No progression?

[Spears]

I don't get it. Everything feels like a chore. Secondary items are too complicated to produce without stalling out main production lines. Combining/splitting lines is also unintuitive. The game feels bloated and needlessly complex. Doing fractional math isn't fun. It doesn't feel like a game.
Am I missing a fundamental mechanic?

[Suzaku]

Sounds like it isn't for you.

[stealthXG]

Originally posted by Spears:

I don't get it. Everything feels like a chore. Secondary items are too complicated to produce without stalling out main production lines. Combining/splitting lines is also unintuitive. The game feels bloated and needlessly complex. Doing fractional math isn't fun. It doesn't feel like a game.
Am I missing a fundamental mechanic?

It's a factory simulation game, what were you expecting?

[Willow Rivers]

Not the game for you then. Doing math and figuring out how to manufacture the complicated items and manage your parts creation is what the game is all about.

If it was easy and simple then you would complain that is it too boring and easy.

[mansman]

You sound very much like me when I first started. There's a concept shift that has to occur for you before enjoyment might return. The fractional math is only necessary when dealing with small scale implementations. As the numbers get larger, the fractions become whole numbers again and things get simple again. Instead of figuring out what to do with the .25 remainder of a process, you just build 4x as many things.

I usually don't optimize things until the main build is complete. Just add additional machines until your belts are always moving. The nice thing is that you aren't penalized for having machines sitting idle while waiting for materials. That way you only have to get into the gritty details if you want to. It sounds like you're trying to go small and optimal right from the start which can be quite daunting.

[Die Hand Gottes]

Calculator is mandatory for me I calculate the Productions rails exactly the game also has an in-game calculator and not for nothing else if you do not you should return the game while it is still possible because I'm afraid the game is not for you.

[Remnar]

TLDR; I have to do the math, but I try to simply it first. If it gets too complex, I use the tools on the internet; such as https://satisfactory-calculator.com/

This is the only game where I find having to do the math is necessary, though I can see how one could skip that and just make maximum throughput and plug and go. It's how I play factorio and DSP, but here I tend to do the math. Simply because resources are limited through the current tier of logistics, so I can't just go wild and expect good results like I do in the other games.

I'll give an example. I just finished setting up Heavy Modular Frames today (long over due). Initially I planned on having the build over by the crater in the desert. But I thought, since I am bringing in most of the materials by train, why not just build the thing over by where I have modular frames being made? So I checked the alternate recipes I already unlocked and found one (Heavy Encased Frame) where I can make 3 Heavy Modular Frames per minute per machine (over clocked). In fact setting them to 3 per minute, helped with the weird ratios and simplified the recipe. Now I got 12 per minute being made, and all I had to do was bring in lime stone and make concrete to meet the 88 per minute demand (for 4 machines).

[kLuns]

Before you turn down the game know that there is a way to get rid of math but it's a specific kind of coffee. You eihter like this circumvention or don't. Feed a full belt of items into every machine and make too much of the basic items. Chasing the biomass burners is also very anoying early game. Hunting creatures and unlocking biomass from hunting is a little helper.

Also check for crash sites. They often have screws and wire you can unlock new stuff with.

[Die Hand Gottes]

I have never planned a product line or better not with external web pages
at the beginning I have also not calculated great that goes quite well without only if you want to be efficient you have to calculate I have now eliminated most of the eyesores from the beginning and rebuilt and have most of the equipment from the overclocking freed and rather more machines built with the same output and spare power and these partly with 4 digits behind the decimal point Calculated that comes later automatically when you get deeper into the game but only if it is the so to play.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[dendriti]

>Combining/splitting lines is also unintuitive.

You're right here. Thank god for manifolds. Plenty of guides for Satisfactory Manifolds out there.

>Doing fractional math isn't fun. It doesn't feel like a game.

Ratios REALLY don't actually matter for your first factories, or really at all depending on your style of play, especially if you use manifolds. Notice that you don't have enough Iron Ingots? Make more Iron Ingots and feed them into the manifold.

>The game feels bloated and needlessly complex.

I am genuinely interested to hear what parts you think are needlessly complex. Please let us know ^_^ Maybe we can help you.

[CryptEarth]

@OP
unfortunately your profile is semi-private so we can't look up the time you sunk into the game - but unless you already passed the several-100-hours mark you're still in the very early game without much progression and probably only have a small local base
the "fun" starts when you get big and harvest resources across half the map and ship them by long belts or train or even by trucks - then you get into the realm where just by mass all those fractions become whole numbers again so you produce the basic stuff in the 100s to 1.000s per minute and have enough to feed couple of higher tier at the same time so you get them also up in the 10s to 100s range
power also becomes not-so-important-anymore when you got fuel production going and step up from coal (although having a few local coal plants here and there can save you some trouble in the later stages) - also: don't worry about one big grid vs couple smaller ones - if you don't mind to strecht kilometers of lines thru the wild one big grid has some advantages - on the other hand few local sub grids per factory is also fine as you mostly ship the stuff across the map to the elevator anyway
what you feel the game lacks by stalling itself really is only the early game when you stall yourself by only tap into a few resource nodes with small production - go explore and grab everything you get - it's a game overall - so noone judges for belts goin cross the map

[dendriti]

Originally posted by CryptEarth:

@OP
if you don't mind to strecht kilometers of lines thru the wild one big grid has some advantages - on the other hand few local sub grids per factory is also fine as you mostly ship the stuff across the map to the elevator anyway
what you feel the game lacks by stalling itself really is only the early game when you stall yourself by only tap into a few resource nodes with small production - go explore and grab everything you get - it's a game overall - so noone judges for belts goin cross the map

CryptEarth gives good advice, but by the time you need to lay miles of power cable and belts across the map, you should seriously consider laying Train Tracks. Which are both power cable and dozens of belts in one.

[YetiChow]

Just gonna chime in here re: "bloated and needlessly complex" -- I agree.

Thing is, I can do the fractional math easily (I grew up doing that kind of thing; I saw the patterns emerging as soon as I noticed that different recipes with the same raw material input would output different end amounts of product); I was expecting splitters and mergers to be unlocked early in the HUB upgrades and was deeply disappointed to find them only come online later once I'd had to already start building factory with weird ratios.

What makes the game needlessly complex and makes it feel bloated is that what should be a simple and straightforward path towards progression is always gated by "gotchas" and enforced tedium. It's not "you have to figure out how to make the numbers match", it's "ok so pipes carry X amount of fluid, and this recipe uses 0.6X... so you're not going to get a neat number of machines per pipe, oh but we'll only show you the recipe AFTER you've built the machine lol, so you'll have to go back and re-plan how many pipes (and therefore extractors) you'll need. Hope you can fit another couple in that first source you're tapping lmao!" Don't get me started on alternates there too -- especially ones like cast screws that you're so clearly supposed to be using; but you might not stumble upon in multiple starts without getting lucky. And better yet, if you don't already know the arcane mechanic of how alternates are added to the unlock pool, if you miss a key one early on and you go "huh well this is pretty useless, might save unlocking the rest of those for later" and build your factory up, then you further decrease the chance of running across the good ones.

For every step forwards, there's a half-step back. I've hit the point that whenever I build a new tier of machine, I throw one down somewhere just to see all the recipes before doing anything else... and then I go on the wiki and find out the alternates, the recipes that are gonna come later down the track and use those products from this new machine, and all that stuff that I'm supposed to enjoy exploring and figuring out myself. I'd rather spoil the whole list of stuff that's coming than keep getting caught out with "oh yeah, you're gonna need a ton of the ______ that you thought you were done with."

Currently, the game's "progression challenge" (and the sense of achievement derived from it) is a result of equal parts deliberately arcane/obscured key information, and forcing the player do do busy-work (finding alternates, feeding biomass early on, fighting creatures to be able to build that new miner.) The thing is, these challenges are not the least bit hard -- do them once and you've figured out every variation already -- and so they're not stimulating. They're just chores! And if I wanted to do chores, I wouldn't be playing a game. The fantasy of a factory game is being able to build the factory without having to do the chores like maintaining it, feeding the machines or etc!

It's not that there's "too much content", it's that the content is gated behind pointless busy-work and exists itself only to create more busy-work.

[Man's Best Friend]

Calculations? Bah. Aside from making sure I don't go over the maximum belt speed or pipe capacity, I just feed enough parts into banks of machines to cause backups. Generally the only exception being for cases where a backup would actually be problematic. Like oil processing. No matter what, the process that produces fuel for my power plants must not be allowed to stop, so whatever is being made along side the fuel must always be flowing. Whether that's to another machine, or to a sink.

Other than that though, it's just a case of "Am I making enough of this? No? Time to make more."

[Illuminia]

Originally posted by Spears:

I don't get it. Everything feels like a chore. Secondary items are too complicated to produce without stalling out main production lines. Combining/splitting lines is also unintuitive. The game feels bloated and needlessly complex. Doing fractional math isn't fun. It doesn't feel like a game.
Am I missing a fundamental mechanic?

To answer the question of "No Progression" first - the progression basically is "creating progressively more complicated Factory setups to produce progressively more complicated items, to either be used for even more complicated Factories or to submit in quantities for Objectives."
Factories to make items to make more Factories to make more items.
Making it "look good" or "run more effectively" is the challenge factor.

It's basically a game of Math + Layout Design puzzle. (especially if trying to make factories more compact).

Of course, you don't need to min/max calculate the production of everything.
If you don't get the ratio of Screws + Iron Plates to fed into an Assembler making Reinforced Iron Plates juuussstt right .... it'll still make those Reinforced Iron Plates in the end; just a bit slower.


If you're not having fun with it, the game may not be for you.

[mackster]

It is boring, if you dont like doing a little math or utilising the plethora of aids on the internet. It is a very complex game and will, no doubt, get mind blowingly complex further down the line.

Its not a game for you, I suspect.

For me I love it. I am even planning things out when I am not playing it. The mixture of technical and artistry (with working on architectural designs as well) is very satisfying (pun intended) to me.

Look, if you dont like relying on youtube, getting help from external sites (or mods if you like) then there are much easier games out there. I also wouldn't recommend for you Elite Dangerous. This is also a massively complicated sandbox that heavily relies on 3rd party support to be successful.

I do have to say tho, this is what PC gaming is for me. Simple point n shoot games are for console players. Those who just want to jump in to any game and within a few minutes progress. PC games, at least in my mind, are for those gamers who demand complexity. We have joysticks, yes. Tho we rely on mouse and keyboards more. Give me a game anytime that has a steep learning curve, as a veteran PC gamer (using PCs since really the PC began). I enjoy learning about how to be successful at a game.

But its not for everyone. There are easier, console like PC games out there.