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

[Demo.Graph]

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned...

Yeah, that trench warfare... I did the similar thing on evo 60-70. It's more flashy and grindy.

Spoiler

I killed a single nest or worm with 2-3 RPG missiles and then retreated behind the walls, because defenders of 20-30 nests came rushing. You have to make multilayered walls everywhere because large biters chew through them pretty fast and you can't come and replace them during the attack since it brings you into a spitter range. And the spit and the following acid poodle from large spitters kill the character in about a second, so you can't handle anything but a slipping hit.
Your own flamers turn out to be a nuisance, because they shoot almost constantly and you can't really see what is going on, whether there're enemies nearby or acid on the ground behind the waves of fire in the air, the smog and flames from burning insects.

Also, tower defense, whether it's mid-evo flamers or mines, has an added cost - clean up.

Spoiler

There were a dozen biter bases here, 30-40 nests each, plus several smaller ones. Almost all the red spots are the mines that didn't went off. Each drive-by generated a couple of dozens pursuers that needed 2-3 mines to kill. Biters also may move somewhat erratically, so they tend to evade mines laid in narrow strips. I ended up laying mines in those wavy motions since they were wide enough for biters to catch some.
I couldn't construct stuff on the secured areas because mines are a pain to remove manually. In the end I left them and waited for bots and cleared only small areas around resource patches in the meantime.

 

[Andnjord]

Tales from the Deathworld: Part Four

That's how much iron I had left in the initial patch before I managed to tap and process that big iron patch. That was close, too close.

Demo.Graph was right, this place is horrible and I probably should have restarted. That iron mine in the west and the small copper mine in the north-east (in that little indentation you can see in the perimeter) were the closest ones to my starting position, it was a nightmare taking hold of them, defending them and bringing their ressources to a place where I can process them. FFS, they are litterally at opposite extremes of the map! But fuck these biters, this place is mine, and I'll make it my bitch, come hell or high water!

I've only now managed to finish the manufacturing hub and get research moved to a more suitable location. I can finally get started with real oil processing and set up a blue research facility

 

[Demo.Graph]

Demo.Graph was right, this place is horrible and I probably should have restarted.
...
But fuck these biters, this place is mine, and I'll make it my bitch, come hell or high water!

I remember the moment when I've finally researched artillery and built a train. And the things I did for that. All the outposting and logistics needed for that research cost. All the restarts, when I've tried to take on 8 biter nests right from the beginning, then 6, then more. All the planning and frustration. All the desire to forget those police-grade pipe fences in place of walls, those fences that might've been good enough for mobs of minorities but definitely weren't enough for a bear-sized crustaceans that wanted to eat my face.
I remember the moment when for the first time skies had cried out of pain, when shells tore them apart, air burning their way. Then again. And more. And more, until they turned into a symphony.
I remember that muted thumping and the weak tremor under my boots when the shells reached the ground somewhere on the horizon. I remember the red dots on the radar blinking and disappearing, one after another, just like my fears.
And then more shells rushed into the sky because it wasn't over.
And each of those shells bore two words written with my tears.
And those words were like prayer.
And they read "FUCK YOU".

 

[Average Manatee]

If you can find oil then it's nowhere near the worst deathworld map. It could just as easily have spawned SE across the lake or something. Honestly that map looks pretty OK, lots of green, natural choke point, decently nearby secondary fields and oil.

 

[Andnjord]

Demo.Graph was right, this place is horrible and I probably should have restarted.
...
But fuck these biters, this place is mine, and I'll make it my bitch, come hell or high water!

Spoiler

I remember the moment when I've finally researched artillery and built a train. And the things I did for that. All the outposting and logistics needed for that research cost. All the restarts, when I've tried to take on 8 biter nests right from the beginning, then 6, then more. All the planning and frustration. All the desire to forget those police-grade pipe fences in place of walls, those fences that might've been good enough for mobs of minorities but definitely weren't enough for a bear-sized crustaceans that wanted to eat my face.
I remember the moment when for the first time skies had cried out of pain, when shells tore them apart, air burning their way. Then again. And more. And more, until they turned into a symphony.
I remember that muted thumping and the weak tremor under my boots when the shells reached the ground somewhere on the horizon. I remember the red dots on the radar blinking and disappearing, one after another, just like my fears.
And then more shells rushed into the sky because it wasn't over.
And each of those shells bore two words written with my tears.
And those words were like prayer.
And they read "FUCK YOU".

That was beautiful my man.



EDIT: just noticed you have an image in the spoiler that's broken.

If you can find oil then it's nowhere near the worst deathworld map. It could just as easily have spawned SE across the lake or something. Honestly that map looks pretty OK, lots of green, natural choke point, decently nearby secondary fields and oil.

TLDR: Git gud muthafacka. Yes sensei, I shall endure, and in enduring grow stronger

 

[Demo.Graph]

EDIT: just noticed you have an image in the spoiler that's broken.

Palpatine was inside that spoiler. He should be good now.

 

[Andnjord]

Tales from the Deathworld: Part Five

That is all gentlemen, that is all.

...or...

Spoiler

 

[Andnjord]

Tales from the Deathworld: Part Six

But fuck these biters, this place is mine, and I'll make it my bitch, come hell or high water!

How to make the world your bitch: A how to guide.

Step 01: Build a nuclear power plant, you'll need it. It is indispensable to do so on an off-shore platform in full sight of the xenos across the lake to establish dominance

Spoiler

Step 02: Take a pleasant stroll through the land in your tank for reconnaisance.

Spoiler

Where would you have put the perimeter?

Step 03: Set up a building train.

Spoiler

It has all the supplies needed to build and get up and running a defensive outpost. Artillery trains are for mobile fire support and because they can hold 100 artillery shells each as opposed the 48 that a normal wagon does.

Step 04: Start clearing the land from the xenos while calling in artillery strikes on their positions.

Spoiler

Driving around while shooting the cannon, calling in artillery AND taking screenshots was a...dangerous activity.

Step 06: Establish a modest defensive outpost to secure the land you've just claimed.

Spoiler

Same principle of the auto-deactivating train station I did before, but with the addition of artillery (with its own separate train station) and making use of the roboports to support multiple of the modular smaller hedghogs for greater flexibility.
When I'd finished the perimeter, it had so many laser turrets that even when idling they were consuming 50 MW just on their own, so I'd say that setting up nuclear power before making all this was a good idea.

Step 07: Enjoy the mutual peace and prosperity that your new-found security has brought you and the natives. Congratulations, you've made this world your bitch!

But for real, I've pushed the biters so far back that they're barely being touched by the polution for now, so attack are at a minimum. Excessive use of force is always the solution!

 

[Demo.Graph]

Everyone who's interested has probably noticed that, but Factorio is getting the expansion/add-on.
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-367
$30, no preorders, "it's done when it's done". An expansion comparable in volume of content with vanilla.
Wube is a truly prestigious dev team.

 

[Caim]

The same amount of stuff as the base game for the same price, then. Interesting, but I wonder if this isn't going to lead to either feature bloat or having unnecessary stuff in the game. Factorio's pretty tightly designed, and expanding on it might very well ruin that.

 

[Ironmonk]

I'm hoping they add flight enemies/vehicles and aquatic enemies/vehicles/buildings/resources.... well, underground stuff would be cool as well. These 3 could probably double the content... maybe I'm spot on?

The concept art they released for that alien, kinda allows you to guess air and water can be the theme for the expansion.

I don't like the idea of adding space stuff, since there is already that big mod for it.

 

[Caim]

Having stuff in the water can work, but they'd have to rebalance how water works to avoid bullshit like this:



As for underground... that can work. Maybe the bigger deposits will be underground, so you need to dig to get to the good stuff. But if you dig too deep... well, you might discover the Hidden Fun Stuff. Let's go full Dwarf Fortress here.

 

[Ironmonk]

One thing I like about Dyson Sphere Program is the existence of exotic resources that opens the access to simplified recipes for a few things.

They could also add something like this with exotic resources in the water/underground to achieve something similar.

 

[Average Manatee]

I struggle to imagine what they can do that is a whole extra $30 of content and isn't duplicating some mod. I want to believe but its hard.

 

[Demo.Graph]

I struggle to imagine what they can do that is a whole extra $30 of content and isn't duplicating some mod. I want to believe but its hard.

RTS-lke AI for biters/bots/other_engineers, maybe even programmable (a la game of life and/or robot wars).
Points of interest on a map and map interactivity (high-low tides, volcanoes, etc.) and weather (wind with windfarms, fog with spooks). Quest/dialogue functionality for "campaigns" (they're kinda limited right now) and reskins ("Factorio, but it's LOTR").

 

[Hellraiser]

I would just like to have alternative recipes/production processes and moar resource deposit types.

 

[Jaedar]

I would just like to have alternative recipes/production processes and moar resource deposit types.

There's mods for that (like bobs and angels). They might still add some new resource type, but if so I'd expect it to be something mined in a unique way (like how oil is unique compared to mining).

I struggle to imagine what they can do that is a whole extra $30 of content and isn't duplicating some mod. I want to believe but its hard.

RTS-lke AI for biters/bots/other_engineers, maybe even programmable (a la game of life and/or robot wars).
Points of interest on a map and map interactivity (high-low tides, volcanoes, etc.) and weather (wind with windfarms, fog with spooks). Quest/dialogue functionality for "campaigns" (they're kinda limited right now) and reskins ("Factorio, but it's LOTR").

I'm expecting more rts-like features, for both biters and player stuff. The spoilered image looks like a brain bug.

 

[anvi]

It needs an endgame and the combat fleshing out, and for there to be a point to it all. Currently all of those things are shit and no self respecting developer would have even put them in their game in such a basic zero thought or effort form. This game is basically MS Paint for slightly older children. Look I gave you a circle shape and a square shape. Now you can create your whole world out of circles and squares! You can even choose a color! If only Paint had a larger draw area and some animation, it could be a hit game for sure.

That said if they actually developed these parts of Factorio then it could be awesome.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

I would gladly pay full price for a Factorio expansion provided it adds some variety to the game world and makes combat more exhilarating. I wish that biomes/terrain had a bigger impact on the game world such as increasing likely hood of certain resources while potentially providing new enemy types. Still excited nonetheless.

 

[Agame]

It needs an endgame and the combat fleshing out, and for there to be a point to it all. Currently all of those things are shit and no self respecting developer would have even put them in their game in such a basic zero thought or effort form. This game is basically MS Paint for slightly older children. Look I gave you a circle shape and a square shape. Now you can create your whole world out of circles and squares! You can even choose a color! If only Paint had a larger draw area and some animation, it could be a hit game for sure.

That said if they actually developed these parts of Factorio then it could be awesome.

Kind of agree with you, the only people who play this game long term are sim city builders and autists who love optimising shit endlessly. As soon as you figure how to deal with biters efficiently the game is effectively over and this was the moment I abandoned it completely as there was no challenge left. The only way I would come back is if the vastly expand biter systems. Way, way more evolution and types, as said above, swimming, flying, tunneling etc. This could become the tower defense game that blows the rest out of the water.

But Im pretty sure that will never happen as this whole project is and always has been "AUTISM: THE SIMULATOR".

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I always missed other sentient builders. An addon that adds npc/cities/societies that populate and expand besides you would be great. That would also open up options for competition, trade, war, diplomacy, quests, etc. I'd enjoy an addition like that a lot. Solving problems within constraints can be a lot of fun. Currently its just a question of time to achieve what you want. I think some kind of challenges or problems could go long way in increasing the long time motivation. It shouldn't become the main focus, just a little extra to spice things up.

 

[Tyrr]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/427520/view/3101296262244936695

 

[baud]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/427520/view/3101296262244936695

the comments under that announcement must have really gone off the rails as the thread's been removed from the forums after 3500 posts

 

[Joggerino]

 

[Joggerino]

I am playing the Krastorio mod for the first time and it's still early game but I like what I see so far. It's interesting how different fuel sources have pollution modifiers, so for example coal is the most polluting fuel. Also they made wood really important, you even have a greenhouse production building for wood. You need more time to get rid of burners but it's not too bad.