Has anyone else here even heard of this game? It is not widely known, but I got it last weekend and it is insanely addicting. For those of you who don't know this is a game where you need to make a factory to produce ever higher tiers of items to protect yourself from hostile life and conduct research to allow landing ships to get to the planet you are stuck on. Think something like the Anno series but with more manual control (and you aren't supplying people).
Factorio
- Thread starter ls612
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trader/warrior
Deity
I bought it a few months ago and really loved it. I noticed when I got it that the counter on their website said only about 7000 people had bought it and before that they had an indiegogo campaign that barely reached its 17000€ goal. Off that they have been running a full time 5 man dev team for well over a year now. An interesting example of a frugal crowdsourced game. Sales seem to have about doubled since then with youtubers starting to give it some attention, so it's nice to see it starting to gain serious traction.
It's actually really surprising with all the various minecraftish elements that have become popular in so many games that so few others jumped on the factory and automation mechanics of those highly successful mods.
Edit: The new trailer (using the current version) is pretty nice.
Link to video.
It's actually really surprising with all the various minecraftish elements that have become popular in so many games that so few others jumped on the factory and automation mechanics of those highly successful mods.
Edit: The new trailer (using the current version) is pretty nice.
Link to video.
schlaufuchs
Break My Heart
Sips just started doing a play of it. Looks pretty interesting
*edit* forgot those pesky "no swearing" rules still exist. Video deleted, you'll have to look it up yourself.
*edit* forgot those pesky "no swearing" rules still exist. Video deleted, you'll have to look it up yourself.
trader/warrior
Deity
They announced the price will rise to 15 on june 1st, and then to around 20 towards 1.0(ETA summer 2015 so a lot more features to come including multiplayer), so the best price is right now! Really is a ridiculous amount of gameplay for the 10 and doesn't seem buggy at all.
I second trader/warrior, it is a great value for the $13 (10 EUR) it costs now. You should definitely try the latest demo out.
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GAGA Extrem
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Bought it yesterday - nice game, it's like a mix of Minecraft, Cookie Clicker and a Tower Defence.
DaveMcW
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It's a nice game, but I missed not having a Civ-style tech tree. So I made my own.
Factorio Tech Tree
Factorio Tech Tree
GAGA Extrem
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Finished my first game after ~40 hours playtime.
Could have gotten through it faster, but since it was my first playthrough I took it slow. The factory buildings stuff is nice and you rarely have any downtime at all. It feels a bit like Anno in that regard: There is always something you can expand, improve or change - and if not, then it's just a question of time until the next horde of enemies breaks your stuff and you need to rebuild a few things.
Late game feels a big whacky, though. The big biter are a PITA, even with decent equipment, so I resorted to a "kite them while building dozens of laser turrets" tactic. Taking out the bases felt quite redious, I must say. I guess I will tune that down a bit in my next game.
Still, nice game, worth the money - I'd recommend it.
Could have gotten through it faster, but since it was my first playthrough I took it slow. The factory buildings stuff is nice and you rarely have any downtime at all. It feels a bit like Anno in that regard: There is always something you can expand, improve or change - and if not, then it's just a question of time until the next horde of enemies breaks your stuff and you need to rebuild a few things.
Late game feels a big whacky, though. The big biter are a PITA, even with decent equipment, so I resorted to a "kite them while building dozens of laser turrets" tactic. Taking out the bases felt quite redious, I must say. I guess I will tune that down a bit in my next game.
Still, nice game, worth the money - I'd recommend it.
The devs have said that late-game is a priority for 0.11, the current content there is more placeholder and they have plans for expanded endgame content.
trader/warrior
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GAGA Extrem
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Played it again a few months ago - not too many drastic changes, but I like that the late game has a bit more meat to it. Some tech tree tweaks as well. Also seemed a lot more balanced.
Certainly one of the better Early Access games I supported.
Certainly one of the better Early Access games I supported.
Saw this game on Steam the other day; looked interesting. Thanks to the bump, I'm now downloading the demo. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll enjoy it and be getting the full game in the near future.
Rubin
King
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Factorio is one of the absolutely very best games in recent years! And that, even if there is no real end game and trains, oil, and combat in the game are still off (I definitely agree with you, ls612, on combat mechanics and balance). The simple premise of automation is brilliant and provides both logic and creative challenges. Great fun!
I also find it entertaining watching other players' factories and creative solutions; be it efficiency, optimization, or raw throughput. Or spaghetti (Reddit)
For the past 12 months I've gone from very simple factory designs, over stylized "main bus" designs (see e.g. Arumba - Let's Play Factorio Steam Release 23 )--both with simple branches and with beacon supported "cubes"--to more organic/economic designs (image 1).
I've been rather surprised at Factorio's uncanny ability to show me how my brain works. On autopilot, my brain steers toward compact solutions, with designs ending up being both impractical and not-so-compact (image 2). With quite some effort I can often unwrap my "thinking habits" and untangle the mess I've created (image 3). Fascinating!
Sometimes ultra compact designs are highly satisfying. After experimenting a bit with coal fueled smelting furnaces (they are small) compared to electric furnaces (they are big, but do not--potentially--rely on fuel) I managed to cramp a self-supported (except for oil and ore) science facility into a small piece of land near the coast (image 4). (With Assembly Machines 3 it supports 8 science labs at 30 seconds per beaker, I believe.)
The process of evolving your designs and learning from other players is very rewarding. I've managed to do semi-modular 10MW steam power setups that only activate when solar energy and accumulators are insufficient--simply by rewiring electric poles without needing "power counters", water pumps, or similar "gamey" contraptions (possibly obsolete before the game releases). I've been able to greatly reduce excess production and bottlenecks, and there's still plenty to explore and improve. I've yet to experience the full potential of logistic robots, for example.
About 6 months ago I had an issue with balancing iron and copper plate demand. The problem was that my expanding factory had changing demands leading to either the copper smelting section or the iron smelting section being mostly idle for long periods of time. For example, my copper furnaces were running at maximum capacity and still not producing enough copper plates, while all my iron ore smelters were just sitting there not really producing anything. I recall reading about two different "smart furnace" designs; able to automatically switch between copper and iron smelting depending on demand. One design used logistic robots (Factorio forum) and the other (Reddit) had a "gamey" copper and iron "counter". Those designs are ingenious!
My own revised design works without robots and counters and looks something like this (16 furnace example):
Once the ore at the far right is connected, the furnaces start smelting whatever is in lower supply. It's a tiny bit power inefficient, requires a bit more space, and the ore filters can be arranged a little better, but the setup meets the needs of my factory.
Automate and forget!
This game is simply great
I also find it entertaining watching other players' factories and creative solutions; be it efficiency, optimization, or raw throughput. Or spaghetti (Reddit)
For the past 12 months I've gone from very simple factory designs, over stylized "main bus" designs (see e.g. Arumba - Let's Play Factorio Steam Release 23 )--both with simple branches and with beacon supported "cubes"--to more organic/economic designs (image 1).
Spoiler image 1 (organic/economic design) :
I've been rather surprised at Factorio's uncanny ability to show me how my brain works. On autopilot, my brain steers toward compact solutions, with designs ending up being both impractical and not-so-compact (image 2). With quite some effort I can often unwrap my "thinking habits" and untangle the mess I've created (image 3). Fascinating!
Spoiler image 2 (tangled transport belts) :
Spoiler image 3 (untangled transport belts) :
Sometimes ultra compact designs are highly satisfying. After experimenting a bit with coal fueled smelting furnaces (they are small) compared to electric furnaces (they are big, but do not--potentially--rely on fuel) I managed to cramp a self-supported (except for oil and ore) science facility into a small piece of land near the coast (image 4). (With Assembly Machines 3 it supports 8 science labs at 30 seconds per beaker, I believe.)
Spoiler image 4 (still missing some solar collectors and accumulators) :
The process of evolving your designs and learning from other players is very rewarding. I've managed to do semi-modular 10MW steam power setups that only activate when solar energy and accumulators are insufficient--simply by rewiring electric poles without needing "power counters", water pumps, or similar "gamey" contraptions (possibly obsolete before the game releases). I've been able to greatly reduce excess production and bottlenecks, and there's still plenty to explore and improve. I've yet to experience the full potential of logistic robots, for example.
About 6 months ago I had an issue with balancing iron and copper plate demand. The problem was that my expanding factory had changing demands leading to either the copper smelting section or the iron smelting section being mostly idle for long periods of time. For example, my copper furnaces were running at maximum capacity and still not producing enough copper plates, while all my iron ore smelters were just sitting there not really producing anything. I recall reading about two different "smart furnace" designs; able to automatically switch between copper and iron smelting depending on demand. One design used logistic robots (Factorio forum) and the other (Reddit) had a "gamey" copper and iron "counter". Those designs are ingenious!
My own revised design works without robots and counters and looks something like this (16 furnace example):
Spoiler Smart Furnace example :
Once the ore at the far right is connected, the furnaces start smelting whatever is in lower supply. It's a tiny bit power inefficient, requires a bit more space, and the ore filters can be arranged a little better, but the setup meets the needs of my factory.
Automate and forget!
This game is simply great
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