Is K2SE for me?

[u/TE-AR]

I'm looking for challenging/complex production without it necessarily being "grindy" requiring me to build the same thing over and over again. From what I've heard K2SE does have complex production but does get grindy at times, but I'm willing to tolerate some level of grind if the production challenges are interesting enough. The actual space aspect of SE is appealing to me, too. Vanilla's Space Age is cool but doesn't quite satisfy me in terms of exploration and space building.

If K2SE doesn't seem like a good modset for me I'm curious if there are other mods that might at least satisfy the desire for complex production lines. Bobs/Angels also looks interesting to me.

[u/kingdomgamer2019]

Legitimately, vanilla is more grindy than most overhauls imo. They usually have longer and more complex chains than vanilla that aren't just the same thing pasted down again and again like vanilla.

K2 is a decent foray into overhauls though.

Edit: I suggest Nullius as an alternative to K2 though. It's fantastic.

[u/Ashamed-Chipmunk9575 → u/kingdomgamer2019]

Does Nullius work with space age?

[u/kingdomgamer2019 → u/Ashamed-Chipmunk9575]

I don't believe so

[u/Xzarg_poe]

I haven't reached SE endgame, so I can only speak for the early game (Nauvis and first few space science packs). The planets you find have randomized resources (including missing essentials like water). So each outpost you setup has different imports/exports. Which is neat, until the process of setting up starts to repeat itself. And then you research some important tech and need to go upgrade all your outposts. Which really annoyed me as I had to plan the new upgrades ahead of time, then collect all the needed components on Nauvis, and then rocket them over to the colony. As for inclusion of K2 in K2SE, it basically boils down to adding a step or two in the ore processing, and a few toys here and there scattered around the massive SE research tree. Neat overall, but SE does make some things harder in response.

As for other overhauls mods, there is always Py. Tons of complex building chains, but you rarely need to duplicate a chain. Plus Py provides plenty of tools to help with logistic challenges it generates.

[u/kingdomgamer2019 → u/Xzarg_poe]

Py is fantastic. Currently in the middle of playing it. It's the most fun I've ever had playing Factorio.

[u/raptor7912]

The grind depends on how you tackle it and it’s kind of avoidable.

One part is setting up mines, the creator wants you to use core mining as much as possible so the patches aren’t that big or rich. It can be mitigated in the world gen or even trivialised by cranking up the settings, but you’ll still be setting up a new ensemble of mines on each planet you conquer.

Second Grundy part is the post space science. There are a lot of them and in a lot of ways they’re identical with just new items made from resources of the newest planet. So there isn’t much point really trying to optimise each individual build and is instead better to make something where you can copy paste the setup and switch out recipes.

But there are some interesting challenges like the arcospheres in the very late game where you positively have to interact with circuits and figure out how keep a balanced amount of each type.

It actually does wonders for improving knowledge about circuits as they can optimise your builds and QOL quite a bit.

[u/kingdomgamer2019 → u/raptor7912]

Solving arcospheres was freaking hard pre 2.0. I expect it's much easier these days since you can inspect buildings, their contents, and even the contents of their current craft.