A digression about Factorio.

[Bej Kerman]

1 hour ago, PDCWolf said:

I'm a Factorio customer. You know why people sit and wait patiently without complaint? because the game they paid for was so good they've probably finished it multiple times and are very happy with it, AND the dev has an amazing track record (one of the best EA experiences) of making really well informed reports on progress (actual progress) and delivering results.

And yet, said expansion has yet to come out.

[Ryaja]

1 hour ago, PDCWolf said:

I'm a Factorio customer

Off topic: is it worth $35? I have the steam funds but don't know if I should buy other games or factorio.

[Bej Kerman]

7 minutes ago, Ryaja said:

Off topic: is it worth $35? I have the steam funds but don't know if I should buy other games or factorio.

Not really, I'd wait for a good discount.

[Pthigrivi]

11 minutes ago, Ryaja said:

Off topic: is it worth $35? I have the steam funds but don't know if I should buy other games or factorio.

OMG yes. Factorio is one of the best games of the last 15 years, plus 2.0 should be coming out later this year (fingers crossed). I'll warn you it is dense though and there's a bit of a learning curve. I'd suggest turning biters way down or even off until you get used to the controls and process. 

Edit-- but take that with a grain of salt I suppose as its not for everyone. If you like problem solving and can handle a bit of math it's the kind of game that you can play for thousands of hours without getting bored.

Edited May 9 by Pthigrivi

[herbal space program]

4 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

but don't know if I should buy other games or factorio.

Factorio is every bit as addictive as KSP1 was in my book. It appeals to exactly the same sort of creative problem-solving mentality and has exactly the same sort of whoops-it's-3am immersiveness. One of the best values for your gaming dollar ever if you are that sort of person.

[Bej Kerman]

22 minutes ago, PDCWolf said:

When you compare that to "here's a preview of the reentry fx" in march only to get anything related to it again by october and still having to wait till december for the update that barely includes the first buggy version... yeah, the differences are clear as day.

Enjoy your salt mine.

I don't see what KSP 2 failing has to do with Factorio and its dev spending several years tweaking minor aspects of a DLC that's never going to come out on its present course.

[Ryaja]

2 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

Not really, I'd wait for a good discount.

It never goes on sale

2 hours ago, PDCWolf said:

Yes. It's absolutely worth it. Even just the base game will give you hundreds of hours of playtime if you like incremental, a-word games. It does take some trial and error or wiki research to get going, but at some point you just want more and more.

Guess I can refund it for the first few hours of gameplay, I do like satisfactory so I think I'm going to go in on it.

Edited May 9 by Ryaja
New page!

[PopinFRESH]

48 minutes ago, Ryaja said:

It never goes on sale

Guess I can refund it for the first few hours of gameplay, I do like satisfactory so I think I'm going to go in on it.

I'd second @PDCWolf, if you like factory / building / management type games then its worth every penny.

[steveman0]

3 hours ago, Ryaja said:

Off topic: is it worth $35? I have the steam funds but don't know if I should buy other games or factorio.

Check out FortressCraft: Evolved. It predates Factorio, but is ahead of it in several technical regards. Still scratches the factory genre itch and the base game is quite a bit cheaper, especially if you get it on sale. There's easily hundreds of hours of entertainment before committing the extra cost for expansion if it wins you over.

Full disclosure, I have contributed to this game's development.

Edited May 9 by steveman0

[PDCWolf]

1 hour ago, Ryaja said:

It never goes on sale

Guess I can refund it for the first few hours of gameplay, I do like satisfactory so I think I'm going to go in on it.

The game is satisfactory's dad, and it'll require much more management and planning skills than satisfactory. Conversely, it's infinitely more rewarding to get stuff right in it, and every feature has much more depth than its 3d cousin.

[Ryaja]

18 minutes ago, PDCWolf said:

The game is satisfactory's dad, and it'll require much more management and planning skills than satisfactory. Conversely, it's infinitely more rewarding to get stuff right in it, and every feature has much more depth than its 3d cousin.

I know I've done research, I think I'll go in on it today. I like shapez.io which is just a simplified factorio so why not?

[Fizzlebop Smith]

I recently purchased factorio but haven't had a chance to start playing. Been hooked on Manor Lords /Space Trash Scavenger.

I absolutely loved Mindustry and found myself quite hooked. The automation/ base building/ tower defense is an incredibly fun blend. 

[herbal space program]

5 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

I'll warn you it is dense though and there's a bit of a learning curve. I'd suggest turning biters way down or even off until you get used to the controls and process. 

I figured out how to deal with those pretty quickly, but there's also a lot of ways you can paint yourself into corners that then take a really large amount of tedious reworking to get out of.  I guess it does share that with KSP as well, so folks with the patience to master that learning curve are likely pre-selected to deal with the same thing in Factorio. Still, I'm not looking forward to all the deconstruction and rebuilding I'm going to have to do in my current (first) game because I lacked the foresight to put enough space between all of my production lines! It definitely helps to avail oneself of a good amount of tutorial material before getting in too deep if one lacks the patience for all those time-consuming do-overs.

Edited May 9 by herbal space program

[Pthigrivi]

Just now, herbal space program said:

I figured out how to deal with those pretty quickly, but there's also a lot of ways you can paint yourself into corners that then take a really large amount of tedious reworking to get out of.  I guess it does share that with KSP as well, so folks with the patience to master that learning curve are likely pre-selected to deal with the same thing in Factorio. Still, I'm not looking forward to all the deconstruction and rebuilding I'm going to have to do in my current (first) game because I lacked the foresight to put enough space between all of my production lines! It definitely helps to avail oneself of a good amount of tutorial material before getting in too deep if one lacks the patience for all those time-consuming do-overs.

Yeah I've learned good methods now but if even on default difficulty you can get yourself into some annoying cycles of dealing with them manually (god forbid) if you don't time things right. I mainly suggest turning them down for new players so they don't have to worry about the ticking clock and can play and experiment with different builds and get used to how everything flows. 

[Ryaja]

Just got the game! Time to try it out!

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, Ryaja said:

I like shapez.io which is just a simplified factorio so why not?

If you like Shapez.io I cannot imagine you not LOVING Factorio.

7 minutes ago, Ryaja said:

Just got the game! Time to try it out!

Sweeeeeeeeeet.

My only suggestion (that you probably learned from Shapez): However much room you think you need for something: Double it. Then add a little buffer.

[Ryaja]

1 hour ago, Superfluous J said:

If you like Shapez.io I cannot imagine you not LOVING Factorio.

Sweeeeeeeeeet.

My only suggestion (that you probably learned from Shapez): However much room you think you need for something: Double it. Then add a little buffer.

I had to eat dinner but I'm already hooked after like 15 minutes of playtime.

Edit: Just got steam power up!

Edit: and red research is automated now!

Edited May 10 by Ryaja

[herbal space program]

1 hour ago, Superfluous J said:

My only suggestion (that you probably learned from Shapez) However much room you think you need for something: Double it. Then add a little buffer.

Roger that! I basically have to tear everything down now and rebuild it mid-game because it's all  too dern crowded. At first it seems only logical to put everything so close together, but all too soon the folly of that layout becomes evident.

1 hour ago, Ryaja said:

Edit: Just got steam power up!

Edit: and red research is automated now!

Remember that you have to sleep at some point too! 

Edited May 10 by herbal space program

[Ryaja]

49 minutes ago, herbal space program said:

Remember that you have to sleep at some point too! 

Ya, right now Im murdering all the bug nests I can see

 

THE FACTORY MUST GROW

Edited May 10 by Ryaja

[Skorj]

7 hours ago, Ryaja said:

I had to eat dinner but I'm already hooked after like 15 minutes of playtime.

Edit: Just got steam power up!

Edit: and red research is automated now!

Just ... be careful  This could happen to you.  I can only hope I fell asleep at some point during that 100% achievement run.

 

[PDCWolf]

9 hours ago, Ryaja said:

Ya, right now Im murdering all the bug nests I can see

 

THE FACTORY MUST GROW

Be careful because...

Spoiler

Killing them makes them evolve faster. Yes, they evolve.

 

[Ryaja]

6 hours ago, PDCWolf said:

Be careful because...

  Hide contents

Killing them makes them evolve faster. Yes, they evolve.

 

Oh... I've already taken out like 3 nests and shooter things lol

[Skorj]

The secret to beating the biters is

Spoiler

Focus your time on climbing the tech tree, rather than building elaborate defenses or lengthy attack runs.  Tech makes a huge difference in firepower, so limit static defenses and biter nest clearing to the immediate problem at hand.

Hopefully your factory is growing well.  I'm just wrapping up my latest megabase run, which I'm rather happy with, before setting the game aside again until the expansion.

[StrandedonEarth]

3 hours ago, Skorj said:

The secret to beating the biters is

  Hide contents

Focus your time on climbing the tech tree, rather than building elaborate defenses or lengthy attack runs.  Tech makes a huge difference in firepower, so limit static defenses and biter nest clearing to the immediate problem at hand.

Hopefully your factory is growing well.  I'm just wrapping up my latest megabase run, which I'm rather happy with, before setting the game aside again until the expansion.

Spoiler

Yeah, I tend to cheat and mostly ignore defenses until an attack does major damage, then decide if I want to repair the damage or load an autosave to reinforce the problem area before the attack.

Oh hey, as long as there's a Factorio thread, I made this years ago:

Spoiler

 

Edited May 12 by StrandedonEarth

[TablesRUs]

On 5/9/2024 at 1:02 PM, Bej Kerman said:

And yet, said expansion has yet to come out.

I don't understand the point that this comment is trying to make. Until Wube actually announced that they were going to release an expansion (something that happened only in 2021) they were under no obligation to produce anything at all; no one had given them a dime in exchange for progress (nor has anyone today). As of last year they would have been entirely within their rights to say "never mind, the expansion isn't in the cards afterall. Apologies to everyone for raising hopes." Moreover, they did an terrific job of setting expectations, making it exceedingly clear that they did not want to discuss progress until they felt comfortable with doing so, which they explicitly stated would take no less than a year.

Around two and a half years after the initial announcement that there will be an expansion, Wube started to open up the faucet of information regarding what they have been working on. Since then there has been a new detailed blog post describing a different facet of the expansion every Friday. The information conveyed in even one of these posts is more than that of any given three month period of communication from IG over the course of KSP2's EA.

Say what you will about the individual game design decisions made for the expansion but the scale of the work appears to be worth the wait: the (free) Factorio 2.0 update adds a number of interesting new mechanics, likely eliminates the need for over a dozen quality-of-life mods, and adds features that players have consistently wanted in 1.0. On top of the update, the (for-purchase) expansion likely doubles the quantity of gameplay, offers a noticeable improvement in art quality, and makes use of the new mechanics added by 2.0 in interesting ways.

Wube's approach to communication (and development itself) should be a model for the industry. The fact that the expansion has yet to be released is, if anything, a welcome change in a field where shipping minimal (but buggy) viable products with sparse communication and spotty responsiveness to player feedback is all too common.

On 5/9/2024 at 1:18 PM, Bej Kerman said:

Not really, I'd wait for a good discount.

You will likely be waiting until the heat death of the universe as Wube has a hard policy of not offering discounts. The price is the price.

Personally, I can say that relative to the time spent using it, Factorio is one of the cheapest things I have ever purchased. If you have the slightest appreciation of automation, optimization, or problem solving I would encourage you to consider just dropping the $35. It is, IMHO, a gem both in its game design and its implementation.

Edited May 12 by TablesRUs