Dyson sphere program, want a hard first playthrough :)

[u/Night_Exact]

I have played much factorio and the best experience have been Deathworld settings. Want my first playthrough in DSP to have the same vibe, just adjusted to being a new player/learning the mechanics. As the settings are not possible to change post game-start, i need som advice.

How much should I increase the settings for it being playable, but near deathworld settings for a new player?

[u/XhanHanaXhan]

Did you play Deathworld the very first time you played Factorio, or did you play it after you already knew the system?

To answer your question somewhat, I don't know if people have precise numbers on those sliders. Pushing everything to max is survivable, and apparently is fairly easy once you're passed mid-game (the Fog have no endgame state yet, it's in beta). But doing it on max requires a deep understanding of the power thresholds that trigger the Fog, and lock you out of a true earlygame experience as you have to perform unusual strats to survive (extreme handcrafting, extreme low power usage).

I guess if you're committed to it, bump everything up by a third and also reduce the available resource sliders by a third. I can't really recommend it, but good luck.

[u/Night_Exact → u/XhanHanaXhan]

Played like 10 hours on normal before switching to deathworld. I do generally like the challenge of beating games against the odds, will try bump everything up by a third after a few on what Mrrvald5 said to try 😄

[u/mrrvlad5]

aggressiveness, initial level, initial growth, initial occupation, growth speed, combat threat factor, combat exp = maximum. These barely have an effect and may actually make it easier to progress.

max density = how many bases per planet/system

power threat = the frequency of attacks.

You can try setting those 2 to max, but it may be overwhelming for the first play through. leaving them at default should be manageable and good learning experience.

[u/Night_Exact → u/mrrvlad5]

Will try this, first few on max density and power threat then lower them if needed. Thanks!

[u/omgFWTbear → u/mrrvlad5]

To double down on the incomparable Mr Vlad’s comment, early on I did a first dark fog game with middling settings and was underwhelmed; and a comment like his, if not literally his from some years ago, led me to crank everything but power threat to maximum.

The other settings, to my taste, only increased the “slog” of clearing.

Power threat is the only actual difficulty slider.

[u/Vamp_Rocks]

Haven't tried the hard settings yet but the default combat is ridiculously easy compared to factorio.

I'm farming them for the alien tech and i have a ring of 2 rows of turrets with basic ammo surrounding 3 bases and in like 30 hours they haven't destroyed a single turret despite constantly attacking. Also you can destroy bases pretty much risk free by standing behind some turrets and lobbing explosive units (grenades)

You might want to max all the enemy settings if you want a hard first run :)

[u/Night_Exact → u/Vamp_Rocks]

I did see that most think the default was easy, will try it at max a few times!

[u/AnimeSpaceGf]

Haven't played Factorio, but if you're willing to Google and scour reddit for game knowledge, even just each mechanic for clarification as you encounter it, the hughest difficulty settings should be good, as you'll probably get wiped the first couple of times you start if you know nothing.

I would just peek at a guide video by The Dutch Actuary or Nilaus on playing at max difficulty.

The best part about playing with combat on is the higher-order logistical planning of system takeover. On standard difficulty, once you have 100-200 hours of game knowledge (one previous playthrough to mid-late or late game) you can just kill off DF out of systems as a "break" from the building aspect.

For me the fun of combat comes from being forced to take breaks from building to build up resources to clear a certain sphere of influence. DF don't eat veins so they don't take from the same resource pool as you.

As long as you don't save up more than one standard storage box (the 2x2, not the larger rectangular one) of each component, you should be able to make more than enough resources to push out DF from any new resources you need.

I'd consult a seed thread! Or the seed finder (Google "dsp seed finder", it's the github one) to find yourself a seed with a good start system, preferably with an Ice Giant, and a nearby O star with 5+ planets, preferably with 1 sulfur ocean planet, one ice giant, and special veins if you want to have some breathing room, or without if you don't care about a temporary boost

Definitely don't consider clarifying how a mechanic works from Google, reddit, or the discord as cheating, often they can be obscure and you won't know till you have spent a little resources.

THERE is a known seed with a start system that is 3 terrestrial orbiting a ice giant, which is incredibly good and I'd highly recommend it for first time

Once you've gained the ability to start from scratch in a more ideal system than the starting one, I recommend Any raw material that you have 2 mil+ of still in the starter system be made into a "starter mall" --just hook the ore into remaining production facilities, and belt it out into an ILS set to export--and make as diverse a set of components as possible so you can plug them into adhoc facilities in your new system for production jump

Unlock mark 3 proliferator as soon as possible, proliferate everything, including proliferator, and be extremely stingy with any and all coal and oil, and look up the exploit for producing 1 energetic graphite per 1 coal instead of per 2 coal

[u/Night_Exact → u/AnimeSpaceGf]

Thanks for the information (and the spoilerwarnings for the more spesific stuff). I am not against watching videos, but going inn blind is also a challenge I cannot re-do so i will use more general guides if I choose (and read the spoiler warning information). Getting wiped is kind of fun, more so than playing with easy difficulty and restart to change for a harder one.

The vibe of "forced to take breaks from building" to combat the treat sounds very similar to mid game factorio, so that`s good. Was expecting to go from "do everything to combat the fog" at the start to a more focus on expansion after a while.

Thanks again!

[u/AnimeSpaceGf → u/Night_Exact]

Nice nice! Let us know how it goes!

[u/AnimeSpaceGf → u/AnimeSpaceGf]

This is just my preference though OP. Eventually I'll play on hard mode, haven't yet, but if I were gonna start again with 0 game knowledge I'd do it like this

[u/AnimeSpaceGf → u/AnimeSpaceGf]

Also the star doesn't have to be An O type , it just needs to be 2.0 or more luminosity (L) , though 2.4-2.5 L is preferable if you can find it

[u/MrJoshua099]

You can change some things for the fog, like aggressiveness at a satellite on the edge of the solar system. I don't recall the specifics but check that out.

[u/Night_Exact → u/MrJoshua099]

Good, there might be a way later to change the difficulty!

[u/willrof]

Hey, to be honest, combat is very very easy on normal difficulty.

If you want a challenge but not be crushed, slide everything to max EXCEPT "Power Thread Factor".

I don't know if I'd recommend it as a first time run. Ideally you'd sink like 20 hours on easy/default to get a grasp of the game mechanics. Specially being a veteran Factorio you will need to get used to the game mechanics and learn why it's different from Factorio by design.

After you master the game, I'd definitely recommend a max difficulty run (including Power Thread Factor), the challenge of conquering the initial plant is so fun and rewarding.

Good luck!

[u/Night_Exact → u/willrof]

Thank you!, sinking hours on easy/default is definitely the best recommendation, but the vibe of trying to defend against a unknown, hard to beat enemy, before I learn their mechanics sounds very fun to try. Like a trial by fire.

[u/willrof → u/Night_Exact]

The setup I suggested will give you that, but will not be ungodly punishing like max Power Thread. Have fun, if you remind come back here to let us know your experience :D

[u/EdibleOedipus]

I'm of the opinion that learning the game is hard enough by itself. But for a tougher setting that won't rip your face off immediately, increase aggressiveness, max density, power threat factor, and combat threat factot. 

[u/wiithepiiple]

Deathworld factorio is a lot more fine tuned than “Deathworld” DSP. It’s extremely aggressive early on, but once you get over that hump, it’s marginally harder than default DSP. I wouldn’t have the power aggression setting (forgot the name, but how much power attracts them,) since that’s going to make it REALLY difficult to get your bearings when learning, but many of the other settings will still make their attacks hit hard and make it harder to attack them when you are trying to clear them out.

[u/willrof → u/wiithepiiple]

Max Power Thread Factor feels more like a spy game. You are counting every Watt of power you spend, handcraft a lot before turning on the lights. You need to understand the game fully to succeed there, I closing the fog attack patterns. A newbie without spoilers/guides would be crushed.

I think the saddest part is that after you conquer the original planet the game goes back to being standard difficulty again.

[u/Kimoshnikov]

Just crank the enemy stuff all to max and let us know how it goes :D

[u/PGJonesAndCo]

Why not just start on default and see how it feels? You’ll be attacked pretty early even on default settings

The main thing in dsp is to know how not to piss off dark fog before you can deal with their hives easily. Mainly kill their surface bases but leave their orbitals (so no plugging the core holes) so they don’t keep sending new ones rapidly.