Just bought the game; What were Your first impressions?

[lancar]

I remember my first impression was seeing the trailer on the Space Engineers off-topic forum, thinking: "Wow... that looks completely awesome!"
Then after a couple of weeks I couldn't stand it anymore and bought it.
I can't really say I remember much of my first day playing it, as suddenly it was dark outside and all my clocks had somehow skipped the last 14 hours.
Come to think of it, that whole week kinda went by in a blur.

Yeah.... I'm actually kinda glad this game doesn't keep count of the hours I spend with it. It'd probably be a pretty depressing number.

[Scalinger]

This is my second round of playing it but trying to remember the first time playing it, some games have a feel that even though you have freedom you're boxed into a certain way of doing things anyways. This didn't feel the case with Factorio, it had the feeling of 'my dad threw me into a desert and said have fun!', of course in a fun way though. This feeling probably also comes from the storyline saying that you're on an alien planet. It's that feeling of 'I'm a new Christopher Columbus and what I'm doing hasn't been done before, so everything I do is glorious'.

Thinking of ways to collect with minimal resources was fun, then I had a lot of burner stuff and was trying to wrap my head around automation. For me advancing in Factorio is one of those things it's fun to think about what I do next and I jump to the same thoughts a lot, but I'm worried I'll get to the answer before I enjoy getting to think about it. I really liked how the tutorial would give you some pre-made factories sometimes and they would have little gems of efficiency.Then after I started making my own factories I would go to the free mode, make a plant several ways and time which one researches the fastest.

I haven't gotten to the blue science tier of the game yet but I really like the feeling of this game in that it's one of those games that you feel you can always improve in. You can try different ways to make factories, different ways to make defense, a different order to do things in, the list goes on and on..

[HollowAutomaton]

I had heard of the game,thought it looked interesting. Then many months later, during a boring summer came across it again.
Figured out it had a demo and downloaded it. First 5 minutes was strange,mining the coal. It was better than I expected, so I bought it,and got hooked.
Never knew a 2d game could do such a thing, it truly is my favorite game at the moment.

Surviving on an alien planet, upgrading the base,gathering resources, building crazy factories, defending yourself, this game has it all.

And this was before I heard about the plethora of mods...
and all the potential they offer.

[katyal]

First discovered this game by having a friend share the trailer and tell me I might like this game. I immediately followed that with the demo...half way through the demo I hit pause, got the credit card and bought the game, only then did I finish the demo.

[noisy]

first playthrough impression: Unique, neverending fun.
several playthroughs later I finally got bored, but I am certain that I am going to come back to it as I did numerous times with Fallout 1-2.

bottom line: It is worth more then I paid for it

[Krayt]

I immediately bought the game after playing the demo after the game had been recommended by friends of mine.
My first impressions were that I really liked the graphics of Factorio and the endless possibilities. But I always wondered why my selected weapons were changing all the time
Very lately i found out that the key to put away stuff is used to cycle through one's weapons as well.
In my first game sessions I had problems dealing with the aliens, when launching an attack. Well I guess I just wasn't well prepared for it and my defenses needed too much ammunition, because I had no laser turrets researched, yet.
Nowadays I am better prepared driving a fully outfitted tank and it feels like driving in GTA 2.
So the next thing I want to find out is how to set up a railway network.

To conclude my impressions, I think of Factorio as multiple games and genres compressed at the size of a post stamp (less than 200 MegaBytes to download), but with endless possibilities and a high addiction potential

Greetings
Krayt

[Taidef1972]

I have never played Minecraft, so the Factorio keybindings seem perfectly natural to me

My first impressions were - Ok, how do I make a freaking HUGE factory?

Same case here. But the first impression from me was Wow.

[EditorRUS]

I can't resist it.
"I downloaded the game from thePirateBay. I really liked it so I bought it to support the developers"

[Wombatinger]

Played Demo for 15 min --> bought game --> awesome

This game has so many Elements of action;
crafting, researching, fighting, building, transportation, etc.

And the best: I love all this stuff in other games ... but this is just one ... just ... one

Its like SimCity, Fallout, Starcraft, RailroadTycoon and some freaky mindgames spliced together ... did I say it's awesome?

Finally: Respect for the status of the work. As a buyer of Godus it is just a satisfaction, that an alpha plays like a 1.0 game. There are clean game mechanics - and they do very lot of fun!

[ljcomplex]

Played Demo for 15 min --> bought game --> awesome

Mine was pretty similar. I watched the first few episodes of Direwolf20's factorio MP, was interested enough to try the demo, and I was quickly hooked about 10-20 minutes in. As all factorio players end up, my first factory was a total mess, and I'm ashamed when I look at my old maps. But its been a blast since then. Add some mods into the mix and I really can't get enough of it.

[steaky360]

I bought the game after watching Mac's Worth a Buy.

Absolutely loving it so far sunk about 12 hours in and only just getting started. I saw Zisteau play the game and basically wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Fantastic game.

[grimdanfango]

My first impressions - great demo, left me wanting MUCH more, so I immediately bought in.

My life! It's consuming my life!

A couple of weeks in, and I just built a surprisingly compact 17:12:8:4:3:2:2 count-accurate weighted splitter. Yeah, I'm concerned this is going to be a bit of a Civ 4 for me.

I'm also playing other games and finding myself thinking "You know what would improve this game immeasurably? Some Factorio!". I really think Elite Dangerous could be made a vastly less tedious game if only it had some Factorio on its upcoming planetary landings, or for its asteroid mining!

Fantastic work devs! I hope your wonderful game rises to great heights, and inspires others to make lots of games more Factorio-like

[Ostsol]

This game is a chronophage. I bought it quite a while ago and have spent plenty of time playing it. Yesterday, however, was probably the most time I've spent on a single game in a single session since my all-day-all-night marathon run of Mass Effect 2. After a sandwich for breakfast and half a Pringles tin for lunch, I ate nothing else that day and only stopped playing at midnight.

I thought, for a while, that I could let the game run in the background while I waited for research to progress and for certain assembling projects to finish. As it turns out, there's always something demanding my attention. Whether it's tracking down nests, or adjusting mining drills, expanding into new resource patches, or tweaking resource movement -- there's little downtime in play. It's always engaging.

[nagi603]

Bought Factorio on Sunday 2 weeks back.

First impression: what do you mean it's Monday morning? First two days I had 28 hours in it.

[Lightguy11]

*See's game on youtube and thinks its from 10 years ago*
*Gives Game a chance and looks further into it*
*Buys game and is instantly hooked*
*Mods game, #BestGameEver*

[nobodx]

Saw video on ign, thought "looks cool"
Downloaded the demo, thought "interesting concept, going to buy it"
Bought the game & played 10h straight, thoughts: " it was worth it"

[cell18189]

First thought: Why aren't you on Steam yet. I honestly delayed buying the game, or even trying it for many months because it's not on Steam. Now is the time, it's awesome.
Second though: Where's my girlfriend? Oh, she left 5 hours ago, whops.

No, but really, I played the demo, I liked it. But the tech tree in the full game makes it amazing. There is always something to make better. This bit needs to be fed copper, that bit needs more iron plates, how can I get everything where it needs to be? How do I make green vials? I love that constant improvement. Reminds me of OpenTTD where I'd always be looking for easier and better ways to do things. It's all about optimization, and the automation of manual work.

At first, I wasn't a fan of the alien attacks, but they are not so threatening, and they ramp up as your pollution/tech ramp up, and they provide a nice constant pressure to improve, which causes more aliens, which causes more pressure, which causes more aliens...

I have spent on the order of 20 hours, and I am addicted. I need to make blue vials now, and it is proving to be quite the challenge. Love it.

My only criticism is that you need to be on Steam, and that the ambient music on low sounds like church bells out my window. 5/5

[Chimaera]

The game is a good concept and best ive seen in a long while
Controls are OK, though i'm not keen on the shift + 6,7,8 etc most games just use 0-9 without the shift

Graphics were flawed and i had to update my AMD drivers to fix it

I've played upto level 4 now and given it up as a bad job, its too much about fighting the aliens.

I had to get help to get past Lvl3 as i didn't understand what the green things were for
In this video i was amazed at how quick he set this up, i've never made one as quick as this..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFAmaladfso

lvl 4 i can't get the stuff moving quick enough to get to better tech laser maybe.. to keep them out the base whilst i build and 4 times they have overrun me.
So i've stopped playing the main game as it's just making me cross.

Im just playing the custom stuff now. so i guess ill have to learn the game from there.

I don't know how many levels there are because i can't get to them.
Maybe you should reconsider that not everyone can build quickly, i like to take time to plan an area to get the machines working efficiently and this will always be my downfall as you have it set for speed and aggression from the enemy.

Also you could offer all the example sheets so i could skip the fighting ones?, maybe they all are.

So to sum up

Its a good game and seems to be actively worked on and i love the Automation concepts etc and im sure i will lose a good many hours on it,will it have longevity for me? Not sure, i think eventually it will be a game i will come back to every now and then like OpenTTD.

Maybe rethink the levels in the game to not rely so heavily on the attacks from the aliens, im in my 50s so i take it with a pinch of salt but id doubt you want to annoy your possible new players just as they get started as this will only hurt the game if they report to all their m8s that it is too fierce.
I guess i like building and planning more than fighting, with games like Battlefield i hate the forced led round by the nose combat.

But if ive already considered binning the game due to those levels, it kinda shows for me that style of play isnt right

[kovarex]

The game is a good concept and best ive seen in a long while
Controls are OK, though i'm not keen on the shift + 6,7,8 etc most games just use 0-9 without the shift

Graphics were flawed and i had to update my AMD drivers to fix it

I've played upto level 4 now and given it up as a bad job, its too much about fighting the aliens.

I had to get help to get past Lvl3 as i didn't understand what the green things were for
In this video i was amazed at how quick he set this up, i've never made one as quick as this..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFAmaladfso

lvl 4 i can't get the stuff moving quick enough to get to better tech laser maybe.. to keep them out the base whilst i build and 4 times they have overrun me.
So i've stopped playing the main game as it's just making me cross.

Im just playing the custom stuff now. so i guess ill have to learn the game from there.

I don't know how many levels there are because i can't get to them.
Maybe you should reconsider that not everyone can build quickly, i like to take time to plan an area to get the machines working efficiently and this will always be my downfall as you have it set for speed and aggression from the enemy.

Also you could offer all the example sheets so i could skip the fighting ones?, maybe they all are.

So to sum up

Its a good game and seems to be actively worked on and i love the Automation concepts etc and im sure i will lose a good many hours on it,will it have longevity for me? Not sure, i think eventually it will be a game i will come back to every now and then like OpenTTD.

Maybe rethink the levels in the game to not rely so heavily on the attacks from the aliens, im in my 50s so i take it with a pinch of salt but id doubt you want to annoy your possible new players just as they get started as this will only hurt the game if they report to all their m8s that it is too fierce.
I guess i like building and planning more than fighting, with games like Battlefield i hate the forced led round by the nose combat.

But if ive already considered binning the game due to those levels, it kinda shows for me that style of play isnt right

Thank you for the feedback. We should definitelly make the difficulty levels matter more. Did you try the freeplay mode? (When you just press new game).

[Chimaera]

Thank you for the feedback. We should definitelly make the difficulty levels matter more. Did you try the freeplay mode? (When you just press new game).

I hadn't as yet i had gone to custom scenario\ freeplay but ill look at new game when i can.

Ive got some software projects to finish writing so ill have to stop goofing of playing Factoria and get on with it
____________________________

Going back to level three briefly.

Ill try and explain more thoroughly what i meant.
At the finish of Lvl 2 i had made a messy setup and was transporting copper in the car but eventually i got the materials needed to finish the level.

Id had loads of problems with the train as i kept getting the No Path error above the train. It took me ages to (more than an hour..) to figure out that my end signal was on the wrong side of the track at the mine. So for that i would suggest that instead of "No Path" Maybe expand it to "No Path, Check your track for gaps and check your signals for correct placement/direction"
Which would give people more of a hint what to look for, especially because they are noobs.

So on arriving on the Level 3

When you click on the ship make the tab comment come a little later as it stops you taking the explosive because its behind the window and only partially visible. And you cant bring it to the front as its stuck behind the character window.

The defender spawn capsule prompt is before you have any?, maybe better after you open you inventory, make it jump to tab 3 weapons and that way you know what its talking about.
Or have a few of the defender capsule in with the dynamite so you know its something important, i missed it completely because its an crafting item to be made.

The tab item about no resources would be better served when you get back to the car with a extra comment something like "Let's check the car to see what i can make"?

As to the building part, in the video i linked, the man in the vid says quite clearly rockets are a waste of time? if that's the case don't give them explosives. If rockets made with the explosives won't win the level why provide them? If there is more than one way to complete it, then highlight the methods with a prompt or 2.
Such as "Looks like i have a choice of weapons, which do i try first ? Defender Capsule or Rocket Launcher ?"
Then at least as a noob i know what to focus on and i also realise there are more than one way to try.

I still have to figure out how to build the setup and what machines in what order, cos remember im a noob which will take time, probably lots as i think to much lol, maybe make the monsters grow in numbers after production is underway so they are manageable and not overwhelming.

Bear in mind on my 4 attempts i tried gun turrets and move across the map search and destroy. Why that approach because that's something i learned in Level 2 and also why i tried to manufacture piercing rounds because it was the only thing i knew i would need

In my attempts i did try the Defender Capsule but i didn't realise you could have more than one, i wouldn't know to check the square down the bottom to see the max allowance for that item again i'm a noob.. So maybe a " I wonder if i can have a few of these to protect me?" prompt
After i got killed with it i discarded that method as it didn't seem to help. and went to build guns instead.

Small thought about rocket launchers, it would be helpfull if it had a slightly longer range than the basic worm so you have a chance to take a shot without getting walloped. All hell is going to break loose as soon as you fire it anyway but at least you can wear them down a little

I'm just trying to give you the on the ground insight as i saw it

I've written a lot of tutorials over the years on many subjects and a common theme that causes issues is the people writing them are very experienced at the task and can't remember what it's like from a noob perspective because they aren't one any more.

Hope this helps and if you need me to go back and give a blow by blow i can do that if it helps.

Anyway better get back to making some money...