Factorio - a factory building game - now with Space Age expansion

[mwnn85]

I'm amazed at the complexity of Factorio and I'm not ashamed to say that I haven't even begun to master the placement of factories and all the components which need to link into each other seamlessly, etc.

I was wondering how someone would even start to build a game like this and stumbled upon these early pictures on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/c...how_factorio_looked_like_35_years_ago/d9thsm4

The working title must've been EnergyCraft

 

[Mr. Pink]

This weeks friday update reveals that 0.17 will be releasing in January of 2019.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/427520/announcements/detail/3405180256872591612

Factorio is shaping up to be a legitimate contender for best looking 2d sprites in a video game. The new belt sprites look gorgeous.

before/after with the new belt sprites

 

[Blaine]

I'm going to miss the angular aesthetic of underground belts, but the new design is objectively better in every practical way, and with the new mechanical graphics belts actually look like conveyor belts instead of long, magical snake tongues with weird candy on them.

 

[Perkel]

Now if only they would work on something instead of magic.

 

[Blaine]

 

[thesheeep]

When I played Factorio, I built belts to transport some coal...
I honestly don't understand how you could build something like actual programming logic. The video zooms in, but I still can't really recognize anything
Is this some kind of mod that adds some elements with programmable logic?

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

It's vanilla, once you have logic gates you're only limited by game engine itself some dude put pokemon red in minecraft.

 

[Blaine]

thesheeep The programming logic in Factorio stems from combinators, which aren't pure logic gates per se. They function in their own particular way that's specific to Factorio, mainly for the purpose of offering basic functionality to non-programmers. However, they nevertheless encompass all the functionality of logic gates when configured and combined appropriately.

Your PC's CPU microprocessor is almost entirely made of up logic gates in various forms and configurations. Logic gates aren't limited to any one format (although their performance is; microchips are the best we've got, obviously) and can even be purely physical. You could for example use pieces of wood, hinges, springs, and gravity to perform logical operations on steel balls, like those old coin-sorting machines for kids. In fact, those machines probably qualify as very simple logic gates.

 

[Jaedar]

If your crafting game doesn't have a turing complete programming language in it, what are you even doing?

 

[thesheeep]

Blaine Ah, thanks.
I know what logic gates are, of course, but I wasn't aware Factorio had them. Whenever I play, I lose interest before I'd get to those I guess

 

[Blaine]

Blaine Ah, thanks.
I know what logic gates are, of course, but I wasn't aware Factorio had them. Whenever I play, I lose interest before I'd get to those I guess

You should do what I did and get a science officer to play co-op with. I do all of the cursing and most of the shooting, as any proper base commander should, while he designs logic circuits.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

You should do what I did and get a science officer to play co-op with. I do all of the cursing and most of the shooting, as any proper base commander should, while he designs logic circuits.

Don't forget obsessing over nucular power, maintaining an arms stockpile, and committing mass genocide, as any good US citizen should. Gotta build a wall to stop those darn foreigners stealing our precious fluids, too.

 

[Blaine]

Don't forget obsessing over nucular power, maintaining an arms stockpile, and committing mass genocide, as any good US citizen should. Gotta build a wall to stop those darn foreigners stealing our precious fluids, too.

I had good reason for committing mass genocide, and that reason was oil.

He's not kidding by the way, I actually built an arms stockpile in the base, complete with ARMORY signage and stocked with every type of weapon and ammunition imaginable.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Lazing Dirk Norfleet

Its really unfortunate that there aren't nuclear artillery shells.

 

[Blaine]

Its really unfortunate that there aren't nuclear artillery shells.

It's your lucky day!

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/NuclearArtillery

Oh look, mustard gas as well.

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/MustardArtilleryShell

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

Someone should send this game to Ted Kaczynski

 

[DDZ]

0.17 is pretty good so far.

I haven't played in a while and am having a hard time even getting the first science pack nice and steady.

Hrmmm.

 

[Perkel]

Ok every mod i am using normally is ported to 0.17 Bob's + Angels + AAI industry + couple of other qol mods and small things like Decorio. Love the new UI, slick as fuck. I don't like much tech tab though as it is more clunky to use despite looking much better.

Currently just set up Saphirite ore crushing and smelting. Next i will increase a bit production of copper plates because i lack of them as they are needed for electric motors.

I really really recommend AAI Industry mod. Basically it gives "COAL AGE" as it adds burner labs, burner assemblies etc so you can actually reasonably expand with just coal without electricity.

 

[Blaine]

It doesn't help that nearly all of the weapons in the game are crap. Small biters and spitters aren't much of an issue, mediums are a bit more of a hassle, but big worms come out scarcely halfway to evolution 1.0 and big biters and spitters start to appear around 2/3rds of the way.

At that point you can throw the pistol, SMG, rocket launcher, flamethrower, landmines, discharge defense, personal laser defense, and standard shotgun into the garbage. The combat shotgun and destroyer bots are it, baby, with laser turrets lined up around the walls of your basees, and even still the big biters and spitters soak up huge amounts of damage. My strategy is to stack shields and exoskeletons in Power Armor Mk2 and kite all the shitters in a big circle, then dart in to shotgun their spawners. If the rocket launcher could destroy a spawner in one hit, that would shake things up a bit, but it can't.

Let me tell you something, though: The same combat shotgun that takes at least 7-10 shots to kill one big biter can destroy a storage chest with a bunch of your shit in it in one shot.

I've used this to my advantage to use chests as "trash cans" to get rid of unwanted items, since there's no trash option otherwise. I'll admit, it's hilarious to take out the trash by putting it in a chest and then blowing it away.

Someone Brofisted this old post of mine today, so I should mention that this aspect of Factorio has improved greatly over the past three years. Gun turrets remain useful up to and after evolution 1.0 thanks to depleted uranium rounds, flamethrower turrets and artillery turrets/rail cars now exist, and every type of turret has clear strengths, weaknesses, and logistical considerations. The tank has been made useful right through the late-late game; several handheld weapons are always fully viable at any given point of the game, in addition to deployable attack bots and thrown grenades/cluster grenades/etc.

Furthermore, personal laser defense modules work incredibly well when stacked in the later tiers of power armor.

About the only annoyance with regard to personal equipment in Factorio are the solar panels for power armor, because they're nearly useless, presumably for the sake of realism.

 

[Blaine]

0.17 is pretty good so far.

I haven't played in a while and am having a hard time even getting the first science pack nice and steady.

Hrmmm.

You must construct additional pylons.

More mining machines is always the answer, except when the answer is to increase throughput.

 

[anvi]

The combat is dumb as shit and pointless and you know it.

 

[Perkel]

The combat is dumb as shit and pointless and you know it.

Install Rampart AI and say that again But yeah vanilla combat is dumb and not interesting.

 

[Nutria]

I guess my biggest problem with Factorio now is that it takes ~50 hours (okay at least for me, maybe you're better at it) to finish a game, so as they make improvements and tune it better it takes me a long time to adapt to it. And if that's the worst problem with a game then it must be doing something right.

 

[anvi]

The combat is dumb as shit and pointless and you know it.

Install Rampart AI and say that again But yeah vanilla combat is dumb and not interesting.

Googled it, still sounds bad:
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/871ps3/experiences_with_rampant_ai_and_no_other_combat/

My main problem with the combat is that it isn't balanced in any way. At default it is stupidly easy and pointless. On max settings it is impossible. So there is no way to get a good setup. You could trial and error the settings but it takes so long to get through a game to the point where you know if the settings are good, it is just far too much of a chore and a waste of time. This the job of the devs and they don't bother because the community is full of fucking tools like Blaine that want to suck their dick for making a lego game and rage if anyone with standards wants something more. Devs don't need to spend the time balancing this stuff if 2 million people buy it anyway. If there was some mod that could make combat challenging but doable, I would be really happy with this game. But there isn't.

 

[Jaedar]

It doesn't help that nearly all of the weapons in the game are crap. Small biters and spitters aren't much of an issue, mediums are a bit more of a hassle, but big worms come out scarcely halfway to evolution 1.0 and big biters and spitters start to appear around 2/3rds of the way.

At that point you can throw the pistol, SMG, rocket launcher, flamethrower, landmines, discharge defense, personal laser defense, and standard shotgun into the garbage. The combat shotgun and destroyer bots are it, baby, with laser turrets lined up around the walls of your basees, and even still the big biters and spitters soak up huge amounts of damage. My strategy is to stack shields and exoskeletons in Power Armor Mk2 and kite all the shitters in a big circle, then dart in to shotgun their spawners. If the rocket launcher could destroy a spawner in one hit, that would shake things up a bit, but it can't.

Let me tell you something, though: The same combat shotgun that takes at least 7-10 shots to kill one big biter can destroy a storage chest with a bunch of your shit in it in one shot.

I've used this to my advantage to use chests as "trash cans" to get rid of unwanted items, since there's no trash option otherwise. I'll admit, it's hilarious to take out the trash by putting it in a chest and then blowing it away.

Someone Brofisted this old post of mine today, so I should mention that this aspect of Factorio has improved greatly over the past three years. Gun turrets remain useful up to and after evolution 1.0 thanks to depleted uranium rounds, flamethrower turrets and artillery turrets/rail cars now exist, and every type of turret has clear strengths, weaknesses, and logistical considerations. The tank has been made useful right through the late-late game; several handheld weapons are always fully viable at any given point of the game, in addition to deployable attack bots and thrown grenades/cluster grenades/etc.

Furthermore, personal laser defense modules work incredibly well when stacked in the later tiers of power armor.

About the only annoyance with regard to personal equipment in Factorio are the solar panels for power armor, because they're nearly useless, presumably for the sake of realism.

I still don't see the point for any turrets beyond laser. The logistical cost of having to supply bullets and/or oil is a much bigger pain than just plopping down more laser turrets.

Depleted uranium rounds in tank is great fun though.