New to factorio, how should i start

[Lynsis]

somewhat new to factorio. i started playing after watching a video using bobs mods and i bought the game and started playing with that right away, didnt play a single stock game. i was wondering if it would be adviseable for me to play a stock game or two or continue on with the modded games.

[Jaridan]

bobs mods... if you've installed EVERYTHING from bobs mods, then your chains will be huge.

I'd strongly advice to first play a normal game or 2, maybe with a goal on "design"in the 2nd one or so (read : mainline (google it if u wanna know more)).

I'm currently playing a game with bobs mods and it's incredibly fun automating all of it..BUT bobs mod will, literally, take you 5-15x(rough noob estimate on my end :S i haven't finished a game with this mod yet ,so others prolly know better) more time to reach the end, depending on what you do, how you play, how focused you are on reaching the end, resource settings etc.

A base game also helps to just get the basics down and used to. Maybe try the tutorial or first few mission/campaign.

[Ackos]

Beat the vanilla, get the basics down.

[bobucles]

The campaign missions are pretty handy for teaching the ropes. IMO it's a bit weak on teaching trains and combat, but it's good for learning research, mining, and low tier production.

[Xterminator]

First of all welcome to the forum! But yeah, I would highly recommend playing through a vanilla game or two before attempting Bob's Mods, or really any major mods for that matter. For a newer player, even the vanilla game can be pretty confusing at times, and something like Bobs just makes it like 5x more complicated.

So yeah, definitely play through at least one vanilla game from start to finish to get a hang of things, and then you will have a lot more fun with mods once you know the base game pretty well.

[Lynsis]

so, i tried a vanilla game and... yeah... it's to slow for me/not enough to do. XD

[OBAMA MCLAMA]

I would play the first campaign, then jump on vanilla sandbox. (no mods)
And play with all default settings on map generation.

Rocket defense for factorio v0.11.22
Rocket Silo for factorio v0.12.xx (experimental version)

Play vanilla till you have made it to blue science packs, and take a decision from there.
A) Restart
or B) Continue

Play till you can make the rocket silo, And durring this time you should make some use of logistic robots and try to understand some trains.

At this point, you should have at least tried everything you can in the game, except the rocket silo.
And we then make the same decision as before, Restart a new world, Or continue.
If you continue, make a new goal of making a new base, bigger and more organized

[Peons]

Play stock until you've done the following

A: Automated blues fully
B: Made one successful train route, it doesn't really have to actually ship anything just as long as you know how to get trains from point A to point B and pickup/dropoff cargo.
C: Played with a roboport and used logistic/construction bots + both provider chests & requester/storage chests so you know how they function.

Various hints

Clicking middle mouse when inside a cargo wagon(a train wagon) allows you to setup filters inside the train wagons themselves

Hitting shift right click on a configurable item inside the game (e.g. factory, smart inserter, cargo wagons) allows you to copy the configuration, you can then shift left click this onto other devices of the same type and duplicate the configuration

Hit alt to toggle the pollution map/item overlay, pollution is your worst enemy if you don't control it. It will cause aliens to get all pissy and increase the evolution factor if it's absorbed too frequently. (I don't recommend turning peaceful mode on unless you really just want a full on simcity style factory game)

Inserters can move items from building to building as well as into chests/out of chests. Inserters will automatically filter what they take from the source based on the destination if the destination is a building (or configured train wagon).