After TIER 4 there is only chaos for me.

[Kackstift]

I had fun with Satisfactory for a long time.. but every attempt to get back into the game fails due to the enormous increase in complexity from TIER 4-5. The long and, in my opinion, unnecessary waiting times for unlocking new items, which is only accelerated by building stupid dozens of the same factories next to each other, is really a strange game design. I would rather have an effective production line and then "level" it using resources. I think overclocking is a really bad solution.. because it's never worth it due to the enormous electricity costs. Does anyone have a solution that suits me? :)

[luntacarsus]

Play a different game.

Seriously. That's what this game is. It's a factory game. If you can't get any joy out of managing to build a hundred gonkulators a minute, then this game isn't for you.

[Wesk Alber]

Originally posted by KackstiftGER:

because it's never worth it due to the enormous electricity costs.

Actively untrue. OC is the only way to get the full benefit out of your belts during specific phases, especially the 700+ belt endgame. This node is 120 but I have 270 belts... let's double this to 240 and double how much I can do with it.

Once you get Coal Generators, Electricity costs plummet. There's enough coal around for a good Steel factory while having tons for power. Choosing the "beginner" zone and heading north into the forest, you come across a giant pool with 4 Coal nodes. If you don't want any of that for steel (you probably will), you have a few dozen Coal Generators available, which gives you so much overhead you can reach Tier 8 with no further power expansions.

But you get a power expansion naturally from Oil products. Without any future plans of it, Heavy Oil into Fuel can power Fuel Generators as a byproduct of Plastic and Rubber. Just by progressing, you're basically forced into power expansion since it feels like the easiest and simple solution for it. Sure there's plenty of other uses but when you're progressing? It's free energy.

And I mean... as for your "strange design..." You ARE meant to make an effective production line. By expanding and OC base nodes, you expand your base materials which allows you to ramp up production on more complex stuff which by nature - makes it more efficient.

It's a 4X game but without an enemy AI.

[Swaggaccino]

I noticed that people who get overwhelmed never properly set up an efficient line and they handcraft until it takes way too long to keep handcrafting.
1. Set up an efficient line
2. Upgrade power
3. Upgrade the lines to mk2/3
4. Research better technology
5. Increase output

Do this until you are swimming in resources then build your "final" end game base on the other side of the map for the more complex materials because if you are a newb like me, you started in the beginning area that has crap resources.

[mackster]

For me, while still learning to build factories that are not only functional, but also look good, moving through the phases isn't my biggest goal. Its building the best efficient and aesthetically pleasing factories. Yes, rush to get coal, as I hate the bio power stuff, but after that take time to build the infrastructure to deliver the huge demands that will inevitably come.

If you want to skip along, load up Satisfactory Calculator with your save and unlock what you want from there, then use that new save as a kick start. This is what I have done for the U6 exp playthrough.

I skipped the new save straight to coal. I also added all the alt recipes too, as I wanted to concentrate on the most efficient builds and not bother with searching for hard drives. Yes, I miss out on some exploration, but it depends on what your goals are and for me, its the factory building which I am trying to get better at.

Once the game gets to 1.0 I will start from scratch for a full playthru, but until then I just want to learn the best ways to build.

[Morkaen]

I found the progression to be pretty good and I'd mirror what is said above about hand crafting - necessary at start but don't do it later on. My experience went something like the below.

2D Factory design on landscape
2D Factory design on Foundations
Redesign on available nodes close to each other and resources needed
3D Factory design and Transport. You will eventually want to build not only across but also on multiple floors, using the resources from the bottom floors to progressively build the more complex stuff as you go up.

For power you will want to push from Biomass to Coal as quickly as possible for the hands free power generation, then onto Oil / Fuel (once you hit fuel generators it is unlikely you will ever have any power worries)

Initially I'd avoid overclocking, it uses more power and as you increase to Mk2 & 3 you could overclock some production rather than build more machines avoiding a complete redesign of your factories.

[God of Snacks]

The end game problem with satisfactory is that the production facilities don't also have higher tiers. You can easily fix this with the Mk++ mods which adds higher tier constructors and smelters and what not. So instead of builing 100 Constructors you can just build 25 constructor MK IIIs which are much more expensive but a much higher output.

[Kackstift]

Originally posted by God of Snacks:

The end game problem with satisfactory is that the production facilities don't also have higher tiers. You can easily fix this with the Mk++ mods which adds higher tier constructors and smelters and what not. So instead of builing 100 Constructors you can just build 25 constructor MK IIIs which are much more expensive but a much higher output.

This sounds like a good solution for me. Thanks for this

[H. Guderian]

I like the puzzle solving aspect, though I wish one could OC a builder more than 250%. I think the only real drag the later into the game you get is connecting all those constructors/ assemblers, etc. If you have a ton of Manufacturers, or Blenders with many inputs it gets tedious.

However the bigger my factory gets (I "finished" the game well before xmas?) the more dedicated 'buildings' I construct to house things and it keeps it organized. I tried to make a main bus, but that went hilariously wrong. I've been burning about 30-40k MW of power, so my factory output really hasn't been changing much in a long time, but if I break above 40k MW, I'm gonna have to expand my energy production which might murder my interest in playing until update 7.

"I'm doing it my way" is a perfectly fine way to play the game

[Bookslayer10]

Originally posted by God of Snacks:

The end game problem with satisfactory is that the production facilities don't also have higher tiers. You can easily fix this with the Mk++ mods which adds higher tier constructors and smelters and what not. So instead of builing 100 Constructors you can just build 25 constructor MK IIIs which are much more expensive but a much higher output.

There is overclocking though... that does the same thing without the confusion of different building types.

I just hope the devs change the system so you can both overclock exponentially without shards, and add shards to change to a linear power cost, so that it's easier to actually overclock everything.

[DrNewcenstein]

It has taken me several months of stop-and-play to ease my way into the higher tiers, mostly because I kept running myself into the same trap of "too much stuff in one area, and not enough stuff to run the stuff".

You aren't meant to stay in one small region. Branch out, cover the map.

For my current build, I worked my way to the center of the map, and radiated outward, bringing those resources back to the center. My space elevator is in the center (ish) of the map, and I eventually moved the HUB there (started in Blue Crater for the coal and oil power).

I've been expanding outward from the middle of the map, and have finally moved back to the Blue Crater to reallocate those resources (and use stuff I'd been stockpiling there).
I'm currently building heat sinks, high speed connectors, motors, and whatever the other thing I need for turbo motors so I can combine those to make whatever I need for the elevator, and to finish the milestone to unlock the particle accelerator so I can put my nuclear waste to use. My reactors are shut down because my containers are full.

I've got oil and coal power spread all over the map. Most of my production has stopped due to backlogs. My potential consumption is around 100,000 MW, but actual is only about 50,000 MW. If everything decided to start up at once, it'd shut down. With the reactors cleared, I've got another Gig to play with.

I won't lie, it's messy, but it works. Trains collect scattered resources and bring them to a bottleneck. Trucks deliver to trains. Drones deliver to other production platforms.

There's no way to do that in one sitting. It has taken me a few months of 8-16 hour runs. Every time I turn around I have to build something to make something else, and I have to come up with a plan for it. Where the resources come from, and where they'll be put to use. I'm not concerned about having everything running simultaneously at 100%. Backlogs are fine. I split backlogged containers to new production as needed.
It works for me.