Factorio Forums

I am very interested in the game but I have a few questions/concerns before I actually buy it.

First off, my friend told me that after you do a few runs in the game the process begins to get repetitive. I was just wondering how long into the game do you guys feel it gets a little boring? And are there good mods that could alter game play enough to enhance the replay value?

Secondly everyone talks about making the most efficient factories, are there multiple ways or "setups' to be used to achieve the same level of efficiency of others builds? I guess my point being is there enough room for creativity to the point where there is multiple ways to achieve the same goal.

Lastly how friendly is the learning curve to newer players? I don't have allot of time to just sit down and watch/read tutorials. I was hoping that I could jump on for a few hours and try to improve my builds or factories and there being enough things to do that will keep me interested. Hope you guys could help me out.

And yes I played the demo but still just want the opinions of people who own the game.

mikey45 wrote:First off, my friend told me that after you do a few runs in the game the process begins to get repetitive. I was just wondering how long into the game do you guys feel it gets a little boring?

This question is hard to answer. It depends on the person. I'm into around 500 hours of gameplay (most of it with vanilla game), and I know for sure people in this forum are well into their x000s. Some others will begin to get bored way before.

mikey45 wrote:And are there good mods that could alter game play enough to enhance the replay value?

Yeah. A lot . Factorio is well moddable, and has been modded a lot. It goes from mods that alter just a small aspect of the gameplay to real overhauls that change most of the game contents.

mikey45 wrote:Secondly everyone talks about making the most efficient factories, are there multiple ways or "setups' to be used to achieve the same level of efficiency of others builds? I guess my point being is there enough room for creativity to the point where there is multiple ways to achieve the same goal.

I'm not sure there is an optimal layout, or at least something that's so superior to all other layouts that it really makes some difference. And don't forget there are many ways to optimize. Optimize space wise ? optimise energy comsumption wise ? just optimize the ratios ? the expandability ? If you don't copy, without understanding them, the layouts you'll find on let's plays (but try to figure by yourself instead), there is always something you'll do better on the next run.

mikey45 wrote:Lastly how friendly is the learning curve to newer players? I don't have allot of time to just sit down and watch/read tutorials. I was hoping that I could jump on for a few hours and try to improve my builds or factories and there being enough things to do that will keep me interested. Hope you guys could help me out.

I didn't watch tutorials or let's plays before my first game, I felt the game worked as it should. However, there are many "pro tips" I have learned later on, mostly by reading this forum or looking to a few videos (but really a few vids, I don't like spending my time watching other people play when I could be playing myself).
This being said, Factorio is not an easy game. You won't make the perfect factory the first try, neither the second, neither the 10th. But you'll keep trying

mikey45 wrote:First off, my friend told me that after you do a few runs in the game the process begins to get repetitive. I was just wondering how long into the game do you guys feel it gets a little boring? And are there good mods that could alter game play enough to enhance the replay value?

Even before the mods, a vanilla game would probably take about 50-100 hours to "win" as it is now, assuming you play it from scratch and learn along the way. After that, a new factory would be quicker to build / more efficient / etc. but the replay value (for me) is in the goals you set for yourself and the level of creativity involved in achieving them. For example, if you start out in an area with limited resources, your factory may look very different than one built in a rich area. As for mods, there are tons, just look under the modding sub forums.

mikey45 wrote:Secondly everyone talks about making the most efficient factories, are there multiple ways or "setups' to be used to achieve the same level of efficiency of others builds? I guess my point being is there enough room for creativity to the point where there is multiple ways to achieve the same goal.

First of, there are always space constraint, unless you always generate flat terrains. Working around the terrain is always fun for me. Then there is pollution and how it affect nearby enemies. You may find yourself having to customize your base to relocate pollution to appease that one large base that you won't be able to deal with until much latter in game. Lastly, there are resources. And then there are modules . A factory with extensive module use will look vastly different than one that does not, because modules will change the way a component behave.

mikey45 wrote:Lastly how friendly is the learning curve to newer players? I don't have allot of time to just sit down and watch/read tutorials. I was hoping that I could jump on for a few hours and try to improve my builds or factories and there being enough things to do that will keep me interested. Hope you guys could help me out.

I think the fun in Factorio is that it is so open. There is no "wrong" way to build it (unless it kills you ) I wouldn't watch tutorials before building your first factory, just follow the in-game tutorials when you first start. I feel like that's how one should have his/her first experience with the game. After you build your first base, watching others build theirs will give you something to compare to.

mikey45 wrote:Lastly how friendly is the learning curve to newer players? I don't have allot of time to just sit down and watch/read tutorials.

The controls are the most unfriendly part. If you have a problem, you can probably solve it using using Alt, Q, or R.

1.) It really depends on the person. I got a bit bored of vanilla gameplay after about 100ish hours and 4 playthroughs or so. But some people have out in 5 or 10x that amount of time and still only play vanilla.

2.) Yes there a massive amount of mods out there. As Koub said, there are small ones that just add or change a few features or items, and then there are ones that change a huge amount of the game to make it more complex and such.

3.) There aren't really many layouts that are just flat out better than all others. And there many ways to optimize and be efficient. Or you don't have to focus on efficiency at all and just do what you want. That is the great thing about Factorio, there are so many different approaches to take when playing the game.

4.) Factorio is not an easy game to just pick up and learn. Don't get me wrong, you can learn by just playing but it will probably take multiple tries to get things right and might be frustrating at times. But that is part of the fun! I didn't watch tutorial videos or read anything before playing, but I did watch some normal lets plays which did help me get just a basic understanding of how the game worked. So if you have time to even watch a few episodes, it can help a lot.

Hope this helped!

mikey45 wrote:I was just wondering how long into the game do you guys feel it gets a little boring? And are there good mods that could alter game play enough to enhance the replay value?

I currently have five games saves (vanilla) at around 50 hours each. The last actually has a little more but I will admit after that much time there really isn't anything new that could happen. And yes, right now I probably would get pretty bored starting a new world.
However I haven't even touched any mods yet and there are definitely some huge game changers out there. For example youtuber Arumba currently has a Let's Play series involving “Bob's mod”. Check it out, maybe that can sooth your worries a little.
So if this sort of game is your thing at all I'd say you're looking at at least 100-150 hours of gameplay before things start getting repetitive and you may want to look into mods. Also keep in mind, that devs are actually working on adding more content, especially in the end game. The next update (0.12) is just around the corner.

mikey45 wrote:Secondly everyone talks about making the most efficient factories, are there multiple ways or "setups' to be used to achieve the same level of efficiency of others builds? I guess my point being is there enough room for creativity to the point where there is multiple ways to achieve the same goal.

There are definitely many ways to go about building your factory or even just certain parts of it. There are a few popular designs, like the “main bus layout”, but even using that you still have a lot of decisions to make. This is really not the part you should be worried about.

mikey45 wrote:Lastly how friendly is the learning curve to newer players? I don't have allot of time to just sit down and watch/read tutorials.

Since you've played the demo I'd say it doesn't get any more difficult than that. The main challenge is really just grasping the basic concepts of the game. After that it's mostly figuring out good layouts so things get produced fast and in proper ratios. If you play with high enemy settings you can increase the challenge (at least for early and mid-game).

If you get bored with lego because using same lego bricks is repetitive, then this game is not for you. This is a great factory sandbox game with tons of mods that enhance tech, complexity or combat aspect of the game, you can always try to make your own mod and have fun with it. This game won't limit you in freedom of what you can do here.

I made it sticky, cause that question comes about every 2 month.

I've put about 100+ hours into the game so far and the immersion level can vary, I'll admit. Sometimes I'll start up a new game and set the difficulty up to provide some more of a challenge. I think this factor varies by the type of game you feel like playing at the time. If you want the OCD style factory layout game, then it can keep you occupied for hours on end. If you want a brutal survival game, then you hit a certain peak where nothing provides a challenge anymore... I'd say that's the point you can encounter some of that boredom.

Since there's not really any competition in factory setups, I try to be creative. There's no right or wrong way to it and all my save games are totally different layouts from one another.

The learning curve is actually quite nice. Some games bombard you with loads of info at the start that you have to commit to memory and then get lost trying to do. This game gives you a little bit as you go and from there, it's pretty self explanatory as you unlock new techs.

mikey45 wrote:I am very interested in the game but I have a few questions/concerns before I actually buy it.

First off, my friend told me that after you do a few runs in the game the process begins to get repetitive. I was just wondering how long into the game do you guys feel it gets a little boring? And are there good mods that could alter game play enough to enhance the replay value?

Secondly everyone talks about making the most efficient factories, are there multiple ways or "setups' to be used to achieve the same level of efficiency of others builds? I guess my point being is there enough room for creativity to the point where there is multiple ways to achieve the same goal.

Lastly how friendly is the learning curve to newer players? I don't have allot of time to just sit down and watch/read tutorials. I was hoping that I could jump on for a few hours and try to improve my builds or factories and there being enough things to do that will keep me interested. Hope you guys could help me out.

And yes I played the demo but still just want the opinions of people who own the game.

Hi There

I played the demo for 10 minutes and bought it at about 7:30 pm on a Friday, after my wife had left for some work travel. Home alone.

I played pretty well continuously, through the weekend, and then took two sick days off work and played through those. I went to work the rest of the week, but I didn't really work. I could see conveyor belts in my sleep. I started new maps each day, more or less.

The sickness broke during the next weekend, and I bulldozed my whole current map and started really digging into the tech and trying to solve the problems I made. I looked up some designs online for how to deal with certain basic design problems.

Now I'm able to work on that map for a couple hours a week and exist like a normal person.

The game is generally forgiving if you can survive that first attack.

Its only at .12, and the direction seems pretty robust, so I expect plenty of new things. The other thing is, they seem to be going deep, with the signaling and what not. You can get really complicated, and i like that depth.

thiosk wrote: Now I'm able to work on that map for a couple hours a week and exist like a normal person.

This is good to hear. I almost started feeling guilty reading the post up to this point

mikey45 wrote:Secondly everyone talks about making the most efficient factories, are there multiple ways or "setups' to be used to achieve the same level of efficiency of others builds? I guess my point being is there enough room for creativity to the point where there is multiple ways to achieve the same goal

Efficiency isn't something you really have to worry about unless you want to, because you have an infinite world and there are always new resources. You don't have to concentrate on making an effecient factory, I think that is something that interests very experienced players as a new challenge. The game allows so much flexibility that there are basically an infinite number of permutations to build the same factory, and you can develop one that appeals to you.

So I'm pretty fond of the vanilla, and I will say that I start petering out on maps around the time that I'm expanding from my main base to using trains. Thats fixed itself a bit since I figured out how to work signals and make junctions correctly, but Robots and expansion were the points I kept making new maps.

That being said, each time I'd wipe a factor off a map, I'd have a new idea for how to make it efficient, or I'd replace it with something completely different. I've stuck with the main bus design pretty steadily, and its sered me well, but the shoot offs have been radically different each time.

As for mods, Bob's Mods are freaking awesome, and Dytech is pretty fun. I'd reccomend Bob's though, for starting out. They're prett modular, but play off of each other. It you want a challenge, put all of them in and prepare to relearn most things about how factories are set up

Mods add a lot to the game if you played through vanilla Factorio one or two times.

I would recommend Resource Spawn Overhaul (as always ) for the need to build some trains. With it, the game generates a lot less resources in vicinity of your starting area, so you need to build trains to get resource patches far off.

I played Bob's Mods with a friend a few months ago, and the level of complexity is just crazy. I wouldn't recommend it for starters at all; you'll get very complicated builds for the advanced stuff. It's great for advanced players though, and if bored, one should definitely give it a try.

Since this weekend, I am building with the same pal on a RSO / Marathon map, and it's awesome. You can't use any of the old builds, because you need a lot more resources, and the production times went up a lot (for example: 2x copper wire take 2 seconds and 10 (!) copper bars to produce). It's crazy fun, the pacing is totally different and it makes the game a whole other experience.

There are also some optional mods that add alternative stuff (like TreeFarm), and some that just make your life a lot easier (Landfill, RailTanker) or more comfortable (FATController). One should definitely look around the mod forums a bit.

I personally am not a fan of the Dyson mod - the last time I checked it was mostly just crazy fast/productive versions of old stuff, which makes the factory even smaller than a vanilla one, while I looove to go big in this game. And the balancing is way, waaaaay off, if you ask me.

I dont know anyone who enjoyed their first 2-3 hours in Factorio and who then didnt go on to 100 hrs +

Given a AAA game often has less than 10-20 hours gameplay and zero replay value (maybe eked out to 50+ hours for the dedicated multiplayer adherents, which are maybe 5% of players), I think thats pretty fricking amazing.

Play the demo. If you enjoy it there is a lot more where that came from

Well when you liked the Demo, the Games just cots 20 Bugs. You spend way more then 8 Hours, before you have seen what you can do with all the Technologies.

Theses Days, all the AAA Games cost 60 Bugs and rarely get you 8 Hours, exept big (mostly empty) Open World Games. And when you can play those for 50 Hours, then you can play Factorio for much longer.

So its not simple Buy, its an Investment in good Time. And try to get a Buddy for Multiplayer ^^ that doubles the Fun.

If you dont Enjoy building Stuff, well there are still other Games ^^

Hello everyone!

I tried factorio at my brother's and I like it lot. I'd like to buy it as well, but I have a couple of questions of a more technical nature:
1. Will the game always be playable without steam?
2. Will I be able to reinstall the game with the same key once I upgrade my PC? (possibly also on a different OS?)

Have a nice evening,

Proculis

1.) Yes
2.) Yes

Thank you for the quick answer

i want to know what kind of games do you have