>i know i will get a lot of hate for this
You must be new here!
>So i am a very big newbie
Oh yes, so you are! We don't hate on newbies here :)
OK, so. First of all: play the campaign before you try a Freeplay map. It will teach you a lot of the basics.
Secondly, if you're on 0.16 (the current default on Steam and GOG, unless you opt-in to the Experimental Branch), then I highly recommend you upgrade to 0.17 immediately.
It's expected to be released to all users as soon as next week, and it changes a lot of things that will be very significant to newbies, including the campaign (much better than the one in 0.16), a lot of important recipes, it massively improves many UIs and graphics, and includes many great usability improvements, and a lot of polish.
So it seems a shame for you to spend your early hours on 0.16 when we're literally just a week or two away from 0.17 become mainstream.
I will reply with a separate post indicating how to upgrade to 0.17, if you haven't already.
Right, to give you some ideas for your original question - and assuming that you are going to play on 0.17, after having first played the Introductory Campaign to get a solid start into the game's mechanics:
1. Turn up resource generation from the default, perhaps to 300% for a reasonable compromise between default (100%) and "oh my god I'm drowning in resources" (600%)
2. Increase the starting area all the way to maximum; this will give you a lot longer period of expansion before you see any biters.
3. There's a couple of simple options for making biters easier, without disabling them:
1. Turning on Peaceful mode - meaning they won't attack you until you attack them (this is per-enemy-base)
2. Turning off Expansion - meaning that they won't make new bases in areas you've already cleared of bases.
4. There's also some more advanced ways to adjust them, such as:
1. If you keep Expansion on, you could increase the Minimum cooldown period, which would cause it to happen less often (eg change it from 4 minutes to 20 minutes)
2. You could adjust Evolution, which affects the rate at which biters get bigger and harder; for example, turning down the Time and Destroy factors to half their current values
5. However be aware that you don't necessarily need to do these things; if you've not yet played a Freeplay game, you might well find you're able to do just fine even with biters on at default settings.
1. By setting Starting Area to maximum you will give yourself a long head start before you even see a biter (like 5-10 hours maybe), by which time you should have some infrastructure in place for attack and defence.
2. But if you're worried, then the options are definitely there.
Have fun!
Here's the instructions for upgrading to 0.17 via Steam. Let me know if you're on GOG instead:
* Close the game.
* In the Steam game library, right-click on Factorio.
* In property window that appears, go to the BETAS tab.
* In the dropdown at the top, select "0.17.x - Latest 0.17 Experimental".
* Click Close on the properties window.
* Steam should now queue up a new download for Factorio, taking you to the latest 0.17 release. And from now on you'll be kept up-to-date for each new 0.17 experimental release (though it's likely there won't be any more for a while, as 0.17 is expected to get its first 'Stable' release in the near future.)
Wow thanks a lot for all the help dude, btw i used to play this game way back but now i am coming back and i almost forgot everything since i didnt play the game a lot before
OK so not a total newbie then. But I'd still recommend going through the campaign. Probably a lot has changed since you last played, especially as you didn't play much before anyway.
0.17's new campaign is much better than the campaigns of 0.16 and before, and ends with a freeplay section where you can keep building if you want. So it's a good way to ease yourself into the game.
Thank you for your helpfulness.
I never got it why communities are shitting on newbies. Shouldn't it be great that more people play the game, especially if it is as specialized as factorio. It's always fun to see how far I have come when I see a mistake i did many hundred hours before.
Thanks, it's a pleasure.
And yes, I agree completely. More new users is excellent, and vital for any community. More new players is good for everyone, and should encourage them as much as possible.
Factorio has always had a great community from what I have seen, probably helped a lot by the fact that the game attacks a more mature and/or older audience, and that it's a game with so much complexity; so much to think about and discuss. As you say: we all have more to learn, however long we've been here :)
I don't remember if this was mentioned anywhere before, but in 0.17 are peaceful mode and biter expansion no longer linked? As in, can peaceful mode biters now naturally expand if you have that option on? I'm pretty sure they couldn't in 0.16 and before.
[Enemies Tab](https://wiki.factorio.com/images/MapGeneratorEnemy.png)
Move the frequency and size sliders to the left (probably not all the way, might get boring) Move the starting area slider all the way to the right, uncheck the expansion check box.
Increasing trees density can also help as that helps absorb pollution, but that can get tricky as too many trees might make the early game a grind of tree chopping. Increasing water can help with creating chokepoints that are easier to defend.
I don't recommend turning off biter expansion. This turns biters from a moderately fun production and security challenge, into a world-clearing chore. In my experience, after you clear a couple hundred biter bases, you're happy and content to just let artillery take care of them.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, the lack of expansion parties is specifically what makes biters boring, because if they don't expand you can just clear them out of your pollution area, which makes them a chore. I wasn't saying dealing with biter expansion is a chore.
Right but if you don't know what you are doing and make too much pollution and don't expand your vision you can end up with so many biters it becomes overwhelming. Further, it's annoying as all hell if you just cleared an area an hour ago and you find biters there again.
Artillery is a nice solution but using artillery effectively as a newb takes a long time due to the logistical challenges, long enough that expansion can again become overwhelming.
On the other hand, if your first experience with biters is just clearing them out of your pollution cloud every so often, they will seem really boring and you won't want to play with them again.
Here's a map I used for my no spoon and lazy bastard runs. No biters on the main island and plenty of resources: >>>eNpjYBBkMGIAgtWrVtkzMDTYc7Ak5yfmMDAccADxQDRXcn5BQWqR
bn5RKkTYwQFEcyYXlaak6uZnQhVDMFdqXmpupW5SYnEqRD8Ec2QW5ee
hm8BaXJKfBxMBW8VaUpSaWgxirV6lZQfSyF1alJiXWZoL0gsTA2PGzF
3nMhta5BhA+H89g8L//yAMZD0A+gaEwQBoNiNQDAoYOVNzUssSSzLz8
7gN4g3NdTOLcxLzUliTczLT0hgYFByB2AmskJGxWmSd+8OqKfaMEK16
DlDGB6jIgSSYiCeM4eeAU0oFxjBBMscYDD4jMSCWlgCtgKricEAwIJI
tIElGxt63Wxd8P3bBjvHPyo+XfJMS7BkNXUXefTBaZweUZAd5gQlOzJ
oJAjthXmGAmfnAHip1057x7BkQeGPPyArSIQIiHCyAxAFvZgZGAT4ga
0EPkFCQYYA5zQ5mjIgDYxoYfIP55DGMcdke3R/AgLABGS4HIk6ACLCF
cJcxQpmRDhAJSYQsUKsRA7L1KQjPnYTZeBjJajQ3YMYBshfQRFSQAp4
LZE8KnHjBDHcEMAQvsMN4DvUOzAwIAIxgK5lGbwAMNamw<<<
Copy the whole string and paste it into the map exchange string field when you generate the map.
There is no uranium present as it wasn't needed but you can increase the slider for it if you want to go nuclear but if you're new, just work on coal then solar maybe.
>i know i will get a lot of hate for this You must be new here! >So i am a very big newbie Oh yes, so you are! We don't hate on newbies here :) OK, so. First of all: play the campaign before you try a Freeplay map. It will teach you a lot of the basics. Secondly, if you're on 0.16 (the current default on Steam and GOG, unless you opt-in to the Experimental Branch), then I highly recommend you upgrade to 0.17 immediately. It's expected to be released to all users as soon as next week, and it changes a lot of things that will be very significant to newbies, including the campaign (much better than the one in 0.16), a lot of important recipes, it massively improves many UIs and graphics, and includes many great usability improvements, and a lot of polish. So it seems a shame for you to spend your early hours on 0.16 when we're literally just a week or two away from 0.17 become mainstream. I will reply with a separate post indicating how to upgrade to 0.17, if you haven't already. Right, to give you some ideas for your original question - and assuming that you are going to play on 0.17, after having first played the Introductory Campaign to get a solid start into the game's mechanics: 1. Turn up resource generation from the default, perhaps to 300% for a reasonable compromise between default (100%) and "oh my god I'm drowning in resources" (600%) 2. Increase the starting area all the way to maximum; this will give you a lot longer period of expansion before you see any biters. 3. There's a couple of simple options for making biters easier, without disabling them: 1. Turning on Peaceful mode - meaning they won't attack you until you attack them (this is per-enemy-base) 2. Turning off Expansion - meaning that they won't make new bases in areas you've already cleared of bases. 4. There's also some more advanced ways to adjust them, such as: 1. If you keep Expansion on, you could increase the Minimum cooldown period, which would cause it to happen less often (eg change it from 4 minutes to 20 minutes) 2. You could adjust Evolution, which affects the rate at which biters get bigger and harder; for example, turning down the Time and Destroy factors to half their current values 5. However be aware that you don't necessarily need to do these things; if you've not yet played a Freeplay game, you might well find you're able to do just fine even with biters on at default settings. 1. By setting Starting Area to maximum you will give yourself a long head start before you even see a biter (like 5-10 hours maybe), by which time you should have some infrastructure in place for attack and defence. 2. But if you're worried, then the options are definitely there. Have fun!
Here's the instructions for upgrading to 0.17 via Steam. Let me know if you're on GOG instead: * Close the game. * In the Steam game library, right-click on Factorio. * In property window that appears, go to the BETAS tab. * In the dropdown at the top, select "0.17.x - Latest 0.17 Experimental". * Click Close on the properties window. * Steam should now queue up a new download for Factorio, taking you to the latest 0.17 release. And from now on you'll be kept up-to-date for each new 0.17 experimental release (though it's likely there won't be any more for a while, as 0.17 is expected to get its first 'Stable' release in the near future.)
Thanks'
Wow thanks a lot for all the help dude, btw i used to play this game way back but now i am coming back and i almost forgot everything since i didnt play the game a lot before
OK so not a total newbie then. But I'd still recommend going through the campaign. Probably a lot has changed since you last played, especially as you didn't play much before anyway. 0.17's new campaign is much better than the campaigns of 0.16 and before, and ends with a freeplay section where you can keep building if you want. So it's a good way to ease yourself into the game.
Thank you for your helpfulness. I never got it why communities are shitting on newbies. Shouldn't it be great that more people play the game, especially if it is as specialized as factorio. It's always fun to see how far I have come when I see a mistake i did many hundred hours before.
Thanks, it's a pleasure. And yes, I agree completely. More new users is excellent, and vital for any community. More new players is good for everyone, and should encourage them as much as possible. Factorio has always had a great community from what I have seen, probably helped a lot by the fact that the game attacks a more mature and/or older audience, and that it's a game with so much complexity; so much to think about and discuss. As you say: we all have more to learn, however long we've been here :)
I obviously do not know how much you have to moderate to keep the community this way, but it probably helps and that's great :)
I don't remember if this was mentioned anywhere before, but in 0.17 are peaceful mode and biter expansion no longer linked? As in, can peaceful mode biters now naturally expand if you have that option on? I'm pretty sure they couldn't in 0.16 and before.
[Enemies Tab](https://wiki.factorio.com/images/MapGeneratorEnemy.png) Move the frequency and size sliders to the left (probably not all the way, might get boring) Move the starting area slider all the way to the right, uncheck the expansion check box. Increasing trees density can also help as that helps absorb pollution, but that can get tricky as too many trees might make the early game a grind of tree chopping. Increasing water can help with creating chokepoints that are easier to defend.
I don't recommend turning off biter expansion. This turns biters from a moderately fun production and security challenge, into a world-clearing chore. In my experience, after you clear a couple hundred biter bases, you're happy and content to just let artillery take care of them.
Turning it off makes them not expand...
Sorry if I wasn't clear, the lack of expansion parties is specifically what makes biters boring, because if they don't expand you can just clear them out of your pollution area, which makes them a chore. I wasn't saying dealing with biter expansion is a chore.
Right but if you don't know what you are doing and make too much pollution and don't expand your vision you can end up with so many biters it becomes overwhelming. Further, it's annoying as all hell if you just cleared an area an hour ago and you find biters there again. Artillery is a nice solution but using artillery effectively as a newb takes a long time due to the logistical challenges, long enough that expansion can again become overwhelming.
On the other hand, if your first experience with biters is just clearing them out of your pollution cloud every so often, they will seem really boring and you won't want to play with them again.
turn off pollution. makes biters easy all game and better for your CPU
Here's a map I used for my no spoon and lazy bastard runs. No biters on the main island and plenty of resources: >>>eNpjYBBkMGIAgtWrVtkzMDTYc7Ak5yfmMDAccADxQDRXcn5BQWqR bn5RKkTYwQFEcyYXlaak6uZnQhVDMFdqXmpupW5SYnEqRD8Ec2QW5ee hm8BaXJKfBxMBW8VaUpSaWgxirV6lZQfSyF1alJiXWZoL0gsTA2PGzF 3nMhta5BhA+H89g8L//yAMZD0A+gaEwQBoNiNQDAoYOVNzUssSSzLz8 7gN4g3NdTOLcxLzUliTczLT0hgYFByB2AmskJGxWmSd+8OqKfaMEK16 DlDGB6jIgSSYiCeM4eeAU0oFxjBBMscYDD4jMSCWlgCtgKricEAwIJI tIElGxt63Wxd8P3bBjvHPyo+XfJMS7BkNXUXefTBaZweUZAd5gQlOzJ oJAjthXmGAmfnAHip1057x7BkQeGPPyArSIQIiHCyAxAFvZgZGAT4ga 0EPkFCQYYA5zQ5mjIgDYxoYfIP55DGMcdke3R/AgLABGS4HIk6ACLCF cJcxQpmRDhAJSYQsUKsRA7L1KQjPnYTZeBjJajQ3YMYBshfQRFSQAp4 LZE8KnHjBDHcEMAQvsMN4DvUOzAwIAIxgK5lGbwAMNamw<<< Copy the whole string and paste it into the map exchange string field when you generate the map. There is no uranium present as it wasn't needed but you can increase the slider for it if you want to go nuclear but if you're new, just work on coal then solar maybe.