SE vs SA?
SE vs SA?
Space Exploration came first. Space Age came officially from Wube. Both are amazing expansion packs. Which one do you prefer? Why? Do you play either or both with any other overhaul mods?
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Re: SE vs SA?
Space Age. I honestly like the pacing better. It easier to have a fast but productive game. In Space Ex. you can sink time into doing projects with poor upgrades or not explore the universe very easily.
Re: SE vs SA?
Players who play Space Exploration + other overhaul mod at the same are necessarily going to be underepresented in the forum, because that would be a combo of mod designed to fully utilize any free time you may have in a very optimal way up to 100% ! Space Exploration was always intented to be much longer than the Vanilla game, much more in depth i think, when Space Age was designed to be on par with it.
I feel if you are after a repeatable scenario on which you can improve upon, then Space Age can fit similarly as the vanilla factorio. The early game is compressed so that you have fast access to the the new things that were added in the game. When for my last experience with Space Exploration that was BEFORE Space Age came out. I felt it's more of a journey you make "once" "maybe", though i probably will retry a new version at some point, I estimate it will be a "very long" game even if the goal is just to see the "finish lane". More like a very long campaign, vs playing many skirmishes or 1V1 to compare with a RTS. I feel it changes in that you won't necessarily think of many different ways to improve what you did, like "your red science or blue science" for the next game, rather you are instead provided with many new things to handle in the same game. Some that include refactoring, some that just expand the amount of puzzles that need be solved at the same time or you risk not being able to reach the "finish lane". It can be felt more maybe like a survival game that you start to see how far you can go.
I like both, i feel i "know how to beat Space age", it's less about discovery for me now, rather improvements, when i also appreciate the possibility to jump in a multiplayer game and face a totally new challenge in a modded game, and Space Exploration provide a lot of them, if you combine with other overhaul mods, there are chances that one join a factory and feel like a noob again, trying to understand things never seen before despite the familiarity with Space Age. It gives me some ideas as to what i would do differently in "my" game when/if i try to run a full one again.
I feel if you are after a repeatable scenario on which you can improve upon, then Space Age can fit similarly as the vanilla factorio. The early game is compressed so that you have fast access to the the new things that were added in the game. When for my last experience with Space Exploration that was BEFORE Space Age came out. I felt it's more of a journey you make "once" "maybe", though i probably will retry a new version at some point, I estimate it will be a "very long" game even if the goal is just to see the "finish lane". More like a very long campaign, vs playing many skirmishes or 1V1 to compare with a RTS. I feel it changes in that you won't necessarily think of many different ways to improve what you did, like "your red science or blue science" for the next game, rather you are instead provided with many new things to handle in the same game. Some that include refactoring, some that just expand the amount of puzzles that need be solved at the same time or you risk not being able to reach the "finish lane". It can be felt more maybe like a survival game that you start to see how far you can go.
I like both, i feel i "know how to beat Space age", it's less about discovery for me now, rather improvements, when i also appreciate the possibility to jump in a multiplayer game and face a totally new challenge in a modded game, and Space Exploration provide a lot of them, if you combine with other overhaul mods, there are chances that one join a factory and feel like a noob again, trying to understand things never seen before despite the familiarity with Space Age. It gives me some ideas as to what i would do differently in "my" game when/if i try to run a full one again.
Check out my latest mod ! It's noisy !
Re: SE vs SA?
It's not really a fair comparison.
Of course I would say Space Age is better. It just has more polish, more money, and more work put into it from an excellent development team. Not just that, it brought with it a heap of improvements and features to the whole game.
Despite that, Space Exploration is truly remarkable. It's so good that it's almost unfair to call it a mod even though it obviously is one. It has a level of polish nearly unseen in the modding community, is way longer than both the base game and expansion, while still maintaining its quality throughout, while also being completely free, and while having no other option than to work around engine limitations. It's a masterpiece in its own right.
I've not tried SE with a lot of different additional overhauls, but I think there are good arguments for either pure SE or K2SE. So far, I have played no overhaul mod runs of SA, but I am looking forward to them, I think they might take a bit to really mature.
Of course I would say Space Age is better. It just has more polish, more money, and more work put into it from an excellent development team. Not just that, it brought with it a heap of improvements and features to the whole game.
Despite that, Space Exploration is truly remarkable. It's so good that it's almost unfair to call it a mod even though it obviously is one. It has a level of polish nearly unseen in the modding community, is way longer than both the base game and expansion, while still maintaining its quality throughout, while also being completely free, and while having no other option than to work around engine limitations. It's a masterpiece in its own right.
I've not tried SE with a lot of different additional overhauls, but I think there are good arguments for either pure SE or K2SE. So far, I have played no overhaul mod runs of SA, but I am looking forward to them, I think they might take a bit to really mature.