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What is interesting about Factorio

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Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#91

Post by panta »

burntoutfire wrote: post #68
spyckie2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the need to treat life as a dichotomy between work and play, but I feel you might have lost some of the magic of your childhood. For me it's the opposite, I hated complex games as a child but really enjoy them today. For me, the best feeling is working hard for something and really getting into the details and enjoying all the complexity of the experience / challenge. I think that most human beings are w…

> 2. Identifying energy traps - things you do when you have no energy but don't restore energy. Several examples: 1) Netflix, 2) social media, 3) reddit, 4) youtube So, do you avoid them now? If so, what do you do when you're tired after work? It's hard to feel entire afternoons with exercise, sleep and conversations...

Not the OP, but for me energy restoring activities are “active” ones, like hobbies where you create/build something. Working on a painting, photo, sculpting, writing, working on a side project, playing intelligent games with your dog, ... Passive activities, like consuming TV or Netflix or worse social networks, at least for me are draining my energy levels.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#92

Post by corecoder »

I had stayed away from the game for fear of being hooked up, but decided to give it a try when I was confined home, so I downloaded the demo. I really wanted to like it, but I gave up after an hour or so, because I felt that the game devs want me to be frustrated. Now, of course nobody likes frustration, but I hate very much everybody who wants me to feel bad.

First of all, I was expecting a sandbox game, and instead I got objectives, and a stupid popup telling me what I am supposed to do.

Secondly, one of the first non trivial objectives is to reach a certain production speed, which, at least in the early stages of the game means hustle (I haven't bothered to check if it changes later on). The game promises hustle from the beginning: you have to feed coal to a machine that extracts coal; you can use robot arms to feed the coal extracting machine with coal, but you have to feed coal to the robotic arm. WTF?

Finally, I'm really done with games where you have to do your thing but also fight monsters. Compare that to, say, Minecraft: you craft a bed, spam lights everywhere and never, ever have to fight a single monster if you don't want to, while you're still free to go and fight monsters with your bare hands if that's what you like.

Is there a sandbox game that is not hustle for the sake of hustle, that doesn't tell you what to do and in which you can do your thing without being too much bothered by monsters?

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#93

Post by kccqzy »

corecoder wrote: post #92

I had stayed away from the game for fear of being hooked up, but decided to give it a try when I was confined home, so I downloaded the demo. I really wanted to like it, but I gave up after an hour or so, because I felt that the game devs want me to be frustrated. Now, of course nobody likes frustration, but I hate very much everybody who wants me to feel bad. First of all, I was expecting a sandbox game, and instead…

All configurable. You can choose not to have objectives. You can choose not to have biters that get irritated by pollution.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#94

Post by pmjordan »

corecoder wrote: post #92

I had stayed away from the game for fear of being hooked up, but decided to give it a try when I was confined home, so I downloaded the demo. I really wanted to like it, but I gave up after an hour or so, because I felt that the game devs want me to be frustrated. Now, of course nobody likes frustration, but I hate very much everybody who wants me to feel bad. First of all, I was expecting a sandbox game, and instead…

Anno 1800 might float your boat? Or any of the previous games in the Anno series for that matter. The campaign does very much have a story and specific objectives, but the interesting bit is the regular sandbox game:

Turn off pirates and competitors, and either turn off or ignore NPC quests. (There's no penalty to ignoring them, but they sometimes can be useful if you need money.) You'll still have incidents like fires, industrial explosions, disease, and riots, but those are influenced by factors you control, and with well-placed fire stations, hospitals, and police stations you can very much contain them so they're a non-issue.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#95

Post by jfim »

corecoder wrote: post #92

I had stayed away from the game for fear of being hooked up, but decided to give it a try when I was confined home, so I downloaded the demo. I really wanted to like it, but I gave up after an hour or so, because I felt that the game devs want me to be frustrated. Now, of course nobody likes frustration, but I hate very much everybody who wants me to feel bad. First of all, I was expecting a sandbox game, and instead…

When did you try it? They added a new version of the tutorial in 0.17 (the one that has the little robot that talks to you), but decided to get rid of it as it's too much hand holding and doesn't really reflect the actual game.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#96

Post by spyckie2 »

burntoutfire wrote: post #68
spyckie2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the need to treat life as a dichotomy between work and play, but I feel you might have lost some of the magic of your childhood. For me it's the opposite, I hated complex games as a child but really enjoy them today. For me, the best feeling is working hard for something and really getting into the details and enjoying all the complexity of the experience / challenge. I think that most human beings are w…

> 2. Identifying energy traps - things you do when you have no energy but don't restore energy. Several examples: 1) Netflix, 2) social media, 3) reddit, 4) youtube So, do you avoid them now? If so, what do you do when you're tired after work? It's hard to feel entire afternoons with exercise, sleep and conversations...

The ideal cycle you want is focus, rest, focus. It's an energy trap if you get tired from focusing but your rest activity doesn't refresh you back into focus mode.

In my experience, it's not that you replace energy traps with energy recovery - you instead create plans that allow for more focus, rest, focus cycles throughout the day.

If your work drains you completely when you go home, maybe you can try to create some plans for how to approach work holistically, sparing some energy for life outside of work.

For instance, create a plan that ends the work day with a lot of energy to spare by adding in a lot more rest cycles, including naps (laying down with eyes closed also restores energy) and walks. I also find creative outlets like writing or music quite restful, and as others have mentioned, a surprisingly lot of things restore energy - you just have to discover and note them down.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#97

Post by TeMPOraL »

TylerE wrote: post #76
zo1 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not pixel-art. All their "entities" are actually 3d models that are rendered into isometric images. And they've also slowly been regenerating all their images with high-resolution models + renders.

It’s rendered to fixed resolution sprites. That’s pixel art.

Which makes it better than the 3D you yearn for. You can't do as high-quality and as stylistically consistent graphics with real-time 3D rendering; the computing power simply isn't there.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#98

Post by TeMPOraL »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #51
mcphage wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these types of games drain you and leave you unfulfilled and unsatisfied and like we should have spent our time in a less tedious and wearisome recreation. I, too, have given up eating, and sleeping, and joy.

Eating, sleeping, and joy are not typically considered tedious or wearisome.

Eating and sleeping sure as hell are tedious and wearisome, since they're basic maintenance tasks that you have to do if you want to function, taking time and attention away from the things you're interested in doing.

(Yes, I enjoy a tasty meal and a good night's sleep. But I'd much prefer to just live without having to sleep or eat at all. Or, eat a pill and recharge in a base station for 20 minutes.)

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#99

Post by TeMPOraL »

ivankirigin wrote: post #35
Mengkudulangsat wrote: post #18

This game made me empathize less and less with environmentalists. Forests are an impediment to a transport network. Wildlife are pests. Renewable energy has extremely low ROI.

Solar + storage lowers your pollution and the pests. I wish there were a way to restore the environment like planting trees in order to also remove the pests.

If the trees didn't look so depressing in this game, there would be motivation for reforesting (beyond reducing pest problems) - making your factory look nice, with an ordered mix of nature and high-tech industry.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#100

Post by TomMarius »

TylerE wrote: post #76
zo1 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not pixel-art. All their "entities" are actually 3d models that are rendered into isometric images. And they've also slowly been regenerating all their images with high-resolution models + renders.

It’s rendered to fixed resolution sprites. That’s pixel art.

Pixel art means making a picture while zoomed in to see individual pixels, placing them manually nearly pixel by pixel (only the most basic shape tools are used, and no anti aliasing).
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