6 ms·

I know this kind of misses the point, but Factorio is one of the most addictive and rewarding gaming experience I've had. Beware: within months it ate up collec

I know this kind of misses the point, but Factorio is one of the most addictive and rewarding gaming experience I've had. Beware: within months it ate up collectively hundreds of hours from myself and members of my friend group.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
I would agree that Factorio is addictive, but "rewarding" is not a word I would use to describe it personally. I finished it but did not enjoy the process.
- NickBusey 6y ago
  I see this kind of comment often and it confuses me. If you didn't enjoy the process, why did you even bother finishing it? Further, how was launching your first rocket anything other than rewarding?
  - falcolas 6y ago
    A guess, compulsive completionism based around the sunk cost fallacy. Pretty common with videogame completionists (including myself).
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
      I am not a completionist. I can't really put my finger on why I kept playing, possibly it was because the end goal was inevitable and the only thing separating me from it was time and tedium as opposed to any real difficulty. Possibly I just had nothing better to do at the time.
  - ssully 6y ago
    As someone who loves Factorio, there is a lot about the process of the game that I don't love. Especially after having 'completed' about 4-5 factories with a friend, you get to a point where you know how to accomplish a task, but there is a lot of drudgery to get there. Also the combat is the game is tedious. When playing with a friend, we literally do a coin flip for who has to clear hives that are inside our pollution area. I personally push to turn off aliens when we play, but he thinks its lame to take out a function of the game. With all of that said though, getting to a result is always a great feeling and basically why I still play it after all of these years.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    See: Addicting. Launching the rocket was inevitable after a certain point, it was just a matter of tuning everything well enough to get there as quickly as possible, which seemed always to be hampered by some tedious task or another. Having robotics much much earlier in the game might have helped a lot there.
    - tasogare 6y ago
      I watched part of the speed run on marathon + death world challenge and the guy got robotics under 2 hours. So it’s nit that late game. Giving it earlier would be confusing for beginners.
      - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
        > I watched part of the speed run on marathon + death world challenge and the guy got robotics under 2 hours. So it’s nit that late game. You were watching a speed runner who knew exactly what they were doing. I was a first time player who didn't. I spent north of 30 hours tediously laying out factory bits and wondering "why the hell can't I automate this?" P.S.: and hey wait, whole speed runs of Factorio seem to be in the range of 2-3 hours, and you're suggesting under 2 hours isn't late game?
        MauranKilom 6y ago
        "marathon + death" is much harder than normal Factorio. I agree that it's a bit of a weird data point to bring up ("in a harder game mode it took a significant amount of time") without further reference (such as how long the full run took) though.
        jcranmer 6y ago
        In a speed run, investing in robots is a waste of time and oil (oil being the most precious resource because you have so little of it in your starting area). However, robotics is necessary for yellow science, which is likely to be the last science pack (purple science unlocks automation techs, which might be useful for speed). So leaving robotics until one of the last techs to be researched wouldn't be unreasonable in a speed run. But robotics itself only requires blue research. In my own speed run of ~6h40m (admittedly, on an older version of the game, but the game pre-blue science hasn't changed much), I got blue science in about 2h, and bee-lining for robotics after that would only take a couple of researches beyond that (advanced oil, electric engine, robotics, and then construction robotics to do anything useful IIRC). I wouldn't call anything that takes only blue science to get to be late game; for me, that requires at least purple or yellow science. Robotics is on the other side of the oil barrier, which is definitely going to push it far later in the game for new people, but it's also accessible before you hit the point of needing to repetitively scale up your factory (which tends to come with purple/yellow science), so it is accessible before you really need it. However, the game doesn't particularly guide you towards knowing that it exists, so I can see how it might be frustrating for new players.
- depaya 6y ago
  Makes sense, it's not for everyone. I will note that someone who does enjoy the game would never describe themselves as having "finished" it, there is always more to expand, more to optimize, etc. Not to mention all the mods to explore!
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    Frankly that's probably one of the big reasons I didn't enjoy it, but did enjoy many Zachtronics games.
minsc__and__boo 6y ago
Wait until you try Dyson Sphere Program. It definitely scratches that Factorio itch but in a different way.
- keithnz 6y ago
  I haven't found dyson sphere as addictive, but it's definitely fun and has a similar feel, but dyson sphere seems more about building massive amounts of things rather than clever designs
  - minsc__and__boo 6y ago
    Fair, but it's in early access and just released a few weeks ago. Roadmap includes a ton of interesting things which should make it more challenging in the long run.
- jeremyis 6y ago
  I just looked up Dyson Sphere Program. What have... you done. Haha looks awesome - thanks!

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago

I would agree that Factorio is addictive, but "rewarding" is not a word I would use to describe it personally. I finished it but did not enjoy the process.

NickBusey 6y ago
I see this kind of comment often and it confuses me. If you didn't enjoy the process, why did you even bother finishing it? Further, how was launching your first rocket anything other than rewarding?
- falcolas 6y ago
  A guess, compulsive completionism based around the sunk cost fallacy. Pretty common with videogame completionists (including myself).
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    I am not a completionist. I can't really put my finger on why I kept playing, possibly it was because the end goal was inevitable and the only thing separating me from it was time and tedium as opposed to any real difficulty. Possibly I just had nothing better to do at the time.
- ssully 6y ago
  As someone who loves Factorio, there is a lot about the process of the game that I don't love. Especially after having 'completed' about 4-5 factories with a friend, you get to a point where you know how to accomplish a task, but there is a lot of drudgery to get there. Also the combat is the game is tedious. When playing with a friend, we literally do a coin flip for who has to clear hives that are inside our pollution area. I personally push to turn off aliens when we play, but he thinks its lame to take out a function of the game. With all of that said though, getting to a result is always a great feeling and basically why I still play it after all of these years.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  See: Addicting. Launching the rocket was inevitable after a certain point, it was just a matter of tuning everything well enough to get there as quickly as possible, which seemed always to be hampered by some tedious task or another. Having robotics much much earlier in the game might have helped a lot there.
  - tasogare 6y ago
    I watched part of the speed run on marathon + death world challenge and the guy got robotics under 2 hours. So it’s nit that late game. Giving it earlier would be confusing for beginners.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
      > I watched part of the speed run on marathon + death world challenge and the guy got robotics under 2 hours. So it’s nit that late game. You were watching a speed runner who knew exactly what they were doing. I was a first time player who didn't. I spent north of 30 hours tediously laying out factory bits and wondering "why the hell can't I automate this?" P.S.: and hey wait, whole speed runs of Factorio seem to be in the range of 2-3 hours, and you're suggesting under 2 hours isn't late game?
      - MauranKilom 6y ago
        "marathon + death" is much harder than normal Factorio. I agree that it's a bit of a weird data point to bring up ("in a harder game mode it took a significant amount of time") without further reference (such as how long the full run took) though.
      - jcranmer 6y ago
        In a speed run, investing in robots is a waste of time and oil (oil being the most precious resource because you have so little of it in your starting area). However, robotics is necessary for yellow science, which is likely to be the last science pack (purple science unlocks automation techs, which might be useful for speed). So leaving robotics until one of the last techs to be researched wouldn't be unreasonable in a speed run. But robotics itself only requires blue research. In my own speed run of ~6h40m (admittedly, on an older version of the game, but the game pre-blue science hasn't changed much), I got blue science in about 2h, and bee-lining for robotics after that would only take a couple of researches beyond that (advanced oil, electric engine, robotics, and then construction robotics to do anything useful IIRC). I wouldn't call anything that takes only blue science to get to be late game; for me, that requires at least purple or yellow science. Robotics is on the other side of the oil barrier, which is definitely going to push it far later in the game for new people, but it's also accessible before you hit the point of needing to repetitively scale up your factory (which tends to come with purple/yellow science), so it is accessible before you really need it. However, the game doesn't particularly guide you towards knowing that it exists, so I can see how it might be frustrating for new players.
depaya 6y ago
Makes sense, it's not for everyone. I will note that someone who does enjoy the game would never describe themselves as having "finished" it, there is always more to expand, more to optimize, etc. Not to mention all the mods to explore!
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  Frankly that's probably one of the big reasons I didn't enjoy it, but did enjoy many Zachtronics games.

minsc__and__boo 6y ago

Wait until you try Dyson Sphere Program. It definitely scratches that Factorio itch but in a different way.

keithnz 6y ago
I haven't found dyson sphere as addictive, but it's definitely fun and has a similar feel, but dyson sphere seems more about building massive amounts of things rather than clever designs
- minsc__and__boo 6y ago
  Fair, but it's in early access and just released a few weeks ago. Roadmap includes a ton of interesting things which should make it more challenging in the long run.
jeremyis 6y ago
I just looked up Dyson Sphere Program. What have... you done. Haha looks awesome - thanks!