What does make Factorio a game for 1000+ hours?

[Mike Falcon]

I'm quite interested on giving Factorio a try, but I can't really find that "ingredient" that makes this game so much replayable.

No need to tell me that gameplay, atmosphere is unique etc. - on that I truly belive you. But all I see is a game where you try to flee from that planet by building your small factory empire step by step.

And here's what makes me wonder - every time you start new game, isn't everything the same all over again? Finding resources, fighting monsters, building factory and running on the space rocket? What makes you stay in this game for so many hours and still find it enjoyable? Are there many other options and things to do?

Would love to hear your opinions and hopefully become one day part of Factorio family!

[knighttemplar1960]

Each new map brings a new challenge. Where are the resources? What is the terrain like? What do I need to be careful of? What can I take advantage of? Last time I played I did "X" how can I do it differently this time and is that better or worse?

For additional challenges you can change the start setting on the map. You can make resources poorer and farther apart. You can vary the terrain and make a "mountainous" world or a lakes world or a "mountainous" world with many lakes. You can change the speed the biters evolve and make them more dangerous more quickly. You can increase their sensitivity to pollution. You can increase the numbers that gather before attacking your factory. You can make it easier for them to expand.

The mechanics of the game stay the same. You can think of them as the "rules." There are lots of ways to vary the game even without mods. Which makes each game different.

[Zamber]

Factorio is one from just few games in which im not bored when i start everything from zero again and most time playthrough looks the same.
But for me vanilla is unplayabe after this few thousands hours (i play a lot before steam times).
My traditional setup of mods is long enough to go up 500hrs on single save.

But i always love games in which u can spend lots of hours and hoard crapload of "items" in "inventory" so i will always love come back to it start from zero and dont mind that game is without any goal for finish it.
If You like such games You will enjoy it, if not then simply You wont find lot of "playability" here.

[Shurenai]

It basically boils down to 'what can YOU think of to do in a sandbox?', imo.

Using Factorio as the comparison here, There are some people for whom launching the rocket is the end of their save- Because they no longer have a pre-defined goal for them to continue to strive for, and they can't or won't give themselves goals after that point. So for them...Factorio ends after 20 hours. Or 15, or 8, or when they have all the achievements. Once the pre-defined goals are done, they're done. They might make a new save, and spend 20/15/8/whatever more hours doing it a second time, but, they'll do it largely the way they learned the first time instead of experimenting.


Then there are people who want to do it better- Who want to make a factory as cramped and compact as they can; Or vice versa, spaghetti all over the place. Who tweak things with each playthrough to see what is better or worse. Who impose limitations on themselves like never using belts; Or only using rails and trains to transfer items. Or the 'Meiosis' style of play where you use trains exclusively to transfer materials around, and every train stop produces precisely one type of item- No more, No less. So you have to ship -all- types of items around to every which way, and figure out the logistics of doing so.

Or the people who play with increasingly cramped ribbon worlds- How thin can it be made and still succeed? How can I plan a factory within 100 vertical tiles? 50? 25? 10? Is it even possible to do it at 10 or less? I don't know- But I'll try. Because it's interesting to try.

Or the people who play death worlds- Or marathon deathworlds. Do you know how much harder it is to beat the game when just outside your starting zone is basically a literal solid wall of biters? It's rough.


If you can impose challenges, goals, or other things to try on yourself, You'll get thousands of hours of play out of Factorio- More if you include mods.

But...If you can't, you'll probably play for a few hundered, at best, before feeling like any additional time spent in the game is fruitless.