What should I do when I need to play Factorio?

[irbork]

Ever since the DLC was announced I had clear plan not to play Factorio for several months before release to enjoy the DLC content without Factorio fatigue, so I have stopped playing Factorio last year to get 6 month break. But the DLC went MIA, spring '22 went by without any tangible news, nobody even speaks about it. I am not even 100% sure if it is cancelled.

The problem is that Factorio was the game of my choice to de-stress myself. Not other game currently can do it for me. Satisfactory or Riftbraker worked for couple dozens hours, but only a death world Factorio's playthrough is keeping my stress in check even after 5k hrs of gameplay.
With the economic and political situation right now I am on the verge of burning city property. My psychologist told me to free myself of any unnecessary stress and frustration inducing stimuly, and waiting, not being able to play Factorio, due to lack of knowledge if I can, is pretty high near the top, as far as frustration comes.

Therefore my question is: can I safely play Factorio now, knowing that DLC is not coming before Easter '23?

[jodokus31]

Idk, if it is safe, but I guess they are occupied with the switch-version for some time.

Why not try something heavily modded?
This will presumably be different to the DLC (unless the mods are similar to DLC, which is quite unlikely)
Or maybe ONI, Timberborn, Captian of Industry. Although, Deathworld is maybe similar to "There are billions", but I never played it...

[Koub]

If you hadn't refrained from playing Factorio first place, you wouldn't be in this situation. So the issue is not the expansion not arriving, it's you refusing to play now.
Play when you feel like it, and stop playing when you feel like it.
And also maybe don't make it sound it's the devs' fault for not already having released the expansion if your life is complicated right now. If it can help you feel better, it could be FAR worse .

[Xorimuth]

1. The DLC is not cancelled. You can see evidence of it being worked on in viewforum.php?f=230
2. There was never a release date announced for the DLC, this is entirely your fault for making one up yourself
3. Only one dev has been working on the Switch version, the other ~20 are all working on the DLC

[jodokus31]

This is last news on the expansion?
https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-367
I think, first we'll have version 1.2, if I understood correctly.

3. Only one dev has been working on the Switch version, the other ~20 are all working on the DLC

It might be one dev who has mainly worked on it. But, I assume, it'll realistically occupy more of the team, when the release is near. I don't think, it'll delay the expansion by much or at all.

But, honestly, I don't think, the topic is about release of expansion, but rather, would to do in the meantime, no?

[irbork]

2. There was never a release date announced for the DLC, this is entirely your fault for making one up yourself

after the game was fully released and devs committed to DLC they said it will be ready in a year. It was over 1,5 year ago.

[irbork]

Idk, if it is safe, but I guess they are occupied with the switch-version for some time.

Why not try something heavily modded?
This will presumably be different to the DLC (unless the mods are similar to DLC, which is quite unlikely)
Or maybe ONI, Timberborn, Captian of Industry. Although, Deathworld is maybe similar to "There are billions", but I never played it...

I can easily pick up another vanilla playthrough. The problem is not that I need more content, but that I don't want to be fresh after another 1k hrs playthrough when the DLC is released.

[FuryoftheStars]

2. There was never a release date announced for the DLC, this is entirely your fault for making one up yourself

after the game was fully released and devs committed to DLC they said it will be ready in a year. It was over 1,5 year ago.

I believe what they actually said was “it won’t take less than a year”.

I also thought that I had read somewhere that they were thinking this year (though my mind was on fall/winter of ‘22), but someone else pointed out to me that no, the devs never did say that it would be this year.

[BicycleEater]

I can easily pick up another vanilla playthrough. The problem is not that I need more content, but that I don't want to be fresh after another 1k hrs playthrough when the DLC is released.

I think the intent is that with a broad range of mods, the vanilla playthough can be sort of fresh - although that varies person to person.

after the game was fully released and devs committed to DLC they said it will be ready in a year. It was over 1,5 year ago.

The devs said they didn't think it would take less than a year. They were deliberately not setting a deadline.

The problem is that Factorio was the game of my choice to de-stress myself. Not other game currently can do it for me. Satisfactory or Riftbraker worked for couple dozens hours, but only a death world Factorio's playthrough is keeping my stress in check even after 5k hrs of gameplay.
With the economic and political situation right now I am on the verge of burning city property. My psychologist told me to free myself of any unnecessary stress and frustration inducing stimuly, and waiting, not being able to play Factorio, due to lack of knowledge if I can, is pretty high near the top, as far as frustration comes.

To be honest that is kinda really wholesome, knowing the game can do so much good!
Anyway, my advise would be to play the game when you want - the freshness of the expansion should be secondary to your mental health. Also, the point of the expansion is to make the game somewhat fresh anyway.
If you are still worried about feeling burnt out when the expansion arrives, you could either leave the expansion for a bit to recover. If that doesn't work, maybe think of it this way:
You'll appreciate the changes the expansion brings more closely if you're really familiar with the game anyway.

[FuryoftheStars]

Something else to note: the devs will surely make an announcement before it releases. May only be a month’s lead time, but that’s something you can use to break from the game a bit if you want.

[Koub]

2. There was never a release date announced for the DLC, this is entirely your fault for making one up yourself

after the game was fully released and devs committed to DLC they said it will be ready in a year. It was over 1,5 year ago.

They said (source):

we don't think that it will take less than a year to develop.

Probably not less than one year is very different from ready in a year. And the devs were right : 1.5 years is not less than 1 year.

You overhyped yourself with unrealistic expectations about something you had no means of action on. Deal with it.

On a more constructive note : Play now, stop when you're fed up, wait 6 additional months, and if the expansion is out when you have waited enough, you can buy it and play with it.

[Tertius]

From my experience, it's not a good idea to go crazy with some game release date. An expected/announced game will definitely materialize itself some point in the future. So do whatever you like, use and play whatever is available, and ignore non released stuff, because it's not available.
If you're in the mood to do something different, look on your list of games to watch and look which have actually been released in the meantime. From these, choose what you currently enjoy most.
Released games will wait for you. You don't have to play them on release date. So you don't need to go crazy with release dates.

[mmmPI]

I can easily pick up another vanilla playthrough. The problem is not that I need more content, but that I don't want to be fresh after another 1k hrs playthrough when the DLC is released.

I think the intent is that with a broad range of mods, the vanilla playthough can be sort of fresh - although that varies person to person.

I think what irbork means is that although playing right now,starting today a heavymodded playthrough is possible and would feel fresh, it would mean starting a potentiallly very long game, which would drain social life, create a massive sleep hour shortages, exhaust neurons and fingers and leave anyone not fresh for when the expansion is released.

Similar to eating too many chips before the pizza is delivered and then you are not hungry anymore when it arrives ?

The problem is that Factorio was the game of my choice to de-stress myself. Not other game currently can do it for me. Satisfactory or Riftbraker worked for couple dozens hours, but only a death world Factorio's playthrough is keeping my stress in check even after 5k hrs of gameplay.
With the economic and political situation right now I am on the verge of burning city property. My psychologist told me to free myself of any unnecessary stress and frustration inducing stimuly, and waiting, not being able to play Factorio, due to lack of knowledge if I can, is pretty high near the top, as far as frustration comes.

Have you tried a peaceful game ? it is relaxing ! deathworld is not !

If you don't want to commit to a full game from the start to the end in case to keep fresh, you can also join some random multiplayer server, there is always one of them called "help me" or "everyone welcome", from experience , even joining couple hours is appreciated as people will ask you question or you can do a thing or two to help and leave to never come back because the expansion is released or because you didn't like people's joke or whatever. That doesn't require the same sustained investment in time and is ( most of the time) stress-free !

[jodokus31]

Idk, if it is safe, but I guess they are occupied with the switch-version for some time.

Why not try something heavily modded?
This will presumably be different to the DLC (unless the mods are similar to DLC, which is quite unlikely)
Or maybe ONI, Timberborn, Captian of Industry. Although, Deathworld is maybe similar to "There are billions", but I never played it...

I can easily pick up another vanilla playthrough. The problem is not that I need more content, but that I don't want to be fresh after another 1k hrs playthrough when the DLC is released.

I meant, to do something different in the meantime, that vanilla with expansion feels fresh, even when its released suddenly. But ok, maybe not everybody's cup of tea. np

[Mauslag PIngman]

It doesn't have 10% of the content that Factorio has but it has oil and my interest. So far I have 76 hours on Turmoil, where you pump oil and sell it for a profit using some game mechanics I've never seen before. There are pockets of natural gas. They can be tapped to push oil to the surface or they can be used to push up the price of oil. And you can use a thermal effect to expand the gas which magnifies its effect on prices and pumping. Its easy to learn and pretty hard to master. I've not mastered it, but have some idea now.

I don't know the devs.
Paid for the game
Get nothing for promoting it.
Don't work for them in any way.
Its the only game out of maybe the last 20 that has me coming back again and again.
$10
Turmoil
It has oil!

The graphics are not phenomenal and there's no multiplayer. They do have a leaderboard and you can compete in weekly competitions by score.

[Xorimuth]

Idk, if it is safe, but I guess they are occupied with the switch-version for some time.

Why not try something heavily modded?
This will presumably be different to the DLC (unless the mods are similar to DLC, which is quite unlikely)
Or maybe ONI, Timberborn, Captian of Industry. Although, Deathworld is maybe similar to "There are billions", but I never played it...

I can easily pick up another vanilla playthrough. The problem is not that I need more content, but that I don't want to be fresh after another 1k hrs playthrough when the DLC is released.

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-370
There’s your answer: still at least one more year before explanation releases.

[irbork]

Idk, if it is safe, but I guess they are occupied with the switch-version for some time.

Why not try something heavily modded?
This will presumably be different to the DLC (unless the mods are similar to DLC, which is quite unlikely)
Or maybe ONI, Timberborn, Captian of Industry. Although, Deathworld is maybe similar to "There are billions", but I never played it...

I can easily pick up another vanilla playthrough. The problem is not that I need more content, but that I don't want to be fresh after another 1k hrs playthrough when the DLC is released.

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-370
There’s your answer: still at least one more year before explanation releases.

At last

[irbork]

It doesn't have 10% of the content that Factorio has but it has oil and my interest. So far I have 76 hours on Turmoil, where you pump oil and sell it for a profit using some game mechanics I've never seen before. There are pockets of natural gas. They can be tapped to push oil to the surface or they can be used to push up the price of oil. And you can use a thermal effect to expand the gas which magnifies its effect on prices and pumping. Its easy to learn and pretty hard to master. I've not mastered it, but have some idea now.

I don't know the devs.
Paid for the game
Get nothing for promoting it.
Don't work for them in any way.
Its the only game out of maybe the last 20 that has me coming back again and again.
$10
Turmoil
It has oil!

The graphics are not phenomenal and there's no multiplayer. They do have a leaderboard and you can compete in weekly competitions by score.

I have played it just before this Summer. Got a lot of hours out of this one, but it's nothing compared to Factorio's mileage