After first releasing the test builds for Factorio 0.17 around half a year ago, the team at Wube Software have now finished it up enough to let everyone have it. Note: Copy personally purchased.
It's quite the difference. Overhauling a number of major parts of this engrossing building and automation game. It has a brand new map editor, redesigned enemies with a graphical overhaul, automatic mod downloads when joining a server, a "massively" optimised fluids system, a completely new and modern rendering backend to take advantage of modern GPUs, a much better introduction scenario for new players, a new and improved look for the interface and plenty more smaller features.
The amount you can do in it is crazy! I fell in love with Factorio pretty early on, since even a self-confessed dummy like me can get along with the building and designing aspects of it. It can get a little complicated when you really start building up but it handles the complexity so nicely to keep you in the loop and feel like you're always getting somewhere. It just becomes a game I enjoy watching, there's just so many moving pieces. Just look at this, it might be terrible BUT IT WORKS and I feel like a mad scientist:
Factorio is such an unbelievable destroyer of time itself though. Even today as I jumped in to "test" it was all working correctly, multiple hours vanished down the transport belt never to be seen again. A large part of that being me getting something going, then half an hour later realising my production chain was terrible and doing it over again, researching something new and then needing to work that into it and repeat. It's a glorious chain of repetition. The best part though? The immense zoom-out you can do to take a good look what what you've done.
For the next version they've already got a plan in place. It should bring in some mini tutorials, a new campaign, high-resolution sprites for any that's currently missing, final balancing and final adjustments to the newer UI to make it all fit in. Presumably, after that it should finally leave Early Access after multiple years.
If you've not picked it up yet, this is a really excellent time to do so. If you don't see any articles on here tomorrow, it's probably because I'm trying to launch a rocket in Factorio.
Links:
- You can see their overview post here or the full changelog.
- You can grab a copy of Factorio from Humble Store, GOG and Steam.
/c game.take_screenshot{resolution = {x = 6000, y = 4000}, zoom = 0.5, show_entity_info = true}
Feel free to tweak it as you wish for really nice large pictures of bases. Protip: Convert it to a slightly lossy webp, or something other than PNG at least to reduce the filesize if you want to send it anywhere online, when you start going for very high resolutions the filesize can get to the 100s of MBs.
Good luck on the rocket!
Last edited by Korhaka on 25 September 2019 at 9:36 pm UTC
Quoting: DMGWhat is main goal in this game? Survive, launch yourself back to space or what?
I assume that something like that is the end game. But I never got close.
Also, for those waiting to get it on a sale, don't get your hopes up. It has never been discounted and it doesn't look like they're planning to.
Quoting: DMGWhat is main goal in this game? Survive, launch yourself back to space or what?
Good question. For the sake of the game itself it's sending a single rocket to space. That's when you get the victory screen. But you can continue.
And veteran players would tell you that the real game starts only after you start the first rocket. That's when you have all the tools necessary to scale larger and larger. And I kind of agree.
As all sandbox games also in Factorio you define your own objectives. That depends on tastes. I'm an automation guy. So I like to use circuit tech to automatize everything, from production of any kind of item to forward outposts resupply and artillery trains patrolling. Others are optimization guys. They seek perfect production proportions so that every production line consumes exactly what the previous one produces. Others again are RPM nerds (or, rocket per minute). They basically grow their bases as large as possible until the framerate of the game becomes impossible (don't misunderstand, the game is extremely optimized but ofc if your factory continues to grow eventually you hit your CPU limit). You have to try to understand how this seemingly innocent game can become an addictive virus.
Last edited by Mal on 26 September 2019 at 8:52 am UTC
QuoteYou have to try to understand how this seemingly innocent game can become an addictive virus.
ohh I know that already after "Oxygen Not Included" :D
Quoting: EhvisAlso, for those waiting to get it on a sale, don't get your hopes up. It has never been discounted and it doesn't look like they're planning to.
Well there's a little neat trick to get 20% off for Factorio.
No of course, I don't recommend keystores.
You can join the Humblebundle Monthly where you get 20% off for two purchases.
I did it this way and also supported GOL via affiliate link.
Humble says that this offer is limited.
Quoting: Malthere is apparently a clustering mod out there so you can run multiple "cities" worth of factorio together. clustorio is its name. I have not gotten quite that far along to try the stupidly massive frame crushing cities yet but winter is coming so i may do so in the near future.Quoting: DMGWhat is main goal in this game? Survive, launch yourself back to space or what?They basically grow their bases as large as possible until the framerate of the game becomes impossible (don't misunderstand, the game is extremely optimized but ofc if your factory continues to grow eventually you hit your CPU limit). You have to try to understand how this seemingly innocent game can become an addictive virus.
(Yeah, you can actually shoot critters, but it won't do any good, having automated defenses is a requirement, which means a good amount of mining automation, refining automation , redistributing automation).
But maybe I should just buy it for a short run.
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