Satisfactory

[malchior]

I was having a bit of Valhalla burn out and dipped a toe into Satisfactory...and woah did it suck me in. I ended up liking it more than Factorio but then again didn't really give that game enough time to have a super strong opinion. For me, the first person/exploration aspect is super neat. The progression goals made sense and I found myself enjoying the 'zen garden' aspect of it. I'm on the verge of unlocking tier 7 but was struggling for awhile as I kept running out of power. Nothing is worse than hearing everything power down and having to run around flipping off big machines to bring my grid back online. I've pretty much solved that. I have 3 solid power stations now - lol. And are running over 2 GW at the moment and found a pure coal source proximate enough to water to build out a big power station that I can mirror for another 600 MW if I put in a hour or so to build it out.

I'll probably pause here and maybe fire up one of the other planets to try it out because I want to try trains and feel like it doesn't make much sense with my current set up (hyperloops everywhere).

[coopasonic]

I'll probably pause here and maybe fire up one of the other planets to try it out because I want to try trains and feel like it doesn't make much sense with my current set up (hyperloops everywhere).

FYI all 4 starting options are on the exact same map. The map is static but it is VERY large and the starting locations are pretty spread out.

[malchior]

I'll probably pause here and maybe fire up one of the other planets to try it out because I want to try trains and feel like it doesn't make much sense with my current set up (hyperloops everywhere).

FYI all 4 starting options are on the exact same map. The map is static but it is VERY large and the starting locations are pretty spread out.

Oh I didn't realize it. Hmm. I guess I haven't explored enough then. I feel like I'm almost in a box and found a lot so far. Lots to do still then.

[coopasonic]

I have played through the game from two different starting locations (first and third) all the way through Tier 7 and the two plays never overlapped. The map is way bigger than you might imagine.

[Lorini]

I have played through the game from two different starting locations (first and third) all the way through Tier 7 and the two plays never overlapped. The map is way bigger than you might imagine.

The second location is the best but you have to go west some ways to find the sweet spot

[Paingod]

My brother-in-law gifted a copy of this to me and my eldest son so he'd have people to play with while he's on vacation. I feel badly that I'm not enjoying it as much as either of them.

I got into the tutorial but had to put it down halfway through and never went back. My eldest son spent all of his free time playing. When we grouped up for co-op, I was nearly useless and spent the majority of my time asking how to do things and then running an absurdly long conveyer belt line across a ravine to a limestone deposit. I fussed over height, angles, appearances, corners, lifts, and general aesthetics of my one line. Every time I came back, they had almost doubled the size of the factory.

Once I had that done, I tied it into the main concrete manufacturing process, and then built a bio-fuel generation station so we could all throw logs and leaves into two bins and get fuel for the burners at the other end. I then spent a very long time fiddling to ensure the burners were all capped off with as much Solid Fuel as I could give them.

I did, ultimately, very little and just watched them expand and grow. By the time we were done for the evening, they were constructing a sky platform. I'm not used to feeling like the slow one in games, but Satisfactory as a "chaotic go-fast" game isn't gripping me. I find the mess they've made very visually distracting. I spent so long on my one belt because I wanted it to look good. If it were up to me, every element of what we had done would have had the same level of attention given to it.

My brother-in-law invited us to tour his personal factory. It was staggeringly huge and very well laid out with minimal mess. He had clearly put a lot of thought and planning into it. It's the sort of thing I'd probably make. The mess we have in multiplayer is not.

I suppose it's the same issue I had with multiplayer Factorio. In games of careful planning and design, having people vomit up chaos on my screen doesn't compel me to great effort.

[Lorini]

My son and I have had a wonderful time with our lasagna factory . He does the mathy stuff and I do the exploring for alternative recipes to get better math We use the passive mod so no baddies, which makes the game playable for me. We were just getting into hyper tubes when we quit our last session. Right now I think he's having to play Valheim for the channel he supports but that didn't go as well for the two of us because as usual, all I did was die.

[Paingod]

My son and I have had a wonderful time with our lasagna factory . He does the mathy stuff and I do the exploring for alternative recipes to get better math

I'm just going to need to learn to accept the mess in order to play with my son and brother-in-law.

I did spend some time the last two days exploring on my own to get a feel for it, and am remodeling my initial base to be entirely on platforms (even the mines) so everything is linked by a common thread and organization (in my head).

While I'm finding the verticality interesting, the lack of blueprints (ala Factorio) is going to get to me in the long run. Each time I achieve a new level of technology, I'm going to need to rip up my entire production line and rebuild it - or do I just move on and accept that I'm wasting resources - or am I supposed to "endless spaghetti" the hell out of this thing?

[malchior]

I don't know if my factory empire is typical or not but I stopped just short of unlocking tier 7 anticipating Update 4. That is up to and including setting up the assembly lines to build out all the parts to feed into the Space Elevator. I've paused. I might fire it up and let it run to do a bit of look forward optimization such as upgrade all my long haul conveyors.

While I'm finding the verticality interesting, the lack of blueprints (ala Factorio) is going to get to me in the long run. Each time I achieve a new level of technology, I'm going to need to rip up my entire production line and rebuild it - or do I just move on and accept that I'm wasting resources - or am I supposed to "endless spaghetti" the hell out of this thing?

The lack of blueprints is a little annoying. I have only done one or two full tear downs and they were actually surprisingly relaxing. Partly because I wasn't losing resources which is nice. Second because as I developed a style I wanted to make sure it was consistent so I could walk in and evaluate the factory. Effectively over time the blueprint was formed in 'my mind'. Would it have been nice to be able to stamp out the way I use mergers/splitters and fed machines? Especially since aligning them is a bit of a pain? Hell yes. Still, it isn't the end of the world that it is still manual.

That said, to minimize the tear downs I set up my factories in an organized way where I leave space for say X% of growth which means leaving space for 1 or 2 more machines in each chain. Let's say I need 25% more steel, my choice could be to boost in more coal and iron then just add one more foundry and re-work the output side to deliver it into the value chain. This is easy because the main building components: concrete and iron plates are plentiful. Overbuilding space and being a bit empty is not an issue. I also use verticality for 'finished goods' where I can. I try to bring external resources in on the ground floor and build upwards and then export out the top.

I have played through the game from two different starting locations (first and third) all the way through Tier 7 and the two plays never overlapped. The map is way bigger than you might imagine.

Third might be the way to go while I wait for Update 4. It'd be interesting to me to see how I'd build out the 'empire' differently knowing the progression path now. That I ended up

Spoiler:

setting up a Awesome Sink and hitting the Shop pretty late

would have changed how I built my factories. My first power station is a complete mess that I've just sort of tolerated.

[Lorini]

The space is so big, most people just move their new build to another space instead of tearing down the old build.

[Paingod]

The space is so big, most people just move their new build to another space instead of tearing down the old build.

This concept gives me an involuntary eye twitch.

It'd gnaw away at me, knowing I had an inefficient design just tooling away somewhere, unused.

[Paingod]

Last night's multiplayer Satisfactory was fun. We each fell into a role.

I spent time exploring and collecting rare materials for research while also specifically producing the materials needed to advance the Hub's progress (like making 50 Smart Plates).

My eldest son spent time working on transit - a system of jump pads to help us get around the base easier - and then worked to bring in remote resources like Coal.

My brother-in-law moved our base production into the sky using a pattern of factories and processes he refined in his own world.

[Paingod]

I've been working on a solo map in the 3rd (Advanced Player) map. The map itself has a lot of good resource nodes in relatively close proximity to each other, but has a lot of vertical challenges.

I have an organizational OCD. It's not medically diagnosed or debilitating, but I don't like things out of place or inefficient in games. I like to store "all the things" and keep them organized. It makes my brain itch when I know something is out of place or could be done better, and it makes me happy when I fix that. In Factorio this often leads to tear-downs and rebuilds with continual optimization. In Factorio this isn't a big deal because it's quick to rebuild everything and if you have something that works, you can blueprint it to duplicate it.

Satisfactory is challenging my OCD. There's no easy way to tear everything down, and absolutely no easy way to rebuild everything. It all takes time. Lots of time. You either get it right the first time or live with an inefficient design - or spend hours fixing it.

I've spent hours, and at each stage of the game I'm finding new things that need to be tied in or dealt with. For example, last night I found a Hard Drive on a crashed ship and researched it. This unlocked a choice between 3 recipes and I picked one that made making Rotors 3x faster using different resources. That means rebuilding my Rotor assembly line - which means rebuilding my resource belts - which means reorganizing my belt array - which means ... ... I've also discovered that not every component needs a full belt of resources going into it, and some should be built with two or three constructors in order to keep pace. None of that was in my original design when I made my assembly line. I assumed that, like Factorio, natural excess in some spots would lead to surplus for others and it would balance out. It doesn't unless you build in a LOT of splitters and re-routers. Double

So I'm not using the new recipe. Not yet. I assume I'll get a dozen more over time and need to integrate each one into my base.

Another element of my obsessive compulsive behavior in games manifests in that I don't want to use resource nodes unless I've built a pathway to them. It's not that I don't like running on the grass, but rather that I don't like my belts to be all willy-nilly up and down and twisting and curving. I work to keep them orderly. 90º turns, 30º inclines. I also learned that you can build foundations over nodes and still mine them, so my mines are all orderly too.

At the beginning of my game I laid my first foundation block. That one block has dictated the construction orientation of everything else in my base. When I expanded to coal power last night, I had to run a walkway out 450m to the nearest coal mine so I could build my belt system on it. This involved long ramps straight out over cliffs and valleys. Building the coal plant to power the coal mine almost gave me an aneurism. The nearest water is a sheer drop and it took me a long time to build a pipe network that was satisfactory to my mind. When I built my coal plants to power my base, I had to run another long roadway/ramp out to another body of water.

My base has sprawled out ~500m in three directions, and each component is tied to foundations that all link back to my original block.

Am I enjoying the game? Absolutely. Do I feel like I'm playing the same game as some other people? Not really. I'm playing the 90/30º game.

[coopasonic]

Each time I play my results look closer to what you are doing. I have conveyer poles stacked 6 high on some of my "highways" coming into the main factory. Well, maybe 5 high plus a hypertube. Basically everything my son puts down I go fix when he's not around. You would still likely vomit if you saw my most up to date factory. I did really well creating a warehouse space with all the main constructed resources in a nice, tidy row and then they vomited out ten thousand belts with multiple splitters crossing this way and that to create the more advanced products.

One thing to make sure you are aware of, regarding the resource need of various machines. You can *underclock* them to match the incoming resources and this reduces power consumption significantly.

Oh and it is much easier to send the coal to the water than water to the coal.

Finally have you gotten to oil power yet? THAT is when things get ridiculous... and then comes aluminum where things officially go off the rails. Aluminum is getting reworked in the next update though. I really hope it is easier to balance resources after that.

[Paingod]

Oh and it is much easier to send the coal to the water than water to the coal.

That's an interesting concept that I hadn't considered. My first coal plant was right next to a waterway, but that's because the coal mine was there and my intent was to create a self-perpetuating mine. Water came up from maybe 10m away, but 30m down. The water was between two cliffs. The alternate way to get to it brought me into conflict with a large triple fire-ball shooting monster that I didn't want to tangle with.

My second coal plant was a triple setup just outside my base and it seemed easier to ship water up. The pond I used for that was all down a big slope. Trying to create a power plant down there would have been maybe more complex. It took me far too long to realize that the pump was showing me it's range to push fluid. Because of the kooky angle on my first water extractor, I didn't see the blue pulse come to an end, so I didn't realize it was showing me how far water was going to be pushed. I also didn't know it took fluids "a while" to start flowing. I kept disassembling and reassembling the pipe and pumps in frustration before I figured that out.

I have tinkered with underclocking, but haven't gone back and looked at everything I've made to ensure it was efficiently powered. What I was lamenting was noting that something used 15 units of iron per minute, but I was sending 40 units per minute. I need to either overclock that constructor or split the feed before it gets it into 2 or 3 identical plants. Basically, bigger factory config, taking up far more space.

Finally have you gotten to oil power yet? THAT is when things get ridiculous... and then comes aluminum where things officially go off the rails. Aluminum is getting reworked in the next update though. I really hope it is easier to balance resources after that.

I have not. I just hit steel and coal last night and spent a lot of time exploring. It sounds like I'm in for another rebuild soon. I'll weigh and balance everything then.

I started building my factory before I got the tiered conveyor ladder. Because I had started one way, I didn't change to make it a different way. I should. I made a "dropped ceiling" above my ground floor, but below the factory floor to hide my belts so I could move around more freely. If I had used ladders, that may not have been needed.

I wish there was a way to poke holes in the foundations to accommodate the vertical resource shafts and keep things looking clean.

Oh, and the factory cart is hilarious. When I built it I was like "What am I going to do, sit on that?" Nope. I scrunch. It reminds me of being in my wife's Mini Cooper, though I wish it had some off-road capability and didn't just spin out on grass.

I also appreciate the coupon plant as a place to offload all the resources I get during rebuilds so I don't need to stuff them back into production lines. That was the first place I put a Mk II conveyor belt!

[malchior]

Each time I play my results look closer to what you are doing. I have conveyer poles stacked 6 high on some of my "highways" coming into the main factory. Well, maybe 5 high plus a hypertube. Basically everything my son puts down I go fix when he's not around. You would still likely vomit if you saw my most up to date factory. I did really well creating a warehouse space with all the main constructed resources in a nice, tidy row and then they vomited out ten thousand belts with multiple splitters crossing this way and that to create the more advanced products.

One thing to make sure you are aware of, regarding the resource need of various machines. You can *underclock* them to match the incoming resources and this reduces power consumption significantly.

Oh and it is much easier to send the coal to the water than water to the coal.

Finally have you gotten to oil power yet? THAT is when things get ridiculous... and then comes aluminum where things officially go off the rails. Aluminum is getting reworked in the next update though. I really hope it is easier to balance resources after that.

My solution to the belts everywhere in "Area 1" was a single story warehouse aligned with the 2nd floor of a 3 floor factory. Goods from other factories conveyor-ed in and were sorted nicely into bins and overflow to the Sink. I used "2-hole" conveyor walls to move goods out of the containers to the 2 and 3 floor respectively for "advanced" goods. It was very clean.

I just started Area 3 and noted the proximity of pure stashes of every raw and went nuts building a single floor factory that stretches to ridiculous width and breadth since I have so much everything. I've spent hours just arranging machines without even hooking them up for a final scale up when I need them. I think it'll be glorious...someday.

[malchior]

I also appreciate the coupon plant as a place to offload all the resources I get during rebuilds so I don't need to stuff them back into production lines. That was the first place I put a Mk II conveyor belt!

IMO that is one of the key facilities and I overlooked it far too long when it was a solution to some of my issues and is essentially a critical way to do garbage collection.

[Paingod]

I'm at the point of the Tier 5 space elevator. 500 Smart Plates? Jeebus. The game is rubbing my nose in my lack of production management. With what I have, that's going to take 3 hours to put together.

I do have access to Steel, Tier III logistics, and Hypertubes. The steel production was easy enough to tie in. Split my coal line, tap an unused iron mine. Done.

Of course, getting the assemblers up for the advanced materials the space elevator demands crumpled my power grid and I spent a good 45 minutes jogging around trying to flip breakers and set up emergency biomass burners just to power the water pumps for the coal burners. It seems I should have split those pumps off on their own power circuit a while ago. When the coal burners run out of water, it's a pain in the ass to deliver it in volumes great enough to help restart them.

Part of my problem with water was that I was looking at the pipe, saying it could carry 300 cubic meters per second. I failed to look at the actual extractor saying it would only produce 120. That worked fine for my three coal plants operating under light load. I'm now actually pushing 300 cubic meters up the pipe to 4 coal burners working overclocked, consuming up to 244 cubic meters per second.

Maybe I should consider shuttling all my power plants down to the water's edge so pumping isn't so tedious. I see what was meant by that. Move the coal to the water, not the water to the coal. It's a pretty and scenic place, the lake I'm tapping. It'll be a shame to pave over it.

[malchior]

The water stuff is a bit of a pain. The magic number is 8 coal generators against 3 water extractors. 8 coal also happens to be 120 coal/minute so the math on coal at least lines up decently from a normal or pure coal source.

The water plumbing is wonky. If you go for 8 coal then you can only feed 6 plants from one pipeline. The cleanest design I have mustered involved building something like you'd see in real life - the coal plants at the water's edge. I have several power stations in my "Area 1" build. My first has 8 plants a bit far from the water due to inexperience. I never cared enough to rebuild it. I have another one where I was forced to bring coal down to a cramped water area, build above it, and needed a complicated pump set up. And my best by far is a mirrored 8x2 (16 coal generator) set up where I have ruined nature but compensated by building a lovely viewing room over the edge of a waterfall. For the 8x2, there are 3x2 water extractors in a grid. 2 water extractors feed into a master pipeline that feeds all 8 with the 3rd connected in between the 3rd and 4th coal generator to top up that section of the pipeline.

In every case, I brought coal to the water as coopasonic mentioned. Otherwise you probably are dealing with multiple pumps which is a total PITA. I spent about an hour and half getting the pumps right at the one power station. That said, there is a trick to it so I probably could do it in 10 minutes now.

[Lorini]

I'm at the point of the Tier 5 space elevator. 500 Smart Plates? Jeebus. The game is rubbing my nose in my lack of production management. With what I have, that's going to take 3 hours to put together.

I do have access to Steel, Tier III logistics, and Hypertubes. The steel production was easy enough to tie in. Split my coal line, tap an unused iron mine. Done.

Of course, getting the assemblers up for the advanced materials the space elevator demands crumpled my power grid and I spent a good 45 minutes jogging around trying to flip breakers and set up emergency biomass burners just to power the water pumps for the coal burners. It seems I should have split those pumps off on their own power circuit a while ago. When the coal burners run out of water, it's a pain in the ass to deliver it in volumes great enough to help restart them.

Part of my problem with water was that I was looking at the pipe, saying it could carry 300 cubic meters per second. I failed to look at the actual extractor saying it would only produce 120. That worked fine for my three coal plants operating under light load. I'm now actually pushing 300 cubic meters up the pipe to 4 coal burners working overclocked, consuming up to 244 cubic meters per second.

Maybe I should consider shuttling all my power plants down to the water's edge so pumping isn't so tedious. I see what was meant by that. Move the coal to the water, not the water to the coal. It's a pretty and scenic place, the lake I'm tapping. It'll be a shame to pave over it.

The power issue is going to be fixed in the new update coming in a month or so. You'll be able to easily split your power use as well as having a large battery for times like you experienced. I'm really looking forward to it.

[Lorini]

The water stuff is a bit of a pain. The magic number is 8 coal generators against 3 water extractors. 8 coal also happens to be 120 coal/minute so the math on coal at least lines up decently from a normal or pure coal source.

The water plumbing is wonky. If you go for 8 coal then you can only feed 6 plants from one pipeline. The cleanest design I have mustered involved building something like you'd see in real life - the coal plants at the water's edge. I have several power stations in my "Area 1" build. My first has 8 plants a bit far from the water due to inexperience. I never cared enough to rebuild it. I have another one where I was forced to bring coal down to a cramped water area, build above it, and needed a complicated pump set up. And my best by far is a mirrored 8x2 (16 coal generator) set up where I have ruined nature but compensated by building a lovely viewing room over the edge of a waterfall. For the 8x2, there are 3x2 water extractors in a grid. 2 water extractors feed into a master pipeline that feeds all 8 with the 3rd connected in between the 3rd and 4th coal generator to top up that section of the pipeline.

In every case, I brought coal to the water as coopasonic mentioned. Otherwise you probably are dealing with multiple pumps which is a total PITA. I spent about an hour and half getting the pumps right at the one power station. That said, there is a trick to it so I probably could do it in 10 minutes now.

Imkibitz has a good tutorial on how to set up your initial coal power.

[Paingod]

The power issue is going to be fixed in the new update coming in a month or so. You'll be able to easily split your power use as well as having a large battery for times like you experienced. I'm really looking forward to it.

That's good to know!

I got around my power issues by:

1. Setting up a coal power plant JUST for the coal mine, incl. it's own water extractor. It's a tiny electrical grid and is a perfectly self-perpetuating system, fed from the coal mine before the coal goes anywhere else.
2. Setting up a coal power plant JUST for the water extractors that deliver other coal plants, incl. the one powering them. This grid uses exactly the 80MW needed to push out 120x4 water per minute, allowing me to run all my plants at 150%.
3. Setting up 7 additional coal plants next to the above, all getting water provided by that power grid. These power the factory.

My coal mine is set to churn out 270 units per minute - and it does. I'm actually burning through all of it, though Steel production eats more than the power plants do, I think.

Last night all I managed to do was chug along further down the line towards Tier 5 & 6 from the Space Elevator. I've got maybe another ~250 components to toss in there and it's done.

Like Factorio, I feel like I could be doing better if I only just expanded my factory - but I kind of like the smaller scale until I get more tech. I fully expect I'll need to rebuild my production lines substantially when the time comes. As it is, things like Smart Plates are set up with god-awful sprawling belts that loop up over everything else "just to get it done"...

I really like riding around in the Exploration buggy, and appreciate that the suspension is just good enough to climb right over a belt at ground level.

[malchior]

I got around my power issues by:

1. Setting up a coal power plant JUST for the coal mine, incl. it's own water extractor. It's a tiny electrical grid and is a perfectly self-perpetuating system, fed from the coal mine before the coal goes anywhere else.
2. Setting up a coal power plant JUST for the water extractors that deliver other coal plants, incl. the one powering them. This grid uses exactly the 80MW needed to push out 120x4 water per minute, allowing me to run all my plants at 150%.

Nice! You have recreated what the power generation world calls a black start energy grid. In the real-word it'd typically be powered by diesel fuel generators.

[Paingod]

I cracked the seal on Oil tech last night and ran a foundation out to the nearest oil mine. In the third map, this has three of them stacked almost on top of each other, about 500m away from the iron deposits I've been using. Oil looks like it's adding a bundle of new resources to deal with. In order to get to the oil, I built a LONG floor over a chasm - and it gave me an idea.

I need to redesign. I need some flexibility.

In Factorio I learned about using hub architecture to run bands of resources parallel to each other and just peel off whatever I needed while the rest run on. In Satisfactory there are stackable belt rails, meaning I could pile belts for every product one on top of another. I didn't come up with this on my own - I was trying to think of a way to do this horizontally, and a YouTube video sparked the vertical alignment.

So I've got this chasm. I've got vertical space. I'm going to create a huge "underground" buffer of belts running parallel on top of each other and simply run up the resource I need for a given production from the belts carrying it. The trick is to try and plan enough layers of belts with enough space that I can pull it off. When I add a resource, I should be able to just add a belt at the bottom of the line and run the resource up to where I need it. Should.

It should also spare my general framerate to keep it all walled up and underground.

[malchior]

I cracked the seal on Oil tech last night and ran a foundation out to the nearest oil mine. In the third map, this has three of them stacked almost on top of each other, about 500m away from the iron deposits I've been using. Oil looks like it's adding a bundle of new resources to deal with. In order to get to the oil, I built a LONG floor over a chasm - and it gave me an idea.

I need to redesign. I need some flexibility.

In Factorio I learned about using hub architecture to run bands of resources parallel to each other and just peel off whatever I needed while the rest run on. In Satisfactory there are stackable belt rails, meaning I could pile belts for every product one on top of another. I didn't come up with this on my own - I was trying to think of a way to do this horizontally, and a YouTube video sparked the vertical alignment.

So I've got this chasm. I've got vertical space. I'm going to create a huge "underground" buffer of belts running parallel on top of each other and simply run up the resource I need for a given production from the belts carrying it. The trick is to try and plan enough layers of belts with enough space that I can pull it off. When I add a resource, I should be able to just add a belt at the bottom of the line and run the resource up to where I need it. Should.

It should also spare my general framerate to keep it all walled up and underground.

You can do this with smart splitters without the need to do it vertically.

[Paingod]

You can do this with smart splitters without the need to do it vertically.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't know how that would benefit heavy flows of resources down multiple lines for factories to feed off them. I don't want to try and stuff a single belt with everything; it'd get overwhelmed. I don't want to try and balance splitting multiple belts of everything and hoping enough of any one thing makes it where I want.

I mean, I'm not even past Tier 5 and I'm using up all of a Tier 3 conveyor covered in coal from three mines.

[malchior]

the need to do it vertically.

You can do this with smart splitters without the need to do it vertically.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't know how that would benefit heavy flows of resources down multiple lines for factories to feed off them. I don't want to try and stuff a single belt with everything; it'd get overwhelmed. I don't want to try and balance splitting multiple belts of everything and hoping enough of any one thing makes it where I want.

I mean, I'm not even past Tier 5 and I'm using up all of a Tier 3 conveyor covered in coal from three mines.

It wouldn't be for raws -> smelters/foundries or anything involving screws which tend to be high volume. However, smart splitters are a great use case for nearly everything else. Especially advanced goods which have a very low parts per minute input requirement. For example, a modular engine is 15 rubber, 2 smart plating, and 2 motor. Eventually you'll be able to feed even entire steel factories from one line of iron/coal and use smart splitters to keep the mess down to a minimum. When I restarted my latest "area 3" build my first big push was to get smart splitters because it was driving me crazy how messy my builds were in comparison.

[Paingod]

Especially advanced goods which have a very low parts per minute input requirement.

Interesting. Since I've had few opportunities for that, I can see where it makes sense. Getting the Tier 5 space elevator done was a slow slog. Dedicated belts wouldn't have made that faster, and I suspect it only gets slower.

[Paingod]

Last night I wanted to redesign my production line, but discovered that I'd want a substantially greater amount of power when I tapped out my grid of 7 coal generators operating at 150%. I needed a bundle more concrete as well. I took the time to restructure my limestone mine and tie in a second one, now generating concrete as fast as two Mk II mines can dig it up. I also fired up Plastics and Rubber production down by my oil well & refinery. I'm not sure if I want to haul oil all the way up to my production line or try to shuttle up the finished products. I think pushing the oil up would look better in the long run if I'm making a big "hidden" underground belt system. One tube beats a few belts, but the pumping uphill 100m would suck. It looks like I can also use that fuel I'm creating too much of to generate power, though I'm not sure how stable it will be if I'm also tapping it for gas cans to stick in my exploration buggy.

By the end of the night I had a double storage bin filled with concrete, a shiny new hypertube from my hub down to the oil plants, and a triple "temporary" belt coming back from the oil plants carrying fuel, plastic, and rubber and dropping them off right next to my hub. I also have a very good start on creating the vast suspended platform across the chasm that I intend to use as my factory floor, giving me like 25m of empty space below for fleshing out all the ugly parts and hiding them away.

[Paingod]

I'm at a point now where I've spent the better part of two evenings of play simply reorganizing my factory.

The number of buildings I have to move around would be akin to creating your first run of Red Microchips in Factorio, but because of the first-person nature of the game, it takes a VERY LONG time to organize everything. Because I'm me, it also has to be neat and orderly.

I have a messy string of resources getting split at their origins right now - half going to my old production line, half going to my new one. The new one is currently two layers in my chasm with lifters spanning between them and stacks of belts running product. I've only gotten as far as Tier 1 goods - Iron Rods, Iron Plates, Wire, etc. Basic things made in Constructors and used later by other things. Once I get this squared away, I'm moving the products up to Level 3, Assemblers. From there I go on to Level 4, Manufacturers.

Once goods have passed by all of these elements, they'll finally head down to storage bins located by my hub for easy access by me for building.

[jztemple2]

Saw this video, just had to post it. It might even make me want to play the game...

[coopasonic]

At this point I am not sure I will play again until it is done. I have put a LOT of time into the game over multiple playthroughs but I want to give it a break so it is fresher when I can come back to it for the "real" playthrough.

[coopasonic]

At this point I am not sure I will play again until it is done. I have put a LOT of time into the game over multiple playthroughs but I want to give it a break so it is fresher when I can come back to it for the "real" playthrough.

OK, I guess I lied. One of the youtubers I follow started an update 5 game to check out the new stuff with trains and I couldn't resist starting up a new game myself. I'm still in the early stages having just started yesterday evening, just unlocked coal power and nowhere near actually getting to trains. I started way up in the desert at basically the very top right corner of the map so exploration is going to be interesting. This is an area of the map I have never really played in.

The biggest differences so far are Zoop mode (you can place multiple foundations in one go), sooo nice for base building and ramp construction, and soft clipping. Remember those incredibly annoying yet convenient overlapping belts? Well now you can overlap foundations with machines, pipes with power poles and lots of other stuff. I like it because some of the machines have weird hit boxes that made placement frustrating, but of course in many cases it looks like crap and I don't want stuff to look like crap! I will try to be a good boy and only clip where there isn't a visible overlap, until it is inconvenient.

[jztemple2]

So, I just happened across this thread. I see that Update 7 was released last December. Anyone still playing this? I tried it a couple of years ago but it was still not in good enough shape for me. I'm considering it again, but I would be playing it solo, is that even a reasonable thing to attempt?

[coopasonic]

I'm considering it again, but I would be playing it solo, is that even a reasonable thing to attempt?

Yes, you can make it to the end of the Early access content solo without any major problems and if you do have problem, there are now settings to make wildlife passive and I think there is a setting to let you keep your backback contents and equipped items on death.

To be fir it has always been in good enough shape for me. I've been playing it off and on since the initial release and have always had fun with it so I don't know what put you off earlier to say if that is different now.

[coopasonic]

Since I am here, I did a fresh playthrough to the end of early access content in update 7. My oldest helped me a little while and then got bored and wandered off. The time I might be done until release, for real... maybe.

Update 8 is going to be a switch to UE5. It should make things prettier just due to lighting changes but the odds of it breaking stuff are pretty damn high. That's not a thing I am super excited to experience.

[jztemple2]

I finally decided to pull the trigger (again!) and get Satisfactory. I put in several hours on shapez and realized that I still like factory games, but I'm way past burned out on Dyson Sphere Program and shapez is a bit too simplistic. With the reviews of Satisfactory continuing to be Overwhelmingly Positive, I figured I could put in some time on it. And besides the new expansion for Crusader Kings III is still a couple of weeks off

[Unagi]

I'd be curious to hear your renewed impressions. I pretty much love all of these factory-type games, but I also had a problem getting into Satisfactory (when I tried it a long while back). Something about the first-person point of view changed something I needed (apparently), and I couldn't really figure out why I couldn't get into it. And yet I kept (and keep) wanting to like it. I should like it.

[Montag]

Which is more enjoyable to you - Satisfactory or Dyson Sphere Program? Strengths and weaknsesses?

[jztemple2]

First of all, a look at my first base after six hours of playing. I have just unlocked the tower so I can get an elevated view of my base. Before I was limited to climbing on one of the buildings.

I'd be curious to hear your renewed impressions. I pretty much love all of these factory-type games, but I also had a problem getting into Satisfactory (when I tried it a long while back). Something about the first-person point of view changed something I needed (apparently), and I couldn't really figure out why I couldn't get into it. And yet I kept (and keep) wanting to like it. I should like it.

Which is more enjoyable to you - Satisfactory or Dyson Sphere Program? Strengths and weaknsesses?

I think I can address these two queries together. I've always liked 1st/3rd person open world games where I could explore and chose my own path, abet with guidance provided by the game. Think GTA, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, etc. And in the past few years I've come to like factory games more and more, perhaps because I'm finding I don't enjoy colonizing games as much as I once did. So Satisfactory is pretty much a good melding of the two genres. I tried it two years ago but it was in rougher shape and I think in the back of my mind was the idea that if I went past the two hours mark I wouldn't be able to get a refund, so I had a rush to judgement. Now with Satisfactory having had a number of updates I figured I'd give it a try and after six hours I'm really enjoying it.

Unagi, I can understand the reluctance to deal with a factory game in first person. As you can see in my little video above, working from ground level I have rather a mishmash of building layouts. And it was somewhat frustrating to trying to lay out a more coordinated production scheme when I was limited in my sight lines. However, I've never been that concerned with being tidy in the early days of factory building; my Dyson initial production lines looked like a Boston street map . And being immersed in the game world made up for it. Now that I can stand on top of a tower and lay out buildings it's going to be a lot easier. And later I know I will be able to hover over the landscape and build.

Montag, I'd say that Dyson and Satisfactory are very different experiences. In Dyson you can see all your resources right from the start so you can start building with an idea of how you want your production lines laid out, especially when you are starting a second time and know just how big your production lines will be. Dyson is a much more purely factory game, and since I've put in over 160 hours on it I must like that

In Satisfactory, from my view of six hours of playing, I'm still very early in the exploring phase, finding resources and unlocking the research tree and the Tier progression. I don't even know what I don't know about what will be available to me. I'm still a big gob-smacked to think about the videos I've seen where there are conveyor belts, processing machines and factory from horizon to horizon and after six hours my entire base (less one remote mining operation) can fit on one hilltop. But that doesn't discourage me, in fact I've got pages of scrap paper covered with plans and schematics of how I want to expand. I did the same thing with Dyson, so maybe they aren't that different after all.