u/WittyOG

Just unlocked plastic and rubber (I have like 300 hours in the game and this is my 4th playthrough) and I don’t know if I should target dropsites with plastic so I can get to fuel generators, or just setup the plastic and rubber now, and make petroleum coke from the HOR, and either sink it or burn it in coal generators for an extra ~500 MW. Or look for plastic in dropsites and get that fuel power milestone and then use the HOR for diluted fuel and get way more power?

What’s your take on early plastic and rubber? What’s your strategy to get started?

For example, once you unlock Tier 5 belts, you don't need a massive aluminum setup right away, you can just grab 5 or 6 Alclad sheets from a crash site drop pod (or buy a handful from the awesome shop). That tiny piece of Mk.5 belt is enough to instantly pull 600 ore out of a pure node without burning through a ton of resources. This simple tweak saved me tons of high tier materials while maximizing my resource output instantly.

Guessing people have stumbled upon it because of the “no screws” mantra, but I never cared about screws beyond making sure to make them out of ingots and not rods, but Steel Rotor is a godsend it turns out. I still can’t quite put my finger on why beyond stators and rotors using the same inputs with it and the crazy reduction in volume throughput. Screw throughput has always been a thorn in my side due to small belts volumes in the early game. Anyways, long story short, Steel Rotors are as good an alt recipe as iron wire or cast screws for me now.

Where do you guys think is the best lighting and vibe in the game for building factories? I’m building in the dune desert by the sandy red planet vibes are not that great imo. In previous playthroughs I’ve gotten to tier 6 in the northern forest and tier 7 in rocky desert/western coast, but they were always tough late game with all the resources needed, so this time I decided on Dune desert. It’s an easy playthrough resource wise, but the vibes are all off. The red tints at dusk and dawn, the dusty sand animation is annoying when I’m inside my walled factory, vibrant hues get dull and red, etc. I’m at the point where I can start building fast and with good blueprints, so any help would be appreciated before I start building the mega base.