the game needs more of a walkthrough tutorial

[Grambler]

Factorio needs to improve the tutorial.

Hey I love this game and can't stop playing it, BUT...

What ?

WHAT do you suggest? What is your idea that should be changed? Explain in detail your idea.

As a new player, I had several questions about the game I could not find answers for anywhere on their web sites or in tutorials.
Why should I have to search numerous web sites to learn how to play a game?

There should just be a document that comes with the game, explaining it all.

For one thing, I want a simple explanation of how the game is played through to the end.
I know that I need to research new technology in the lab. That unlocks new recipes so I can craft new products.
Therefore, I assume I will need these products. So I go ahead and make some.
But I come to a point when I have products and no use for them.
So I go ahead research the next technology in the lab.
Where is all this heading? Where is the manual, the walkthrough?
Also, can I see a picture of a completed factory? Not to cheat, but just as an illustration.

A new player does not know why the products are needed, nor how many of a product will be needed.
Also, where is the best place to build them?
This info should be provided to the player when they first start.
You could also have info boxes pop up, like the tips and tutorials.

Why ?

WHY do you think it increases the value of Factorio as a game?

Mainly, when I'm playing, I want to know "Why do I need to build this product?"
More people will play the game if it isn't so baffling.

Having said all that, it's a great game and I look forward to the next expansion.

[FuryoftheStars]

Well, it's a sandbox game, so much of the answers to your questions are "however you want to do it". Where's the best place to build something? Where ever you want. How much of a product do you need to build? However much your current building efforts require of that product.

But the "goal" is defined by the scenario. Some have very specific goals. The default scenario is simply "launch a rocket", and it tells you this in the scenario description and in the message popup you need to press Tab to dismiss once you start a new map.

So you just need to read to see the goals, while the rest just don't have defined answers in the way that I'm interpreting your questions as asking....

[robot256]

Your entire question hinges on one idea, that you should automate the production of something simply because you researched it. Once you forget that, and learn to only build things when you need them, everything makes sense. Whether the player learns this by themselves or from a tutorial doesn't seem too important to me.

[Grambler]

Thanks, you guys, but, by the replies here, I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. Notice this forum says "Ideas and Suggestions." So I presented some ideas and suggestions. Thanks but I am doing fine with the game, just wanted to make helpful suggestions to possibly improve the game. That's all, no worries. A lot of the product information can be gotten from the Tech tree of course, but it takes effort to sort through it all.
If the game designers want to attract lots more players, they could have something like a quest system, for example, "Build 6 electric engine assemblers."

[FuryoftheStars]

Thanks, you guys, but, by the replies here, I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. Notice this forum says "Ideas and Suggestions." So I presented some ideas and suggestions. Thanks but I am doing fine with the game, just wanted to make helpful suggestions to possibly improve the game. That's all, no worries. A lot of the product information can be gotten from the Tech tree of course, but it takes effort to sort through it all.
If the game designers want to attract lots more players, they could have something like a quest system, for example, "Build 6 electric engine assemblers."

I used bad wording, but the point of my post is that you're asking the devs to nail down and better define things that don't have definitive definitions.

For one thing, I want a simple explanation of how the game is played through to the end.
I know that I need to research new technology in the lab. That unlocks new recipes so I can craft new products.
Therefore, I assume I will need these products. So I go ahead and make some.
But I come to a point when I have products and no use for them.
So I go ahead research the next technology in the lab.
Where is all this heading? Where is the manual, the walkthrough?

It's a sandbox factory game. In most cases, it's not heading anywhere. You build things to build more things, to build more things. The only defined "goal" in the default scenario of the game is "launch a rocket". So you build to the point to where you can launch the rocket, but from there you can just build for the sake of building. The end goal really is up to you: what do you want to do? You bring your own goal.

Also, can I see a picture of a completed factory? Not to cheat, but just as an illustration.

This is hard to do because there is no right way to do it (and, in a sense, a factory is never "completed"). Some will build compact, some will build spreadout, some will rely heavily on belts (main bus), some will rely heavily on bots or trains, and some will have a huge mix of all of these and more. Check out the Show Your Creations section at some point, especially the Medium/Big/Gigantic Sized Structures subsection. There are several threads in there of huge factories that were still under development at the time they were being posted.

A new player does not know why the products are needed, nor how many of a product will be needed.

This is determined by what you're trying to build. The recipes show you what they need. If you're not running any recipes that require a specific product (yet), then there's no sense in building it.

Also, where is the best place to build them?

There isn't.

This info should be provided to the player when they first start.

How are the devs supposed to define any of the above that I just posted in the game?

[Grambler]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
I had another idea to suggest. Regarding the Achievements menu. They could develop that more, make it more prominent. I wasn't really aware of achievements when I first started playing. They could use it to give incentives to players, a kind of suggestion list.

[Tertius]

It seems you're lacking a goal. First, you want a tutorial that guides you through the game up to the end (whatever the end may be, it's different for everone). Then you see the achievements as goal.
It's a sandbox game (as others already mentioned), and in a sandbox game there isn't usually a well defined goal. You set your own goals. However, Factorio proposes a variety of different goals.

I don't know if you realize it, but the set goal for the recommended freeplay game is "launch a rocket to space". It's in the description if you select freeplay for a new game.
Then there is the "Tutorial", the entry above the freeplay for a new game. It's 5 levels of increasing difficulty, each has a goal itself. For a beginner, these 5 levels are not simply lessons, it's 5 levels of challenge.
Then you have the scenarios. The first 4 are single player challenges all with completely different goals.

Look into all of them. You don't need to play all to the end, but you get an idea what goal you can set yourself for the freeplay mode.

For me, the guide through freeplay was the tech research. I played to feed research, and research unlocked more options and enabled more research. Up to the point where I was finally given the recipe for the rocket silo, and with the rocket silo you can "win the game" by launching the rocket into space that is mentioned in the freeplay mode description.

After "winning the game" for the first time, I learnt what items exist and that you need to make certain factories to proceed: ore mines, smelter arrays, factories for green, red, blue circuits, factories for the 6 science packs.
My current goal is to make a somewhat bigger base to continuously launch rockets from 5 rocket silos. I spent the bigger part of the last year in sandbox mode and designed blueprints for all the required factory parts. It's all been done before and many blueprints for this are published, but I want to design everything myself from scratch. But that's just my current thing. May be you rather want to fight waves over waves of enemies and give a damn about the rocket silo.

[FuryoftheStars]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
I had another idea to suggest. Regarding the Achievements menu. They could develop that more, make it more prominent. I wasn't really aware of achievements when I first started playing. They could use it to give incentives to players, a kind of suggestion list.

I think you need to be more specific on what you're looking for here. Personally, I don't care for achievements, and even slightly desire their removal. But I know that's not for everyone. But any "development" of them must be careful: as of current, achievements are disabled by mods, and there is a very large following behind mods with this game, so any "development" of them must keep this in mind to not make mod users feel like they're being left out. As such, too, I personally feel there are many, many more important things for the devs to focus their time and energy on than the thing that benefits only part of the community and that I'd rather not even be in the game.

May be you rather want to fight waves over waves of enemies and give a damn about the rocket silo.

That actually describes me very well. My factory exists for the purpose of feeding my ammo turrets and flame throwers....

[Grambler]

Thanks for the input you guys. I was just suggesting the achievements program idea, in order to help new players. I'm actually doing fine. I am not using mods yet, I want to learn it all from scratch, but I have seen some other people's blueprints. But i don't copy them. anyway i'm only up to the purple potions so far, and a second train system for iron ore.