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What is interesting about Factorio

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Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#211

Post by mden »

Vvector wrote: post #158
thu2111 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. The article is pretty subjective; I'd say there are lots of glaring flaws in Factorio. I played it for a while, stopped when I hit a major problem, but when I came back the game had changed quite a bit and I couldn't get back into it. Flaws of Factorio in no specific order: • The car has maddeningly terrible physics. The OP claims this yields "comic fun". It doesn't. It just means you're constantly crashi…

>> At some point I hit a biter nest I couldn't beat, couldn't go around (some sort of story based misson). There was NO way past this obstacle...... The research tree gives you many different ways to kill a biter nest: * Flame Throwers * Turrets / Laser Turrets * Personal Laser Defense * Combat Robots * Tank * Artillery * Atomic Bomb >> Factorio has managed to get some market success despite being pretty badly built…

Just want to second how solidly built the game feels. There's definitely a learning curve which keeps on going for many hours (and I think that's a big part of the appeal) and there's some missing in-game information that I've found myself having to look up online - that much is true.

But the UX has incredible amounts of well-thought out polish. Different sized hitboxes for different components, often really favoring playability makes navigating bases really handy. Live map view with the ability to zoom into a location you're not currently near to get a real view of the factory at that point. Unrealistic long reach. Smart notifications on events happening in the base. Graphs diagramming pollution generation and electricity use by factory component type spanning the whole game period. Map layers showing which zones are protected by your defenses, or the extent of spread of pollution, or the routes and locations of your automated trains. And dozens of really useful shortcuts as mentioned.

The game would be perfectly playable without any of these and still be really fun but the love and attention put in by the devs is very clear. And the most amazing thing is seeing all of these things happening all at the same time with thousands of moving pieces updating at 60hz and the game still runs smooth as butter. As a developer I've been very impressed by how smoothly this game runs. And as a gamer I have seen much much simpler games put computers to the test to achieve much less.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#212

Post by pbhjpbhj »

melvinroest wrote: post #123
percentcer wrote: post #9

I think the biggest hook for Factorio is that it's an _actual_ visual programming language. So much of what we do day to day ignores this (dominant!) mode of perception. It's extremely refreshing to be able to simply look at a system to reason about it. (as an aside, I think this is also why the Zachtronics games are so effective)

The other thing is that it goes at a speed that we can comprehend. If I type for (let i = 1; i And you run that in your console, it happens in the blink of an eye. Not with Factorio, it's fast, but we can still follow it. We can still see the individual materials being inserted or taken out. That makes me think of a project idea: create an environment that executes fast but not at the speed of a computer (like Factor…

You can run in a debugger that steps through and shows variable values, has a pointer, etc..

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#213

Post by kchr »

TomMarius wrote: post #100
TylerE wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Most importantly: Dithering by hand.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#214

Post by leetcrew »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #210
ashtonkem wrote: post #201

Factorio is probably one of the best $$/hr values outside of Dwarf Fortress, which is free. It’s also basically engineering catnip, consider yourself warned. For those who are interested, it’s the stated goal of the devs to never put the game on sale. They think it’s worth $30, and they intend to sell it for $30. So if you’re interested, don’t wait for a sale, buy it now!

I'd be interested in reading their analysis on price setting. $30 is much more than it was 3 years ago. I've been waiting for a discount on factorio. I guess I'll take it off my wishlist.

the game isn't considered finished yet (current stable version is 0.17.79). they have been gradually raising the price as they get closer to "finishing".

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#215

Post by wincent »

slothtrop wrote: post #205

It looks like programming but in a more cumbersome fashion. I enjoy and understand the appeal of puzzles (Recurse is a good game), but this is too much like work.

It is intentionally cumbersome, at first, but as you master the technology tree you get access to ever faster robots, blueprints, automation via the circuit network, self-maintaining defenses etc. You can construct and dismantle distant parts of the factory from the map view etc. Basically, you journey from insignificance to near-omnipotence.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#216

Post by tryptophan »

samsolomon wrote: post #134
fouc wrote: post #6

As someone that stopped playing games in university, I've found it weirdly hard to get back into games many years later. Factorio seems like the type of game I would've liked as a teenager, but now it just feels like work to me. As do most interesting games. It seems like there's a learning curve to games that I don't want to spend the time dealing with anymore.

As someone who has recently got back into games, Factorio is a ton of work—and I love strategy games like Civilization. Playing Factorio is not unlike doing engineering work itself. Initially, I was hooked. After a while, the brainpower it takes to build and refactor large factories felt too demanding. It began to feel more like work, than enjoyment.

I go through a cycle like that every so often. I start a new game of factorio after a long break, get super addicted for a week or two, and then get a feeling that its just work, and I'd rather be working on some python project because I don't have to deal with biters attacking me in VS code.

Late game factorio feels exactly like coding, except you can't copy paste as well and make loops and other time saving abstractions.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#217

Post by debaserab2 »

Faark wrote: post #135
debaserab2 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the exact same way. It's interesting that you mention Rimworld - I dived into Rimworld when I first got it and came to appreciate the way little things add up in that game and make the simulation more interesting (be it positive or negative). The complicated UI is slowly unraveled and becomes intuitive as you learn the game because there are simple feedback mechanisms for actions that affect your colonists. Ev…

Yes, Rimworld is easier to get into for many. "Survive" is a way more obvious and natural goal. But once I got more and more into the details, Rimworld was the one frustrating me. I probably just despise this kind of "Storyteller" aka Event choosen by Wealth & RNG. This ruined the fun for me and is probably the reason I played Factorio easily 10 times as long as Rimworld. The closest Factory has to that is the pollut…

Perhaps you can answer this for me then: what is the goal in a game of factorio?

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#218

Post by cptroot »

debaserab2 wrote: post #217
Faark wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Rimworld is easier to get into for many. "Survive" is a way more obvious and natural goal. But once I got more and more into the details, Rimworld was the one frustrating me. I probably just despise this kind of "Storyteller" aka Event choosen by Wealth & RNG. This ruined the fun for me and is probably the reason I played Factorio easily 10 times as long as Rimworld. The closest Factory has to that is the pollut…

Perhaps you can answer this for me then: what is the goal in a game of factorio?

The factory must grow

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#219

Post by cptroot »

notthemessiah wrote: post #182

One thing notable about Factorio's game mechanics is that crafting is idempotent: the tech tree is a directed acyclic graph. If one is looking for a different experience in which one thinks about closing manufacturing loops, I would recommend Oxygen Not Included, where you have to sustain life amidst an asteroid colony.

A notable exception to this is uranium and modded Factorio. In particular, Angel's Petrochem has a bunch of those loops. If you're interested in trying it I recommend Factorio SeaBlock.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#220

Post by mywittyname »

qqssccfftt wrote: post #144
koheripbal wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially not when they work a 9-5 job which pays the same regardless of being a 1x or 10x. This is a failure of forethought on their part. It's true that their _current_ job might not pay more for that knowledge, but it absolutely pays off in their career and during interviews as they develop their professional network and people begin to recognize them as a source of in-depth knowledge.

I have better things to do in life than optimise my CRUD creation skills so I can be a source of knowledge for CRUD creation

Have you ever thought about a life beyond CRUD?

Not that I would blame anyone for settling into a life where you CRUD from 8:30 to 5:00, then go home and enjoy your life. There are many jobs out there that are more interesting and better paying with the exact same quality of life trade-offs. If anything, I've found that more challenging workplaces hire people who are more interesting to be around.

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