Factorio Forums

So after I've been asked so nicely by the FFF#286 to try out the updated introduction campaign, I've fumbled with it some more
I have already given a pretty detailed description about my experience with the 0.17 intro this far in this post and I would say my experience hasn't changed significantly, up to a certain point.

The point I'm talking about is of course the second extension of the map, which is also the biggest change. The revealing moment certainly caused some raised eyebrows, I loved it. However, the longer I kept on playing, the less I thought I understood why it was included in the first place.

Is it for a greater quantity of the prevalent resources?
I can't see myself running out of either resource within a reasonable timespan... So, maybe, but not really necessary I guess?

Is it for additional, different resources then?
I see no oil, that means the uranium ore is pretty much just decoration as well at this point. Besides, there's absolutely no time to expand the factory when I need to fully focus on not getting washed away by the biters. That already raises the next question:

How on earth would I even manage to leave my base, let alone claim new land, let alone establish a connection there?
The gun can barely fight off more than 2 biters at once, and the turret is the only other means of dealing damage. After slowly but persistently nerfing out turret creeping, I have a hard time believing it's now the intended way to go attack the biters.
I spent about half an hour trying to get somewhere nevertheless, and I can safely say it's possible, but you'd have to be very, VERY dedicated

Is it all about those "lost structures/factory remains" then?
I got so excited about those when seeing them at the map reveal, I think they're a fantastic idea. there's just barely a way to get to them as I mentioned, and for some reason the biters instantly wreck them after you finish the research for green science. This also came along with a sudden drop to almost 0 attacks in my playthrough, so I assume that's more of a bug right now.

Then maybe it's just a work in progress?
Doesn't seem to fit in with the usually very carefully considered releases as far as I can tell... "Release now, patch later" just isn't a factorio thing, thankfully.

So please go ahead and help me out folks, what do you think is the reason why this was included? Because as of right now, I can't make any sense of it

I think they are just a way of showing that the demo is only part of the game. A sort of tempt the player to buy the game, so they can play with all this other stuff. Hence uranium, the car, armour piercing bullets, rocket fuel, electric smelters, underground belts and fast inserters. I would be tempted to add some logistics chests, express belts, and maybe a pumpjack on an oil well as well.