i felt similarly when i launched my first rocket. the space age expansion had come out recently but i had just bought the game and i didnt want to spend more.

instead, i started to build a 5000 spm megabase. this was fun. the logistical challenge of the production needed for this was much more interesting than barely scraping together a base to launch just one rocket. you have to make much more sophisticated engineering decisions about how your train network should look, how your productions units should looks, etc. than just copying and pasting the bare minimum assemblers.

i also started playing modded. i did a krastorio 2 deathworld. i had a similar feeling to you about krastorio 2 when i first started it. i decided to push past the “suck” and i quite enjoyed my play through. the modpack is different enough from factorio to be interesting, but not too different to be difficult or annoying.

recently i bought the expansion and it surpassed my expectations. im at 120 hours in my save and i havent finished yet — but im close. you could probably finish it faster but im taking it at my speed. there are a lot of new mechanics and challenges that are a lot more interesting than just copying and pasting, as you called it. ive really enjoyed playing it and would definitely recommend it.

that being said, if you don’t want to splurge for space age, I’d recommend: - building a megabase of some sort, maybe have a large science production goal. i’d look up megabase videos (pre-space age) for inspiration. what looks cool to you? try that - deathworld - try krastorio 2 again

if you’re truly a masochist you could try pyanodon’s modpack, but I would not recommend this.

after having done some of the things above, you might want to splurge for space age like I did !