I play the game and make videos with Factorio at the very edge of the playability. I can and do often take on maps/settings that might well be impossible to win. But, it can take weeks to discover that fact.
I play Deathworld Marathon. (Thank you so much to Wube for including marathon settings!) I amp up the biter/spawner settings to 600% and play on the hardest all desert, no water, minimal trees (ie. minimal pollution absorption) map settings. I never allow oil to spawn in my starting area either. I also play to get the steam achievements of no solar, no lasers, no fish, and hardest yet no bots/requester chests. I place every building/turret and do every repair myself.
Here is a look at setting up a map.
In the past I played at these settings to just launch my first rocket and escape the planet. This always took well over 100 hours to clear out enough biter nests to acquire the resources to get to end game. I have achieved this in Factorio 1.0.
However, My questions are...
Can I make it to the final planet playing like this?
Can it be done with no bots and me travelling to the planets to build up bases there manually?
Can it be done without solar?
I'm pretty sure it can be done without lasers.
Could I amp up the enemy settings to maximum on Gleba as well, or do you arrive too vulnerable to possibly conquer that planet?
Final question, do the enemies on the other planets evolve as well? Do they start evolving at game start on Nauvis or when you land on their planet?
Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge with me and the community. Possibly saving me weeks of playing on Nauvis to only have to restart immediately because I didn't understand the Space Age part.