Why haven't biters and such attacked my factory?

[johnfrost]

I've seen no biters or enemies attack me without me coming to their nests. I should have default settings for enemies for the world but still no enemies. Is it needed to have pollution in the area for them to come?

[blazespinnaker]

Yes, that's correct. If you go to the production window ('p' is my current keybind) and look at the pollution tab, you can see whether or not a biter nest is absorbing pollution. If you spawned in the desert, pollution may be not absorbed by anything yet, otherwise you should see some trees / grass there currently.

It also shows on the minimap ('m) if you have the pollution icon turned on, but I find the production window more reliable as an indicator of currently absorbing nests. That said, the minimap will give you an indication of how much time you have before a nest gets hit by pollution.

It takes a few minutes before the biters get annoyed enough to come attack. Read more here -

https://wiki.factorio.com/Pollution

You may want to just double check that you see clusters of little red dots on your minimap. If you don't, there are no biters nearby - which is possible. You can run around to find where there are bases, this will help you figure out where to place your defenses for your base.

I have to admit, this is the first time I've seen someone complain that biters aren't attacking.

Fear not though, as you expand your factory, they will come and you will be very unhappy.

[jodokus31]

You will also get an achievement shortly before they come the first time ever:
"It stinks and they dont like it"
https://wiki.factorio.com/Achievements

[Serenity]

You won't be seeing much action early on on default settings. The values are pretty generous. Decrease the starting area and/or decrease the "absorption modifier" in the advanced tab if you want more biters. Starting in a desert area also causes pollution to spread farther since grass absorbs a lot more.

[astroshak]

Uh... default starting area size typically has o e or two biter vases, small ones of one or two spa were apiece, within the initially revealed area. Short of leading them out or setting the starting area larger I’m not sure how you’re getting no combat early game on default.

[blazespinnaker]

The values are pretty generous.

I find deathworld marathon trivial these days, but boy oh boy, how I hated biters when I first played the game. Had to turn them off. But I guess it all depends on how you want to play.