Organized Early Game Scaling | Step-By-Step 2024 Masterclass | #2

This is a step-by-step "Play Along" guide on Dyson Sphere Program, 2024 / combat update proof. Blueprints included!
This episode: A powerful starting facility for all your early game needs!
This run will be focused on
- Explaining the strategy
- No Spaghetti
- Easy to use layouts and blueprints
This playstyle is extremely organized and will focus on efficiently scaling, step by step, towards the endgame. Optimizing is what we do here!
It is definitely not the only way to play, so I encourage you to try things out for yourself as well!
Don't forget to like the video if you find it useful, and subscribe to see the rest :)
SEED: 6580 0462
Blueprints in this episode:
(Base from episod 1)
www.dysonsphereblueprints.com...
www.dysonsphereblueprints.com...
(new builds episode 2)
www.dysonsphereblueprints.com...
www.dysonsphereblueprints.com...
www.dysonsphereblueprints.com...
About the game:
Dyson Sphere Program is currently in Early Access and updated on a regular basis. Despite being in early access, it is extremely polished and complete, so I highly recommend you checking out the game if you are a fan of Factorio, Satisfactory or other building/management/factory games.
I am not sponsored in any way - Just a big fan of the game.
CHECK OUT MY UPDATES ON DSP:
• Updates - Dyson Sphere...
#DysonSphereProgram #Letsplay #Blueprint #Tutorial #Guide

[@TheDutchActuary]

It's amazing to me how little use a mall is in the early game, having built one of those dozens of time pretty much from the start. I rarely miss it until the ILS phase!

[@BeenThrDunThat]

Yea i too recently switched approach on doing the big mall and waiting until basically got through yellow. Especially if you farm the enemies a bit (my play through on this seed number gave me 4 bases somehow), you can get quite a few materials to build buildings from the farmed items. It's pretty handy. I have tried all flavors of mall building approaches and my goto/favorite is distribution bot based which really works only after a bit of research into distribution range. So that opens up a bit after yellow. So for me it works to wait.

[@dz1480]

In my current universe i was rushing for Planetary Logistic Drone to build a ""remote" mall". No need for standardmall until now.... except for drones, belts and sorters. at this point i dunno if "remote" is the correct Term.^^

[@OhmIsFutile]

I tend to agree, but there are some things, especially belts, that are used a lot and fairly easy to build... I also don't make a full mall until later, but belts in particular I tend to automate very early

[@sethryclaus]

There's a really nice compromise using a direct-insertion base - as belts and sorters have the problem you note: "that's actually a lot of things to build". I have a throw-away blue science base that I build on the starting 100k nodes. I have memorised the first few bits that get me the first level of blue-prints and then I just plop it down. Since it is direct insertion, it's super easy to finish quickly. I think I've had red-science running at 40 mins. I made it to try for the speed achievement.

[@dz1480]

@@sethryclaus Did you get the Archievment? Its kinde my newest Archivment and i had 6 min left after Landing on the second Planet; rushing to blue & red with only the researches i'll need for MEcha drive (Blue at 8 min, red at 19),

[@Asankeket]

It can't be stressed enough how useful the "wasteful" silicon-from-stone recipe is. It may be wasteful and go against the grain of our "efficiency in production" mindset, but of all resources you have on your home planet stone has always been the one I exhausted last, so really: make silicon from stone in the early game in significant quantities, in order to make processors, signal towers and suchlike early.

[@elskirvo]

You make this game look so easy. Not rushing to blast off to the second planet really does give you time to prepare and there's a lot you can do before relegating yourself to titanium trucker duties. The game throws more than enough stone at you to make that initial silicon so might as well. Enjoying this series so far!

[@sneezyfido]

In my first fun I was a bit ocd about harvesting all the rocks and trees while waiting on research etc. That landed me hundreds of titanium and organic crystals. I did make some bad mistakes, like laying my production northward and burning an insane amount of oil just to keep hydrogen flowing. Tomorrow I will probably do a fresh start

[@TheDutchActuary]

Lumberjack Icarus? :D Well at least i hope you got the achievement for getting all those raw resources!@@sneezyfido

[@sneezyfido]

@@TheDutchActuary sure did! I should warn of a quirk: While I was doing this, I felt a rising urge to sing a jolly song and wear a dress. It felt good, though.

[@TheDutchActuary]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKTLhmhuo65jitU :D :D@@sneezyfido

[@Yardiff]

Nice to wake up to. /thumbsup Regarding soil pile, my favorite go-to is/was a large square of belt “dots” (single belts that go nowhere) fairly widely-spaced. They go down reasonably quickly and there’s never any complaints about trying to put a building down on water or holes in the terrain. Now to rewatch this a few times. :)

[@Hockeyking86]

There are a ton of KZbinrs that I’ve followed for all my factory games and I’m happy to say that after this video and stumbling upon your perfect ratio videos, you’re earning another subscriber. Thanks mate.

[@felixhopp2673]

Thx TDA! I was checking twice a day if missed next video of you combat masterclass. It is finally out 🎉

[@0bsurd573]

So glad you are putting these out when you are because I bought the game yesterday and need a lot of help! Thanks for doing these!

[@aerohaelis1]

Have a look at some of the beginners guides as well to get a grasp of the hot keys and some early tips, really helped me out, as some of the mechanisms weren't clear to me at first

[@B_radical28]

Finished the part two build already! I need to slow down so i dont have to wait until the next episode. Great work as usual. Looking forward to continuing the build again!

[@KiMLoKO1]

@b_radical28 I know I'm late but do you remember what tier of belts/sorters you used in the build?

[@skyshredder228]

I cannot thank you enough, your first episode gave me enough guidance to rush straight to purple science in just 10-12 hours and figure out how to set up interstellar logistics! Though I am way far ahead now I'll keep watching just in case I've missed something.

[@tmanook]

Excellent, informative video. Reminds me of your proliferation run, but even better. New players need all the help they can get, especially with the chaos that DF brings.

[@fpsmarcus]

Loving having all these episodes to catch up on

[@af4043]

Yay for TDA! I was waiting with baited breath for this episode #2

[@Warshadows]

Ohhh so thats what the battlefield analysis is use for building stuff. Awesome, keep up the amazing content dude

[@Frrny_]

the blueprints save a heck ton of time. you are amazing!

[@intellectualredneck1813]

God Bless you for posting the Blueprints!

[@B_radical28]

WOO HOO, Its finally here! Time to get busy Thank you TDA!

[@rostfrei4711]

Thx TDA im New in this Game and your Videos are so helpfull to understand all....Great !

[@maikeldoemges5296]

awesome tutorial, and easy to follow. thank you..

[@yufeng1707]

You deserve way more subs. Here's a comment to help the algorithm.

[@beachmaster3857]

Great new series!

[@synvengencegaming]

I have watched so many of your videos, used so many blueprints and I have never made it to the true end. One day I will lol

[@Cameron_IV]

Love the series❤

[@danregewitz9300]

Looking forward to you tackling that midgame.

[@LightPhoenix7000]

Mostly commenting for the algorithms, love your series! Since motors to turbines are 2 to 1, I like doing a direct insertion build. It's not quite as efficient, but I think it looks a little neater.

[@Nelleil_86]

Iv waiting patiently for this. I kinda went ahead and guess what you might do next boy was I wrong lol. Iv got 5 enemy bases in my world. Thanks for all you’re hard work making the video’s My save file is TDA’s guides lol

[@scottholcomb1190]

One other comment... I had no idea you could use the splitters like this with boxes and then using the multiple top outs for splitting. Was it always this way or was that a recent change. What an amazing option. Game changer for dealing with the pasta messes.

[@Xudmud]

It's a great option until you get to ILS/PLS, though I keep hearing the piler sorters have more or less rendered this obsolete. (once you unlock them, of course)

[@scottholcomb1190]

I have not played much since the Dark Fog came out. To be honest I kind of lost interest in the game with the change to it's flavor. I always loved the chill nature of just building. I am following along with your new series here and so far loving it. It is a completely different game though with the DF. Early game is night and day different. I used to build a small mall in the beginning and then a super mall later. Lots of over building. Now it's all about maintaining presence to keep the DF at bay. It's intriguing for sure but feels like a different game. Thanks for your excellent videos.

[@joelv4495]

Honestly on standard difficulty, the dark fog is pretty trivial to deal with. You can also turn it off entirely.

[@scottholcomb1190]

@@joelv4495 I'm seeing that now. I am playing along with TDA on this build, mirroring his but I left DF at default difficulty. With this play through so far they are not even a nuisance.

[@TheDutchActuary]

Glad you stuck it out! I do agree it is a bit of a different feel (and i'm happy you can turn it off completely for those that don't like it) @@scottholcomb1190

[@aimozg]

I do turbines with tileable blocks of 2x2 direct-feeding assemblers: [Gear] [Motor] = iron belt = = coil belt = [Motor] [Turbine] = turbine belt =

[@Kevergy5]

I have followed your guide exactly up to this point. There's only one criticism I have. The oil refineries make hydrogen and crude oil.... There's no outlet for the crude oil and I've had to have a massive number of storage tanks for my oil in order to get all the hydrogen I need for my red science. I wanted to get all the red/blue research and upgrades done but The oil refineries kept stopping as the oil was backed up. As of the end of this episode I'm not sure what I'll be using oil for but when I do I've got a TON of it stored up.

[@TheDutchActuary]

You'll be using that oil for yellow science soon. Things like plastic/organic crystal will allow you syphon off that oils pretty quickly. Also don't forget the oil storage stacks vertically, and each keeps 10K of it. Should take a while for that to fill up!

[@sneezyfido]

Om combustible units for fuel, I dimly recall someone claiming that the combustible unit carries more energy per stack, but graphite yields more energy per coal. My pennypinching side will always pick graphite for puttering about near my base. Although actually I would probably just hang around in range of chargers as soon as I have a fair coverage of those.

[@Xudmud]

Personally with the oil refineries I do two storage tanks for the refined oil, since it's coming out at a 2:1 ratio to hydrogen. Found if I didn't do that I inevitably have way too much refined oil clogging up the system since the refineries have nowhere to put it all. (though I stack mine rather than two separate ones like you did, but I didn't care as much about the symmetry and aesthetics.

[@rellsw02]

Great episode! I didn't read the pinned comment before watching, so I was thrown off a little by you not starting a mall. Would it be recommended to build a mall if you're playing on standard difficulty, since one will have less loot form the dark fog?

[@TheDutchActuary]

Not really, the only thing your mall does early on is stack up on a lot of buildings that you won't need for a long time. You can't really rely on the dark fog loot for anything in particular, although it is helpful to cover some early gaps in your production (like crystal silicon) - but that has nothing to do with a mall.

[@Zeiishi]

Thanks alot, your guides have been helping me get really into the game! I paused the video when you started the magnetic turbine factory and tried designing it. I didn't come up with the same results for the number of Gear Assemblers, I get a 2:1 ratio between Electric Motors and Gears so TDA should have 6 Gears Assemblers instead of 4. Please correct me if I'm wrong

[@TheDutchActuary]

You are correct! Seems I used the MK2 assembler math there by accident. Adding in a 5th assembler in the empty spot between the gears and turbines fixes most of the issue luckily, as strictly speakig you only need about 5,3 gear assemblers (the 0.3 missing is not really noticable). Once you reach MK2 assemblers, upgrading this build fixes it completely. Will mention this next episode, great call!

[@sawyeriii]

I observed that the dark fog "AI" will aggro/rage toward the signal towers, ignoring all other buildings in the area covered by the tower, until it hits the tower once then will attack any other building from then on as if it looses aggro after the first shot upon the tower. If so then the best play would be a tower in front and the rest in the rear of the battle line, so those fog calmed by unloading their aggro on the forward tower then need to dive deeper through the battle lines to the next tower causing aggro. It would be interesting to find a way to test this behavior, could one chain a series of signal towers such that the fog fall into a lone( or loop) of towers leading them through a killbox.

[@larsongates7745]

Yes. Signal towers attract the DF. They attempt to attack the ST first.. so put them immediately behind your defensive line where you want the DF to attack.

[@svrge3092]

19:07 I just wanted to point out that the mk1 belt wont sufice for this setup, u need mk 2 belts with 4 miners on each belt right? edit: Oh u actually pointed it out srry

[@Jarod478]

Thank you for your work, great series, but... Blueprints from the first episode cannot be used in the first phase, because in the "blue matrix" stage we have a maximum of "mass construction 2", of course I divided it on another save.

[@TheDutchActuary]

I just added in the blueprint for that base because I knew people would like to check it out, but the idea is that you build that factory piece by piece. It's the fastest way to get your resource production up and running.

[@beachmaster3857]

Will you be doing any proliferation at all? Just saw episode 3 drop, I'm trying to catch up!

[@TheDutchActuary]

Yes, but not until its worth the effort!

[@larsongates7745]

Its worth the effort from as soon as you can get it. Tier 1 may not seem much but its a simple step to Tier 2 where it really does make a difference. And you want to apply it to your ammo which means it does more damage.@@TheDutchActuary

[@joedirtakabruce]

your Starter base blueprint for this series isnt really a starter base because you have to have the second research for the bluprints to use it which takes awhile if your starting fresh (No meta data, you need 30 to unlock it) it goes over the first limit of 150, it has 502...I may be wrong but for the blueprints in this one are they meant to be for the ones who already have other blueprints etc?

[@TheDutchActuary]

I briefly mentioned this during the video, but the idea of that first build is to build it piece by piece as demonstrated. At the very beginning there is not much point to using blueprints as you won't have the building/materials required yet. Building it piece by piece is actually the fastest way to get going, rather than trying to build the entire thing at once. I did decide to include the build just so you have a reference!

[@joedirtakabruce]

@@TheDutchActuary OK, I must have missed it when you said it, lol. Honestly, I was also looking at other blueprints from some other uploaders, and they had (individual) blueprints labeled as "early" or "Jumpstart,"etc. But they all had things more for late game and nothing you cpuld actually use until mid to late anyways at which point you would already have other setups, so I wasn't sure if this was the same case of being mislabeled or something. (Too much factorio lazy bastard runs🤣) Since I was looking for starters/ jumpstart (piece by piece, I like that more than the whole thing at once lol) good chance my mind was on that and just comprehended it wrong😅. Thanks for clearing it up, I only just recently found your content

[@Kevergy5]

When I'm following along building the turbine factory. All of my buildings have a flashing yellow "no power" sign over them. But I notice yours do not have this. How did you switch it off?

[@TheDutchActuary]

In the bottom right you have some options to toggle warnings/ore veins etc on or off. It's actually useful to have them on while playing so you know you have a power issue - but I've turned them off to prevent unnecessary flashing ;)

[@Kevergy5]

@@TheDutchActuary found it! Thanks!!

[@KiMLoKO1]

Can someone help me pls? Are all belts MK2 and sorters MK 3 in the build??

[@TheDutchActuary]

(mostly) yes!

[@KiMLoKO1]

@@TheDutchActuary Ye I figured once I had enough of them in the automation I upgraded the old ones, since you showed how to make them right after. Thanks been following the masterclass, already at Ep #4 :)

[@jockeril]

I hate you ! (not really) - your builds are so perfect and you make me feel like a loser for not thinking of such perfect arrangements for my builds that end up like spaghetti mess and not having enough production never, how are you planning on balancing the refined oil ? I always either end up having too little or too much depending on whether I do research or not at any given time (but not only that) so my oil 2 Hydro balance is always off - so considering that one is still in that second (red) research phase, what do you advise to do to maintain the balance assuming we are burning some with the thermodynamic generators and still actively researching more tech ?

[@Yardiff]

For myself, I always research x-ray cracking then tear down and rebuild. I worked out a tileable x-ray cracking sub-blueprint with three oil refineries that creates only hydrogen and graphite, top up with graphite from a few smelters so that there’s no excess hydrogen. I also worked out a tileable sub-blueprint for reforming refined, pure refined oil with no leftover hydrogen. Then it’s continue as she goes, until getting orbital collectors: tear down the hydrogen production and use gas giant hydrogen for everything. YMMV, for myself it’s less headache (because I’m lazy) to use all products up in a build than to attempt to store for later use/go insane with production stopping due to gluts.

[@elscientist]

KZbin seems to think you're playing Factorio lol

[@TheDutchActuary]

The one factory game I have actually never played ;)

[@Fky12345]

Defense is way to weak even I tripled the amount of guns already. I get 180 enemy drones per wave atm, and 3 waves shortly one after another. I have 5 Signal Towers in front, they are eaten with almost each wave. So I had to change the setup as I have 5 enemy Relay Stations at my starter planet now. I have this setup and it is kinda stabil without runing to the battle front and help every time. This setup is build towards the enemy: ****** 5 Enemy Relay Stations ******** 4 Battlefield Analyses 5 Signal Towers 10 Battlefield Analyses 6 Rows of Guns with 19 guns in each row fed by automatic ammo belts 3 Battlefield Analyses All Battlefield Analys Towers have 6x Tier1 Fighter Drones equiped The drones die alot, every now and then a Signal tower dies Mabye it is better to leave the attack settings at default. I do not realy see a reason to yank it up, collected material is nice but I do not need it much. Thanks for this cool LP.

[@TheDutchActuary]

If your defense gets overwhelmed my guess would be your power generation is too low. I do lose the occasional Signal Tower (seems to depend on the angle of the attack wave coming in) but other than that this defense is going strong hours later with only the addition of a few missile launchers

[@Fky12345]

@@TheDutchActuary It shows 100%. I think I just have more hives on my starter planet as 3 even I play on the same seed

[@TheDutchActuary]

That's odd, it should be 3 at most. I did actually have a 4th hive landing on my planet during the recording (but I had to reload at some point, and the 4th hive never appeared again). Maybe that also happened to you?@@Fky12345

[@Fky12345]

@chActuary I cant say for sure. I think so longer you are on the planet so more hives add. I had the little Titanium planet in another seed with 16 hives once. I think there is an AI of some sort. Strange thing, but thats the game and fun :) A good solution (when you not want to farm them) would be 3 solar rings around the planet, top, middle, below and then some Signal towers around on the solar panels covering each spot and to cover pretty much the entire planet. Then on the north pole around 40 rocket launchers with ammo belts. They will never set a foot on your planet and they cant gather resources. A planet wide BP would be cool for something like that

[@Fky12345]

@chActuary Thank you TDA for checking. I restarted with normal enemy settings. Not much farming yet but I will try to build my ILS tower and move to the blue planet for Titanium and some more Silicon

[@roberthilderbrand2565]

weren't the combat prep masterclass vids like weeks to a month apart or something? TDA over here getting serious for this round ***EDIT*** Trust your instincts, invoke chaos! ask people to post their builds somewhere, then in the middle of the series showcase some of them as an entire episode XD

[@severus2198]

your step by step masterclass from 2023 was better because blueprints could be placed at the beginning of the game, and now you made it impossible, because they contain too many elements and technological limitations make it impossible to place them. however, rebuilding what you do manually is very boring, could you repair these bluebrints and give us the same form as they were in 2023?