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Handcraft nothing if possible.
What to unlock first in the tech tree is really up to you to decide and order doesn't matter too much.
The first thing I usually research is assemblers so I don't have to handcraft red science anymore.
If biters are getting to be a problem, go for military research.
Unlocking the car will let you get around the world a bit faster.
The car can even be used to clear biter nests out as a mobile turret.
Trains might be worth going for if you have ore patches really far away.
At the end of the green science tech part, you'll unlock construction and logistics bots.
Those bots are exceedingly useful for building your factory and keeping you supplied with whatever you want.
They're not the easiest things to build but they're worth it.
I haven't looked at the tech tree in a while.
If you want to see what that stripped-out tech tree looks like, select "rocket silo" on the left, what you see above it in the right part of the screen are all of the technologies that are sctrictly required for it, all the way from automation.
Not all of what is shown there is needed right away, for example logistics 2 (red belts) and advanced material processing (steel furnaces) are requirements for the purple science but but not for the blue that comes before it.
Similarly battery in the green science technologies is only required for the yellow science.
So for a more precise "main path" with steps you would first select the blue science (called "chemical science pack") first for example.
Of course this "main path" doesn't include everything you need, especially around the military technologies, so a common rule of thumb is to first unlock the next tier of science pack via the "main path" and then branch out into the military or anything else you might need at the time while you prepare your factory to be able to make the tier of science packs you just unlocked.
Speedrunners have more specific needs on what to unlock in what order but a large part of factorio is about using what you have in order to make your own design work so maybe you will want to rush the trains or red belts pretty early because you want to use them, maybe you will need to focus more on military technologies to defend your base against the enemies (for example rushing the flamethrower technology right after unlocking pumpjacks).
Overall this method of selecting what your end goal or medium-term goal is in the technologies and looking at its tech requirements tends to be a good way to figure out what to research in order to progress compared to what to research to unlock side things (that you migh need but that are not necessarily strict requirement and will depend on the situation).
I restarted with several maps before I ever even got close to being able to place a rocket silo, let alone launch a rocket. I probably played for over 500 hours before I actually "beat" the game.
as for what research to do first, start with automation and just look for what would help you the most for your next step. if you need a science bottle that you can't produce yet, you can either let your labs remain dormant and build up a stockpile of basic bottles or just finish up any research that you can.
One thing that helps me is to figure out the basest materials that a science needs. Figure out what can be processed on-the-spot. This way you can try using less than a dozen or two belts to make EVERYTHING in the game.
Red science: Iron and Copper
Green science: Iron and Copper
Military science: Iron, copper, coal, steel, bricks. (Steel and bricks have base ingredients, but I HATE smelting on-site, and you need a LOT of raw materials when you can compress them in a dedicated furnacing area and send a simple belt down. Plus, steel is needed a lot later on, and bricks are used again in purple).
Blue science: Adv Circuits, iron, steel, sulfur. (By this time, you need a LOT of circuits to turn into adv circuits. Both of these should get their own expandable area to create a lot of. It also means you can delay sending plastics all over, as they are used in a total of TWO products for science. Sulfur can be made on the spot if you don't mind piping in the water and petroleum.)
Purple science: Steel, bricks, adv. circuits, green circuits, stone, iron. The furnaces and modules need a lot of adv. circuits here. The bricks can be gotten from the belt you used for military. The rails need raw stone unfortunately, so this is why you need both stone AND bricks. The tiny amount of iron is for the iron sticks for rails.
Yellow science: This is a harder to find the raw materials for, but most materials you need are already made elsewhere. The new raw materials are lubricant (for electric engines for robot frames), batteries (which is sulfur + iron + copper + water), and Processors. Hey, you're already making the sulfuric acid for batteries, so you got all you need for that too. Once you got these two items done, the third item is just a resource dump. It needs a bit of plastic and even less steel and a BOATLOAD of copper.
Seriously, before now 95% of your copper went into circuits/adv. circuits. To make Structures, you will probably need to double your copper production and all of that new stuff goes to structures. But hey, at this point, it's just adding another few belts.
--------
Hey, lookit that. You got all the sciences done. At this point, you are finished. These 6 sciences will get you all tech. The last thing left is a rocket, but you are already making everything you need for that. Structures (MORE?), Rocket Fuel (light oil > solid fuel > rocket fuel), rocket control units (Processors? check. Speed module? Exact same as production module, so check.). ROCKET IS A GO.
...
Ok, a satellite too, but the materials for that are what you aready are making. In fact, most of the materials to make for that are useful elsewhere, so I set aside a chest collecting these from where they are made for science. Accumulator is just batteries + iron. Structures are made in 1 (2?) places, so that's easy to grab a few of. Processors, check. Radars, should already have a ton by now, check. Rocket fuel? Used in rocket. Solar panels? Circuits/copper/steel. All items it's good to have collecting in chests already.
One thing I'm realizing is that the more familiar I am with the various recipes the more my own sense of logic can kick in as I work toward a more efficient floor plan. Right now I find myself hitting the E key almost constantly to look everything up over and over. (A few recipes, like the ones for the red and green science flasks, don't make intuitive sense to me [iron gears? inserters? How does a science lab "process" those?])
Anyway, thanks again for the detailed help. I'm only sorry you deleted your steamguide length opus. I'm sure I would have found it highly useful.
So you will get a better idea on how to build your base and what tech are important for how you play as you continue to play and experience more of it.
Your base will go from a spaghetti mess into whatever you decide to design (perhaps still spaghetti but organized and working a lot more efficiently, perhaps something else entirely, there are a lot of viable design options that are valid, each with their pros and cons), and the more experienced you get the better you will be at allocating enough space to everything to not need major refactors multiple times.
(this is spoiler of sorts about a pretty big trap for new players for the late and end game, it can be a learning experience but it tends to take way too long to notice anything wrong with it, so up to you if you want to read about it or not)
As long as you don't fall into the newbie trap of mass robots for everything in a massive network that covers the whole map including distant outposts you will be fine.
With train automation being a bit hard to learn at first, logistics robot seem like the perfect "fire and forget" kind of solution.
That trap more or less makes it look like everything is fine since you see plenty of robots flying around and adding more robots seem to do the trick when something is slow.
The problem is that unlike with belts that give you a lot of informations about the flow of resources, robots are giving you very little informations on how well they are doing and by the time you discover a problem it is usually your whole base that is barely working without you noticing.
If you just think of that red vials as "informations on the basics of gears and electricity" or green vials as "informations on how to move things around", produced by a spuer-powered scanner that scraps the items it scans to get as much informations as possible from them, it is easier to not have your mind focus on it too much.
It doesn't make much sense either way but this is a game that goes for gameplay over realism to you need either weird reasoning or suspension of disbelief to get over it.
I mean, we are not eating, we are able to shape iron plates into full machines or have unstable uranium and several tens tons worth of trains and other items in our pockets.
Anyway, some even MORE basics that I guess I hadn't pointed out (I assumed you had played a bit more than once-or-twice-to-blue-then-quit), is:
1 - Build things so they can be expanded. Figure out a nice repeatable design so that belts of products flow past one side of a machine, and some more belts flow past the opposite side. With the use of long-handed inserters and mixing belts, you can have a potential of 6-product recipes, and still leave one belt for the output). Never have anything flow past a third side. This way you can sandwich each machine between two others building the same stuff. You can then add more machines along side them without having to re-arrange much. Something like this screenshot (even though I boxed some machines in, it's because they cannot fit more products onto their belt)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1174029929
2 - Build big. Space is free. Especially if you fiddle with the map settings, but even making enough to build the rocket within 10-20 hours of play you use up a lot of space. So expand EARLY. Dedicate thousands of your first iron to making belts, and build with a LOT of space between each section. Every time you think of doing something, such as making circuits, try to think of how much space you want between that and the next thing (red/Adv. Circuits). Triple the space you were thinking of. Maybe even adding an entire screens worth of space. In the future, when you notice you need a new set of machines to make something, you will wish you had room to set up between A and B.
3 - Bus. No, not the city-style, or greyhound type. I mean like computer architecture. It refers to having several lanes of things going in a single direction. There are guides (though I haven't read them so I don't know how to find them) that I'm sure someone will eventually link, because someone always does. The basics of it are that you take all the basic items I mentioned in my first post and run them in a single direction. Like a freeway, they go straight and with plenty of room around them. Dedicate that entire direction for ONLY belts ONLY going in that direction. Ideally, by end game, you end up with many lanes of most items. Most of what you need by end game will probably be 4 lanes of iron, 4 lanes of copper, 2 lanes of steel, 2 lanes of circuits, and one lane of everything else: coal, stone, bricks, processors, gears (I make those on the spot), plastics. Then you will also want one pipe of water, one pipe of petroleum gas, and one pipe of lubricant. Light oil maybe as well, but it's main use is rocket fuel for the rocket, so I don't bother sending that down the bus-line.
So... yeah. Learn how to build assemblers in rows. Do lots of space between rows. Have these rows jut outwards from your main bus. These 3 tips are the baseline for my first post, and are the great for keeping things organized. Even then, I don't tend to follow a lot of these rules too well, but "eh". Build how you like to build. If you didn't like it, you'd change.
I like rail-based systems, myself. My screenshots folder for Factorio has lots of my setups for train loading/unloading. Each cell makes a single product from most basics. Circuits for example takes in a copper train and an iron train, and outputs onto trains. Any other cell that needs circuits will come here and load up circuits to take back to their home. Eventually, making a new product is as simple as setting up 3 or 4 trains and poof, I got as many belts of the basics coming in as I need. The screenshot I linked was my blue science packs, back when electric miners were an ingredient for some reason.
I chose NOT to read your spoiler section as I prefer to make some of the bigger discoveries about the game on my own (I'm funny that way) but I look forward to peeking at them later once I reach a certain level of frustration with my own game play (as I'm sure will happen!)
Thanks to you and everyone else who posted. I feel much more prepared for the journey ahead!
Starting out is all about pre-planning and thinking big instead of just 1 or 2 lines of assemblers but in the 100's of 1000's range. Maybe more if you go for post end-game/post rocket launch gameplay of just keeping expanding. You got blueprints to help you out. You always wanna think ahead at least 10 extra steps especially for furnaces. As you go along you unlock things like steel and electric oven furnaces which can process a ton more ores but use up alot more space compared to conventional stone furnaces you start with.
I figured out some guidelines to follow (personal guidelines) before starting a factory though your experience may vary:
General tips/early starting:
-always build in 1 direction. Making too many turns and curves will cause headaches later on. Also build in sectors (with space for building/expanding later). Say if you wanna add more smelters, it'll be harder if you make them all over the place instead of just 1 large area with space for adding more.
-blueprints are your best friend. You can make some or get some from the website. Alt B to view them or other players if you're playing multiplayer. You place them and ghost structures appear which you can fill out or mid-end game construction drones/bots can build them for you if you got the necessary logic chests, roboports, and materials.
-most players use a BUS bus Bus??? bus! A bus is a lane/line(s) of simple products such as iron and copper plates to more advanced circuit chips or other products that can be easily leeched off of via spliters and underground belts (tunnel things), and routed to assemblers. A bus can be several lanes long and span well in several directions but usually go towards 1 fixed point to easily add more assemblers.
-For a bus make 4 lines for copper and iron plates, 2 lines for stone bricks and steel, and 1 lane for coal and stone in your initial bus setup. You can skip coal and stone but it's sometimes better/easier for people if you include them anyhow (like 10 products are made with them but they're 10 products you can't make without them so it's up to you personally i put them).
you can make more but this is the general setup i see. I'd recommend actually investing more in longer lanes of smelters and more space to replace with steel and electric ovens once you unlock them.
Start with 1 input each. By this i mean if a lane of smelters making iron plates route into 1 belt and then connect it to the bus.
With the exception of stone if you need more materials just add another set of assemblers and input into the bus lane. At end game 4 should be relatively okay for copper and iron. Steel is usually the harder one since it takes double processing time and 4X iron plates to make 1 steel bar.
-Chips (circuit chips green/red/blue) will be the bulk of your problems and the answer to most of your solutions would be inc. their production 10X folds. Especially green chips that go into everything in some way shape form or how. Make a separate side lanes or else you'll get overwhelmed. Maybe starting green chips 2 lanes but after you're gonna have to add more lanes of green chips.
-make assembly lines en mass. Usually the lowest base items like green chips you wanna make a ton of especially (it's really all up to decisions)
-keep items limited like say pole lines and steam engines or boilers (seriously if you fill up 1 box of them entirely they'll last you the whole map and if not the assembler will refill and make more to fill in the missing spaces.
-some items, like gears and copper wiring, are better made on the spot via 1-2 assemblers than making them elsewhere and routing them towards your designated area. It also reduces excess products being made.
-that being said you can also feed assemblers to assemblers via a robot arm to save on belts and space than routing into a belt.
-you can limit production on the boxes which helps. Just drag the x over the squares you wanna limit and leave the white blank ones alone. The box will not get loaded with more once the limit is reached saving on resources and power.
-leave space incase you need to add more stuff/junk in the assembler lane including splits since after awhile you'll start using up all the products before they get towards their destination (like green circuit chips will use up all your copper if you put them like 20 in a line they'll be gone before they reach the 4th assembler)
-before starting a map you may wanna keep resources down to a minimum (not low just not too too high either). One of the bigger issues is balancing resources but also space. If you have too many resources it'll be hard or just OCD ic for people who don't like building over resources. Best leave em spaced out but maybe inc. the richness so a small pile will last you until you can reach new deposits once you research and build trains and train tracks.
-you may wanna lower biter expansion and evolution when you first start or else you'll get overwhelmed.
-You can artificially jack up production without adding more assemblers. I'm talking: Upgrading the assembler to tier 2 and 3 (blue and yellow colored assemblers), inc. the speed of the belts (from yellow to red and finally blue is the fastest will push materials through faster and easier for conveyor belts, underground belts, and spliters),
Speed modules or Production modules (but production reduces speed but inc. yield while speed inc. rate of production), and beacons (beacons will give an additional power boost to nearby buildings depending on what module you put in there but most common is speed and tier 3's so they affect everything that touches it or is highlighted by it).
Also adding better fuel from coal to solid fuel and changing the furnaces from stone to steel and finally electrical (which require no fuel and can be amplified speed with speed modules and beacons).
-early on green chips will be your limiting factor. Mid game you'll encounter red chips to be your problem, and end-game/post end-game blue chips will be your limiting factor. Gotta inc. one then the others or else you'll dec. production speed via the limiting resource.
Putting alotta emphasis on circuit chips since they're used for everything in some way along with iron plates and copper plates (copper wire for green circuit chips for example).
Research:
- You don't have to research EVERYTHING at once. If you wanna speed through you can skip most of the useless junk (like landmines and mechanical robot arm carrying capacity) and focus on the next thing to unlock the next potion(s)
-It is recommended to have labs in a linear setup and some robot arms in between to move potions (or science packs) from one lab to the next until it reaches the final lab in the line. This is slightly easier and more efficient than handloading or routing belts into each lab.
-generally speaking the higher you go the more potions you'll need. So starting with say 100 red potions may be ideal but once you reach end game lvl one red lab will probably produce 100 red flasks at the same rate waiting for your other labs to catch up. Thus you wanna keep them moderate and the end-game labs inc. the numbers (i do believe but need verification that processing of higher lvl flasks also takes longer than lower lvl).
-best start with 10 labs. Once you get to green 20 labs. At blue and black 40 labs. At purple and yellow 80, and when you reach white potions (if you cont. after you launch your first rocket with a sattelite in it) 100 labs or greater.
-labs won't process potions until you have all the required ones. So while a lab may have say blue and green and another red and green, they won't start until 1 lab has all the required blue green and red packs.
Defense:
-If you enable biters (non peaceful world button or keep defaults and not lower biter stats when creating a new world) You'll wanna build a 2+ wall post thick wall and some turrets to surround the wall with a belt of ammo to keep them refilled
-You can opt for the dragonteeth method which is where you put 1 post, skip 1 space/tile, and place another. They won't connect and biters will go through like those pachinko??? or the games where you throw the ball and it hits the pegs until it randomly goes down into a slot. Later on it'll help stall bigger biters/bugs from entering closer to your main wall.
-best to wall off choke points or small gaps. If you're landlocked by surrounding bodies of water the areas where they connect (or if you place landfills and connect artificially) are the best spots to place walls and reduce costs of defense and repairs as well as funnel biters into a singular spot(s)
-Flamethrowers, once you get there, will become your best friend. They decimate most biters but the got a limited arc range and can't hit too close. Thus having some gun or lazer turrets (when researched) inbetween help cover their blind spots.
-biters respond to pollution. Once your smog cloud touches them (be it light or dark red) it's over. They'll turn aggressive and start hunting you down in waves by sending some to attack your factory and any nearby structures. Keep an eye on them and if needed take out any nearby nest threats. If you wanna expand gotta clean out some.
-wall off the area you feel you'll need to expand to for the time being then expand further by walling off more areas and removing old walls to clear the way.
Mid-game:
-oil will be another problem you'll encounter mid-game. Not so much oil but petrol. This is before you get advanced oil processing (which gives 3 oil types). You only get petrol from oil and it's in low amounts. Best to route it to some tanks to collect oil, then connect to the refinery to get petrol. From there the petrol to some other storage tanks while you build the rest of the
-plastics will be another major doorstopper. They eat up petrol more than most machines in addition to coal as well. You may wanna make those last and start filling up on everything else
-Another problem you'll face at this point is power if you haven't. One guideline i always follow is keep an eye on the steam engines when they reach 50% (so 900 kW around 500 kW or 450 if you wanna be eneroneous). If you reach 75%+ add more engines so you won't drop in power anytime soon
End game:
-blue chips will be holding you back at this point more than anything since they're needed for rocket parts
-another thing that slows your roll will be light density material. It takes like 40 copper to fill up the entire assembler vs 10 steel or 10 plastics (fill up as in max load it can hold before the arm stops feeding it) and they take relatively long to process. Can't really make like 50 of them since they EAT UP all your copper plates.
-at this point if you haven't drones are gonna be your best friend to fill in gaps.
-also your best friend for constructing the rocket (which it's imo easier to take them to the rocket site via drones than belts since they take forever to load 1 belt with them).
-If you haven't at this point mine uranium and construct nuclear power plants. 1 nuke plant will make as much power as about....well it depends but they make power + additional power if you stack them together + extra power depending on how many heat generators and steam turbines you connect to them. But for sure at minimum 4 nuke generators, and steam boilers + steam turbines about 100 steam engines rough estimate.
final tips:
-if you wanna focus 100% on rocket building set biters to low pollution evolution, low biter nest spreading, and hell concentrate the pollution cloud too. Research only a couple of military for personal defense and focus entirely on what you need to research to unlock the next lab flask. If you don't know click on the T research and on the colored potions and go down from there.
Usually the order is: red then green, black, blue, and purple and yellow are sorta interchangeable in the end but if i had to pick purple comes first then yellow potions. Some extra things you'll need to research include accumulators and solar panels as well as nuclear power/research branch if you want the satellites that go into the rockets and the necessary items to power up your reactors and your buildings without the need for 1000's of steam engines.
-biters won't spread or evolve and they'll keep in low lvl enemies. Just walling off and placing flamethrower turrets as well as building around the nest sites will help ensure that they won't get stronger with each nest you destroy nor pollution as you keep polluting their world.
-these are just personal tips i've experienced building my bases/factories. Though you may have a different preferance or playstyle. Still some tips sorta stick like circuit chips but the rest can be subjective (hell even a bus you an just make spaghetti lanes and routes towards different assembly lines).
Thanks again!