Best Game of 2015? Hell Yes!

[AlphaWarMeister]

This game has managed to capture the core elements of one of my favorite things in the whole world. Automation, trial and error, massive builds, so many things that are so satisfying to make happen. The excitement when a rail system finally starts working, or your auto science pack machine functions at peak efficiency, and so many things like this are almost like a lost feeling, drowned out in the swamp of Triple A releases flooding the games market. This is a breath of fresh sweet air in the musk of that bile. The feelings i get when playing this are ones I've only ever gotten when setting up huge factories in modded minecraft. The fact that this game is only in alpha boggles my mind. To think that there will be even more than what is already here makes me giddy like a schoolgirl. There are a few things that I've noticed could be enhanced or improved and I'll add those here. I love this game so much, and anything I can do to help improve it would be my honor to at-least try

-Power needs to be harder to get, but also more ways to obtain it.
The electricity usage curve is really harsh, to the point where one minute you forget that power is even a factor, and the next your whole system is drained in seconds by the addition of like 3 laser turrets. I think that it can be too easily and too cheaply automated.

-More weapons or ways of combating the aliens.
I really like the idea of adding the bugs into the game, giving it a sense of hostility and giving you a glaring need for eventual defenses. They are very well implemented, but fighting them can become boring quickly. once you have a bunch of turrets, they become almost a non-issue to your base, and going out to fight them on your own can be kinda fun, but the weapons for it are limited and can leave you in an unfortunate circumstance very quickly. Maybe some kind of weapon upgrade system of some kind, or like a weapon and vehicle repair and upgrade center or something.

-More minerals
Copper and Iron are great, and the oil adds a really nice factor as well, but I feel like there is room for neat alloy combinations with the addition of one or two more metals/minerals/resources. I'm not entirely sure how it would effect the scaling of the entire game, but it could be an interesting integration if it could be added without too many side effects.

-Some way to track the total hours played
This is more of a personal interest, cause I just love to know how many hours I've played a game for.

Again, these are all just personal opinions I've had throughout playing the game.

Finally, I just want to thank you guys for taking steps outside the box, and creating a game that many people don't have the creativity or the guts to make. You guys are awesome, and keep up the great work : D

[Psycho0124]

Finally, I just want to thank you guys for taking steps outside the box, and creating a game that many people don't have the creativity or the guts to make. You guys are awesome, and keep up the great work : D

Hahaha.. Reads just like my first post here! Totally agree, Factorio is a real gem. The devs are even part of the community!

"-Power needs to be harder to get, but also more ways to obtain it."
/agree, power does seem a little too easy to get at the start. I bet it'll get 'balanced' eventually though.
I'd love to see some Uranium mining and basic reactor design, just to give a (maybe dangerous? hehehe) alternative to solar/steam.. It could use modules and an interface similar to the power armor maybe? Hmmm..

"-More weapons or ways of combating the aliens."
Yeah, I'd love to see a deep or infinite upgrade tree for each weapon type. As it stands, the Auto-Shotgun and combat robots are the only offensive weapons with any long-term merit, which is a shame considering the other weapon types already in-game. I'd love to spend thousands of science packs and super-charge my Flamethrower with range and damage upgrades.. Maybe it becomes a Plasma Thrower eventually? Fusion warhead Grenades/Rockets... Plasma repeater Machine Gun..

"-More minerals"
Definitely agree, my fingers have been crossed for a while on new metals in vanilla. Some 'rare-ish' metals out on the map would certainly add some nice spice to things. Maybe alternate/improved crafting recipes with superior ingredients? Adding Tin and alloying with Copper could give us Bronze which, because of its low friction and corrosion resistance, would be useful in all sorts of industrial applications (motors, bearings, gears, springs). Adding Aluminum and mixing with Copper could produce Duralumin, useful for strong and lightweight car/military/aircraft parts. Adding Titanium and alloying in a little Tin and Aluminum gives "Titanium Alloy Grade 6"; maybe for some awesome high-end military applications.

"-Some way to track the total hours played"
Ehh.. Dunno about this one. It's probably best I don't know how many hours of family time I've given up to Factorio..

Anyway, welcome to the Factorio Addiction Support Foru... Ahem.. Factorio forums!

[Alekthefirst]

Fusion warhead

The ultimate go-to solution for messy bases that needs serious rebuilding.
oh, and biter removal. Almost forgot the biter aspect

[DerivePi]

Power needs to be harder - I don't think that there is a mod for this yet

More ways of combatting - More weapons are available in several different mods (sniper, turrets, etc...) If you want harder biters, try Dytech.

More Minerals - most mods add minerals from bauxite, tin, etc...

Way to track hours - If you're still worried about that you need to play some more.

[Iblob]

I think Factorio is a shining example for what all games both indie and AAA should aim to be like:

-It's in early access but there already a game here, and there's an incredible amount of content to come in future to.

-What's in the game is very well implemented and developed with basically everything having a purpose for some stage of the game and leads into each other to make a fairly even progression curve.

-DLC is done via optional extensions completely seperate from the main game in the form of the 2 buying tiers after the simple "Get the game" tier.

-Developers respond to player issues, fix reported bugs while still keeping the game in their own image.

-Modding is encouraged, as well as lets plays of the game and other forms of promotion.

All with the developers still managing to make the game they want, a game fairly different from other games in both look and gameplay and still have it be succesful with the developers earning at least 1,188,390 euros from the game since its release.

[Ohz]

-Some way to track the total hours played

you can see it in loading screen

[ssilk]

I think he meant like (I was told) in WoW, where they had a mod, which counted the procentual total lifetime you are playing this game.

What brings me to a point, that we need an interface for mods, not only during the game, but also in the options and info-screen.

[Koub]

Yeah but the, you'll have to cycle through all your saves, and all the saves of all the previous versions of Factorio, and sum manually that, which is tedious

[ssilk]

or just have one mod, that counts just the minutes in game and can display it in the main screen and compares that with the time when you have bought it.

[British_Petroleum]

All of the things you ask for are already available in some really nice mods, but i agree that it'd be nice if they were all in vanilla. Hopefully in the future! My favourites are bobs mods, they add lots of new ores and alloys and intermediate products, that can be used to make heaps of new military stuff to fight a larger variety of more difficult aliens. There are other mods that add wind power and nuclear power too. Haha I would also prefer not to know the total hours

[ssilk]

I estimated it for me:

I have been going in March 2013. With a bit estimation that are 750 days or 18730 hours. (*)
I played then about - very estimated, I have been going over all the games - about 750 to 1000 hours. That's 0.04 to 0.05 %.

I think that's a lot, but ok. Now, if you think it is a good argument, when she says again: "You are playing only this stupid game..." no, it's not. If you have just a little bit of brain left: Don't use such a stupid argument with your partner at any time.

(*) There is not counted the hours I'm in this forum. Which are much more.

[Kokelvogel]

...

Anyway, welcome to the Factorio Addiction Support Foru... Ahem.. Factorio forums!

We support each other in keeping up the addiction?

I must admit that I tend to be serially monogamous when it comes to games, i.e. I find something I like, I play it pretty much exclusively for a while, I finally start getting bored and find a new game. This cycle can go from just a couple of days to something I will play again and again (although with breaks in between bouts). Factorio might become one of the recurring ones and is taking a huge chunk of my spare time at the moment.

I love the flexibility of the game that lets you do things your way. There are different opinions on how to optimize your game-play and I think, they all have their justification. True, there are things that simply do not work but you won't know until you've tried them And perhaps, with a little adjustment here and a tiny tweaking there, suddenly it works after all.

And if the developers will support the game as much as is done for terraria, this game has all the potential to be on my all-time favourite list

@ nagging co-lifeforms: I make a show of grumbling, being short-tempered and evil-minded ("So, DID you or did you NOT bring out the garbage? Well, then hop to it. And while you're at it you might as well ...") when I do not get my daily factorio fix ... thus everybody is smiling happily when I play (quietly and peacefully) instead of being a pain