Mindustry vs. Factorio

[Photon]

The title is not meant to trigger anyone, I promise. O_O

I've been a long time fence sitter for Factorio. It looks like it could be fun but I found myself concerned about whether or not the optimization loop would eventually get too tedious or too grueling. I DO enjoy some optimzation, but I'm the kind of guy who likes to play with concrete goals and goalposts as well.

I just recently found a game called Mindustry that people in the reviews were calling "Factorio-lite" and thought it was worth a try. I enjoyed solving some of the logistic problems but I found it getting heavily outweighed by the "resource hoarding" feel that it has; set up your factory and let it run while you defend it. On top of that, having to leave my bases behind and rebuild the same basic setup every time I land doesn't scratch my creativity itch very well. I found myself wanting more long-term optimization and logistical problem-solving, or at least some that felt like it mattered in the long run.

Maybe I'm not giving Mindustry enough credit, but based on my experiences, does Factorio sound like something I should finally go ahead and buy?

[Revortha]

I'm not good at making recommendations one way or another but though i would point out there is a demo for factorio.

Edit: don't know how up to date the demo is.

[Fel]

Mindustry is more of a small scale infrastructure you make in order to fuel your defenses, with a fairly heavy emphasis on the combat part.
It's not a bad game in itself, especially for those that are not well versed in this genre but it remains as a game half-way between a full game and a browser game in term of scope and complexity (on the other hand the price is low so it definitely has its place).

Compared to that factorio barely has any combat (you can easily out-tech the enemies and be defended forever with fairly little infrastructure in the mid-late game).
The enemies are optionnal and only meant to keep you going deeper in the tech tree, and the only real goal there is to guide you is to launch a rocket (not technically the end of the game but nearly the end of the tech tree, what you do after that is self-imposed goals).

Outside of the enemies attacking your base (which is not random but based on when the pollution from your base reaches their nests) there are no events that are usually there to spice things up.
No machine will randomly break down, no enemy base will magically pop out, everything has its rules that are predictible and will always work the same in the same situation.

Even machines only have 3 tiers for a few of them and only 1 for most, there isn't an emphasis on always having to upgrade your existing machine every few technologies researched.
You still need to increase your production as you have more and more demand due to the new recipes you unlock so you end up having to expand your infrastructure several times.

The scale and complexity of the crafting chains tends to be higher in factorio, meaning that solving your own logistical problem and optimizing your base is the very core of the gameplay.
It's not like you can't brute-force (and you probably will in your first map or two at least) but you have a decent amount of tools at your disposal, each with its strengths and weaknesses, so how far you want to go with optimization is up to you.

With circuit network (this game's take on logic gates) you can complexify things immensely since you can "program" your base to some extent, especially when you combine that with belts, logistics robots and trains all working together to get the most out of each.

And if after learning the game you find that the crafting chains are too simple, there are a few different sets of mods with widely more complex chains (and loops) that are dead set against the very concept of simple ratios or single recipe chains for the same result.
For example, bob and angel's mods have multiple chains for the same iron plates, with different ingredients, machines, side products and efficiency, with more complex chains usually being better but also much trickier to properly set up.


Basically, if you enjoy the idea of making your "factory" yourself without the limits on space that most of these game impose on you and to have to deal with all of the logistics problems that pop out because of how you built things, this game will become a time vampire that borders on drugs.
But it's not necessarily the best game ever for everyone, especially for the people that are dead set against mods because the base game is made with a clear vision from the devs that doesn't include feature creep or content creep, so when you want more than what the base game has to offer you have to turn to mods.
There are people that have played several thousand hours without touching mods a single time so it's not like the base game is empty but usually there is a time where you kind of wish there was a bit more of X or Y (it can be combat, complexity of the crafting chains, amount of resources...).

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

factorio is gearing yourself up but missing enemies. It also does the gearing up with complex routing and piping. Enemy attacks are based on pollution over time or if you get too close. There's also logic systems to power up lights and stuff. It's basically minecraft on creativity mode minus enemies (or they got enemies but not as threatening.

Resources aside from oil and water are limited which means you gotta outsource to the edges of the maps for more resources. Makes up for in more space to build and space out.

mindustry is a less complex tower defense styled game. It is wave based but can also be based on getting too close to each other. Each couple of waves like 30-40 you get a mega enemy a boss that requires more work to defend. Also building isn't automatic you gotta build everything yourself with blueprints early on vs using schematics in mindustry and your fighter automatically places everything. It's basically star craft but less graphics or better yet lego mars mission + enemy waves. You build up each defenses and buildings for more enemies each wave and bosses every handful of waves.

Resources are plentiful and infinte. Space is the limiting factor.

Both use belts
both use pipes
both use power


in terms of mods factorio has more unique mods due to more open world concept. Though mindustry has the workshop part for steam not needing to go onto the original website for the game.


If i were to say Factorio focuses heavily on the building aspect vs mindustry which focuses more on the defense aspect.

Both are still sorta great but what one lacks the other has and it's a little annoying tbh. Both have their own charm but what one lacks the other makes up for. idk how to word it specifically like there should be a game that has BOTH (to the BASE game).


what else

multiplayer griefers run amock on mindustry sadly but in factorio you got 3 autosaves + you can go back to previous saves. Mindustry lacks that sadly once you ♥♥♥♥ up you ♥♥♥♥ up unless you get someone else to save the map and replay it for you.

Servers on Mindustry are few but mostly packed while Factorio normal servers are usually empty and modded ones filled alot.



research based or unlocks mindustry once you unlock something it stays while in factorio every new vanilla gameplay you gotta research everything from scratch.



lastly time no way to inc. factorio time but mindustry you can skip waves to get to the harder enemies as well as pause AND CONTINUE BUILDING on solo mode while factorio just pauses the game for multiplayer or singleplayer.


overall i'd say if you got the money get factorio if you don't stick to mindustry much cheaper and you can get a bundle for friends (i think it has a bundle if not the money you spent on factorio you can divide amongst other copies for friends).

[TheSuit]

You should also check out Satisfactory - its made by Coffee stain devs.
The game does require a decent rig if you are planning on doing multipalyer though.

Factorio is better if you like hyper optimization
Mindistury is better if you want something simple and Quick.
Satisfactory is better if you want something more sillier.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/satisfactory/home

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Publicado originalmente por Revortha:

I'm not good at making recommendations one way or another but though i would point out there is a demo for factorio.

Edit: don't know how up to date the demo is.

tru

mindustry has a pre released version online.

though i believe both aren't up to date.

[Fel]

Factorio's demo is based on 0.17 which is also the default version for the game so it is up to date.

[AlexMBrennan]

You can also get Mindustry free on Android and iOS. However, as an inevitable result of using touch controls on a tiny screen the resulting experience may not be representative of the PC version.

[PunCrathod]

Publicado originalmente por (TF2SP) Cake Clay Maker:

mindustry has a pre released version online.
though i believe both aren't up to date.

Publicado originalmente por AlexMBrennan:

You can also get Mindustry free on Android and iOS. However, as an inevitable result of using touch controls on a tiny screen the resulting experience may not be representative of the PC version.

The official non-steam pc download is this one https://anuke.itch.io/mindustry and it is both free and up to date. Just press download and click the "No thanks, just take me to the downloads" link.

Edit: Mindustrys official github is also completely public so if you want you can just download from there. Even the source is completely public. Also the official website for the game -> https://mindustrygame.github.io/

[hestekraft]

What I say to those who consider Factorio, Don't bother. You either love it at first sight or don't bother.

[hellatze]

factorio have big mod that support the game itself.

mindustry dont.

[Wen]

Publicado originalmente por hellatze:

factorio have big mod that support the game itself.

mindustry dont.

it does have bigs mod if i remeber correctly

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Publicado originalmente por Wen:

Publicado originalmente por hellatze:

factorio have big mod that support the game itself.

mindustry dont.

it does have bigs mod if i remeber correctly

It does. It actually has a whole website to mods. I think he meant the krastorio or bob mods/angel's mods

[Wen]

Publicado originalmente por (TF2SP) Cake Clay Maker:

Publicado originalmente por Wen:

it does have bigs mod if i remeber correctly

It does. It actually has a whole website to mods. I think he meant the krastorio or bob mods/angel's mods

oh okay

[^1Rs ^2=^0U^4?]

renamed 2 Truddel . . .