Any advice for Pyanodon?

[wary hamlet]

(Will try to keep the story brief; skip to the bottom for the questions.)

My partner recently got me into Factorio. She has 1,000 hours of experience, and I am new with no knowledge of the game. We did a quick playthrough of the base game where she speed-ran us through, sort of explaining the game but not too much. She is now throwing me into the deep end of Pyanodon with her, and as someone who was already lost, I am even more lost somehow. She is first-timing Pyanodon with me, but she is quickly understanding things while I am not. I want to secretly learn more without asking her too much to surprise and help her. We are developed enough to have trains and are working on stations outside our starter base. I have been doing the game-given tutorials, but it's still somewhat different from what we seem to be doing, though not too much. I am currently attempting to learn everything about trains.

Is there any general advice or guidance I could be given? Recommended tutorials? Possible blueprints? Maybe even someone showing me how to do certain things if it isn't too much? There is no advice too small if I can help and support my partner in her Factorio gaming. Please and thank you to anyone who can help.

[lapis lance]

Build city blocks (irregular blocks are really good, the first person to beat PyAE used them). This will help you deal with all of Pyanodon's intermediates.

Also there's a Pyanodon's discord, might want to ask in there: https://discord.gg/SBHM3h5Utj

[wary hamlet]

Thank you so much

[rose glen]

Is there any general advice or guidance I could be given?

Usually, I would tell players to :

• play with other people of the same "level", because you risk that the more experienced one will take over and pilot the game for the rest
• stay away from overhaul mod, especially pyanodon's, until you have a good grasp of the game, otherwise you are gonna be overwhelmed.

You seem to be experiencing those two things, and this is gonna hinder your enjoyment of the game.

I think she is probably doing this to get closer to you, but this bear repeating : you are in for a bad time

But if you are using the game as a bonding exercise, that changes things a little.
Just keep in mind, it's like you just got convinced by an experienced climber to follow them on their first climb to mount Everest, just because this is in their eyes a unique experience that they want you to partake in.

Now, from what I gather, she roped you into this not so that you can share into the experience, but more to witness it.
If your agree with this, and this doesn't sit right with you, my first suggestion would be to tell here, and share how you are feeling about the whole ordeal.

I want to secretly learn more without asking her too much to surprise and help her.

That's another option. I would just make sure to watch out for :

• burnout. You are gonna have to put more hours into the game on your own to try and catch up. If you don't feel like doing it anymore, don't push through blindly, reassess first.
• spoilers. Don't go looking for full play through and copy stuff blindly, because not only would you spoil the game for yourself, but also for your partner, who probably want to tackle those challenge head on. Also, if you come up with something, she's probably gonna probe you on how you came up with it, and not being able to explain how you designed something is a dead giveaway that you copied it.

[wary hamlet]

Regarding witnessing the experience rather than sharing it:

I completely understand and I'm fine with that. Even though I sometimes feel like a slightly more advanced cargo/construction bot, I am still enjoying everything that's happening. It's a unique experience and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Regarding burnout:

Burnout isn't a major issue for me, but what sometimes hurts is not understanding everything at first, which obviously comes with learning. I spend a long time trying to understand certain aspects, like trains and train systems. I have a decent grasp of vanilla trains and their intricacies, but the mods really do make it a slightly different experience. I'm not complaining though—I enjoy the challenge. My partner and I are in this Pyanodon server for the long run, so I'm trying my best to get comfortable with the chaos.

Regarding spoilers:

I really don't want to spoil myself. I'm more interested in understanding things rather than just copying and pasting blueprints that I don't understand. Not to say I haven't done that in the very beginning, but not understanding something frustrates me.

So far, my main challenge at the moment is just trains—specifically making loading and unloading stations. Also, my partner wants all byproducts made to be stored as well when we make something on site. The screenshot above is an example of one she made. I'm slowly learning, but it is a challenge for sure. Not just learning how to do it, but learning specifically how she would do it.

Thank you again for your advice and any further guidance you can provide.

[rose glen]

Well you can't just get thousands of hours of experience downloaded into your brain matrix style, so I think you'll have to settle with playing catch up for some times.

But at least you have the right mindset, so use that to your advantage.

As you learn the different system (belts, bots, trains, circuits network, fluid, modules, ...) you'll come to understand that there is no perfect setup, only trade-offs.

So as you learn the systems, challenge you're partner on why they use it a certain way. It will deepen your understanding, and might even help you come up with better solutions, because you will be able to point to the weaknesses in her designs.

I would like to provide specific examples of questions, but without seeing the whole base and knowing the full list of mods (because just with your screenshot I can see that this isn't just pyanodon), I can't be pertinent.

And if you feel lost, try and slow the pace down, and have your partner bring you up to speed. We can help you understand trains for instance, but don't you think she should be the one to do that ?

In any case, don't hesitate to look at the pinned comments on the relevant channels, plus ask the bot with +faq in #bot-stuff, you'll have a lot of resources you can use a jump off point.

And if you are confused with the trains, first get a good grip on the rails system (train signals), then look up LTN, which is a mod you have installed that overhauls the sheduling system of the trains.

As far as the station design, again I see lot's of mods in this picture, so it's difficult to recommend something.

[wary hamlet]

I didn't know if I could get the list of mods from anywhere else in text form, so I just took a screenshot of the mods list.

This Discord has really been helpful so far in helping me learn a little more.

I would have to ask my partner, but maybe I could provide the save file we have if you really want to take a look at everything we (mostly my partner) have done.

I believe there is a train tutorial in the game, and when I find it, I will add it to my list of things to do. As intimidating as trains and rail systems seem to be, I don't think they are too bad.