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Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

factorio.com

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Re: Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

#351

Post by SigmundA »

323 wrote: post #61

There was a funny but insightful take about how Factorio is about a colonizing force going to a planet and taking all of it's natural resources while suppressing all the native inhabitants and how the player identifies with this evil entity as if a good thing.

I have always had that take with Factorio and thought it was sublime like the rest of the game. It resonates with modern life for me, the factory must always grow (growth mindset) at the expense of everything else, all this wonderful automation building better technology while ruining the natural environment, remaking it into something else.

I love the game and I usually like to play by minimizing my pollution cloud (rushing solar and nuclear) and trying to avoid the natives as much as possible trying to be "good" but still survive, but in the end you still must make a factory and eventually piss off and kill natives, ultimately its you or them, I know I am the monster not them.

Re: Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

#353

Post by Bakary »

triceratops wrote: post #230
Bakary wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video games are way up there when it comes to insane value for money. But it seems that players then buy way more games than they need.

Strongly agree to both points. Any kind of game (video, board, card, whatever) and sports equipment are incredible value for money, in terms of entertainment-hours/dollar, as long as you use them. And because they demand active involvement, they save you from spending money on other stuff. You can easily shop online on the couch watching TV. Not so much if you're playing a game or a sport.

The kicker is that the entertainment per dollar figure is only part of the story. The inherent quality and worth of some games make them memorable experiences that aren't found in other mediums, and the market is mature enough that quality games abound even taking into account Sturgeon's law.

There is a dark side however, in that gamers can sometimes completely lose interest in the act of gaming in and of itself. This is a complex range of emotions related to the sensation of aging and the restrictions that come with responsibilities. But when it comes, it can alter the value of what people get from games to devastating effect.

Re: Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

#355

Post by IggleSniggle »

TaupeRanger wrote: post #298
IggleSniggle wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting a Steam Deck has absolutely destroyed my life. Plays mouse+keyboard games so comfortably and effortlessly.

Can you give an example mouse+keyboard game that works really well?

I've been playing a lot of Vault of the Void, which is honestly mostly a mouse-only game on the Deck, but being able to map a few key keyboard shortcuts to the plethora of buttons makes it feel effectively the same.

Honestly, its more that it feels like a new input type entirely in a class of its own. I find I use it a lot to mix and match gamepad controls with keyboard shortcuts and mouse click-drag, sometimes all within the same game.

Noita has gamepad controls, but a lot of the interface works a lot better with mouse+keyboard. Deck lets me use gamepad controls for when my character is interacting with the environment, and use mouse+keyboard controls when I open my inventory. This wouldn't be realistic on another device, because the environment/world continues in the background even while you have your inventory open, so you need to be able to switch immediately from inventory management back to world-interaction.

Most games are like this: they rely heavily on one input, but being able to make use of the other inputs simultaneously gives you a ton of options.

The one class of game that I really enjoy but haven't tried yet is heavily-keyboard-focused games like some traditional roguelikes. Some, like Brogue, have a small enough control set that it would be pretty easy to map all the main keys, and supplement with mouse input for eg inventory selection. Many require more keys and don't allow mouse input, however. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead has something like FIFO keyboard shortcut for inventory items, and uses a-z plus several symbols; that would be pretty painful on Deck. I haven't played that in years though, so maybe would be better today. I've been seriously meaning to try Cogmind or Caves of Qud on the Deck, though.

Re: Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

#356

Post by IggleSniggle »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #280
IggleSniggle wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting a Steam Deck has absolutely destroyed my life. Plays mouse+keyboard games so comfortably and effortlessly.

What are the main games taking hours on the Steam Deck? I want one, but I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around what I would actually do.

I'm going to out my HN account to my friends if they're on here, but I've been playing Noita, Vault of the Void, Vampire Survivors, Heroes of Might and Magic, Bastion, Boneraiser Minions, Distance, Pawnbarian.

Huge range of games with a wide variety of inputs. I don't want to admit to you what my weekly playtime average looks like since receiving the Deck, but it's high.

Re: Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

#357

Post by IggleSniggle »

theshrike79 wrote: post #324
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the main games taking hours on the Steam Deck? I want one, but I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around what I would actually do.

Anything that has natural stop-off points pretty much. Vampire Survivors is my most highest played one based on hours though =) You can play it with the sound and most of your brain off, so you can still listen to what's going on in the TV show you're "watching". GTA V runs perfectly on it, I played through Quantum Break. And as soon as I get Heroic Launcher (Epic + Gog games) working, I'll start with Witcher 3 and C…

I've been appreciating it for games that don't have a natural stop-off point. Unlike on my computer, I'm perfectly content to pause the game, sleep the device, and then pick it back up again later. The ability to turn it off without losing your state is a given on devices like the Switch, but it feels like a really important accomplishment on a PC where I'm often hesitant to even sleep the machine while I have a game open.

Re: Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

#358

Post by drewtato »

rthomas6 wrote: post #194
drewtato wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I played the game, it seemed pretty obvious that the main character is evil, in a literary sense. There's no redeeming qualities like in other games like Uncharted. It's just one person who most likely accidentally landed on a planet and solves that self-imposed problem with violence. The fact that the bugs attack depending on pollution confirms it.

The main character is supposed to die to protect the presumably low intelligence animals? He doesn't want to be there and he's trying to leave, and doing what he has to do to leave it. That's not a self-imposed problem. Also, is this planet like ten square miles large or something? How much damage is the character doing to the planet as a whole? We all willingly pollute our own planet in a much more severe way to do…

The map is technically 4 million square kilometers but in design/narrative terms, it's planet-sized.

The character is not supposed to die, they're supposed to be evil. The point of the game is that winning the game is evil. It's not saying humans on earth are evil, it's suggesting that maybe they are, or maybe we're the bugs, or maybe some of us are the bugs and some of us are the engineer. We also don't know the intelligence level of the bugs. They're smart enough to coordinate attacks, pathfind, target polluting and military buildings, and sense pollution, but it's purposely ambiguous.

Re: Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

#359

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

stingraycharles wrote: post #186
sgarman wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You kinda have to ignore it if you want your game to be playable docked.

I happen to be one of those switch users who almost exclusively use it docked. Initially I thought the concept was great, but the screen is just too small for my eyes on all the strategy games I play, I always defer to my iPad on holidays.

I actually purchased multiple docks, the nice thing about the switch to me is being able to quickly move it to another room as needs arise.

Re: Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch

#360

Post by NathanielK »

chitowneats wrote: post #124
ihuman wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's under the GPL 3 license, so it's free software. Click the GitHub link on top for the source code. It's also free on itch.io. There's a link to that below the Steam link.

I understand that. This is a very highly rated game on Steam. Clearly, many have come across it without realizing it is, in fact, free. Even as a developer, if Steam were to recommend this game to me, I have no way of knowing it's FOSS. Very interesting strategy. I'll give them that. I have enough misgivings about it though that I probably won't be playing it. Feels scammy. Like they are trying to essentially release…

The steam one also makes multiplayer much more convenient. Just click on your buddy and join their game. The open source release is a bit trickier and has you hosting and typing in IP addresses.
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