It’s kinda like assuming a rust player isn’t a toxic terrorist who won’t slit your mothers throat for 2k gun power. They will. Hide your mother. And your gp.
Satisfactory is as much a building game as an automation game. The large nice looking builds to some extent appeal to the same people who will build things block by block in Minecraft or assemble Lego sets with 4 figure piece counts.
That said it can get repetitive at times. Building giant arrays of fuel generators are probably the worst, blueprints don't help much.
It can also be good to take a break and do something else in game. While there are more efficient ways to get materials to a new factory I sometimes actually like to walk across the map and look at the scenery a bit.
"Not being able to save it to print again hurts me"
That's where your disconnect is. Those of us who build large, elaborate structures do not ever want to print them again. Because the ability to do so would greatly diminish the value of what we accomplished.
The point is the building. We enjoy making it. We enjoy *playing Satisfactory*. That's why it isn't burnout or demoralizing to us. Because this is what the game is and why we play it.
If I could spend 3 weeks building and outpost and then just do it all again in 1 click I would hate that. Because I made that outpost with love and intentional design. It's a piece of art, not to be replicated instantaneously with a copy-paste prompt.
>Because I made that outpost with love and intentional design. It's a piece of art,
Yes!
Video games as an outlet for self-care and self-expression. Perfect.
It's great that you have a way of playing that you enjoy. But other's get pleasure from doing things differently.
Your enjoyment is the art of spending three weeks building an outpost. Other's want to get their enjoyment in a different way.
If there was a way to blueprint a larger area, it wouldn't prevent you from enjoying the game your way, but it would enable others to enjoy the game their way.
Or are you saying there is only one way to play?
Journey before destination.
Some of us enjoy building things. Some people enjoy having the thing that's been built, and it feels like they're the ones that run out of steam in Satisfactory a lot.
If you're not enjoying the game "burnt out on it", etc then play it differently or play something else.
You asked what people think about what you said.
> it's really hard for me not to burn out in Satisfactory once I start wanting to make huge assembly lines.
It's hard to give advice other than "play something else" because building huge assembly lines is what I enjoy doing in Satisfactory. It's why I play it - I can't imagine that causing a burnout.
However "playing it differently" might mean building smaller factories and making them pretty or something. You do you. Have fun.
Maybe I misread the tone of your previous message and I apologize if I did.
It seemed like a "if you don't like it than don't play", which I think rubbed me the wrong way.
Either way, no hard feelings, I'm just trying to understand what top tier players are doing/what they are thinking.
As a not top tier player, if you're really gung ho about building a mega factory, break it up with trips for hard drives or switching from work on the mega factory to working on early logistics at the resources you'll need. Miners, drones that kind of thing. It'll help break up the monotony of the mega factory
Or maybe you just need need to git good lol.
No, but for real, I got burned out and dropped the game fairly often when I was just starting out (first ~200 hours). But I kept getting better and better at the game and now I only stop playing whenever I feel like I accomplished everything I wanted to, and then wait for the next update or more ideas
This. I have modular machine banks that fit together, just add connecting conveyors. Also, blueprints for walls, roofs, truck ports, etc. Really, I can build a single assembly building in a half hour, the time consuming part is getting all of the logistics hookups in place.
Well first of all going crazy is definitely an option. Though usually that hits after the build when you’re trying to trouble shoot what got hooked up wrong to cause something to break.
But answer is slowly. I’m building a 225 GW nuclear plant. I’ve been working on it for a few months now. Not continuously, but when I get the urge I hop on and build. Sometimes it’s all I do in the evenings for a week straight. Sometimes I don’t play at all for a week. Doing it all at once would be nuts.
For blueprints, modularity is the key. Design blueprints that you can plop down and then easily connect. For example, I need 36 blenders. Now putting these down one by one and then hooking up the belts and pipes would be a pain. So I designed a 2 blender blueprint where crucially the pipes and belts can just be hooked to the next in line to form a manifold. Then I can quickly stick these down in 3 rows, zip in the belts and pipes and in 10 minutes I have a massive factory line set up. Same story with all the machines. A bit of blueprint design means you can lay down a very large factory very quickly.
Finally remember that with Satisfactory the majority of the game is the building process. I don’t need to build this power plant, I want to because the process is what is fun.
I think the disconnect with Blueprints specifically is the difference in what they're used for between games.
Factorio (a game I haven't played, to be clear) has blueprints that are mostly for expanding production. You copy a thing you just built that makes a product you need a lot of, then stamp down four more so you can make sufficient numbers of the thing you need. This works because (note this is an opinion I, again, have without having played the game and just skimmed the wiki) none of the parts look very complex in terms of what you need for an input. A lot of the most complex looking items seem to only have a couple intermediate products involved in their production (an electric engine, something that looks reasonably mid to late game, is at most like two or three steps from raw ore), so being able to make a huge number of those products is beneficial, meaning being able to quickly build those factories is optimal.
Satisfactory, on the other hand, tends to have a pretty substantial total number of steps for even things as simple as motors, which requires at the minimum 13 different buildings if you aren't using alternate recipes. Thus, you're not building a factory producing one thing as you are building a number of subfactories producing individual components. Thus, the thrust of what you're doing isn't so much building big production lines, it's connecting those lines to the next in the sequence and figuring out the logistics of bringing together the various base materials involved. Thus, blueprints simplify basic construction more than anything. If you need a bunch of assemblers, you can make a blueprint that's two assemblers with all their inputs and outputs already wired in, meaning hooking them to the next unit in the series is all that's needed to bring that production unit online so you have more time figuring out how to bring the parts from area a to area b.
You don't.
Megastructures are 99% built in the endgame, and even then they are built for an end game challenge goal that is a placeholder for the much more reasonable to obtain 1.0 ending that will be releasing this year.
Experienced players do build larger structures in the early to mid game, but those are not much more than the shells that are carefully planned to house end game factories with a very small portion of the interior space actually utilized for production at construction time. The ability to plan that requires foresight and is only reasonable on repeat playthroughs to lower time spent rebuilding.
The general strategy through early and mid game is to build dedicated production lines for each type of item from miner to container. You shouldn't need more than two to three machines at the final step of the production chain. Generally what I do early game to mid game is build the platform and factory first then build the building around it. I can then add floors and addons to that factory or build seperate buildings as needed.
> Megastructures are 99% built in the endgame
Not really. I just build more. They become a bit bigger, but I never build a "Turbo Motor Factory" as a single thing. It will be more many smaller factories.
So it depends on the player.
But in Factorio you need to keep building or the aliens will overwhelm you. And there is basically maintenance to do unless you're an expert player and automate your base perfectly. And you need to keep finding new resource fields. In Satisfactory, you can only ever lose your inventory. Nothing runs out. If you feel like building a 1 part per minute factory then do that. If you want, build a 0.5 ppm factory and spend the rest of the time fighting the wildlife. Or do the dishes, decorate your factories, it's always chill?
I think of it like a puzzle. How can I get *this ore* over to here so I can make *this*, *this*, and *this*. Then it becomes a game of placing this production facility to figure out the production rates, then how many do you want to make? Do I suddenly now have to hook up this other resource from 2km away so I can make this? Should I belt it, truck it, train it, or drone it? How should I connect the power? Do I even need this many water extractors?
There are so many questions that you *get* to ask yourself, so then it becomes this giant puzzle that YOU are the mastermind behind.
My answer is, I don't stay motivated, I play when I feel like playing and end when I don't wanna play anymore, why would I stress myself with playing if I don't have fun? I mean that's what games are for, no?
Here's what you do
Complete all 8 tiers ASAP
Then you plan like 10 nuclear pasta/min among other space elevator parts for phase 4
Then you go crazy and meet the demands
The blueprints are easy to snap together or on top of each other the more you fiddle with them and customize them
Also remember they go vertical. You can fit 780 ore/min in 26 smelters and fit a collection system in a blueprint kinda easily tbh
I really enjoy megaprojects as puzzles. Make a mega powerplant of nuclear reactors that maximizes usage of ore and has no waste thanks to particle accelerators; a base of drones, each attached to a resource so that I can summon any resource just by dropping a drone port; building trains that move resources and finished goods; a series of launch tube for moving you around the map. It all feels rewarding to complete each project. When 1.0 launches I am doing it all again, but pretty this time. I never feel crazy. Mostly giddy.
I do blueprints kinda modular, example, I build a 32x32 cube with 3 constructors and 3 storages, one of those storages is for the main base storage, to build what is needed, the other ones are to move them to another constructor if needed.
If I need another one of that material, I put it just above it.
One bite at a time, as they say... Though I admit even my builds were less sizable than many here, it does take a few waves of focus for me to build anything. Plan out one element at a time, belt it, power it, test it. I have blueprints for different machines with manifolds set up in and out so I can crank out the larger fields in a few clicks and then spend my time scratching my head sending belts hither and thither. Larger blueprints seem clumsy, but I might plan out some modular cubes for basic elements next time.
It does get daunting! But I get sad when the factory is all settled and there's no reason to watch and make sure that I'm not getting clogs or shortages anywhere.
If you start feeling burnt out, give it some air. There's no time limit and you're only competing with yourself. Keep a good notepad somewhere handy so when you get distracted or bored or frustrated you can easily come back later. There's plenty else to do around the map, and plenty of other games to play. Keep hanging around the subreddit and you'll be inspired to come back soon. Good luck pioneer
I came from Minecraft. I build empty buildings and then have to figure out what to put inside them. One thing I did do is build a small blueprint for each pre node that makes it a like a little building instead of just the miner on the node. Just little things to make it fun. Build an assembly line to build something, regardless of the rates, and then look to expand while it’s making at least SOMETHING. This got me through the computer stage which was my personal roadblock the first time.
You have develop and standardize your design principles and building methods. Break things into smaller chunks, modules, steps. Take advantage of verticality in layout and design. Keep your nose to the wheel and don't look up much.
There aren't many things that I put in every factory in this game. There isn't a lot *to* blueprint. The only thing I do turn into blueprints are balancers, and certain machine setups that I'll need a lot of in ONE factory.
Whenever the calculator tells me I'll need 150 assemblers for quickwire or silica, I'm not placing and connecting all that manually. I'll make a blueprint of 1 or 2 asseblers with all their connections and a mirror version.
Even if I could put all 150 into a blueprint, why would I do that? There will be at most one more instance when that'll be useful, and even then I will need a different amount, and possibly split or manifolded in a different way.
This game isn't as big as Factorio. At MOST you're going to place 15,000 machines total. And that's IF you have a high end PC. There are maybe 4 items that you might ever need over 10,000/min of. And they'll likely be spread across multiple factories scattered all over the map.
The blueprints really would not dramatically speed up building, even at infinite size. Maybe double, triple at best. Which *is* a lot but nowhere near Factorio.
I take breaks. There are always a few things im working on at ablny given time. If i get bored i change to something else. And if i need a break from ALL the things im working on i just go get slugs and harddrives.
Like a kid does build with Lego: 1 stone at a time.
> feels like it would take a lot of effort and a lot of time.
That is basically it. I do not use the Blue Printer at all. A lot of my time is placing things, see if it works, remove it and try something else, and then do that a few times, Then perhaps go back to the first again. There are times I spend 3 hours on placing a miner and decorate it. It is never finished. You just stop working on it.
For me the whole part of the production is a side quest.
Just play it like factorio :D Even from 2d gameplay your own designs and enjoyment will emerge.
Nobody cares if your factory is "instagram-worthy".
If you want to turn the dune desert into one concrete slab and sprawl everything out on one level, then do that! Enjoy the game the way you like to play it :)
Break each project into small sections, and have several running at the same time at different stages. So you can go to a new area and start building a set of new factories, or add more floors to an existing project, or attach some flying platforms to the ground and do some decoration work. Or go exploring, or on a hard drive hunt, pet your doggos or build a scenic railway through some caves or cliffs. Or set up an experimental test rig to find the definitive answer to sloshing - good luck with that one!
One big difference between Satisfactory and Factorio is that nothing is going to come and knock your factories down. There's no time pressure.
I would often spend like an hour or more planning a factory, calculator in hand and figuring out how many of each part I needed, what speed to have them on to achieve complete efficiency. And then fly around in a circle thinking about how to build it so I don't end up like "ah I probably should have though of that" and future proofing the factory (impossible). Then building it slowly turning it on and having 30 separate problems that compound and blow up my pc. But when everything went according to plan it was incredibly satisfying. Mind you, this process was not even for a mega factory, it was just for something like 10 heavy modular frames. I take forever to get started on new parts because I don't want to have to rebuild it or regret it, so it has to be completely perfect. (It never is...)
So yes I go a little crazy. A little caka coko
Having played both games a LOT.
1) You don't need elaborate closed in factories. Mine are built on foundations that only attach at one point. Also, you can lock holograms and nudge. There are a bunch of little things you can learn that reduce the level of crazy. Also you can learn to love clipping. You still spend way more time building, but what and how you build evolved as you go up the tiers so it hadn't felt super repetitive.
2) The biggest difference in the games is visual. Satisfactory is pretty. It attracts people who want to put in more effort for things that look pretty. Who want to build complex 3D things that flow and move. Who want to explore a handcrafted, beautiful, world and build something that fits in it.
Me? I like trains. So that's where I spend my time in both games. (Or in Minecraft for that matter). I do truly miss the artillery wagon, lol. But infrastructure networks are my jam, and the factories are just an excuse for me to build them.
My building style is time-consuming and difficult in most cases. However, I view this game as a sandbox Lego builder. Automation is a byproduct of building amazing structures that feel clean and alive.
I build in a humorous way and only play the game if I have an idea of how the build should look. In my opinion, the game only favors you if you play with it irregularly.
As a builder, I create blueprints for complex structures that I want to incorporate into my designs multiple times. For example, I've constructed a Sci-Fi Livepod integrated into my factory that delivers water to my machines. These blueprints seamlessly fit in and are reusable. I also enjoy freestyling lamps, even though they're not easy to assemble, to add character to my builds. My rule is to include something interesting in every room and on every wall.
You can click on my profile where I already showcased some of my designs.
To be a Satisfactory builder, is to be a bit crazy. 
But as others have said, for most its the enjoyment of the journey and what one learns during it.
On another note, you can copy and paste in the save editor...
Fellow former factorio ~~addict~~ player here. I get you on this, the two are quite different despite apparent similarities at first glance.
I've not messed with the blueprint thing but I'm planning for it right now by building up nodes which are specced to max out whatever I'm feeding them, so if 1 iron mine gives me 240 ingots pm after smelting then I build a node for plates which eats 240 per minute. Idk how well its going to hold up but thats my plan, consume stuff at the rate I produce it and see what happens :P
I achieve zen while building mega factories, I love every second of it. The larger and more complex it becomes the more rewarding it is to look back on everything, it is the ultimate power fantasy.
For me, the trick is to do it piecemeal. For a huge project, I break it down into intermediate outputs that eventually combine into the final product. Either using different floors and building vertically, or different buildings. Having a separate level to run conveyors around in helps me keep it a bit cleaner.
As for blueprints, keep in mind that you can overlap parts of blueprints when setting them down. I have a "standard" sub-floor/main-floor to my blueprints with steel-beam columns at the corners. Makes it easy to line 'em up when I just have to overlap the beams and connect.
I have a hard time spreading things out, myself. Even though it's this massive world, I always find myself building compactly. Bites me in the ass sometimes when I want to expand or switch things up.
I do it step by step. I have a stupidly complex database wich calculates all demand per item. But the factory is so gigantic that even using blueprints takes months to build. And so every couple of days i build a couple of hours. But when i feel stressed. I just do a break for the next days.
But you are right. Bigger blueprints are needed for that kind of projects.
Mess with the blueprint designer some more…. Ive been messing with it today and im getting the hang of it…. I am currently building a walkway system up on some high plateaus and I kept building similar pieces by hand until I remember it existed. I went from building 4 complete walkway section an hour to…. Well I’m basically done with it now!
What I found is you have to set it up in the blueprint designer for bigger structure pieces where you can reliable snap onto other pieces, if it’s fully designed out (like beams right on the edge of the designer leave a small gap so it won’t snap) if its just floors I’m pretty sure you don’t need to do anything special.
What I am planning to do with the big factory I’m about to start on is basically make corners, wall, and roof sections fully designed in the blueprint so when it’s time to snap it all together I can throw up a huge factory in a short amount of time. The walkway I did was modular, so I made base pieces with like extensions for various things (Hypertubes, zip lines etc) and after designing them up it took 20 mins to snap the whole thing together. Granted it did take a few hours to finish on the designer BUT I now have access to those pieces forever.
Well, it is either go for my 4th playthrough save and sink another 1k hours into the game or sit in the dark and think of the wasted potential that is my life.
I went for a really nice brutalism factory on my 4th save, totally love that architecture and I think it came out pretty decently. I am so looking forward to v1.0, hoping that it hits before summer...
Satisfactory building is more like Minecraft. Like designing a huge red barn with wheat blocks when inside it’s just a 4 tile cow crusher. It’s a different skill set / game honestly.
Blueprints are pretty flexible, and the nudge/build mode options help a lot. I built a fairly large structure where all of the external walls with their architecture was a blueprint, as well as complex floor sections, machines with their input lifts and splitters, as well as a bunch of other things that needed to be built multiple times.
For external architecture, having multiple blueprint machines next to each other helps to visualise it all.
>without going crazy Well that’s an assumption 🤪
I was gonna say. I just go crazy. It's fun, op should try it.
No beer and no megafactories make homer something something...
It’s kinda like assuming a rust player isn’t a toxic terrorist who won’t slit your mothers throat for 2k gun power. They will. Hide your mother. And your gp.
"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always crazy"
Especially when the gameplay gets intense.
Satisfactory is as much a building game as an automation game. The large nice looking builds to some extent appeal to the same people who will build things block by block in Minecraft or assemble Lego sets with 4 figure piece counts. That said it can get repetitive at times. Building giant arrays of fuel generators are probably the worst, blueprints don't help much. It can also be good to take a break and do something else in game. While there are more efficient ways to get materials to a new factory I sometimes actually like to walk across the map and look at the scenery a bit.
"Not being able to save it to print again hurts me" That's where your disconnect is. Those of us who build large, elaborate structures do not ever want to print them again. Because the ability to do so would greatly diminish the value of what we accomplished. The point is the building. We enjoy making it. We enjoy *playing Satisfactory*. That's why it isn't burnout or demoralizing to us. Because this is what the game is and why we play it. If I could spend 3 weeks building and outpost and then just do it all again in 1 click I would hate that. Because I made that outpost with love and intentional design. It's a piece of art, not to be replicated instantaneously with a copy-paste prompt.
>Because I made that outpost with love and intentional design. It's a piece of art, Yes! Video games as an outlet for self-care and self-expression. Perfect.
It's great that you have a way of playing that you enjoy. But other's get pleasure from doing things differently. Your enjoyment is the art of spending three weeks building an outpost. Other's want to get their enjoyment in a different way. If there was a way to blueprint a larger area, it wouldn't prevent you from enjoying the game your way, but it would enable others to enjoy the game their way. Or are you saying there is only one way to play?
He is answering the question that was asked...
Journey before destination. Some of us enjoy building things. Some people enjoy having the thing that's been built, and it feels like they're the ones that run out of steam in Satisfactory a lot. If you're not enjoying the game "burnt out on it", etc then play it differently or play something else.
This. So much this.
This question is an inquisition into what "playing it differently" looks like. And I know what to do when I burn out on a game... Thanks tho?
You asked what people think about what you said. > it's really hard for me not to burn out in Satisfactory once I start wanting to make huge assembly lines. It's hard to give advice other than "play something else" because building huge assembly lines is what I enjoy doing in Satisfactory. It's why I play it - I can't imagine that causing a burnout. However "playing it differently" might mean building smaller factories and making them pretty or something. You do you. Have fun.
Maybe I misread the tone of your previous message and I apologize if I did. It seemed like a "if you don't like it than don't play", which I think rubbed me the wrong way. Either way, no hard feelings, I'm just trying to understand what top tier players are doing/what they are thinking.
As a not top tier player, if you're really gung ho about building a mega factory, break it up with trips for hard drives or switching from work on the mega factory to working on early logistics at the resources you'll need. Miners, drones that kind of thing. It'll help break up the monotony of the mega factory
Or maybe you just need need to git good lol. No, but for real, I got burned out and dropped the game fairly often when I was just starting out (first ~200 hours). But I kept getting better and better at the game and now I only stop playing whenever I feel like I accomplished everything I wanted to, and then wait for the next update or more ideas
Build in sections, it's not a race
my secret is that i was already crazy before i started
Came here looking for this response. Was not disappointed.
You can get pretty clever with the blueprints and save yourself a lot of time
This. I have modular machine banks that fit together, just add connecting conveyors. Also, blueprints for walls, roofs, truck ports, etc. Really, I can build a single assembly building in a half hour, the time consuming part is getting all of the logistics hookups in place.
Well first of all going crazy is definitely an option. Though usually that hits after the build when you’re trying to trouble shoot what got hooked up wrong to cause something to break. But answer is slowly. I’m building a 225 GW nuclear plant. I’ve been working on it for a few months now. Not continuously, but when I get the urge I hop on and build. Sometimes it’s all I do in the evenings for a week straight. Sometimes I don’t play at all for a week. Doing it all at once would be nuts. For blueprints, modularity is the key. Design blueprints that you can plop down and then easily connect. For example, I need 36 blenders. Now putting these down one by one and then hooking up the belts and pipes would be a pain. So I designed a 2 blender blueprint where crucially the pipes and belts can just be hooked to the next in line to form a manifold. Then I can quickly stick these down in 3 rows, zip in the belts and pipes and in 10 minutes I have a massive factory line set up. Same story with all the machines. A bit of blueprint design means you can lay down a very large factory very quickly. Finally remember that with Satisfactory the majority of the game is the building process. I don’t need to build this power plant, I want to because the process is what is fun.
I think the disconnect with Blueprints specifically is the difference in what they're used for between games. Factorio (a game I haven't played, to be clear) has blueprints that are mostly for expanding production. You copy a thing you just built that makes a product you need a lot of, then stamp down four more so you can make sufficient numbers of the thing you need. This works because (note this is an opinion I, again, have without having played the game and just skimmed the wiki) none of the parts look very complex in terms of what you need for an input. A lot of the most complex looking items seem to only have a couple intermediate products involved in their production (an electric engine, something that looks reasonably mid to late game, is at most like two or three steps from raw ore), so being able to make a huge number of those products is beneficial, meaning being able to quickly build those factories is optimal. Satisfactory, on the other hand, tends to have a pretty substantial total number of steps for even things as simple as motors, which requires at the minimum 13 different buildings if you aren't using alternate recipes. Thus, you're not building a factory producing one thing as you are building a number of subfactories producing individual components. Thus, the thrust of what you're doing isn't so much building big production lines, it's connecting those lines to the next in the sequence and figuring out the logistics of bringing together the various base materials involved. Thus, blueprints simplify basic construction more than anything. If you need a bunch of assemblers, you can make a blueprint that's two assemblers with all their inputs and outputs already wired in, meaning hooking them to the next unit in the series is all that's needed to bring that production unit online so you have more time figuring out how to bring the parts from area a to area b.
You don't. Megastructures are 99% built in the endgame, and even then they are built for an end game challenge goal that is a placeholder for the much more reasonable to obtain 1.0 ending that will be releasing this year. Experienced players do build larger structures in the early to mid game, but those are not much more than the shells that are carefully planned to house end game factories with a very small portion of the interior space actually utilized for production at construction time. The ability to plan that requires foresight and is only reasonable on repeat playthroughs to lower time spent rebuilding. The general strategy through early and mid game is to build dedicated production lines for each type of item from miner to container. You shouldn't need more than two to three machines at the final step of the production chain. Generally what I do early game to mid game is build the platform and factory first then build the building around it. I can then add floors and addons to that factory or build seperate buildings as needed.
> Megastructures are 99% built in the endgame Not really. I just build more. They become a bit bigger, but I never build a "Turbo Motor Factory" as a single thing. It will be more many smaller factories. So it depends on the player.
But in Factorio you need to keep building or the aliens will overwhelm you. And there is basically maintenance to do unless you're an expert player and automate your base perfectly. And you need to keep finding new resource fields. In Satisfactory, you can only ever lose your inventory. Nothing runs out. If you feel like building a 1 part per minute factory then do that. If you want, build a 0.5 ppm factory and spend the rest of the time fighting the wildlife. Or do the dishes, decorate your factories, it's always chill?
I think of it like a puzzle. How can I get *this ore* over to here so I can make *this*, *this*, and *this*. Then it becomes a game of placing this production facility to figure out the production rates, then how many do you want to make? Do I suddenly now have to hook up this other resource from 2km away so I can make this? Should I belt it, truck it, train it, or drone it? How should I connect the power? Do I even need this many water extractors? There are so many questions that you *get* to ask yourself, so then it becomes this giant puzzle that YOU are the mastermind behind.
My answer is, I don't stay motivated, I play when I feel like playing and end when I don't wanna play anymore, why would I stress myself with playing if I don't have fun? I mean that's what games are for, no?
Here's what you do Complete all 8 tiers ASAP Then you plan like 10 nuclear pasta/min among other space elevator parts for phase 4 Then you go crazy and meet the demands The blueprints are easy to snap together or on top of each other the more you fiddle with them and customize them Also remember they go vertical. You can fit 780 ore/min in 26 smelters and fit a collection system in a blueprint kinda easily tbh
The downside with this is, is that many people get stressed when rushing the game. And there is no time limit.
I really enjoy megaprojects as puzzles. Make a mega powerplant of nuclear reactors that maximizes usage of ore and has no waste thanks to particle accelerators; a base of drones, each attached to a resource so that I can summon any resource just by dropping a drone port; building trains that move resources and finished goods; a series of launch tube for moving you around the map. It all feels rewarding to complete each project. When 1.0 launches I am doing it all again, but pretty this time. I never feel crazy. Mostly giddy.
I do blueprints kinda modular, example, I build a 32x32 cube with 3 constructors and 3 storages, one of those storages is for the main base storage, to build what is needed, the other ones are to move them to another constructor if needed. If I need another one of that material, I put it just above it.
Hold down 'left control' and it'll snap buildings into alignment.
One bite at a time, as they say... Though I admit even my builds were less sizable than many here, it does take a few waves of focus for me to build anything. Plan out one element at a time, belt it, power it, test it. I have blueprints for different machines with manifolds set up in and out so I can crank out the larger fields in a few clicks and then spend my time scratching my head sending belts hither and thither. Larger blueprints seem clumsy, but I might plan out some modular cubes for basic elements next time. It does get daunting! But I get sad when the factory is all settled and there's no reason to watch and make sure that I'm not getting clogs or shortages anywhere. If you start feeling burnt out, give it some air. There's no time limit and you're only competing with yourself. Keep a good notepad somewhere handy so when you get distracted or bored or frustrated you can easily come back later. There's plenty else to do around the map, and plenty of other games to play. Keep hanging around the subreddit and you'll be inspired to come back soon. Good luck pioneer
I came from Minecraft. I build empty buildings and then have to figure out what to put inside them. One thing I did do is build a small blueprint for each pre node that makes it a like a little building instead of just the miner on the node. Just little things to make it fun. Build an assembly line to build something, regardless of the rates, and then look to expand while it’s making at least SOMETHING. This got me through the computer stage which was my personal roadblock the first time.
You have develop and standardize your design principles and building methods. Break things into smaller chunks, modules, steps. Take advantage of verticality in layout and design. Keep your nose to the wheel and don't look up much.
There aren't many things that I put in every factory in this game. There isn't a lot *to* blueprint. The only thing I do turn into blueprints are balancers, and certain machine setups that I'll need a lot of in ONE factory. Whenever the calculator tells me I'll need 150 assemblers for quickwire or silica, I'm not placing and connecting all that manually. I'll make a blueprint of 1 or 2 asseblers with all their connections and a mirror version. Even if I could put all 150 into a blueprint, why would I do that? There will be at most one more instance when that'll be useful, and even then I will need a different amount, and possibly split or manifolded in a different way. This game isn't as big as Factorio. At MOST you're going to place 15,000 machines total. And that's IF you have a high end PC. There are maybe 4 items that you might ever need over 10,000/min of. And they'll likely be spread across multiple factories scattered all over the map. The blueprints really would not dramatically speed up building, even at infinite size. Maybe double, triple at best. Which *is* a lot but nowhere near Factorio.
I usually just build for 2-4 hours a day, then take a break and play a different game
I wish I had the free time to play 4 hours a day then still look for another game lol
I take breaks. There are always a few things im working on at ablny given time. If i get bored i change to something else. And if i need a break from ALL the things im working on i just go get slugs and harddrives.
The fun is in the building, not making blueprints.
idk about anyone else but ive probs got a small dose of the 'tism so thats how.
There's always a price to pay for greatness. In this case our sanity.
I go crazy after building small structures. The crazy comes when I realise I have to expand said structure 🙃
It helps if you are already crazy going in.
Like a kid does build with Lego: 1 stone at a time. > feels like it would take a lot of effort and a lot of time. That is basically it. I do not use the Blue Printer at all. A lot of my time is placing things, see if it works, remove it and try something else, and then do that a few times, Then perhaps go back to the first again. There are times I spend 3 hours on placing a miner and decorate it. It is never finished. You just stop working on it. For me the whole part of the production is a side quest.
That's the neat part: you don't.
Large builds is a big part of this game, if you don’t enjoy it then you don’t enjoy a large part of this game. Games should be enjoyment
Just play it like factorio :D Even from 2d gameplay your own designs and enjoyment will emerge. Nobody cares if your factory is "instagram-worthy". If you want to turn the dune desert into one concrete slab and sprawl everything out on one level, then do that! Enjoy the game the way you like to play it :)
Break each project into small sections, and have several running at the same time at different stages. So you can go to a new area and start building a set of new factories, or add more floors to an existing project, or attach some flying platforms to the ground and do some decoration work. Or go exploring, or on a hard drive hunt, pet your doggos or build a scenic railway through some caves or cliffs. Or set up an experimental test rig to find the definitive answer to sloshing - good luck with that one! One big difference between Satisfactory and Factorio is that nothing is going to come and knock your factories down. There's no time pressure.
I would often spend like an hour or more planning a factory, calculator in hand and figuring out how many of each part I needed, what speed to have them on to achieve complete efficiency. And then fly around in a circle thinking about how to build it so I don't end up like "ah I probably should have though of that" and future proofing the factory (impossible). Then building it slowly turning it on and having 30 separate problems that compound and blow up my pc. But when everything went according to plan it was incredibly satisfying. Mind you, this process was not even for a mega factory, it was just for something like 10 heavy modular frames. I take forever to get started on new parts because I don't want to have to rebuild it or regret it, so it has to be completely perfect. (It never is...) So yes I go a little crazy. A little caka coko
Having played both games a LOT. 1) You don't need elaborate closed in factories. Mine are built on foundations that only attach at one point. Also, you can lock holograms and nudge. There are a bunch of little things you can learn that reduce the level of crazy. Also you can learn to love clipping. You still spend way more time building, but what and how you build evolved as you go up the tiers so it hadn't felt super repetitive. 2) The biggest difference in the games is visual. Satisfactory is pretty. It attracts people who want to put in more effort for things that look pretty. Who want to build complex 3D things that flow and move. Who want to explore a handcrafted, beautiful, world and build something that fits in it. Me? I like trains. So that's where I spend my time in both games. (Or in Minecraft for that matter). I do truly miss the artillery wagon, lol. But infrastructure networks are my jam, and the factories are just an excuse for me to build them.
My building style is time-consuming and difficult in most cases. However, I view this game as a sandbox Lego builder. Automation is a byproduct of building amazing structures that feel clean and alive. I build in a humorous way and only play the game if I have an idea of how the build should look. In my opinion, the game only favors you if you play with it irregularly. As a builder, I create blueprints for complex structures that I want to incorporate into my designs multiple times. For example, I've constructed a Sci-Fi Livepod integrated into my factory that delivers water to my machines. These blueprints seamlessly fit in and are reusable. I also enjoy freestyling lamps, even though they're not easy to assemble, to add character to my builds. My rule is to include something interesting in every room and on every wall. You can click on my profile where I already showcased some of my designs.
To be a Satisfactory builder, is to be a bit crazy.  But as others have said, for most its the enjoyment of the journey and what one learns during it. On another note, you can copy and paste in the save editor...
well.. you need to be crazy to begin with :D
Fellow former factorio ~~addict~~ player here. I get you on this, the two are quite different despite apparent similarities at first glance. I've not messed with the blueprint thing but I'm planning for it right now by building up nodes which are specced to max out whatever I'm feeding them, so if 1 iron mine gives me 240 ingots pm after smelting then I build a node for plates which eats 240 per minute. Idk how well its going to hold up but thats my plan, consume stuff at the rate I produce it and see what happens :P
I achieve zen while building mega factories, I love every second of it. The larger and more complex it becomes the more rewarding it is to look back on everything, it is the ultimate power fantasy.
For me, the trick is to do it piecemeal. For a huge project, I break it down into intermediate outputs that eventually combine into the final product. Either using different floors and building vertically, or different buildings. Having a separate level to run conveyors around in helps me keep it a bit cleaner. As for blueprints, keep in mind that you can overlap parts of blueprints when setting them down. I have a "standard" sub-floor/main-floor to my blueprints with steel-beam columns at the corners. Makes it easy to line 'em up when I just have to overlap the beams and connect. I have a hard time spreading things out, myself. Even though it's this massive world, I always find myself building compactly. Bites me in the ass sometimes when I want to expand or switch things up.
I do it step by step. I have a stupidly complex database wich calculates all demand per item. But the factory is so gigantic that even using blueprints takes months to build. And so every couple of days i build a couple of hours. But when i feel stressed. I just do a break for the next days. But you are right. Bigger blueprints are needed for that kind of projects.
Bold of you to assume they aren't crazy in the first place
Mess with the blueprint designer some more…. Ive been messing with it today and im getting the hang of it…. I am currently building a walkway system up on some high plateaus and I kept building similar pieces by hand until I remember it existed. I went from building 4 complete walkway section an hour to…. Well I’m basically done with it now! What I found is you have to set it up in the blueprint designer for bigger structure pieces where you can reliable snap onto other pieces, if it’s fully designed out (like beams right on the edge of the designer leave a small gap so it won’t snap) if its just floors I’m pretty sure you don’t need to do anything special. What I am planning to do with the big factory I’m about to start on is basically make corners, wall, and roof sections fully designed in the blueprint so when it’s time to snap it all together I can throw up a huge factory in a short amount of time. The walkway I did was modular, so I made base pieces with like extensions for various things (Hypertubes, zip lines etc) and after designing them up it took 20 mins to snap the whole thing together. Granted it did take a few hours to finish on the designer BUT I now have access to those pieces forever.
A little THC; a lot of neurodivergence. I started crazy.
Well, it is either go for my 4th playthrough save and sink another 1k hours into the game or sit in the dark and think of the wasted potential that is my life. I went for a really nice brutalism factory on my 4th save, totally love that architecture and I think it came out pretty decently. I am so looking forward to v1.0, hoping that it hits before summer...
Satisfactory building is more like Minecraft. Like designing a huge red barn with wheat blocks when inside it’s just a 4 tile cow crusher. It’s a different skill set / game honestly.
Blueprints are pretty flexible, and the nudge/build mode options help a lot. I built a fairly large structure where all of the external walls with their architecture was a blueprint, as well as complex floor sections, machines with their input lifts and splitters, as well as a bunch of other things that needed to be built multiple times. For external architecture, having multiple blueprint machines next to each other helps to visualise it all.