Friday Facts #367 - Expansion news

[malecord]

I only play without enemies, so if this picture means more enemies then I guess this expansion is not for me.

I mostly play without enemies too. I wouldn't be surprised if new ennemies comes with new climates or other things that would still add gameplay elements to the non-slaugtherer player in their factory building !

Me too. I like to plan big and build slowly. I've tried having biters, and the land restraints and extra resources I need to spend for defenses just isn't my preferred way to play. Though whatever they decide to do with the expansion, I plan to try it out. Just hope while it may have new enemies, it isn't based around them and combat.

I believe enemies are a core part of the game. In a world with infinite time and space they at least induce some degree of cost for both.

The issue is that they are tedious to remove when playing at high difficulties, especially later on. Those immense agglomerates of biter nests are a pain in the ass. I believe that a rework is needed to have smaller biter bases but with more technically challenging defenses in there. Maybe making so that clearing a base is about having the right tools for the job rather than the usual dive in, destroy a few nests, drive out, kill pursuers, repair and repeat.

[Tertius]

I believe enemies are a core part of the game. In a world with infinite time and space they at least induce some degree of cost for both.

Yes, I played with and without enemies, and if enemies are missing, there is actually something missing in general. Some kind of purpose is missing. And all the military items became meaningless. Not only the weapons, also passive stuff like walls.

However, if there was any change in what enemies represent over the course of one map lifecyle, it would be nice. Currently, they only grow and get more, and as soon as you won the race who grows faster, dealing with enemies becomes a chore and not a challenge. It's around the time you get artillery. You can either stay within the then current borders and use artillery to keep them away forever, or you can start to clean out manually, but the general proceeding doesn't change any more. I don't want anything more challenging, I'd like something more interesting from this point on. It's just a chore to expand your base and clean all the dense enemy bases at this point. And they are so many, you cannot ignore them.

For example, if they concentrate in the later game, start to build cities, and withdraw from the area in general, so you don't need to clean every single centimeter of the map, it would be nice. And if you feel it, you can attack a city of theirs.

[Sander_Bouwhuis]

The biggest gripe I have with Factorio is that the 'doing research so you can do more research' loop is very dissatisfying. I would like to have interesting goals that 'coincidentally' require things to be researched.

Such as? Almost everything I can think of (either in Factorio now, or potentially in the expansion) could be described as "doing research so you can do more research" with varying degrees of indirection. The only clear exception is doing research to avoid getting killed by evolving enemies.

I only play without enemies

Ah...

I like playing with Bob's mod and Angel's mod because they add interesting recipes. I've actually played a single playthrough where I started with all science unlocked. That was very nice because I could focus on goals (like getting nuclear power up) rather than making more science bottles because I have to.
Also, I had fun doing the 'lazy bastard' achievement.

[Drakken]

As was mentioned, I think there is going to be plenty for everyone with the update. Factorio is such a deep game. Whether you play with biters on, off, or at insane difficulty like I enjoy, there is so much you can do. You can play with bots, or circuits, or trains, or belts. You can play with one or all of them.

I am going to be looking forward to Fridays again. It has been quite a while.

[Asterix]

Ponder... Ponder ponder... Ponder ponder ponder...

Okay, so: I don't want to pay 30$ for the new Factorio DLC.

It' not that I don't think it will be worth it (it will, because of course it will), I just have a natural aversion to paying more for a single DLC than I did for the base game.

Which, considering I bought the base game back in Beta...

Despite the "noisy minority" opinion that "90$ would be a perfectly fine price" (which it kinda would, in a way, but also wouldn't), I think splitting the update in 2-3 parts, each priced at 10-15$, would result in higher revenue overall, since I suspect my initial reaction was shared by a lot of people.

And yes, I do understand that I am basically advocating *for* microtransactions (and do I ever feel dirty for it), but given that my knee-jerk reaction was "wait, 30$? with no discount? that's more than the base game!" I don't see a lot of other options.

Funnily enough, if it were marketed as "Factorio 2", whl still being the same code under the hood, it would probably feel like a fair deal.

Make of that what you will.

[pointa2b]

...

So you don't want to pay $30 because its too much, so you propose its $30-45 instead. Ok.

[mmmPI]

Ponder... Ponder ponder... Ponder ponder ponder...

Okay, so: I don't want to pay 30$ for the new Factorio DLC.

It' not that I don't think it will be worth it (it will, because of course it will), I just have a natural aversion to paying more for a single DLC than I did for the base game.

Which, considering I bought the base game back in Beta...

Despite the "noisy minority" opinion that "90$ would be a perfectly fine price" (which it kinda would, in a way, but also wouldn't), I think splitting the update in 2-3 parts, each priced at 10-15$, would result in higher revenue overall, since I suspect my initial reaction was shared by a lot of people.

And yes, I do understand that I am basically advocating *for* microtransactions (and do I ever feel dirty for it), but given that my knee-jerk reaction was "wait, 30$? with no discount? that's more than the base game!" I don't see a lot of other options.

Funnily enough, if it were marketed as "Factorio 2", whl still being the same code under the hood, it would probably feel like a fair deal.

Make of that what you will.

I think this exemplify well why the general guideline of marketing are diverging with ethics.

One could argue that you are offered a potentially fair deal with a 30$ price written upfront, letting us hope/wait for some quality content, at least as much as what was in the base game, even more than what was there when the price was lower.

But the "natural" reaction for some reason i do not deny that x), instinct, is to refuse paying money, but there you even acknowledge the fact that with subtle marketing manipulation you would have been ok to spend more money. Micro -transacation are designed to take advantages of that perception biais, that 30 $ is expensive, but 9.99 and 2.99 and 7.99 and 12.99 and 1.50 is cheaper ??. It's just that this initial reaction of reject is lower since the amount is lower, and the cupid seller is multiplying the attempt at catching you of guard that day you are a little more tempted to treat yourself with a little reward of that little 2.99$ you probably shouldn't buy but it's just one swipe away.

Sales are also designed to induce a fake feeling of emergency in the potential buyer that has been studied to make him act irrationnaly, that's why those practices are regulated in most countries and only allowed during specific period which obviously doesn't prevent people to act irrationnaly.

It has some detrimental consequences in game-play in that if you didn't play the game from 4 months, you'd have to buy at least 1 DLC to play online with people, and then if you were to just play a game or two and wait again 4 month to play, again you pay the fee.

If you don't pay those then you have many little split isolated multiplayer, which is already the case with mods, it would just be a pain in general with people not buying the DLC with the new ennemy, some not buying the DLC with more complexe receipe and so on.

I do agree it would make anyone less reluctant to buy, that's the goal of those marketing methods, targetting the natural reaction of reject by people and overcoming them with methods that are statistically prooven to function.

[Asterix]

...

So you don't want to pay $30 because its too much, so you propose its $30-45 instead. Ok.

Yes, that's exactly it.

If you cannot make sense of it, well, that's probably a good thing for you.

[Ghoulish]

Teaser VOD when?

[Shuisman]

...

So you don't want to pay $30 because its too much, so you propose its $30-45 instead. Ok.

Yes, that's exactly it.

If you cannot make sense of it, well, that's probably a good thing for you.

At this point I would pay $30 for an interesting FFF; that's how exciting I am about this!

[cappie]

Can someone revisit the Windows SteamCMD version of the dedicated server? On Linux there's an option for headless and doesn't require authentication and is supported by a 3rd party to allow incremental updates. On Windows there is not really a way to achieve the same functionality. Would it be possible to get an actual dedicated server version of the game for running headless that can be updated?

Run a docker on Windows in WSL2, or don't even bother at all with Windows man.. you're better off running a VM

[nuhll]

these guys who talk about 30 is too much are just

please make it 60.

[Sander_Bouwhuis]

these guys who talk about 30 is too much are just

please make it 60.

This is just stupid.

Which of the following two propositions makes most sense for a person you think?

1. You can buy Satisfactory + Factorio + Dyson Sphere Program for €60,-
2. You can buy 1 DLC for Factorio for €60,-

[blazespinnaker]

I'm actually surprised they went $30, sounds like they want to get people who haven't launched a rocket yet to buy it. They obviously could have easily gone much higher, I mean, you put 100s of hours into the game, $30 is nothing.

They should have done two DLCs, one that was for pre-rocket folks, and one for post rocket folks. My guess is that there probably won't be much post rocket content in this DLC at that price point.

Not that I'm complaining, really. I am at the point where I'm downloading mods I'm so desperate for content

[jodokus31]

these guys who talk about 30 is too much are just

please make it 60.

This is just stupid.

Which of the following two propositions makes most sense for a person you think?

1. You can buy Satisfactory + Factorio + Dyson Sphere Program for €60,-
2. You can buy 1 DLC for Factorio for €60,-

3. Buy Factorio + DLC for Factorio + Satisfactory + Dyson Sphere Program

[Phantom329]

I'm so glad to hear this! I was a little sad when I heard that 1.0 was to be considered "feature complete" and the game would be finished. My two hopes for this expansion are more achievements (I have 100%) and another transport system. One of my mod ideas which I never finished was transport tubes like the ones in Futurama's New New York.

[lacika2000]

I hope in the version that will be considered the basis of the DLC, there will be proper mechanics for the liquids, so we do not need to use the currently applied complicated mess to get equal amounts of liquids out of a tank when more than one of the four connectors are used at the same time as outlets (or inlets).

Wube, pleeeeeease fix this...

[luckymike11]

I hope in the version that will be considered the basis of the DLC, there will be proper mechanics for the liquids, so we do not need to use the currently applied complicated mess to get equal amounts of liquids out of a tank when more than one of the four connectors are used at the same time as outlets (or inlets).

Wube, pleeeeeease fix this...

true

[YanX]

So exciting, can't sleep anymore.

What I imagine :
• Sky / Underground / Water management
• Critters natives from those 3 environments
• Vehicles for those 3 environments
• Animal / Cybernetics mounts
• New measures against pollution
• Rust, erosion and machine lifetime
• Interaction with other intelligent entities
• New materials / minerals

What else guys ?
Let's play Factorio for a new decade !

[Shuisman]

So exciting, can't sleep anymore.

What I imagine :
• Sky / Underground / Water management
• Critters natives from those 3 environments
• Vehicles for those 3 environments
• Animal / Cybernetics mounts
• New measures against pollution
• Rust, erosion and machine lifetime
• Interaction with other intelligent entities
• New materials / minerals

What else guys ?
Let's play Factorio for a new decade !

Something against pollution (filters? underground storage/storage in tanks) would be interesting. And especially that machines have a finite lifetime is neat! let's say it can produce 10000 things until it randomly get's broken, but only (say) 7000 if you add a bunch of modules. Would this then be fixed with a repair-pack? seems logical!