Stone Age Factorio

[BuilderOfAges]

I like how Factorio's early game differs drastically from the rest in terms of gameplay. Instead of designing builds, you're running around hand-filling burner miners and smelters. Raw products like iron and copper plates are more something to achieve in small batches than continuous capacities to scale up. That's not to say that I would want to spend hours hand-crafting and baby-sitting miners, but I like the variation, and I find there's less variety in gameplay in the later game.

I want to extend this early stage and add even more variation in gameplay. I'm thinking of a "Stone Age" that comes before the current early game, with distinctly different gameplay. Specifically, it should be even harder: I want my first pick-axe and my first burner-miner to feel like as much an achievement as your first assembler. You start with nothing, and even burner miners are locked behind an early form of research.

AAI and Xander introduce burner labs and lock burner miners behind research, but they don't change gameplay: it's just more complex and there are more steps, but the way to progress hasn't changed much.

[BuilderOfAges]

I think I'll try making a mod to add this to the game. I'd love to hear any input people might have. See also https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... for_input/