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  Factorio is a game where you are dumped on an alien planet and have to single-handedly prepare everything for the arrival of the colonists. You have to do it all by yourself, but, as the name implies, this game is about factories and in this game you build a factory of your own design to automate most of the work involved. You start by mining resources such as coal, copper and iron ore, and then convert those into something more useful like iron plates. You turn those into gear wheels and then convert the gear wheels into conveyor belts, working your way up a tech tree towards more complex products, until you finally are able to build the Rocket Defense structure that allows the colonists to land safely. The challenge is twofold. The first part lies in the hostile environment; you are surrounded by an alien life form referred to as "Biters". Their number, and their aggressiveness are directly related to the amount of pollution you produce. Luckily, the tech tree is full of weapons you can unlock to keep those angry natives from destroying your factory. The other part is the factory itself. As your factory grows, you will run into bottlenecks and supply problems, so you need to expand and optimize. In fact, you'll have to go on the offensive and destroy some of the Biter spawns to obtain the rare Alien Artifacts, which are needed to research the more advanced technologies in the tech tree. In terms of game-play, it's what you get if Minecraft and OpenTTD had a baby. You start on a randomly generated map with some basic tools and crafting skills, and you have to work your way from there, taking care not to die from local wildlife or your own stupidity. Later on, you will encounter bottlenecks and run out of raw materials, requiring you to expand and optimize. Factorio started its life through an IndieGoGo campaign, and is currently alpha/early access. It is developed by a team in the Czech Republic. It's "alpha" or "Early Access" but the core gameplay is great fun and pretty solid already. The developers set high standards for themselves, which is why they didn't consider themselves ready for early access on steam until February 2016. The game is quite stable and bug-free. The core gameplay hasn't really changed much in the past two years, most updates have involved better graphics, fixing bugs and improving performance. There's even co-op multiplayer now! ETA for the finished game has been changed on multiple occasions, so it's really difficult to predict. Here's two trailer videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR01YdFtWFI and another https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVvXv1Z6EY8. Try the demo here: http://www.factorio.com/demo/stable  It's very playable already and I consider it great fun myself. This is one of those games that I can get lose myself in, completely losing track of time. You should get this if you enjoy building complex things of your own design, and then leaning back to watch them work. Dealing with enemies is an extra, optional challenge. You can turn that off and just build a factory, if you like. It's extensively moddable, and many mods exist to improve the game, add an extra challenge or vastly overhaul the gameplay.  It's in alpha so it's definitely not complete. Dealing with enemies can be a bit repetitive and grindy. The devs are aware of this and adding new weapons to the game. Since I've bought this game, I've seen new enemy types, power armour and a tank being added to address this problem. A walking spider tank and a a flamethrower are currently being developed. I personally would like to see a more extensive end-game. By the time I can build the Rocket Defense, I still feel like expanding the factory even more.  It's 20 EUR or 21.50 USD directly from the developer. You also get a Steam key: http://www.factorio.com/buy It runs on Windows, Linux and Mac. I think this is the only way to get a DRM-free version. You can also buy it directly on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/ Or get it via Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/factorio_storefront but I think you just get a Steam key. The developers are currently looking into giving Steam users access to a DRM-free version on the game's website. Not sure if that'll work out, if DRM is a dealbreaker for you, just buy it directly from the developers.  The most basic and important ones you need to know: You move your character with the WASD-keys. E opens the crafting/inventory screen. Space fires your current weapon. Alt toggles an overlay letting you see what an assembly machine is producing. P gives you insight into your power consumption. Right click to build, left click to remove a structure. R to rotate a structure. You can rotate after placing too. F to pick up stuff from the ground. Q to clear your hand again.  Press ALT to toggle displaying what a factory produces, and what's inside boxes.  WARNING: Screenshots in this section are pretty old and the game looks a lot better now. You probably want to start with coal-powered electricity. Do some mining and tree cutting by hand in order to get what you need to build a few Furnaces and Burner Miners. Mine Coal, Iron Ore and Copper Ore, and smelt both ores into plates. You'll be running around to keep everything supplied and running.  Pre-electric mining using burner drills. This setup dumps the ore right into the furnace, but you must supply both burner and furnace with fuel yourself. The furnace will keep running as long as it has fuel and less than a full stack's worth of whatever it is that you're smelting Build an Electric Mining Drill, have it mine Coal onto a belt and have that belt feed a Boiler. The Boilers turn water into Steam which Steam Engines turn into electricity. Start the Boilers off by putting some coal in them manually.  A power station, enlarged once to meet capacity. Design probably sub-optimal With electricity now available, set up a Science Pack 1 assembly line to feed your Laboratories. Science Packs are used by your Laboratories to unlock new things in the tech tree.  A factory setup for Science Packs 1 and 2 From here on it's up to you. You can build some armour for your character and attempt to take down a Biter spawn. Or you could research Railroads and have multiple smaller factories all over the map. Maybe you'd rather have flying drones move stuff around and help you destroy spawns. Or you could get a Car and do drive-by shooting. Once you've got your Laboratories going, it's probably time to start worrying about the Biters. Build your defenses up, plop some guns down and make sure they're supplied with ammo. Put some walls around your guns so the Biters can't get to them. Be sure to check up on the walls often, the Biters will eventually grind them down.  A central bus design is a good way to keep your factory organized and easy to expand. Belts have two sides. You can have different things on each side to save space. Inserters will always place an item on the furthest side of the belt. When taking items from the belt, it will only pick an item that an assembler or furnace can actually use and leave the rest. You can plop down more advanced assembly machines on top of others, and it'll keep the settings. Similarly, you can rotate an inserter just by highlighting it and pressing R. You can use a chest and lock some of its item slots from use, by clicking the red X and then clicking up to where you want to block slots. Driving a car is a great way to inadvertently destroy your factory. When you build your factory, make sure you have room to move around and place some lights so you can see where you're going as you're zipping around in your car. A train doesn't need a loop to reverse if there's an engine on each end. Only the front engine powers the train and uses fuel.  Example of another power station. Of course I couldn't manage to take a screenshot without damaging both the car and an electricity pole. If you just want to build a factory and not worry about the Biters, you can turn them off completely when you generate a new world. There's even a sandbox mode which disables the player character and just lets you build without running around. The Blueprint mod lets you save and share blueprints, if you see people sharing large strings of random letters, it's for this mod. This section could go on forever. Check the official guide and wiki if you want to learn more.  Official guide: http://guide.factorio.com/ Official wiki: http://www.factorioforums.com/wiki/ Official forums: http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/ (a good place to find mods) Dev blog: https://www.factorio.com/blog Roadmap & Changelog: http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3 Tech Tree tool: http://davemcw.com/factorio/tech-tree/ Evilreaver's legacy game Let's Play: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3642000 (needs Archives) The Factorio font (free): http://www.thenorthernblock.co.uk/fonts/sylar-stencil/ Stick Insect fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Apr 24, 2016 |
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Apr 29, 2014 01:48
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One of the more recent additions was Oil, for which you need pipes to move around and silo tanks to store it in. The "campaign" is no more than a bunch of missions to get you used to the interface. After that you should generate a map and see if you can safely tech up and build the Rocket Defense. Right now the developers are working on multiplayer, hope we can play with that soon.
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Apr 29, 2014 05:19
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I've added the link to the preview vid in the op. It's a good 50 minutes though. They desperately need to make a new trailer, the one I linked still shows the red chevrolet car. When you start a new game, you can set the amount, size and "richness" of enemy bases. No idea what "richness" does. There's also an option that prevents the enemies from attacking you first, so you can take your time to get ready to face them.
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Apr 29, 2014 06:33
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The new trailer is out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yDZM0diiYc This one conveys a lot about the game without using any words at all. It's definitely better than the first one, helped by the fact the graphics have improved a lot since then. Although I thought the accented English from the first trailer was rather charming. "...Are you creative and playfool?" Stick Insect fucked around with this message at 06:24 on May 1, 2014 |
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May 1, 2014 06:17
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Sheng-ji Yang posted:Is multiplayer going to include combat against other players? Because that could be crazy. Multiplayer is going to be co-op from what I can gather. A pvp mode would be cool, you'd probably need something like drones that seek out and attack the other player or their base. Make a factory produce an endless stream of them 
Stick Insect fucked around with this message at 13:01 on May 4, 2014 |
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May 4, 2014 12:59
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Making the enemies more varied, interesting and balanced is planned for the third upcoming release. You can set enemies to never attack you first giving you all the time you need to prepare yourself. I've added links and snippets from the changelog and roadmap to the OP. About the graphics, personally don't care much if games look good, as long as I can easily tell things apart and see what's important. First impressions matter, and getting the graphics to a point where they are polished enough is important before getting on Greenlight. The screenshots in the OP are from a relatively recent feature, I should probably take some new ones because things look better now. I doubt it's hard to create some replacement graphics packs for a game like this, since it's all flat images. Having a different looking player character can't be too hard to do; who knows, people might even pay for a DLC with familiar characters in it.
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May 4, 2014 21:55
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Nope. The radar reveals previously unexplored parts of the map, but has a maximum range it won't reveal beyond. I believe the map is generated as you explore it.
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May 4, 2014 22:19
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Q is the "clear hand" key. I think I'm getting the scenario pack. That sounds like a lot of fun.
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May 6, 2014 07:44
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Dev log: http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-33 Important points:
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May 10, 2014 01:46
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That's a nice find, I've added it to the OP.
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May 13, 2014 23:48
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Sage Grimm posted:If only you could have your automated lasers target trees around you it would be the best "gently caress THE PLANET" armour ever. I think we need to see if we can mod trees so the game considers them enemies, and lasers and drones will target them. Edit: Using this diagram: http://www.factorioforums.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Fff-18-entity-graph.jpg Trees are a subclass of EntityWithHealth. Biters are part of the Unit class, which is also a subclass of EntitywithHealth. Makes sense, you can damage both. I'm assuming for now that the game considers all Unit class entities hostile. Digging around the wiki, I haven't found a specific hostility flag yet. There's a "targetable" on the left of the diagram but the wiki doesn't contain that word anywhere. Edit2: Been changing the game files, trees are now of subgroup "enemies" instead of trees. Doesn't seem to make a difference. Stick Insect fucked around with this message at 20:26 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 19:28
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Shintaro posted:Entities have a Force, which is "player","enemy", or "neutral" Thanks, having a go at this. 
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May 30, 2014 20:30
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The console is great for a little cheating. Or if you can't be arsed find/write a mod for something extremely simple. I really don't like the bad visibility at night, so I use code:
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Jun 2, 2014 06:36
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You enable it in the option menu, it then shows with the overlay that appears when you press ALT.
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Jun 18, 2014 03:04
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xarph posted:Kenlon for next thread OP writer whenever that happens. Agreed! I haven't actually played with enemies enabled, myself. I love the designs for the refineries, keeping that one in mind for when I inevitably restart.
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Jun 20, 2014 20:38
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Breetai posted:I'm playing around with doing on-demand manufacturing for higher-tech components rather than just running everything from a central bus and branching. The reduced footprint is nice, but things can get byzantine when you run low on space! I like the emtpy space between the main bus lines. I've been doing a main bus design myself and it gets pretty cramped, this should really help making branch-off points. This is one I'm keeping in mind for my next factory.
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Jun 22, 2014 02:12
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What annoys me most about pipes is how they connect when adjacent. If you have multiple pipelines running in parallel, you need an empty space between the pipes. The only way to avoid that is by using underground pipes will only join up other pipes in one direction under your control. There's a mod which fixes this: http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4135 Similarly, you can forego pipes mostly and use barrels for crude oil instead. It's mostly used to get oil onto a train. With a mod you can also do this with other liquids: http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2797 . The disadvantage here is that you need a belt back to wherever the barrels were filled.
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Jun 22, 2014 14:31
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MrYenko posted:..., oil needs the majority of its infrastructure stood up all at once to function, since you can't, for example, only make heavy oil and turn it into lubricant... We need a flare stack device that just burns off what you don't need. Only make petroleum, directly convert the other oils into pollution.
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Jun 22, 2014 16:39
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Phobophilia posted:With a construction blueprint, they can plant objections on the ground. This lets you set up big tesselating mining, furnace, and assembler complexes, or walls, or turret pillboxes, or solar panels/accumulators. Once you start blueprinting, you'll fall in love with them. If you place something with your character using shift-click, the item won't actually be placed but it will call for a construction bot to place it instead.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:36
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Today I discovered that if I put an engine at both ends of the train, I can forego the loop at the end of the line. Only the engine at the front is producing smoke, so I'm assuming that's the only one powering the train.
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Jun 27, 2014 18:33
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I'm using this mod, it's good. http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4135 I think I could make this less messy though.
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Jun 30, 2014 21:45
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Currently I'm messing with drones and having a blast ordering parts and having my bees deliver them. But I don't like how the chests work. I end up with significant surpluses. My factories request input with a requester chest, and output into a passive provider chest, which I've limited to only a few stacks so I don't overproduce something. I then go request stuff, build with it, and dump whatever's left into an active provider chest. It is then sent to storage chests. But the storage chests are lower priority than the passive provider chests connected to the factory's output. So whenever I have leftover stuff, and I put it into the logistic network by putting it in an active provider chest, it never gets used when requested, unless absurdly large quantities are needed. I could have factories output directly into a storage chest, with its capacity limited, but then there's a chance a drone will show up and dump something in there, possibly the wrong item. Drones take great care to only put different items in the same box unless there's no other way, so as long as I have empty long-term storage nearby this won't happen. How can I prevent this? The only thing I can come up with so far, is to dump my surpluses manually into another passive provider chest, instead of an active provider.
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Jul 3, 2014 20:00
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Dred_furst posted:use a smart inserter with a logistics item limit? I thought wires only worked with smart chests. This is awesome! I just need to hook up to a random chest for this to work.
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Jul 3, 2014 22:51
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Hot drat. I remember when I first ran into this game through youtube's related videos, which normally are full of crap. I saw stuff moving around on the conveyor belts and thought that a purchase of this game at some point was an inevitability, as it's exactly my kind of game. And it looks like things are gonna get even better. It seems they're still on schedule for the summer 2015 release date. I don't often do early-access, as games tend to stay in development hell forever once they're playable (Gnomoria, Prison Architect, Zomboid) but right now I'm feeling  about this game.
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Feb 21, 2015 03:26
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What I mean to say with "development hell" is that none of the three games I've mentioned have a clear release date. They will be in development until the money runs out or the devs get bored. When that happens they'll either ask for more money, or call it 1.0 and move on to something else. Better to have an idea of what constitutes a finished game, so you can make an estimate of a release date.
Stick Insect fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Feb 21, 2015 |
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Feb 21, 2015 07:47
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The dev blog mentions they're getting ready to apply to Steamquote:0.12 is our wedding day I think they'll be fine, judging by other games that made it to Steam Early Access. Also curious to see how many new players will show up once a Steam version is available.
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May 3, 2015 09:10
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Personal Roboports are on the agenda: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-92
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Jul 7, 2015 13:12
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I'd say this game is worth what you pay for it. If they'd stop development now, I'd not feel ripped off. The plan was for a "Summer 2015" release, I guess that is going to be a bit difficult but there's a clear roadmap (link in OP). There's been a steady stream of new features and bugfixes despite it being called 'alpha'. The devs feel the game needs to be more complete before they move to Steam Early Access. I think they're being too humble about it, compared to other games on Steam Early Access. If you want to have the option for a refund, you can wait for the game to hit Steam, it seems inevitable. If you like games where you build and improve logistical systems, such as OpenTTD, this will be right up your alley. Play the demo for a taste. The OP is getting a bit out of date, especially with regards to graphics, which have changed quite a bit since I wrote it. I should probably update it a little.
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Aug 2, 2015 01:14
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New dev blog: http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-111quote:I had also the Factorio presentation in the university for the third time already (third year), and I realized it is the third time I said there that Factorio will be finished in a year. I want to believe it to be true this time so we will try to really make it happen. To try to make this happen they're not going to include the space platform in 1.0 
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Nov 6, 2015 23:29
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I really wouldn't mind some sort of endless sandbox mode, but with this game being what it is, I do need something to eat up all the things my factory produces. The space platform would've been great for that.
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Nov 7, 2015 18:03
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I've updated the OP now that the game is on Steam. Lemme know if there is anything obvious missing from the OP, or blatantly wrong. I need to take some new screenshots, that much is obvious. They still show the old astronaut suit and other placeholder graphics.
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Mar 4, 2016 21:49
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That guide is excellent! Thanks!
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Mar 5, 2016 00:21
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The chests create a buffer. Gives you more time to respond in case a supply runs out. And/or helps you mine out an area faster, in case you want to put something else there.
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Mar 6, 2016 13:27
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Bedurndurn posted:I built a rail network with 3 stops, mostly for fun (OpenTTD is my jam). Honestly resources are so plentiful and train cars hold so little that I just said gently caress it and started building red belts to everywhere instead of playing around with trains. Fiddle around a bit with the world generation settings. You can set your mineral deposits to be smaller and more spread out.
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Mar 9, 2016 19:55
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Sounds like some other program might be interfering. If you like to alt-tab a lot while you play, try running Factorio in a window.
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Mar 9, 2016 20:20
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GotLag posted:Honk! 0.2.0 I love this. Any chance you can make it do a full Rule 14(l) long long short long pattern when approaching a gate? 
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Mar 16, 2016 19:20
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RSO is Resource Spawner Overhaul: https://forums.factorio.com/viewforum.php?f=79
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Mar 31, 2016 22:25
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Node posted:Ships would be cool as hell. I wouldn't mind bridges for my transport belts and trains either, I've had a few instances where those would come in handy. Plus, then we get water aliens! Destroyers! Cruisers! Battleships! Giant factory ships and archipelago style maps.
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Apr 2, 2016 13:46
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Stereotype posted:We just need trains with guns. Big guns.   Might make for a good gameplay trade-off between mobility and firepower.
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Jun 2, 2016 17:33
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totalnewbie posted:And then you install bob/angel and you're back to square negative a million. Can't wait for 0.15 and the performance optimizations, hopefully I can then run this at a decent speed. I get slowdowns in vanilla by the time I build the first rocket. Angel's Petrochem specifically looks amazing and perhaps somewhat educational too.
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Mar 21, 2017 01:34
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