Friday Facts #367 - Expansion news

[invisus]

Yep.

I'd pay $60 for v1.2

Not only enjoyment from the hours of playing this game, but actually being a part of this community (as we are right now) is a rare thing these days. I thank Wube for what they've accomplished, both with Factorio v1.1 and with the community of players and fans they've created around it.

[tk0421]

HYYYYYYYYYPE!

I would say i'm on the hype train, but I seem to always be crashing my Factorio trains...

[SkerrittT]

Well that was a nice email to wake up to on Saturday here ! Such good news. I can hear the excitement in the developers tone from the announcement...you are obviously pleased in how the game is progressing, the strategy applied and the results so far.

I have over 5000 hours in Factorio (yes, retired old bloke) and it is by far the best game I have ever played. Like everyone else here I look forward to the expansion being made available. And like most I would be pleased to be part of the testing process if that helps.

Well done. Take my money !

[jaworeq]

Not mentioning the high price (and I'm among many that paid 15$ or less for main game over 7 years ago), you're taking successful early access game that had a ton of community contributions and try to turn it into something developed completely behind the closed doors. And only motivation for that (as far as I remember previous FFF) is to not have modders spoil your expansion with their take on it. That's either very brave or...well, the other thing.

[axxiz144]

Woohoo! Flying brain bugs! We'll need air defense strategies

I love all this new hotness... but please please PLEEEEEZZZEEEEE find a way to make train bridges and/or tunnels (some type of non-conflicting intersection) a thing.

[nevniv]

I have trouble believing anyone who reads the forums for a game hasn't played that game enough to get their moneys worth so calling $30 a high price for something that will have as much content as the original just makes me laugh. I have over 500 hours in this game and I've only ever played vanilla. Even if I paid $30 that's like five cents an hour. Some people buy low effort "AAA" titles for twice that, beat it in 8 hours and shelf it forever.

I'm sure the expansion will be polished well because of who is making it, but I will still probably wait until it's finished to buy it unless there's a discount. I'm not expecting to see one since Wube has a great reputation now and when the original came out nobody knew who they were.

[DanGio]

It's nice to have some news about the expansion ! 30$ is a fair price.

Guys are you sure they're showing us a concept art for a new bad guy ? If it's a bad guy, in the form of a *giant brain*, we're gonna be expecting a very intelligent behavior from it right ? So Wube would be now focused on improving biter AI ?... I'm pretty sure it's something else Like, changing biters DNA to make them evolve into bio science labs ? lol

hmmm.... those water drops....

[malecord]

Imho all this wine about the 30$ is out of place.

It's to much? Maybe? Who actually knows it for sure?

It depends on the value delivered. It might be to much, a steal or the right price. If Wube say they aim to deliver the same amount of content of the base game I believe them and it's a more than a reasonable price.

However, just however, if 30$ is really to much for the average engineer out here (sorry next time study computer science. Or better economics. ), you might consider to split the expansion in smaller chuncks. The infamous DLC model. Personally I don't like it. I much prefer the good old expansion model. But I'm not the only one playing so if that helps the other gamers why not.

[Davolution]

I need a preorder button and wouldn't even care if the expansion doesn't live up to expectations.

+1 The £ per hour played is the lowest of any game I have bought, by several orders of magnitude.

+1 Same here, $/hr the lowest ever seen (>2500hr on steam + 200h pre-steam), would pre-order, try experimental version, and I am already asking for week off on release week to enjoy this game... no question ask!

[kirazy]

I like Factorio a lot, but €30,- is really too steep in my opinion. €10,- makes sense, making it at least cheaper than the actual game.

If the content and feature set is comparable to the base game, €30 is reasonable. Given the reputation of the development team, €30 is almost certainly reasonable. Having spent thousands of hours and multiple years on Factorio for $30 originally, an expansion at the same price point is an instant-buy, no questions asked.

[Drakken]

$30 is too low for the amount of content the developers are promising. And this is one development team I trust completely! It is rather unfortunate some people seem to be underpaid for their contributions to this world. I for one, want the awesome team making one of the best games in history to be rewarded for their ingenuity and their effort.

I would certainly say that purchasing Factorio was the best $30 I ever spent. But, I got it for $20 a long time ago. However, as the game got better and better, I bought a bunch of $30 copies for my family and friends.

Thank you Wube! and as many have stated... Shut up and take my money!

[Gatsukama]

Step 7 - Release
The tricky part is, that we want to release basically directly to stable, without an experimental phase, like when we released 1.0. The reason is the obvious problem we would have otherwise: An experimental release is not interesting to many people, but by the time it becomes officially stable, it is old news and nobody cares. Hopefully the focus on automated tests and beta testing should make it smooth enough.

Please re-think this. One of the key ingredients of Factorio's success is years and years and years of player feedback. Not just reporting bugs, but also feedback on whether or not something is fun. Can you write an automated test to tell you if something is fun? Launching with a short period of limited player feedback carries a real risk of an expansion that is not fun, and that will make it a dud.

[QGamer]

I'm super excited about the expansion now!
Good luck with the development process!

[Riktol]

I think from the customer point of view it seems a bit odd paying the same amount for the expansion as you did for the base game. The base game involved a lot of work that you don't have to repeat for the expansion, like the game engine. If you're re-building the engine to make the expansion work then I think that type of project normally gets released as a separate game.
I understand the reasons you've set it at that price, and I appreciate the amount of work that you're putting into it, and I realise that it is probably too late to change this, but I thought I would let you know anyway. Forewarned is forearmed as they say.

Finally would you mind giving a timeframe when we can expect another update? The previous FFF mentioned a year, so an update after a year was nice and appropriate. Or maybe when you hit a specific step, such as the end of step 5?

[ScottyWired]

Exchange rates have changed since Factorio was released. 30 euros plus tax would place it at 50 AUD, where the base game costs 42 AUD.

[pointa2b]

I would pay $100 for the expansion if it proportionately meant more well-crafted new stuff. Must admit though... I wish the FFF included more concrete info on additions than a single ambiguous drawing... its not so much to know the exact details, but rather to get a better feel for the overall direction/scope its going in. I don't care if things change; it would just be so cool to get some idea on how its taking form, outside of technical details which give no clue. If any devs/leadership are reading this- it would be great if there was some middleground to show more of the process. Don't take this as impatience or lack of gratitude; its just really exciting to see this take form, and it would be cool to see its evolution along the way. There is a good chance the passion for that greatly overpowers anyone complaining about some feature/concept not being implemented.

No idea how many thousands of hours I've put into this game, and I get the feeling this expansion will reignite that all over again.

[frostedclaws]

hype! going to be fun and looking forward to being excited and full of anticipation for the game. Hope it still has the same feel where i could* afk for hours and still feel like the base is making progress too =]

[deer_buster]

Honestly, I would rather have multiple expansions at a reduced cost and quicker turn-around, than multi-year single expansion that (more than) doubles the cost of the game that I paid originally...

[Durabys]

Very nice to hear.
Little question, does the Expansion add to the Base game, meaning a playtrought of it contains all Base-Game features, or does it function as an alternate way of playing, that disables or surplants certain base features in favor of its own way or out of balancing considerations?

All base game features will be there, the word "expansion" kind of suggest expansion on the top of current mechanics and content.

I am just surprised that you chose Old!XCOM/UFO:TFTD's Tentaculats as the inspiration for the new flying Biter.

[regress]

Came to post this. I concur.