The Main Problem with this game

[✨Hot Soup✨]

So I recently switched over to the experimental build to check out update 5 pre-build.
I decided to start fresh because my main game turned into a spaghetti mess.

It struck me that the main problem with satisfactory, is that power production is a total drag. (besides not having a story)

running back and fourth to bio-generators with grass, leaves, biomass and wood is tedious and really makes that stretch boring, and just not fun.
this transforms into coal, oil and eventually nuclear as you progress...

the game isn't about production, it's about micromanaging power plants.

[Suzaku]

The game is about automation. Power is one of the things you automate. Even biomass isn't really that big of an issue. Set up an assembly line to change wood/leaves into biomass, which gets turned into solid biofuel, and 10 minutes of tree clearing is all you need for multiple hours of power. Then you reach coal and rarely worry about power again.

[stealthXG]

If you skipped the tutorial part gathering isn't tedious. You'd already have learned how to make biomass and when you can make the MAM and research the alien organs etc to convert to biomass and go farm them instead of plants. I had about 7 biofuel generators running on a full stack of solid biofuel with more stacks to spare.

[BJ72]

I do not think it's that bad.
I uses chainsaw to go out and fill the inventory with wood and leaves a few times.
Throws it in each their own Storage Container which goes to a Constructor who makes Biomass and on to a Constructor who makes Solid Biofuel it ends up in a new Storage Container.
You just need to have enough Biomass Burners 10+ so It is not so often that they need to be refilled.
In tier 3 or 4 I think. There comes Coal power they takes care of themselves once they are set up properly.
And there are also Fuel Generator, Geothermal Generator, Nuclear Power Plant and Power Storage
So power should not be a problem anymore

[Aven]

The first thing I do in any game is set up a solid biofuel production, with dedicated containers for leaves, wood, carapaces, and organs, along with 10 biomass burners. This easily covers me through my RIP and rotor production to complete the first project assembly. After that, power is easy.

[Grizzt]

I'd like to see them add a Biomass burner upgrade right at the front of Tier 3. Simply put: A burner with an belt input. Before a new player get's up to speed on building their first coal/water/generator setup - this can be quite a chore for new players still learning the ropes. So a bone here to improve their lot in life as they unlock Tier 3 would be nice.

Player then learn to create a full end-to-end power setup with existing tools and hardware (other then upgrading Burners to Mk.2). They are only responsible for gathering the raw mats, dumping them in to one or more storage containers, and letting belts, splitters, constructers and the burners take care of the rest.

It's a good 'teaching moment' to get a player to almost 'fully' automate a supply chain of mats to finished product, at a natural point in their Tier progression where it could come in handy.

[Empath demon]

Honestly, in my last game I got so much turbo fuel from a single oil deposit that I built a three story oil generator plant with 48 generators - in addition to all my other petroleum needs. I didn't need to tap a second oil well to unlock the entire tier 8 tree.

If you're still using bio generators, you haven't made it to mid game yet.

[jhughes]

Not in update 5 yet.. Because mods are not wotking yet.

However, the Refined Power Mod has an automated Biomass Burner and Windmills and modular power. Give it a try if you hate the standard power.

[syro]

i don't know how to implement or balance it but i feel like they need to take a page from riftbreaker for the early game and have your avatar's pockets connected to the hub so those two biomass gens on the back can be fueled from anywhere, allowing you to run around more and keep them going without running to them and babying them.

[Obz3hL33t]

50 units from an Assembler gets you to coal. You can John Henry literally every other part up to those 50 if you don't want to gather fuel.

IIRC it's 50 Rotors + 50 Reinforced Plates? I'd hate to tap out that many screws by hand, but it's doable.

After you power up for those 50 Smart Plates -- at less than 15 MW if you underclock -- you'll need to bootstrap your water generators. You could theoretically hand-load coal into the generators, but for water you need one last jolt.

That doesn't seem like too much to ask. I'm all for adding a belt to biofuel burners -- the HUB minis are budget models, so it makes sense they're hand-loaded, but building the full-sized burner ought to get you a belt input, I mean this is the deluxe model, right?, but the difficulty level is otherwise fine the way it is. 50 plates for coal is a pittance.

[DrNewcenstein]

Solid biomass isn't available at Tier 1, IIRC, so all the talk that glosses over requiring leaves and wood as the fuel source needs to stop. Leaves and wood are grindy, plain and simple. UNTIL you unlock solid biomass, you HAVE to deal with leaves and wood, and this is where the complaints are.
You have to set up iron and copper and concrete production and run it with leaves and wood to reach solid biomass. This is the grindy part being complained about. Stop talking like solid biomass is handed to you when you step off the landing pod.

Whether it's plentiful or not is not the issue. It's tedious and the grind is unbalanced.

[Aven]

Oprindeligt skrevet af DrNewcenstein:

Solid biomass isn't available at Tier 1, IIRC, so all the talk that glosses over requiring leaves and wood as the fuel source needs to stop. Leaves and wood are grindy, plain and simple. UNTIL you unlock solid biomass, you HAVE to deal with leaves and wood, and this is where the complaints are.
You have to set up iron and copper and concrete production and run it with leaves and wood to reach solid biomass. This is the grindy part being complained about. Stop talking like solid biomass is handed to you when you step off the landing pod.

Whether it's plentiful or not is not the issue. It's tedious and the grind is unbalanced.

500 screws.
100 cable.
100 concrete.

That’s all it takes to unlock Obstacle Clearing.

That’s:
125 iron ore.
100 copper ore.
300 limestone.

Oh the grind, all 10 minutes of it.

[Jeslis]

To the people saying 'Obstacle clearing isn't available at tier 1'..

Uh, yes it is. You get access to tier 1 and 2 at the same time, and nothing blocks you from getting it.

Note; below instructions include some limestone gathering. I forget if its actually NEEDED for the starting setup, but I never have enough concrete, so I always do it.

Instructions for people having problems/annoyances with biomass generators:
Start a new game, skip tutorial/start at tier 1.
Select obstacle clearing as first milestone.
Make 5 smelters next to the hub, set 3 to iron, 2 to copper.
Make ~8 (you start with 4, so 4 more) Portable miners.
Place 3 on iron, 2 on copper, 3 on limestone.

Do 1 pass of leaf/wood gathering by hand to power the initial setup of smelters.
Do 2-3 loops between your iron/copper/limestone miners and place the iron/copper in the smelters (collect finished product) and handcraft the concrete as needed.

Complete the obstacle clearing milestone (handcraft for the most part, if you want to use a constructor or 2, by all means, but I usually just handcraft until I get splitter/mergers and foundation.

Set milestone for merger/splitters and work on as you need (set next set of instructions for where the merger is needed)

Make your chainsaw.

Set todo list: 4 constructors, 3 storage bins, and 1 merger. Collect/make parts to build.

Setup as follows
Storage(Leafs) -> Constructor(Leaf->Biomass) -> Constructor (Biomass->Solid Biomass) ->
Storage(Wood) -> Constructor(Wood->Biomass) -> Constructor (Biomass->Solid Biomass) ->

Merge the 2 ending outputs into a storage bin for your solid biofuel.

Now, as you explore, utilize chainsaw and fill the 2 storage bins with leaf/wood (DONT MIX) and any time your power goes out, check the solid biofuel storage and refil the bioburners.

Note; You should have ~ 8 bioburners +the 2 on the hub for a total of 280mw before you get to and start utilizing coal.
If you are trying to use more than 280mw before coal, you are 'doing it wrong', and it is no wonder you dislike biomass/leaf/wood gathering so much.

GET TO COAL, SETUP BANKS of 8 Coal generators (either the 3:8:120 waterExt/coalgen/coal ratio if you know how to do pipes correctly, or the 1:2:30 ratio (underclock the water extractor to 75%)

You will need ~48 coal generators before you move on to fuel power (and coal is usually easier to setup) -- Yes you can do it with less, but expect somewhere around 48.

[Sky Render]

Tip: find a Green/Blue Power Slug ASAP, unlock Overclocking, and then underclock everything not a power producer to 50%. Downside: you have to build twice as many buildings. Upside: you use 1/3rd less overall power, meaning you're not constantly scrambling for resources. That'll easily keep you going 'til you get large-scale fuel power going.

[✨Hot Soup✨]

Oprindeligt skrevet af jhughes:

Not in update 5 yet.. Because mods are not wotking yet.

However, the Refined Power Mod has an automated Biomass Burner and Windmills and modular power. Five it a try if you hate the standard power.

will do, thank you for the tip.
the gathering / feed loop is just too tedious, and more importantly, boring.
yes even with solid biomass this is too much of a chore, and not any fun to keep running back and fourth.

[TheOstwind]

Think of it this way - a full game may be 80-100 hours long, or even many hundreds if you really want to go big. I tend to go about 6 hours before I get my first coal up. Only a small fraction of that early time is actually spend harvesting plants. So yes, biofuel can be tedious for a little while, but in the grand scheme of things its really not that significant. Although I will admit that setting up coal plants isn't my favorite part of the game. Yes I do agree power could use a facelift, but its really not that bad.