Factorio Forums

I love the demo. It's marvelous. I have actually purchased and downloaded the full game at this point but haven't installed it yet. I want to finish the demo, for educational purposes.

So, this is demo v1.0
I am on the 5th scenario, the one with the train tracks. I know the first two things I need to do are (1) restore power, and (2) set up some sentry guns.
(1) is easy, just get the coal production back online, patch the belts to take it to the boilers, and restore the piping to get the steam from boilers to generators. Then it's just a matter of adding a few power poles to patch the damage gaps in the distribution net, get the one laser back online, and patch the solar farm back into the net. No problem.

(2) is even easier. The military aspects of the game I can handle, no problem.

It's after that I get puzzled. I am trying to grok the existing, (though heavily damaged), production system, and it's like my brain doesn't have quite enough RAM. I feel like a toddler trying to see what the grownups are doing at the kitchen table, but I'm not tall enough to peek over the edge. I get that the coal and iron ore come down the belts, and the regular inserters grab the ore off the near belt while the long-handled inserters reach over that to the next belt and grab the coal. But all that stuff off to the west near the train tracks just puzzles the puppy poop out of me.

My current working plan is to ignore the damaged bits for now, and just setup new, simpler production lines to the south a bit to make all the stuff I need for the red and green science doodads for research. Then I'm hoping after I have train tech the other stuff will somehow make sense.

Anyhow, I'm not asking for someone to hand me the solution on a plate, just wishing for a few hints to nudge me in the right direction, please.

The stuff by the train tracks is an automated train unloader. If you leave it untouched until you finish objective #2, it will move ore from the train to the furnaces.

The furnaces pick up ore and coal from 2 separate belts IIRC, that's all you really need from the scraps.

I have no idea what the other remnants to the east were and just made my own. Easier and more flexible that way. I don't think they're meant to hint at anything - unless you really insist on reading into it - but it's best to explore and make your own.

OK, excellent, thank you both!

Once I got the train tech, the facilities did indeed make sense.

I have a thing about trains. I have since I was a little boy. Firing up the train and steaming off to that Northwest Facility was a thrill. I was like -
Casey Jones, mounted to the cabin
Casey Jones, orders in his hand
It was great, and hugely educational. I can't say enough about how well-made this demo truly is. I bought the full game before I'd finished Scenario 4, but the decision to finish the demo before installing it has been a good one. It would have taken forever to figure out all this stuff on my own, and having the example of an efficiently-designed setup is enormously helpful.

Next I need to figure out how all this signaling stuff works. Unfortunately one of the mini-tutorials is bugged, but more on that later.