often it is not the most strategic spot, especially if you have biters enabled.

Don't be afraid to relocate.

Those damned starting lakes always make me build outside of it ASAP. I guess they're there to have some natural defense, but they more often get in my way

[Vornicus]

"Wait, you can burn wood!?"

also the realization that full automation really does need only one tech to get started; I used to grind up a whole bunch before even starting on proper automation architecture.

[alexzzzz]

"Wait, you can burn wood!?"

"Wait, you can fuel your car with wooden poles and wooden chests!?"

[Jarin]

it just seems to take a really long time because I get distracted by so many other things on my way to getting the tech that it takes like 5x as long as it should. xD

Yeah, same. This was the first time I'd had literally no coal where I started, so I decided to try, rather than just re-gen, and discovered that two techs later, I had fuel.

Sure. Don't automatically use your starting area as your main base. It's fine while the early resource patches last, but often it is not the most strategic spot, especially if you have biters enabled.

Don't be afraid to relocate.

I'll have to keep this one in mind. I tend to build up a lot in my starting location, but mid-game relocating is honestly not that difficult. Once you open up blueprints, anyway. Especially since my next game after 1.3 is going to be rail-heavy, maybe I'll hunt around for a good base location before really setting up and branching out.