Factorio Forums

Every time I find myself playing the game, I just start to struggle so hard after red and green. Every steps after that is just a massive headache to balance input and output, to connect resources and assemblers, but primarily to get the ratios right. It takes me 1-4 hours to plop down the requirements for any new science. And I'm even already using blueprints for common circuit and science productions.

Then I see people like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JUbCNt-tog or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_hJUQSPfV4 that just seem to plop down major factories that look clean on the first try in minutes. They seem to know every recipe by heart, and know exactly which techs to research in what order, to make the most of the resources they have access to now.

I love this game dearly, but it's just so disheartening knowing that I'm just so bad at this game with no hope to improve. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

If playing with ratios is too hard or isn't enjoyable, then just forget them. I've got thousands of hours of play, I build huge megabases, and I don't use ratios at all. You can just build stuff when you need more of something. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

I also think that you're more likely to enjoy yourself by not watching other people playing, and just figure it out yourself.

CheeseMcBurger wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2024 7:19 pm factories that look clean on the first try in minutes.

Literally the first thing i read when clicking on the first link while it was loading the rest of the youtube page was : "playtime : 50 hours" on a single game. And there's many of those where one only see an hour or two out of a hundred. That's like a trickshot compilation, it doesn't mean it's always working right the first time, but it's what left to see for the viewer.

Another thing is when you have many followers, you receive a lot of information/contact/useful tips and tricks, confirmation and so on which you can benefit from and share that's like watching a chef cook, that may make you feel bad about your own cooking skills but that can also teach a recipe or two and help improve, that won't make you a chef though, for that you need to do the whole chef training, not just watching a few vids, but that's like a full time job.

I agree with what was said ,you don't necessarily need to know the ratios and care about too much about having them perfect to have fun or if you play so that your build are expandable and made so it's easy to notice what to increase while making sure the excess backs up without problems. It's difficult to do so in game though x) I use mode like "https://mods.factorio.com/mod/RateCalculator" in game, but there's also calculator outside of the game : https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.htm ... ircuit:f:1 that may come handy if you want tools to help with ratios.

CheeseMcBurger wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2024 7:19 pmThey seem to know every recipe by heart, and know exactly which techs to research in what order, to make the most of the resources they have access to now.

Keep in mind they cheat: they're able to invest infinite time into the game. They prepare before they stream, and you never see all their preparation. They plan everything painstakingly. They studied the game. And they are probably streaming for a life, so they probably plan for and play Factorio 8 hours per day as for a day job. This is something the regular player is never able to achieve. May be if you're unemployed and have all day for playing Factorio, but beyond that no ordinary person is able to dedicate that much time to Factorio. With that much time, you're able to learn everything you want by heart.

So calm down and just be yourself. Have fun. Don't watch all the videos if they frustrate you. I, for example, don't watch them because of this.

Hey there are two strategies that usual help me...
1) No need for exact ratios. You only need "enough" and you need to be able to extend your factory when a bottleneck occurs. Watch your factory, see where the belts are empty and fix there. If you look at the professional videos (except for speed runners) their factory might be better in throughput and ratio but also it is idle anyway since they have overbuild it by 10x for what they need except for one thing that is missing.

2) If you want an easy way to build in perfect ratio: instead of building from input products to the end product... build from the end product only for one step to it's direct ingedients. And repeat that step until you are done.*
One Procution Science ... That 7 factories and 1/3 red moduel and 1/3 smelter and 10 rails
1/3 red module is 5 factories.. 5/3 red circuit** 5/3 green circuit.
5/3 green circuit is (less than) 1 assembler.
Make sure you use the same assembler everyhwere . Repeat this step for anything that is not on you basic input list. (my inputs: iron plate copper plate stone plastic)

If you don't want to memorize anything just assume that the assemblers output are at 100% and count assemblers.

Hope you have less headache.

* This is backwards programming in dynamic programming.

** --> You can build a central red circuit factory for both smelter and module. I think it has a good headdache vs. effiency trade off. Not sure if this is worth for green. But i'm sure it's not worth having a combined steel factory or one copper cable factory for everywhere. I would either have steel as from outside or just smelt it when you need it.

I agree with the previous responses, and I'll add one thing:

If you decide to use the ratios, you can decide which basic inputs you want (like plates) and which items you want to make on-site (like wires). Iron and copper plates, stone, steel and oil products (plastic, etc.) are a solid choice.

Some like to work directly from ore and include smelting in their sub-factories.

Others have dedicated production for other intermediate products (circuits, gears, engines...)

As a result, instead of 1 complex problem, you have 2 smaller ones to solve: "Make more when running low" for your list of inputs and "How much of these intermediates do I need to make" for your science / rocket production.

I like to include circuits, gears and sometimes engines etc. in my list of basic inputs so I don't have to compute too much ratios from the final products.

CheeseMcBurger wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2024 7:19 pm ...
Then I see people like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JUbCNt-tog or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_hJUQSPfV4 that just seem to plop down major factories that look clean on the first try in minutes.
...

I don't wanna burst your bubble, but the first video is not first try in minutes. The whole playthrough was ~300h with probably another 100h-200h in a creative world to make functional blueprints. That combined is probably more than the average Factorio player has over all their saves... boiled down into a 90min video.
And that is with a few thousand hours of game knowledge which leads to knowing every recipe and ratio by heart while having a good idea how to make certain builds/factories.

Someone said these kind of videos are like trickshot videos. Looks easy and like a first try but they sank an insane amount of time into it.
The biggest trick was already mentioned. Stop caring about perfect ratios in the grand scale. Then make blueprints and woosh, you are ploping down major factories in minutes. It takes a while, thou.

CheeseMcBurger wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2024 7:19 pmThen I see people like [...] that just seem to plop down major factories that look clean on the first try in minutes. They seem to know every recipe by heart, and know exactly which techs to research in what order, to make the most of the resources they have access to now.

Experience. They were not that good in the beginning either. Especially with YT stuff I would be suspicious about how much time they spent preparing & doing things off-stream.

Everyone does a huge spaghetti mess when they start playing because you simply don't know what is ahead of you.

If they don't then they are just lazy and copy & paste other people's designs. I cannot understand how people can even have fun like that when there is like 0 input or creativity of their own. ^^

I am saying that as someone who likes to do spreadsheets & pre-plan my factories and I only can do that because of the tons of mess I did at some point which taught me what is important to care about in the designs.

Marosh wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2024 7:09 pmSomeone said these kind of videos are like trickshot videos. Looks easy and like a first try but they sank an insane amount of time into it.

Agreed. ^^