Factorio Forums

Hi everyone,

I have been thinking about a challenge based entirely around building and surviving on a space platform.

I do not have Space Age myself yet, but the concept sounds really fun. Instead of playing normally across planets, the run would avoid regular planet-based progression as much as possible and focus only on what can be done from a platform in space.

I assume some unlocks or starting research would probably need to be added manually, since the game may not support this kind of start by default.

Has anyone tested a challenge like this, or is the idea too limited to be playable?

In vanilla Space Age, the most glaring obstacle to self-contained space industry in vanilla Space Age is a lack of stone. With the relevant technologies, iron, copper, coal, and oil products are all available in space. But stone can only be obtained planetside.

And, of course, the planet specialties (e.g. uranium on Nauvis) can't be obtained in space either.

Since you really need stone to be able to do anything (all smelters require a stone derivative), a "spaceblock" type game would have to modify the game beyond just giving you a few starter technologies and items.

Doesn't work out of the box, because not all material is available in space. For example, stone is missing.

You wrote you don't have Space Age yet, so I encourage you first get Space Age, play all of it until you won, then revisit your space-only challenge.

Notably, in Space Age you will visit a bunch of planets and each planet has its own specific resources and specific machines that can only be acquired/crafted on that planet.
This is a major part of the game, and it includes planet specific science packs (Space Age has 6 more, so you get 12 in the end). The planets are not just another version of Nauvis with the same machines and the same materials, instead they have different resources, different machines and different game mechanics. Even acquiring the building space for your planet bases has different mechanics and is different to Nauvis. You cannot do most of the planet specific stuff on a space platform.

A space-only challenge would be a small specific part of Space Age, but it cannot be just everything on a space platform.

Interesting idea! From what I understand, a pure space-platform start would likely require some custom setup or manually unlocked technologies, since Space Age progression is designed around visiting planets. That said, it sounds like a fun challenge run. The biggest question would be whether enough resources and research can be sustained in orbit to avoid getting soft-locked. I'd be curious to see if anyone has already tried it.
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