Idea to bring in friends

[Rhabarberbarbar]

Hi,
i would describe myself as a casual Factorio player, who enjoys a run every 18 month or so.
I dont care about finishing, i enjoy the force that pushes you through the game.
During the existence of the base game, it was fine for me to cash in for a friend to get him to play with me or friends would buy the game themselves, if i was convincing enough. But seeing the stable price tag of 'Space Age' that comes ontop of the base game, i think i will never convince anyone to play with me again, if the price hurdle stays this high.
If thats ok with the development team and the publisher, that is completely fine for me, but i wonder if i am the only casual player who struggles that way.
The grind alone is a little too much for a single player imo, but getting no one to spend that much money (understandably), strikes out the option of playing with friends.
So in the end i paid much money for a game i will play less and less.

My suggestion would be a Buddy-Pass or smt like that, which you can lend to a friend, that may play alongside you. This way, i as the Factorio-lover see a point in playing again and my playthrough-mate has the chance of playing a round whithout having the price-tag-entry-hurdle and the chance of getting hooked and convinced, that the game is worth all the money, in which case the developer and publisher will win another customer.

You could argue, that you could started with only the base game, but for the person owning 'Space Age', it feels like a run through, where you are missing big parts of the experience, knowing what 'Space Age' has to offer.

Sorry for the broken english, its not my mother tongue.
Id love to here what other players think and if this gets enough attention, maybe we would even hear what the devs think about this.

Greetings