Can't get through early game without getting bored

[Anejey]

This may seem funny to some people with hundreds of hours of playtime. I got the game last year and then over the next months I completed the game twice in around 160 hours. I enjoyed every second and played daily but now I can't bring myself to launch the game for over 2 months.

My first playthrough had messy, spaghetti base, second playthrough used main bus but still was quite messy. Whenever I try to start another game I just can't help myself and go straight into planning main bus which gets boring quickly as it takes a long time to get it working without starter base. I'm just not capable of making spaghetti base anymore.

I tried even installing mods but it was the same. Any ideas on what to do? I want to play the game so badly but I just can't get past the early game without getting bored.

I though about cheating and getting construction bots at the start which could speed the early game but I'd rather not use cheats.

[Fel]

Maybe it would be helpful to pinpoint what is making you bored, because the cause can be pretty different depending on the person and the potential ways to aleviate it are also different as a result.

For example, if it is the manual construction/deconstruction you can cheat robots or go for the nanobots mod, but it would not be helpful if what makes you get bored is the planning phase that you forcefully thrust yourself into.

If it's the whole main bus plus planning that makes the early game dull for you, why not focus on making a starter base that only gets you up to green science, unlock trains and make supplies with that starter base while you build a train network and a train-based base instead of the basic and boring main bus?

When I want to force myself out of the main bus I tend to get the seablock pack because you just can't make a main bus for multiple reasons (space, worms in the distance, too many materials that would need to be on the bus...) and it can be quite refreshing as a result since there is no point in a bus for it in the early game anyway (everything is based on positive loops at that point which goes against the concept of a bus in the first place).

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by 𝗔 𝗻 𝗲 𝗷 𝗲 𝘆:

This may seem funny to some people with hundreds of hours of playtime. I got the game last year and then over the next months I completed the game twice in around 160 hours. I enjoyed every second and played daily but now I can't bring myself to launch the game for over 2 months.

My first playthrough had messy, spaghetti base, second playthrough used main bus but still was quite messy. Whenever I try to start another game I just can't help myself and go straight into planning main bus which gets boring quickly as it takes a long time to get it working without starter base. I'm just not capable of making spaghetti base anymore.

I tried even installing mods but it was the same. Any ideas on what to do? I want to play the game so badly but I just can't get past the early game without getting bored.

I though about cheating and getting construction bots at the start which could speed the early game but I'd rather not use cheats.

Mods will allow you to start with bots earlier though at a lower powerlevel OR you can use mods to offset the gain of bots so early on. However, though there's a myriad of methods to make early game go faster; I doubt this is your problem....from the sound of it you simply burned yourself out playing much too much in too little time.

[Anejey]

Originally posted by Fel:

Maybe it would be helpful to pinpoint what is making you bored, because the cause can be pretty different depending on the person and the potential ways to aleviate it are also different as a result.

I think one of the main problems is that I don't do proper smelting area until I get to electric furnace. At the start I just build a couple steel furnaces I refill manually for copper and iron, while I l already plan everything for electric furnaces. Because of that I then have barely any iron/copper and it makes everything slower. I wish steel and electric furnaces were the same size. It would make this easier.

Another reason would be that I prepare too much for expanding, which means making everything far apart. Sometimes I feel like I spend more time walking than actually doing anything.

Originally posted by Fel:

For example, if it is the manual construction/deconstruction you can cheat robots or go for the nanobots mod, but it would not be helpful if what makes you get bored is the planning phase that you forcefully thrust yourself into.

That's the reason why I plan everything ahead, because it's just too exhausting to rebuilt everything. I don't remember when exactly I get the bots but it's usually when I already have already big enough base, that I'm already used to and don't want to rebuilt. I tried the nanobots mod but it didn't work properly and it was weird to use.

Originally posted by Fel:

If it's the whole main bus plus planning that makes the early game dull for you, why not focus on making a starter base that only gets you up to green science, unlock trains and make supplies with that starter base while you build a train network and a train-based base instead of the basic and boring main bus?

I spend most of my time in mid / end game that I don't remember how to properly start a base so I just do something I'm familiar with, which is main bus. Building a base only for the red/green science seems like a good idea. I won't waste resources on things like steel and I could then start building the main bus with already working base and not having to handcraft that much.

Originally posted by Fel:

IWhen I want to force myself out of the main bus I tend to get the seablock pack because you just can't make a main bus for multiple reasons (space, worms in the distance, too many materials that would need to be on the bus...) and it can be quite refreshing as a result since there is no point in a bus for it in the early game anyway (everything is based on positive loops at that point which goes against the concept of a bus in the first place).

I've been avoiding seablock because I don't like to be restricted. I'll try it sometime as it could help me to get rid of the bad habit of building the main bus early.

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

Mods will allow you to start with bots earlier though at a lower powerlevel OR you can use mods to offset the gain of bots so early on. However, though there's a myriad of methods to make early game go faster; I doubt this is your problem....from the sound of it you simply burned yourself out playing much too much in too little time.

I thought that I was burned out too but it's been several months and I've played many games since. I just can't seem to get into Factorio again.

[pinecoffin]

Try the Krastorio2 mod with Alien Biomes for something different. I'm loving it. I didn't like Bobs/Angels as added to much stuff for my like. Krastorio though...

[Fel]

Maybe the best tip for you is that you should forget that electric furnaces even exist.
They are not any faster compared to steel furnaces (at least not without modules), take more space and if you are on boilers for power they end up consuming more fuel as well.

More generally if you might want to enjoy the game you might want to not plan too far ahead unless you have a clear goal for what you are planning (like a specific style of mega base after the rocket launch).


The robots come during the mid-game (blue science packs) but they are very good at dismantling your base so you don't need that many in order to be able to completely remove a "starter" setup and transition to a more late game design.
If you barely have any plate production I can understand why you would get bored of the early game, it means you are spending a large portion of your time just waiting without your factory doing much, which is a bit counter-intuitive in a game that tries to make you automate and scale up as much as possible

You could try to get at least 1 full belt worth of iron and copper plates each with stone furnaces, that tends to get you through the early game pretty quickly and it is a good basis for the future because you can replace the stone furnace with steel furnaces and the yellow belts with red belts later on (doubling the amount of mining drills as well) and end up with a pretty solid amount of iron.
It isn't going to be enough for a large scale base but it will allow you to have a base that does some work while you try to get your high tier machines to start designing your prefered late-game designs.

If you really want to make your smelting area into something you can "upgrade" into electric furnace, have the coal take a full belt and have it be the "near" belt while the ore is the "far" belt going near your furnaces and leave 1 gap between furnaces.
That way you will take the same amount of space and it will make it easier to put your electric furnaces when you have enough power and technology to be able to use them.

I also had a period where I wanted to setup everything perfectly so that I wouldn't have to deconstruct things, and it similarly bored me very early on in each map, my solution at the time was to go for bob+angel that I had fairly little knowledge about concerning how to make a very good design that includes the late game processes.
It forces me to re-design things when I wanted to use a later version of a recipe and the whole base was forced to go through several steps.
Of course your solution might end up being different but the whole idea is to find a way to not limit yourself to a specific design or style.

It could be through watching a few speedruns and get the itch to do that too, through mods, by relying more heavily something (trains, robots, circuit network, belts...), by imposing yourself a challenge (deathworld, city block, a specific achievement, whatever else you could imagine).

[AlexMBrennan]

There are plenty of quick start mods that give you a bunch of stuff, robots, etc so you can skip the chopping trees by hand stage of the game.

I think one of the main problems is that I don't do proper smelting area until I get to electric furnace.

The canonical solution is to add a couple extra belts to allow for later in-place upgrades.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2110872542

[Sistermatic™]

Originally posted by pinecoffin:

Try the Krastorio2 mod with Alien Biomes for something different. I'm loving it. I didn't like Bobs/Angels as added to much stuff for my like. Krastorio though...

This for me too. Came back and played a few hundred with Krastorio 2 after a couple of years away.

I turned of K2 yesterday just to see what the game would be like, made me realise just how much additional content and complexity there is.

[Anejey]

Originally posted by Fel:

Maybe the best tip for you is that you should forget that electric furnaces even exist.
They are not any faster compared to steel furnaces (at least not without modules), take more space and if you are on boilers for power they end up consuming more fuel as well.

I like the electric furnaces more for some reason. Not really because of the modules but because there is no coal needed and power was never really a problem. (solar panels ftw)

Originally posted by Fel:

More generally if you might want to enjoy the game you might want to not plan too far ahead unless you have a clear goal for what you are planning (like a specific style of mega base after the rocket launch)

I'm trying to plan less now and just imagine where each thing will be, where it will go and then when I actually get to it I'll improvise. It skips the boring blueprint planning phase for me.

Originally posted by Fel:

The robots come during the mid-game (blue science packs) but they are very good at dismantling your base so you don't need that many in order to be able to completely remove a "starter" setup and transition to a more late game design.
If you barely have any plate production I can understand why you would get bored of the early game, it means you are spending a large portion of your time just waiting without your factory doing much, which is a bit counter-intuitive in a game that tries to make you automate and scale up as much as possible

I loaded a base I started before I quit playing and I actualy wasn't that far from bots. There is barely enough iron, but there is no bottleneck yet.

I'm trying to resume playing now and instead of continuing the main bus I started doing railways and production from oil. Once I get that going I'll finally get the bots.

Originally posted by Fel:

You could try to get at least 1 full belt worth of iron and copper plates each with stone furnaces, that tends to get you through the early game pretty quickly and it is a good basis for the future because you can replace the stone furnace with steel furnaces and the yellow belts with red belts later on (doubling the amount of mining drills as well) and end up with a pretty solid amount of iron.
It isn't going to be enough for a large scale base but it will allow you to have a base that does some work while you try to get your high tier machines to start designing your prefered late-game designs.

I always put a bunch of miners (70% of them are not even need early) to prepare for 2 or more lanes of iron and then afterwards add furnaces when needed. Because of that I have too much ore and barely any iron plates. I getting really close to electric furnaces now so I'll keep it as it is and then upgrade it, but when I start a new base I'll do it differently.

Originally posted by Fel:

If you really want to make your smelting area into something you can "upgrade" into electric furnace, have the coal take a full belt and have it be the "near" belt while the ore is the "far" belt going near your furnaces and leave 1 gap between furnaces.
That way you will take the same amount of space and it will make it easier to put your electric furnaces when you have enough power and technology to be able to use them.

I'll try that for sure.

Originally posted by Fel:

I also had a period where I wanted to setup everything perfectly so that I wouldn't have to deconstruct things, and it similarly bored me very early on in each map, my solution at the time was to go for bob+angel that I had fairly little knowledge about concerning how to make a very good design that includes the late game processes.
It forces me to re-design things when I wanted to use a later version of a recipe and the whole base was forced to go through several steps.
Of course your solution might end up being different but the whole idea is to find a way to not limit yourself to a specific design or style.

I tried mods but I got too overwhelmed and it makes the early game even longer and harder to do.

Originally posted by Fel:

It could be through watching a few speedruns and get the itch to do that too, through mods, by relying more heavily something (trains, robots, circuit network, belts...), by imposing yourself a challenge (deathworld, city block, a specific achievement, whatever else you could imagine).

I've never really enjoyed watching other people play. I've always wanted to build a bots only base so I could try that to make the game more interesting.

[Blazephemie]

with 1200+ hrs i can relate, vanilla early game is (in comparison) somewhat long and boring.

- you need a theme for your base, and a goal to go for. they can be whatever you want them to be ..but set them beforehand, so you have some sort guideline if you get overwhelmed

- electric furnaces are only usefull if you put modules into them - else they are the exact same as t2 furnace only more expensive. if you wait for them to setup smelting you are EXTENDING your early game by YOURSELF. and now you complain about it ... dont wait for stuff - stone furnaces will bring you into endgame easily

-there is no need to rebuild anything if setup correctly in the fist place, you can keep your builds by just upgrading assemblers/inserters and belts, which again is as much work as selecting the upgrade planner and dragging a square over your build.

-factorio offers you so many ways to alter gameplay to your liking .. but if you choose to stick to the one style that gets you bored, you will stay bored period.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

i think there's a mod to give you bots which make building ♥♥♥♥ faster and better.

If not then no worries i feel you

My problem is the opposite i love early game start but late game it gets super tedious and repetitive. Probably why most players only join new games no one every joins past a 200 hour server.

[pat]

I'm getting into this discussion a little late, but I really believe that you need nanobots. You get them VERY early in the game. I find building the base piece by piece just too tedious. I like to get a pattern, copy it, and have the bots make what I need. Up until I get bots, most everything is a chore. After that, my job is planning and delegating work. I'm a project manager, not a ditch digger.

[ERROR_404]

I have a world that I have unlocked all science OFC "not the inf sciences" and have a Make most things factory. I use this as a start for new play thorughts.

[Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur]

Originally posted by 𝗔 𝗻 𝗲 𝗷 𝗲 𝘆:

This may seem funny to some people with hundreds of hours of playtime. I got the game last year and then over the next months I completed the game twice in around 160 hours. I enjoyed every second and played daily but now I can't bring myself to launch the game for over 2 months.

My first playthrough had messy, spaghetti base, second playthrough used main bus but still was quite messy. Whenever I try to start another game I just can't help myself and go straight into planning main bus which gets boring quickly as it takes a long time to get it working without starter base. I'm just not capable of making spaghetti base anymore.

I tried even installing mods but it was the same. Any ideas on what to do? I want to play the game so badly but I just can't get past the early game without getting bored.

I though about cheating and getting construction bots at the start which could speed the early game but I'd rather not use cheats.

this may not be game for you then , while i consider it one of best games i ever played i know this is not game for everyone

If it dont clicks with you its fine , get a refund and get a game you would rather enjoy:)

i personaly cant stand FPS competetive games

[ERROR_404]

Originally posted by Varenvel The Festive Girl:

this may not be game for you then , while i consider it one of best games i ever played i know this is not game for everyone

If it dont clicks with you its fine , get a refund and get a game you would rather enjoy:)

i personaly cant stand FPS competetive games

I don't think that's the issue here. You can like designing new high performance beacon systems but get board loading rocks into smelters and building the same smelting Column over and over again. Just because they like the late games dose not mean they should refund it. Just find ways with mods or tactics to overcome this and move on to the fun post robot post beacon parts.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by ERROR_404:

Originally posted by Varenvel The Festive Girl:

this may not be game for you then , while i consider it one of best games i ever played i know this is not game for everyone

If it dont clicks with you its fine , get a refund and get a game you would rather enjoy:)

i personaly cant stand FPS competetive games

I don't think that's the issue here. You can like designing new high performance beacon systems but get board loading rocks into smelters and building the same smelting Column over and over again. Just because they like the late games dose not mean they should refund it. Just find ways with mods or tactics to overcome this and move on to the fun post robot post beacon parts.

What's weird is that most people hate late game and love early game before it stagnates. This guy is the opposite. It's like going from the stone age to the industrial age to space age launching the 1st satellite then the space age 2nd satellite....and we never move past the space age (technically).

but hey people like different ♥♥♥♥. and starting is a ♥♥♥♥♥ and a half but somewhat worth it.