Newbie in need

[DeusExLuka]

I am dead lost with this mod suite. I'm having a gross amount of trouble getting a factory up and going. Everything consumes such a huge amount of raw materials before I can even get the basics going. Like Iron right off the bat needs 5 ore just to make one plate direct smelt. I don't have access to all the processes so I'm forced to do straight smelting. Is this normal to struggle this much right at the beginning or is it just me? If anyone has any helpful beginner tips to speed up the early game that would be great. I've scoured youtube and I can't seem to find anything that uses the full mod suite. Awesome mods by the way just hella hard to use

[ulmennaleith]

It's totally normal to struggle in the beginning I think the most important thing is : rush tier 2 or tier 3 smelting as soon as possible, at least for copper / iron / steel (also useful for lead since mining lead ore needs acetylene).

For copper, tier 2 (red science) is nice. For iron, I prefer to skip tier 2 (red science) and go straight to tier 3 (red and green, it's the processed iron recipe). I just don't want to bother with tier 2 since the process is less effective and completely different (it's still very good, you don't have to skip it). So in the beginning you have to spaghetti your way through science to access better smelting, then you can start thinking about a mall, proper science, and circuits production

I recommend starting a micro bootstrap factory, and then start another with tier 2/3 smelting, because smelting will take a huge amount of space

Also, if you don't already use them, check out the mods FNEI / What is it really used for ? / helmod

[pyanodon]

^^^^^^ UP

[DeusExLuka]

Ah good I thought my mess of a small factory was just me being bad at modded games I've played a fair amount of angel/bobs which I'm also terrible at and never actually make it to rocket launches. This is just a whole different ball game.

[salbris]

I thought it was best to post here instead of a new post...

I'm really confused about what to do about Tar in the early game (before researching). The only way to get red science is to create coke which produces Tar but there doesn't seem to be a way to process Tar or Creosote and there is no way to store it temporarily. What am I missing?

[ulmennaleith]

Store it in a tailing pond until you can crack it into coal gas (the recipe is unlocked with red science, but you actually need green science to make the ingredient, pressurized air). You will also have to make creosote from it. In a tailing pond, liquids (like tar) are stored, but gases (like coal gas) are vented (by evaporation).

[immortal_sniper1]

I thought it was best to post here instead of a new post...

I'm really confused about what to do about Tar in the early game (before researching). The only way to get red science is to create coke which produces Tar but there doesn't seem to be a way to process Tar or Creosote and there is no way to store it temporarily. What am I missing?

use the tar to make creosote and with that make treated wood you will need lots of that for rails

[salbris]

Store it in a tailing pond until you can crack it into coal gas (the recipe is unlocked with red science, but you actually need green science to make the ingredient, pressurized air). You will also have to make creosote from it. In a tailing pond, liquids (like tar) are stored, but gases (like coal gas) are vented (by evaporation).

I tried putting tar into the Tailing pond using both the side and front inputs but it wouldn't actually go in. Maybe my Tailing pond is broken it doesn't show indicators for inputs.

FNEI indicates that tar can be processed in the Pit (after researching steel). Thankfully, it's easy to produce a lot of red science with only a little bit of manual work to remove the tar.

[ulmennaleith]

Maybe your tailing pond is connected to coal gas (via a pipe or a coal gas tailing pond) ?

[immortal_sniper1]

Store it in a tailing pond until you can crack it into coal gas (the recipe is unlocked with red science, but you actually need green science to make the ingredient, pressurized air). You will also have to make creosote from it. In a tailing pond, liquids (like tar) are stored, but gases (like coal gas) are vented (by evaporation).

I tried putting tar into the Tailing pond using both the side and front inputs but it wouldn't actually go in. Maybe my Tailing pond is broken it doesn't show indicators for inputs.

FNEI indicates that tar can be processed in the Pit (after researching steel). Thankfully, it's easy to produce a lot of red science with only a little bit of manual work to remove the tar.

make sure nothing else is conected to it also use pipe to cencect it since building-pond might not work ponds work in my case so you must have a connection problem

[DeusExLuka]

This should just turn into the noob section where people unfamiliar with the mod can ask for help with the insane amount of differences there are between Vanilla and Py

[salbris]

Store it in a tailing pond until you can crack it into coal gas (the recipe is unlocked with red science, but you actually need green science to make the ingredient, pressurized air). You will also have to make creosote from it. In a tailing pond, liquids (like tar) are stored, but gases (like coal gas) are vented (by evaporation).

I tried putting tar into the Tailing pond using both the side and front inputs but it wouldn't actually go in. Maybe my Tailing pond is broken it doesn't show indicators for inputs.

FNEI indicates that tar can be processed in the Pit (after researching steel). Thankfully, it's easy to produce a lot of red science with only a little bit of manual work to remove the tar.

make sure nothing else is conected to it also use pipe to cencect it since building-pond might not work ponds work in my case so you must have a connection problem

Strangely enough after I opened my save again and tried it again the tar finally entered the pond. I noticed some odd behaviour with tar and the gas vent as well so it's probably just a subtle bug with the Py mods. The Pond doesn't seem like a standard building that accepts fluid it doesn't have the same indicators as the vent or vanilla tank.

[DeusExLuka]

I decided to go for the ultimate sadist modpack with PY/Bob/Angel. I found it helped balance out the real early game where you're doing a lot of handcrafting. Although I'm at like 35 hrs and haven't even started on Science 2......

[evopwr]

I'm just going through it all the same time as you - although a little bit further ahead.
I didnt bother storing all my tar, just 1 tank. The rest went straight down a sinkhole.
Same with lots of things - just Vent or dump them down a sinkhole - until you can come back and and re-balance and add conversion recipes in once you have learned them.
And yes, plates are so expensive. Duralamin especially!!! (and consquently Aluminium) - omg, I'm mining everything i can find, and not meeting even 5% of demands.
So cant wait to get better recipes going for this, but Phosphoric Acid is a real holdup at the moment.
Focusing on getting a good Train system going first, using Train Supply Manager. Not sure how that will go - time will tell...
Just remember, this mod is designed to be really big, and is meant to be a mammoth undertaking.
There are less intimidating mods if you're feeling overwhelmed.
Good luck!

[drdking]

Adding a related question to this thread:

Just started messing around with this mod (and the rest of the set) tonight. Is the very beginning supposed to be super slow and tedious?

My first thought is that I need iron/copper plates:
8 ore to 1 plate
So it takes 3 burner drills to run 1 stone furnace, okay, slow, but once I get a few set up and going things speed up.

Okay, now time for science:
I need this Fawogae stuff
So looks like I need tin to make the plantation
Mining tin.. requires Steam??
So now I'm using up most of my iron to pipe steam to my tin patch.

I know this is supposed to be a hard mod, and after pouring hundreds of hours in Bobs/Angles I appreciate it. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something and doing things super complicated for no reason.

[Cardoyle]

I know this is supposed to be a hard mod, and after pouring hundreds of hours in Bobs/Angles I appreciate it. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something and doing things super complicated for no reason.

Sounds as tho you are doing everything correct. You will find that a lot of your builds are massive, in vanilla you would leave some space then double it to be safe, in Py you better leave 10 times the space you "think" you need. After i had automated circuit 1's my base had at least tripled in size, things do take a while but remember you can get robots to help you out with little things wiith red/green science.

I have just got circuit 2's automated(took just under 400 hours), this will make or brake you. In getting these automated i got a lot of infrastructure built up(I am using Train Supply Manager). getting circuit 2's also mean you can make the next science straight away as they use the same items

Good luck

[reapersms]

An addendum to the smelting:

Processed -> molten -> plates is about a 2x improvement, but a stack that runs a single casting unit at full throughput will consume an inconvenient amount of borax.

The next step of Processed -> iron grade 1 -> dust -> pulp & slime looks like it might be out of reach, as you can't do anything with the pulp until science 3, but even dumping the pulp down a sinkhole and just running slime->unslimed->molten is a good 30% yield boost over processed -> molten, maybe more with the G2/G3 reprocessing, and uses something like 1/6th the borax, for twice the casting units

[immortal_sniper1]

Adding a related question to this thread:

Just started messing around with this mod (and the rest of the set) tonight. Is the very beginning supposed to be super slow and tedious?

My first thought is that I need iron/copper plates:
8 ore to 1 plate
So it takes 3 burner drills to run 1 stone furnace, okay, slow, but once I get a few set up and going things speed up.

Okay, now time for science:
I need this Fawogae stuff
So looks like I need tin to make the plantation
Mining tin.. requires Steam??
So now I'm using up most of my iron to pipe steam to my tin patch.

I know this is supposed to be a hard mod, and after pouring hundreds of hours in Bobs/Angles I appreciate it. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something and doing things super complicated for no reason.

1 build boilers next to the miners it saves iron
2 if you use electric mines use electric boilers it make it that much easier to move
3 Fawogae is slow to grow so you will need a lot of plantation
4 yes its a hard mod
5 automateing science 1 is a slow hard process then science 2+military will be sorta easy the it will be hard to automate circuit2+blue science the procuction science will be sorta easy then hightech+roket soand so

[TwentyEighty]

If you're doing RSO my opinion is not to worry too much about automating science 1 actually. You need coal processing 1 to automate wood anyway. So just do enough to get Cp1 and mining machines and such, and move to a new location before your initial patches run out and then do science 1 and 2 in tandem. And seriously don't worry about SPS at this point. It's not going to matter. Better to focus on building infrastructure for your permanent base. You'll most likely run out of science 2 to research before you automate circuit 1 and circuit 2 is right out.

[reapersms]

^^^

My science production lines have been dead for probably 30+ hours after running out of science 2 things.