Unlike what I take from 80%+ of people's posts I've seen, I didn't automate everything like I could have. I used one iron node to fully automate all the way to modular frames. That was the only item I did that with. Everything else I would run or fly from point to point, bringing the necessary pieces to where I was making them, whatever it was, and no matter how many times I had to do that.
I discovered mods later on in the game, and used quite a few of them to assist with various things. My favorite ones are Smart! by Alex, Crash Site Beacons by SirDigby, Country Flags by Andre Aquilla, Laser Power Cable also by Andre, and a few others. But by far, my fave mod is Hover Pack Ultimate by Isotope. It's an extension on the hover pack you get from the Awesome Shop. I use it all the time. There are many others you can download and use, but these are my all time faves. (there are plenty of mods that are called cheats, but I didn't use any of those. Personal choice)
It took my 374 hours of total game play to get to the end, and watching the final animation of the rocket launching was awesome! I've never finished a game like this, and I never thought I would actually get all the way to the end, but I did.
Now that I've completed the game, I thought I'd put some of the skills I've acquired playing the game through to the end to use. I told myself that I would demolish everything I had built, and move to a better location. I started this save very close to the north east tip of the map, and I'd keep going to the edge of the boundary, then ADA would threaten to terminate me if I didn't back LOL. This happened more times than I dare to recount!
The only thing about starting again in another area, I don't have much of an imagination. I could take all the tips from the top experts that I can remember, but it doesn't do me any good. But that doesn't mean I'm giving up! Actually, I took a look around after destroying everything, and saw I'm in one of the best places to build everything I need. I have iron, copper, limestone, which are the 3 major building ores you need to make practically anything you want. I have to go a little further for things like oil an bauxite, but everything you need can't be in one area. I even have full access to raw quartz and SAM.
The distance doesn't matter cos of the transport options you have. The way I had set up my world, I had 1 truck circling my area feeding raw quartz to make silica, which made alclad casings and sheets. That was a battle for me.
I discovered how useful geothermal generators are for unlimited power, even though they fluctuate, they still provide enough power for me to use. I kept my coal power I build from the beginning, and have expanded on it. Power was always my biggest issue, but the Geo Gens help a lot. I've seen many videos on how to set up power using oil feeding fuel-powered generators down the line, and tried to set some up, without much success. I can't seem to figure out how to get all my gens to work and maintain the power I'd like to produce.
Like I've said in previous posts, I have so much more to say, but I don't want to bore anyone. Thank you for reading.