Do you like management sims? Are you insane? Do you like management sims and you're insane? Then you'll love Factorio!
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yDZM0diiYc[/yt]
The game is still in alpha but is already quite playable and fun. It feels like an alpha only to the extent the late Minecraft alpha did. Everything is there, the developers just might put a little more structure around it.
The premise is simple: you are on an alien world and you need to prepare it for colonization. This means building infrastructure. First, you need to mine some iron, coal, stone, and copper, and chop down some trees for word. Initially, you will do this by hand, which is slow and tedious, but once you've crafted a few basic items, you can begin automating. There are automated drills and conveyor belts, plus robotic arms called inserters which can move things around. At first, everything will be powered by coal, which means you'll run around putting coal into your furnaces, inserters, etc. But before long, you'll be able to build an offshore pump, some pipe, boilers, and a steam engine--electricity! The boilers need to be powered by coal but the efficiency gain is absolutely worth it. You won't be stocking the boilers with coal nearly as often as you'd be putting it into inserters and drills.
The tech tree is massive and more than a little insane. I've not gotten far enough yet to build vehicles, but they are there: cars, trains, planes. So far, I have gotten to the point where I've automated virtually all of my production, and I'm currently optimizing some of the bottlenecks and inefficiencies in my design. My conveyor belts have a habit of getting full of raw materials and thus there's nowhere to put the results. The smart thing to do here would be to use a long inserter arm to move the outputs to a different belt. Yeah, that's what I should do...
The closest comparison I could make for this game would be the Anno games. Imagine the supply chain mechanics of an Anno game on crack, and that's what you have here.
You can also give yourself a challenge by having hostile life forms on the planet, which are attracted by pollution and will wreck your stuff. I play with those on a very, very low intensity because I don't want all my shit getting broken before I have a good understanding of everything.
Multiplayer is currently not implemented but they are "working on it." This is another game where, if the server requirements aren't too insane, I would love to set up a server for us (assuming anyone is interested.) Guess I'll keep an eye out for that part whenever it's available.
Anyone else tried this? If not, at least grab the demo and give it a shot. I definitely recommend it, especially if you are into management games.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yDZM0diiYc[/yt]
The game is still in alpha but is already quite playable and fun. It feels like an alpha only to the extent the late Minecraft alpha did. Everything is there, the developers just might put a little more structure around it.
The premise is simple: you are on an alien world and you need to prepare it for colonization. This means building infrastructure. First, you need to mine some iron, coal, stone, and copper, and chop down some trees for word. Initially, you will do this by hand, which is slow and tedious, but once you've crafted a few basic items, you can begin automating. There are automated drills and conveyor belts, plus robotic arms called inserters which can move things around. At first, everything will be powered by coal, which means you'll run around putting coal into your furnaces, inserters, etc. But before long, you'll be able to build an offshore pump, some pipe, boilers, and a steam engine--electricity! The boilers need to be powered by coal but the efficiency gain is absolutely worth it. You won't be stocking the boilers with coal nearly as often as you'd be putting it into inserters and drills.
The tech tree is massive and more than a little insane. I've not gotten far enough yet to build vehicles, but they are there: cars, trains, planes. So far, I have gotten to the point where I've automated virtually all of my production, and I'm currently optimizing some of the bottlenecks and inefficiencies in my design. My conveyor belts have a habit of getting full of raw materials and thus there's nowhere to put the results. The smart thing to do here would be to use a long inserter arm to move the outputs to a different belt. Yeah, that's what I should do...
The closest comparison I could make for this game would be the Anno games. Imagine the supply chain mechanics of an Anno game on crack, and that's what you have here.
You can also give yourself a challenge by having hostile life forms on the planet, which are attracted by pollution and will wreck your stuff. I play with those on a very, very low intensity because I don't want all my shit getting broken before I have a good understanding of everything.
Multiplayer is currently not implemented but they are "working on it." This is another game where, if the server requirements aren't too insane, I would love to set up a server for us (assuming anyone is interested.) Guess I'll keep an eye out for that part whenever it's available.
Anyone else tried this? If not, at least grab the demo and give it a shot. I definitely recommend it, especially if you are into management games.
