Best spawn location?

[Spogg]

I played this game before, a few years ago, started in the first spawn location of the fields but i ended up giving up on the game because it reached a point where i had to travel a VERY long distance to get the next resource and at the time i had a weaker pc which made travelling outside the starting area almost impossible due to lag.

but now im back and i'm wanting to give the game a try again, what is the best place to start? before i only progressed to getting coal and water power.

[cswiger]

All spawn locations are just different places on one big map.

Yes, you will have to travel 1+ km to reach less common resources from any start. Hypertubes or trains make traveling much faster. Blade runners also help.

[Warlord]

From what I hear, the 4th start (desert) is a pretty good start. Loads of ore nodes, plenty of open space. But the inability to build cleanly until you get a butt-load of concrete ticks me off, and I usually quit before I can even build the space elevator.

1 was my first, and it was ok, but you must go very far for coal, and the water in the central valley is pretty scarce, which makes late-game production a pain. I quit that game after the first space elevator mission.

2 is better, but quartz is surprisingly far away. If you can, you can set a miner in the northern caves for it, and punch up a vertical conveyor belt through the ground to expose it near a bundle of iron nodes. My favorite start here is the west coast, where there are loads of iron, copper, and stone.

I'm saving the best for last.... 3! Head to the northwest corner, at the border of the forest and the rocky desert (start number 2). It claims to not have much space to build here in the forest, but there is a large deep ravine bordering the north I love to build across. The same problem here as the desert start I suppose, an immediate need for stone. But here, you have access to two pure stone nodes, 4 pure iron nodes, 2 pure copper nodes, 2 pure quartz nodes, 2 normal caterium nodes (one locked under a rock), and 2 sulfur nodes (one reg, one impure). At the bottom of the ravine is a small lake big enough for a few water extractors, and has a thermal power vent in it, with another thermal vent over by the sulfur. There are 4 normal and 1 pure coal vein RIGHT near a super long straight water feature, perfect for on-the-site coal power. One zone south (above a cliff) is a large water crater lake with 3 pure coal veins next to it. On the north side of the ravine, are a handful of oil nodes, well enough to get pretty far into oil processing.

The only downside to start 3 is the nearest bauxite is on top of a large cliff south of start 2 (rocky desert). By the time you need it though, you should be a powerhouse of basic materials and can create a train network to ship the bauxite back (or process it on-site, and send the aluminim bars back instead).

[kLuns]

Dune Desert

Lots of flat building space and better nodes than the grass fields. You notice the diffrence with how fast portable miners fill up or when you get a faster belt

The crash sites provide a lot of good items

Mostly small creatures to fight

Lots of biomass in oases.

[NZ.Zero]

The fields are best.
Desert is good for late game but you'll have many bases anyway.

Just be aware that once you get hypertubes everything gets a LOT easier.

[Quantum Operator]

Originally posted by Autistic Horse:

I played this game before, a few years ago, started in the first spawn location of the fields but i ended up giving up on the game because it reached a point where i had to travel a VERY long distance to get the next resource and at the time i had a weaker pc which made travelling outside the starting area almost impossible due to lag.

but now im back and i'm wanting to give the game a try again, what is the best place to start? before i only progressed to getting coal and water power.

The best location is surely the cliffs edge, on the north west part of the norther forest spawn. There are 2 pure copper nodes, 4 pure iron, and a pure limestone all right next to each other.

Then not to far from those are Several coal and geyser nodes for easy power, this region is also somewhat close to the center of the map.

The center of the map, which imo, is the best place to have a main base of operations, Mega Factory, or Mega Storage for worldwide resource distribution

Putting all the worlds resources equally close to the mega factory or inversely, all the worlds resources equally close to all the various radii areas of the world.

[Spogg]

Thanks all, i have actually set up in the northwest forest location

although the environment is very different from the plains so setting up where to build is a struggle

[kLuns]

Ramps and coveyor lifts are your best friend in that location and don't be afraid to remove a few trees.
More vertical than vertical is the motto there and look out for the blue moth it might fly through your towers.

[Norseman]

Originally posted by Autistic Horse:

Thanks all, i have actually set up in the northwest forest location

although the environment is very different from the plains so setting up where to build is a struggle

Northern Forest is a good location, many high tier nodes to build on :)

[sansee]

Second Northern Forest (if you're a seasoned player). Not only is the environment better for the eyes, it also has the some of the best node placements on the map all-round.

Otherwise, as a beginner, Green Hill Zone is the best.

[Virtual Ocean Horizon]

I'd say depends on your player goals.

Grassy fields is a tutorial level first and grindy location second. Its great for beginners to learn the ropes, but once you want to do anything past tier 3 or 4 it has difficult transportation logistics because mid & late game resources are scarce, extremely distant, and or by themselves (discouraging decentralization). Many players just reset and choose a different location after learning the first few tiers.

Dune Desert is the true easy mode, with large open locations, lack of hostile fauna, and plentiful resources of all types. Coal is extremely common here, making power automation & steel really easy. You could literally pick anywhere and pure nodes of several resource types are a stone throw away. Honestly biomass scarcity isn't even really an issue with the oasis, so I would say this is the true beginner's start. Or at least first start to pick after grassy fields tutorial. Only downsides are that bauxite and nuclear are really distant and depending on location picked, water is scarce, but late game is challenging anyway.

Northern forest is the go to speedrunner / experienced player option. When you know what you're doing all the vegetation, verticality, and building space issues are manageable. Plus, transportation logistics hardly matter if you center your factory at the border area between northern forest and rock desert, since nearly every resource is plentiful and within a km. For the same reasons its not recommended for beginners (getting lost, lots of angry fauna, build complexity). Ideal for people who want to make mega factories and hate transportation logistics.

Rock desert is the most "balanced" start, and its intended to be that way by the devs. Nothing will be easy, but nothing will be very challenging either. Its also the best start if you like exploring and encourages decentralized factory building.

[Die Hand Gottes]

There is actually not the best point because in the end you have built the whole map so it goes me.
I have the whole map laid with tracks and get the material from anywhere and can deliver it to any place.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2926742129

[nfgman]

Passive mode has opened up some areas that would have been dangerous for starting without weapons. A couple of these areas have access to all the basics and easier access to advanced resources. Expecting them to be utilised in speed runs,

[Die Hand Gottes]

actually all areas have everything you need
some needs just a little longer conveyor belts or you do it via vehicles I prefer even now rather trains
But I have also taken the whole map in beschlag.
The big difference is actually the as already mentioned that the animals are different heavy just when you only have the melee weapons.

[Spogg]

I got shatter rebar early because i spawned near a quartz mine

everything just dies, its literally a shotgun and you can use the leg bracer things to just dodge endlessly because there is no stamina mechanic, so enemys are not a problem

does this game have a difficulty setting?
i would prefer the combat to be harder

[Die Hand Gottes]

There was a time when I would have denied this vehemently
but thanks to the peaceful mode, I don't care anymore.