Trains and Super bases?

[Wolf1991]

Hi,

Me and a friend have been playing Factorio for a while and we have never seemed to need trains or a super large base to finish the game. Are we missing something here we tend to just build a base with a wall around it and then build everything in there until we can go kill aliens for artifacts then we just do research and build the rocket never needing to spread further than the starting area for resources. Most of our distribution is just done by transport belts everywhere and it seems to work just fine.

What is the purpose of the trains in this situation? Even if we needed to branch out for more resources it would seem a belt would be better as its a constant flow of for example ore rather than a huge chunk of ore that will get eaten by our furnaces in about 10 seconds?

[DaveMcW]

Yes, you don't need trains to launch one rocket. Find a bigger goal if you want a reason to use them.

[ssilk]

I think plan is to continue after Factorio 1.0.
See viewtopic.php?f=80&t=24090

[aober93]

Im not sure if its good or bad if the base game is so straightforward as it is. But i tend to say its ok right now, because thats what new players have their first game with and thats though as it is, and it hasnt hurt the reception of the game. 0.15 seems to bring alternative gamemodes i dont know what this means, perhaps some suitable presets for experienced players. But regardless of what base you have ,you can go bigger every time. Just think your base x10.

But if you want to go trains now, either set yourself a new goal (like launch multiple rockets as fast as you can). Or go mods. Like currently im runnin marathon mod, spaceX-(4x multiplier) research revolution (10x multiplier), and 2 infinite research mods at the same time. lol
I got a big makeshift trainnetwork and mine like 20 orepatches at the same time and havent yet researched essential stuff like personal roboport and assembler 3. Im not sure if i can mine that billion ores ever lol. And teh aliens just turned behemoth and i got not much to fight them. But with 0.15 the wpn system gonna get better. But trains all the way.

[Frightning]

Getting all the way down the tech tree and launching a rocket without leaving your start area can be easy with the right mapgen settings. But if you make a particular resource scarce, then you will start to see the value of trains (they are, by far, the best way to move large amounts of resources over large distances).

[ssilk]

Driving trains is fun.

[Melter]

A lot of Factoriates would probably agree that it is pretty easy to launch a rocket, and really doesn't take that much time or map space once you have a sound understanding of the game and are using blueprints efficiently etc. I didn't need trains really on my first play through, however, if you enjoy the game and it's basic theme, you may well move onto the greater requirements of some mods. Something like Space X with RSO will definitely require trains, and not only that, the game's challenge will not be about the finale but creating a beautiful world ticking along with controlled complexity.
My present map is around 80 hours and far from nearing a "completed" state, but is "large" and has trains heading all over covering distances that Express belts could never feasibly cover without costing huge resources to produce and what's more, they would be way too slow. When things get big, huge amounts of resources are required and many mine outposts of 250 electric mines or so.

[Hannu]

It is strength of the game that there are many possibilities and gamestyles. Games, in which you have to use every object in certain order, are typically boring at least during third playthrough. In Factorio you can select different settings and set self imposed rules or let things you do not like unused and get very different games even with stock game.

[aober93]

I think its not uncommon for people to build a train on their first playthrough. But with meager success and questionable application.