Am I doing it right?

[UKStephen]

I look at some of the things people have made and compare it to my save and wonder have I done anything right. Do you guys start off similar or am I behind?

My current save has about 6 hours play time on it (its the first world I generated)

I have a steady supply of iron ore, with 2 smelters making iron plates for storage, 1 making steel plates then steel and one making steel plates for the production line. A supply of copper converted to copper plates. All derived from electric miners.

The power system is coal based, but I have to mine it from miles away. What I'm doing right now is having a self sustaining power system for the mining of the coal (1 steam gen, 1 boiler) and then using conveyer belts to transport it to the main base ( 4 gens, 6 boilers). I think I've researched 8 techs including lab efficiency 1 and solar power.

I know there's no right way or wrong way as such but is that about right for 6 hrs first game or far behind?

[muzzy]

I don't even look at the clock when I play, going slow is fine.

A lot of people like to use 3-4 electric miners and 6 smelters per resources, but that generates quite a bunch of pollution which attracts enemies and means you have to spend more resources on defense. Unless there's plenty of convenient forest to eat pollution, I sometimes go with 1 miner per resource type until I research oil, plastics, modules, efficiency modules ... to get that -80% energy (and thus -80% pollution) per miner. I also like to alt-tab to browse the net a lot while I play.

Since it doesn't hurt going slow, there's no reason to waste effort going fast. But if you want to go fast, you can sure try, just downscale the pollution if you can't handle the biters (and toggle the extras display with alt, check map to see if pollution reaches the spawners)

[Garm]

As you learn more about pollution it becomes easier to expand faster, but 6 hours isn't that bad.


For example when I play now I research effectivity modules asap allowing me to cut energy demand and pollution of electric miners by 60-80% (early in the game i only use 2 modules since they give 30% each, while 3rd gives only 20% due to cap). This is very important early on and some people forget about them.

I also place gun turrets at critical locations near main pollution sources.

after that i research laser defenses and establish perimeters around my base in order to crank up the production.

[RMJ]

This game definitely has the same kinda self defeating mechanic that Kerbal space program has. More fuel, more engines, more fuel, more engines. its just never ending.

The same here, more resources, more pollution, more resources, more pullution. more stuff will kill you. repeat and it just gets worse the more greedy you get lol.

And solar POWER takes up a lot of room. To bad we cant build solar towers, like solar panels that stand upwards .

[pbhead]

And solar POWER takes up a lot of room. To bad we cant build solar towers, like solar panels that stand upwards .

A lot of room perhaps, but still quite overpowered compared to RL solar panels, especially if you also look at the perfectly efficient power storage factorio has.

"Solar towers" would require accurate modeling of shadows, so you couldn't just put a tower behind a tower.

Now, a molten salt solar station, where you build mirrors which point to "receiver" which powers a conventional steam engine would be cool.

[cube]

Now, a molten salt solar station, where you build mirrors which point to "receiver" which powers a conventional steam engine would be cool.

Someone should make a mod for this.

[GewaltSam]

I look at some of the things people have made and compare it to my save and wonder have I done anything right. Do you guys start off similar or am I behind?

Take your time, pal. In one of my first games, i was trying to optimize the production of a single product for like 2-3 hours straight, and it wasn't half as good as I would build it nowadays (a mere week later). But i learned a ton in the process, so who cares how far your factory went? Your second factory will be WAAAY better than your first, and your third will be even better than that. That's the nature of Factorio i guess, and what's making the game so damn addictive. After 60 hours of playing, I'm still learning new tricks and find better ways of doing things.

The factory I build right now is 40 hours old, and I bet at least 15 hours i was standing around because i was talking, cooking or browsing the net. That's fine if you ask me; you got ALWAYS something that you can do in the game, but you can take all time in the world to do it. Try around a lot and watch your production closely, and while doing so, read a bit in the wiki. That will help you progressing a lot. Learning by doing is half the fun though