Factorio Forums

I'd like to propose that the tutorial lead the player to automate the production of something that's not a component of science packs (or coal).

We had a Discord discussion in which one participant mentioned they were handcrafting all their red belts, fast inserters, etc. Indeed, when I was new I thought only in terms of automating science and not automating the production of the things you need to automate science. It only really becomes clear this isn't a desirable way to approach things when you are trying to have construction bots lay out blueprints.

If the tutorial were to guide the player to automate production of something that isn't a component of science packs, the player would be introduced to the idea of producing chests of useful equipment for laying out the factory. An obvious possibility would be underground belts - they're not in science packs, they're an easy recipe, and they are useful. Compilatron could also mention reducing the machine-filled capacity of the output chest, another useful concept for later (and one that would avoid the player then using all the iron in the tutorial to make underground belts).

This might sound insulting, but green science takes belts and inserters. Thought it would be obvious at that point that you should automate stuff you use commonly that's slow to hand-craft, because otherwise you don't have enough. I think the devs too intended for the players to make that connection because you get "free" inserters and belts when you automate green science (you'd have to realize you need to stuff them in a box instead of stealing them off the belt if you wanted a lot). During hand-crafting of green science, it also eats them up, so it should get annoying having to keep crafting belts/inserters if you make any by hand.

Don't know if a tutorial covers using one machine to feed a box, or using two arms to output to two different locations which could make it more obvious. Limiting a box is an important feature, which should be brought up.