Other Planets

[Blackspectre]

First off, I would like to commend the developers on what may be my favorite game ever. (It is possibly a tie with Dwarf Fortress, but that is a HUGE compliment to you)

Upon reading of your idea to implement more of and end game with a spaceship, I asked myself, "Why not other planets?"

The driving force of a Factorio game is to automate and expand so that you can produce more, with more complex setups, and more complex (and therefore useful) items. It stands to reason, then, that ultimately, not only needing to logistically solve the issue of how to initially find and reach other planets (the low orbit spaceship building you spoke of), but also eventually solving the logistical needs of interplanetary throughput would be a logical step forward.

I propose that upon reaching the ability to perform space travel, there being a way to locate, and build on, other planets, which will have different threats (other types of aliens, weather (maybe you have to deal with freezing temperatures, extreme heat, or abundant rainfall), more exciting terrain), and also offer more options for your production. (New types of resources, perhaps abundant resources on a very harsh environment, possibly even existing structures that in some way benefit the player)

The nature of a game like factorio is that it starts off relatively simple, and grows in complexity, and therefore difficulty, as the game progresses. This idea provides an elevated level of complexity, and therefore difficulty (which translates to fun), which is inherently gated to a specific "tier" of playing so that the player is not overwhelmed with options in the beginning, but gains access to more options and rewards as their progression (and therefore mastery of previous levels of complexity) improves.

An issue I see is that as it stands now, putting a "you win" condition on the game means that their factory, that many people will have spent 30-60 hours creating, no longer has any real purpose. That is a real downer. If the game has open ended conditions, with more to explore and ever expanding rewards to achieve, a player will restart when they are bored of their factory, not because they feel that they "have to" because they have nothing else to really achieve. You mentioned increasing wealth as a means of adding some meaning to the end game. While this may be a good stop-gap idea, I think it can be improved upon, and having a universe full of planets to explore and grow your empire on really brings a lot of end game options and activity for a player wishing to "See how far they can take their factory"

TL:DR
Use spaceships to go to other planets for more difficult content/higher reward. End game needs to be open ended in this way to prevent running out of things to do with your factory

[ssilk]

Some threads, which also mention planets: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/sea ... nets&fid=6

[Blackspectre]

If you will notice, none of those threads are this idea. The closest to it come from comment responses to the Friday Facts, in which case it would still need its own thread. Just because it has the word "Planet" in it doesnt mean it is discussing the concept of map connection and end game extendability. =P

[LordFedora]

Don't mock the ssilkbot he's over worked and very much under paid

[Garm]

The question is - why planets? what can they offer?

Especially how it all can be tied in so that our initial factory is still important and relevant even in space age.

[ssilk]

If you will notice, none of those threads are this idea. The closest to it come from comment responses to the Friday Facts, in which case it would still need its own thread. Just because it has the word "Planet" in it doesnt mean it is discussing the concept of map connection and end game extendability. =P

That was thought as inspiration for this thread.

[Blackspectre]

Are people even bothering to read the post before responding to it?

Garm - I feel that the "why other planets" is more than adequately covered in the post.

Unless you mean why another planet instead of the one we are on, and that is probably more of a technical issue. With the way the game is coded, it would be easier to generate a new type of map and link it than to travel 50,000 tiles in a direction to possibly get a biome change.

It ties in to your original factory because your original factory is still producing and giving you items as it has throughout the game. This is not about replacing or relocating your factory, it is about increasing the scope of your factory.

I thought this was clear given the mention of interplanetary logistics, but maybe people missed that.

SSilk - I think it is more the inevitable conclusion of how to increase the scope of a factory, without making it obsolete.