Is Factorio gameplay easy to pick up?

[Tomasz79]

I'm wondering - is this a game one can just jump into, go through some ingame tutorials and just have fun quickly, or there are hours of learning curve to even get anywhere?
I imagine it may be hard to master :) But can it be overwhelming to a new player for some time?
I am aware of free demo btw and downloaded it today, but not sure when I'll get time to get to it.

[Demonic]

it is fairly easy to get the hang of if your not using mods lets say angels and bobsmods make the order very complex for crafting but the vanilla version is easy

[Fel]

It kind of depends on the person, some people pick it up really easily, to the point where the tutorials are not even required and the popup thing at the start of a new map is enough.

Others will still need a guide even after the ingame tutorial and multiple youtube and written guides.


Basically, if you are fairly good at logic and production chains, it should at most require you a bit of learning the controls and what the basic elements do.

[Demonic]

exactly its easy

[Tomasz79]

Ok, sounds easy enough to try... thanks.

[ExtraTitanian]

The learning curve is extremely linear and everything is extremely straightforward. That's why it's so approachable, the goal is to get resouces and make stuff. And use that stuff to make other stuff. If you don't want to make a sprawling complex where everything is automated, you're not required to, but if you want to, there's nothing wrong with that either. :D

[AlexMBrennan]

exactly its easy

And yet a lot of people keep coming here, asking questions about fairly "easy" mechanics so maybe it's not as easy as we think?

You should be fine if you play the tutorial ("First steps" campaign), and possibly the the regular campaign - you can copy setups that work to get you started before you start working out ways to get things done more efficiently.

[Qlimax]

YES, the game will always tell you what you need to build each item including the raw cost too and you can auto-craft any items from hand if you only have the raw material in hand

[Fel]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

exactly its easy

And yet a lot of people keep coming here, asking questions about fairly "easy" mechanics so maybe it's not as easy as we think?

You should be fine if you play the tutorial ("First steps" campaign), and possibly the the regular campaign - you can copy setups that work to get you started before you start working out ways to get things done more efficiently.

That's why I said that it depends on the person.

Similarly, the "learning curve is extremely linear and everything is extremely straightforward", quite a lot of people hit a fairly big wall when they reach oil, when they make rail transportation, when they start using the robots for more than the basic transportation from assembler A to assembler B, when they want to make efficient belts (and in 0.15, when they want to make efficient nuclear power).

On the other hand, depending on your past game experiences, some or it (maybe even all of it) can be extremely obvious, to the point where you can end up looking down on people that can't get it even after being answered.

[Qlimax]

I think its fair to say that it is easy to pickup but can be overwhelming late game when you have to think how you want to place everything

[Zoidfreak]

I'd put it like this:

The concept of Factorio is indeed simple: Set up a factory to make the stuff that you need.

The conponents which this involes are: Transport systems, Inserters(loading and unloading), machines that make stuff and resorces; both raw, intermidiate and final products.

So in esseance there's relativly few interacting components BUT the way that they can all interact and the interconnected needs of so many parts of the production in order to achive a final product (which might also spend resources) is where the true complexity of the game lies, that and figuring out how to balance everything in order to satisfy the needs of production.

Especially since there are many ways to accomplish the same goal.

[Tomasz79]

That actually soundas great - it sounds like it can be played with more or less depth depending of players aspirations. Once you learn the basics, there is more stuff to do/learn, extra layer(s) of complexity to explore.

[Proteus]

Originally posted by Qlimax:

I think its fair to say that it is easy to pickup but can be overwhelming late game when you have to think how you want to place everything

This!

Especially if you plan on having a certain amunt of efficiency (i.e. combining multiple production lins into one) it can be a really expansive planning task for which it is helpful to either use pen & paper, or Excel& Visio on another computerr, in ordeer to visualize the multiple interdependencies (and ratios) f the resourcees and intermediate products, each workstation neds

[ShutEye_DK]

Originally posted by Tomasz79:

I'm wondering - is this a game one can just jump into, go through some ingame tutorials and just have fun quickly, or there are hours of learning curve to even get anywhere?
I imagine it may be hard to master :) But can it be overwhelming to a new player for some time?
I am aware of free demo btw and downloaded it today, but not sure when I'll get time to get to it.

Easy to play small, extremely hard to master.

Until you hit 250+ hours you're a noob. But a happy noob :D

Edit: I've 500+ hours and have not laid out a single rail hehe.

[Demonic]

we all are noobs in some way

[Factorio]

Easy to pick up, hard to master.