With a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, you really need solid blocks of time. With a game like Mass Effect, you have a lot of different missions active at any time, but you usually only play one mission at a time. With a game like Doom, you have mostly linear gameplay – get the red key, open door, move on to the next level. With this one, there’s definitely a “I must fix this now” impetus. I have a hard time finishing a lot of video games because I can’t commit the time. Post-it’s and a notepad have been helping me. Rail signals keep trains flowing steadily: chain rail signals go where tracks enter at a crossing or intersection, and regular signals go on the exits and on single tracks in between. Each conveyer belt has two lanes and can have different materials on each side. For instance, one water pump feeds 20 boilers, and each boiler can supply 2 steam engines. The tutorials are optional, but not really. If you give it a try, here are some tips: Keep a post-it or piece of paper nearby for creating reminders or a task list for next time, or you risk falling into a “I’ve got to do just one more thing before I close it” trap.
I should warn you – this game doesn’t play like most real-time strategy or simulator games. The trains and rail system surprised me, as this doesn’t seem like something I’d enjoy, but they’ve added to the fun. It doesn’t sound like the type of game I would play, but I’ve been enjoying it. It’s available for $30 on Steam (and apparently never goes on sale), and there’s also a free demo. I don’t recall how I learned about Factorio, but I purchased it soon after, about a week ago.
If you ever get bored, there are a slew of mods that change things up. Each map is procedurally generated, which means it’s new and different every time. And, if or when you do launch that first rocket – something I haven’t gotten up to yet – you can continue playing on the same map or change things up. There’s always something to build or fix. Problems pop up, with biter attacks, resource shortages, and trains that can run out of fuel if you don’t set them right. I can’t really blame them – my factory defoliated the surrounding trees and turned the blue lake water green. The biters – the hostile alien bugs and worms – are defined by basic behaviors but keep things challenging. For most things, I tend to over-fabricate, with surplus materials boxed up in supply crates, although this tends to back up conveyer belts every so often. There can be math involved, such as to determine how much of a resource is needed to output an automated product with minimal delays.
There’s an optional circuit network that lets you program a series of control parameters, such as to sound an alarm when a resource runs low, or to switch a liquid resource pump on or off based on a preset conditions. Factorio has a “tower defense” type of component if you use the default settings.īlueprints allow you to save convenient designs for reuse, and can be shared with the online community.įactorio sounds simple, and it can be, and it can also be very complex. This part can be disabled, or tuned up or down to your liking. Some of your machines create pollution, which attracts alien bugs. Then, when you unlock robot helpers, things really get interesting. Article taken from mine resources, build automation plants, route everything with conveyer belts, and can even set up a network of trains with as simple or elaborate connections as you’d like. The developer has just sent us a key so we will be taking a look in future. I played quite a lot of the early builds and even back then it was very promising, although if definitely felt quite Factorio-like so I'm keen to see how far they've taken it into the very unique sounding direction.
For the full version they're going to be adding in procedural worlds, 20+ hours of gameplay, Neural Networks-based machine learning models and much more. There's already multiple types of cats to deal with, a bunch of included comics, a research tree to go through with 33 nodes and some pre-generated worlds. They plan to keep in in Early Access for at least one year and probably longer.įor the current version they say you can get easily 4-6 hours out of it with two machine learning models "Linear Regression and Polynomial Regression".
It includes links to hand-picked videos on it, plus an in-game wiki for extra learning material.