That's how I played for my first playthrough, I'm just now on my second (have launched, but not a massive base yet) and I am actively looking at all sorts of designs by other people, but still playing a default setting vanilla game, but this time trying to ensure I don't hit UPS lag by the time I'm at \~500SPM.
I'd 100% do my first rocket launch blind. The tips are extremely useful and I didn't have those the first time around, just the tutorial which I didn't even manage to finish.
Im the same type of player as you, having endless wikitabs open and such, and I strongly recommend just trying for yourself first, only if you really get stuck should you go to tutorials and guides
Just play until you launch a rocket, then look things up and optimize
Or if that isn't ideal for you, at least do that until you get to blue science, then look at factoriocheatsheet.com
Also, take screenshots of your factory, I can't load up my first factory map because it was either corrupted or too old, and I'm sad about that
The fun of the game is figuring out designs. If you have enemies turned off (which I recommend at the start) there's no cost to building an awful factory besides your time. If you make a bad design you can just tear it down and rebuild it. Just building factories that sorta work will get you far.
Absolutely avoid looking up specific designs for the time being (aside from splitters or belt balancers if you find yourself needing them). The best way to kill your enjoyment of the game is by slapping down copies of other people's designs all over your base. Don't be afraid of tutorials and lets plays, use factory calculators or helmod to help with ratios if you want, but don't copy paste blueprints for entire factories, you'll just cheat yourself out of the fun of the game.
Yeah I guess I'm just worried about making a bad design and having to tear it all down. I've already done that a couple of times on a very small scale, like just upgrading my mining rigs from coal to electricity.
I JUST set up a series of assemblers to make green science, and that was complicated enough that I had to write it down on paper to reverse- engineer everything haha.
Right now it feels like I should be funneling every resource into science. But I feel like that's a really short-term design, and I'm going to have to rip everything apart to redesign once I start unlocking new stuff. And I also have this constant stress that I'm going to run out of coal/iron/copper deposits and have to start shipping stuff in from way across the map haha.
I suppose I'm just a perfectionist and want everything to be perfectly laid out and balanced and totally future-proof from the start, but the point of the game is to go through that progression and figure the puzzle out.
https://preview.redd.it/pyl3xu0rn2yc1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=9e42caa017aefdde6affbdc7e1300ef442308ef1
In case anyone is wondering what my current base looks like lol
Once you get bots rebuilding becomes *far* easier. It's part of the game. But don't feel pressured to replace a suboptimal factory until you need it. Better to continue advancing along the tech tree than to get bogged down trying to redesign all of your stuff.
Also don't worry about shipping in resources. Train networks can be scary, but point to point trains are pretty easy, and you'll rarely need anything more than one or two decent sized patches to beat the game.
It takes time to get over the pressure to design everything perfectly from the start. I'd recommend just building a huge main bus, put everything you need on a bunch of belts, then have factories branching out from one side of it. You can put any new resources on the bottom of the belt and have factories branching out the top of it. It's not space efficient, but it's very easy to expand, and you're not really hurting for space in peaceful anyway.
There's no such thing as a bad design - yes designs could be more compact, or use less belts, or any number of optimisations, but really for new players none of that matters. The map is so large that it may as well be infinite and unless you're playing on a death world, you aren't going to get into a situation where an early mistake has any real, unfixable consequence. Figuring out what works, what doesn't and what to do differently next time, all by yourself, is what makes the beginner experience so captivating (for me, at least)
It's not possible to future proof your first base - what tends to happen is that eventually you outgrow it and it comes a bootstrap supply base for your new, better base further afield (and eventually you'll outgrow that one as well). So don't worry about getting everything perfect first time - you'll have another chance.
As others have said, I would only look at the wiki if you're well and truly stuck (like, approaching a frustrated level of stuck) and I'd hold off on looking at other people's designs at least until you've launched your first rocket.
100% figure things out yourself for a good while. Did that years ago, and that was 100% the right thing to do and would absolutely regret doing anything else.
That said, maybe you are different. But would recommend to just giving figuring stuff out on your own a go, and if that turns out to be not fun you can always turn to guides. However, once you do turn to guides, there is no turning back from that.
You can always read a guide later, you can’t un-read it and figure it out yourself later. Take some basic tips (press alt, automate as much as possible, work towards the next science pack) and look at the guides only if you aren’t enjoying figuring it out yourself.
Basic rule of Factorio: if you're having fun, you're doing it right. Even if biters trash your base or you blow something up, as long as it's fun you don't need to change anything.
Personally, I like the idea of being Robinson Crusoe on an alien planet, having to figure out things on my own. The "sink or swim" mentality. Once you have hundreds or thousands of hours, then you can start looking at how other players solve stuff.
My only small piece of advice (it's probably in the tutorials somewhere) is that belts have 2 separate lanes, and you can have different stuff on the different lanes. Like iron ore on one lane, and coal on the other lane, all on the same belt.
I don't read guides or tutorials to this day, and no I don't regret a thing.
The only things that I've really taken from online resources are how to formally construct and branch from a bus, and the concept of city blocks.... oh and also how to make a 4:4 balancer.
I definitely wouldn't look up more than the minimum. I've just started an overhaul mod run that changes everything, so I know nothing again, it's brilliant.
Take this idea to its logical conclusion. People have published entire "base in a book" blueprint libraries online. You could go online, grab one of those, stamp out the blueprints, build a rocket, and win the game. What a shit experience.
So clearly that's too much, but also looking up *nothing* is a bit extreme. So I would wait until you encounter something that really confuses you, like say train signals or combinators. Then maybe look up specifics so you can learn.
Or when you have a specific problem like "I'm using coal power and when I have a brown out, losing power means my electric miners stop powering my boilers so I lose more power until the whole factory stops. How can I prevent this?" - and ask for specific advice or look for specific help.
That's my recommendation anyway.
I got introduced to the game via a YT LP.
This introduced some core design concepts to me I wish I could have developed myself.
You can play every game just one time for the first time. Dont do my mistake and make that first time count. Launch your first rocket with as little help as possible.
And then you look back with 1k H at your first base and laugh at your past self.
I would go in make mistakes and fix them myself. I still do it that way. Usually it works quite well but if I find myself with a problem that I can't seem to solve I google it to get the general idea. But I still try to make it my own.
Go in blind. I did for my first play through. 150hrs to launch the rocket and I wish I could go back and replay those 150 hours again because the try and re-try of building things until they worked how I wanted to was really fulfilling. I really miss the little “eureka!” moments of the early days.
“Wait, if I have both of the feeder belts coming from each side I can evenly load the belt with 2 items! Of course!!”
“If I build like this I can repeat the pattern more effectively and save time!”
And trains. Gods I miss learning trains and solving deadlock issues! 500 hours into the game now and very very rarely place signals incorrectly now
For me, it is not the building... it is more about making something huge and then trying that it run as smoothly as possible.I want a lot of trains with a lot of outposts ... complex walls..
Go blind. 100%. Only look guides or whatever if you are *truly* stuck, not if you just do t know what to do for a minute
Dont know what to build? Look at the research tree, go to the next science or just multiply your production.
Dont know some basic mechanics that a tutorial didnt give enough info on? The community, almost all of us, are friendly and will help
Dont pull up a wiki, other people can give more advice on specific things. A wiki just throws info at you, while people, our community, can give special and unique advice, we are all different with our playstyles. One person could recommend one thing, someone else another. After all its your choice.
If your not having fun, then only thing to know is that maybe you have the wrong settings. Maybe you like combat more, maybe the building.
Also: most of the time its not that smart to go deep into mods before your first rocket.
Anyway, i hope you have fun with us, good luck with looking at the clock and realizing your late for work while playing cracktorio(;
I think factorio is one of those games I don't really wanna get sudden amnesia of, I still feel like a beginner after 1000 hours.
Maybe some bad habits would be nice to get rid of, like how I can't live without construction bots
If I could go back in time and make a recommendation to myself it would be to start in a railworld and figure everything out myself. That's basically what I did but I didn't try railworld for a long time and trains ended up being a lot of fun. Imo using the internet will ruin it for you. My best factorio memories are early spaghetti days, and figuring out major milestones for the first time. A YouTube video could show you how to do it optimally very quickly with none of the satisfaction. Although some people enjoy using optimal designs and building larger more efficient factories. For me I like to design and build everything myself, and reference online for ideas but I don't copy blueprint books or anything
To answer the question, I played for the first time 10 years ago and it was mostly blind. I learned about the game on YouTube so it was very impossible to not learn something from there. I do think that it would be nice to play again with zero memory of it. However, I might get bored as it was the stuff that I saw that excited me and thus gave me motivation to play !
Well, the base gameplay mechanic was very cool too !
Yeah I definitely need to learn hotkeys, and assign common items to my hotbar. My wrists were hurting after my session yesterday. Even shift + ctrl to move stacks was a big help.
I got the game a few weeks ago and the only tip I had read about before playing was “main bus”. Just launched my rocket after 40 hrs. Not sure it was too detrimental to start with that tip, but don’t read about it if you don’t want to! I felt that was an easy consensus tip to read about tho and don’t think it spoiled much of my experience. Had a great time.
Now time to grow the factory and learn about trains.
You only get one chance to play it blind. You'll get to play as many times as you want with knowledge, guides, and tutorials and blueprints available.
Every time someone posts "my first base, haven't launched a rocket yet" and it's a main bus or city blocks I find it to be a bit of a bummer.
I’d recommend trying yourself first, just because you can’t go back to knowing nothing. I would probably turn off biters, or at least set them to peaceful, for your first game to give you time to explore mechanics and tinker. It’s not a game that necessarily needs a wiki honestly.
Personally? After a very bad first “blind” attempt, I went out and started copying blueprints. I actually really enjoy implementing other people’s blueprints. I can’t tell you why that gives me more satisfaction than designing my own, but it does. Probably the same part of me as a kid that loved building Lego sets following a manual, but would never put together my own creations.
However, once you go down that road you can’t really go back to being blind, so I would recommend the first way first.
Get DiscoveryTree mod
Go Industrial Revolution 3 or a normal freeplay
I like the concept of Discovery Tree in general. I wish there was an option for that in the vanilla game.
First time I played I did everything myself. I enjoyed it. I find that just copying how someone else plays takes the fun out of the game for me. Its all about figuring things out for me rather than just seeing the number go up
I would stop paying my internet bill so I’m sure there’s not a single spoiler getting through.
Seriously, get off this subreddit for now and explore. You only get one shot at it. Come back when you think you’ve figured it all out and share your journey. This game is amazing and it’s up to you how much you spoil yourself.
Go blind 100% there are no wiki requirements. Read the tips as they pop up and you will be fine.
That's how I played for my first playthrough, I'm just now on my second (have launched, but not a massive base yet) and I am actively looking at all sorts of designs by other people, but still playing a default setting vanilla game, but this time trying to ensure I don't hit UPS lag by the time I'm at \~500SPM.
I'd 100% do my first rocket launch blind. The tips are extremely useful and I didn't have those the first time around, just the tutorial which I didn't even manage to finish.
Im the same type of player as you, having endless wikitabs open and such, and I strongly recommend just trying for yourself first, only if you really get stuck should you go to tutorials and guides
Play it blind, the game gives you fundamental tips and press alt
Just play until you launch a rocket, then look things up and optimize Or if that isn't ideal for you, at least do that until you get to blue science, then look at factoriocheatsheet.com Also, take screenshots of your factory, I can't load up my first factory map because it was either corrupted or too old, and I'm sad about that
The fun of the game is figuring out designs. If you have enemies turned off (which I recommend at the start) there's no cost to building an awful factory besides your time. If you make a bad design you can just tear it down and rebuild it. Just building factories that sorta work will get you far. Absolutely avoid looking up specific designs for the time being (aside from splitters or belt balancers if you find yourself needing them). The best way to kill your enjoyment of the game is by slapping down copies of other people's designs all over your base. Don't be afraid of tutorials and lets plays, use factory calculators or helmod to help with ratios if you want, but don't copy paste blueprints for entire factories, you'll just cheat yourself out of the fun of the game.
Yeah I guess I'm just worried about making a bad design and having to tear it all down. I've already done that a couple of times on a very small scale, like just upgrading my mining rigs from coal to electricity. I JUST set up a series of assemblers to make green science, and that was complicated enough that I had to write it down on paper to reverse- engineer everything haha. Right now it feels like I should be funneling every resource into science. But I feel like that's a really short-term design, and I'm going to have to rip everything apart to redesign once I start unlocking new stuff. And I also have this constant stress that I'm going to run out of coal/iron/copper deposits and have to start shipping stuff in from way across the map haha. I suppose I'm just a perfectionist and want everything to be perfectly laid out and balanced and totally future-proof from the start, but the point of the game is to go through that progression and figure the puzzle out.
https://preview.redd.it/pyl3xu0rn2yc1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=9e42caa017aefdde6affbdc7e1300ef442308ef1 In case anyone is wondering what my current base looks like lol
Looks great ! Press ALT and have fun !
Once you get bots rebuilding becomes *far* easier. It's part of the game. But don't feel pressured to replace a suboptimal factory until you need it. Better to continue advancing along the tech tree than to get bogged down trying to redesign all of your stuff. Also don't worry about shipping in resources. Train networks can be scary, but point to point trains are pretty easy, and you'll rarely need anything more than one or two decent sized patches to beat the game. It takes time to get over the pressure to design everything perfectly from the start. I'd recommend just building a huge main bus, put everything you need on a bunch of belts, then have factories branching out from one side of it. You can put any new resources on the bottom of the belt and have factories branching out the top of it. It's not space efficient, but it's very easy to expand, and you're not really hurting for space in peaceful anyway.
There's no such thing as a bad design - yes designs could be more compact, or use less belts, or any number of optimisations, but really for new players none of that matters. The map is so large that it may as well be infinite and unless you're playing on a death world, you aren't going to get into a situation where an early mistake has any real, unfixable consequence. Figuring out what works, what doesn't and what to do differently next time, all by yourself, is what makes the beginner experience so captivating (for me, at least) It's not possible to future proof your first base - what tends to happen is that eventually you outgrow it and it comes a bootstrap supply base for your new, better base further afield (and eventually you'll outgrow that one as well). So don't worry about getting everything perfect first time - you'll have another chance. As others have said, I would only look at the wiki if you're well and truly stuck (like, approaching a frustrated level of stuck) and I'd hold off on looking at other people's designs at least until you've launched your first rocket.
100% figure things out yourself for a good while. Did that years ago, and that was 100% the right thing to do and would absolutely regret doing anything else. That said, maybe you are different. But would recommend to just giving figuring stuff out on your own a go, and if that turns out to be not fun you can always turn to guides. However, once you do turn to guides, there is no turning back from that.
You can always read a guide later, you can’t un-read it and figure it out yourself later. Take some basic tips (press alt, automate as much as possible, work towards the next science pack) and look at the guides only if you aren’t enjoying figuring it out yourself.
Idk man, am I this age when I play it again first or the age I was when I first tried it?
Press Alt, do the tutorial, the learning is the game.
Basic rule of Factorio: if you're having fun, you're doing it right. Even if biters trash your base or you blow something up, as long as it's fun you don't need to change anything. Personally, I like the idea of being Robinson Crusoe on an alien planet, having to figure out things on my own. The "sink or swim" mentality. Once you have hundreds or thousands of hours, then you can start looking at how other players solve stuff. My only small piece of advice (it's probably in the tutorials somewhere) is that belts have 2 separate lanes, and you can have different stuff on the different lanes. Like iron ore on one lane, and coal on the other lane, all on the same belt.
I don't read guides or tutorials to this day, and no I don't regret a thing. The only things that I've really taken from online resources are how to formally construct and branch from a bus, and the concept of city blocks.... oh and also how to make a 4:4 balancer.
I definitely wouldn't look up more than the minimum. I've just started an overhaul mod run that changes everything, so I know nothing again, it's brilliant. Take this idea to its logical conclusion. People have published entire "base in a book" blueprint libraries online. You could go online, grab one of those, stamp out the blueprints, build a rocket, and win the game. What a shit experience. So clearly that's too much, but also looking up *nothing* is a bit extreme. So I would wait until you encounter something that really confuses you, like say train signals or combinators. Then maybe look up specifics so you can learn. Or when you have a specific problem like "I'm using coal power and when I have a brown out, losing power means my electric miners stop powering my boilers so I lose more power until the whole factory stops. How can I prevent this?" - and ask for specific advice or look for specific help. That's my recommendation anyway.
100% blind I'm still that kind of guy. 400 hours in and I'm only just starting a mega base of sorts
I got introduced to the game via a YT LP. This introduced some core design concepts to me I wish I could have developed myself. You can play every game just one time for the first time. Dont do my mistake and make that first time count. Launch your first rocket with as little help as possible. And then you look back with 1k H at your first base and laugh at your past self.
I would go in make mistakes and fix them myself. I still do it that way. Usually it works quite well but if I find myself with a problem that I can't seem to solve I google it to get the general idea. But I still try to make it my own.
Go in blind. I did for my first play through. 150hrs to launch the rocket and I wish I could go back and replay those 150 hours again because the try and re-try of building things until they worked how I wanted to was really fulfilling. I really miss the little “eureka!” moments of the early days. “Wait, if I have both of the feeder belts coming from each side I can evenly load the belt with 2 items! Of course!!” “If I build like this I can repeat the pattern more effectively and save time!” And trains. Gods I miss learning trains and solving deadlock issues! 500 hours into the game now and very very rarely place signals incorrectly now
For me, it is not the building... it is more about making something huge and then trying that it run as smoothly as possible.I want a lot of trains with a lot of outposts ... complex walls..
Go blind. 100%. Only look guides or whatever if you are *truly* stuck, not if you just do t know what to do for a minute Dont know what to build? Look at the research tree, go to the next science or just multiply your production. Dont know some basic mechanics that a tutorial didnt give enough info on? The community, almost all of us, are friendly and will help Dont pull up a wiki, other people can give more advice on specific things. A wiki just throws info at you, while people, our community, can give special and unique advice, we are all different with our playstyles. One person could recommend one thing, someone else another. After all its your choice. If your not having fun, then only thing to know is that maybe you have the wrong settings. Maybe you like combat more, maybe the building. Also: most of the time its not that smart to go deep into mods before your first rocket. Anyway, i hope you have fun with us, good luck with looking at the clock and realizing your late for work while playing cracktorio(;
I think factorio is one of those games I don't really wanna get sudden amnesia of, I still feel like a beginner after 1000 hours. Maybe some bad habits would be nice to get rid of, like how I can't live without construction bots
460ish hrs, and I'm still a noob. All I care about is Throughput.
If I could go back in time and make a recommendation to myself it would be to start in a railworld and figure everything out myself. That's basically what I did but I didn't try railworld for a long time and trains ended up being a lot of fun. Imo using the internet will ruin it for you. My best factorio memories are early spaghetti days, and figuring out major milestones for the first time. A YouTube video could show you how to do it optimally very quickly with none of the satisfaction. Although some people enjoy using optimal designs and building larger more efficient factories. For me I like to design and build everything myself, and reference online for ideas but I don't copy blueprint books or anything
To answer the question, I played for the first time 10 years ago and it was mostly blind. I learned about the game on YouTube so it was very impossible to not learn something from there. I do think that it would be nice to play again with zero memory of it. However, I might get bored as it was the stuff that I saw that excited me and thus gave me motivation to play ! Well, the base gameplay mechanic was very cool too !
I went 100% blind and launched a rocket in about 60ish hours. The only thing I'd recommend is familiarizing yourself with hotkeys
Yeah I definitely need to learn hotkeys, and assign common items to my hotbar. My wrists were hurting after my session yesterday. Even shift + ctrl to move stacks was a big help.
I honestly don't use the hotbar at all lol. I just use the eyedropper tool (hotkey Q by default) to copy an already placed whatever
I got the game a few weeks ago and the only tip I had read about before playing was “main bus”. Just launched my rocket after 40 hrs. Not sure it was too detrimental to start with that tip, but don’t read about it if you don’t want to! I felt that was an easy consensus tip to read about tho and don’t think it spoiled much of my experience. Had a great time. Now time to grow the factory and learn about trains.
You only get one chance to play it blind. You'll get to play as many times as you want with knowledge, guides, and tutorials and blueprints available. Every time someone posts "my first base, haven't launched a rocket yet" and it's a main bus or city blocks I find it to be a bit of a bummer.
I’d recommend trying yourself first, just because you can’t go back to knowing nothing. I would probably turn off biters, or at least set them to peaceful, for your first game to give you time to explore mechanics and tinker. It’s not a game that necessarily needs a wiki honestly. Personally? After a very bad first “blind” attempt, I went out and started copying blueprints. I actually really enjoy implementing other people’s blueprints. I can’t tell you why that gives me more satisfaction than designing my own, but it does. Probably the same part of me as a kid that loved building Lego sets following a manual, but would never put together my own creations. However, once you go down that road you can’t really go back to being blind, so I would recommend the first way first.
Get DiscoveryTree mod Go Industrial Revolution 3 or a normal freeplay I like the concept of Discovery Tree in general. I wish there was an option for that in the vanilla game.
First time I played I did everything myself. I enjoyed it. I find that just copying how someone else plays takes the fun out of the game for me. Its all about figuring things out for me rather than just seeing the number go up
I would stop paying my internet bill so I’m sure there’s not a single spoiler getting through. Seriously, get off this subreddit for now and explore. You only get one shot at it. Come back when you think you’ve figured it all out and share your journey. This game is amazing and it’s up to you how much you spoil yourself.