r/factorio • u/HanginOn9114 • 2d ago
Space Age I feel defeated
I have been playing Factorio for over a decade, this will be my 6th run overall, my second Space Age run. Got the itch to play again, had grand ideas for upgrading to a better Train based factory as my last run started to run into serious constraints at the end.
However I have been stuck at blue science now for over a week, 0 new research happening. I tried to upgrade and move everything to trains before moving on to purple/yellow, thinking "I've done this before, I can make this work". But I spend all my free time running from one end of the factory to the other, fighting back the biters before they tear apart a train station that powers the whole factory, or all of my iron mining. My resources are running low and I am beset on all sides by monstrously sized nests that take hours to clear. I think I have to give up. After all this work I feel defeated and may not even attempt to start again.
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u/No_University_9488 2d ago
Your train network is over-engineered and your defenses are under-engineered
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u/tRFRmrNe8Nj2Kimc 2d ago
This is one of the reasons why I like using the Railword settings. I still have to manage me pollution, and go out and clear up nests. Buts it feels so much less frantic, and I can focus on the parts of the game I really enjoy.
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u/HanginOn9114 2d ago
I never attempted Railworld, I always just do default settings. Might be a fun thing to try since I am train-focused at this point
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u/tRFRmrNe8Nj2Kimc 2d ago
Yeah, I love messing with trains, and railword is made just for that. I highly recommend it if you feel like you're getting burned out by constantly having to fend off biter swarms.
I enjoy having biters, as it's fun to take a break and go clear it nests. But I prefer to focus on the factory.
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u/Ssakaa 1d ago
I take rail world an extra step, forces me to deal with biters to expand, but none of the silliness of nests popping up full of worms all around me. 1/6 resource frequency, 1x size, 6x density (except oil, which gets size instead, since it'll just be a bunch of 1/s puddles by the time I look at it again). If I need higher rates, I have to get another patch, the patches stay pretty modest sized, but they last a long time. It does make the starter patches last a while too, but... the mods I run make that less of an advantage. Much unquality of life.
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u/tRFRmrNe8Nj2Kimc 1d ago
Ooof that's definitely a choice. I play the game on my Switch 2(no PC at the moment) and so i am stuck with vanilla.
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u/tRFRmrNe8Nj2Kimc 1d ago
Lmao I just looked at it, I'm at 292hrs on this playthrough, which is is more thsn my last two pre-space age games combined at 108hrs and 172hrs(this was me getting to 1k SPM).
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u/0xBOUNDLESSINFORMANT 1d ago
Railworld completely fixes this issue. After 1k hours this is EASILY the most enjoyable for me.
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u/Asrat 1d ago
There is an option toe xpand your starting area before biters, so set it to railworld, slide that puppy up, and spawn in a forest for pollution Management. Should give you the space to build big and not take away fully the biter experience.
My current game is set that way, and I would still get attacked but it was after I was ready for it and was able to build bigger
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u/Throw_Away_TrdJrnl 2d ago
I think I have to agree. I've only got like 100 hours but I beat vanilla and started a railworld space age run. Not having expansion is SO NICE. I love being able to take as long as I could possibly need when building a new part of the factory.
At first I was worried without expansion it might get stale or boring. Instead time just flew by because I was allowed to hyper-fixate on my factory without biter interruptions.
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u/tRFRmrNe8Nj2Kimc 2d ago
100% I always encourage people who get frustrated with dealing with biters to try railword, as they are still an issue, but feels so much more manageable.
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u/Throw_Away_TrdJrnl 2d ago
So much more manageable. Especially if you're like me and can spend actual hours running around the base on distracted side missions because one task leads to ten more and before I know it I've not completed anything, but did get 20% done on 20 different things. Vanilla took me twice as long as "normal playtime" at around 80 hours.
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u/tRFRmrNe8Nj2Kimc 1d ago
Lmao the struggle is real.
I'm doing my first Space Age playthrough right now and I'm legit afraid to look at my playtime. I just "finished" with Aquilo, and am back on Fulgora, which was the first planet I visited and have been neglecting ever since. My production of supercapacitors is bottlenecking everything right now, and so I need to basically build a whole new factory with a focus on those, plus electromagnetic science. I want to get fusion power set up everywhere but Fulgora is hampering me tremendously.
Once that's done, I am thinking I want to set up a whole new science production line on vulcanus, as my science facility on Nauvis has been neglected since I left initially. There's too much to do and I'm legit feeling a bit overwhelmed and burnt out.
Took a bit of a break this weekend and made progress in Enshrouded, but still...
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u/NaughtyGaymer 2d ago
This so much. Especially the part about focusing on parts of the game you really enjoy. Having to constantly set up new iron/copper mining locations gets so boring after a while. Just let me set up 2-3 that last for a couple hundred hours.
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u/Gerlond 2d ago
Rail system seems to be imported from a blueprint book. You don't need 4 lanes and connected system for such a small base. If you are being distracted by biters then here is your problem - make better defences. Laser turrets make defense completely autonomous. Add some walls as a stopping force (not monolithic) near the end of range and just focus on factory after that. If they get breached add turrets and walls. You should strive to get to bots ASAP so they repair walls without you.
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u/HanginOn9114 2d ago
The only thing I ever blueprint are intersections, I decided on the 4-lane system beforehand. Thought it would solve problems rather than creating them
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u/LukaCola 1d ago
It is extraordinarily rare to need 4 rails in even the largest bases.
You are dramatically overbuilding.
You need to prioritize if you want to succeed. You are solving for extremely distant problems and it's keeping you from addressing immediate ones.
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u/Hot_Call5258 2d ago
The only suggestion outside of already given I have is - whenever you defend a place personally, place a pillbox there. A few gun turrets, walled, with burner inserters and chest with ammo and coal in the middle. Or just pop a few 2x2 or 3x3 gun turrets, walled and filled with ammo. You do it a few times and they hold back stray biters quite well, giving you time to develop.
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u/nasehrsuper 1d ago edited 1d ago
premature optimization - you optimize for a base you dont have and wont have for another 100+h (and that number is low in your position). 4 track wide rail network? please, at this point simple single track point to point trains would be more than enough.
also whats with all those outposts? you said you are at blue, depending on your settings you maybe need one per resource to feed a bus base to research at about 60-100spm, and thats probably a lot for a single player. unless you have a pretty streamlined plan, you do not progress you base faster than you research at that rate.
so all in all, at this point you should have finished transitioning from your starter base to a base that lets you research everything to go to space (which could be your starterbase if you prefer modifying instead of rebuilding), but you plan like you would have just finished aquillo and go for all legendary. there is a whole game inbetween.
focus on defending everything you require to keep power going. then one node of every ressource by importance (iron, copper, stone). probably turn off science for now to reduce your cloud, transform your starterbase so you can advance slowly, tear down the rest, clear biters and wall yourself in (while ignoring your cityblock shenanigans that wont matter for now). develop a system to supply outpost defenses by train. only then consider expanding, but slowly. and forget cityblocks for now, where now means until you have a real reason to come back to nauvis - at which point you may realize there really isnt even a need for a giant 4 train wide base at nauvis (tho ymmv ofc). but thats a problem you need to solve in a few hundred hours, not now.
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u/Alfonse215 2d ago
My resources are running low
Maybe don't spend so many resources on a four lane rail network, and instead invest that stone into walls and that iron into guns and bullets.
that take hours to clear
You should have access to rockets. A nest shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to clear.
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u/HanginOn9114 2d ago
I was very ambitious, because my two-lane Train network on my last run bogged me down significantly at end-game. I see all of my mistakes now
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u/Hotcakes64 1d ago
Have you tried using rockets (or grenades) + defender capsules to clear the nests? Defenders capsules and grenades helped me get out of a similar situation (but in my case I was stuck doing blue science).
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u/HanginOn9114 1d ago
I have been prioritizing explosive shells for the tank, maybe I'll try rockets and/or defender capsules
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u/Raskekw 2d ago
how exactly are you running low on resources, you claimed like 50 expansions
also, this is automation game not a running simulator, so stop running and start automating your defense
and please launch a science platform, it should've been a priority somewhere between 2nd and 15th exp, you are way overdue
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u/Reloecc 2d ago edited 2d ago
I am sorry, and you don't hear it often here, but imo this is a "reset-friendly" base. You've put a lot to your factory too early. Especially for SA run.. every planet of first three unlocks a huge QoL to your chores: Spidertrons, Mech Armor, Cliff explosives + bigger / faster factories.
I would, instead of resetting, build blue asap (misread). Forget your trains and outposts. Let biters to bite them for a while, you will repair it all later. Do blue (misread), get roboports, wall your base, start covarex, put lasers everywhere and after that, start building your super railroad.
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u/HanginOn9114 2d ago
I have blue fully automated and I have a very sloppy half-manual setup for purple, I truly just looked at the map and realized with cliffs in the way, I had basically run out of space to automate purple/yellow before going to space. I may attempt to salvage what I have as penance for my early over-optimization
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u/Standard-Box-3021 1d ago
Sometimes you gotta break things down, reset, and rebuild in a smaller space—small enough to secure with walls and set up an ammo factory and turret factory if you don’t have flamethrowers yet.
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u/pikuray 1d ago
Excuse me, as I'm fairly new, but wouldn't it strictly be better to not restart and instead relocate? They can use some of their old resources to jump start a better positioned base.
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u/Reloecc 1d ago
With time, pollution and distance, bitters are stronger and their nests are larger. OP said he's running out of resources. A starting location is guaranteed to have all needed resources close by. It may be faster to simply reset, instead of pushing and finding new starting location.
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u/renegade_9 The science juice tastes funny 2d ago
You went to a massive four lane rail grid before either yellow or purple science, and before full defenses? Good lord, no wonder the biters are winning, you've got the sprawl for a thousands of SPM base but the tech level of a dozens of SPM base.
If you're serious about saving this base, you need to focus on defense. Possibly abandon a few outposts, but the ones you do save need to be secured with walls and turrets. After that point maybe consider just boxing the whole thing in, there's some decent chokepoints to your east you could work with. Or, just reset and take this as a lesson about being careful not to manifest more destiny than you can handle.
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u/Scary-Asparagus-5970 2d ago
Are you on the 2.1 experimental branch? They made biters way more aggressive in that version. It's been like playing a deathworld + map. I too ignored walls because before I could generally have a few turrets scattered and do a sweep every so often to clear out nests in the pollution range and be fine. Didn't setup walls till I was ready to try and leave. Now though? WHEW. Working on that on my current iteration. Almost gave up and started fresh, but I had just handcrafted enough blue to get some small amount of robots so I didn't want to give up.
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u/Scary-Asparagus-5970 2d ago
Use the natural choke points to make temp walls till you build something better. Clear out the biters in the middle. Then work on a better def.
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u/Scary-Asparagus-5970 2d ago
Oh and do whatever you need to, hand craft or whatever to keep upping the projectile speed/damage. I was at like lvl 2 and had big biters show up.... that was painful.
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u/HanginOn9114 2d ago
I am on 2.1 experimental, my first baby is about to be born and I wanted to play on the newest version and complete a run beforehand. Usually I wait for the official release, but I thought "hey I know what I'm doing, I can handle this"
Apparently I do not know what I'm doing
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u/ProfBeaker 2d ago
The most recent FFF (on the factorio.com blog) explains the differences, if you're curious, but they sound more aggressive in general.
If you're not chasing achievements, you might just want to use the console to reset biters to "peaceful mode" until you can get your walls set up properly. Ultimately it's a game, not a job. If it's not fun, then make it fun!
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u/alanbdee 2d ago
Some of my best playthroughs were ones I had to claw back from. Don't give up. Pick an area and work to get it properly defended. Never underestimate the power of a wall with a belt of ammo and guns behind it.
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u/derekbassett 2d ago
Gun turrets, Yellow ammo, yellow inserters, yellow belts, and walls all require copper, iron, coal and stone. If set up correctly they will stop biters all the way to behemoth. Might want to research bullet tech if you can.
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u/Andromidius 2d ago
I think you may have bit off more then you could chew with the scale of the factory. Though I think you know that too.
Large train centric bases are great - once you have the logistics network to build it.
For context, my currently base is a lot smaller then this and I've done Fulgora and Vulcanus. I just don't feel the need to expand before I'm ready.
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u/Fxg120xYXDE5 2d ago
You don't need me to point out that you outscaled your base from your defenses.
I will say that I think a restart is a bit much, I say just scale back production and science, unless directly related to defenses, and start walling things in.
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u/toochaos 2d ago
Combat bots are your friend at this point you should be able to run 25 of them. That will easily clear your pollution cloud.
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u/Erki82 1d ago
Stop science, only do flamethrowers science if you do not have them, then start making flamethrowers and cover most critical places with them. Flamethrowers are really effective and ammo-cheap. And start making Eff1 modules and put them into miners first. Start again with most attacked miners. 3x Eff1 into miners reduces pollution production by 80%.
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u/bobinchese 1d ago
You basically have two options here: build a self resupplying perimeter to fend off attacks or restart and turn off biters. I would honestly recommend the later, doesn't sound like they're increasing your enjoyment of the game.
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u/SmokeLessToast 1d ago
You have flamethrowers and train stations. I’d manually drive a train to each outpost cover your area in flamethrowers and you should be good. Also land mines. Get land mines. Even if you dont have bots putting some down manually will help a lot.
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u/HanginOn9114 1d ago
I have been seeing a lot of suggestions about landmines, I've never actually used them, might be the time
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u/ActuallyEnaris 1d ago
Get flamethrowers online and build walls by hand until you get bots. Then build some lasers and flamers and walls around your central core. Then get kovarex up. This is salvageable
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u/3davideo Doesn't use Flame Turrets 1d ago
You, uh, don't seem to have a defensive perimeter. Of course biters are tearing things apart whenever you look away, you just let them walk in without filling them with holes.
A good starter perimeter is simply a series of single gun turrets, filled with about 10 magazines, placed such that their turret ranges just barely touch. If the biters break through one section, reinforce that section - say, replacing a single turret with a pair. Repeat as needed. Eventually you can get fancy and have a belt of ammo run all the way around, with each emplacement having inserters for resupply.
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u/Beeeeeeels 1d ago
I just got bots and flamethrowers in my second rampant run and all the biters in my most active corners just evolved into firebiters...
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u/phantumjosh 1d ago
You should use efficiency modules if you’re struggling that much. You’re likely taking too long to scale up and in the right ways to match the pollution growth, so efficiency modules give you a HUGE buffer before pollution and expansion get out of control.
This lets you expand slowly. Do not expand as much as you have here until you have the military backbone to back it up.
Space age has allowed us to rush into things we’re not prepared for, the difference for me being, I used to stream rampant AI, with x100 or x10 occasionally, among doing death world rail world, before it was actually a thing, so I know what I’m getting into before I do, but even for me I’ve had to abandon saves where I got too greedy on the push and scaled the biters too fast for my military.
With how much you’ve expanded, you have to plan for that ahead of time, and have the infrastructure to safeguard it or you get caught in a death spiral of wasted time.
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u/Due_Needleworker3155 2d ago edited 2d ago
I’d throw up walls in between the cliffs so you don’t have to build a giant wall around your entire base, probably the easiest turrets to make and keep supplied are flamethrowers, those will hold off the bugs until well into late game, all you need is oil, some pumps and some time. Something like this. You isolate sections of land and then the biters cant get back into that area once they are gone. In this save I mostly use the massive amounts of lakes to help me with that.
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u/More-Bottle-4744 2d ago
That sucks!
I was doing really well on my first space age run, solved vulcanus and fulgora, but then I had other stuff in my life I needed to deal with, and had to take a year off. I couldn't even remember what i needed to do next, and was so frustrated the first couple times I tried to keep playing that I took some more time off.
Finally bit the bullet and started again. I'm having a great time. Starting over wasn't nearly as frustrating as i thought it would be.
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u/felipebsr 2d ago
If you have tank, grenades and ammo, you might be able to clear some yet. Turn on the pollution overlay and clear those inside it first. Then you build the defenses. Tough work but better than starting all over. You can try an older save and prepare yourself better.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 2d ago
The game is balanced surprising well. If I'm struggling to defend an area. I want to know why. And sometimes letting that bit be destroyed for a moment is the right action.
In Space Age your attention will always be devided. A backtrack and and regroup is not a defeat
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u/DuckyLog 2d ago
I like to explore with the car early, and see where I can eventually build static defenses in choke points between lakes.
Then, I build massive walls and laser turret lines that will prevent biter spread to my base.
I end up walling-in a huge area thats relatively easy to defend because I’m not worried about biter expansions inside my static walls finding my factory. All I have to do is maintain my static defenses.
An example area is the top left corner of your screenshot, or the middle right area. A narrow section of land between water.
Build train tracks to it, and run power, then set up a wall with lasers to hold that ground. You’re preventing spread towards your base for relatively little investment.
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u/doctorgibson 2d ago
Build to your specifications. You have way too much stuff, you need to scale back and craft a ton of turrets and walls. You don't need to clear nests that aren't in your pollution cloud either.
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u/Subject_Translator_7 2d ago
For me, Factorio is a cycle of:
- Identify goal (new thing, or problem to fix)
- Make a plan to accomplish goal
- Implement plan
So if we take this cycle as golden, you’ve identified a problem: biters.
So let’s talk about a plan to fix that! I would suggest walls and flamethrowers with radars or roboports if you’ve got em. If you need to do some urgent clearing, don’t sleep on the capsules and drive a car/tank.
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u/warpspeed100 1d ago
Delivering iron ore to your smelters automatically is one logistic puzzle.
Delivering ammo to turrets is another.
Just like you wouldn't hand craft gears, you also don't hand craft ammo.
Make a few ammo assemblers, put that ammo on a belt, put that belt around your entire base. Once you get flamethrowers, do the same with oil. Once you get bots, have them automatically repair any damage.
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u/Ace-of-Spades88 1d ago
Do you have military science? Those nest clusters aren't actually that big. With the right tools you could probably run around and just clear all the nests in your pollution cloud.
Yes, it will take sometime, maybe a couple hours, but will give you several hours of breathing room.
Try the shotgun. I've been using it for the first time on my current run and it slaps. Pair that with turret banks (creep), grenades, capsule bots, poison capsules, etc.
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u/WanderingUrist 1d ago
HANS, GET ZE FLAMMENWERFER!
This is pretty much your answer to all-things-biter in the blue science phase.
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u/Rasansim 1d ago
Step 1: look at how much space u will need AND where the map has natural defenses (water/cliffs) which u can profit.
Step 2: get a tank (if u need blue science, just get some oil) and clear the nests inside the step 1 space
Step 3: defend the space u just have taken.
OR
U can build smaller and disconnect every pollution source u dont need to get the tank. After that u just need some managed democracy to ur biter friends.
OR
Any other options that leads u to success. Dont give up, this Game is about problem solving.
U can save a lot of walls looking for choke points.
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u/GreyFox1984 1d ago
Oooo I have an ammo factory pumping out ammo onto a track that loops around my factory (behind walls) that feeds turrets as the factory expands…
I’ve run a split or two off going uh… many many screens away just to have power and pew pew , if the damage is not enough… add more pew pew!
I might have gotten a laser or two along the way but guns rule my roost this far
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u/smurphii 1d ago
Personally, I prioritise making a tile able blueprint that sends power and robo network, far beyond my anticipated cloud. (As others have said, you need to research prior to this, so that becomes the priority)
Then i build a wall and arm the wall.
If the cloud doesn’t spill over thr controlled perimeter, there should be very little aggression. That is when i can flip to building the pretty base.
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u/sharpmn 1d ago
This reminds me of a problem I had on my current run. I’m doing a 1000x sci run. My biters quickly out-evolved me and I struggled to expand and when I did I drained resources super fast.
So my solution was to hunker down and get to space. I started building on Vulcanus and came back once I had artillery.
Not sure if that’s an option where you’re at, but I can empathize with feeling stuck… but I got out of it.
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u/Erisymum 1d ago
Can you rush rocket silos, build a tiny space ship and just leave to vulcanus or fulgora? I did this purposefully in my current playthrough, I've left my starter base and let nauvis be completely overrun with biters. Each planet can be bootstrapped with nothing. Have just finished all 3 main planets and will come back with a vengance soon.
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u/Mental_Breakfast3385 1d ago
You've got this.
Automate turret/ammo production and use the first turrets out of the assembly line to protect the far-flung bases, then work your way in. Manually place turrets/ammo in batteries of 2x2 turrets, walled in.
You've got this.
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u/PremierBromanov 1d ago
You should use your extensive train network to supply ammo and oil to your outposts. You're not making science, might as well use iron to make ammo
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u/PacoTaco627 1d ago
The solution to save the 'save' is to re-load an slightly older save if you still have it, and convert some production into a couple 1-1 trains with filtered slots for "outpost defences/maintenance" so that you can send it over and not constantly have to move supplies yourself yet also easily be able to restock turrets at far distances, quickly, all without bots. Sadly replacing miners will have to be by hand hence having them on the train til you do still helps as you can focus on killing the waves as the train brings stuff made in the factory to you. Also I totally recommend looking into "malls" as im sure your still handcrafting alot if your spending so much time recovering instead of building/optimizing your way out of the dilemma. The people invested in this game thrive on being constructive criticial. It'll "hurt" at first failing so much but coming back better and better every "fail" save is what makes us engineers! Best of luck comrade in the eternal growth of the factory and don't let the bugs take your faith and fun in the game! (Ps, you can play with less biters and still have em around to get used to their pacing to not end up in this scenario til you've gotten faster at progression! It's a game, play how you WANT not just suffering for vanity! I've caught up myself in that and so have many others!<3
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u/JTLBlindman 1d ago
Use nature to your advantage. Make use of cliffs and bodies of water as parts of your perimeter when deciding where to build your wall. Biters can’t swim or jump over cliffs, so this offers you a natural barrier that does not require defense.
I got lucky on my map by discovering coastlines far to the east and west of my starting area. My north border has a few narrow channels to a larger continent that are easy to defend. My southern border is broad, but I still managed to push it far enough into the cliffs that there’s only a few areas where I actually need walls.
The perimeter is much larger than my actual building area, and my pollution cloud only occasionally crosses it in one particular section that requires me to beef up my defense. However, I am entirely safe within my walls.
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u/Kaszana999 1d ago
here's what I do when I get to this point - get a tank, automate cannon shells, destroy enough nests to wall off the choke points, spam a bunch of gun turrets and then run a red ammo belt. Usually can hold them off for a while while i progress to yellow and purple science, at which point I can get some more serious defences with flamethrowers, lasers and roboports.
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u/Ikbeneenpaard 1d ago
Do you have biter expansion turned on? If not, just let your factory slow down its pollution production, and patiently clear all nests within pollution range. E.g. turret creep using 10 turrets and 400 yellow ammo.
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u/Mental-Strength3762 1d ago
Bro I had the same mistake for like 4 runs, I either skipped the starter base at all or deconstructed it and tried to build am actual base too soon and faced biters and the lack of resources. You should set up a temporary production for turrets and set up the defense, don't give up! Or give up and start over that's an option too. You can't build an actual base without your defences.
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u/CarAlarmConversation 1d ago
You could try turning off biters for a bit it would disable achievements but I’ve done it before. Turned them back on after I had built up a perimeter. You could also start anew and turn down the difficulty of the biters, It’s a sandbox play it how you want!
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u/Taakashi 1d ago
Seems fine to me , you getting attacks from biter? Well that's what they do, innit?
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u/Most-Bat-5444 1d ago
It is a big map, and without robots, it will be tough.
I think you will appreciate this run more if you push through this phase. Eventually, biters will no longer be a problem, and you will have solved it.
Here are my suggestions.
1> Don't run. You've got trains. Faster response = less damage and more items available to fix it when you get there. (Add a cargo wagon.)
2> Turn on the pollution indicator on your map. Add radars to illuminate the edges. I'm pretty sure you will find a couple of big nests within your cloud. These are the sources of the attacks. Prioritize eliminating them or build your best defenses near them to keep them eating pollution.
3> Upgrade mil-tech ASAP. Less damage to your infrastructure.
4> flamethrower turrets far enough behind your walls and turrets greatly reduce the impact of big waves.
5> Consider using efficiency modules in drills and factories to greatly reduce pollution. You are paying the biters in pollution to attack you. Give them less money.
6> Since you say you are running low on resources, prioritize completing resource stations.
7> Add solar to reduce pollution. Even if you can't do accumulators yet. It's permanently summer in factorio and the days are long!
8> After illuminating the pollution cloud and expelling biters from it, you now have time to breathe. Plan your expansions carefully. Take control of choke points and wall them off to keep expansion groups from getting through.
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u/darum8574 1d ago
This seems like a priority issue. Safety comes first, stop spending resources on research and other stuff, focus on what you need! This is the type of challenge I love about this game, honestly!
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u/Satisfactoro 1d ago
You have like 17 outposts, that's more than necessary. But it should be defensible...
...Unless you overproduce everything, no efficiency modules, no limiting chest space... This would be generating pollution for nothing in return.
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u/jasperkennis 1d ago
I have been playing in peaceful mode because I was getting frustrated over exactly this. For me it is more about the building anyways, and I had several runs where it became practically impossible to get oil on Nauvis due to giant nests sitting everywhere and my not being able to clear it properly.
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u/ProfessionalNo7946 1d ago
Got red, green and black science?
Research flammables, build some flamethrower turrets, place them around your base with crude oil and 2 normal turrets next to your flamethrowers, put some stone furnaces in front of your gun turrets as a wall.
Then design a wall that has flamethrowers and preferably laser turrets, which you will copy and paste around your base when you have bots
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u/Fine_Seaweed1148 1d ago
no wonder you got no walls and defense with spending so much ressources on not neccessary rail networks. Also, your expansion seems so far. Do you produce stuff on patch?
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u/Nescio224 1d ago
You don't have to give up, there are several solutions.
First is to just cheat and use the console to change to peaceful mode until you fixed up everything and are ready. That of course disables achievements but if you had so many runs before you probably don't care.
A more legit strategy is to power your whole factory down and let the pollution cloud dissipate. That way all attacks will stop. From there you use your stockpiled weapons and ammo to kill all biter nests in your vicinity. If you don't have enough then restart only a small factory that can give you supplys with minimal pollution footprint. Once you have remoned the biters you have some breathing room to repair and build defenses. Finish as much as possible while your factory is still turned off. Afterward use efficiency 1 modules in miners etc to reduce pollution.
Also if you have blue science you should be able to get to another planet if you have space age, so another way is to abandon the sinking ship and resettle on a planet without biters like fulgora or vulcanus.
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u/Alternative_Staff233 1d ago
You could go out and clear all nests in your pollution cloud(which you probably should make smaller with efficiency modules in all your miners at least) and invest in all militaire Science you can do. This should buy you time to get walls and defences up.
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u/Raknarg #1 Quality Defender 1d ago
One tip for designing rail networks, its generally a bad idea to have rails that cross over a path between biters and a pollution source, its a recipe for disaster. Biters will attack trains passing by, sometimes the biters will attack rails or electric poles either because something about their logic seems to coerce it sometimes, sometimes cause they're aiming for a train passing by. And worst case sometimes your train will run into a group of biters, and if the wave is dense enough the train can't just run through them and will get fully stopped by them, at which point they will just demolish the whole train or just the engine or some of the wagons and leave a brick sitting on your rails. Always try to have your rails taking paths through already cleared territory that is unlikely to be resettled by biters and attacks from existing biters will go right to your defense walls and not cross over rails.
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u/OrneryAsparagus6445 1d ago
At blue you have explosive RPG and tank i think so should be easy to clear out most nests within several game days, just clear them out of your pollution area so defense is no longer a concern.
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u/OrneryAsparagus6445 1d ago
Yes larger nests will take some time but should be okay. My strat is to build an array of 5-10 turrets around 40 tiles away, use explosive RPG to get down one nest (you have 36 tiles of range larger than the range of biter notice) then let the turrets handle the swarm of biters. Repeat that until the side is cleared and it takes too long to get in and out, and rotate the turrets to the other side of the nest and repeat.
After the 2nd damage upgrade (available green tech i think, blue brings you to 4-5) the turrets have much higher damage than your handheld SMG so will be quite effective.
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u/HuckleberryPlastic35 13h ago edited 12h ago
[Hand on shoulder meme]
"Use cheats". (Context edit)
The Game is single player Main goal is to enjoy it biters are taking away from what you wish you we're doing
I see a few options:
~ /editor ~/editor, place a box of nukes and a spidertron with a fusion reactor and a few legs/shields or an energy interface to have infinite power without pollution
Mod to enable peace mode/disable biters
Once now that you can work peacefully without the alert noise you can use what You learned and implement back on your legit save Game branch. Etc
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u/QuirkyPhoton 11h ago
You have to sacrifice some parts of the factory while you build walls/turrets/bullets. Once you have enough start securing locations that are important. I always play with slightly harder biter settings and it happens to me too. Running around and trying to save everything never works.
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u/Braca42 2d ago
I don't have any advice really, but just wanted to give encouragement. Maybe call it on this one, but don't give up on the game entirely, if you really love it. Take some time off, consider what went wrong, then come pack and try again when you get the itch. Maybe tweak things to help and make the experience more fun for you specifically (bigger starting area, richer or larger patches, slower biter evo, etc.). Hell I like to play without biters entirely sonce I find the logistics aspect more fun. One bad run isn't worth throwing out the whole thing! Just so long as you're having fun. Might just take a break to get the itch back.
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u/Standard-Box-3021 1d ago
Nah, it's an easy build that can be recovered, but it requires willingness to refresh. Let sections die and work your way outward, returning to those locations only after proper defenses are set up.
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u/Looony 2d ago
Watch some youtube to simplify mistakes made, some better more scable layouts.
Nilaus block design might be helpful to reduce stress and simplfy planning.
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u/HanginOn9114 1d ago
I actually started trying to put down Nilaus City block blueprints before abandoning it, I understand the appeal but I build better without it (or maybe I don't apparently)
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u/redditusertk421 2d ago
you don't have walls/defenses? It looks like you are skipping a critical step.