Wube is such a unique game studio. They do a lot of very solid technical work and look like they have fun doing it. I particularly appreciated their recent post about porting Factorio to ARM64. They had a business reason to do it but it's clear the team was mostly just curious about whether ARM64 was a viable gaming platform now. And then shared the results with us. They seem like fun hacker guys.
Yes but they have fallen into a success trap. I have seen the same trend with Mincraft, KSP and Subnautica. An indi developer starts with a great concept and a true open world game. The player can progress through the tech tree how they choose but doing so requires exploration. All is good. Then the developer starts to tighten the reigns. The tech tree become more rigid. Exploration must happen in a more specific order. And then the graphics department takes over, adding more and more objects until a previously huge and open world is a tightly cluttered mess.
Think of how subnautica moved. The second game was very literally denser to the point that they slowed down movement to preserve any sense of space. And each step inthe tech tree required specific tools from a specific place. No more free explorations. No more alternatives. The player lost control over the story. Subnautica 3 is now so dense and linear I gave up after a week. It is more a decorated fishtank than open world.
I still play factorio (1000x) but I do not play the new planets. That whole rocket process is so locked down that there is little for me to enjoy. I get bored whenever there is only one way to do a thing and no room for a player to invent alternatives.
This is a weird perspective. The middle planets can be approached in any order. And mods allow near-infinite variety - especially those that build on the platform of custom planets.
> there is only one way to do a thing and no room for a player to invent alternatives.
Sounds to me like you are caught up in trying to chase optimization and bemoaning the fact that there's only one optimal strategy. Do a no trains run! Or a no bots run. Or a 1000x science modifier run, or Lazy Bastard, or Death World, or... there are plenty of constraints, both programmed-in or self-imposed, that can push you out of the "standard" optimal strategy.
The system for moving between planets is locked down. It is rockets or nothing. And that system is deliberately designed to defeat scaling. What really killed me was the message saying I was only allowed one of a specific key building on each planet. That was very anti-factorio imho. As I said above, as an indi developer moves forwards they add constraints to focus and guide progression. I simply do not want that. So I disabled all the planet stuff and play like it never existed.
I promise you the rockets and the landing pads do not limit scaling.
And while yes you have to use rockets, each planet has a different way of making rocket ingredients and it's reasonably cost-effective to have one planet send a rocket ingredient it's good at to other planets.
The base game is also rockets or nothing at the same point in the tech tree. Launching a rocket is how you win, how you get access to space science packs. But after that in space age it opens back up again. You have three planets to work on in any order and the science on each of those planets is reasonably nonlinear too. It's less constrained at that point than at almost any other point in the game. And while the final planet requires you to make some science packs on each of those three, it lets you skip almost all the research on them. You only have to research 4 techs total between the first three planet unlocks and the final planet unlock.
NelsonMinar · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-446" rel="nofollow">https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-446
sandworm101 · · focus · HN ↗
Think of how subnautica moved. The second game was very literally denser to the point that they slowed down movement to preserve any sense of space. And each step inthe tech tree required specific tools from a specific place. No more free explorations. No more alternatives. The player lost control over the story. Subnautica 3 is now so dense and linear I gave up after a week. It is more a decorated fishtank than open world.
I still play factorio (1000x) but I do not play the new planets. That whole rocket process is so locked down that there is little for me to enjoy. I get bored whenever there is only one way to do a thing and no room for a player to invent alternatives.
scubbo · · focus · HN ↗
> there is only one way to do a thing and no room for a player to invent alternatives.
Sounds to me like you are caught up in trying to chase optimization and bemoaning the fact that there's only one optimal strategy. Do a no trains run! Or a no bots run. Or a 1000x science modifier run, or Lazy Bastard, or Death World, or... there are plenty of constraints, both programmed-in or self-imposed, that can push you out of the "standard" optimal strategy.
sandworm101 · · focus · HN ↗
Dylan16807 · · focus · HN ↗
And while yes you have to use rockets, each planet has a different way of making rocket ingredients and it's reasonably cost-effective to have one planet send a rocket ingredient it's good at to other planets.
The base game is also rockets or nothing at the same point in the tech tree. Launching a rocket is how you win, how you get access to space science packs. But after that in space age it opens back up again. You have three planets to work on in any order and the science on each of those planets is reasonably nonlinear too. It's less constrained at that point than at almost any other point in the game. And while the final planet requires you to make some science packs on each of those three, it lets you skip almost all the research on them. You only have to research 4 techs total between the first three planet unlocks and the final planet unlock.