I made a mistake, I played like it's still pre-Space

[Reverend]

First of all, please spare me the git gud BS ;-)

I'm basically screwed, I played casually like I did successfully in v1.x.
But almost everything got significantly harder in Space Age, most defenses are nerfed (in case of personal lasers to the point of being ultra expensive but also completely useless).

In my previous game, at some point I had a Spidertron, which was the end of Bugs. They were a nuisance, nothing more.
But in Space Age, Spidertron (which I got a mod for in my desperation, to get it early) is now severely underpowered.

Bugs spawn rapidly all around me now and I have to defend basically 100% of the time which leaves no time to actually build something. Turrets (Projectile and Laser) are overrun in seconds, walls held but not for long.

So it's over?
I have about 70 hours in Space Age and if stopping now, I will probably never play again.
For me, this was a Factory Building Game, not an RTS Bug hunt.

Is there a question in this rant, you ask? Yes, there is ;-)
Can anyone recommend a mod to remedy this?
Is there a mod to significantly tone down bugs or remove them from the game without restarting?

I would appreciate any tipps.

[Dunkler Messias]

https://wiki.factorio.com/console#Enemy/evolution_scripts

[Chris!!]

No mods needed, you can run a command to kill all biters and spawners in the nearby area.

Full commands here, it's a bit long:
https://wiki.factorio.com/console#Kill_all_nearby_enemies

There's a bunch of other commands if you want to prevent biters from being a nuisance.

[puschit]

The basic versions of quipment like spidertron are nerfed a bit because there are better version availably through quality. Build a spidertron with higher quality resources and intermediates and you'll get one with more healt and more modules slots. Same thing applies to the things you add into those module slots, shields will be more powerful etc.
So, did you skip quality?

[Reverend]

Yes, I "skipped" quality (didn't exist in my games of old). So I was ignorant about that.
Still, it is too late to remedy this.

Anyway, thanks everyone for links and the tip about quality.
(i assume the console commands disable achievements? Not that it matters much)

[Chris!!]

Originally posted by Reverend:

Yes, I "skipped" quality (didn't exist in my games of old). So I was ignorant about that.
Still, it is too late to remedy this.

Anyway, thanks everyone for links and the tip about quality.
(i assume the console commands disable achievements? Not that it matters much)

Yes, commands disable achievements, as does installing mods just in case you're thinking of using mods to bypass the restriction.

[DOOM_Dwarf]

I dunno man. Im playing the exact same way as in 1.x, got my defence perimeters set up with gun turrets, now finaly uranium ammo, and flamethrowers, plus repair bots and so far im not noticing any differece.
I have quality enabled but havent really touched it so far, since its kinda overwhelming.

[BKo]

Originally posted by DOOM_Dwarf:

I dunno man. Im playing the exact same way as in 1.x, got my defence perimeters set up with gun turrets, now finaly uranium ammo, and flamethrowers, plus repair bots and so far im not noticing any differece.
I have quality enabled but havent really touched it so far, since its kinda overwhelming.

Same, maybe he just doesn't have enough defenses. Also, biters attack areas that pollute, and don't attack other areas. Don't just put down one laser turret, put a ton in a chokepoint that they will attack due to pollution.

Also when you are in space, I recommend stop researching. Your base will stop pollution and biters will stop attacking. Don't research unless you know your base can defend anything.

[Gweihir]

I did the same I did successfully before: Clean out a generous area and place laser-turrets in a line at choke-points. As long as you keep pollution and bugs separate, things are fine and you can take it slow. At points with frequent damage I also placed repair bots, for something like 2 repair tools consumed currently per day of real-time running the game in the most "intense" one. I expect this will work long-term with some defense upgrades over time.

For bug-clearing I use the tank with a few shields and the cannon. Works pretty well when circling bases. For large bases I also place some "kill zone" laser clusters nearby where I drive when damage starts to rise.

[Captiva]

I have bugs on default except double sized nests and I am just using a tank to take them out.

Things do seem nerfed a bit like turret effectiveness, but it has been nothing a well equipped tank cannot handle with some grind.

I am not sure what is going on for OP, but I have not found bugs to be that big of an issue and still mostly just a nuisance once you get a tank.

I am at 30 hours in Space Age and currently at purple science.

[königplatzen]

Very strong defense are landmines or flamer turrets. Both are available on Nauvis. Landmines get replaced by bots, so it's not good to use flamers in the same area. Flamers have a huge range and you can place them pretty far back from the wall. Biters pile up against the wall and the flamers deals AOE damage. But flamers should be combined with turrets, because they cant defend themselves, when biters happen to breach through. You should also have construction bot coverage for the wall, so it gets repaired.
Regular turrets and Laser turrets need damage upgrades. But they might be too weak with nauvis-only research for blue/green biters, unless you spam them.

[GAMING_Alligator]

70 hours in and you have a spidertron. Can't you just roam around with your sipdertron and nuke their nests from a distance? Don't you have nukes yet?

Also what are you running around repairing things for? You should have drones doing that automatically by now. They should also have access to replacement turrets and walls, so if one goes down, it can be replaced without your involvement.

[Zaflis]

Your error was probably playing on default settings while you are not an experienced player yet. It can be cruel experience that has real chance to make one lose the game. If you are not prepared for losing then you should change the start settings.

There is also like "Change Map Settings" mod or you can do most of its changes with /editor mode GUI, in the surface settings. Of course console commands are always a way but you'd not know what you're typing unless you copy paste somewhere online.

[Chindraba]

Might not even be the default settings which are the issue. Experience in 1.1 was indicated. Sometimes it's just a rotten-luck seed.

Normally console command will disable, permanently for that save, achievements. Someone made a mod to use Lua scripts without using the console, thereby keeping achievements enabled. And even if mods are used, they can be turned off and Steam achievements are available again as well.

Someone's LUA-Console[mods.factorio.com]

[Site]

There is a mod that allows you to have achievements with a modded game

[Chindraba]

Originally posted by Site:

There is a mod that allows you to have achievements with a modded game

"There's a mod for that." is one of the few memes allowed in the Factorio Discord server. Perhaps because it's true.