Oil very far away.

[MartyS]

Is oil always on the far edge of the map or did I just get unlucky with random placement?

Finally reached the stage where I can scan for oil and all 3 deposits on my map are over 2 to 3 thousand meters away.

[McCloud]

https://youtu.be/NwzaxUF0k18

[Heiinz]

It's just one map and there is no random placement. And yes normally the oil is not very close to the spawn positions. But you will get used to long transport routes.

[God of Snacks]

oil is designed to be far away to encourage you to learn how to use vehicles to ship things around the map. Your first oil recipes create Petroleum Coke which really doesn't have any use at the time other than fuel and sink

[Die Hand Gottes]

Oil is available in many places and sooner or later you will have built on the whole map anyway.
Here, for example, my train routes over 180Km completely covered the map.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893872533
The route through the Cannon is not yet present on the picture.

[Mr Fantastic]

Originally posted by Die Hand Gottes:

Oil is available in many places and sooner or later you will have built on the whole map anyway.
Here, for example, my train routes over 180Km completely covered the map.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893872533
The route through the Cannon is not yet present on the picture.

Wow that is super hardcore :o

[MartyS]

I read someplace that the nodes are fixed but the type is random, maybe they meant quality is random. Looks like I'll be doing more exploring to find a good path, first oil node I explored to was a terrible route to try and build to this early even for a remote base, hope the other node is a little easier to get to.

I am lagging a bit with MAM research so should probably concentrate on that for a while, been focusing on leveling up instead.

[Die Hand Gottes]

Originally posted by MartyS:

I read someplace that the nodes are fixed but the type is random, maybe they meant quality is random. Looks like I'll be doing more exploring to find a good path, first oil node I explored to was a terrible route to try and build to this early even for a remote base, hope the other node is a little easier to get to.

I am lagging a bit with MAM research so should probably concentrate on that for a while, been focusing on leveling up instead.

no nothing is random on the map it is completely hand designed

[Die Hand Gottes]

Originally posted by Mr Fantastic:

Wow that is super hardcore :o

the train lines are also all double-track with right-hand traffic.
and here my stations and trains
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893730600

Und At the spire coast there is also the largest oil field on the map in the surrounding area there are 13 oil wells.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2904883560
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2904885550

[steventirey]

Originally posted by Die Hand Gottes:

Originally posted by MartyS:

I read someplace that the nodes are fixed but the type is random, maybe they meant quality is random. Looks like I'll be doing more exploring to find a good path, first oil node I explored to was a terrible route to try and build to this early even for a remote base, hope the other node is a little easier to get to.

I am lagging a bit with MAM research so should probably concentrate on that for a while, been focusing on leveling up instead.

no nothing is random on the map it is completely hand designed

There is a bit of randomness. While the big resource nodes are fixed, the smaller ones you hand mine that are scattered around are not. Their locations are, but the material they are made of does vary. From the wiki:

Resource deposits are hand-mineable rocks that are found commonly on top of resource nodes as well as in the world. There can be a deposit on a node, which blocks the building of Miners, until removed.

The locations of deposits in the world are fixed, however the resource type is randomised (some specific deposits, such as the aforementioned uranium deposits, will not be random). Deposits are always displayed to have a purity of pure, however the amount of items received when mining them is random and typically less than 100.

[T-Bone Biggins]

What seems far away at first really isn't once you get into the swing of things. For example the Grasslands start, the closest oil and quartz I manage to pipe and belt in towards my production area at the Grasslands spawn location. There are a few ways to go about this. While scouting around I tend to make roads and paths, like ramps going up that one western waterfall that leads to the western coastal area with oil. A large ramp for the waterfall, some foundation-roads on the water to make sure a vehicle doesn't dip down too low.

The quartz north of the Grasslands I first make a ramp that goes down to that low lake with a beach. That way you don't have to use the goat path on the side of the cliff. From there it's a drive past the beach, up a sandy road, then you are right there by that quartz cave.

To simplify this further, when scouting and finding areas you like try to hook up a power line to these areas. Try making it accessible for zip-lining, you will find out you can use powerlines to zipline up a steep cliff with minimal effort and resource/time investment. The bonus is the lines can guide you so you don't have to keep pulling up the map to see where you are going, and you have power if it's hooked up to your main grid. You can mine resources as you find them and figure out how to send them where you want or even make a full-blown outpost producing what you need later on after initial scouting.

Once you get the hang of the whole "scout-prep-road-outpost" cycle the game gets quite fun. You can pick what to do. Do you keep optimizing a chunk of my factory or do you go exploring? Do you need more resources? Did you scout and prep that route to that needed resource? Just today I spent an hour cleaning up a few routes to pure iron and copper nodes (more resources for same MW power, worth making a production outpost on such a spot) and laid down powerlines to the oil on the western coast. You will find that you often visit a spot at least two times before having it ready to use.

[RAMChYLD]

The game is designed to push you to explore further as you unlock tiers, at least on certain starting points.

For example, when I started playing, I chose the Grasslands as my starting point. Unlocking coal actually caused me to explore quite a distance to look for coal nodes. That meant exploring over 2km and downhill.

Then when oil was unlocked, the distance technically doubled.

I suppose this is why the Rocky Desert is such a great place to start. Ever since starting there on my second playthrough, I found that everything, including coal and oil, are within arm's reach. I've been exclusively playing with Rocky Desert since. The only caveat is I had to build a man-made ramp upwards towards the crater lake to reach the coal nodes (this was before I discovered the two access routes that went up to the lake).

[T-Bone Biggins]

Originally posted by RAMChYLD:

The game is designed to push you to explore further as you unlock tiers, at least on certain starting points.

For example, when I started playing, I chose the Grasslands as my starting point. Unlocking coal actually caused me to explore quite a distance to look for coal nodes. That meant exploring over 2km and downhill.

Then when oil was unlocked, the distance technically doubled.

I suppose this is why the Rocky Desert is such a great place to start. Ever since starting there on my second playthrough, I found that everything, including coal and oil, are within arm's reach. I've been exclusively playing with Rocky Desert since. The only caveat is I had to build a man-made ramp upwards towards the crater lake to reach the coal nodes (this was before I discovered the two access routes that went up to the lake).

Ramping to where you want is better and more time efficient than fighting the terrain (most of the time). One of the natural routes up there is clogged with the green gas clouds anyway.

[MartyS]

From the start I've been building a huge platform high above the grasslands near the drop area, so I just built a road in the sky over to sulfur and quartz, now I'm to the point I need plastic so will be doing the same for oil.

It is scary setting up routes for the truck up that high. I only have a few stairways going down to the ground here and there along the sky paths.

[Illuminia]

Personally, I think exploring is part of the fun.... Figuring out where something is, working out functional routes for power/transport.
It's also a good way to get delicious slugs and monster parts for DNA capsules as you go!
I'll usually come back to home base with at least 2-3 Blueberry slugs, maybe a Lemon or Grape flavor if I'm lucky. (ADA's Note: Ingestion of Power Slugs is not recommended.)

I like trying to work with/around the natural environment, for the most part. My first factory was made in a small valley between cliffs in the Northern Forest starting area; cramped but forced me to learn about how to build in tight areas, and spaghetti conveyor management.

Resources ARE spread out to prompt you to use the ever-increasing options to explore.
At first it's limited to Zoop-building Ramps or Parkour, but eventually opens up Vehicles, Zip Lines, Hypertubes, Ladders, and limited flight. (Jetpack [fuel] / Hoverpack [nearby electricity])

Hypertubes give you a reasonably quick way to get back to placed you've been....
My advice:
1) Take plenty of Powerline and Hypertube materials with you when you explore.
2) Lay powerlines along the way as you go out to explore towards a new resource.
3) Once you find it, start planning a route for transport back to your base, and lay Hypertubes as you go. This gives you an easy way to get back to the resource for factory construction; and to later use as a branching-off point for further exploration.

[Obz3hL33t]

The big oil fields are Spire Coast, which if you start in Northern Forest is close, Radioactive Eggs, also close to Northern Forest on the opposite side, and Oil Island, which isn't close to anything but a lone bauxite node. Oil Island is probably the best choice for a Grasslands start, but "close" it is not.

Dune Desert gets a baby oilfield nearby, but to get more is a LONG haul. Unless there's oil in the Swamp. Is there oil in the Swamp? I swear I remember there being oil in the Swamp. Hmm. No, I don't think there's oil in the Swamp, it just looks oozy and oily.

Crater Lake at the Red Jungle boundary has oil you can frack, but fracking is endgame technology.

Your perception that "oil is far away" is only true if you start in Grasslands. Rocky Desert at That One Spot has fairly easy access to Spire Coast and Radioactive Egg, but Rocky Desert can be "far from oil" if you start building in the interior, which is actually my favorite start. The need for other resources will inevitably draw you to That One Spot, so by the time you need oil you'll be more-or-less equidistant to Spire Coast and Radioactive Egg.

To get to That One Spot from Northern Forest you'll be grinding ramps and foundations then one day glance across the river and say, "These cliffs and rocks suck. Why don't I just build over there, where it's nice and flat?" That's how I first "discovered" That One Spot, except I had already built a huge multilevel rabbit warren in Northern Forest.

There's a reason That One Spot is a proper noun.

@Illuminia: That valley you built within is fairly close to That One Spot. It's a lot easier to actually build in That One Spot than cram everything into the narrow valley between Spire Coast and Northern Forest, but do a build in That One Spot and your valley becomes useful for water purification of the insanely rich ores atop the Northern Forest cliffs. Ore elevators down the valley; purified ingots and crystals elevator up. Plus there's a geothermal vent!