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Oh good, my life being utterly dominated by Factorio again is at least a year away. That gives me some time to get my affairs in order. I really wish this were

by donatj 3y ago

Oh good, my life being utterly dominated by Factorio again is at least a year away. That gives me some time to get my affairs in order. I really wish this were a joke. Also, if anyone wants to play a game similar to Factorio while you wait - https://shapez.io https://shapez.io is like Factorio without a player character and a cleaner aesthetic. I played it first, and really enjoyed it.

pmoriarty 3y ago
I enjoyed Shapez, and it's cool that it has many mods, but I just found it too abstract and sterile to keep my attention. Factorio just much more engaging for me in the long run, especially with mods.
- II2II 3y ago
  I took a quick look at Shapez. It may end up being addictive (to me) when Factorio was not. The reason being that Factorio's world is a bit dystopian in my view. A good game, but I like more cheerful things in my life. The abstraction of Shapez and the upbeat music seem to accomplish that.
- hiatus 3y ago
  Yeah among other things that caused me to abandon it, there is no relationship between expansion and neighbor aggression or any other external pressures (though maybe I did not progress far enough to encounter those elements if they exist).
- epiccoleman 3y ago
  I love Shapez overall, and the Shapez Industries mod is a great way to breathe new life into it, but I tend to find that I run out of interest before the "endgame". As annoying as the Factorio biters are, they do provide a little bit of pressure that keeps you wanting to research new things and continue building. (They also inspire a burning hatred that will drive you to research and implement ever more efficient methods of murdering them). The same goes for the limitedness of Factorio resources patches. In Shapez the logistics that come with expansion and defense don't exist, so it winds up feeling sorta samey. I like the chill, relaxing vibe of Shapez but eventually felt like I was just doing the same things over and over with slight variations. Also, the lack of a blueprint book in Shapez is a major drag. I ended up setting a map marker way the hell out which lets me "teleport" to an area where I copy/paste designs from, but that's pretty hacky and ruins some of the flow state that Shapez lets you cultivate. All that said, I've been following the dev of Shapez 2 and at least visually it looks awesome, so I'll definitely be hopping into that at some point.
  - pmoriarty 3y ago
    I turn off biters in most of my playthroughs, and set all my resources up to 200%, and I still much prefer Factorio played this way to Shapez. Shapez was fun for a handful of hours, but I really don't see myself spending hundreds, nevermind thousands of hours on it like I have on Factorio.
  - donatj 3y ago
    I never really found the biters that much of a deterrent. As soon as you get the laser turrets and flying robots that automatically repair your base, you basically never need to think about the biters again.
    - epiccoleman 3y ago
      That's true, but if you don't have a burning passion for their extermination by that point in the game you're a more forgiving being than me.
babypuncher 3y ago
I might also recommend Satisfactory. It is essentially Factorio in first person. I think it actually has a better tutorial for people who are just getting into this kind of game.
- epiccoleman 3y ago
  I've been really interested in Satisfactory, but the last time I looked, they didn't have blueprints - and I really can't imagine playing one of these kinds of games without some way of repeating designs. It looks awesome though, and I'd love to get a server running with a few friends.
  - babypuncher 3y ago
    They have blueprints now, and they are pretty handy. The game is still in early access, but it is feeling pretty close to a 1.0 product. The next major update is moving the game to Unreal Engine 5. What I really like about this game is that you can build vertically, a feature afforded by being in 3D. It allows for some truly massive and beautiful factory designs.
  - ooterness 3y ago
    Satisfactory added a blueprint system in Update 7, circa November 2022.
Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
Two other factory builders that have slipped under the radar: Dyson Sphere Program - I love it because it has the cleaner look of Satisfactory, but in a 3rd person view. I could never get used to Satisfactory's first person view. It just doesn't work well for making a factory. DSP also has you go between multiple solar systems to fetch materials. Captain of Industry - The only factory builder that feels like it takes place in today's time. Has the unique mechanic that mining for materials actually deforms the terrain, and that excess dirt/stone can be used to expand your island. When I last played, the tutorial was lacking, but this may have been fixed by now. Also, anyone experienced with factory builders probably won't need much tutorial anyways. One thing I like about both of those that Factorio doesn't have (and I think desperately needs!) is the ability for belts to have more than 2 layers. At the very least, I often found myself wishing I could have longer underground belts in Factorio.
- pmoriarty 3y ago
  "I often found myself wishing I could have longer underground belts in Factorio." I hate to beat the modding horse in to the ground, but, yeah, I'm pretty sure there are mods for this. Try searching for "belts" on the mod portal and you'll probably find a bunch that do what you want. In my experience, whenever I've wondered if there might be a mod for something I wanted, the answer has been "yes, there already is one, and more." It actually takes some serious creativity to come up with an interesting idea which hasn't already been turned in to a mod in Factorio.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- BlueTemplar 3y ago
  There's always belt weaving. (For those that don't know, belts of the 3 different tiers don't "share the same underground space", and so can be overlapped on "top" of each other through the use of underground belts.)
dimava 3y ago
And it also has an update nearing the end of development est 2024) - Shapez 2 [0] , rebuild in 3D (with 3d belt layers same as Dyson has) with new features [0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/
WA 3y ago
Or Mindustry, which is open source: https://mindustrygame.github.io/ https://mindustrygame.github.io/ Mindustry has two "planets" and they play entirely differently. The newer one, Erekir, is a mix of Factorio, tower defense and RTS elements. I actually liked it a bit more than Factorio, because it is less complex. I didn’t really like the first planet though (Serpulo) and stopped after playing through Erekir twice.

by donatj 3y ago

pmoriarty 3y ago

I enjoyed Shapez, and it's cool that it has many mods, but I just found it too abstract and sterile to keep my attention. Factorio just much more engaging for me in the long run, especially with mods.

II2II 3y ago
I took a quick look at Shapez. It may end up being addictive (to me) when Factorio was not. The reason being that Factorio's world is a bit dystopian in my view. A good game, but I like more cheerful things in my life. The abstraction of Shapez and the upbeat music seem to accomplish that.
hiatus 3y ago
Yeah among other things that caused me to abandon it, there is no relationship between expansion and neighbor aggression or any other external pressures (though maybe I did not progress far enough to encounter those elements if they exist).
epiccoleman 3y ago
I love Shapez overall, and the Shapez Industries mod is a great way to breathe new life into it, but I tend to find that I run out of interest before the "endgame". As annoying as the Factorio biters are, they do provide a little bit of pressure that keeps you wanting to research new things and continue building. (They also inspire a burning hatred that will drive you to research and implement ever more efficient methods of murdering them). The same goes for the limitedness of Factorio resources patches. In Shapez the logistics that come with expansion and defense don't exist, so it winds up feeling sorta samey. I like the chill, relaxing vibe of Shapez but eventually felt like I was just doing the same things over and over with slight variations. Also, the lack of a blueprint book in Shapez is a major drag. I ended up setting a map marker way the hell out which lets me "teleport" to an area where I copy/paste designs from, but that's pretty hacky and ruins some of the flow state that Shapez lets you cultivate. All that said, I've been following the dev of Shapez 2 and at least visually it looks awesome, so I'll definitely be hopping into that at some point.
- pmoriarty 3y ago
  I turn off biters in most of my playthroughs, and set all my resources up to 200%, and I still much prefer Factorio played this way to Shapez. Shapez was fun for a handful of hours, but I really don't see myself spending hundreds, nevermind thousands of hours on it like I have on Factorio.
- donatj 3y ago
  I never really found the biters that much of a deterrent. As soon as you get the laser turrets and flying robots that automatically repair your base, you basically never need to think about the biters again.
  - epiccoleman 3y ago
    That's true, but if you don't have a burning passion for their extermination by that point in the game you're a more forgiving being than me.

babypuncher 3y ago

I might also recommend Satisfactory. It is essentially Factorio in first person. I think it actually has a better tutorial for people who are just getting into this kind of game.

epiccoleman 3y ago
I've been really interested in Satisfactory, but the last time I looked, they didn't have blueprints - and I really can't imagine playing one of these kinds of games without some way of repeating designs. It looks awesome though, and I'd love to get a server running with a few friends.
- babypuncher 3y ago
  They have blueprints now, and they are pretty handy. The game is still in early access, but it is feeling pretty close to a 1.0 product. The next major update is moving the game to Unreal Engine 5. What I really like about this game is that you can build vertically, a feature afforded by being in 3D. It allows for some truly massive and beautiful factory designs.
- ooterness 3y ago
  Satisfactory added a blueprint system in Update 7, circa November 2022.

Sohcahtoa82 3y ago

Two other factory builders that have slipped under the radar: Dyson Sphere Program - I love it because it has the cleaner look of Satisfactory, but in a 3rd person view. I could never get used to Satisfactory's first person view. It just doesn't work well for making a factory. DSP also has you go between multiple solar systems to fetch materials. Captain of Industry - The only factory builder that feels like it takes place in today's time. Has the unique mechanic that mining for materials actually deforms the terrain, and that excess dirt/stone can be used to expand your island. When I last played, the tutorial was lacking, but this may have been fixed by now. Also, anyone experienced with factory builders probably won't need much tutorial anyways. One thing I like about both of those that Factorio doesn't have (and I think desperately needs!) is the ability for belts to have more than 2 layers. At the very least, I often found myself wishing I could have longer underground belts in Factorio.

pmoriarty 3y ago
"I often found myself wishing I could have longer underground belts in Factorio." I hate to beat the modding horse in to the ground, but, yeah, I'm pretty sure there are mods for this. Try searching for "belts" on the mod portal and you'll probably find a bunch that do what you want. In my experience, whenever I've wondered if there might be a mod for something I wanted, the answer has been "yes, there already is one, and more." It actually takes some serious creativity to come up with an interesting idea which hasn't already been turned in to a mod in Factorio.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
BlueTemplar 3y ago
There's always belt weaving. (For those that don't know, belts of the 3 different tiers don't "share the same underground space", and so can be overlapped on "top" of each other through the use of underground belts.)

dimava 3y ago

And it also has an update nearing the end of development est 2024) - Shapez 2 [0] , rebuild in 3D (with 3d belt layers same as Dyson has) with new features [0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/

WA 3y ago

Or Mindustry, which is open source: https://mindustrygame.github.io/ https://mindustrygame.github.io/ Mindustry has two "planets" and they play entirely differently. The newer one, Erekir, is a mix of Factorio, tower defense and RTS elements. I actually liked it a bit more than Factorio, because it is less complex. I didn’t really like the first planet though (Serpulo) and stopped after playing through Erekir twice.