So because there was some confusion earlier, (but also because optimization is very fun and I want to show off my results) I'd like to a longer writeup and give some screenshots for
Factory Idle.
So at first you get a setup that's somewhere between Factorio and Big Pharma: A top down view with a list of items you can build and production chains to lay down. Every production chain ends in either gaining research points, or sale for money.
I've said before that Factory Idle is
Optimization: The Game as much as Factorio itself is. But in truth it might be said that it significantly exceeds it in that regard.
Part of this is simply that Factory Idle has limited space --- you can purchase more of course, if for an exponentially growing expense--- but there's far more to it.
After the initial stage, every part of the production chain costs money to run, quite a bit of it in fact. You need money to make money and you need money to fund the research that nets you more valuable products. At any given point your best selling product will cost on the order of 20-40% of it's sale price to make. So on top of space efficiency it's best to make sure that nothing is wasted.
With some exceptions, each new part of the production chain has a value roughly an order of magnitude greater than the stage before it and a likewise expanded running cost, which means you need to experiment with new systems every time you hit the next stage of research. And while the size of your factory does grow, so too do the length and complexity of the production chains. On the bright side, all the hard work and effort you've done before to optimize a given production chain will come in handy later when it becomes and ingredient of the next best product.
But there's one more factor that gives the game such a strong focus on optimization. The upgrade system.
While some upgrades simply reduce running costs or increase sales price by 5-10%, most drastically change the makeup of the factory, increasing production rates by 100%, half again, or occasionally quadrupling them. As this changes both production cost, rate, and (usually) resource requirements, it almost always changes what the best layout is. A 1:1 ratio between production and consumption in two different buildings can become a 2:1 ratio, or even a 2:3 ratio. Even when ratios remain the same, layouts can change simply due to hitting the game's maximum belt capacity.
In practice, this means that any major upgrade will come with an attendant reoptimization, followed by a several hour or day period waiting for either your coffers to fill or your research to accumulate so you can plan for and initiate the next big change.
And trust me, desperately reorganizing and compacting everything so you can fit that 13th engine factory into the midst of your buildings can be very, very fun.
[Behold the engine factory, the perfect order of its eastern buildings providing a counterpart the the compacted chaos of the west.]
So there you have it, Exercises in Optimization: the idle game.
