I want to play this game ...

[Redguard]

Is there anyone who has launched a rocket before they completed tutorial 5? I see some playthroughs of it, and it seems like the playthroughs are from people who have already played. I have legit fun ... until tutorial 5 for some reason.

[Shurenai]

Having launched a rocket and never even played the tutorial stuff... Yes?

[Vixx]

I never played the tutorials and have launched a lot of rockets

[Vyndicu]

I tried the new hope tutorial (older terrible scenario version linked below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDszzTBUT4

Then I jump in and launch several rockets building off what I learn from watching other people playing mainly.

Took a break.

I come back to experience the new tutorial. I did not really enjoy it that much.

I launched multiple rockets without relying on what I learn from the tutorial.


I would not recommend relying too much on the tutorial to teach you how to play Factorio.

[Redguard]

I appreciate the input.

I tried dyson sphere program and thought that was phenomenal, but stopped because it was 2021 and I knew the roadmap had a long way to go. IT seems the most fun I have playing games like this is when I get to be creative. I see some people say tutorial 5 is great and fun ... and I just feel overwhelmed ... like - what do I do? do I just find a way to replace the broken base parts ... do I rebuild it to something else - it feels more daunting than the main game somehow.

[BombShot0]

I have not yet launched a rocket but I got a lot less frustrated with the game after looking at factorio factory building principles. After learning how good players use buses, modular & salable machine designs, autobalancers, and most importantly how they tune their builds I just stopped doing all tutorials and watching all videos, and despite me still not knowing whether it's better to build an entire second factory, or just to train my oil into the base, it's been a lot more smooth and enjoyable trying to engineer my way through the game. That's my recommendation. Stop the in game tutorials, and learn how to manage a big factory via youtube, and then just play the game and try to apply the principles as you see fit.

[Galileus]

Originally posted by Redguard:

IT seems the most fun I have playing games like this is when I get to be creative. I see some people say tutorial 5 is great and fun ... and I just feel overwhelmed

From what you write, it seems you should just skip for now and jump into free game proper. The way the tutorials are set up, they are there to show off some ways or aspects of the game - and tut 5 is aimed a bit more at more harsh, survival based setup. That is not a default setup, but it's good the tutorial is there, as it will inform you this is a setup you CAN get if you want.

Base Factorio setup will give you plenty of free space, and you should be fine as long as you remember there exists a threat and keep applying whatever new you learn to these parts as well. It's also means all the anti-bugs techs will be much more fun to discover and play with.

Originally posted by BombShot:

That's my recommendation. Stop the in game tutorials, and learn how to manage a big factory via youtube, and then just play the game and try to apply the principles as you see fit.

I would STRONGLY advise against that. Sure, it can work for some players - me included in certain games - but it's just a terrible order of doing things. Try things first, if you get frustrated, you can pop youtube and learn, if not... well, enjoy figuring it out yourself! But you can never "unpop" a youtube and "unlearn", so starting with youtube means you never gfet to try figuring things out yourself.

[Overeagerdragon]

I started playing this game before there even was a tutorial...so yes; I have launched a rocket before touching the tutorial. I've since then completed the tutorial too and though there's something to be said for what it teaches you it's not for me as I'm a learn as you go along player. To be clear in that regard; the tutorial is great to teach you a specific trick for a specific situation.... one you might never encounter afterwards again (in respects to mission 5 I mean)

Freeplay is where I learnt my craft and through manipulating the settings I learn to adapt and overcome. Youtubes, guides and the community is a great supplement in addition to that but in my opinion; it's no more than that: a supplement to your own learning experience ... because if you don't understand WHY something works you also will have trouble adapting it to your own situation.

An example is the BUS-system... a lot of people swear by it and it DOES work; don't get me wrong.... until you instal an overhaul mod like Pyanadons and discover a BUS-system is nice until you get into some 50 core type materials where planning for a BUS becomes impossible (or at least inpractical).

My advice; if you feel like you're banging your head against the wall completing the tutorial just drop it and start playing freeplay; the game's supposed to stay fun after all.....

[schnappkatze]

Originally posted by Redguard:

Is there anyone who has launched a rocket before they completed tutorial 5? I see some playthroughs of it, and it seems like the playthroughs are from people who have already played. I have legit fun ... until tutorial 5 for some reason.

Just if you didn't know: You can also switch off the biters when you start a normal game and treat that game as a completely stress free tutorial for yourself. There is a quite good ingame help with many tips that explain the games systems (it will pop up frequently), that should be enough for most things.

I don't think there is anything super important in Tutorial 5 to learn that you can't just figure out in the main game, and you would not be the first person to dislike the tutorial who ends up liking the game.

[DaBa]

Originally posted by Redguard:

I appreciate the input.

I tried dyson sphere program and thought that was phenomenal, but stopped because it was 2021 and I knew the roadmap had a long way to go. IT seems the most fun I have playing games like this is when I get to be creative. I see some people say tutorial 5 is great and fun ... and I just feel overwhelmed ... like - what do I do? do I just find a way to replace the broken base parts ... do I rebuild it to something else - it feels more daunting than the main game somehow.

Factorio is a game about constantly solving problems, if you liked the game you would not get dejected because the next problem seems overwhelming, you would get giddy at the idea of having to figure out a solution to a seemingly insurmountable and then implementing it.

If you feel overwhelmed and have not a slightest clue how to approach things, and that's making you not want to continue playing the game then that's a pretty good indicator this is simply not a game for you. And that's fine, just go play something else, you can't force yourself to like something like this. If you're already mentally stuck at the tutorial, believe me when I say it gets orders of magnitude more complex than this in the actual game.

Or as a last resort you can just forget the tutorials and try to start a normal game and see if maybe something clicks, tutorials don't give you all the freedom and room for expression you might want, maybe that's the deal breaker.

[AlexMBrennan]

If you're already mentally stuck at the tutorial, believe me when I say it gets orders of magnitude more complex than this in the actual game.

That would be a valid argument if the tutorials were representative of the real game which they are not.

E.g. what was this tutorial level supposed to teach me? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1299903072

With respect, but the old tutorial was terrible, the NPE was abysmal and the new tutorial is still very bad.

[Leeux]

I didn't finish the tutorials... in fact, I actively disliked them to the point that I almost bounced from the game due to trying to play through them first. I also played DSP first: that game was my intro to automation games and led me to Factorio.

Luckily (or not, depends on how you look it) I tried freeplay without biters active as my first playthrough and then loved the game.

Now, 4500hs later, my stance on the biters has relaxed a bit, I tolerate them, but I almost always reduce that aspect of the game to the very minimum in all the games I play, at least at the start.

At this point, I now enough the game and learned a lot of tricks etc. that I know I'd be able to survive and finish, even a deathworld map, if I cared to try it... it's just, I don't care enough about that aspect at all... I prefer to play overhaul mods and try them all, over doing a biters heavy game.

BTW, I tried Rampant one time, with biters enabled from the start, etc. and I liked that experience, because it started slowly and grew in threat as the game went by... but the version of the mod I used had 'issues' that completely turned me off on it to the point that it made the biters a joke on my map... but, I've seen Rampant in other playthroughs on YT and it doesn't exhibit the issue, so it was a me-problem, sadly. I still don't know what was going on on that map.... and it's been long since I 'finished' that save.

[Redguard]

Originally posted by DaBa:

Factorio is a game about constantly solving problems, if you liked the game you would not get dejected because the next problem seems overwhelming, you would get giddy at the idea of having to figure out a solution to a seemingly insurmountable and then implementing it.

If you feel overwhelmed and have not a slightest clue how to approach things, and that's making you not want to continue playing the game then that's a pretty good indicator this is simply not a game for you. And that's fine, just go play something else, you can't force yourself to like something like this. If you're already mentally stuck at the tutorial, believe me when I say it gets orders of magnitude more complex than this in the actual game.

Or as a last resort you can just forget the tutorials and try to start a normal game and see if maybe something clicks, tutorials don't give you all the freedom and room for expression you might want, maybe that's the deal breaker.

I think there's a part of this that's valid. I'm still on the fence about going through with the game (and I mean, it's not like I don't have a wealth of other things to play and things I'll probably never even play/finish). But this is my second try at factorio and there's a part of me that thinks it could be fun ...

I will say I found great satisfaction when I realized in Tutorial 4 "hey dawg, this crafting crap by hand business is for the birds" and I got to figure out how to create a way to automate lab packets and inserter arms. that felt fun.

the problem comes for me on a macro scale. So ... looking at tutorial 5, it feels like there's only one way to do this, and any deviation from that could potentially be "breaking" it. I don't like that feeling. But I mean, I know I need to get some smelted iron going, some stone going, and other stuff, so if I get the freedom to just tear it all down and start over, that sounds SUPER appealing. But ... I'm afraid I'm not gonna be able to finish or i'm going to get to a point where I messed it up and have to start over. So ... it feels like pressure, and that shouldn't be a feeling you have with a game. So ... that's what's overwhelming.

Another thing that's overwhelming is seeing some bus systems on youtube. I created my own sort of bus system in DSP and that was fulfilling, But when I see someone on youtube make a 30-minute video, and halfway through that video dude's got acres of microchips and copper wire and ... lots of other stuff, it makes me wonder whether I can do that without looking at someone else going "ok, here's how you create a bus system" ... because the fun for me is figuring it out ... but it's like a snake eating it's tail because if I don't figure it out I feel like I'm gonna bottleneck/not get the fun experience everyone else has - and then the game will be a grind ...

Maybe I'm overwhelmed by the options available to me or my own brain lol ... dunno. But hopefully this shines a light.

[Peter34]

If tutorial 5 is the huge map with the destroyed train tracks and all that, then you can just skip that one. I did. It's super offputting, or at least the version I tried to try many years ago was. and I don't think it's been changed since.

I was well able to launch a rocket without completing the huge tutorial.

[Redguard]

Originally posted by Leeux:

I didn't finish the tutorials... in fact, I actively disliked them to the point that I almost bounced from the game due to trying to play through them first. I also played DSP first: that game was my intro to automation games and led me to Factorio.

Luckily (or not, depends on how you look it) I tried freeplay without biters active as my first playthrough and then loved the game.

Now, 4500hs later, my stance on the biters has relaxed a bit, I tolerate them, but I almost always reduce that aspect of the game to the very minimum in all the games I play, at least at the start.

At this point, I now enough the game and learned a lot of tricks etc. that I know I'd be able to survive and finish, even a deathworld map, if I cared to try it... it's just, I don't care enough about that aspect at all... I prefer to play overhaul mods and try them all, over doing a biters heavy game.

BTW, I tried Rampant one time, with biters enabled from the start, etc. and I liked that experience, because it started slowly and grew in threat as the game went by... but the version of the mod I used had 'issues' that completely turned me off on it to the point that it made the biters a joke on my map... but, I've seen Rampant in other playthroughs on YT and it doesn't exhibit the issue, so it was a me-problem, sadly. I still don't know what was going on on that map.... and it's been long since I 'finished' that save.

Encouraging to hear. I'm curious ... did you get help with how to create a main bus?

[Leeux]

Originally posted by Redguard:

Encouraging to hear. I'm curious ... did you get help with how to create a main bus?

Well, yes... a bit. My first game I already knew a bit about the game because before buying it I started watching a YT let's play to check how the game went, to see if I'd like it. There, I found out about how you'd go about organizing the base etc. the "city blocks" and all that, but after a few of the starting videos I quickly bailed out of that series when I bought the game before spoiling too much else. It was a very basic playthrough too, so no strange tricks or complicated bulds, etc. and certainly no end game stuff.

My first game I had to build everything from scratch, and I didn't start using external BPs till late in that game when I decided to finally import the standard Balancer book... that was after having launched some rockets, and then I decided to try take that base to do 1K spm. That save lasted for like 700hs, I think. It was really fun. In the end I enabled the biters in that map, after having made some defense BPs to see if I'd survive the attacks, to test the BPs for later games... and never used them again as I always end up remaking all the stuff I use each game, again, just because it's fun to try a new fresh design each time, instead of always using the same old tricks.

But even if I saw about the main bus in some YT videos for Factorio, the 'BUS' as a concept was an idea I already had from before, as I also did something akin to that when I played DSP previous to coming to factorio: i.e. a belt array encircling the whole planet at the equator... but I quickly moved on from that in that game, as late game techs gives you better stuff as an organization tool.

EDIT: typos