Do you mostly stay in your original star system?

[spark.milanders]

Very newb question in title. I've just gotten to yellow science and here's where I keep quitting and starting over. I do alright starting off and then can't play for a few days due to work/life and come back and forget what all this stuff in my inventory is for and where I'm producing which item and what I was going to do next. I mostly just aim for the next science and all the upgrades I can get and have all these other productons and items I don't really need or remember what I was going to do with them. I think partly it's because I keep rebuilding my original basic production lines into the upgraded components and trying to make it all small and neat and compact. I've come back after 3 days away and apparently I just set up a sulfuric acid production line and can't for the life of me remember why. It might have just been because I unlocked it and thought I might need some while waiting for the next technology to "cook".

My question is will I eventually leave my homeworld and just ship all it's products somewhere else? To a new grander base in another star system? Should I stop obsessing over my starter world and just move on with things? How much do you use those other star systems overall? I got up to purple science once but still had not left my home star system. Do people generally build their dyson sphere in their starting system or move on?

[robfilrhijar]

I don't have a lot of hours in this game but from what i have played i can say that what you get resource wise in your starter sytem is enough to finish the game. However i now realise that you will need to get to other systems for the rare resources if you wish to progress further. I ran out of yellow crystals which are needed for science and production of dyson sphere components. Ultimately i guess its up to you how you want to play and expand . There are easier( in my opinion) starter sytems then others also so keep that in mind when trying out a new run.

[Kyrros]

Originally posted by spark.milanders:

I've just gotten to yellow science [...] I've come back after 3 days away and apparently I just set up a sulfuric acid production line and can't for the life of me remember why.

Well, Sulfuric Acid only has 2 uses in the game - making Graphene and Titanium Alloy.

Since you've just unlocked Yellow Science, you're probably trying to make Interplanetary Logistics Stations (ILS) to ferry Titanium and Silicon from your secondary planets - this requires Titanium Alloy for both the Stations AND the Transports.

[Nekogod]

You can as Rob said complete the game without ever leaving the starter system, really quite easily at 1x resources (it's possible even on 0.1x resources).

If you want to push science to absurd numbers or go for a really high power dyson sphere you will need to branch out to other systems.

It's not super important in either scenario to keep trying to optimise your starter planets, between the 3 of them there is a decent amount of space.

The caveat being at yellow science once you unlock planetary and interstellar logistic stations, at that point it makes sense to tear everything down and rebuild using the stations, by having all resources and all buildings going into ILS's you can request whatever you need anywhere.

At this point the notion of a 'base' or centralised location kind of falls away, your starter planet will be where you produce all your buildings, but all your smelting will be done off world, all your science will be done off world, all your power generation will be done off world etc

Personally I usually build up to 120 of each cube per minute with a dyson swarm around the starter star only venturing out to other systems for sulphuric acid and organic crystals generally (as getting them directly is huge) then once I've got everything unlocked and a couple of levels in veins utilisation I start expanding out and looking for a good blue star to build my dyson sphere around.

As for why you built sulphuric acid production, you need it to make titanium alloy which is used to make interstellar logistic stations and mini fusion reactors (among others), it's also used for graphene which is used in a bunch of things such as mark 3 belts and mark 2 assembly machines I'm guessing that's why.

[Kyrros]

Originally posted by spark.milanders:

I do alright starting off and then can't play for a few days due to work/life and come back and forget what all this stuff in my inventory is for and where I'm producing which item and what I was going to do next.

For many new players, it's not uncommon at all to end up starting over again after they've gotten used to the flow/mechanics up until the Yellow science.

Personally, I think the biggest jump in 'wrap your head around things' difficulty in DSP happens right after Yellow is unlocked. Before that point, everything you build is for Science production, and AFAIR, all of the recipes only take two ingredients at time and output one product. After Yellow jello is unlocked, recipes start taking 3 items (or more) each now, on top of having to create production not only for the next Jello (Purple then Green) but additional side production to start building the upgraded logistics systems buildings, parts, and transports. It can be extremely overwhelming, with so much to do - one can easily get into an 'analysis paralysis' situation. You'll literally fly around the entire home planet for 30 minutes or more before realizing you haven't actually done anything for that whole time and have no idea where to go or start next.

One of the biggest tools I've used to help myself keep track of myself is literally pen and paper that I keep next to my computer. Since DSP doesn't have a note-taking system or other kind of surface level 'label/flag' mechanism - keeping a ToDo list of what you want to accomplish for each major step (jello cube color production, transportation, etc) will help greatly until the game information and recipes become more familiar to you.

So yeah... Pen & Paper. Completely old-school, but extremely helpful until a lot of the info in-game becomes 2nd nature. I still use it when I'm working on more challenging things, like speedruns or designing my blueprints.

Two excellent tools I would also recommend... the official wiki (https://DSP-wiki.com - NOT the Fandom site!!!) and also a nifty little production calculator to help you decide 'how much' of stuff you want to build for whatever your current production goal is (https://factoriolab.github.io/?s=dsp)

[Kyrros]

Originally posted by spark.milanders:

My question is will I eventually leave my homeworld and just ship all it's products somewhere else? To a new grander base in another star system? Should I stop obsessing over my starter world and just move on with things? How much do you use those other star systems overall? I got up to purple science once but still had not left my home star system. Do people generally build their dyson sphere in their starting system or move on?

I think it's safe to say, that for the most part, the majority of your early and mid-game will be spent in your home star system. You cannot create the final science (white) without either launching a Dyson Swarm (solar sails) or building an actual Dyson Sphere. If you notice, building a Dyson Sphere is actually optional, the required techs for it branch off from the 'main tech' line. You can unlock the final White Jello with only a Dyson Swarm. Most people do choose to use an initial Dyson swarm, then go back and create their first Dyson Sphere in their home system after unlocking White jello; the primary reason being that each Solar Sail launched has a limited lifetime (Default of 90 mins upgradeable to an additional 60mins on top of that) if it is not housed in an actual Dyson frame, where a Dyson frame (as well as any solar sails inserted into it) are permanent, and therefore more desirable in the long-term.

As the resources of your home system begin to dwindle, most players begin creating 'mining/processing colonies' for importing those resources/components back to the home system, since the infrastructure to process those components and convert it to science already exists. Raw Sulfuric Acid pumped from acid oceans on distant world usually being one of, if not, the first resource to be imported back to home. Dismantling your home system infrastructure and moving elsewhere is certainly an option - but there's no penalty for staying in your home system - and since you have to ship things wherever you end up, might as well just ship them home where it's already ready to be consumed. Those that choose to move primary production centers off-world and out of the home system usually do so for personal/creative reasons, but it is entirely optional and up to you... this is a Sandbox game, afterall :-p

The 'Sandbox' aspect is where players (and opinions) in the game begin to diverge. Up until you unlock White science (and by proxy the 'You Win' technology), the game is very linear and goal oriented. "Do this, to build that, to unlock this next tech", rinse, then repeat - until you have unlocked the final tech. There's two fundamental but slightly opposing philosphical views on the game. One of them, is that the entire tech tree for the game is basically one giant hours-long in-game tutorial - teaching the players all the different methods of production and transportation of resources, components, and buildings. When you finally unlock the 'You Win' tech, you now have all the tools and knowledge you need to colonize every other star system in the map. The game graduates from a very linear goal-oriented tutorial into the open Sandbox format that it was intended. After which, you can go anywhere or build anything you want and as much as you want until your computer can no longer handle the sheer size of factories and the number of Dyson Spheres you've created across multiple worlds and stars. Where everything before White Science is considered the early and mid-game, everything after the 'You Win' tech is considered by many to the beginning of the endgame, as you no longer have any in-game technological limitations to your expansion across the entire map, thus allowing you to invest in the now-unlocked infinite upgrades for several of the final techs.

[spark.milanders]

Originally posted by Kyrros:

Since you've just unlocked Yellow Science, you're probably trying to make Interplanetary Logistics Stations (ILS) to ferry Titanium and Silicon from your secondary planets - this requires Titanium Alloy for both the Stations AND the Transports.

:sphere:

I'm sure this is it!

[spark.milanders]

Thanks everyone some great insight and advice here. i appreciate the thorough responses :)

[Rotanen]

I set up shop in a very good star system that's very far from my home system, because it has very good planets (high-deuterium blue gas giant, sakura planet, volcanic ash, plus two others which are ordinary but useful), lots of resources, and a blue star. I turned the sakura planet into a second base, producing almost everything there including rockets and solar sails. I built a Dyson Sphere there that generates more power than the Dyson Sphere in my home system. On the moon of the blue gas giant, I set up a specialized factory for graviton lenses that gets deuterium from orbital collectors on the gas giant. I did not abandon the home system, everything is still operational there and it's still where I send all my cubes.

[joebobku]

If you play through the game again, I would advise you to abandon the home planet as soon as you get into space. Dealing with the water for all of your building placements just slows you down. You're better off pushing any water/oil products off of planet as fast as possible. It will speed up your game play. You wont constantly be trying to route things around.

You rarely have enough soil/pile and foundations to really open the home world up early on. Leave your science production going on there.. just get off the home planet ASAP and start rebuilding everything cleanly on a new planet.