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hesdeadjim
ironSkillet
And for those intimidated by the much higher complexity/time commitment of Space Exploration, I have found the Krastorio 2 mod to be a great option. It adds enough new stuff to make it a fresh experience, but not nearly as much new complexity to grapple with.
cwkoss
Bobs mods are also good, not quite as complex as spaceex, but adds some interesting depth to the base game.
duskwuff
And if you're a real glutton for punishment, Space Exploration and Krastorio2 are compatible!
shagie
> ... should check out the Space Exploration mod.
Do note that while Factorio on the Switch is a full game, there is no mod support. It does, however, have cross platform multiplayer.
capableweb
> Do note that while Factorio on the Switch is a full game
Kinda, depending on how big factories you build. Right now it has a limitation that makes it like a very large/long demo. From the submission page:
> I'm getting "std::bad_alloc" when trying to load a save file.
> You are trying to load a save file that is too big and the console has run out of memory
Guess at one point, if you keep on expanding the factory, you won't be able to load the savegame anymore. Might get fixed in the future though?
lfowles
Probably from larger save files than you'd feasibly be building on the Switch alone.
hesdeadjim
Pretty nasty failure case. My dedicated server can easily hit 3GB used RAM (Switch useable RAM) with a decent sized factory.
pmoriarty
"while Factorio on the Switch is a full game, there is no mod support"
That's a crime.
As great as the vanilla game is, mods are half of what makes Factorio worth playing.
lucasmullens
Do any switch games manage to makes mods work?
tux3
I've started pyanodons after finishing SE, that's easily another ~400 hours if I ever want to take it to the end!
This $ invested per hours of good gameplay is extraordinary.
yboris
Direct link: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/space-exploration
Space Exploration mod
Arnavion
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/space-exploration-official-mod... bundles it and some other recommended mods.
m463
amusing, another comment called it spaceex
scottmsul
I'm about 200 hours into a Space Exploration game with some friends, and we just started building spaceships! One thing I really like about this mod is that it forces you to properly learn the circuit network, I never really used it in the base game but it's an absolute must for interplanetary logistics.
foxyv
I am deeply afraid of modded Factorio. Un-modded Factorio was addicting enough to make me lose a year or two...
orionhasyou
I'm on the same map K2 since 2019/2020. I think it might be time to throw it on Github and start from scratch.
THE FACTORY MUST GROW
mdaniel
I'll be sure to try that out, because I enjoy Dyson Sphere Program more than Factorio and it'd be fun to see how much that mod and DSP overlap
loufe
I've got a chunk of free time coming up, this might be what I fill some of it with, thanks for the suggestion!
baby
I like the story from the announcement[1].
> We have a long history of trying to bring Factorio to other platforms, including consoles and mobile phones (not including April Fools). We even worked with some external companies, but the projects never even got to the point where they would run technically, let alone the complicated part of making the game playable using controllers or touch screen.
> We had some history of starting Factorio-related sub-projects that ended up in development hell for years
This reminds me of their post on good foundations[2].
It sounds like they discovered the pain of growing tech debt and paralysis due to an aging stack, and the lack of results when you throw money at the problem (in other words, contract work to some external entity).
What's also interesting is that this work ended up being a one-person project. It's just too hard to make progress fast when you add people to a project: people don't agree, they need to communicate not to overlap or to understand the changes added by others, this all slow things down. And if the stack is complicated, this can really put a stop to productivity.
I think there's a real case for having one-person teams for the first X months on a new project. As long as the one person understands how they can later scale themselves. (This usually requires documentation, good architecture, good delegation, etc.)
dom96
I got a Steam Deck with the intention of playing Factorio on it. The controls unfortunately are very frustrating, I'm guessing they made them much better for Switch, I hope they bring the same for Steam Deck.
cableshaft
You're in luck, they've already announced it in one of their blog posts:
"Even after the [Nintendo Switch] launch, there is much to do. Next to my screen there's a stack of post-it notes with future improvements, possible features and technical debt I need to solve. As mentioned in the announcement last week, after the launch I will also work on controller support for PC and Steam Deck."[1]
ollien
Really? I found the trackpads great for it. The default mappings are honestly quite good; I made some minor adjustments, and in general it works. The only thing I didn't like was that the in-game tooltips didn't tell me what the steam deck controls were.
That said, they said in their original Switch blog post[1] that they intend to bring these control mappings to PC/Steam Deck
baby
> I made some minor adjustments
Personally I don't want to make any adjustments. All the steam deck games I've installed so far have worked flawlessly without me doing anything. Inscryption is the only one where I had, at some point in the game, had to pull up the keyboard, but the launcher warned me that I would have to do that (and even told me about the shortcut).
five82
Use your Steam Deck how you want of course but the ability to customize controls through Steam Input is one of its best features.
everdrive
How are the controls terrible? Have you looked into modifying them at all?
dom96
Nope, I've been meaning to do that. But honestly I'd expect the best controls to be picked by default, why am I expected to go hunting for community controls?
everdrive
Frankly because the developer is not incentivized to provide a useful controls specifically for the Steam Deck. Some go the extra mile, but from what I’ve seen a lot of them just hurl the default game pad mapping. Try checking out the community mappings!
opan
Everyone has different preferences, it would be silly to not customize things to fit your wants and needs better. Good defaults are important, but when they're tailored to a large group they can only be so good.
baby
> Have you looked into modifying them at all?
This is where you're losing
krolden
Try this new switch version on yuzu.
bertil
Ask you project lead if they can do without you for the next few months before starting to play Factorio. This game is very addictive
ilyt
Nah, start a company server and tell you're doing teambuilding exercise.
Assign leaders and have people responsible for raw resources, transport, power infrastructure, advanced production and fighting off biters
rubyist5eva
Just rewrite your application in Factorio
n65463f23_4
maybe this means im not a real engineer but the game became tedious for me after a while, and i was too lazy to set up the really intricate contraptions
sibit
I'm also too lazy to set up really intricate contraptions so I just grab other people's blueprints and I glue everything together. That's basically what I do at my day job and my title has "engineer" in it so I'm just going to keep on pretending.
craftkiller
I think the thing that really made factorio fun for me was deciding early on to NOT look at anyone else's designs online. Having the "correct" or "most efficient" answers handed to you removes the design part of the game and turns your base into a carbon copy of everyone else's base. I spent days figuring out how to make loops with train signals that would allow a train to spin endlessly in a circle at full-speed waiting for the path to become clear. I could have just looked up how to do that, but then I'd get no sense of accomplishment.
lfkdev
Nah, you tool the actual fun out of it with looking at blueprints online
therealdrag0
Ya same. Though it’s not that I was lazy but it felt like work where I’m like “wait I have a side project in the real world that’s just as much work and just as much fun” then I never got back to the game.
jhatemyjob
i felt the exact same way. why work on a fake factory in a video game that no one will care about, when i can work on an actual thing in the real world?
it was fun for like 4-5 hours (I think I got to solar panels? or nuclear power plants? i forgot) but once that simple fact began to sink in, i was never able to pick it up again.
maybe its different if you're playing with other people
weberer
Were you aware that you can just copy/paste parts of your factory and have robots automatically build where you pasted? The blueprint system takes all the tedium out of the game.
AnIdiotOnTheNet
By the time you get to the point where you can build robots you're already like 90% of the way through the game from what I recall.
__turbobrew__
Once I have to “refactor” my base the fun was gone for me. I like building stuff, but going back and doing janitor work is not fun for me.
Currently, you build a base from the very lowest tech all the way up to the highest tech in a single go. What would possibly make the game less tedious for me is if a single play through was split up into different levels with mini objectives. Once you complete the level mini objective you move on to a different map and start a new base at a higher tech level. That way you can just throw away all of the “tech debt” of the old base while starting at a higher tech level.
I imagine this would be a different game mode, but it would make the game more attractive to a wider audience in my opinion.
PebblesRox
Mindustry works like this, in case you're not familiar with it.
ilyt
> Once I have to “refactor” my base the fun was gone for me. I like building stuff, but going back and doing janitor work is not fun for me.
That's entirely a chore you have decided to do.
It is entirely fine to just leave your spaghetti base producing stuff in its little corner while you go build the next step somewhere else.
I've did that few times, basically leave the old base to act as "mall" (just produce building to furnish the new base) while I build bigger and better, once I hit construction robots and can freely blueprint everything.
Hell, once you get to robots you can "just" erase it entirely easily if it displeases you, blueprints make it easy to change your mind.
> What would possibly make the game less tedious for me is if a single play through was split up into different levels with mini objectives. Once you complete the level mini objective you move on to a different map and start a new base at a higher tech level. That way you can just throw away all of the “tech debt” of the old base while starting at a higher tech level.
Not exactly that but look up at Warptorio 2 mod. You basically have limited sized base that teleports every XX minutes to a new planet, so you carry a small base with you but have to rebuild every warp. It is pretty hectic on default settings tho
ekidd
> That way you can just throw away all of the “tech debt” of the old base while starting at a higher tech level.
The classic way to do this is to load up a train full of supplies and drive somewhere further from the start, with more enemies and better ore patches. Or if you don't have trains yet, take the car.
wongarsu
You really don't need too many intricate contraptions. Your groundwork needs to be reasonably solid (mining, smelting, green electrical), but the later stuff can be done more quickly with botches and tech-debt instead of intricate setups. Insisting on a beautifully laid-out factory that looks good is a surefire way to make your playthrough take ten times as long.
Figuring out which parts are worth refactoring into better solutions as demand increases is also quite fun imho.
pmoriarty
"the game became tedious for me after a while"
You can add a lot of variety and interest through Factorio's mods (there are hundreds of them).... however, eventually even that may not enough to stave off boredom because ultimately Factorio is just one game.
Still, I encourage everyone to try some of the mods. I'd personally never play unmodded Factorio after my first playthrough. They make this great game so much better.
hackcasual
Sadly no mods on the Switch.
candiddevmike
It's hard to start over once you get to logistics and construction robots. IMO, these should be available earlier in the vanilla game.
pmoriarty
"logistics and construction robots. ... should be available earlier in the vanilla game"
Fortunately there are mods to fix that.
I had a whole slew of complaints about the vanilla game, but found that mods already existed to fix virtually all of them.
AnotherGoodName
That's the point where it gets tedious for me. At some point it's just painting with MS paint. I have drones that can build anything i draw, i have supply lines for the resources to build those things, I've launched the rocket already, even the turrets and walls are auto repaired/replaced and the bugs are irrelevant.
It was fun to get there and i always had some goals to acheive. But at some point it's done and dusted with 0 replay-ability.
I will never understand the mindset of those that build Megabases.
AnotherGoodName
It does get tedious!
An endless megafactory is just placing blueprints someone already created for 'optimal X' from online. I could come up with my own but it's not motivating when there's already better out there and it's not motivating to play 'MS paint bucket fill' endlessly.
I launched the rocket. Went "that was fun" and now cannot be bothered to go back.
ketralnis
I've played so much factorio that I think I'm done with the game but I'm buying it just to get a few more bucks to them
SigmundA
I would hope this means it soon be native Apple Silicon on Mac soon since all the hard work porting to ARM is done. Runs fine through rosetta on my M1 Pro but would be nice for larger maps and power efficiency.
dang
Recent and related:
Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32825543 - Sept 2022 (359 comments)
julianeon
Anyone here own Factorio & Shapez who could compare them?
Might sound silly but Factorio's tutorial/learning curve complexity has intimidated me, so I started w Shapez, as easy mode Factorio. Liking Shapez so far.
three_seagrass
Shapez is much more guided, abstract, but probably still as complex as factorio.
Mindustry is simpler in complexity but much more aimed at "tower defense" style game play.
Satisfactory is like the child of Factorio and Subnautica, with a little of both games but not as deep as either.
Dyson Sphere Program is probably the truest successor to Factorio, but it's still very early access and just now adding combat.
Arnavion
I have both and found Shapez boring because of how claustrophobic the map is and how limited the resource types are. You can't build at the scale of Factorio because the game starts to lag (the downside of making a game in Electron perhaps). Once you've unlocked all the equipment types the rest of the game is just a loop of find some place on the map that has all the elements you need -> set up extractors + choppers + painters + combiners + stackers -> make belts to ship the product back.
With Factorio you have options for transport (belts, trains, bots) each with their own setup and maintenance challenges, and you have incentive to centralize production of an intermediate and then figure out how to distribute it to many other places which need it. With shapez you just set up new factories from scratch every time because there's only a handful of resources and they're all available everywhere in close proximity to each other.
Also the circuit stuff in Shapez is completely unnecessary unless you go for the goal of building an all-in-one (a single factory setup which can rearchitect itself to build any kind of shape you tell it to). In Factorio you use circuit stuff all the time even for basic tasks, like balancing belts or prioritizing resources to different parts of the factory or turning off parts of the factory to save power or...
I finished Shapez and then had no reason to pick it back up because there's basically only one way to finish the game. With Factorio I not only had variations in the base game I could explore (train bases vs bot bases vs spaghetti belt bases, electric furnaces vs staying with steel furnaces forever, not bothering with solar and nuclear and just staying with steam power forever, etc), I also have mods. With Shapez I have... a DLC that adds puzzles.
But yes, every pro of Factorio and con of Shapez that I listed could be the opposite for someone else. So if you like the low complexity of Shapez then you may not like Factorio.
10x_contrarian
I've obsessively played Factorio since 2014, probably logging over a thousand hours in it. I found Shapez a lot more finicky and overall way less fun. The challenges and progression in Shapez are mundane, the theme is abstract, and the UI and performance do not compare to the brilliant work done in Factorio. For what feels like a weekend project flash game, Shapez is very well done. But it doesn't compare to a project that's seen a decade of development from an incredibly talented team.
Another commenter mentioned Dyson Sphere Program, which is quite similar and also an impressive effort from its team. It introduces some refreshing differences for a seasoned Factorio player but doesn't yet have enough content/longevity.
jypepin
I've just started playing the demo yesterday and I'm hooked. Will definitely buy the game, but wondering on which platform. My laptop screen already feels a bit small - anyone has an experience playing on switch and thoughts on playing on handheld mode and/or using controls compared to keyboard/mouse?
shagie
Laptop/desktop on Steam. For the "when the screen feels small" it isn't too much additional to set up a gaming space with a larger monitor. It would also then easily transition to Steam Link and using smart TVs or, if you get one, a Steam Deck (I have a Steam Deck, but no Switch).
The other part there is the mod support. There are a number of quality of life things that mods can do (such as https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Supercheese/Squeak%20Through ) which become more important as the factory grows and the "physical" constraints of the game make it difficult to play at the extreme ends.
Continuing on the mod theme, there is also the "once you feel that you have sufficiently beaten the vanilla game, there are a number of ways to mod the game that add complexity or other challenges." I am personally fond of Seablock where the game is a vast ocean with a few small scattered islands. Everything is then made from water. Water -> electrolysis (H and O are vented initially) -> slag -> crushed stone -> (+ water) -> mineralized water -> ore... and that gets you started.
tarentel
Looks like I am buying this again and losing a lot of sleep.
baby
I'd like to know if this means that Factorio on the steam deck is now as playable as on the switch. Does someone know? I've refrained myself from buying it on the deck so far because it seems like it's not made for the platform.
GaryNumanVevo
Yep! They're planning to implement the UI/UX changes they made for Switch available on PC / Steamdeck. https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-370
JohnJamesRambo
I can’t imagine playing this on a Switch without the controls getting really annoying?
rgoulter
The announcement post suggests it's slower, but comfortable (once you get used to it).
https://factorio.com/blog/post/factorio-on-nintendo-switch
Factorio was developed for 10 years with only keyboard and mouse in mind, so making sure the game is fully playable with controllers was no easy task. Playing with a controller is slightly slower, and will take some getting used to (just as it does when playing with keyboard and mouse for the first time). After becoming familiar with it, I find it very comfortable. I recommend everyone to play through the first levels of our tutorial campaign, as it's a great way to get acquainted with playing Factorio with a controller.
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Anyone looking to take this game to the next level should check out the Space Exploration mod. I’ve dumped a few hundred hours into it and it’s made the vanilla game feel like nothing more than a tutorial. It’s awesome.