Why is the game so hard on lowest evolution factors??!

[Cubic]

I don't want to play in peaceful, but the easiest monster settings are still too hard.
Please make a setting for toxicity of the factory buildings to kill monsters which eat the factory.
And a factor for monster health and attack strength.

[Scarsick]

What settings are you changing? Evolution, expansion, size....

Pollution killing bitters makes no sense whatsoever because it makes them stronger.

Perhaps you're not worrying about defences the way you should. If you're in the desert and growing too fast you'll probably get raided pretty fast, because pollution spreads faster in desert biomes. Anyway, get some military defence researched, set some turrets, go slow if you're in a desert.

[Cubic]

No I don't mean pollution!

The aliens eating the factory. But alle the metal isn't good in the stomach, so it could damage the aliens.

It would be a feature to prevent a single alien could destroy a giant factory or a huge area just because there wasn't a turret and no player.

[Cubic]

The weird problem about evolution factors is. I have the feeling it's the same or harder if you set all factors to the lowest instead.
Makes this any sense?
My only idea why this happens is, the evolution factors maybe are just relative. So it doesn't matter if all sliders are in the middle or at the lowest because all is about the relativity to the other two sliders.
But maybe I am wrong and the problem is just the lowest settings are still too hard or maybe it's a bug.

[Fel]

Just type this in the console (it does not disable the achievements, don't worry)

/evolution

(and maybe /time as well)


It is highly possible that what you are feeling could come from not properly understanding how things work regarding enemies.
If they attack when you don't have any defenses yet, it is highly likely to be in the very early game (I hope at least) and the evolution factor does not do anything until it reaches 0.25 (25%) where small spitters and medium bitters start to spawn as well.

Here is the page of the wiki about enemies, the part about evolution in particular:
https://wiki.factorio.com/Enemies#Evolution

If you fine that the enemies are too hard, it is fine to just disable them or to enable the peaceful mode until you know better how to play.
After you understand how to play, it becomes much easier to fend off early and mid game attacks with just a few turrets and walls and you would need very specific circumstances to not have defenses when the first attack comes.

[AlexMBrennan]

I have the feeling it's the same or harder if you set all factors to the lowest instead.

That's obviously not true - if you don't believe us then you can change the game speed and watch evolution tick up much faster if you set time factor to 1000 compared to the default. If you turn off evolution entirely you will never face any medium, large or behemoth biters.

By default, enemies gradually get stronger by
1. time passing (therefore leaving the game running in the background is a bad idea)
2. absorbing pollution (therefore having your pollution cloud touch enemy bases is a bad idea)
3. destroying enemy bases (therefore destroying bases that don't touch your pollution is a bad idea)

but this just affects enemy unit composition and not frequency or size of attacks.

[Katitoff]

Why is the game so hard on lowest evolution factors??!

Because you have build 40 burner miners and went AFK for 2 hours?

[Boothy]

Expanding your base too quickly can be an issue, bigger base = more pollution = more attacks, This can escalate rapidly to where you get overrun. So don't go building a massing smelting array straight away, plan for it, fine, but build only what you need till you are secure.

If you are getting overrun, try turning things off (i.e. disconnect the power to the factory), this will reduce attacks after a while as the pollution clears, and give you chance to recover. You can always rebuild if you need to.

As a basic rule, especially early game, don't allow pollution to hit biter bases, as that agro's them (and excellerates evolution). So keep the cloud small. If you can't avoid this, for example a biter base is too close to you, then destroy that base, but...

Do NOT destroy bases that are outside the pollution cloud, as this increases evolution.

Don't bother with walls in the very early game (as producing the bricks needed, creates pollution), two turrets close by, with starting ammo, is more than enough to beat the initial biters.

If you have to, reduce automation down to just producing enough iron plate to feed one assembler making basic ammo constantly, and hand craft turrets.

All turrets need to be placed with over lapping cover, so turret 1, protects turret 2, turret 2 protects turret 3 etc. Don't leave a turret on it's own, as it can easily get overrun, so always try to place two as a minimum.

Before switching the base back on, make sure there are no gaps into your base defence that isn't covered by a turret. Use choke points to your advantage if you can.

There should be no reason to run around defending the base yourself, if you are, then you don't have enough turrets.

Start small, build up slowly, don't rush to go big, and keep an eye on the pollution cloud.

Also once you've got a lab, prioritise military science, so turret damage and speed etc.

Good luck :-)

[Ragnaman]

research turrets early, build a stack, keep them in pocket, automate bullet production,
every time aliens attack, observe the spot they attack, and plop down a turret there and fill it with ammo.
This approach should be enough for start of the game.
Best would be 2x2 turrets surrounded by wall.

[DCYW]

You might be in the away of their line of sight by shooting at them.
Do not touch'em if you not ready for 'em.

[Scarsick]

Originally posted by |||HexaCubic:

No I don't mean pollution!

The aliens eating the factory. But alle the metal isn't good in the stomach, so it could damage the aliens.

It would be a feature to prevent a single alien could destroy a giant factory or a huge area just because there wasn't a turret and no player.

But that would remove any challenge. I don't know what your settings are, but you're probably expanding too fast without worrying about defenses. If you're in a desert biome that's even more deadly.

On default settings I'm able to defend my base and outposts using a straight forward double wall/ turret defense with yellow magazines and the occasional cleaning when they expand until 50% evolution maybe? Not sure, whichever percentage is when big natives start to outnumber medium ones.

In early/mid game you need to worry more about expansion than evolution. You need to clear the enemy bases that expand towards you, otherwise you'll have a pretty tough time.

[knighttemplar1960]

Trees absorb pollution. A desert start is a level of magnitude harder than a normal start and a normal start is a level of magnitude harder than a forest start (if you don't mind cutting trees.)

You can change to a wetter map in the settings and you can increase the number of trees too.

You can increase the size of your starting area so that spawners start further away. This makes it take longer for your pollution cloud to reach the nearest nest.

Automation is the name of the game but you can decrease the amount of pollution you produce by hand crafting the things you need until you have adequate defenses set up. Its not much of a hassle to hand craft things that have short crafting times like inserters and assemblers.

Don't have wall production started yet? You can use a row of stone furnaces as temporary walls or if you gave yourself a forest start you can use all that extra wood to make wooden chests as temporary walls.

Don't over expand. You don't need 10 boilers and 20 steam engines at the beginning of the game. Build just what you need to produce what you have right now and concentrate on defense technologies.

[Warlord]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

By default, enemies gradually get stronger by
1. time passing (therefore leaving the game running in the background is a bad idea)
2. absorbing pollution (therefore having your pollution cloud touch enemy bases is a bad idea)
3. destroying enemy bases (therefore destroying bases that don't touch your pollution is a bad idea)

but this just affects enemy unit composition and not frequency or size of attacks.

Slight correction, but I believe that option number 2 is incorrect. I always thought that having pollution absorbed increased evolution, but I don't think it actually causes evolution to increase. Simply putting out any pollution (even if it is immediately absorbed by a tree) will increase global evolution.

Pollution absorption by a nest only triggers attacks.

[dragonsphotoworks]

What i do..
1. set max trees and density
2. set moisture to max green. not red desert.
3. largest start area

When start have to cut trees to place factory. But helps slow pollution in beginning. So trees + large area makes less attacks for while.

[чи да]

Originally posted by |||HexaCubic:

I don't want to play in peaceful, but the easiest monster settings are still too hard.
Please make a setting for toxicity of the factory buildings to kill monsters which eat the factory.
And a factor for monster health and attack strength.

If it's too hard for you then I suggest to make bigger starting area in the map generator so you'll have more time before pollution will hit nests and biters will begin to attack your base.

Eventually they will expand and there will be many nests around your base but at that time you should have a Trump's defense wall with laser/gun turrets.

[GoofyZ (NL)]

Originally posted by |||HexaCubic:

I don't want to play in peaceful, but the easiest monster settings are still too hard.
Please make a setting for toxicity of the factory buildings to kill monsters which eat the factory.
And a factor for monster health and attack strength.

Just automate building turrets (50 in a box or 100 max) and make 4 factories building bullets (cant have enough of those). Then build a car and load it up with walls and turrets bullets etc) Also destroy enemy bases who are in the polution cloud or near the pollution cloud. Always place radars so you can have track where the enemy is.

Yes it is not easy but when you get laser turrets it will get easier. Also grenades and machine gun/flame throwers can do wonders againt bases.

Also using robots with laser turrets and power you can quickly place turrets so you can build near enemy bases.