Just bought the game; What were Your first impressions?

[Durentis]

Electricity can become slightly complicated if you want to isolate circuits..

And also extremely tedious in some cases where you want to isolate rows of assemblers that share beacons because even with the smallest poles it can require manually snipping and reconnecting the wires between specific poles. ...and custom copper wire configurations are not stored in the blueprint when you finish. (I do this in, for example, a refinery where a row of H->L shares beacons with a row of L->P but I want to cut power to the rows (including their beacons) independently when I don't need either L or P. The shared beacons only need power if either L or P are needed but the poles can't connect across the shared beacons or it won't work correctly.)

The poles almost always seem to cover just one tile short for what I would want to use them for too. Like, a single medium pole would be perfect in many cases if it were one tile larger but I need two instead and two small poles work just as well in those cases, are cheaper, and have a smaller visual profile. It ends up creating some annoying pole spam just to catch a few stray tiles in some tight designs. It's like the programmer's off-by-one error carried over into game design.

[ijm]

Well, as you get more fluent in the tech tree your research queue will be ahead of the flash production. Btw, you did enable Research queues in the map generation?

First time through, no, second yes.

You can also change the Biter growth rates there if you find them too easy...

I did. I think the issue is the classic tower defense problem. A good wall and some random wall bits in their way and they mill around in front of the 8 laser turrets in range getting slaughtered. I expected burrowing, flying, and siege up out of range to throw in acid. They also didn't attack infrastructure at all so I could set up with with a blueprint and a couple of clicks. Fun, but not really the kind of automation problem solving that makes the core game so interesting.

Oh, some others and I were recently experimenting with different crossing systems. You can use combinators to raise gates to protect players when trains approach:

See this is what I mean about so much still to learn! I tried a wire to a gate and it failed, because you wire to the wall beside it. Obvious now. *sigh* ty!

Electricity can become slightly complicated if you want to isolate circuits... I would often have a small priority coal plant whose ONLY function is to provide power to the inserters for the main plant...
Also, as you start to deploy a solar/accumulator system, having a coal system on standby can be useful... (hunting down the LAST steam plant on the grid can be annoying, particulalryy if you are trying for that achievement...)

I mean the way power is distributed and manage, with automatic priorities and limitless superconducting (but its copper in a desert!) cables. I switched my whole base to nuclear but water was a long way away, so I kept having water issues. I used switches to isolate defenses from production (I chuckled when I labeled it 'defense grid' ), and to isolate the water pumping system.
However I couldn't find a way to get power statistics into a circuit network. I hooked up a steam tank to get an idea of steam production/useage, but an accumulator unfortunately sees the whole grid so doesn't help much. It would be nice is the 'power switch' also reported the amount of power (and direction) going through it, but alas. Is there a trick? Did I miss something?

Fluids -- mainly use pumps to push fluids where you need them most, and know silos can help..

My concern here is that, even with a more than solid knowledge of fluid mechanics, I couldn't figure out how many pumps and tanks and where, without resorting to web resources and detailed descriptions of the underlying implementation. I found several dev-blog posts that were very interesting, but this is about first impressions, yes? The need to break the 4th-wall to solve the problem felt like cheating, was more frustrating than interesting, and just didn't have the same 'fun' resolve as solving other puzzles in the game (which is what makes it such a kick-ass game!). From the look of other forum posts I think the dev's might be tired of hearing about fluids!

[ijm]

* Need more stuff! Oil processing is .. too small .. I want more things to do with oil !
* No Aluminum? No rare-earth metals from uranium refining ?

I feel like the end game items need some more complexity. For example for low density structures you could have aluminum instead of copper and add some new chemical from a more complicated oil processing system.
...
Unfortunately they recently went the opposite way and dumbed down oil processing. So I doubt anything like that will ever happen. They rather want a more streamlined game

I think I mean more automation content not necessarily just more stuff or more complexity. For example, I get why they only have two metals: simply adding Aluminum like the other two, just requires the player to cookie-cut another smelter. However aluminum or, better yet, titanium can be refined by electrolysis, which here could be schematized to require sulphuric acid into an electric furnace. Now one cannot just reuse the a previous one-size-fit-all smelter design but has a new design puzzle to plan and solve, and so having the resource adds something other than grind.

Try the rocket launcher. You need lots of ammo, but they have quite some range

.. but but but... I kept hitting trees ... and bushes ....

[Hannu]

The poles almost always seem to cover just one tile short for what I would want to use them for too. Like, a single medium pole would be perfect in many cases if it were one tile larger but I need two instead and two small poles work just as well in those cases, are cheaper, and have a smaller visual profile. It ends up creating some annoying pole spam just to catch a few stray tiles in some tight designs. It's like the programmer's off-by-one error carried over into game design.

I agree this. Range of medium poles should be larger. I would prefer 13 x 13 so that i can put powerpole between every other wagon in railyards but even 1 tile more (9x9) would be significant improvement. I do not see what interesting game mechanics or challenge spamming ugly poles everywhere give. It devs think balancing, poles could be more expensive, but practically their cost is completely negligible after first wooden poles.

[Pi-C]

Try the rocket launcher. You need lots of ammo, but they have quite some range

.. but but but... I kept hitting trees ... and bushes ....

Do you know that you can use <C> (unless you've changed the default setting) to choose a particular target?

[Jap2.0]

Try the rocket launcher. You need lots of ammo, but they have quite some range

.. but but but... I kept hitting trees ... and bushes ....

Do you know that you can use <C> (unless you've changed the default setting) to choose a particular target?

Space should only hit enemies too, if that's what you want.

[Ranger_Aurelien]

See this is what I mean about so much still to learn! I tried a wire to a gate and it failed, because you wire to the wall beside it. Obvious now. *sigh* ty!

I prefer my design as it will protect the user while the train approaches, and the other user's suggestion that disables the train area which can cause pathing problems for trains as well as will not work on chain signals...

However I couldn't find a way to get power statistics into a circuit network. I hooked up a steam tank to get an idea of steam production/useage, but an accumulator unfortunately sees the whole grid so doesn't help much. It would be nice is the 'power switch' also reported the amount of power (and direction) going through it, but alas. Is there a trick? Did I miss something?

You can get the % capacity on accumulators. Here is an example to act on them:

https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circ ... ok#Latches

I'm sure I ran across somewhere bridging two logical power network using accumulators (they have a maximum transfer speed), and you could use switches to isolate the sub-network if specific accumulators drop below a threshold...

But to your pentultimate question I do not see a way to query the whole network. But really what are you trying to track? If you have any solar+accum on the network (even a few of each) if the solar drops below, say, 20% at any time it should set off alarms.

Btw I consider nuclear a "phase2" power solution with all solar+accumulator being end-game...

Oh, if you have having problem pumping water to your nuclear plant, have you considered using trains to move the water?

My concern here is that, even with a more than solid knowledge of fluid mechanics, I couldn't figure out how many pumps and tanks and where

Well, my tip about fluids is to use pumps to create "priority" areas that need them out of the source, first. Then any overflow you can use for the next product.

I use pumps all over for a few reasons -- reminds me which way fluids are going, as well as acts as a diode to allow only one-way.

From a refinery, there are a few logical flows to me to convert the ouputs and convert

Refinery > heavy oil > pump > HO silo> pump> lubricant plants
From the HOsilo, a simple pipe to "convert to light oil" plants > pump > to LO silo

Refinery > light oil > pump > LO silo> pump> fuel cube plants
From the LOsilo, a simple pipe to "convert to petroleum gas" plants > pump > to PG silo

Refinery > petroleum gas > pump > PG silo> pump> plastic & acid plants

I find my factories have a huge demand for plastic for circuits.

YMMV, but this is a broad stroke about how the flow can work... : )

[Ranger_Aurelien]

My concern here is that, even with a more than solid knowledge of fluid mechanics, I couldn't figure out how many pumps and tanks and where

Ok, pictures, 1000 words, etc:


Here is a sandbox with micro scale to show the flow for pipes. In a real factory they'd be screens apart and be dozens of cookie cutter units in a row...

The flow nicely comes top-down with the logic starting at the top with heavy oil, with the priority being to make green lubricant, and any overflow is allowed to slip into the HO>LO assembler... and so on.

Note if you're planning to use a pump near a silo it's best it be attached to the silo:
https://wiki.factorio.com/Pump#Throughput

[greyguy1012]

i'm right at the refinery stage too. no idea what to expect.
but unfortunately i got attacked for the first time so my research priority has changed to say the least.
and i'm on the latest stable on steam so i don't have the advantage of the more complete tutorial.
but it's so much fun just doing things your own way.

[Serenity]

i'm right at the refinery stage too. no idea what to expect.

Refining was simplified a while ago. Simple oil processing now only outputs petroleum gas. So you can deal with red circuits, blue science and some other stuff without worrying about anything backing up.
The puzzle is still there in advanced oil processing, but it comes a bit later when you want light oil for solid fuel and heavy oil for lubricant.

[ijm]

My concern here is that, even with a more than solid knowledge of fluid mechanics, I couldn't figure out how many pumps and tanks and where

Ok, pictures, 1000 words, etc:
...

My oil set up was fine. It's the extremely long water run to keep the reactor turbines functioning that was the issue. Once I grokked that the current implementation behaves like a level aqueduct system in hydrostasis, and not incompressible fluids in a pipes, designing and planing became much easier. My 'first impressions' issue is the graphics are pipes and pumps, and not medieval aqueducts and bucket waterwheels. (and that I had to go outside the game for info to figure it out)

[Koub]

[Koub] I'm OK discussing Factorio on a Factorio forum, but this is getting very off-topic from the "first impressions" isn't it ?

[MrLumie]

Guess it's time for my first impression review.

This game gets me. As a software developer, I sit all day in front of a monitor (actually 2) and spend my time trying to design and build systems that on top of getting the job done are also intuitive, reasonably optimized, easy to expand, and are pleasing to look at in general. Then I get home and do the exact same thing in Factorio. What does that even say about me?

And the best (or worst) part is that I continuously find myself 'playing the game' even when I'm not. Like I'M sitting on the bus, or working, and I can't help but think about how to design certain elements of my factory. Oftentimes I sit down to play with an already fully mapped out design plan in my head (which inevitably fails the second I actually try to build it). So far I have 28 hours put into the game on Steam, but with all the 'off-line' planning and whatnot I've probably dedicated 2-3 times as much time for this game already.

Now what I don't like about the game is that it's oftentimes a bit limited in certain ways. I understand that most of these 'limitations' are there to make a game somewhat more challenging and force to player to come up with clever solutions, but sometimes it still feels bad. Like, I've had this idea in my head for a while about being able to switch the in and out preferences of a splitter with a push of a button once I research circuit networks, effectively diverting the flow of resources to either cycle through or get collected in chests. Then I did research circuit networks and realized that you can't wire splitters up, at all. Of course there are alternate solutions, but none of them are so compact and neat as a simple 'flow-switch' could be. I feel like switching flow directions in splitters is really something that should be available in the game, even though I can see that it's a bit troublesome to figure out a way to allow programming such a highly configurable item as a splitter.

Still, this game is amazing, and it's taking more of my free (and non-free) time than it should be. But I guess that's on me.

[MiniHerc]

even though I can see that it's a bit troublesome to figure out a way to allow programming such a highly configurable item as a splitter.

Seems simple with a bit of thought. A splitter could accept 5 inputs, 1, 2, A, B, (item type). 1/2 would be left/right input priority, A/B would be left/right output priority, (item type) would be the filtered item for the output priority.

[MasterW3]

my first impressoins.. they grew as i progressed thru the game.
it needs this.. oh it has that.. i need to be able to do this and that,, found a way to make it work.
the game pretty much kept up with what i needed.. needed a better description of purple red, blue etc. chests

a fantastic game that has much more than you will need... and with mods, even more indeed.
just needs a way to paint belts and stuff..
i want this are to be red... SPLAT!
i need this area to be blue.. SPLAT!!
a coloring mechanic for items.. a trim that can be painted..

lost within my little world, fighting bigger and badder nasties...
what do they eat?
where is the widlife?
did they eat it all?
do they eat eachother?
i'm starving .. fish? really? that's all i can eat?
i need a steak...

great game, nothing more to say.

[Skotty]

I had trouble getting into it in the very beginning, but after getting just a small base going and getting used to the controls, I was hooked. Getting the first automation going was the key to gratification.

[Tertius]

I started with the tutorials, but in the 3rd tutorial where you should craft 3 radars, I died always from the biters - game over. No chance to overcome them, the fight was over before I was able to realize if I even aimed correctly. In the end, after some waves I was out of ammo, and still no radars.

The mission was to craft the radars, not to seek to create stronger weapons or ammo, and I always failed, so I stopped with the tutorials and started the real game. I turned off enemies completely because of the tutorial experience, and only after a while I saw preparing for combat is a major part of the game. I didn't yet start a new game with enemies to have room to learn about all the factory mechanics. I hope they are not so nasty as in the tutorial, since I have then control over weapon and ammo production, and because I read you respawn after death. I thought it was game over as in the tutorial.

Other than that: great game. Can't wait to try with standard settings.

But please improve that tutorial.

[Serenity]

I hope they are not so nasty as in the tutorial, since I have then control over weapon and ammo production, and because I read you respawn after death. I thought it was game over as in the tutorial.

On normal settings it's not that bad. The first few attacks aren't very strong and can be easily handled. It's just a reminder that there are enemies. And two assemblers producing ammo while being hand-fed iron from a box are enough for a while.

[InnerGeode]

I've known about Factorio for quite some time, but only just now did I actually get it. So here's my first impression/experience:

I first decided to heck with the tutorial, how hard can it be to just figure it out as I go? Well several minutes later of getting literally nothing accomplished, I conceded and played through the tutorial. It does a great job at teaching the fundamentals and it was actually a decent challenge. I died once to biters when I ran out of ammo, and another time to my train. I thought the tutorial was a bit long, but there was a huge amount to learn, so I don't think it could be any shorter really. Maybe don't marathon play through it in 1 shot? My next decision was to mess around with the map settings. I cranked the resources to max, as well as trees, and slightly decreased the biter attack thresholds while increasing my starting space. I wanted to have a fairly low pressure situation to just figure out how everything works together before having to worry about defense. But as my factory began to grow larger than I ever imagined, I started to wonder... Where are the biters? The trees were quite thick, and it took me a while to chop a path to not get very far. Once I got grenades, exploration went faster. And once the grenades were upgraded to destroy trees with 1 toss, it was even fasterer. But still, no biters to be found. Maybe I made the starting space encompass the entire world map, and inadvertently disabled the biters that way? I had to know. I didn't want to get too much further invested into this factory if there were no biters. If I had known there was a tank, and that it could drive through trees, I would have made that my #1 research priority. I soon found some very large nests of biters compared to what I had seen in the tutorial. And not yet having cannon rounds, I had to run away a couple times. Returning to base, I finished researching cannon shells, loaded up on outpost supplies, and set back out to create a bunch of radar outposts. I wanted to know where the pollution was going in the unrevealed map, and also where the biters would attack from. It turns out my main defenses were protected an empty peninsula, and I had a massive wall just a few hundred tiles from where a 6 tile wall would stop the same path. I thought the explosive cannon rounds would make quick work of the biter nests, but I had to attack and retreat to repair several times just to take out a middling sized group of them, and then ran out of cannon rounds. Time to get those in the production line.

Overall, it is 1 of those games for me that is hard to stop playing. But also it's a relaxing game to play (at least with my nerfed biters custom map settings), which is a nice break from work.

Here's the map view of my newly established radar outpost perimeter:

[GreenTeaKinase]

My first impression? All I can remember are my thoughts from each time I started over. I had started over five times within the first week of playing the game. Each time was preceded by a thought of "Holy Hell! This is a great idea! But I don't feel like rebuilding everything..."