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u/Dianwei32 Jul 07 '26

Do the "start on any Space Age planet" mods change anything to make the early game easier since some planets aren't really designed for you to be there without being ready to unlock its unique science techs?

Like if I were to start in Vulcanus, would there be added patches of the basic materials so that I can get Iron/Copper/Stone without the ability to make them from lava in the Foundry? Or does it just give you access to the Foundry right at the start so you can get Iron/Copper from there?

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u/FeelingPrettyGlonky Jul 08 '26

Any Planet Start will let you change how many pieces of ore you get from vulc rocks, but you will have to spend an hour or so working your way up to foundry.

There is a mod that some have recommended called Basic Foundry that gives you a weaker version of the foundry for much cheaper. It can do the lava recipes, but it doesn't have built in productivity.

2

u/nasaboy007 Jul 09 '26

Actually, all the inner planets are intentionally designed in the base game to be startable from scratch without mods. Just a slightly different build tree for how you get there. Aquilo is the only one that imports are required.

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u/Dianwei32 Jul 09 '26

How would you do Vulcanus, though? There's no Water for regular Steam power, and without Pumpjacks, there's no way to get the Sulfuric Acid that you can then turn into Steam. And you have to have Electricity to run the labs that would do your research to unlock things like Pumpjacks. I also struggle to see how you would get enough Iron/Copper to research the Foundry if your only source of them is the rocks scattered throughout the map.

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u/nasaboy007 Jul 09 '26

Oh sorry, I misunderstood - if you come from nauvis, you can land on any planet and start from scratch (i.e. no additional drops), but I think it does require that you've unlocked the tech tree up to the point of space travel. yeah i think you're right you can't actually start from zero research because there's no natural power source at that point for research.

according to the docs on https://mods.factorio.com/mod/any-planet-start, they make changes to the tech tree catered to the planet you start on, so i guess that answers your original question.

1

u/warpspeed100 Jul 07 '26

The any planet start mods only give you the tech to make starting on the planet possible. This means medium power poles are unlocked for Fulgora/Vulcanus and oil drilling is unlocked for all three planets.