How smart I need to be to play this game?

[8faiNt ı♣ı]

say if i have a lower IQ than 68, can I still play this game and understand the mechanics?

[Fel]

It's more about slowly learning from your mistakes for most of it, the basics are all pretty simple tools and the goal is to assemble everything into something that at least somewhat works.
Then you find the parts that don't work, fix them one by one and eventually you launch a rocket (the goal that is there for new players to have something to work towards).

No matter what your first base is going to be an absolute mess with winding belts all around the place, and by continuing to play you will slowly figure out how to sort things so it's less and less like a plate of spaghetti and more like a working factory.

Being able to figure things out quickly can definitely help but the game is made in such a way that most of the problems can be very visible and traced all the way to the source.
For example, if a machine is not producing anything and one of the belts supposed to be bringing ingredients is empty it means either that something is not hooked properly or that you are not producing enough of that ingredient.
Following belts like that help you debug your factory one step at a time and there are only a limited amount of types of raw resources and intermediate items to worry about.

That's not to say that the game can't be complex but most of the complexity comes when the players decides that they want more efficiency.
Playing with ratios, throughput, circuit network, train signals and such isn't required at all until you decide to dive into them at your own pace.
(and for those that just like complexity, on top of all of those advanced systems you can build with the basic parts there are mods that specialize in making crafting chains and such a whole lot more complex to the point where it takes hundreds of hours to launch a rocket with those)

[pmpdadypenguinmn]

I am a father of a special needs son. He is 15 years old but has the mental capacity of a 4 year old. He still can't cross the street on his own. He is able to play this game just fine.

My advice is play the tutorial and watch a few hours of lets plays so you can see the basics from someone else and then decide for yourself if the game is right for you. It can be complex but you don't have to do everything right to still be able to play

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Tbh ive been playing for 3 days and i already got most of the basics including robots. Just gotta learn trains (but lets face it no one really learns trains since the train AI is horrid af).

The first hour to a day is a bunch of learning curve like dark souls lvls. Just get thrown in and hit or miss or trial and error.

Learn about bus/central areas for materials like iron sheets, steel, copper sheets, circuit boards (red green blue white all colors available). and stone.

Learn how to use underground and splitters to branch off items from the main branch.

IF anything just jump into someone who has a 1k+ hour on the world and you should be able to catalog and learn things.

the bottom task bar hover over it and explore the options and world generation menu (hotkeys like ctrl right click and ctrl left click, ctrl E and binding certain structures to the 1 2 3 4 5 and alternate sides hotkeys).


one of the hardest things i had to learn how to do was having/needing to use inserters for EVERYTHING. As items don't/aren't just put onto belts or nearby buildings directly. That and belts and electric poles for everything. Still once you figure that out you can just copy paste and re-route materials.

[juliejayne]

Play with the Biters in peaceful mode. That reduces the pressure and allows you to take as long as you need to figure things out. I can't play fast, and that was a help on an early map.

[Infernal]

I think being smart is a relative term here. You can get to endgame without really fully grasping the whole min/max mentality of factory building. The intelligence comes later if you want optimization, efficiency and and very pleasing aesthetic. This game is very much like chess. The rules are simple but how you actually put those rules into practice make it a very interesting and very consuming game loop. You build things to make new things. Rinse and repeat. There is no such thing as a perfect factory and every time I look something up, there is a war going on for how to do it better and in a smaller footprint. My first few factories were a hot mess but I ultimately had a blast learning the game. Fast forward to now and I still look at where I've placed belts and inserters and think "that doesn't look clean, lets do it over".

So don't worry about being smart, just be warned that this game will sink its hooks into you without you even realizing it. And, it isn't even fully released yet.

[Owl]

slightly off topic,

i would recommend this game to any student. at nearly any level. the lower ones will learn basics of input/output and the higher ones will learn how to optimize the factory. I think you will do just fine at I.Q. 68. and as always, feel free to post here with questions.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by Owl:

slightly off topic,

i would recommend this game to any student. at nearly any level. the lower ones will learn basics of input/output and the higher ones will learn how to optimize the factory. I think you will do just fine at I.Q. 68. and as always, feel free to post here with questions.

any student?
of what grade lvl?

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by bearhiderug:

I have a pet hamster. It spins in is wheel hitting buttons at random. It seems to play well enough when left alone on my keyboard clicking random buttons

Please find a pet forum or go to Off Topic.

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by Senpai-kun:

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Please find a pet forum or go to Off Topic.

Are you 100% sure there is someone out there who literally rigs up a hamster on a wheel to play a videogame? Not gonna put any stock in the possibility of a comic exaggeration taking place?

I found the comment a bit rude, and it was my way of saying that it was inappropriate :-)

[SeniLiX]

A lot of videos on youtube will show you huge setups with optimal ratios, which produces an insane amount of products per minute.

Don't let yourself be put off by that.

You can perfectly well play the game without thinking of producing/consuming the exact right number of items everywhere.

Your setup might not run at 100% efficiency, so what??? It will still run just fine.

Also, the advice to start out in peacefull mode is a good one too. If you feel the game is too challenging. Just tone down the difficulty. :)