Increase Space Elevator demand

Question

The first few tiers of the Space Elevator were easily handcraftable. If the aim is to force me to automate - then the first few tiers of the game don’t really do that.

Suggestion

Keep the same items as now, but increase the demand by 10x or 100x.

That way I will actually feel a need to

1. Connect the belts
2. Increase my output
3. Maybe explore while I wait till it finishes

Comments

If game don't force you to automate all, for me it is only the plus. You can finish Factorio without even drones, but you can't  finish game when some mods are designed to force you build all automated mega scale factory. That is great - you can play what you like  and how you like. Try then play FortressCraft Evolved. At start you will think - fine game. Now play DLC frozen factory (still vanila game). Game force you to do things like x100 and x1000. Grats to people that don't leave game.

So all is about balance.

If you want - let mods give you hardcore progress, but not as base gameplay.

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Thanks for your comment and I appreciate your insight. Still I don't think this game is meant to be played without automation. My suggestion is in fact meant to make the game easier to play/progress - not harder, because it helps you to see why you need to automate at all.

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Suggesting to play another game, is BullSh*t!  How about sticking to the OP's original concern?

Personally, I agree.  The early game is WAY to easy.  I hope that the first version of the game is more balanced.

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I'm the maniac who crafted most of the tier 5&6 items by hand while still having some parts automated. I'd say between machines and me we did about 60-40. (me/machine) I do think maybe the first two teirs are a little light. The devs could go completely ham and have tiers all the way up until teir like 10 or 20 even. So yes it does seem cheep at the beginning but I'm okay with that.

Another thing to keep in mind is that those first few tiers are the foundation (lol) of every thing else you need to build. If you don't have those you can't build anything else. So it makes sense to get them pretty early for more intricate designs.

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I agree with the state the game is in. we have to remember this is an early access and there are more tiers to come. I would not be surprised if at full release there are over 10 or 20 tiers of content all with items to research to inflate the play time and fill the waiting periods for the automation. it may seem like the game needs to be harder to start but the reality is the game is likely only at the first 30% of the overall content they want to add. being able to to unlock the foundation tools quickly just lets you start building a base you actually need for later in the game is a good balance. and yes they may make it take more items down the road but in the end think of it this way.

you just got the game, you're excited and you want to start learning right away and maybe you want to explore too but you know that can always happen later or if you get bored. being forced to explore when you just want to start the grind or crave new content is horrible and feels like a waste of time. if all you want to do is craft and work and not run around a new game not knowing what to horde or what to look for then you need the option to just stand at the work bench and craft items. and this needs to be effective enough that you can a get a tier or two before you feel the need to start automating, or even just unlock automation to begin with. some gamers just don't care about exploring right away and that means the beginning of the game needs to be fast with lots of real progress. if you want to automate and look around then do it. but making the game force automation means that some players will think the game is slow and boring and won't craft items because from the start of the game you're taught this is a horrible slow idea.

Answer 1

The game is in Alpha, during Alpha parameters of the game are set to enable faster gameplay to provide better feedback across all content versus the bulk of feedback being limited to early game. When they get closer to release expect them to focus on final balancing. The goal right now is the creation of features and content to figure out where the technical problems lie.

Comments

I'm on your side and I agree that's where the goal should be. Balancing should be done towards the end. I just wanted to throw it out there, instead of assuming things will be fixed without community feedback ;)

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I think Karyonite's take is good. After unlocking everything, including every alternate recipe "There are no new recipes available, your harddrive has been returned to you.." (thank you btw for not just burning the harddrive) I'm left with a factory where I'm continually building new storage for the horde of supercomputers, motors and other higher-level items. In the beginning those items seemed hard to get, but now I just want to have something I can use the fruits of my labor towards. So anyways, yeah - I'd echo Karyonite's sentiment on the matter.