Is this game supposed to be so tediously slow?

[Cristari]

I thought I would dip into this genera and see what it was like I like Paradox as a publisher and I thought Foundry looked like an interesting step into these games.

Just 4 hrs into the game and I am using assemble machines to make research packs and everything is so slow to do I am literally standing there for a decent amount of time doing nothing waiting on something happening. Even increasing the number of Assembly buildings isn't increasing the speed at all.

Is the game meant to be this tedious?

[Icchan^]

Originally posted by MadDawg2552:

You trade one time-sink (sitting around waiting for your research to produce) with another (the time it takes to set up a mining facility and then running the belt all the way back to your factory).

What are video games but time-sinks?

That aside: at least you're not WAITING to be bored out of your skull but are actively doing stuff when you're expanding. Which is why you bought a factory game in the first place... right? :)

Expansion allows you to automate menial tasks and focus more on what you want to do: build stuff.

And the progress isn't linear, it's exponential, meaning that once you have all your base production expanded to high level, you can easily step to the next science tier and expand to the requirements of that and ultimately you'll be getting infinite ore technologies -> you don't need to expand anymore if you don't want to.

But the thing is, that late game requires tons of resources and you can once again just wait and be bored, or you can start expanding and tapping more infinite ore veins. Now that you're faster and have access to more stuff to do that, it'll go faster and easier. Even the need to build long conveyors is taken care of later when you get the transport shuttles etc...

And the game pivots at the end to "OK, you've done everything... not do it more, better, faster (stronger... harder... something something). For no reason but the fun of optimizing and building and expanding..."

It's a building game... so BUILD :)

[Hakgova]

There are a lot of things you can be doing while you wait for research. Optimizing, as others have mentioned above, the number of research servers is just one. You also can be out looking for addition resources and figuring out how to integrate them back into your production. As with all factory games, they start out slow but as you build up you gain tremendous amounts and speed. There is a learning curve so you can hit your head against the wall or just get out there and figure it out. There is something satisfying about setting up a bus in order to make all the items you need to run your expansion. It may take time but as you go you look back and are amazed at what you can accomplish.

[JimboTCB]

If things are going slow you need to build more of everything. There shouldn't ever be any time you're just sitting around waiting on researches to complete, if you are then there's likely stuff you could be building to increase throughput.

I have like 20 science labs at the moment so that when I remember to start researching something (WTB research queue) it tears through my backlog of science packs super fast. I have four rows of assemblers cranking out two full Mk3 belts of electronic components and it's still not enough to keep up demand. And every time I clear up one bottleneck, I find I'm being bottlenecked by something different and need to build more of that. It never ends.