So, I spent some time actually sitting down and (roughly) planning out everything that I have left to build, to the end of the game. With my whole strategy of "farm to table" factories, I was worried there might not be enough nodes on the map to finish some of these factories.
With the plan laid out, next up is to build out a new factory for Radio Control Units, and I realize, now that I'm actually in Phase 4 for the first time.... I just don't have it in me. Not when my reward for completing Radio Control Units is building them again like 10 more times, in the 18 additional factories I have left after that.
So, I'm abandoning this little challenge run, for now, in favor of (hopefully) a more reasonable approach, based around building most resources at a much smaller scale, within a large headquarters, while still having large-scale independent factories, just not one for every single component. So, I'll have a large standalone factory dedicated to each of the big high-volume resources (Concrete, Conveyor Parts, Sign parts), as well as Power Plants, and maybe Project Phases, but otherwise just be able to toss down a couple new machines here and there, to siphon existing resource lines for new parts, as needed.
Basically, I realized that trying to get through Phase 4 without being able to build on progress from prior phases was going to be a nightmare.
Onboarding complete.
Fully-implemented automation.
Biofuel power.
Full transition to starter base, with all basic Iron, Copper, and Limestone lines automated.
A couple Assemblers for stage-2 and stage-3 parts, including Project Phase 1.
Remind me to thank Mikael for insisting that the aurora was left in.
