Better than Factorio?

[Mmm]

Does anyone like CoI more than Factorio?

Not as software (Factorio is the best here without question) but as a game. I am Factorio fanboy as much as everyone, but there is too little gameplay constrains in it, feels like pure sandbox sometimes. I played CoL only few hours and I feel that it can be better in this regard.

[karel2501]

I wouldn't say I like it more than Factorio, but I would say as a Factorio fan that this game scratches a different and very valuable itch. Unlike say, Satisfactory, which I ultimately abandoned and just went back to playing Factorio again, CoI keeps me coming back to it, and hopefully, will for long time in the future. I feel like Factorio and CoI are quite different experiences, different enough to never make me think "why would I play X if Y exists" - they just each cater to a different set of needs of mine.

CoI is an underappreciated gem in my opinion. It's really neat, really scratches that large industry itch, and I think this is largely thanks to the added colony-management side of it that makes it feel so damn good. The only other game that feels like it measures up to it is Workers and Resources, and even that one is quite distinct in it's own way.

It's interesting that all three of these games, each of which nails down a different aspect (and different feeling) of the same core theme (industry) all also came from the same part of the world (Factorio and CoI being Czech, Workers and Resources being Slovakian).

[JuggernautOfWar]

I think the poster above me pretty much nailed it.

Factorio and CoI are very different games. I find it impossible to say one is better than the other when they are each offering very different experiences. I do tend to enjoy sinking my time into CoI a little bit more than I do Factorio, but I wouldn't say CoI is a replacement at all since they are so different.

[Peter34]

I like a lot about this game, but Factorio's flat endless landscape has a sandboxic quality to it that CoI doesn't have.

I specifically dislike puzzle games or games with puzzle elements, and there is a very clera puzzle element in getting stuff to fit on these tiny islands that the designers have given to us.

It is possible to manufacture more flat land, or new land, or both, but it's very, very slow, and it's extra cumbersome if you have the specific desire of mostly or completely preverving your Dirt for the top voxel layer and only dumping "ugly stuff" beneat the topmost voxel.

So... I suppose I have a love-hate relationship with this game. I like a lot abot it, but the puzzles created by the cramped spaces is something I strongly dislike. Yet at the same time, I strongly suspect that the game would stop feeling game-like if you had endless flat space to build on. So for me the ideal solution would be a larger and more sandbox-feeling island compared to New Haven or Curland.

[Ra31]

Factorio is way better than this game..and its finished. But to be fair it's not comparable.
Plus mods took Factorio to another level. COI is FUN and has stole alot of hours from it's fanbase. So Thats why I got the supporter edition.

[pariah]

Originally posted by karel2501:

I wouldn't say I like it more than Factorio, but I would say as a Factorio fan that this game scratches a different and very valuable itch. Unlike say, Satisfactory, which I ultimately abandoned and just went back to playing Factorio again, CoI keeps me coming back to it, and hopefully, will for long time in the future. I feel like Factorio and CoI are quite different experiences, different enough to never make me think "why would I play X if Y exists" - they just each cater to a different set of needs of mine.

Satisfactory has the same flaw as nearly all Factorio ripoffs, which is the tendency to throw in elements or mechanics lifted from Factorio without stopping to consider the design intention and balance behind them. An even more egregious example is Dyson Sphere Program (though I think that's a kinda neat game), which lifts the tech tree but then implements it in a completely nuts way that tells you the idea of tuning pace and progression hasn't even entered the dev's mind. Many of these games are similar in that if they're fun at all, they're fun because they've accidentally borrowed the right junk from Factorio, even if they don't seem to understand why it works.

I like this game because the extreme opposite applies; there's an intelligence and attention to detail that I find refreshing. You're correct that they're very different games--I wouldn't compare CoI to Factorio at all, except that I do consider them alike in sharing a rare sense of having devs that know what the ♥♥♥♥ they're doing for once. There's also conveyor belts I guess