This is my first free-play game of Factorio. I've built a bunch of technologies, and I'm starting to think about what I'll need to build the rocket silo. It looks like I'm going to need a whole bunch of basic resources, plus a few hundred alien artifact orbs.
Question: is it going to be necessary for me to build a railway in order to get enough resources to build the rocket pod? Can I fudge it with, y'know, a few mining bases and a long conveyor belt, or will I be collecting resources from all over the map?-
Question: what is necessary to get a few hundred alien artifact orbs? Can I do this with leapfrogging laser turrets, or do I need to research the power armor II and get a bunch of capsules? How many alien bases will I need to clean out to get this many orbs? EDIT: Alien artifacts no longer exist as of 0.15
Best Answer
Here's what happened:
No, it was not necessary to build a railway to launch the rocket. My copper did run out at one point, so I built a copper mining outpost and hooked it up to my base with conveyor belts. My iron never ran out.
No, it was not necessary to research or build guns or power armor. I cleared out some nearby bases with laser turrets -- basically, I killed the ones that seemed likely to smell my pollution and attack -- and that was more than sufficient to research the rocket. I didn't get a close look at the aliens because my turrets mostly killed them when they were off screen, but it didn't look like they had evolved significantly.