Just bought the game; What were Your first impressions?

[manzon]

Started playing two days ago and my first impression was: hey, this what I do for a living! I'm a devops/systems engineer and automation plays a huge role in my job. Factorio illustrates need for automation in large and complex systems perfectly. If you leave that furnace without steady supply of coal it will eventually screw you over. Leave that SSL cert renewal and installation not automated and it will eventually screw you over

[Asterf]

First is to customized settings and controls based on your desired buttons.

Experience with bot or at least try the demo or practice mode.

Then master. Be the best player in that game.

If you can monetized it, will be bettter.

[ericprydz]

I spend all my time at home playing Factorio and all my time at my Apknite company daydreaming about how to make the factory grow. My eyes hurt, my brain is numb and I have barely slept.
And I haven't even gotten past blue science yet

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into the first impressions thread, because It fits the topic well .

[ericprydz]

[Koub] Merged into the first impressions thread, because It fits the topic well .

Thanks for doing it!

[GlorifiedToaster]

I remember thinking it was in the best interest to kill all bitters, even the ones not even in my pollution range.

I've been unable to return to that save, due to the amounts of biters attacking each second, combined with next near 0 resources available.


Oh, and I only had 10 furnaces keeping my iron production up, imagine how that went.

[Diz9000]

After years of playing modded Minecraft, I started to get bored and needed a fresh challenge.
Factorio had been on my wish list for a while now, I liked the sound of it without really knowing anything about the gameplay.
Then last month I was in hospital and when I came out I was going to have to rest for many weeks, so bit the bullet and bought the game.

Initially , I was like wth am I supposed to do, what’s the aim of the game.......
Being an old fart (50+) the first thing I did was throw the manual away (metaphorically speaking) and look for a video to watch. I was amazed by the number available. I choose one that seem to take you from starting out to something called a megabase, in 100 easy steps lol. (By katherineofsky).
25 hours in and I find my games not playing the same as that in the video, much pulling out of hair was narrowly avoid when I found another player having the same issue and an answer as to why.... I’m playing with vet 0.17 and the video is of ver 0.16.
Onto a new series using the same ver as I’m using and I now wondering where 125 hrs had disappeared to over the past few weeks lol

[Am0rphus]

I bought the game and played it a little, but I lost interest real quick because I couldn’t figure out how to progress. So much was thrown at me and I didn’t get to experience the more advanced and interesting parts of the game.
However, 8 months later, I started watching Nilaus YouTube videos and they helped me to get started with the game. The more I learned, the more complex builds I could make, and I got hooked from there. Eventually I joined a bunker world and played on there, and that made the game even more interesting.

[valneq]

[…] I couldn’t figure out how to progress. So much was thrown at me and […]

Do you remember at which point in the game you got stuck? In hindsight, do you understand why you got stuck there? Which idea / concept was not explained well enough by the game?

[plussantana]

my first impression was like playing a game like Minecraft but in which you can program

[SAVAGExDAVE]

Just bought the game this weekend and am loving it so far. Haven’t done anything major with it yet, but I totally see the potential in becoming super addictive!

[Eleenrood]

First impression about Factorio i remember, where biters eating my ass off when i was trying to set up some kind of automation.

Second impression was "How the hell will i automate that?". That particular impression i still have when i try new major mod - Bob and Angle were especially prominent setting very high bar for future, but right now explore galaxy on marathon starts to catch up uncomfortably quickly.

Third impression is well known "Did i do this?!?" closely followed by "What was I thinking?". That one never went away.


I have to say its one of the best game purchase I ever made and been coming back to it quite a few times. I actually had to check when did i bought and I still have email with game code from Factorio from 2014

[starkita]

First impression was "Finally, home".

[Veggiemeat]

Hi Forum!

I heard about the game listening to a podcast where they had one of the Factorio developers as a guest. As a programmer myself, I was intrigued about the idea of the game. Also, hearing how the developer talked about the development process and the focus towards performance convinced me of the quality of the game.

I have played a few days now and I really like how configurable the game is. I can play smoothly with 60 FPS on my low end GPU, but could also turn on the graphics to the max if I wanted to. The configurability of the look and feel of the game is excellent.

At first, the game is really exciting because there is so much to explore and learn: the terrain, the resource types, the kind of items there are, the technology tree etc. Eventually, I found myself just idling AFK, thinking and planning the production and logistics of the next science packet.

One thing I miss though (or haven't found out yet) is a way to deconstruct or recycle items, for example transform an inserter back to iron and gears.

I also like that the battle aspect is mainly simple tower defense style where the point is to automate your defenses.

[Pi-C]

One thing I miss though (or haven't found out yet) is a way to deconstruct or recycle items, for example transform an inserter back to iron and gears.

There are mods that allow you to do this.

[thelorryman44]

i absolutely love the game for the most part, i like the fact i can dip in and out, and its so addictive and rewarding, the only thing i dont get is the need for the fauna. it seems unnecessary to me to have that element, i know it creates an extra challenge, but i dont like that its more dangerous to not be watching the screen and sometimes my turrets get destroyed before i have a chance to progress to a stage where i can produce resources fast enough to build more. its the only thing letting the game down for me atm. other than that its absolutely brilliant

[Ranger_Aurelien]

i absolutely love the game for the most part, i like the fact i can dip in and out, and its so addictive and rewarding, the only thing i dont get is the need for the fauna. it seems unnecessary to me to have that element, i know it creates an extra challenge, but i dont like that its more dangerous to not be watching the screen and sometimes my turrets get destroyed before i have a chance to progress to a stage where i can produce resources fast enough to build more. its the only thing letting the game down for me atm. other than that its absolutely brilliant

You can turn off "Enemy" in the World generation "Enemy" tab, or even just set them to "Peaceful" so they will not attack you unprovoked (no mods needed):

https://wiki.factorio.com/World_generator

[Jethro]

First impression is that it's annoying to play.

Biggest issue: Inventory/Crafting window location. Move it away from the middle of the screen.

This is a simple tiny little thing to do, and the fact that it hasn't been done gives the impression that the devs don't actually test their code or play their own game. If I were coding this, it would be the first thing to fix after testing the code for 2 minutes.

Other issues:
- Scroll the game window without always centering on the character.

I'll give it a couple hours to see if it clicks for me at some point, but honestly the window in the center of the screen issue just makes me more annoyed with the lazy devs every time it opens. Stupid me bought it on a whim. If I'd played the demo I never would have paid any money for it.


Edit: next issue is that the tutorial just stops a few minutes in.

[ondrii]

Few millions players are playing this game and almost none of them complains about place where inventory/crafting window is. So it's not that devs didn't test the game. It's because small part of the players want to have it somewhere else.

Edit: alternatively it could remember where such window was moved and next time open in same place So everyone could place it where they want to.
Also there could be some small button to move it to the default position.

[MEOWMI]

Edit: next issue is that the tutorial just stops a few minutes in.

IMO you should almost downgrade to 0.16 via Steam or download via Wube's official website. It has a tutorial/campaign that's a lot longer and immersive, and most importantly it works even if some of the design is definitely showing its age. The quality of the game itself is similar. The quickbar will be different between 0.17 and 0.16 though so be aware, but I do think if you play that and end up enjoying it that this change will not be a big problem.