Just bought the game; What were Your first impressions?

[ewornotloc]

I don't usually use a mouse and use "c" as right click. I was shooting all the trees and had no idea what was going on xD.

I rebinded all my controls, and now I love the game. Just finished a good copper/iron smelting factory with coal lines, electricity, the works, and I'm going on to start a research factory next.

[PurpleGreen]

first i was confused , then overwhelmed by the complexity of it. then i fell in love with it AND with the DEVS .... 20 years of gaming and these devs are without comparison when it comes to community management and transparency. and now i am confused and overwhelmed by the 1300+ hours played ....

[player8472]

Day -3:
Hmmm, why does steam say I'd like this game - It looks like s***

Day -2:
Hmmmm, Factorio again - lets watch some twitch-streams

Day -1:
Hmmmm, there is a demo. Lets try that

3h later: Well that was real fun - Let's sleep a night over it

Day 0:
Nothing factorio - had to work late

Day 1:
Okay, let's do this

Day 3-10 (I had a few vacation days):
"Fuck, it's 6 AM already?!?!?!?"

I am now a few months in and have to say:
- It is second on my hours played list (I have >2 years play-time on WoW collected over about a decade - but factorio is the only contender...) with ~700-800h playtime (I don't start over steam anymore, so i have to calc my savegames together...). ARK is on place 3 with 550h...
- I probably wouldn't play anymore if it wasn't that moddable - Currently playing Bobs/Angels /SpaceX (although i doubt I'll get too far into the SpaceX-Part) - already planning for a seablock-game after that (Watching Nilaus playthrough as prep...)

[match_.]

Great garbanzo beans, this game has blown my mind!

There are so many details that are only restricted by imagination. One in particular comes to mind as a "well-thought-out implementation". One of the first Achievements I received was the "It stinks..." award, which answered the very important question of why the locals are "Not Happy" with my presence. Is it really important to know the "Why"?

For me, the "Why" must always be asked. It creates the tension that makes for interesting stuff. And my interest has remained piqued even with soooo many issues to solve ahead of me. I have only just begun to involve petroleum and trains in my save and resist the temptation to answer the plethora of questions by looking online (I succumbed to discovering that (auto) trains only move in one direction- whodathunk?). I have come to realize that there are as many solutions as the imagination can allow (a kind of mix between vertical and horizontal JIT assembly), and the ability to completely tear down and rebuild the production sector with little penalty is a godsend (or maybe not since I have yet to be fully satisfied with my layout- how many axes will I go through?).

In short, this game applies a phrase which I use at work, "It is simple but complex. What are you? Make it work."

[AutoOtter]

My first impression was of all the huge belts in the old Aavak/Arumba videos Still nowhere near that level but still have 2 little red iron belts i'm proud of

[harrymanback]

First impression, this is really cool, second impression ERMAGHERD this is so friggin complicated Ahhhhh!

[cynicle]

I absolutely love this game. Tried the New Hope campaign and finished it in 16 hours on easy. Have to note the map with the train tracks, I didn't realise the tracks led to outposts! I took my time setting up my own (and researching all the tech). Wouldn't change a thing though I love mucking around and will look forward to free play mode. Always looking for new additions and have a few suggestions, however until I exhaust the tech tree I won't comment.

Have to admit as a graphic designer and hobbyist coder, this website could use a lot of work... I shouldn't have to register for the game on the home page and then again for the forums a minute later. This is easily consolidated....
I know it's seemingly minor, however you want to encourage all the engagement you can muster. Not to mention website presentation and polish will only attract users which are on the fence over the games state.

Still great game!

Catcha,
Cyn

[PotatoFactory]

I started playing Factorio at 8pm last night. Next time I checked my watch, it was 4am. And I had work at 8am. Hmm.

Bought the game in November. Played the demo before hand. Couldn't get enough of it. There should be a warning or disclaimer though before you buy the game, something along the lines of "warning: the purchase of this game will lead to the total destruction of your life because forever more your life will be all about Factorio. You shall breathe Factorio, eat Factorio, **** Factorio! Factorio is your god now!!!"

Something along those lines would be fine

[Ncolas]

Hello everyone,

And first, thank you for this great game, I've played on it about 15 hours and I started making drawings on a paper for a better organization of my productions. I love it !

Just one remark for your further developements. I'm french, and I use an AZERTY keyboard. When I started playing, I switched my préférences for the movements of the character, with the keys Z-Q-S-D. And for the next first hours of playing, I could never understand why I was throwing lots of objects from my inventory. Finally, I discovered why : the key S was also affected to the "Pipette tool" and the key Z to the action of throwing away an object. Now I changed that and it is easier ^^.

Besides that, I would like to have the choice to make move the inserters (robotic arms I mean) either by the left side, either by the right side, because it has an impact on the placement of products on the transport belts. And I would like to have a Long handed filter inserter.

And, is it possible for you to create a better tool for chopping trees ? I lose a lot of time doing this, and it is not that fun...

Thank you for reading, and continue the good job.

Nicolas

[Jap2.0]

And, is it possible for you to create a better tool for chopping trees ? I lose a lot of time doing this, and it is not that fun...

You can make iron and steel pickaxes. Later on, for mass forest destruction, grenades and construction bots work well.

[BHakluyt]

There should be a warning or disclaimer though before you buy the game, something along the lines of "warning: the purchase of this game will lead to the total destruction of your life because forever more your life will be all about Factorio. You shall breathe Factorio, eat Factorio, **** Factorio! Factorio is your god now!!!"

Something along those lines would be fine

Geez dude... but yeah, they should probably warn us or something in that direction because what you have said is not untrue...

[bootsam]

I lost an entire weekend. Gone. Even though I could press Esc key to pause, I'd still be there busting for loo. 'just one more ajustment....' if my bladder had its own automated aquaduct system...hmmm.....

[xZippy]

I was hooked. Just starting the first mission and mining some things was all I needed to see. Then I saw the inserters and knew this would be in my top 5 of best games of all time.

[Elfmansd]

First impressions - "So this is what crack addiction is like!"

[blindsided]

When I first bought this game, I enjoyed it, learning about the different mechanics on how to set my factory up and the different layouts in which I could build it. A month later, I couldn't even get passed setting up electricity for my baby base without overthinking literally everything. It stops me in my tracks every time I try to play a game of Factorio now. I've even messed with the Creative Mode mod so I could experiment with mega-buses, but even that confuses me. I've created my own logical problems that just fry my brain. I've watched countless tutorials and read guides. I want to be able to enjoy this game, feel satisfied, and not have to worry much.

[GlassDeviant]

blindsided, watch the Factorio tutorial videos by Katherine of Sky (and others, but especially hers).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTIV3K ... NjoMoNaGtQ

[DMFan79]

I'm helding you responsible for the lack of sleep I've been plagued recently.

I restarted my base several times before setting down with my actual one. Obviously I'm not satisfied and I'm planning to start again as soon as I manage to beat the game.

Best money I've spent so far for this kind of games.

[Aeternus]

And, is it possible for you to create a better tool for chopping trees ? I lose a lot of time doing this, and it is not that fun...

You can make iron and steel pickaxes. Later on, for mass forest destruction, grenades and construction bots work well.

Don't forget about the flamethrower. Starting a forest fire doesn't completely wipe out all the trees, but it will take out a substantial amount. And if there's any biters living among the trees... those get roasted too.

[Jap2.0]

And, is it possible for you to create a better tool for chopping trees ? I lose a lot of time doing this, and it is not that fun...

You can make iron and steel pickaxes. Later on, for mass forest destruction, grenades and construction bots work well.

Don't forget about the flamethrower. Starting a forest fire doesn't completely wipe out all the trees, but it will take out a substantial amount. And if there's any biters living among the trees... those get roasted too.

Ah, yes, I knew I was forgetting something.

[zOldBulldog]

My first impressions:

- Game is complex. It allows different players to learn and enjoy it in different ways. Good.

- The in-game tutorials start well, but they derail fairly quickly, either overwhelming the player with too many messages or not giving enough information (New Hope 3 strikes me as both, and prompted me to move off the campaign into a New World as a gentler method for learning).

- Tutorials don't cover strateg. They could benefit by covering things like: (1) What a basic bus should be and how much extra bus space should be reserved for personal choices (good enough for a first run). (2) Basic overall base layout concepts - like an area of "x" size for smelting, space for trains to supply the smelting areas, an area of "X" size for the mall, pathways, rationale of when to feed supplies from the bus vs smelting and making the resources locally (for example, my first fully automatic green/red science self-smelted iron and copper from nearby deposits and was so productive that I unlocked all pure red/green before even being able to produce the next science pack - lucky choice but awesome), what things are best produced fully at local outposts and transport the materials vs what raw resources to transport to main base and then produce there, whether to create a mini-base for the early stages that is still reasonably laid out (science, iron/copper/stone/coal mini-bus, and a mini-mall where to manufacture early stuff, in the order needed and that lays the output chests in an easily accessible location... and so on. (3) What "critical" things to do in what order so that early players can reasonably expand their base while dealing with the various pressures like power exhaustion, resource exhaustion and enemy attacks (nothing worse than to run out of resources while thoroughly surrounded by hordes of attacking aliens). (4) As there are some fairly well known issues to avoid, maybe the game could detect them and give pop-up suggestions when the player is getting seriously off-track, for example: "You are using 80% of your electric power, you might want to expand generation" or ""You consumed 50% of the iron fields you are mining, you might want to start mining others", or You consumed (25%. 50%, 75%) of discovered iron, you might want to explore more (and clear the aliens in the way to it), and so on.

- There are lots of off-game tutorials, and a few good youtube tutorial series (I especially like Katherine Sky's and Nilaus', each for different reasons). But there is a lot of noise and even bad ideas. I've even come across some websites that try to guide players to the best information. Wading through all that information is hard and time consuming, but in the end worthwhile.

- The game does a good job to reward eco-friendly approaches, but it is not easy to achieve especially early on. The expansion habits of aliens push you to develop defenses and expand rapidly, which basically pushes you to develop rapidly and pollute quite a bit. Electric/Nuclear power and efficiency modules might help, but you must develop your base a decent amount before you can rely on it. As I progress and learn how to play I can't escape the thought that perhaps aliens should evolve based on your pollution (as they do now) but their roaming (and especially establishing new bases) behavior should not start until a little after time when you are finally able to start controlling pollution. That would allow new players the time needed to try new stuff, expand and become eco-friendly before encountering the aliens (and at that point either become friends or foes with them).

Yes, lots of first impressions. Mainly because I am loving the game. Please don't take any of my above ideas/comments as criticism, they purely reflect my first impressions and are my early - and thus crude - attempt to give ideas for improvement.