I don't like the trigger tech

[redfish71]

(Apologies if this has been discussed before, I searched the forum for trigger science and trigger tech, but it gets a lot of hits not to this topic).

So it doesn't fit my play style and I don't really see the point.

There are a couple of things you have to craft before you can go further in the tech tree. But what was the goal adding this?

In my playthroughs I notice that they force me to do something that I not necessarily want to do at that moment, and after I do it, usually I do something else for 1 hour until I need it.

I'd rather just prefer to sit in my base optimizing and building and research everything while I'm there (and not using it). I'm not such a fast Factorio player that I will have tech finish and be using it immediately.

For example: Oil. Usually there are biters that I'm leaving alone in the area. So now I want to research the rest of the tree, but I'm forced to get rid of the biters first. Then I build a pump jack, get it on a oil well and not use it at all, just to have it trigger the fact that I got some oil. Then the tree is unlocked.

Same with Steel: I just craft 50 bars manually in a furnace that is not doing anything else or is integrated in my base, just to unlock it.

If it would be something that would come more organically, something that you were doing anyway and doesn't block your entire progress I'd say: yes this makes sense, especially for new players, but to me it doesn't.

[IsaacOscar]

Honestly, I think the trigger tech's don't go far enough: the required materials should be higher, so the take time to actually unlock the tech.
In particular, for intermediate products like steel plates, it should be high enough to really encourage you to make an automated assembly line for them, as that's the whole purpose of the game.

Also interesting you used steel plates as an example, because you really do need lots of steel plates for so many things, that making them is not a waste.
In fact so far, I haven't found any of the things I've done to unlock the trigger techs to be useless. In particular, with the exception of the "steel axe" tech, the requirements are always something you'd need to do anyway to benefit from the technology (e.g. there's no point in using a centrifuge if you have no uranium ore).

That steel axe technology however is quite weird, I think it's just kept for nostalgia. I honestly think that technology should be removed, as the whole point of the game is automation, not manually mining.

See https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-376 for more details on trigger techs, and https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-266 for when they introduced the steel axe technology (they made it to replace having to actually craft a steel axe like in minecraft).

[mergele]

If you are not using the stuff the trigger gives you, why do you go out of your way to get it already? Just let it rest until you are ready to engage with it?

[IsaacOscar]

If you are not using the stuff the trigger gives you, why do you go out of your way to get it already? Just let it rest until you are ready to engage with it?

Well other research has it as a prerequisite, so your factory could be siting idle instead of doing research because you haven't unlocked the trigger tech.
And then when you actually want these locked techs, you'll have to wait for the science to catch up.
I often research technologies I've never even uses (I have tons of them, e.g. cliff explosives, quality modules, landmines, atomic bombs, follower robots, and not to mention all the bonuses).

[mergele]

But... everything behind oil, needs oil. ou can have a chest or two buffer your science flask production and if you are really going from no oil t building your infrastructure faster than your labs research then put down another 15 or so of them. It's really not a problem

[IsaacOscar]

Actually, I did just have an annoyance on gleba: to unlock the biochamber you need to make 50 nutrients, but by the time I got all the other resources for the biochamber, my nutrients had all spoiled...
(thus what I did to unlock the trigger tech was entirely a waste)
Moreover, there's absolutely no use for nutrients until you unlock the biochamber (or the artificial soil, but that requires even more nutrients).

Perhaps it should be changed to pentapod eggs, as thats the hardest biochamber ingredient to get.

[Koub]

(Apologies if this has been discussed before, I searched the forum for trigger science and trigger tech, but it gets a lot of hits not to this topic).

If you want to read where this was discussed already, mostly here : 117706 (not the single discussion subject, but one of them).