The formal mathematical definition of a game (from the mathematical theory of games) is: A game is a function between a strategy set and an outcome set. A strategy set is a set of tuples which assign to each player of the game, a strategy for that game. A strategy defines their choice at every possible point where they could make a decision in the game (even if playing that strategy from the start of the game never results in reaching particular game state). An outcome set describes the results of each possible play of the game. A play of a game is the resulting choices and their consequences (which can include which choices a player gets to make).ske wrote:What is limited in factorio?
Land? All terrain is the same. Except for water... until you fill it. All terrain is the same.
Resources? If you are on an island you have to manage your resources and there are usually two outcomes: Not enough and Plenty. There are no islands in factorio after you landfill the water. Outside there are always more resources to get. Resources are not limited. They only cost time. All of them. Ores are all the same, found in random places. Uranium needs some fluid to mine (which is nice) and oil uses pumps and pipes (which is also nice). You can use trains or just long lines of belts (which aren't really that much worse than using trains).
Map size? The map size is virtually unlimited by design.
Factory size? The factory size depends on how fast your CPU runs. It is kind of a limit. Not by design though and not a hard one as you can still run a factory at 5 UPS or even lower.
Power? You can always build more generators or solar panels or batteries until your CPU starts to burn. For practical purposes there is barely any difference between coal, nuclear and solar+battery. It only takes some time to setup and then you're fine with any of them.
Time? There is no timer ticking (unless you're doing speedruns). Your free time might be limited but you could always quit your day job.
Creative force and clicks? Once you have those flying construction robots you can copy&paste the rest of your factory from some strings you've found online. No need to fiddle around with ratios. Somebody did that for you. Better than you could.
Enemies? After you researched enough military and are able to kill big worms all nests are roughly the same.
What is the difference between an efficient setup and an inefficient setup? None, I would say. It doesn't really matter. You'll get there anyways.
Is factorio really a game then?
Depending on the definition of games you might argue that yes, it is a game. It is advertised as game. It looks like a game in the beginning. But contrary to other games it lacks the limitations and goals such as managing resources in a scenario or managing time and efficiency when playing vs. opponents. (The so-called "goal" is to launch the rocket. Yea, right.) I would argue that factorio in its current state is a teaching software (how to program and automate) but not a game. It is also a game engine with which somebody could use to make games. You can also use it to make art in the form of a beautiful factory. People get confused thinking that factorio is a game until they played it through a few times to realize that something is not quite right. The way they use it, it is not a game.
This definition is extremely general, essentially any function can be construed as a game, subject to an interpretation of the domain and codomain of said function that fits the above ideas. As a result things that most people wouldn't call games actually fit the mathematical definition of a game. Things such as participating in economic activity and even life itself are games by the mathematical definition of a game. Factorio certain fits the mathematical definition of a game, even if launching the rocket didn't 'win' the game.
