Ratios and feedback

[LTL King]

Trying to figure out the ratios is fairly difficult. I keep adding more cutters and assemblers but always have 1 end product going faster than the other.
I don't think it's needed to be told how much the machines item/min is needed.
A trash bin object to allow the line to keep moving until we get the numbers right before adding the next machine.

Just constantly adding machines can get congested and may not have the space planned.

Have done other factory games. I never look up or calculate the ratios based on numbers given. I always just place builds and if the line empty. Build more. If it's full find the backup and build there.

For me it's a lot less stress that way vs trying to do all the math before hand.
The point of a game is to get away from work and running the numbers is work. I just want to play.
As a person who's been in logistics. We make changes at the bottle neck and seeing the feedback in time on how it effected things goes more than numbers at that machine.


The tutorial was decent. I missed the part about the stamper when I tried to figure out the blue bots.

Depending on how the tech tree is laid out.
Make the blue bot a little more easier to build. Then add the stamper on it's own node so when it's unlocked you know, you can go back and refine your line
or put more focus on the stamper to ensure it's used vs what I did of building the blue bots with cutters and assemblers.

Some mini videos and images inserted when an item is unlocked can go a long way.



Submitted for testing. Have helped with a few other indie games.

[Phishfood]

yeah I had a lot of difficulty getting the ratios right too. I think maybe clicking on a building should give a read out of the average input and output per/min for QoL

[Kenny G Loggins]

agree with phish, it'd be nice to click on a building and have a bit of production info pop up even if it's a painter/cutter or whatever.

[Sykoste]

Its probably the first factory game where ratios are not that key - in all other factory games a full conveyor is a full well supplied line where ratios matter to maximise the supply, but in this game the inherent nature of making shapes from other shapes allows some retrospective tricks. It always surprises me how many factory players think that a full non-moving conveyor is an issue, when it just means supply meets demand. In this game though, the route to supply is potentially infinite if you chop something down and re-combine, or add things together or change their colours. All items from polys can be made into any other item, leaving only final products and paint (as far as the demo goes) as its own entity. A full conveyor is a potential additional resource for an upgraded or downgraded product, so when you have a full conveyor, you won't be satisfied until you send it for up or down cycling. thus emptying it again and finding the need to ever increasing resources to match. you effectively create you own demand on yourself to be more efficient. Balance is essentially only two items so far - with the complexity that adds to the shapes available making the variety. So really if everything is made from a single product, the only ratio that matters is how many polys can you get from the ground at which speed. I hope the full game stretches this further - such as other paints, paint recycling, excess items back to polys etc.

[RubberDucky]

Factory game players like to optimize the ratios, that alone makes them matter. If they did not matter then there would be no mention of them in the game but there are belt speeds and machines that have throughput etc. This is currently poorly or partially implemented though. I'd like to be able to see the actual numbers as well.

[LTL King]

Originally posted by RubberDucky:

Factory game players like to optimize the ratios, that alone makes them matter. If they did not matter then there would be no mention of them in the game but there are belt speeds and machines that have throughput etc. This is currently poorly or partially implemented though. I'd like to be able to see the actual numbers as well.

AND?
So WHAT
Does it need to mentioned what the ratios are. NOOOOO!!!
A simple trash can at the end would be enough.

Do the math your self. Why does every game have to be the same.
DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

[Jarvs.Tasker]

Hey all
Thanks for your feedback on this! I know the team are already looking at ratios and how we display information going forward. I have passed all your comments on to help their decision making.