What motivates players to build such huge factories?

[bigulator]

I commonly see screenshots of people with pretty big bases and factories in general, even megabases. I don't have nearly the motivation (or brains) I would require to build such huge bases, but what makes those who do? I assume it's the addictive nature of this game, but I want to hear an honest answer.

[brian_va]

because i could and hadn't before. fairly stable 9K/min science and 60 fps, granted there are performance enhancing mods.

[Fel]

Because we can?

One of the big frustrations for me in other games are the very tight limits they put on you (space, available resources, money...).
In this one you can continue to expand and still have a functionning factory.

You can continue to research faster and faster, send rockets up more often and such.

You can also do it because you want to admire a sprawling factory, with busy belts, inserters, robots and trains.

[knighttemplar1960]

I do it because its fun to have all parts of a huge factory tuned and working as designed. Additionally all the research is done and I don't have to hand mine and hand place objects any more like I would if I started a new nap. Occasionally I'll start a new map but that usually when my UPS on my megabase has dropped below 30.

[Supreme Penguin]

Its simple, there's only one rule to live by: The factory must grow.

[Jan]

The challange to solve all the logistic puzzles that come with building a xxxx k science/min factory.

Building everything freely step by step and launch one rocket is easy. Planning a megabase is a completely different approach to the game.

And most of all: Even if it seems hard to build a megabase, after you understand that everything comes down to a few easy concepts (mostly the same for every factory simulation), you understand the true beauty of those games.

[Geirfinna Lieselotte]

Because it's allowed by the laws of thermodynamics3

Well it's the same reason we like to have big numbers when playing RPGs, or big cities when playing city builders.

[Calisthra]

Once you learn the basics, there's a natural tendency to tune up the older parts of your base. A mega-base is simply put a further extension of that fine tuning. Not that your first 1k base is anything resembling 'easy'. There is certainly a feeling of supreme accomplishment when you finally see those production stats rise to your goals.

[「๖Vɪɴʏʟ」]

The factory must grow.

[RiO]

Because the factory must grow.
Play long enough and you'll start to realize that's not so much a statement of a wish or desire, as it is an unavoidable absolutism. There's a reason this game is called crack for engineers.
At some point, you just can't help yourself any more. It just has to get ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TtA0chzLac

[kevinshow]

I haven't felt the need for a megabase-style base, but I did feel a need to get science per minute up a little more than just want I got, when I launched a single rocket.

What that showed me was that there was still another aspect to the game play that I wouldn't have thought about, if I had just been content with rocket launch as the end-goal.

In a similar way, I think there is still other parts and aspects of the game that would be needed/required to learn, to get to the mega-base level. In short, it means that there are still some hidden parts of the game that some players want to learn and understand and have under their belt. For them, they can keep going.

On the other hand, if a player is content with just some part of the game and be content to move on or even go to another game and repeat similar things again, then that's what they would get out of the game also, and be content about it.

[Sunsphere11]

Because there are always bottlenecks in your factory to fix, you fix a bottleneck and the factory grows bigger, but now there's a new bottleneck to fix, which makes the factory bigger again, and so on and so on. It's a small trickle of problems and solutions that adds up over time, and before you know it you've spent another hundred hours in the game.

[RibaldC]

the bigger the better; somehow it must be possible to get to 30 fps

[Deagle Trainee]

I've only tried the demo, and didn't build too large in it. But from what I remember, for me, the need to make resource gathering and production more efficient is what motivated me to try and do more.

[Seed]

I have to teach the computer to use his ressources

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Supreme Penguin:

Its simple, there's only one rule to live by: The factory must grow.

The factory must grow to support the growing factory.

What motivates me personally to build on a large scale is necessity. End game "stuff" like rocket parts and space science have a very low return on investment, requiring large-scale supporting infrastructure to run them at a decent pace. Every time that end-of-the-line production is increased, it requires an increase of the majority of preceding infrastructure - either in terms of optimisation or just building more stuffs.