Oil, power, combat and alien tech

[TheMrAndyn0]

Ok, lets make this simple. This game is great, right now even though its only in alpha it still feels like a complete game, but it has its problems. My first problem is oil. Well, when I say problem I mean possible solution to a probable problem.Oh and before anybody goes on about "this is too long, too descriptive etc etc" I honestly don't care. I read the suggestions on how to make a post and such but honestly, all that was saying is "have idea, want to explain this idea? TOUGH! Just tell use that you have this idea". Screw that, im writing my damn life story in this thing!
So, here's the thing. Oil is incredibly spread out, there tends to be a single patch of 1/s oil every few, what can be compared to "Miles". In real life, this wouldn't be a problem, but in game it is. Its difficult enough to protect your main "factory" so its never a good thing to have pumpjacks and refinery's far beyond your manageable borders. It also, along with the players limited access to the oil, the oil is limited itself. It seems to run out insanely fast and there is literally nothing that can be done.
Now, there are MULTIPLE ways this can be fixed, if its really a problem that is. For one, the availability of oil could simply be increased, but that's too boring and too simplistic. On the other hand, the grouping of oil could be increased meaning instead of finding one or 2 raw oil "puddles" scattered around, you find large pools. That, on its own, is also another solution. Early on, oil is not such a big issue but further in the demand for oil is increased so maybe along with the small puddles, larger pools which can only be collected via a larger, higher tech jackpump could be added. These pools would obviously have a higher yield an last longer. There is also a third, more interesting I guess, suggest I have for this. Instead of increasing the availability, a certain research could be added. This research will add 2 things. 1: deeper pumping and 2 : Deeper searching. Basically, the first research just increases the natural yield you get from each. For example, originally a puddle of oil would have a yield of 1.2/s and last for 10 minutes of pumping lets say. With this tech, the yield will go up to 1.8/s and last for a lot longer, it will take longer for the yield to decrease. The second tech from this research is a refueling of sort. At the cost of some electronic circuits, iron plates and steel, the yield will be increased or maybe just reset due to the pump digging and searching further. The cost will depend on the yield itself. If the reset system is used, lets say the original yield *including the first research bonus* is 1.3/s but it goes down to 0.3/s, at the cost of 10 electronic circuits, 20 iron plates and 10 steel, the yield will go back up to 1.3/s. The next time you do this on the same jackpump though, the cost will double, making the cost 20 circuits, 40 iron plates and 10 steel no matter how much the oil was depleted by. For the increased idea, the cost will depend on the yield. If the yield is 0.5, the cost will be 5 electronic circuits, 10 iron plates and 5 steel. The yield will then become 1/s. If the user were then to do the same on 1/s, the cost would be 10 electronic circuits, 20 iron plates and 10 steel. The yield would become 2/s and so on and so forth. The cost will not double, but will vary depending on the yield meaning a newly acquired pumpjack of 1.3/s oil will still cost something like 13 electronic circuits, 26 iron places and 15 steel even if no increase has been done on this pumpjack before, and it will increase the yield to 2.6/s. Doing this will increase the availability of oil without having to search incredible distances with no secure or fast way such as a liquid transport cart for the train of transport and without having to just increase the amount of oil. Oh, and as previously mentioned, liquid transport carts for trains for be great for if you have no choice but to go far distances for oil

My next issue, or pet peeve, is power and electricity. Steam power plants are huge. They require massive amounts of space and a steady, or large anyway, supply of coal. This is GREAT and fine for when your starting, but as your factory increases in size and energy consumption increases also, adding more just becomes a little annoying. Some may try to point out to me "solar energy" but the space and cost required for the solar panels to supply the same energy as a single steam power plant is many times greater. They are honestly only useful for small outposts requiring little to no power or for when you are trying to attack enemy bases which are far away. I also know that nuclear power and possibly geothermal power may soon be added, but both would require access to natural resources and may possibly be exhausted, that's why I would like to suggest solar towers. Solar towers will basically act as a rather costly amplifier for solar panels. I say costly, because they would allow the player to generate incredibly large amounts of power limitlessly. For a start, they would still require solar panels around them, but the power output of any solar panels made to face the tower around it will be multiplied by 10. This means each solar panel would output 600kw. Insane, right? Of course, the solar tower would be quite large. It may also attract a greater amount of aliens, meaning a swarm of 5 attackers every now and then becomes a swarm of 30 attackers that frequent your front door. Also, the solar tower would require its own solar panels to make, maybe around 50? Also, it would require advanced circuits and the other blue circuits which name I cannot remember among other things. Now it may seem to costly, but for limitless energy this would still be quite cheap. Ok, so lets put this into context in a comparative manner. Nuclear power plant. They would cost a lot to make, and still require natural resources, uranium, which may be low in number BUT a single nuclear power plant may produce in excess of 2k KJ on its own without the need of outside factors such as solar panels which are only affected within a certain area, meaning maybe only 4 would be affected and maybe the increase would only be to 300-400, meaning each solar tower would produce 1.2k kw while attracting foes and taking up large amounts of space and being pretty damn costly, but being limitless. Geothermal generators would require water, and most likely an access to underground heat. Finding a spot where both are close may be tricky and may require vast pipe systems. On the other hand, the power would be limitless yet again and would probably generate 200-300kw on its own without the need for something like a solar tower. The power produced may also be affected by the heat of the source. Basically, all high tier power supplies have their own advantages but would allow the user to generate enough power easily no matter their spawn point or situation.

Ok, onto combat. I guess what im about to rant and complain about isn't combat directly but is a major factor in combat. We've all had that moment when we are doing something really important, necessary to advance to the next tier of tech but then boom, you get a message saying your turrets are in combat. This has happened 7 maybe 8 times already up to this point, so it should be fine right? Wrong. The next thing you know your getting a message saying two of your laser towers have been destroyed and most of the great wall of factorio has been climbed by the huns. So you head on up to replace them....and all you see is red. Red health bars on your towers, on your pylons, on your walls. Everything is red, so you have to waste a million resources on a hundred repair packs. I thought this game was about automation! Why do I have to manually replaster the walls and put a screw back where it belongs in a high-tech laser automated turret. We need repair roboports which will repair anything not currently in combat or being attacked, and later on combat repairports which will repair things in combat or being attacked but will cost more resources and energy plus the aliens will target and be able to destroy the repair bots which will need to be remade themselves. This will make my life so much damn easier. Maybe auto-placers as well which will place things in pre-set places if there is nothing occupying them meaning you could have an automated crafter making laser turrets or just have a small amount on stand-by so that when one is destroyed you don't have to take a train, get off at stop 10, get in a taxi and drive for 30 minutes to reach you destination just to right click and be done.

Ok, finally, there's alien tech. Im just going to start this with ALIEN TECH IS INSANELY HARD TO GET IN THE FIRST PLACE DUE TO THE INSANE SPAWN RATES AND MASSIVE SWARMS. Ok, that's my rage down. Now, not only are they difficult to destroy but once you finally manage to destroy one, after all that effort you get...4 alien tech? Doesn't that mean you can only get 4 science juice? In that case, you would need to destroy well over 130 spawner's to get all the tech. Surely the biters should have a chance of dropping tech depending on their size. Surely the worms, the things that actually fight back and do a lot of damage, should drop some alien tech. Surely there should be larger spawners which drop 10, maybe 20 alien tech.
Well, for anybody patient enough to read all the way through this without saying "HANG ON A MOMENT, I COMPLETELY DISAGREE AND THATS A RUBBISH IDEA BECAUSE...." just to have somebody point out I already addressed your issue in a later section, thank you for reading and jesus you deserve a medal. Please tell me what you think of my suggestions AKA general whining about an alpha game that feels complete but is still no where near to completion although it has already almost reached the stages of perfection. If you have any idea's that could be added onto mine, please comment on it and I will most likely devise a complex, dewey decimal like idea from your idea. Basically, a "add more ores!" will become only something well trained 50 year old virgin librarians who have been reading J R.R Tolkein since before they were born can understand or in any way, grasp. So, to sum it up, thanks for reading to much and boring yourselves to death and thanks for complaing about my complaints.

[XxKR4K3NxX]

In accordance to your oil ideas I think they could implement the the second and third, the research option sounds interesting but then it brings a peculiar question into play could you just infinitely spend resources on pumping oil to make it better or would there be a limit to such?

The developers are working on different electricity sources you can find it in the development proposals section of the forum, for repairing just use construction bots in a roboport, and also the alien tech situation is also being worked on in the development proposals Besides oil everything else is being worked on already but great ideas man!

[Blackence]

@Oil: Maybe you just had bad luck with map generation, I usually find enough oil relatively close to my base to get started, and later on it's not that difficult to have some pumpjacks in remote areas. Also, it's important to note that oil never runs out AFAICT. It drops to 0.1/s, but you can still get oil out of it. Just add some productivity beacons and then it's fine.

@Electricity: I just put HUGE solar fields everywhere. I mean, there's an infinitely big planet. Get rid of biters, add solar panels, profit.

@Combat/Base defense: Yeah, make sure to defend your base and keep up walls maintenance or they will destroy your base. You don't have to do that manually, constructions bot will take care of repairing and re-adding destroyed buildings if they have access to repair kits and … well, the buildings that were destroyed (i.e. walls mostly). Basically, exactly what you described in your post.

@Alien Tech: I agree, though 1 alien artifact = 10 alien science packs. Add productivity modules and it's like 1 artifact = 14 science packs IIRC. So it's not *that* bad. It's still boring to raid alien bases later on, and pretty difficult in the beginning. I wish there was a fully automated way to get artifacts. Like my post in the "alien diplomacy" thread. Or maybe by capturing a few biters and keeping them at your base, so you can forcefully remove some artifacts from them regularly. I don't feel like I'd enjoy 100% automated war against biter homes.

[FishSandwich]

I read the suggestions on how to make a post and such but honestly, all that was saying is "have idea, want to explain this idea? TOUGH! Just tell use that you have this idea". Screw that, im writing my damn life story in this thing!

There's a reason that suggestion thread is there, to avoid a lot of the things you've done right here. Posting like this is difficult for anyone to read, including the devs, so if you had good suggestions, they might be passed over because you haven't laid it out properly. Also, a lot of things you've complained about are already planned or are already in the game, but you've just not discovered it yet. I haven't read the whole thing, because it is just a huge wall of text, but I'll take your repair/automatic placement complaint as an example:

This is already possible, and has been for a very long time now. If something is damaged and is within range of a roboport it'll be repaired automatically as long as you have construction bots with repair packs in the roboport network. If a wall/turret is destroyed and it's within the roboport range, it'll be automatically replaced as long as you have construction bots and walls/turrets in storage.

Also, spawners aren't difficult to destroy, this is probably something you've yet to discover, and one alien artifact gives you 10 alien science packs(which can be more if you automate it properly) So a single spawner dropping 3-8 alien artifacts(in my experience), that's 30-80 alien science packs. That seems very balanced to me.

If you want to rant/ask questions, there is Gameplay Help board for that.

[TheMrAndyn0]

@Oil: Maybe you just had bad luck with map generation, I usually find enough oil relatively close to my base to get started, and later on it's not that difficult to have some pumpjacks in remote areas. Also, it's important to note that oil never runs out AFAICT. It drops to 0.1/s, but you can still get oil out of it. Just add some productivity beacons and then it's fine.

@Electricity: I just put HUGE solar fields everywhere. I mean, there's an infinitely big planet. Get rid of biters, add solar panels, profit.

@Combat/Base defense: Yeah, make sure to defend your base and keep up walls maintenance or they will destroy your base. You don't have to do that manually, constructions bot will take care of repairing and re-adding destroyed buildings if they have access to repair kits and … well, the buildings that were destroyed (i.e. walls mostly). Basically, exactly what you described in your post.

@Alien Tech: I agree, though 1 alien artifact = 10 alien science packs. Add productivity modules and it's like 1 artifact = 14 science packs IIRC. So it's not *that* bad. It's still boring to raid alien bases later on, and pretty difficult in the beginning. I wish there was a fully automated way to get artifacts. Like my post in the "alien diplomacy" thread. Or maybe by capturing a few biters and keeping them at your base, so you can forcefully remove some artifacts from them regularly. I don't feel like I'd enjoy 100% automated war against biter homes.

1: Yes, that's true. Oil doesn't run out but it is still insanely annoying to need a large amount of jack pumps which run out at a rapid pace, just to get 1 oil a second from 10 pumpjacks. Plus, I do...if I have oil set on high frequency and very high quality, which is basically just going lazy mode. Also, "get rid of biters" Yeah...you need the resources from oil to destroy biters with any ease. Should be easy getting that oil rig...oh wait, you need to destroy the biters to get the oil, but to get the oil you need to destroy the biters?????

2: I know that, but problem is you need to keep supplying them with repair packs. I guess this isn't to hard or in any way a pain, but it would be quite easy for you to not realise that one of the supply lines has run out meaning there are no more repair packs, meaning all of a sudden all the work you put in has been destroyed just because you were somewhere else building something just as important. The construction robots are good for early on but they aren't so great when everything at your main factory has ran out, meaning just to protect your steam plants your transporting repair packs from the other side of the flaming world. My trains have more important things to be doing

3: From what I've seen in the comments so far, people seem to misunderstand. They seem to think im one of the people who hasn't thought ahead or hasn't read anything before placing here. This section is for idea's. This forum seems to think that if 2 people come up with something the same, then they are completely the same and you don't need to give your idea because somebody already has. Ok, lets say 2 people make a post on wind power. They are the same, right? WRONG. Somebody posts it and say's "There should be wind turbines". Ok..cool. The OTHER person on the other hand, means there should be win in and of itself. He means that there should be wind and depending on pollution, the strength of the wind may pick up and hinder the players movement or damage certain equipment. He may also say that wind turbines would be a great addition with this, and placing them off the cost would increase their power output and the speed of the wind may also. See? These are 2 entirely different idea's just with some similar concepts. So now somebody may point out "he should of just posted that in the other persons post". No, he shouldn't. His idea is WIND that could possibly be used for power, the other one is wind power. Also, it's less personal and there's a lot less chance of the idea being seen on page 27 half way down than it is for the idea to be seen on its own page, right at the top. Plus, alien artefact are still a complete pain in the ass to get and im just pointing out how the spawners should possibly drop more, or maybe drop more valuable ones

[TheMrAndyn0]

I read the suggestions on how to make a post and such but honestly, all that was saying is "have idea, want to explain this idea? TOUGH! Just tell use that you have this idea". Screw that, im writing my damn life story in this thing!

There's a reason that suggestion thread is there, to avoid a lot of the things you've done right here. Posting like this is difficult for anyone to read, including the devs, so if you had good suggestions, they might be passed over because you haven't laid it out properly. Also, a lot of things you've complained about are already planned or are already in the game, but you've just not discovered it yet. I haven't read the whole thing, because it is just a huge wall of text, but I'll take your repair/automatic placement complaint as an example:

This is already possible, and has been for a very long time now. If something is damaged and is within range of a roboport it'll be repaired automatically as long as you have construction bots with repair packs in the roboport network. If a wall/turret is destroyed and it's within the roboport range, it'll be automatically replaced as long as you have construction bots and walls/turrets in storage.

Also, spawners aren't difficult to destroy, this is probably something you've yet to discover, and one alien artifact gives you 10 alien science packs(which can be more if you automate it properly) So a single spawner dropping 3-8 alien artifacts(in my experience), that's 30-80 alien science packs. That seems very balanced to me.

If you want to rant/ask questions, there is Gameplay Help board for that.

And, I quote "Well, for anybody patient enough to read all the way through this without saying "HANG ON A MOMENT, I COMPLETELY DISAGREE AND THATS A RUBBISH IDEA BECAUSE...." just to have somebody point out I already addressed your issue in a later section" . Ok, here's the thing. My construction robots have better things to be doing than picking up repair packs that you then have to automate as well, which is incredibly tedious, and I would rather not have to place a roboport which requires quite a bit of energy just to help protect my small outpost which is near to some biters, you know, those ones with its own small power supply? Those ones you don't want to be placing millions of pylons to power it from your main supply. And your "just not discovered it" is rather rude, as is most of your post which is basically saying "I saw that you had a lot of writing, so instead of just leaving, im going to complain about it and write about completely invalid points you have already pointed out". Are you the type of person that picks up a book, flips to the back, checks he number of pages and if its over 50 you write a review about how the book is a load of rubbish that goes on and on and on without and real destination or reason.
Also, yes, they aren't difficult to get if you have higher-tier tech. All I need for that is alien tech! Right, should be simple. Getting alien tech to get the ability to get...alien...tech...umm.... Great idea! Also, yes it is easy to get alien tech if you travel massive distances, losing multiple cars to tree's just to find a lone spawner, place down some solar panels and turrets, be doing really well...until it turns to night. And you die. Woohoo. Honestly, id rather not go through that tedious task even though this game's sole focus is the ability to automate everything, yet you can't automate or in any way make the task of gathering alien tech easier. Without first having alien tech.
One final note, if you look carefully, anything that has already been planned I have SAID it has already been planned. I distinctly remember writing " I also know that nuclear power and possibly geothermal power may soon be added, but both would require access to natural resources and may possibly be exhausted"...or something along those lines anyway, and then I used those possibly idea's to COMPARE them to my idea, kapeesh?

[FishSandwich]

I actually perceived your initial post to be quite rude, the way you said screw that to the suggestion rules and chose to do it your own way, I thought was rude and ignorant. Maybe you didn't intend that? I don't know, but that's how I saw it. I'm sorry if you perceived my post as rude, it was intended to be helpful.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is if you are serious about your suggestion, you'll want the devs to read it, so you need to lay it out better, because the devs are not going to read a wall of text like that. If you're not serious about the suggestion, and just want to rant then there are other places to do that.

[DerivePi]

It is easy to blabber on but it takes effort to be succinct. You have made me interested in learning more about Pascal.

[TheMrAndyn0]

It is easy to blabber on but it takes effort to be succinct. You have made me interested in learning more about Pascal.

Succinct is not in my dictionary. No, seriously. Car accidents affect hundreds maybe even thousands of dictionaries EVERY year, but you could help. If you donate half you monthly wage every week, you could help a dictionary get its life back. We will send you exclusive pictures of your dictionary, and you will get your own plush toy.
Oh and, why on earth would any comments within this forum section make you want to learn pascal?? XD

[SHiRKiT]

Ok, lets make this simple. This game is great, right now even though its only in alpha it still feels like a complete game, but it has its problems. My first problem is oil. Well, when I say problem I mean possible solution to a probable problem.Oh and before anybody goes on about "this is too long, too descriptive etc etc" I honestly don't care. I read the suggestions on how to make a post and such but honestly, all that was saying is "have idea, want to explain this idea? TOUGH! Just tell use that you have this idea". Screw that, im writing my damn life story in this thing!

OK

So, here's the thing. Oil is incredibly spread out, there tends to be a single patch of 1/s oil every few, what can be compared to "Miles". In real life, this wouldn't be a problem, but in game it is. Its difficult enough to protect your main "factory" so its never a good thing to have pumpjacks and refinery's far beyond your manageable borders. It also, along with the players limited access to the oil, the oil is limited itself. It seems to run out insanely fast and there is literally nothing that can be done.

You need to setup train stations, explore the land with a car, setup a power system that works to supply the laser turrets to defend the pumpjacks (you can build solar on place or take coal using the train itself). Oil is a must and it's intended to be hard, since the game is easy enough by it's ways.

Now, there are MULTIPLE ways this can be fixed, if its really a problem that is. For one, the availability of oil could simply be increased, but that's too boring and too simplistic. On the other hand, the grouping of oil could be increased meaning instead of finding one or 2 raw oil "puddles" scattered around, you find large pools. That, on its own, is also another solution. Early on, oil is not such a big issue but further in the demand for oil is increased so maybe along with the small puddles, larger pools which can only be collected via a larger, higher tech jackpump could be added. These pools would obviously have a higher yield an last longer. There is also a third, more interesting I guess, suggest I have for this. Instead of increasing the availability, a certain research could be added. This research will add 2 things. 1: deeper pumping and 2 : Deeper searching. Basically, the first research just increases the natural yield you get from each. For example, originally a puddle of oil would have a yield of 1.2/s and last for 10 minutes of pumping lets say. With this tech, the yield will go up to 1.8/s and last for a lot longer, it will take longer for the yield to decrease. The second tech from this research is a refueling of sort. At the cost of some electronic circuits, iron plates and steel, the yield will be increased or maybe just reset due to the pump digging and searching further. The cost will depend on the yield itself. If the reset system is used, lets say the original yield *including the first research bonus* is 1.3/s but it goes down to 0.3/s, at the cost of 10 electronic circuits, 20 iron plates and 10 steel, the yield will go back up to 1.3/s. The next time you do this on the same jackpump though, the cost will double, making the cost 20 circuits, 40 iron plates and 10 steel no matter how much the oil was depleted by. For the increased idea, the cost will depend on the yield. If the yield is 0.5, the cost will be 5 electronic circuits, 10 iron plates and 5 steel. The yield will then become 1/s. If the user were then to do the same on 1/s, the cost would be 10 electronic circuits, 20 iron plates and 10 steel. The yield would become 2/s and so on and so forth. The cost will not double, but will vary depending on the yield meaning a newly acquired pumpjack of 1.3/s oil will still cost something like 13 electronic circuits, 26 iron places and 15 steel even if no increase has been done on this pumpjack before, and it will increase the yield to 2.6/s. Doing this will increase the availability of oil without having to search incredible distances with no secure or fast way such as a liquid transport cart for the train of transport and without having to just increase the amount of oil. Oh, and as previously mentioned, liquid transport carts for trains for be great for if you have no choice but to go far distances for oil

You know the solution for the oil, just seems that you don't want to solve with the current tools. The suggestion is good, let me do an overview:
- Add 2 researches: Deeper Pumping, Deepder Searching
+ Deeper pumping: increase the yeild of pumpjacks by X%, and taking down the yeild of the deposit slower (need game mechanics changes).
+ Deeper searching: allow you to "upgrade" the pumpjacks by making them to go "further down" searching for oil. The cost for that would be X stell, Y Circuits and Z Iron plates. At the second refueling, it would be 2X, 2Y and 2Z. At the third refueling, it would be 4X, 4Y and 4Z (I think this can be accomplished with current mechanics).

My next issue, or pet peeve, is power and electricity. Steam power plants are huge. They require massive amounts of space and a steady, or large anyway, supply of coal. This is GREAT and fine for when your starting, but as your factory increases in size and energy consumption increases also, adding more just becomes a little annoying. Some may try to point out to me "solar energy" but the space and cost required for the solar panels to supply the same energy as a single steam power plant is many times greater. They are honestly only useful for small outposts requiring little to no power or for when you are trying to attack enemy bases which are far away. I also know that nuclear power and possibly geothermal power may soon be added, but both would require access to natural resources and may possibly be exhausted, that's why I would like to suggest solar towers. Solar towers will basically act as a rather costly amplifier for solar panels. I say costly, because they would allow the player to generate incredibly large amounts of power limitlessly. For a start, they would still require solar panels around them, but the power output of any solar panels made to face the tower around it will be multiplied by 10. This means each solar panel would output 600kw. Insane, right? Of course, the solar tower would be quite large. It may also attract a greater amount of aliens, meaning a swarm of 5 attackers every now and then becomes a swarm of 30 attackers that frequent your front door. Also, the solar tower would require its own solar panels to make, maybe around 50? Also, it would require advanced circuits and the other blue circuits which name I cannot remember among other things. Now it may seem to costly, but for limitless energy this would still be quite cheap. Ok, so lets put this into context in a comparative manner. Nuclear power plant. They would cost a lot to make, and still require natural resources, uranium, which may be low in number BUT a single nuclear power plant may produce in excess of 2k KJ on its own without the need of outside factors such as solar panels which are only affected within a certain area, meaning maybe only 4 would be affected and maybe the increase would only be to 300-400, meaning each solar tower would produce 1.2k kw while attracting foes and taking up large amounts of space and being pretty damn costly, but being limitless. Geothermal generators would require water, and most likely an access to underground heat. Finding a spot where both are close may be tricky and may require vast pipe systems. On the other hand, the power would be limitless yet again and would probably generate 200-300kw on its own without the need for something like a solar tower. The power produced may also be affected by the heat of the source. Basically, all high tier power supplies have their own advantages but would allow the user to generate enough power easily no matter their spawn point or situation.

Solar power is OP as it is right now, since you can build accumulators and make your base go almost 95+% pollution free. All you need is space for that, and you want to remove the space requirements? If you want you can use higher tier solar panels from DyTech, or mod some of them yourself, but I think that the only downside for solar right now is the space. If you remove it, it's going to b OP. Like insanely OP.

Ok, onto combat. I guess what im about to rant and complain about isn't combat directly but is a major factor in combat. We've all had that moment when we are doing something really important, necessary to advance to the next tier of tech but then boom, you get a message saying your turrets are in combat. This has happened 7 maybe 8 times already up to this point, so it should be fine right? Wrong. The next thing you know your getting a message saying two of your laser towers have been destroyed and most of the great wall of factorio has been climbed by the huns. So you head on up to replace them....and all you see is red. Red health bars on your towers, on your pylons, on your walls. Everything is red, so you have to waste a million resources on a hundred repair packs. I thought this game was about automation! Why do I have to manually replaster the walls and put a screw back where it belongs in a high-tech laser automated turret. We need repair roboports which will repair anything not currently in combat or being attacked, and later on combat repairports which will repair things in combat or being attacked but will cost more resources and energy plus the aliens will target and be able to destroy the repair bots which will need to be remade themselves. This will make my life so much damn easier. Maybe auto-placers as well which will place things in pre-set places if there is nothing occupying them meaning you could have an automated crafter making laser turrets or just have a small amount on stand-by so that when one is destroyed you don't have to take a train, get off at stop 10, get in a taxi and drive for 30 minutes to reach you destination just to right click and be done.

Build more Laser Turrets, make them shoot faster, make the walls double width so heavy bitters can't attack through, place roboports with enough repair packs close and profit. With 1 laser turret every 3-4 tiles you can clear out MASSIVE bitters waves.

Ok, finally, there's alien tech. Im just going to start this with ALIEN TECH IS INSANELY HARD TO GET IN THE FIRST PLACE DUE TO THE INSANE SPAWN RATES AND MASSIVE SWARMS. Ok, that's my rage down. Now, not only are they difficult to destroy but once you finally manage to destroy one, after all that effort you get...4 alien tech? Doesn't that mean you can only get 4 science juice? In that case, you would need to destroy well over 130 spawner's to get all the tech. Surely the biters should have a chance of dropping tech depending on their size. Surely the worms, the things that actually fight back and do a lot of damage, should drop some alien tech. Surely there should be larger spawners which drop 10, maybe 20 alien tech.

Yeah, it's quite hard to get the alien tech, but it's only needed on the very game end or the last strong researches, so I guess it's ok to continue as it is. You can generate a TON of pollution, create a few combat robots and get yourself a power armor and you can clear out massive bases with 20 big worms if you have the capsules. That's why they are there.

Well, for anybody patient enough to read all the way through this without saying "HANG ON A MOMENT, I COMPLETELY DISAGREE AND THATS A RUBBISH IDEA BECAUSE...." just to have somebody point out I already addressed your issue in a later section, thank you for reading and jesus you deserve a medal. Please tell me what you think of my suggestions AKA general whining about an alpha game that feels complete but is still no where near to completion although it has already almost reached the stages of perfection. If you have any idea's that could be added onto mine, please comment on it and I will most likely devise a complex, dewey decimal like idea from your idea. Basically, a "add more ores!" will become only something well trained 50 year old virgin librarians who have been reading J R.R Tolkein since before they were born can understand or in any way, grasp. So, to sum it up, thanks for reading to much and boring yourselves to death and thanks for complaing about my complaints.

????!!!!

It seems that you just haven't play the game enough. You need to build bigger and bigger and bigger to have all of those issues solved. You need to secure a ton of space, place a bunch of roboports, automate construction with blueprints and go crazy with designs. That's the game's current goal! Now take a look at the other forums and be creative.

[ssilk]

I love and hate those postings.

Love is, because it shows the unfiltered impresions of a new player. That is quite important!

Hate because
- no suggestion can be used, because everything, every aspect which can be made wrong is wrong...
- that's suggestion from a new player, which plays the game for the first (second? third?) time... how boring would the game be, if I had only that problems....

[TheMrAndyn0]

It seems that you just haven't play the game enough. You need to build bigger and bigger and bigger to have all of those issues solved. You need to secure a ton of space, place a bunch of roboports, automate construction with blueprints and go crazy with designs. That's the game's current goal! Now take a look at the other forums and be creative.

Ok, says "be creative" after basically just saying "place down a lot of things repetitively".... Right...
I have played this game for a LONG time, I just have never bothered to post on the forums before. Also, what you just stated is that having a lot of 1 thing is OP compared to having a small amount of something. Well, that is defiantly being creative. Right, lets get into the future development of the game. There have been multiple mentions of nuclear energy, and you call solar panels OP. Nuclear energy is currently one of the cheapest and, besides the nuclear waste, most pollution free sources of power. It also tends to generate large amounts of power. One nuclear power station is equal to about well over 100 solar panels yet they also produce no greenhouse gases, don't require sunlight and the prices of solar panels and solar cells are actually rather high.
Also, yet again, you said "be creative" but everything you said contradicted that. It is difficult to be creative when all you are doing is placing down lots of the same thing with no sign of progression. That's what the tech is for. As I've mentioned in previous posts, yes you can use roboports but technology should allow you to remove the need for repair packs. Lets use turrets as an example. For the first turret, you need to supply it with ammo but laser turrets only require power, so whats wrong with suggesting the same for repair?

Btw, seems you barely understood my suggestions for oil. For 1, the researches are under the same research. Secondly, I suggested 3 methods of oil solving what I find to be an annoyance in a game where every research allows the user to automate and ease the burden from the player. It also seems that you don't understand games in general. Decreasing the time ONE resource decreases and making a multiplier does not require a change to the entire games mechanics. Heck, I could even do a simplistic version right here in basic :
Dim Oil as integer
Dim decrease as integer
Dim research as Boolean

Oil = (amount generator)
decrease = 2

If research = True then
Oil = (oil x 2)
Decrease = decrease / 2

See? Ok, yes, this may be a rather dumbed down and rather basic version but in the end, it is the same. Changing 1 aspect does not change everything unless it is a completely vital part of the game's mechanics. From what I can see from your comments, you seem to think that the current game is finished and you don't want anything changed. You probably seem to think that the already implemented parts of the game don't need to be changed in any way except for, from what im guessing, a complete change to the games mechanics. People In these forums, even though they are among the few that have found an amazing but uncut and unshaped gem, they don't want to shape that gem thinking it is already fine. Ok so a RTS has a single unit in it. The method of mining is new and unique, the maps designs are amazing but there is only a single unit and only 1 method of doing anything. Everything else is fine, so why change that, right? That's what basically everyone else seems to be saying. They look at the things already implemented in this ALPHA game and say "That's the only way it can be done, there doesn't need to be any other's." I ALREADY KNOW ABOUT THE FEATURES OF THIS GAME. I wouldn't be complaining or suggesting things if I was on my 3rd play though, because 30th *13th actually, with 10 or so failed attempts due to finding out there isn't any oil except the 2 near to a huge biter base, a biter base I can't destroy because I need oil to get the technology to destroy it* playthough, it wouldn't be a recurring problem now would it?

[TheMrAndyn0]

I love and hate those postings.

Love is, because it shows the unfiltered impresions of a new player. That is quite important!

Hate because
- no suggestion can be used, because everything, every aspect which can be made wrong is wrong...
- that's suggestion from a new player, which plays the game for the first (second? third?) time... how boring would the game be, if I had only that problems....

I hate these postings because they show that the community in this CREATIVE GAME is just so damn UNCREATIVE. Everybody seems to think that just because you can place down a lot of 1 object, that fixes all the boring and repetitive parts of this game. Woohoo, I've placed down a thousand solar panels, but it wouldn't be more fun to have a tech which allows me to switch out and completely change my energy system. Oh no no no, im fine with having hundred of solar panels I spent hours of boring clicking to place, just so I can power my thousands of laser turrets that can't be changed into anything more for or interesting. Oh, and my roboports which can't be switched out for something more specific for the job.

The "old" players, or what you seem to judge by post's on the forums which is like judging a scientist by how many books he's wrote, not how many actual scientific discovers he's made, are the ones with "unfiltered impressions" with no sign of wanting to improve the game. 80% of this games current community seem to be hipsters who would complain the moment the splitters animation is even slightly changed.

[ssilk]

I've placed down a thousand solar panels, but it wouldn't be more fun to have a tech which allows me to switch out and completely change my energy system. Oh no no no, im fine with having hundred of solar panels I spent hours of boring clicking to place, just so I can power my thousands of laser turrets that can't be changed into anything more for or interesting.

I use blueprints for that.

The "old" players, or what you seem to judge by post's on the forums which is like judging a scientist by how many books he's wrote, not how many actual scientific discovers he's made, are the ones with "unfiltered impressions" with no sign of wanting to improve the game. 80% of this games current community seem to be hipsters who would complain the moment the splitters animation is even slightly changed.

huh? Had a bad day?