does the factory feel like a dead end to anyone else?

[alex.chesser]

So I've played a lot since release. It's fair to say that I'm enjoying the game overall, but I'm starting to feel like the factory portion of the game just feels like a dead end.

I've got a pipeline building all the way to cutlery 2 ... from forging the iron, through clay molds, all the way to assembling the boxes on two output stations.

the outputs don't really hit the targets of the weekly shopkeeper requests and the income from doing so doesn't really feel all that significant.

I'm feeling a bit "meh" around the idea of retooling the factory to start building the highest end product like applicances 2. Which in theory should be really fun - you've got to make wood kits and iron to build the crates, zombie power stations, steel tools etc...

On paper it's a really complex and fun puzzle to try and design for - but I feel like I could go through all that effort and still not hit the demands.

Is the game's intention that I build my factory to output a single product?

I think there needs to be a bit of rebalancing here to make it fun.

Could conveyor power be based on exit and delivery points so moving things around my factory costs less? Could smithy and assembly station outputs be boosted at the "product" level so hitting delivery goals is a bit more achievable? Could the factories have a few more usable items in their recipe list?

I think it would be fun to set up a factory JUST to build 20 master-work suits of armor & top end battle-bows.

I really don't know exactly what the solution here is. Just that for me, it feels like there's something "missing" in the factory phase of the game. Either that or I'm playing it wrong.