So I'm posting here to see if I can find a new friend to try this game out with before I succumb to the pull and just do it alone.
The criteria may sound demanding/entitled/picky, but I've found that measuring twice and cutting once for finding teammates on the internet saves a lot of time frustration for all parties. No judgement on anyone who's not what I'm looking for, I just don't want to waste anyone's time who has different goals. I went pretty extra on the explanations, so I hope it's detailed enough that whoever reads this will know for sure by the end whether or not I'd be a good teammate for you.
Here's what I'm after, the basics:
• Beginner. Non-negotiable. Tutorial is fine, a few hours in is fine, but I'm not looking for a mentor or an experience gap. Let's learn the game, from the game.
• Vanilla. (NN) For a first-time playthrough, no need to mess with mods.
• 18+ (NN) 21+ even better. I'm 25M for reference.
• English. (NN) Native or equivalent, for ease of communication.
• I'm located in NA/US-East. Ideally I'd find someone who is also in this corner of the world, for the sake of latency, scheduling, and ease of communication, but if those things are still good then same region isn't necessary.
• Player count.
2, including me, is what I'm imagining. I'm open to 3-player as well, but 4 is pushing it. I just figure that finding people who get along and have the same goals and scheduling for a game is hard enough that trying to get more than 1 other person is kind of a pipe dream. I guess I just add this in case someone comes as a pair or something, I'm not against that.
More complicated stuff:
• Multiplayer the whole way.
I don't like the feeling of coming back the game a couple days later and everything's advanced by 3 tiers, and I don't like doing that to people either. Functionally, that means no single-player on the shared world, and no advancing past that level of progress in another solo world. Ideally, schedules would align well enough that there's no need to play solo at all until much later. Next 2 bullets tie into this one.
• Time commitment: Medium.
I'm pretty flexible on this because the bullet above is important to me. I'd like to play a good bit more often than, say, 1 hour, once a week, but I guess nobody that busy has time for Cracktorio anyway. On the other hand, I'm not ready to put in 40+ hour workweeks into the game either, especially with coordinating schedules. Ideally, you'll have time to play on at least a few different days during the week, and I'll be able to match your pace.
• Scheduling info:
My current situation is pretty flexible. I'm busy Wednesday evenings and a small portion of Thursday evenings, as well as Sunday mornings, simetimes all day Sunday. The rest is variable and much of it can be moved around to accommodate plans such as growing the factory.
• Playstyle: "Mostly Serious," and "Independent" are the labels I'd give it.
I have the most fun in games when I'm thinking hard and trying hard (and hopefully succeeding after that). My plan is try to progress in the game, discover what it has to offer, and make a cool factory. I've got friends who would play this and any multiplayer game differently, stuff like griefing by shooting each other and rotating/deleting stuff you just placed, or trying to make a meme factory that makes a million per minute of something useless (I'd have a more specific example if I'd played this game already), or make a train collision death trap. I hate that stuff. Basically I'm the complete opposite of the YT channel Let's Game it Out if you've heard of that. That all said, "serious" does not mean "in a hurry." I'm all for a relaxed pace, and/or taking time to explore different features and options.
As for Independent, by that I mean I'd like to tackle the games challenges wielding just the mind and what the game gives us. The idea of "check out this schematic I found on the internet" really turns me off for a first-time playthrough. If the game stumps both of us for long enough on an essential objective, there's no shame in asking for help just to get past the block, but I don't foresee that happening in a game designed this well and with the power of 2 heads.
Anyway, that's the gist. I've got it in my head from what I've seen so far that the most fulfilling experience would be to go through this game for the first time as a collab.
So hopefully someone had the same thought and came looking on reddit before playing. Or maybe some of you have a friend whom you want to introduce to the game, but who doesn't want to play with a veteran like you for a first-time experience? Link them here.
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this.
