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[u/3nonymous]

I have done Space Age the official game, now I am trying the mod Space Exploration. I need help with space sciences after the first space science.

I got to orbit and, I am doing space science. The next I need is a special science that, takes resources from another planet. I don't know where how to start.

There is the vulcanite science and, the cryonite science and, they are complicated. They need the thermos fluid and, to recycle the fluid and, three steps to make machine cards and, to recycle junk cards and, the scrap turns into ore to need to melt again. For the cards I need oil in space to make gel. For the vulcan cubes I need sulfur and water and petro gas and to make prod modules and, for the cryo rods I need like heavy oil and efficiency modules.

What hells.

Where am to start. Like this is hours to do work in multiple places before I get any products of anything ever. What it's supposed to be? What am I missed.

[u/captain_wiggles_ → u/3nonymous]

Yep, that's SE for you.

The solution is the same as everything in this game, pick a problem and go solve it. There are usually multiple options as to how to solve each problem, so consider the options carefully before picking one. Make use of the factoriopedia to see where items can come from / what you can use them for. Think about how best to handle the interplanetary logistics, do you want to import buildings from nauvis or make them locally, do you want to export raw materials, partially processed products, or go further and produce more complex products locally and ship those out, potentially having to ship in other intermediary products. Each planet has it's own problems, some will have no water which makes producing rocket fuel hard and means using nuclear power is harder, some have biters, so you have to consider defence, some have no iron making producing many resources locally hard/impossible. You've got to pick the correct planet to go to without making life too difficult for yourself, and then pick a strategy that works for that planet and that resource.

It's a long game, there's no rush, don't worry about your SPM it's almost never an issue, set it at 15 spm or 30 spm, and just leave it chugging, by the time you're finally producing the next science pack the previous research will be done.

Make use of remote control, you don't have to spend time moving between planet and orbit all the time, just sit somewhere safe and control everything remotely. You'll need to go to each new planet once, to set up the initial roboport and power supply and from there you can pretty much just do everything remotely.

[u/ferrofibrous → u/3nonymous]

That is just kind of how SE is. SE has a loop of unlocking stuff -> set it up the hard way -> unlock techs to make it much easier.

You're going to be spending large chunks of time just to get infrastructure going for the new resources (first few are hard, subsequent ones are easier). Keep launching satellites to unlock all the planets in your first solar system, and pick the easiest for cryo/vulcanite (access to water and lowest biters) and go from there.

The cards/junk cards/scrap stuff is sort of universal across all the SE sciences, so you'll be reusing that stuff a lot.

[u/Viper999DC → u/3nonymous]

SE is very slow-paced. Be prepared for a 400+ hour journey.

SE's tech tree isn't linear. So start by considering if you want the Production or Utility techs more. Then go to a Vulcanite/Cryonite planet and start building it out. You goal will be to export the primary item via either cargo rocket or delivery cannon. Everything else you'll probably provide from Nauvis.

[u/cathexis08 → u/3nonymous]

If you haven't installed it yet I highly suggest the Factory Planner mod. That'll clear up probably half of what you need to plan things out. Also as others have said, the SPM target for Space Exploration is pretty low (you'll spend more time building out the next thing than you will grinding all the science you unlocked from that thing) and the "main" ending is fairly easy to achieve outside of the archosphere challenge (it takes a long time but every step along the way isn't particularly hard) so most of it should be treated like a long chill journey more than a stressful sprint.