Factorio Forums

Just revealed on E3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_lmP8jYVLs (https://www.satisfactorygame.com/)

It looks very much like Factorio, and the technologies seem to be quite similar (plastic, refineries etc.) but maybe that's to be expected. I'm not sure it's quite similar enough to be a 'rip off', but it definitely feels like the devs of it have seen factorio.

I very much doubt it'll be anywhere near as perfect, but perhaps it might turn into something interesting. Plus factorio tends to appeal to a different type of gameplay - logical 2D logic and optimisation as opposed to 3D crazy looking messes...

This has definitely the Factorio flavor to it, it will be on my wishlist and i'll play it side to side with Factorio

From a very brief glance, it seems likely it will have the all-too-common problem of clearly communicating game state to the player (fancy reflective 3D models make for nice screenshots, but when appearances are so dominated by dynamic lighting, they seem less able to communicate purpose through colour. Also, 2D gets away with implying a lot of model detail with a few suggestively-placed pixels, where 3D needs to add excessive greebling to not look boring up close, while still being careful to look good from a wide range of distances). I don't think that complexity will allow it to scale close to Factorio megabases, even if they can manage to optimize graphic and simulation complexity enough. On the other hand, there is still a ton of design space between modded Minecraft and Factorio that hasn't been thoroughly explored yet, so it would at least be interesting to try another developer's take on the genre.

no linux support, pass.

It looks pretty dope. At first I thought it won't be able to handle large scale megabases as Factorio does, but after thinking about it more I am not so convinced anymore. From the trailer it seems conveyors lead directly from/to fixed inputs and outputs of machines; they don't have inserters that would interact with conveyors, so whole conveyor simulation can be pretty simple. Also, maybe they don't worry about exact simulation, so they could turn off simulation of distant parts of factory and do just statistical calculation of expected production and consumption of items. So the game might surprise us. I also wonder how they deal with multiplayer.

It looks interesting, but I wonder how they will handle larger scale building. In factorio we have blueprints, but I kind of doubt that those work just as well in first person 3D. Since the map will be limited and not randomly generated, I also have to question the replayability, especially since exploration seems to be a game element.

Steam page say that you need 20gig of diskspace
We will see.

I almost never say the words "ripoff" when it comes to games and this doesn't even come close to it. Since it's 3D it might even come closer to minecraft with techmods, but it's not block-base. It's been quite some time since I was excited for something.

Adding direct belt input possibility to mod settings and adding fully changeable fluid input to all factories would bring factorio one step forward

aTeLe wrote:Since it's 3D it might even come closer to minecraft with techmods

There also seems to have an infinifactory taste to it, for obvious reasons.
Same thing for me, a mix of Factorio-ish principles with first or third person survival can prove interesting.

Looks pretty delicious. Also megafactory-builders are only a tiny fraction of the target audience for factorio, so i don't think humongous-scale simulation is required, medium scale (300ish SPM?) would probably be sufficient for 90% of players, especially if they never played factorio before. Though the non-grid basedness will probably scare off the OCD people, and we'll have to see if the moddability is sufficient.

Edit: I noticed it's by the same people that made Goat Simulator, a game infamous for it's buggyness. So i'm turning down my personal hype-meter back to 4-ish. *sigh*

This looks promising, but I'll wait and see how it turns out. Based on what they said, it could be equivalent to a pretty large Factorio map, so I'm not all that worried about it. It all depends on moddability and variety of resources for me. The stackable belts open up many possibilities for more compact designs, which is really cool. The one thing I saw that I wish Factorio had is the built-in loaders for assembly machines. And for replayability, it's always possible that new maps will be released after launch, so I'm not too worried about that.

It could be promising. The fact that it's one finite world is a bit worrying for replayability. It also sounds like it has an endpoint, which could be concerning if you can't continue past that. Mod support would be a huge bonus, although I worry that having to make 3d models might make modding more difficult. I'm also a bit concerned about such a design-based game being first person 3d - I think it would make it more difficult in a variety of ways.

gosensgo86 wrote: The one thing I saw that I wish Factorio had is the built-in loaders for assembly machines.

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

Jap2.0 wrote: I worry that having to make 3d models might make modding more difficult. I'm also a bit concerned about such a design-based game being first person 3d - I think it would make it more difficult in a variety of ways.

Factorio has also prerendered 3d models, they are already exist and without blender or another 3d program the graphics will be not so nice.

darkfrei wrote:

Jap2.0 wrote: I worry that having to make 3d models might make modding more difficult. I'm also a bit concerned about such a design-based game being first person 3d - I think it would make it more difficult in a variety of ways.

Factorio has also prerendered 3d models, they are already exist and without blender or another 3d program the graphics will be not so nice.

I realize that, however modders can simply put in 2D png files, which would not be possible for Satisfactory.

Basic level of computer graphics is very easy, just extrude-scale-rotate-move. First cup render you can make in 30-60 minutes, just repeat tutorial. Then you need add colors or textures, save to file.

Jap2.0 wrote:

darkfrei wrote:

Jap2.0 wrote: I worry that having to make 3d models might make modding more difficult. I'm also a bit concerned about such a design-based game being first person 3d - I think it would make it more difficult in a variety of ways.

Factorio has also prerendered 3d models, they are already exist and without blender or another 3d program the graphics will be not so nice.

I realize that, however modders can simply put in 2D png files, which would not be possible for Satisfactory.

Making an ugly 3D model is actually easier than making an ugly 2D model. Well, depends on the person ofc and what software they use. But generally speaking for someone with no experience in either. Making a good looking model is difficult in both :p. If they're smart they're going to make the "building bits" available (i.e. a collection of small assets like pipes, cogs, cables etc), and the base game textures alongside. Keep in mind that 90% of factorio mods simply use recolored assembler graphics, and the ones that don't (py, yuoki, eradicator, angel, etc) already use 3D models.
Personally i'm much more worried about optimization/bugyness. In an environment where the player can arbitrary increase the poly-count of the scene keeping fps stable will be quite difficult and require lots of tricks. Then they have to also optimize the simulation speed *and* keep the bugs outside.

Another "3D Factorio" is http://voxeltycoon.xyz.

The game can be much faster if you make less verification of the conditions. So, if the input have stable production, then you don't need check the state on every tick. So output is also stable and nothing must be calculated. Next we have transport belt with stable input and stable output.

eradicator wrote:

Jap2.0 wrote:

darkfrei wrote:

Jap2.0 wrote: I worry that having to make 3d models might make modding more difficult. I'm also a bit concerned about such a design-based game being first person 3d - I think it would make it more difficult in a variety of ways.

Factorio has also prerendered 3d models, they are already exist and without blender or another 3d program the graphics will be not so nice.

I realize that, however modders can simply put in 2D png files, which would not be possible for Satisfactory.

Making an ugly 3D model is actually easier than making an ugly 2D model. Well, depends on the person ofc and what software they use. But generally speaking for someone with no experience in either. Making a good looking model is difficult in both :p. If they're smart they're going to make the "building bits" available (i.e. a collection of small assets like pipes, cogs, cables etc), and the base game textures alongside. Keep in mind that 90% of factorio mods simply use recolored assembler graphics, and the ones that don't (py, yuoki, eradicator, angel, etc) already use 3D models.
Personally i'm much more worried about optimization/bugyness. In an environment where the player can arbitrary increase the poly-count of the scene keeping fps stable will be quite difficult and require lots of tricks. Then they have to also optimize the simulation speed *and* keep the bugs outside.

That's a bit of a relief, I don't have much experience with 3D modeling.