mmmPI wrote: Sat Feb 24, 2024 6:31 am
Saphira123456 wrote: Fri Feb 23, 2024 10:51 pm
Yeah, full agreement (with the exception of "Devoid of risk". That lightning seems like a big one.) Other planets are great and all, but honestly? From my perspective - I'm not a programmer or game designer, so outside looking in - it seems like they could totally stick ALLLL this stuff on Nauvis for much less time, energy and materials. They could probably charge us less for it too, when it comes out.
The mechanics seem to be fairly identical and pretty repetitive as well with the same one or two loops over and over again with different materials (lava, scrap and oil sludge), and some of the new mechanics are entirely unnecessary. Some of them are quite nice though, such as the ability to void items into the environment or through some type of machine, which would have been great in the base game.
Almost all these different mechanics could easily find a home on Nauvis. (Except for the space platform, though I can find use-cases for a space station too.)
From the outside looking in, the things they've said so far don't really necessitate new planets, just new biomes. In fact, it seems like Vulcanus and Fulgora can easily be eliminated in their entirety without removing the new mechanics or the new content.
But if it was just new biome and not new planet you could just keep one base and add train tracks or belts, or just walk to every ressources, you would only keep one source of energy like solar pannel would work work everywhere at the same time, and you would not have to adapt to the different environment, because you just use the electricity from the next door biome with electric wire, but obvisouly you can't do that up to other planets.
Also the different planets have different ressources present in them, if it was just different biome it would just be a matter of finding 2 biome next to each other and building in the middle to have the ressourcess of 2 planets with 0 challenge. I don't think there will be lava on Nauvis, but that is only thanks to the different planets, existing otherwise it would be as easy as on Vulcanus to void item in lava, whereas now it make no sense to ship things to Vulcanus to drop it on lava because you can just drop it to space.
There was a concept art of a new biter revealed too, if it was just a different biome how would it work ? the ennemy should stop at the border of their biome ? that would be lame, and if not you would have some fiery enemy and some icy enemy at the same time ? that would feel wrong too. New planets allow new ennemies to stick in their "biome" in a way that make more sense for a video game i think.
I'm glad the expansion show a lot of things, and that it's not just a cheap half-empty DLC.
If it were all new biomes but a bigger, more expansive Nauvis, I know I would play the exact same way I do right now. I have one central starter base which contains my initial startup factory, power plant, and red + green science, plus my labs for the entire save. But that's not all I have.
WAY over in the next area I have an independent power grid, getting coal from a nearby mine or even from the main starter base by rail. Over by the oil, I have ANOTHER independent power grid. (And I always tend to use steam plus solar, because nuclear takes too long to make a single unit of 238. And that's something which isn't going to change when this DLC comes out - with the exception of Fulgora since they literally give you the electricity you need for free.)
Additionally, I never walk to new resources. I always have a car for scouting. The only time I walk is when I'm placing power poles or rail lines, or actively constructing a factory.
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Weather is a thing that can be adapted to all planets. Lightning and environmental changes don't have to be exclusive to Fulgora. There's always a need to improve and grow, so adding the new tracks and upgrading trains to use the new belts would be something I do.
Plus, having these things on Nauvis instead of other planets would increase the number of things to do in this game in vanilla.
For example, there is definitely something to be said about running a railroad line out to a scrap processing facility to turn excess resources back into their source materials, or not needing a mod to void things.
I currently use the Flare Stack mod and the Recycling Factory mod to deal with this, recycling and/or voiding any items whenever and wherever I so choose. So why in the universe do I desire to go to another planet to void my items when I can just plop down a flare? Having the lava and other things on the planet would eliminate the need for these mods and allow me to do things vanilla, giving me a reason to make things less trivial and forcing me to take additional actions, without making it so that I need to do something like build up an excruciatingly-slow-to-build rocket in order to do something.
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And as for your thing about enemies, it's quite common to have one enemy either fighting their opposite type (have the fire biters and the ice biters hate one another more than they hate you) or have them teaming up to fight you. It makes perfect sense.
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The game as it is, makes it trivial to do just about everything. There have been a few frustrations about having room to put everything, but in general it's pretty trivial. There's no difficulty in this game, and even when this new DLC comes out, that will not change.
And the new planets don't really present any challenge either - except for the absolute hassle of having to start over from square one. The only challenge that's ever present in this game is the challenge to fight off boredom when you're waiting on science packs to be made and science to be done. I never even have to monitor things - once I build my factory, I just let it sit and chug. For the science packs beyond green, I do so overnight.
You build up enough to start producing green science, then the game turns into "wait 24+ hours, then spend two hours building, then wait 24+ hours again."
The entire DLC can be compressed and moved into Nauvis. There was no need to use other planets, as once you get your various bases set up, then the DLC - hell, the entire base game - is "fighting off boredom simulator 2024". Once you get your bases set up, there's literally nothing to do except wait. You have to start new research from time to time, sure - but that's literally all you're required to do. And you can let your science packs build up overnight.
This is a great game for the office, when you are hard at work and you can leave Factorio running in the background.
You never even have to go past the main menu and start a new game, to experience all the game has to offer. The simulations in the main menu are all you need.
All the excitement of Factorio, and indeed, everything that requires you to actually do anything, is packed into tiny little two-hour-or-less chunks. All the rest of the time is spent waiting. It's like watching an extremely boring movie where only part of your screen ever moves and it makes the same move over and over and over and over again.
Factorio is an idle game. Lot of strategy in the beginning, then long expanses of nothing but waiting. Another little bit of strategy, a lot more waiting. The exciting bits are few and far between.
Factorio is great for running in the background or overnight, but make sure you're otherwise occupied, because this factory makes boredom. Or brain rot. Or both.
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