Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Factorio Mindset

thediff.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 358 posts

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#151

Post by chrisfosterelli »

minihat wrote: post #8

My friend has 600+ hours played of Factorio. He just beat the game for the first time. I bought it, we played multiplayer. And I taught him the mantra "great is the enemy of good enough". Our run took 14 hours. I also know many people like this at work, and wish they could have the Factorio experience. If you refactor at the first sign of trouble, you remain blind to totally new to problems just around the corner.

I mean, some people just prefer to play the game more leisurely. It's not a speed run or a business deliverable. I have around 80 hours on my factory so far and it's pretty clear to me I could have "finished" by now with a lot more corner cutting but I'm enjoying the process of exploring each tech tree discovery in depth and scaling things out "right". This takes longer, but it's fun and I feel better about the end result, and isn't that the point?

Also -- playing the game over again gives a colossal speed benefit. Probably half of my time spent on this game has been ripping up everything I did that I realize clearly won't work nicely once I reach the next tech tree item. Knowing what the end game looks like in advance saves a lot of time.

I think I partly like this game because it reminds me of programming before programming was work. Trying to get through everything as fast as possible sounds like the antithesis of that, but maybe that's just me.

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#152

Post by ascagnel_ »

Aeolun wrote: post #63
bloqs wrote: post #48

Please please try Satisfactory. It's a beautiful, 3D equivalent. Holds a coveted Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam.

I like Satisfactory mostly because you get to enjoy the native flora and fauna without it constantly trying to kill you.

More than just the native flora and fauna, Satisfactory dumps you in an area that's largely pleasant to be in. Factorio has a very desaturated, green-and-brown "videogame" look, and it's not all that pleasant to look at after a while.

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#153

Post by udp »

tgarv wrote: post #145
outworlder wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is like crack for programmers. > that my time would be better spent working on a personal software project, where i get reasonably similar enjoyment, more satisfaction, and presumably more transferable skills. Sure. Maybe your time would be better spent working overtime too. Factorio is a game, and focus on the fun parts. Battling NPM dependencies after a full work day is not fun, it's just more work. There are so…

I felt the same way for a while (this is FUN, this isn't work!), but at one point I came back to the game after a few months off, started a new factory, got to something like "automate green circuits", and immediately felt like I was back to battling some NPM dependency. It had lost all its magic and suddenly felt like work again. This was after about 300 hours of playtime over a few years, but I haven't really been…

I had a similar experience but the Space Exploration mod has made it feel like a brand new game again. I haven’t even reached space yet, but lots of the recipes have changed in ways that are more interesting (e.g. the introduction of glass, stone plate, the extension of the burner phase, etc) than a straight replay would be.

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#154

Post by bregma »

gmadsen wrote: post #86
DiabloD3 wrote: post #10

I have over 5000 hours in Factorio. I am part of a group where several of us are over 5000 hours. Some of us have Autism. Some of us have ADHD. Some of us have both. The majority of us are in the tech industry. The companies we work at have been made to understand that the factory must grow.

honest question, but is factorio not a similar itch to programming? I always feel with these type of games, that my time would be better spent working on a personal software project, where i get reasonably similar enjoyment, more satisfaction, and presumably more transferable skills.

It's like a software project with complete and correct specs and no users. Everything you love about programming and none of the things you hate.

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#155

Post by pbhjpbhj »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #17
DiabloD3 wrote: post #10

I have over 5000 hours in Factorio. I am part of a group where several of us are over 5000 hours. Some of us have Autism. Some of us have ADHD. Some of us have both. The majority of us are in the tech industry. The companies we work at have been made to understand that the factory must grow.

Factorio should be the interview test ;) Tech’s Ender’s Game. (factorio fan, but with little time to enjoy it)

>Tech’s Ender’s Game //

Spoilers!?!

Playing Factorio is actually doing some sort of real-world silicon design, or when you I'll the aliens you're really killing aliens... ?

Not read the book, only watched the movie. Probably someone will come and tell me I misunderstood it.

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#156

Post by xondono »

mdemare wrote: post #150
MattRix wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dyson Sphere Program is a great Factorio-like that feels more optimistic and less dark. It’s still about harvesting every last resource though. On the other hand there’s Terra Nil, where the goal is to clean up a destroyed landscape and then leave it without a trace. It’s more of a puzzle game than a factory game, but still worth playing: https://vfqd.itch.io/terra-nil

Anything for iOS?

There’s builderment, that is kind of a simple factorio but without creeps (or main character for that matter)

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#157

Post by jamesgreenleaf »

lordnacho wrote: post #78

I'm literally playing Factorio right now, with my kid. Got into it over Christmas based on HN talking about it all the time. Good game to multi because I don't have to pay attention all the time. It really reminds me of software in many ways. You fiddle with tiny little things like balancing a belt, and then move on to building belt balancers. You then move up the abstractions to where you're not really placing inser…

If Factorio took place on Earth, that would be pretty dark. But, remember the backstory is that you've crash-landed your spaceship on an alien world filled with giant hostile insects who will attack you when you get too close, even if you build nothing and never pollute. Hardly a paradise!

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#158

Post by hobomatic »

tstrimple wrote: post #60
minihat wrote: post #8

My friend has 600+ hours played of Factorio. He just beat the game for the first time. I bought it, we played multiplayer. And I taught him the mantra "great is the enemy of good enough". Our run took 14 hours. I also know many people like this at work, and wish they could have the Factorio experience. If you refactor at the first sign of trouble, you remain blind to totally new to problems just around the corner.

For me "beating" those type of games isn't the point. I've got nearly 1,500 hours on Rimworld and I've never beaten the game. It's more interesting to me to create different scenarios and see where they go and what stories come from them than to try to optimize for racing to the end.

Yeah an earlier poster mentioned something about there being no black box problems and that all the information to do anything is already out there to read. I think this is only true if you are looking to beat the game in a prescribed way. There is a massive amount of space for experimentation and defining your own resource restrictions and goal state.

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#159

Post by bregma »

julianeon wrote: post #20

I often encounter this issue when it comes to programming-like games. I’m wondering if I should adjust my thinking here. 1) Hmm, this game is a lot like programming. A lot like it. 2) Maybe I should just program? That is real work & I can get done more work done, be more productive. 3) [stopped game, started programming]

Factorio has trains. Also, at my programming job they frown on the use of shotguns, flame throwers, explosive rocketry, and the use of tactical nuclear missiles to solve problems.

Re: The Factorio Mindset

#160

Post by zethus »

hathawsh wrote: post #124

I own a copy of Factorio, yet I never play it. Whenever I think about playing Factorio, I think what I really want to do is emulate biology, not industrial machinery. I want a game that lets me alter genomes slightly and try out several branches to see which ones are better for the world I'm trying to create. I want to fast forward through time so that evolution can run its course, then if I don't like the outcome, I…

Think you're looking for a game like Spore or the older SimLife, both by Maxis.
Post reply on HN