Factorio Forums

I am playing with the full py suite and I have researched oil processing. However, I see that pumpjacks require niobium. That seems odd to me, as that means that researching this tech doesn't actually allow you to start using oil. To get niobium, you then further unlock sulfur processing, then desulfurization, then coal processing 2. All the while, you can't use most of the things you're unlocking because you can't get oil yet.

Even worse, oil refinery requires stainless steel. In addition to the research for niobium, you then also need mining machines 2 and iron ore processing 2 just to get stainless steel recipe, and then even more research after that to get aramid to make the stainless steel.

Am I missing something? It doesn't seem like a good progression/reward system to require researching 7+ technologies in a row just to use the buildings "unlocked" by the first tech.

I have yet to dable in the oil chain yet but you can bypass the need for stainless steel by getting crude oil from aromatics+syn gas or aromatics+tailings. Yeah it does require more research but that dosnt bother me cos you have plenty of time on your way to blue science