your thoughts on menu simulation

[Squelch]

I'm liking the idea, but have a few reservations too.

• Too short - I've seen them all now, multiple times while waiting for mod updates to come in (slow connection)
• Construction seems to be absent - A missed opportunity to showcase new/old features such as power poles.
  [*]Sound level too high - While I have music off and this applies to the simulations too, the sounds make me think I'm actually idling ingame. I found the setting specific to menu sim.
• As above but for graphics. - Some kind of effect to distinguish against having the game running idle.

All little gripes, and in agreement with most of the other comments, but overall, I do welcome the addition.

It might even seem that we're ungrateful, but the bar has been set so high it's almost rude not to comment.

[SKKiro]

I do agree with the sentiment that they are too short. I can understand the ones about fighting bitters being short since most combat in this game is short in general. But stuff like factories and other kind of features being displayed should be done longer.

Otherwise the simulations should be only active when on the tittle screen + main menu. It's just a tad bit distracting to hear random noises when browsing the other menus of the game and/or the map generator.

[pichutarius]

I can understand the ones about fighting bitters being short since most combat in this game is short in general.

actually i like the idea that a scene of 5 minutes at the factory border, and the combat (defend) only happen 30 sec in the middle of it, the rest are just factory operating.
or a scene of 3min biter loitering, 30sec being attacked by players, then 1 mins of dead bodies. these are all accurate representation of a normal game.

[NelsonSKA]

I love it! (but)
It's refreshing and motivated to play the game. I hated the old one.
I agree with some ideas mentioned:
-The scenes are very short
-The sound is very loud (in combat scenes at least)

Note: The spidertron is not an spoiler, you can see it in the tech tree just begin a new game.

I think it's a very good incorporation to the game. A little free demostration of many techs that maybe in paper doesn't seem very attractive but they are in the practice.

[Squelch]

-The sound is very loud (in combat scenes at least)

There is a separate sound control for menu simulations under audio settings. Music volume is global however.

[pichutarius]

Note: The spidertron is not an spoiler, you can see it in the tech tree just begin a new game.

no it is backward, instead of seeing actual thing then research icon, i'd rather see research icon then actual thing.
a new player will not actively search for spidertron, suddenly found it in the research is also a surprise.

[lovewyrm]

It's cute, but I only have updated to the newest version today and it confused me due to the window being in the background as I put on my headphones, and hearing this faint crackle/whoosh, I thought that my also newly bought audio interface was acting up.

Turns out it was a rather long lull in the music while coincidentally playing some scene related to alien bases, or something.
Whew.

Anyway, I don't mind the menu simulation otherwise. Had a good laugh at some of them, too (although that might get old eventually).

I consider them all fitting for the game, just like the Factorio trailer, which was also hectic at times.

I actually dislike the Wube Chip more than the new background animations, or rather, I'd like to see the chip not be on there during the loading screen.
It stands out so much at the bottom, floating in the void, no context. Go slot it into a bit of machinery or something to make it more 'belonging'

[Xehlwan]

The idea of menu simulations is awesome, but the actual implementation was disappointing.

I expected to see a single, possibly panning, scene each time I launched the game - not a whole bunch of short factorio-skits, jumping from one scene to another in rapid succession.

It's all so very busy and noisy. A background should be slow-paced and somewhat calm.

Also, if the background scene only changed between restarts, it would be much more ok to sneak in some funny or cool action-sequences on occasion. It could actually be entertaining to find out what scene you were going to get next, or to wait and see if something fun was sneaked in if you idle in the menu long enough.

[Nosferatu]

I like them but as many said before:

Too short. Should be longer.
Transitions between simulation are instant. Should be smoother or maybe they should not change at all.

[Kyralessa]

The menu scenes did take some getting used to, but I like 'em.

My 11-year-old daughter, on the other hand, loves them. She could sit there for quite a long time just watching them. I think the only thing that stops her is that eventually they start to repeat. If there were a couple hours' worth, I bet she'd watch for a couple hours.

[foamy]

I like them, but it'd be nice if there was a bit of internal ordering: Particularly, I'd like it if, for example, the vignette of the artillery train firing was always followed by the one of the artillery hitting.

Some stuff with varying levels of construction and system bootup -- hand placement, personal robots, spidertrons, external droneswarm -- would be a nice add to the rotation.

Also I would really like to see one of a droneswarm clearcutting an entire forest, like a faster version of the forest-fire screen. So satisfying

[templar4522]

I switched it off almost immediately. I mean, it's nice to look at if you haven't anything more interesting to do... but you have: playing.
I find it's distracting me from whatever I want to do in the main menu before playing. I'm sure some people feel like me, while others like it. However I suspect even for the second group it will get old relatively fast. Still, it must have been interesting to implement from the devs perspective.

[SirSmuggler]

I like them. Could be a bit longer and perhaps some kind of smoother transition between scenes... As many have allready pointed out

[SWSe]

They are playfull and fun to watch, so I love it. Would have expected longer background scenes of just watching machines endlessly produce stuff. But the current approach is much more interesting and whenever I want to do something else on the menu, I just ignore the background. Don't know whether they might get old after seeing them 1000 times, but I'm happy with it now.

[ptx0]

[...]

damn, it always surprises me how some people have a talent for subtly insulting the developers with their 'compliments'. just disable the thing, and move on, no need to be rude.

[templar4522]

[...]

damn, it always surprises me how some people have a talent for subtly insulting the developers with their 'compliments'. just disable the thing, and move on, no need to be rude.

It was not meant to be rude nor complimentary: I really believe it must have been fun to implement, however my evaluation of the feature itself isn't positive. Apologies if it does sound offensive.

I'm happy they are working on constantly improving the game, but it doesn't mean I am always happy about all the changes... this patch in particular brought many good things, but also a couple of changes I find not so great. I don't see why I can't share my opinion.

[SYCLOPS]

I really like it.

That said I think there should be options for it. That in my opinion is one of the main benefits of PC gaming, having many more options to tweak things.

Factorio already has huge number of settings. Most settings I've never touched, but I love that they are there and when I did want to make a change an option was already there for me. I can't think of a game with more sound sliders, I don't see why Main Menu and Loading Screen volume sliders couldn't also exist somewhere.

Even thought it doesn't matter to me, I'd be happy to find options such as enable/disable, volume, transition speed, brightness/fade. Maybe even like a mod menu selection of which ones you'd like to see, download, etc.

[Squelch]

Regarding the simulation sound: There is a volume control, and it seems that many are missing it (myself included at first)

MenuSound.PNG (1.14 MiB) Viewed 6369 times

Perhaps the naming of it is a little obscure?

[SYCLOPS]

Regarding the simulation sound: There is a volume control, and it seems that many are missing it (myself included at first)

Perhaps the naming of it is a little obscure?

Ha! Yes, I did see that but was not sure what it was referencing. Didn't think simulations were main menu sounds. I thought it would of had an effect in game. Surprised it didn't click when I read this forum thread.

[atomizer]

Existence of the sound slider doesn't change that the default value is way too high.