How (and when) do you choose your recipes?

[Maehlice]

Do you just go vanilla and run with them til the end? Do you deliberately hunt for drives and specific recipes? If ever, when do you switch?

I'm just curious what others are doing.

I like to maximize each node and spread the resource usage proportional to their availability. I hunt for drives at each tier looking for specific recipes.

[Rav3n]

I haven't unlocked very many of them so I am mainly on the basic recipes. My factory is starting to get quite large and see wrecked craft everywhere but I seldom take the time to pick them up. I really need to start doing that.

[Grandaddypurple]

Originally posted by Maehlice:

Do you just go vanilla and run with them til the end? Do you deliberately hunt for drives and specific recipes? If ever, when do you switch?

I'm just curious what others are doing.

I like to maximize each node and spread the resource usage proportional to their availability. I hunt for drives at each tier looking for specific recipes.

Every recipe that erase screws should (subjective) be wildly hunted
Compacted coal as well, for the turbofuel setup (though I actually wonder the portion of players who actually do the 666 m3 turbofuel setup)
Apart from that, it's to each their own. Some people want to exploit bauxite/caterium/quartz to the last drip, in which case you want the alt recipe that'll give you the most efficient ratios.
Others want the most convinient recipes to limit logistics

[Capt. W. Schwartz]

I'm not a fan of treasure hunts, and RNG. I use SCIM to unlock the alt-recipes I "need". *cough* compacted coal *cough*
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plus I find the idea of scavenging a hard drive a bit morbid. There's FICSIT "Property" in there, and by "property" I mean human remains.

[Lasagna]

I make sure to hunt a bunch of hardrives earlygame for casted screws and anything that reduces your need for them (stitched iron plates, ect...)

Then i save a few up to use after specific milestones are unlocked, several good alt steel recipes (especially steel screws).

once you get to oil it's time for another hardrive binge for all those alt recipies.

ect...

[lpnlizard27]

Originally posted by Capt. Q. Schwartz:

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plus I find the idea of scavenging a hard drive a bit morbid. There's FICSIT "Property" in there, and by "property" I mean human remains.

There's 0 indication that the pod crash sites were anything other than cargo pods just like the one you launch from the hub. After all the crash sites look nothing like the drop pod you arrived in. Why there are so many is a matter of speculation however.

[lpnlizard27]

As far as recipes anything that's a new item (compacted coal, turbo fuel)is instant select.

Also any recipe that can enhance output of a node like pure ingots.

Then anything that can simplify a process. I just got one yesterday that removed silica from aluminum processing. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but removing quartz allows me more flexibility in choosing a location.

[Evilsod]

I feel like the moment you start save scumming to get the recipe you want, you really are sucking the fun out of the game. Especially if the RNG doesn't go your way.
It's such an easy trap to fall into on a lot of games, where you might have a preferred/efficient method of progressing through a particular section and you'll do it repeatedly until you get it 'just right'.

I'll hunt down hard drives, and if I think its beneficial to rebuild some of my infrastructure to a new recipe, I'll do that, but I'm not going to hold off on doing things until I get the exact recipe I want.

[Kraft51]

essential early game alt recipes; Cast Screws (iron ingots > screws), Bolted Iron Plate, Bolted Frame and Copper Rotors. these 3 phase Rods out of your regular production entirely, simplifying a lot of basics for you. only real cost is the volume of screws required but the Cast Screw alt helps out a lot with that. once you've unlocked Steel go for the Steel Screws alt that produces 260 screws/min @ 4 steel beams/min and that one with take care of your screw needs for the rest of your playthrough.

edit: another guideline to play by is to ONLY start scanning Drives when you've unlocked the Tier of the alternate you wish to get, this way you have a much higher chance of obtaining the recipe you want. and sorry Maelice didn't realise this was a "what do you do in game" thread lol :) ... anyways thats usually how i go about early game, hunt down all the easy Drives after getting basics automated and i'm waiting on concrete to start building.

[Maehlice]

Originally posted by Kraft51:

essential early game alt recipes; Cast Screws (iron ingots > screws), Bolted Iron Plate, Bolted Frame and Copper Rotors. these 3 phase Rods out of your regular production entirely, simplifying a lot of basics for you. only real cost is the volume of screws required but the Cast Screw alt helps out a lot with that. once you've unlocked Steel go for the Steel Screws alt that produces 260 screws/min @ 4 steel beams/min and that one with take care of your screw needs for the rest of your playthrough.

For me, Iron Wire and Stitched Iron Plates are "essential" due to the massive resource savings (3rd less Iron vs Bolted Plates). Plus, as soon as Caterium Wire is discovered, that Wire can be easily folded into the existing factory for another huge boost.

I think it's so interesting how the same game with the same map and the same recipes can support so many different ideas and playstyles while still all being correct.

[Gorby]

When I start a game I aim to produce a factory that produces all the parts and materials I'll need to construct a large "endgame" build like 50 Turbo Motors/min (or now, 50 Nuclear Pasta/min I guess?). For that I generally ignore recipes except for what I consider the essentials: Casted Screw (sometimes with Iron Wire and/or Iron Alloy Ingot), Steel Rod, Polyester Fabric, the new Sloppy Alumina - which combined with Pure Aluminum Ingot is my favorite recipe ever - and of course Turbofuel and all the recipes for the most efficient production of that from whatever Heavy Fuel Oil my Plastic/Rubber setup produces..

I just started my 3rd playthrough due to the nuclear changes so I've never gotten far into the endgame build - I was finally producing 30 fuel rods/minute and ready to start when the changes were announced lol. But I'm planning to have multiple smaller factories that only make parts from one or maybe two resources, and then ship those parts to a larger centralized factory with no raw resource inputs - it only produces parts made from other parts.

Because of that, once I finish that first factory I go out and get all the rest of the hard drives and recipes... assuming the "luck of the draw" didn't make me get all of them already. That way it gives me more freedom to place my satellite factories where I want and then use recipes based on what resources are available in that area. Of course at that point using the "Pure" recipes is a must in my opinion.

[Geck0]

Until like 120 hours in I didn't actively look for any HDs, but I grabbed a bunch and ended up reworking my factory in order to use them. Especially for screws. Casted screw is better than standard screw production in every way, and steel screw blows even that out of the water and provides you with as many as I currently need alongside a bunch more for sink fodder.

[sansee]

Personally, I don't hunt only to get the best recipes, but more to get an alternative way of constructing the factories in each session. Right now I prefer screws over bars (from iron, not from steel as I need every bit of steel I can make), and after 5 restarts it seems I get that AND compacted coal pretty fast and early in the session.

I also max out each node and don't care about purity - it goes into the smelter anyway. And building 5 or 16 smelters doesn't matter either, as I just use splitters/mergers to feed the lines vertically.

I tend to use different recipes in different areas of the factory (or factories), depending on availability, where the nodes are, and how the logistics comes into play, and then alternates between normal, those that combines types of ores, and those that require water (this type I usually use near my oil factories).

Though, I've been testing with crafting my own harddrives just to not let it get too cheaty, but in the interest of getting as close to a creative mode it works really well. After crafting 6 harddrives + a few normal ones I seem to have what I need so far. Only down side; it partly ruins the point of exploration so I might give that up until I've "cleaned" out most of the map at one point in the future.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Maehlice:

Do you just go vanilla and run with them til the end? Do you deliberately hunt for drives and specific recipes? If ever, when do you switch?

"Go vanilla"?
I do not use mods and so I'm always playing vanilla ;p
I do hunt drives occasionally, but not in search of any specific alternative recipes.
I use whatever recipes I have and only when it comes to remodelling a factory do I reconsider my options with regards to any new recipes I may have acquired.

[Vilkata]

Originally posted by lpnlizard27:

Originally posted by Capt. Q. Schwartz:

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plus I find the idea of scavenging a hard drive a bit morbid. There's FICSIT "Property" in there, and by "property" I mean human remains.

There's 0 indication that the pod crash sites were anything other than cargo pods just like the one you launch from the hub. After all the crash sites look nothing like the drop pod you arrived in. Why there are so many is a matter of speculation however.

I seem to remember the AI chick congratulating you on being one of the few to survive planetfall, either as you land or shortly after when she's giving you the tutorial.

[C2]

i hunted drives collected lizard dogs for slug source works well and alt recipes for steel and copper are good turbo fuel is good and original battery recipe im at the point were i need to go nuclear now not looking forward to that and still need to rework oil so much to do no mods experimental