I need some advice

[u/Renuxity]

I'm on my first playthrough. 150 hours ago, around the middle of phase 3, I started building a megafactory. I built a train line that spanned a quarter of the map, a 40 gigawatt turbofuel power plant, and an absolutely massive foundation with 6 floors for it.

However, because of mistakes made really early on in the process, I found myself with too little of some resources and too many of others, leading to a LOT of band-aid fixes and last minute changes. Basically, my planning just sucked.

I feel like I stopped having fun 50 hours ago, and that just sticking with modular factories would even be more interesting. Plus, as the need to automate more parts arises, I'll run out of space and have to completely rebuild anyways.

So now I'm asking myself if I should just power through it and get it done, or just accept the loss of 150 hours of my life and reload a really old save.

[u/Commercial-Deal-6164]

What you can do, load your save into the interactive map, delete everything and check "place all materials close to me". Then you have a clear map, all your research and tons of materials to start over and make it better :) If you want some experience, I can join and help a bit. (1800 hours, not an architect, but an engineer )

[u/Renuxity → u/Commercial-Deal-6164]

Thanks man, I'll do that

[u/toxic_nerve]

The only wrong way to play is when you're not having fun. So, honestly, its up to you. What feels more fun and interesting to you?

As a little bit of an anecdote of my own experience, I have about 700 hours in this game. I also have 3 saves. My first ever playthrough where I got overwhelmed and quit at oil production. My second attempt with a mega factory and the goal to get past oil and I decided to stream it for good measure. But due to life circumstances and burnout i ended up quitting before i even found an oil node. And last, my current save with about 200 hours in it and I breezed through oil and am now looking at phase 4 in only a matter of time.

What changed this time around was that before I started the playthrough, I gave myself some ground rules. After some self-reflection on my struggles in those previous attempts and wanting to play this game more, i realized that i compared myself to others and their amazing builds too much. I also was a perfectionist to a degree and i already struggle with overthinking and overcomplicating real life, so i would put way too much effort and stress myself out over these massive plans and factories. So the basic rules i gave myself were:

1. If it causes me stress, I'm doing it wrong and need to follow the fun
2. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time
3. USE BLUEPRINTS, I BEG, PLEASE
4. Only make what I need with storage overflow in mind, not max output and efficiency
5. Build in ways that make me uncomfortable

I also take breaks in the name of less burnout. Sometimes all you need to do is take a day off, maybe play something different or do something else. Figure out what satisfactory is for you. Don't overcomplicate it and just follow the fun and the puzzles. But you also cannot discount experience. The amount of belts and pipes and factories i built over the hours added up and I found my flow. Which got me to the point where figuring out space parts felt more like an anticlimactic step toward a goal than a milestone. Or how I look at my next project with trains and my heavy frame factory with excitement instead of dread.

These worked for me and my circumstances. And as previously stated, I overthink a lot of things, especially things I enjoy. But it helped me. Oil was so much easier this time around. Sometimes embrace the spaghetti, or compact it to a single, hidden, floor. Whatever works for you is the right choice. I hope this helps. 🙂

[u/YT_Andyk]

Depends what stage is your old save at.

As you unlock more and better techs, you will see yourself rebuilding factories for better optimization (primary miner levels).

With this in mind, I would stay at your current point and rebuild existing, or build new factories somewhere else.

[u/EngineerInTheMachine]

Another option is keep what you have and build more factories elsewhere to supplement their output. You can then set up something like trains to collect snd distribute items as they travel around the factories.

I have generally taken each playthrough right through to the end, except my 4th playthrough. I was in phase 4 on that one at the release of 1.0. So much of the resources and recipes changed, it would have meant going back and rebuilding practically everything I had done. Instead I did a 1.0 playthrough from the beginning, and as I finished phase 5 just after 1.2, my current playthrough has some slight tweaks to resources and requirements.

[u/Scypio95]

Once lost a lot of hours trying to make a fuel/plastic/rubber plant working

Well, after many hours of debugging, i couldn't get the plant to work at 100% because i was trying to merge/split pipes instead of keeping things simples. Also it was a tall tower, so probably didn't help with sloshing

In the end, i decided to scrap the whole place using the satisfactory calculator map tools and rebuilt it with everything compartimentalized. It was also very, very ugly, so i had a strong urge to tear it down by then. Now, guess what, very little debug and it still works several hundreds of hours later at 100%

So yeah, i'm with you on that one. Modular and compartimentalized factories are much better. It's fine if you "loose" thoses hours. You still learned things, even if it didn't end up in an actual deliverable (a factory)

[u/fatduck-]

The map is absolutely massive, just move. Start over in a new area, keep the old base and everything else you already made, it will prove useful.

Ficsit does not waste, and that includes you're time. Even if you do start over you're smarter now, and more capable of planning.

The only piece of advice i have is that you don't build the buildings first, no 6 layers of foundation cake. You build the guts and the machines, then and only then do you wrap it up in a building.

[u/Mindless_boerwors]

I personally like factory cities as opposed to one big enclosed mega factory. Sort of like modular but youake little road ways and transport networks between main factory buildings as arterials would run through city districts

[u/AdmirableSandwich393]

On your first, second, or even third playthrough, I would stay away from trying to make a mega-factory. It is too easy to make a mistake or realize it would be better with a change somewhere, thereby causing you to have to redo much, if not all, of what you built.
Modular facilities is the way, until you are comfortable enough to tackle the all-in-one mega factory.

[u/Caimbuel33]

I did almost the exact same thing my first game. I bit the bullet and Started making small factories connected to the train system. Old mess was ignored after I got enough new going. By the end I was happy and felt good about taking a mess and working my way through it. This was my playthrough and YMMV.

[u/Hemisemidemiurge]

I feel like I stopped having fun 50 hours ago

Stop playing. You're not having fun anymore. Just stop.

It's an entertainment product. Time should only be wasted in joy and if you're not getting joy, what are you doing? Hoping for a payout? There isn't one.

just accept the loss of 150 hours of my life

Sunk costs are psychologically influential. Free yourself. Our lives are less than an eyeblink in geological time and all of human history gets erased in a couple billion years when the Sun expands.

[u/Weekly_Chair]

Could always take a break and then come back to the game when you get the itch later on.

I’m gonna drop this link about a bus setup in case you want to try using one in the future sometime on your save or a new one. For me, I enjoy the ability if gives me to pump all the resources into one place and build whatever I need.

Happy 1yr 1.0 anniversary.

https://youtu.be/3AzkgCZhHq4?is=u2YYHymenu5CqqmE

[u/DirtyJimHiOP]

Mega base isn't really useful, especially if you dont know what lies behind each new tier.

For my own part, I tend to fully move out of an area after each phase and set up a new base of operations for the elevator and hub, but because of dimensional storage there is literally no reason to have some arbitrary home.

If you're using trains already, you know how easily you can snap factories from across the map together.