Advice I would have wished for when I started playing:



Take your time when generating a new map. It may cause frustrating gameplay in early-game.
These are the parameters that enabled me to play how I like after tweaking:


- Cliffs:
Cliffs block anything, and you can only remove them in mid-game.
They can be intersting, as you have to build around them and they help with defending against hostiles, but if you are a perfectionist it will often force you to move entire factory sections, which is tedious in early-game.
I enjoyed not having to worry about them when I deactivated them on my 3rd map.

- Starting area:
Once pollution reaches hostile bug bases, they will start an attack. If you are not prepared well enough, you may loose parts of your factory. So if you just want to build your factory and not care about defense, you should increase the starting area. That moves hostile bases further away from you, which will make pollution take longer to reach them and give you more time to build the factory and defense.

- Peaceful mode:
If a bigger starting area is not enough, you should consider activating peaceful mode.
It will stop the bugs from attacking, until you attack them.

- Resource settings:
These will determine how often you may have to move mining fields and how many fields you need.

- Research queue:
Enabling research queue right at the beginning will save you some klicks and enable better organisation.
A handy feature that has no real reason to activate only in late-game.


After generating the map to your liking, you automate item production and research new technologys to enable more advanced items.
I used to just research as much as possible, to get to all the crazy advanced items.
My crafting tab was full of items I didn't know and most of them I couldn't even craft because of missing previous technologys.
I was frustrated and overwhelmed when thinking about learning how to (automatically) craft all the required items.
So my recommendation is to take your time researching and learning how to use one techology at a time.
Everything will start making much more sense when you know all the technologys.



Once I restarted on a map generated with all the optimized parameters and approached the technologys systematically, I got the hang of Factorio.
It's an addicting game, but at the same time it can be very educational as well. Once you start calculating complicated ratios, desiging circuits, optimising and automating everything, you automatically train your complex thinking and calculating.

Advice I would have wished for when I started playing: Take your time when generating a new map. It may cause frustrating gameplay in early-game. These are the parameters that enabled me to play how I like after tweaking: - Cliffs: Cliffs block anything, and you can only remove them in mid-game. They can be intersting, as you have to build around them and they help with defending against hostiles, but if you are a perfectionist it will often force you to move entire factory sections, which is tedious in early-game. I enjoyed not having to worry about them when I deactivated them on my 3rd map. - Starting area: Once pollution reaches hostile bug bases, they will start an attack. If you are not prepared well enough, you may loose parts of your factory. So if you just want to build your factory and not care about defense, you should increase the starting area. That moves hostile bases further away from you, which will make pollution take longer to reach them and give you more time to build the factory and defense. - Peaceful mode: If a bigger starting area is not enough, you should consider activating peaceful mode. It will stop the bugs from attacking, until you attack them. - Resource settings: These will determine how often you may have to move mining fields and how many fields you need. - Research queue: Enabling research queue right at the beginning will save you some klicks and enable better organisation. A handy feature that has no real reason to activate only in late-game. After generating the map to your liking, you automate item production and research new technologys to enable more advanced items. I used to just research as much as possible, to get to all the crazy advanced items. My crafting tab was full of items I didn't know and most of them I couldn't even craft because of missing previous technologys. I was frustrated and overwhelmed when thinking about learning how to (automatically) craft all the required items. So my recommendation is to take your time researching and learning how to use one techology at a time. Everything will start making much more sense when you know all the technologys. Once I restarted on a map generated with all the optimized parameters and approached the technologys systematically, I got the hang of Factorio. It's an addicting game, but at the same time it can be very educational as well. Once you start calculating complicated ratios, desiging circuits, optimising and automating everything, you automatically train your complex thinking and calculating.