Best settings for one and only play through

Been trying to get into factorio for some time and always hit some walls, due to time constraints, overwhelming and dunno what else, but now im finally thinking to take my time and get through at least one space age play through. What settings could you recommend if this possibly be my one and only game, crack jokes aside? i dont want it to be too easy, want to explore most of its systems, but not too hard for basically first timer either (once i got to oil science, but that’s it; watched some nilaus tho)

Any suggestions are welcome, presets, starting area size, evolution etc, i understand most of difficulty related settings I think