Factorio's core automation is excellent, but even a masterpiece has its weaknesses, and in Factorio's case, these are three:
1. Lack of Balance: Different Factorio items have different degrees of usefulness, which leads to some being under-utilized. For example, productivity and quality modules are in widespread use, and some players (myself included) use sneed modules, but NOBODY uses green ("efficiency") modules.
2. Lack of Lore: Factorio is relatively vague regarding the history of the Engineer and the planets in question; it has far less lore than, for example, Dwarf Fortress. There is an untapped opportunity to expand the lore (which could be tapped with an offshore pump and/or pumpjack), but it's important that this be done in an intelligent way. For example, someone on an edgy Telegram channel told me that the deepest "lore question" is "what happened to the Fulgorans?". This is an extremely silly idea, of course: The oil on Fulgora IS made of Fulgorans, just as the oil on our home planet of Earth IS made of dinosaurs. Hence, asking "where did the Fulgorans go?" is silly: in the same sense that dinosaurs didn't "go" anywhere (other than up through an oil rig, into a distillation tower, and out the tailpipe of my Volvo station-wagon), the Fulgorans didn't "go" anywhere (other than into a pumpjack, into a cracking plant, into a rocket fuel assembler, and out the nozzle of a rocket engine).This Telegram anon followed up by asking me how it was possible that the Fulgorans turned into so much oil. As an American, I can answer simply: morbid obesity.
3. Lack of an End Boss: Although Spice Age introduced many excellent enemy designs (with Gleba opponents being a standout), these are ultimately trivialized at some point in the playthrough: Nauvis biters (and spitters and such) are largely a solved problem once you have flamethrower turrets, and nests are solved once you have artillery. Similarly, Fulgoran-origin electric weapons effectively "solve" enemies on Gleba.
It would be truly serendipitous if all three of these problems could be solved with a single decision, but we live in a world of serendipity, and I'm here to provide that solution, free of charge: It's been under our noses all these years...Gleba...Greta...hmm...
Therefore, I propose adding Greta as a unique final boss. In order to make her a truly worthy enemy, she should be massive in size, descending from the Heavens to crush dirty factories under her bare feet. In addition to solving problem #3 (lack of an end boss), this also solves problem #2 (lack of lore: let's imagine that the Engineer escaped Earth to avoid Greta) and can be adapted to solve problem #1 (lack of balance: just add a feature where using efficiency modules to reduce pollution and electricity use is critical to pacifying Greta). I am confident that pushing this in an official update will cap off Factorio: Spice Age beautifully. It is critical that Greta be barefooted to demonstrate her commitment to the natural world and evince her connections to Gleba.
Also, I am working on some concept art for this - I can post it here if anyone is interested
