Anyone looking to take this game to the next level should check out the Space Exploration mod. I’ve dumped a few hundred hours into it and it’s made the vanilla game feel like nothing more than a tutorial. It’s awesome.
Mods qua mods are not possible, because that term generally encompasses non-blessed people providing code and assets. Nintendo will not allow that.
You can get "DLC". Theoretically, mods could become DLC, but the road is still pretty long and I'm not aware of anything that has made that leap yet. (Possibly the things in the store for Bedrock Minecraft? I'm not sure how "blessed" the things in the Minecraft store are, nor how deep they can go; do those get to run full code or are they running in some sort of Minecraft-specific VM, which is another layer removed from the CPU code?) Anyone who can name one, I welcome the info.
Your best bet for "Switch + Factorio + Mods" is probably Factorio backporting the controller controls on to the mainline release, then taking that release and running it on a Steam Deck. Which isn't a terrible idea anyhow, as the Deck is substantially more powerful than a Switch (the Deck can mostly emulate a Switch, and emulation generally takes a substantial power delta) so rather than squeezing it on, you should be looking at something that is actually running fairly comfortably.
> Your best bet for "Switch + Factorio + Mods" is probably Factorio backporting the controller controls on to the mainline release, then taking that release and running it on a Steam Deck.
That is on the roadmap.
> I actually started working on the port for Nintendo Switch before the Steam Deck was even announced, so first I will finish what I started. Currently the controller support is optimized for and built around the Nintendo Switch system, the Joy-Con™ controllers, and their features. There's still more work to be done for generic controller support, such as dealing with the many controller types, handling mods, ability to switch between "keyboard and mouse" and "controller" modes, etc. Also I want to make it a priority to focus on the initial feedback coming from Nintendo Switch players, to make sure any bigger issues are ironed out quickly. So generic controller support is planned, just that like most things, it will take some time.
> For everything else not in the layout specifically, I have no problems just clicking on the UI buttons for what I need, like Rate Calculator or To-do List, as they are less frequently needed.
> I know that when Wube announced Steam Deck compatibility for Factorio, their blog post somewhat doubted the ability to control the game easily using a controller since the game wasn't designed for it - and I'd agree with them for any other console controller I think. But for the deck - the trackpads, back buttons, and grid menus open up tons of potential.
Yes, I probably should have said it was on the agenda.
I am surprised at how deep the Deck's controller customization goes. It goes deep enough I really need to go seek out a tutorial, I've blundered my way through some advanced config but with a lot of clicking around. (Though isn't that ultimately how most of us learn everything anyhow?) It has some amazingly deep options.
There are a few (unofficial) moddable games if you look into the homebrew scene. But for this you need to have a Switch that is capable of running unofficial code (either old Switch with a softmod or a Switch with a hardmod)
If you have such a Switch you can use a tool that overwrites/unions the content of the game cartridge with content of a folder on your SD card. That means you could add some files (e.G. maps) into the game.
From the top of my head you can definitely mod the Skyrim Switch version as well as the Star Wars Jedi Knight Games (at least these were the two games which I've played around it). But I am pretty sure that there are Mods for the mario games.
Depends what you mean by "moddable". There are plenty of games that allow for user-generated content, like Super Mario Maker 2 or Baba Is You, for example. That might not be as moddable as a system that lets you run arbitrary code, but that seems more grey than black-and-white, to me.
And for those intimidated by the much higher complexity/time commitment of Space Exploration, I have found the Krastorio 2 mod to be a great option. It adds enough new stuff to make it a fresh experience, but not nearly as much new complexity to grapple with.
I'm about 200 hours into a Space Exploration game with some friends, and we just started building spaceships! One thing I really like about this mod is that it forces you to properly learn the circuit network, I never really used it in the base game but it's an absolute must for interplanetary logistics.
I've just started playing the demo yesterday and I'm hooked. Will definitely buy the game, but wondering on which platform.
My laptop screen already feels a bit small - anyone has an experience playing on switch and thoughts on playing on handheld mode and/or using controls compared to keyboard/mouse?
Laptop/desktop on Steam. For the "when the screen feels small" it isn't too much additional to set up a gaming space with a larger monitor. It would also then easily transition to Steam Link and using smart TVs or, if you get one, a Steam Deck (I have a Steam Deck, but no Switch).
The other part there is the mod support. There are a number of quality of life things that mods can do (such as https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Supercheese/Squeak%20Through ) which become more important as the factory grows and the "physical" constraints of the game make it difficult to play at the extreme ends.
Continuing on the mod theme, there is also the "once you feel that you have sufficiently beaten the vanilla game, there are a number of ways to mod the game that add complexity or other challenges." I am personally fond of Seablock where the game is a vast ocean with a few small scattered islands. Everything is then made from water. Water -> electrolysis (H and O are vented initially) -> slag -> crushed stone -> (+ water) -> mineralized water -> ore... and that gets you started.
> I actually started working on the port for Nintendo Switch before the Steam Deck was even announced, so first I will finish what I started. Currently the controller support is optimized for and built around the Nintendo Switch system, the Joy-Con™ controllers, and their features. There's still more work to be done for generic controller support, such as dealing with the many controller types, handling mods, ability to switch between "keyboard and mouse" and "controller" modes, etc. Also I want to make it a priority to focus on the initial feedback coming from Nintendo Switch players, to make sure any bigger issues are ironed out quickly. So generic controller support is planned, just that like most things, it will take some time.
Factorio was developed for 10 years with only keyboard and mouse in mind, so making sure the game is fully playable with controllers was no easy task. Playing with a controller is slightly slower, and will take some getting used to (just as it does when playing with keyboard and mouse for the first time). After becoming familiar with it, I find it very comfortable. I recommend everyone to play through the first levels of our tutorial campaign, as it's a great way to get acquainted with playing Factorio with a controller.
I got a Steam Deck with the intention of playing Factorio on it. The controls unfortunately are very frustrating, I'm guessing they made them much better for Switch, I hope they bring the same for Steam Deck.
Nope, I've been meaning to do that. But honestly I'd expect the best controls to be picked by default, why am I expected to go hunting for community controls?
Everyone has different preferences, it would be silly to not customize things to fit your wants and needs better. Good defaults are important, but when they're tailored to a large group they can only be so good.
Frankly because the developer is not incentivized to provide a useful controls specifically for the Steam Deck. Some go the extra mile, but from what I’ve seen a lot of them just hurl the default game pad mapping. Try checking out the community mappings!
Really? I found the trackpads great for it. The default mappings are honestly quite good; I made some minor adjustments, and in general it works. The only thing I didn't like was that the in-game tooltips didn't tell me what the steam deck controls were.
That said, they said in their original Switch blog post[1] that they intend to bring these control mappings to PC/Steam Deck
Personally I don't want to make any adjustments. All the steam deck games I've installed so far have worked flawlessly without me doing anything. Inscryption is the only one where I had, at some point in the game, had to pull up the keyboard, but the launcher warned me that I would have to do that (and even told me about the shortcut).
* if you've never played the game before, it's not clear how you should customize the controls
It is amazing that for every game I looked at there was a core of power users who did propose different schemes that you can just adopt. But it does suck that the game does not necessarily show you the steam deck buttons you need to use.
You're in luck, they've already announced it in one of their blog posts:
"Even after the [Nintendo Switch] launch, there is much to do. Next to my screen there's a stack of post-it notes with future improvements, possible features and technical debt I need to solve. As mentioned in the announcement last week, after the launch I will also work on controller support for PC and Steam Deck."[1]
Porting the game to another system does not prevent them from also working on an expansion (which, as another comment pointed out, they are working on). This port was mostly worked on by one developer, and it's hard to imagine that it meaningfully delayed the expansion.
maybe this means im not a real engineer but the game became tedious for me after a while, and i was too lazy to set up the really intricate contraptions
Me too, and yet I feel immense satisfaction from building out terraform deployments. I think that might be part of it -- a TF deployment is actually doing something so the payoff feels huge. Making a counter go up in a video game just doesn't compare...
Interestingly enough I did sink a ton of hours into Rimworld, though, which has some factory like parts but more of a human simulation element to it.
I'm also too lazy to set up really intricate contraptions so I just grab other people's blueprints and I glue everything together. That's basically what I do at my day job and my title has "engineer" in it so I'm just going to keep on pretending.
I think the thing that really made factorio fun for me was deciding early on to NOT look at anyone else's designs online. Having the "correct" or "most efficient" answers handed to you removes the design part of the game and turns your base into a carbon copy of everyone else's base. I spent days figuring out how to make loops with train signals that would allow a train to spin endlessly in a circle at full-speed waiting for the path to become clear. I could have just looked up how to do that, but then I'd get no sense of accomplishment.
Very few designs are actually that difficult to reproduce. The important thing is knowing the ratios of resources/buildings that need to be made to stay efficient. You can pretty easily calculate that by hand (but why would you) but there are tools online where you can do that.
Exactly this. I use other people’s blueprints for balancers because I find those complicated and not particularly interesting, but for everything else I’ve deliberately avoided looking at other designs. Creating something mediocre and inefficient and then inventing better ways to do it is half the fun.
I also highly recommend playing with a non-engineer friend. It’s an interesting way to watch someone gradually develop an intuition for abstractions and service-oriented design.
One of the Factorio devs (kovarax?) has a blog post about regretting the introduction of copy-pasteable blueprints. I feel like balancers are where the devs become complicit in that cycle. They could have 3+ lane balancers as single structures in the base game, but by sticking with only two, they're forcing people to build their own higher order balancers. Few people have the interest or ability to design a 7-to-5 balancer, so we blindly copy designs - and build a habit of getting our designs online.
I submit that with more useable balancers, importable blueprints never would have made it into the base game.
Were you aware that you can just copy/paste parts of your factory and have robots automatically build where you pasted? The blueprint system takes all the tedium out of the game.
That's the point where it gets tedious for me. At some point it's just painting with MS paint. I have drones that can build anything i draw, i have supply lines for the resources to build those things, I've launched the rocket already, even the turrets and walls are auto repaired/replaced and the bugs are irrelevant.
It was fun to get there and i always had some goals to acheive. But at some point it's done and dusted with 0 replay-ability.
I will never understand the mindset of those that build Megabases.
Ya same. Though it’s not that I was lazy but it felt like work where I’m like “wait I have a side project in the real world that’s just as much work and just as much fun” then I never got back to the game.
i felt the exact same way. why work on a fake factory in a video game that no one will care about, when i can work on an actual thing in the real world?
it was fun for like 4-5 hours (I think I got to solar panels? or nuclear power plants? i forgot) but once that simple fact began to sink in, i was never able to pick it up again.
maybe its different if you're playing with other people
You really don't need too many intricate contraptions. Your groundwork needs to be reasonably solid (mining, smelting, green electrical), but the later stuff can be done more quickly with botches and tech-debt instead of intricate setups. Insisting on a beautifully laid-out factory that looks good is a surefire way to make your playthrough take ten times as long.
Figuring out which parts are worth refactoring into better solutions as demand increases is also quite fun imho.
An endless megafactory is just placing blueprints someone already created for 'optimal X' from online. I could come up with my own but it's not motivating when there's already better out there and it's not motivating to play 'MS paint bucket fill' endlessly.
I launched the rocket. Went "that was fun" and now cannot be bothered to go back.
Once I have to “refactor” my base the fun was gone for me. I like building stuff, but going back and doing janitor work is not fun for me.
Currently, you build a base from the very lowest tech all the way up to the highest tech in a single go. What would possibly make the game less tedious for me is if a single play through was split up into different levels with mini objectives. Once you complete the level mini objective you move on to a different map and start a new base at a higher tech level. That way you can just throw away all of the “tech debt” of the old base while starting at a higher tech level.
I imagine this would be a different game mode, but it would make the game more attractive to a wider audience in my opinion.
For experienced players of factory or strategy games, Mindustry starts out really easy. You can just build a wall at a choke point near the enemy spawn, stack up turrets, and go about your business.
At higher levels, it gets more challenging and complicated. You need to produce power and coolant, and you need to use a mix of defenses. And you also need to defend vulnerable sectors against counter-attacks, and build offensive units to attack enemy sectors. And it has a cute little system for programming units in "assembly", although the documentation is almost non-existent.
So even if it seems weirdly easy at first, it might be worth playing at least the first few campaign levels. Overall, I'd say it's my favorite mobile factory game, just edging out Refactory.
> Once I have to “refactor” my base the fun was gone for me. I like building stuff, but going back and doing janitor work is not fun for me.
That's entirely a chore you have decided to do.
It is entirely fine to just leave your spaghetti base producing stuff in its little corner while you go build the next step somewhere else.
I've did that few times, basically leave the old base to act as "mall" (just produce building to furnish the new base) while I build bigger and better, once I hit construction robots and can freely blueprint everything.
Hell, once you get to robots you can "just" erase it entirely easily if it displeases you, blueprints make it easy to change your mind.
> What would possibly make the game less tedious for me is if a single play through was split up into different levels with mini objectives. Once you complete the level mini objective you move on to a different map and start a new base at a higher tech level. That way you can just throw away all of the “tech debt” of the old base while starting at a higher tech level.
Not exactly that but look up at Warptorio 2 mod. You basically have limited sized base that teleports every XX minutes to a new planet, so you carry a small base with you but have to rebuild every warp. It is pretty hectic on default settings tho
> That way you can just throw away all of the “tech debt” of the old base while starting at a higher tech level.
The classic way to do this is to load up a train full of supplies and drive somewhere further from the start, with more enemies and better ore patches. Or if you don't have trains yet, take the car.
You can add a lot of variety and interest through Factorio's mods (there are hundreds of them).... however, eventually even that may not enough to stave off boredom because ultimately Factorio is just one game.
Still, I encourage everyone to try some of the mods. I'd personally never play unmodded Factorio after my first playthrough. They make this great game so much better.
that's just imposter syndrome talking. different people find different things fun, and as long as you're capable of planning and building an efficient factory, the fact that you don't find this fun means it's just not your thing. doesn't make you any less of a real engineer. I'm sure there's some nerdy thing that you like that I don't care for.
Probably pretty soon. The controller work is done and Xbox won’t need the amount of optimization that Switch does. That being said, Wube doesn’t do something unless they do it right and right now their main focus is probably the DLC
Huh. He definitely dug himself a hole but we'd have to throw away a whole lot of technology if we were to completely squelch every technologist deemed problematic.
As a passive observer of the various manifestations of cancel culture, it seems generally more focused on throwing away art and honors rather than technology.
The flip side of that is imagine all the technology we would have if we didn't have or defend problematic technologists oppressing people in the industry.
Every now and then he comes out against female software engineers. Last time was like a year or two ago. Part of his post history is up but it looks like his spiciest takes have been deleted and all that’s left are where he’s merely defending those making the claim that female software engineers are bad.
I'm not defending that women shouldn't be senior software engeneers, but if someone would defend that, it doesn't make him a bigot just because he proposes that and have some arguments, only if those arguments were debunked and the person wouldn't be willing to change his mind, then yes, it sounds like a bigot. But my feeling is, that this step is completely ignored in most of the cases. People are called bigots without any attempts at understanding the reasoning, it is the easy way...I'm not defending that women shouldn't be senior engeneers
What's the harm in relitigating issues though? Each new generation needs to rediscover why things are the way they are in the world. Withholding logic would disallow the new generation to be able to make an informed decision.
For example, consider Pascal. Everyone these days says, "It's a dead language, don't use it - use C/++ instead. Go read Brian Kernighan's 'Why Pascal is not my favorite language' as to why". But then, if you have a serious debate about Kernighan's issues with the language, it turns out that his concerns are no longer valid in the modern world. If you were as vehemently opposed to the relitigation of Pascal as you seem to be with kovarex's views here, then we might miss conversational progress on this topic just as we did with Pascal.
He can relitigate it all he wants. I’m not calling for cancelling him. Several people in this thread seem to have taken my comment that I don’t want to continue giving the guy money for what a fantastic game, because I find him to be such an asshole as a personal attack on them and peoples ability to speak.
On the note of relitigating whenever he wants however, he doesn’t get to do it in an ahistorical vacuum. These arguments have been made before and opinions have already formed. If wants to try and reargue them he’s starting from a state where that information is already present.
Regardless, he’s not actually relitigating. He’s doing a motte and Bailey type argument where he’s saying a relatively defensive position that someone isn’t a bigot automatically for an opinion until it’s debunked, but it’s in defense of already debunked arguments. No one brought an actual new argument about the ability of women to do software engineering
Unsubstantiated, vague FUD - all you're missing is calling him "problematic" (remember to not describe what exactly is problematic) to really top it all off.
You linked to a post that actually weakens your claim. The article is about how he hasn't said anything egregious, and how the attempt at cancelling him backfired.
Can you quote what he said, and why you think that makes him an, in your own words, "absolute dickbag"?
> Neither of that. The thing is, that sometimes teacher gets romantically involved with his/her student, and it might be completely fine and consensual. In some other cases, it might be very wrong. The point is that making one law for all cases is just too blunt.
> The thing is, that sometimes teacher gets romantically involved with his/her student…
This half of the sentence is describing statutory rape
>… and it might be completely fine and consensual.
This half of the sentence is defending it. Do you disagree with either of those parsings. If you do can you please explain how you interpret each of those sections?
Statutory rape occurs when someone who has official power or authority over another has seemingly consensual sex with them.
This is saying “well maybe the professor does hold power over that students academic career via their grades and other opportunities but I don’t think that should really be against the law”.
So, it is defending statutory rape. But that’s just not universally believed to be a bad thing so having the word “rape” in the term “statutory rape” feels like an accurate label to people who don’t believe this is wrong.
It’s like if some people don’t feel having sex with siblings/cousins was wrong, and the rest of the world called it “familial rape”. They’d say “I’m not defending familial rape, I’m just saying sometimes it’s fine for an older brother to have sex with a younger sister as long as it’s consensual”.
The thing about “statutory rape” is that there’s a blanket assumption that consent can’t be given properly when there is a major imbalance of power, such as that between boss and subordinate (which still happens all the time in FAANG) or between a professor and a student (which still happens all the time in academia).
It’s still “statutory rape” by many strict definitions of the term, it’s just not universally believed to be wrong or in need of strong enforcement.
I don't agree with character assassinations on HN, but you can see it right there in their comment on Reddit.
SJW is a pejorative, and by associating statutory rape with it, he is belittling and dismissing the validity of the term, which is in turn defending it.
I'd not heard of the guy until you made some vague claim about how he's a dickbag, and that got me curious why he's a dickbag.
I'm sorry you're being asked to quote what exactly he said that makes you dislike about the him, to the point of going on the internet, and ultimately trying to dissuade people from buying his game. Trying to impact somebody's livelihood does require at least a little bit of proof and explanation.
Anyone here own Factorio & Shapez who could compare them?
Might sound silly but Factorio's tutorial/learning curve complexity has intimidated me, so I started w Shapez, as easy mode Factorio. Liking Shapez so far.
I have both and found Shapez boring because of how claustrophobic the map is and how limited the resource types are. You can't build at the scale of Factorio because the game starts to lag (the downside of making a game in Electron perhaps). Once you've unlocked all the equipment types the rest of the game is just a loop of find some place on the map that has all the elements you need -> set up extractors + choppers + painters + combiners + stackers -> make belts to ship the product back.
With Factorio you have options for transport (belts, trains, bots) each with their own setup and maintenance challenges, and you have incentive to centralize production of an intermediate and then figure out how to distribute it to many other places which need it. With shapez you just set up new factories from scratch every time because there's only a handful of resources and they're all available everywhere in close proximity to each other.
Also the circuit stuff in Shapez is completely unnecessary unless you go for the goal of building an all-in-one (a single factory setup which can rearchitect itself to build any kind of shape you tell it to). In Factorio you use circuit stuff all the time even for basic tasks, like balancing belts or prioritizing resources to different parts of the factory or turning off parts of the factory to save power or...
I finished Shapez and then had no reason to pick it back up because there's basically only one way to finish the game. With Factorio I not only had variations in the base game I could explore (train bases vs bot bases vs spaghetti belt bases, electric furnaces vs staying with steel furnaces forever, not bothering with solar and nuclear and just staying with steam power forever, etc), I also have mods. With Shapez I have... a DLC that adds puzzles.
But yes, every pro of Factorio and con of Shapez that I listed could be the opposite for someone else. So if you like the low complexity of Shapez then you may not like Factorio.
I've obsessively played Factorio since 2014, probably logging over a thousand hours in it. I found Shapez a lot more finicky and overall way less fun. The challenges and progression in Shapez are mundane, the theme is abstract, and the UI and performance do not compare to the brilliant work done in Factorio. For what feels like a weekend project flash game, Shapez is very well done. But it doesn't compare to a project that's seen a decade of development from an incredibly talented team.
Another commenter mentioned Dyson Sphere Program, which is quite similar and also an impressive effort from its team. It introduces some refreshing differences for a seasoned Factorio player but doesn't yet have enough content/longevity.
I'd like to know if this means that Factorio on the steam deck is now as playable as on the switch. Does someone know? I've refrained myself from buying it on the deck so far because it seems like it's not made for the platform.
If you find yourself enjoying cable management or software optimization at any level you should be careful before getting sucked into this. Its a great game
The pinned review which you're looking at is from 2016, and is mostly nonsense. Factorio requires an account for some online features, including automatic updates and access to the mod portal. However, the game itself does not use any form of DRM. You do not need an account or an Internet connection to play the game.
Some of the other reviews look like they might be referring to an old business model the game was sold under where there were multiple different "packages" containing different features (e.g. a couple of puzzle scenarios). This model was abandoned in 2016 when the game was released on Steam; all features are now included in all versions of the game.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 229 ms ] threadThis $ invested per hours of good gameplay is extraordinary.
Do note that while Factorio on the Switch is a full game, there is no mod support. It does, however, have cross platform multiplayer.
Kinda, depending on how big factories you build. Right now it has a limitation that makes it like a very large/long demo. From the submission page:
> I'm getting "std::bad_alloc" when trying to load a save file.
> You are trying to load a save file that is too big and the console has run out of memory
Guess at one point, if you keep on expanding the factory, you won't be able to load the savegame anymore. Might get fixed in the future though?
I imagine we'll start seeing a new breed of "UPS saver" alike strategies which optimize for Switch limitations.
That's a crime.
As great as the vanilla game is, mods are half of what makes Factorio worth playing.
You can get "DLC". Theoretically, mods could become DLC, but the road is still pretty long and I'm not aware of anything that has made that leap yet. (Possibly the things in the store for Bedrock Minecraft? I'm not sure how "blessed" the things in the Minecraft store are, nor how deep they can go; do those get to run full code or are they running in some sort of Minecraft-specific VM, which is another layer removed from the CPU code?) Anyone who can name one, I welcome the info.
Your best bet for "Switch + Factorio + Mods" is probably Factorio backporting the controller controls on to the mainline release, then taking that release and running it on a Steam Deck. Which isn't a terrible idea anyhow, as the Deck is substantially more powerful than a Switch (the Deck can mostly emulate a Switch, and emulation generally takes a substantial power delta) so rather than squeezing it on, you should be looking at something that is actually running fairly comfortably.
That is on the roadmap.
> I actually started working on the port for Nintendo Switch before the Steam Deck was even announced, so first I will finish what I started. Currently the controller support is optimized for and built around the Nintendo Switch system, the Joy-Con™ controllers, and their features. There's still more work to be done for generic controller support, such as dealing with the many controller types, handling mods, ability to switch between "keyboard and mouse" and "controller" modes, etc. Also I want to make it a priority to focus on the initial feedback coming from Nintendo Switch players, to make sure any bigger issues are ironed out quickly. So generic controller support is planned, just that like most things, it will take some time.
That said, people are playing Factorio on the deck and liking it as it has enough buttons and additional controls beyond the traditional controller - https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/vz5d96/factorio_...
> ...
> For everything else not in the layout specifically, I have no problems just clicking on the UI buttons for what I need, like Rate Calculator or To-do List, as they are less frequently needed.
> I know that when Wube announced Steam Deck compatibility for Factorio, their blog post somewhat doubted the ability to control the game easily using a controller since the game wasn't designed for it - and I'd agree with them for any other console controller I think. But for the deck - the trackpads, back buttons, and grid menus open up tons of potential.
> ...
I am surprised at how deep the Deck's controller customization goes. It goes deep enough I really need to go seek out a tutorial, I've blundered my way through some advanced config but with a lot of clicking around. (Though isn't that ultimately how most of us learn everything anyhow?) It has some amazingly deep options.
If you have such a Switch you can use a tool that overwrites/unions the content of the game cartridge with content of a folder on your SD card. That means you could add some files (e.G. maps) into the game.
From the top of my head you can definitely mod the Skyrim Switch version as well as the Star Wars Jedi Knight Games (at least these were the two games which I've played around it). But I am pretty sure that there are Mods for the mario games.
THE FACTORY MUST GROW
Space Exploration mod
The other part there is the mod support. There are a number of quality of life things that mods can do (such as https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Supercheese/Squeak%20Through ) which become more important as the factory grows and the "physical" constraints of the game make it difficult to play at the extreme ends.
Continuing on the mod theme, there is also the "once you feel that you have sufficiently beaten the vanilla game, there are a number of ways to mod the game that add complexity or other challenges." I am personally fond of Seablock where the game is a vast ocean with a few small scattered islands. Everything is then made from water. Water -> electrolysis (H and O are vented initially) -> slag -> crushed stone -> (+ water) -> mineralized water -> ore... and that gets you started.
(from the previous blog post on the switch - https://factorio.com/blog/post/factorio-on-nintendo-switch but not mentioned in this one)
https://factorio.com/blog/post/factorio-on-nintendo-switch
Factorio was developed for 10 years with only keyboard and mouse in mind, so making sure the game is fully playable with controllers was no easy task. Playing with a controller is slightly slower, and will take some getting used to (just as it does when playing with keyboard and mouse for the first time). After becoming familiar with it, I find it very comfortable. I recommend everyone to play through the first levels of our tutorial campaign, as it's a great way to get acquainted with playing Factorio with a controller.
This is where you're losing
That said, they said in their original Switch blog post[1] that they intend to bring these control mappings to PC/Steam Deck
[1] https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-370
Personally I don't want to make any adjustments. All the steam deck games I've installed so far have worked flawlessly without me doing anything. Inscryption is the only one where I had, at some point in the game, had to pull up the keyboard, but the launcher warned me that I would have to do that (and even told me about the shortcut).
* most people just want to use the defaults
* if you've never played the game before, it's not clear how you should customize the controls
It is amazing that for every game I looked at there was a core of power users who did propose different schemes that you can just adopt. But it does suck that the game does not necessarily show you the steam deck buttons you need to use.
"Even after the [Nintendo Switch] launch, there is much to do. Next to my screen there's a stack of post-it notes with future improvements, possible features and technical debt I need to solve. As mentioned in the announcement last week, after the launch I will also work on controller support for PC and Steam Deck."[1]
https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-370
I would pay another 20 dollar straight up for more to do.
I have friends who are engineers who tired of it quickly, and friends who aren't who quickly got drawn in.
I feel that with every single of these factory games from Factorio to Satisfactory, from Dyson Sphere to Shapez.
Interestingly enough I did sink a ton of hours into Rimworld, though, which has some factory like parts but more of a human simulation element to it.
1) learning the game, making spaghetti
2) pulling in other blueprints, reaching the end game
3) creating your own blueprints, reaching the mountains of madness
I also highly recommend playing with a non-engineer friend. It’s an interesting way to watch someone gradually develop an intuition for abstractions and service-oriented design.
I submit that with more useable balancers, importable blueprints never would have made it into the base game.
It was fun to get there and i always had some goals to acheive. But at some point it's done and dusted with 0 replay-ability.
I will never understand the mindset of those that build Megabases.
Fortunately there are mods to fix that.
I had a whole slew of complaints about the vanilla game, but found that mods already existed to fix virtually all of them.
it was fun for like 4-5 hours (I think I got to solar panels? or nuclear power plants? i forgot) but once that simple fact began to sink in, i was never able to pick it up again.
maybe its different if you're playing with other people
Figuring out which parts are worth refactoring into better solutions as demand increases is also quite fun imho.
An endless megafactory is just placing blueprints someone already created for 'optimal X' from online. I could come up with my own but it's not motivating when there's already better out there and it's not motivating to play 'MS paint bucket fill' endlessly.
I launched the rocket. Went "that was fun" and now cannot be bothered to go back.
Currently, you build a base from the very lowest tech all the way up to the highest tech in a single go. What would possibly make the game less tedious for me is if a single play through was split up into different levels with mini objectives. Once you complete the level mini objective you move on to a different map and start a new base at a higher tech level. That way you can just throw away all of the “tech debt” of the old base while starting at a higher tech level.
I imagine this would be a different game mode, but it would make the game more attractive to a wider audience in my opinion.
https://mindustrygame.github.io/
At higher levels, it gets more challenging and complicated. You need to produce power and coolant, and you need to use a mix of defenses. And you also need to defend vulnerable sectors against counter-attacks, and build offensive units to attack enemy sectors. And it has a cute little system for programming units in "assembly", although the documentation is almost non-existent.
So even if it seems weirdly easy at first, it might be worth playing at least the first few campaign levels. Overall, I'd say it's my favorite mobile factory game, just edging out Refactory.
That's entirely a chore you have decided to do.
It is entirely fine to just leave your spaghetti base producing stuff in its little corner while you go build the next step somewhere else.
I've did that few times, basically leave the old base to act as "mall" (just produce building to furnish the new base) while I build bigger and better, once I hit construction robots and can freely blueprint everything.
Hell, once you get to robots you can "just" erase it entirely easily if it displeases you, blueprints make it easy to change your mind.
> What would possibly make the game less tedious for me is if a single play through was split up into different levels with mini objectives. Once you complete the level mini objective you move on to a different map and start a new base at a higher tech level. That way you can just throw away all of the “tech debt” of the old base while starting at a higher tech level.
Not exactly that but look up at Warptorio 2 mod. You basically have limited sized base that teleports every XX minutes to a new planet, so you carry a small base with you but have to rebuild every warp. It is pretty hectic on default settings tho
The classic way to do this is to load up a train full of supplies and drive somewhere further from the start, with more enemies and better ore patches. Or if you don't have trains yet, take the car.
You can add a lot of variety and interest through Factorio's mods (there are hundreds of them).... however, eventually even that may not enough to stave off boredom because ultimately Factorio is just one game.
Still, I encourage everyone to try some of the mods. I'd personally never play unmodded Factorio after my first playthrough. They make this great game so much better.
Assign leaders and have people responsible for raw resources, transport, power infrastructure, advanced production and fighting off biters
There appear to be some sources linked within this to original material.
IMO he’s not a good person
https://old.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/o2ly6f/friday_fac...
Which part are you taking issue with?
For example, consider Pascal. Everyone these days says, "It's a dead language, don't use it - use C/++ instead. Go read Brian Kernighan's 'Why Pascal is not my favorite language' as to why". But then, if you have a serious debate about Kernighan's issues with the language, it turns out that his concerns are no longer valid in the modern world. If you were as vehemently opposed to the relitigation of Pascal as you seem to be with kovarex's views here, then we might miss conversational progress on this topic just as we did with Pascal.
On the note of relitigating whenever he wants however, he doesn’t get to do it in an ahistorical vacuum. These arguments have been made before and opinions have already formed. If wants to try and reargue them he’s starting from a state where that information is already present.
Regardless, he’s not actually relitigating. He’s doing a motte and Bailey type argument where he’s saying a relatively defensive position that someone isn’t a bigot automatically for an opinion until it’s debunked, but it’s in defense of already debunked arguments. No one brought an actual new argument about the ability of women to do software engineering
I’ll be charitable and assume you somehow have access to hn but google is simultaneously not available to you
Can you quote what he said, and why you think that makes him an, in your own words, "absolute dickbag"?
Where's the defense of (statutory) rape?
This half of the sentence is describing statutory rape
>… and it might be completely fine and consensual.
This half of the sentence is defending it. Do you disagree with either of those parsings. If you do can you please explain how you interpret each of those sections?
This is saying “well maybe the professor does hold power over that students academic career via their grades and other opportunities but I don’t think that should really be against the law”.
So, it is defending statutory rape. But that’s just not universally believed to be a bad thing so having the word “rape” in the term “statutory rape” feels like an accurate label to people who don’t believe this is wrong.
It’s like if some people don’t feel having sex with siblings/cousins was wrong, and the rest of the world called it “familial rape”. They’d say “I’m not defending familial rape, I’m just saying sometimes it’s fine for an older brother to have sex with a younger sister as long as it’s consensual”.
The thing about “statutory rape” is that there’s a blanket assumption that consent can’t be given properly when there is a major imbalance of power, such as that between boss and subordinate (which still happens all the time in FAANG) or between a professor and a student (which still happens all the time in academia).
It’s still “statutory rape” by many strict definitions of the term, it’s just not universally believed to be wrong or in need of strong enforcement.
SJW is a pejorative, and by associating statutory rape with it, he is belittling and dismissing the validity of the term, which is in turn defending it.
Words matter.
I'm sorry you're being asked to quote what exactly he said that makes you dislike about the him, to the point of going on the internet, and ultimately trying to dissuade people from buying his game. Trying to impact somebody's livelihood does require at least a little bit of proof and explanation.
Enjoy your day, I suppose.
Might sound silly but Factorio's tutorial/learning curve complexity has intimidated me, so I started w Shapez, as easy mode Factorio. Liking Shapez so far.
Mindustry is simpler in complexity but much more aimed at "tower defense" style game play.
Satisfactory is like the child of Factorio and Subnautica, with a little of both games but not as deep as either.
Dyson Sphere Program is probably the truest successor to Factorio, but it's still very early access and just now adding combat.
With Factorio you have options for transport (belts, trains, bots) each with their own setup and maintenance challenges, and you have incentive to centralize production of an intermediate and then figure out how to distribute it to many other places which need it. With shapez you just set up new factories from scratch every time because there's only a handful of resources and they're all available everywhere in close proximity to each other.
Also the circuit stuff in Shapez is completely unnecessary unless you go for the goal of building an all-in-one (a single factory setup which can rearchitect itself to build any kind of shape you tell it to). In Factorio you use circuit stuff all the time even for basic tasks, like balancing belts or prioritizing resources to different parts of the factory or turning off parts of the factory to save power or...
I finished Shapez and then had no reason to pick it back up because there's basically only one way to finish the game. With Factorio I not only had variations in the base game I could explore (train bases vs bot bases vs spaghetti belt bases, electric furnaces vs staying with steel furnaces forever, not bothering with solar and nuclear and just staying with steam power forever, etc), I also have mods. With Shapez I have... a DLC that adds puzzles.
But yes, every pro of Factorio and con of Shapez that I listed could be the opposite for someone else. So if you like the low complexity of Shapez then you may not like Factorio.
Another commenter mentioned Dyson Sphere Program, which is quite similar and also an impressive effort from its team. It introduces some refreshing differences for a seasoned Factorio player but doesn't yet have enough content/longevity.
Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32825543 - Sept 2022 (359 comments)
Some of the other reviews look like they might be referring to an old business model the game was sold under where there were multiple different "packages" containing different features (e.g. a couple of puzzle scenarios). This model was abandoned in 2016 when the game was released on Steam; all features are now included in all versions of the game.