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How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

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Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#421

Post by hnben »

aphantastic wrote: post #31
Xeronate wrote: post #7

The article mentions one of the main appeals of factorio is you get to think like a programmer without bosses/overhead from actual work but it’s always been hard to get into games for that reason because I could just work on a side project with the same result. I really don’t understand the appeal.

Mindusry scratches the same itch, but in perhaps a slightly more appealing way for me at least. Rather than the entire game being dedicated to creating one massive monolith dedicated to the one goal of rocket building or whatever, there are many different levels each where you’re just playing classic tower defense and using the layout of the map to your advantage to extract resources and kill bad guys. It’s casual an…

the expansion adds some of these aspects.

> there are many different levels each

the expansion adds separate planets and multiple space-platforms. So it moves away from the monolith and towards multiple smaller factories. (In the end-game you probably and up with a massive monolith again, but until then you will have multiple medium-sized factories).

> ... classic tower defense and using the layout of the map to your advantage to extract resources and kill bad guys

Each new area add some unique defense-need, e.g. in space you have to shoot at incoming asteroids, and on the lava-planet, you have to build temporary mining-outposts, that get eaten by worms after a couple of minutes. (The other planes probably add something like that too, but I haven't played so far yet)

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#422

Post by peeksonite »

oersted wrote: post #96
dietr1ch wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, long ago a roomate got into Factorio and after figuring out the basics ended up admitting that it felt way too much like work. This has been my reason to stay out of Factorio even though plenty of people have recommended it to me. I did a short collaborative run of Mindustry and I feel I don't need to play Factorio, plus, Counter-Strike chugs all my playing time, to me it's a bit like cocaine made a game and ex…

> It's the trucking game for truckers Exactly yes, I wouldn't say it's only for engineers, it is perfect for smart people who chose a different path in life and need to feed this part of their brain with a fun simplified simulation of what it's like to be an engineer. Of course, engineers would love this game, but we already engage in this type of activity all day much more intensely precisely because we love it, we…

Re: "hard decision-making strategy games", are there any that you'd recommend in hindsight to future founders? To get a feel for the mental lived reality of decision-making in a startup?

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#423

Post by rustyboy »

ozim wrote: post #381
IggleSniggle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with side projects is that they do not have a well defined goal. Or they do, in which case something like Factorio won't have any appeal because you can just work on something more meaningful instead. Factorio is for people who want to keep programming but are too frustrated or cynical about the real world to do it there. If the real world was better, they would do it there. If the real world could be fix…

Games usually have kinks worked out - if you build project you might end up chasing one liner for a week. From game I get instant gratification as if I play by the game guide/rules I can have something satisfying built in one evening.

i find tech hobbies fun because so may of the hard skills are transferable so i'm never starting from scratch, aka the hardest parts of a new hobby.

however, this is the trap i always fall into - i have these vague targets like "learn vue" and spend the whole weekend trying to figure out how to install node on a windows machine and run a basic test

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#424

Post by SixDouble5321 »

RadiozRadioz wrote: post #288

I'm terrified of Factorio. I've deliberatly avoided playing it because I know, if I do, I'll lose an entire month. Kudos to the creators on their brilliant game, it's like heroin for a particular type of brain.

Same, but I accidentally bought Mindustry instead, so I guess I saved $20.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#425

Post by mrkramer »

chpatrick wrote: post #171
mrkramer wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Factorio is designed to keep providing them for hours and hours It's called replayability, the crucial selling point of every successful game.

Yes, and?

I filled you in with a right word.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#426

Post by 0points »

lucb1e wrote: post #314
0points wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It fascinates me how someone like you manage to build all these tooling to run your house, but still struggle with > need to remember to load the grocery list before leaving the house that has the server in it ^ remote access and > better hope your phone doesn't decide for you that the page needs to be unloaded on the way ^ unreliable tech

Phones being unreliable and making data-tossing decisions without your involvement is indeed the complaint I meant to share. It has been a pet peeve about Android since day one and it has only gotten worse (websites like dontkillmyapp come to mind); would hope that being aware of the downsides helps us fix or reliably work around the issue one day I don't understand the first point though, do you mean I should set up…

> What are you suggesting or pointing out exactly?

Exactly what I wrote above.

You hadn't shared your setup by then tho, which you now have. So I don't know what to tell you.

Re-read what you replied to and then you might not need to formulate such empty questions.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#427

Post by 0points »

lucb1e wrote: post #315
sanotehu wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Syncthing to sync the grocery list to your phone whenever it is on the home WiFi. Any changes will be updated when you next get back home. I use this with obsidian and it's a game changer, removing need for the cloud

> Any changes will be updated when you next get back home [...] removing need for the cloud More than one person can be in the grocery store. Syncing a file does not work because you overwrite each other's changes; this is what we started with but this is why I made (what I call) multiplayer groceries in the first place And note that I also don't need a "cloud"; it's hosted on my own system rather than someone else's

Even Home Assistant have a shopping list built in by now.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#430

Post by brokenmachine »

rustyboy wrote: post #423
ozim wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Games usually have kinks worked out - if you build project you might end up chasing one liner for a week. From game I get instant gratification as if I play by the game guide/rules I can have something satisfying built in one evening.

i find tech hobbies fun because so may of the hard skills are transferable so i'm never starting from scratch, aka the hardest parts of a new hobby. however, this is the trap i always fall into - i have these vague targets like "learn vue" and spend the whole weekend trying to figure out how to install node on a windows machine and run a basic test

100% agree, but think how long it would take you to install node without all your previous experience!!

Personally I have a list of things to learn that could easily take several lifetimes.

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