Finally I got a better idea of what the game was about, and what it was like. My interest was piqued enough to look deeper into it instead of just dismissing it after viewing the video and remembering that it was an Early Access title. I normally avoid or ignore Early Access games, but when I saw that Factorio had a demo, I decided to give it a try.
I spent a few hours with the demo, playing through the relatively short campaign/tutorial twice. It left me wanting to explore more fully what it had to offer, so I got the full version. That was about 2 weeks ago, and I've become addicted! I've spent nearly all my free time binge-playing Factorio. I have logged almost 40 hours on one save file, trying to perfect my factory and automate all the things. And the crazy thing is that there are still large aspects of the game that I haven't yet (or have barely) touched.
See I only have about 2 hours before I should go to bed. Start up Factorio.
Re-assess where my factory is and what I need to do next, and start working on it.
Check clock. Cool. Still have 1:45 left until bedtime.
Add a new production line of a new product to my factory.
Check clock. Cool. Still have 1:30 left.
Realize that my new production line has caused a shortage of some other basic material. Figure out what the holdup is and try to restore throughput of source materials.
Check clock. Cool. Still have 1:00 left.
While adding more furnaces to increase my iron/copper/steel production, realize I could make better use of the space if I arranged things differently.
Tear down my smelting area and start rebuilding it to fit my new design.
Get halfway done with my new design.
Check clock. Darn. Only have 0:30 left.
Continue working on my new design.
Realize I did something wrong or it needs to be tweaked just slightly (OCD-esque tendencies) for "maximum efficiency" in my factory.
Tear some down and rebuild to fit my new new design.
Meanwhile, some research has finished and new technologies/products are available.
Continue working on my new new design.
Finish my new new design.
Take a look at new technologies/products and see what products are necessary to create them.
Create a new production line for the new products.
Realize this new production line causes a major shortage of other products/materials.
Figure out what's needed to fix the shortage. This often requires simply producing more of the short material, or increasing iron/copper/steel production so that both (or 3, or 4, or more) products can be produced simultaneously at the maximum frequency.
Check the clock. Crap! It's 2 hours past bedtime. "I better wrap up this last thing I'm working on and get to bed."
Sun comes up and I realize I've been repeatedly "wrapping up" about 50 different things that will all "only take a couple more minutes and then I am done for the night for sure."
I never would have thought that I'd enjoy dealing with the logistics so much. Dealing with inputs and outputs and coordinating the flow of one thing to another place at a certain rate. And on top of that, having to occasionally set up and maintain defenses to protect your hard work from being destroyed by the aliens (I guess technically you are the alien who crashed on their planet). And then the sweet feeling when you finally get something automated that you used to have to do manually, and that took forever to do. . .
So, again, normally I avoid/ignore Early Access titles because they're a gamble. But I've definitely gotten my money's worth already and expect to get much more out of the game in the future. Try the demo, and if you like it, I definitely recommend buying the game.
Reading a little about Factorio and watching some videos -- it's fascinating. It's probably not a game i would enjoy playing -- for me it seems to fall into that civilization-style simulation category that looks to much like "work" to be fun for me, but wow is it impressive. What an amazing simulation based system.
I can confirm, my experience with Factorio is the same as Deozaan's. Years ago while it was still in development. I love Factorio, and if you love to automate all the things, then I highly recommend it as well.
Some screenshots! These are nearly full-screen resolution (2560x1440) so they may appear quite large. Hence the thumbnails.
This is my base I built in my first "real game" and I thought I was doing pretty well even though I had basically no idea what was coming, and therefore no way to plan for it.
But I soon realized that I was trying to cram too much into too little space, especially when dealing with oil or other liquids/gases. So I started a new map and decided to give myself plenty of room to grow. Now it's feeling a bit cramped, too.
This is a part of my new map/base I built when I had a better idea of what I was doing and would need (the one I've spent nearly 40 hours building). This is the science production and research labs section.
And here's a small part of my iron ore input and smelting.
Reading a little about Factorio and watching some videos -- it's fascinating. It's probably not a game i would enjoy playing -- for me it seems to fall into that civilization-style simulation category that looks to much like "work" to be fun for me, but wow is it impressive.
Try the demo, and if you like it, I definitely recommend buying the game.
Deo, does a game like this give you an ideas for similar simulation-style games you might make?
Not exactly. I can't really think of any way to make a similar game without it being a Factorio "clone." Factorio seems fairly unique. I've never played anything quite like it.
It's almost like an inverted RTS. Instead of occasionally plopping down some buildings for the sole purpose of getting more units you can command (micromanage) to win battles, you occasionally fight battles so that you can continue to gather the resources needed to micromanage your buildings. And eventually, once you've got your factory set up nicely, even a lot of the micromanaging is automated.
Any chance to watch the video of your game play?
I am saving to buy Big Pharma. Has anyone play it?
There goes another year of Deo's life.
I suppose I could record a gameplay session, but I'm not great at making commentary as I play. I wouldn't be entertaining like a Let's Play YouTuber can be. Speaking of which, you can find plenty of Let's Plays of Factorio on YouTube.
I haven't played Big Pharma. I've heard it is similar to Factorio. Looking at the video for it, it seems simpler and more cartoony. Those aren't necessarily bad things. But it also looks more limited. Factorio has maps that are unlimited, so you can expand as far and as wide and go as big as you want.
A few days ago I finally "won" the game on a map.
But it was a "cheater" map that I used some console commands to spawn a bunch of ores in one location just to see how it would work out, so it doesn't really count.
Since my initial "cheater" victory, I have completed a challenge on a new map to win legitimately in less than 8 hours. I barely made it, finishing in 7:49:29.
Not sure if you actually wanted to see me specifically play, or just gameplay in general. If you want gameplay in general, there are plenty of nice Let's Plays on Youtube (as I already said).
If you specifically wanted to see me play, I'm working on a new series of videos.
Audio quality isn't great. Sorry. I've already recorded several videos and am working on uploading them bit by bit, so if I get any feedback on any of the earlier videos, you won't see me respond to it in video until perhaps much later.
One extra small thing to shove into Factorios already large pot of praise. I bought the game and sent the developers a small encouragement email and apology for pirating the game earlier (The Demo wasn't a good showcase of the late game in my opinion, and from what I heard). They responded humbly and thanked me for the praise. Definitely seem like nice and listening people.