Struggling to understand what this game is

[MrPlowjoy]

I see a lot of people say its a "Factory" game. So what is that? What's the purpose of the game? Do you have quotas to make? If so, do you get rewards? Penalties? Is there a talent tree?

In Co-Op how do players differ, in terms of abilities?

Is there PvE? How does that affect the factory? Tower defence? What sort of creatures?

Is there day and night? Survival elements like food, water, weather?

It's all so vague, yet it looks so interesting and I want to support devs who do good work. I just don't want to buy it expecting one thing, then get another.

[cswiger]

A factory game involves making production lines which convert raw materials like ore into finished products. Yes, you have production quotas to make which earn rewards. There are no penalties and you can take as long as you want to progress to the next tech level. There is a tech tree and some of that unlocks new gear or otherwise improves your character.

Players don't differ. There is no intentional PVE; you can kill another player, but you don't get anything for doing so.

There is no tower defense, but other factory games like Factorio do have that.
There is aggressive wildlife which you can fight, but creatures don't attack buildings.

There is day and night. There is food which can be used to heal from damage, but you don't have survival meters which keep falling over time. There is water, but that is used by the factory for coal/steam generators and later for advanced production lines. There is (or was?) rain.

[LoonyToons]

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

I see a lot of people say its a "Factory" game. So what is that? What's the purpose of the game? Do you have quotas to make? If so, do you get rewards? Penalties? Is there a talent tree?

In Co-Op how do players differ, in terms of abilities?

Is there PvE? How does that affect the factory? Tower defence? What sort of creatures?

Is there day and night? Survival elements like food, water, weather?

It's all so vague, yet it looks so interesting and I want to support devs who do good work. I just don't want to buy it expecting one thing, then get another.

Its a factory game with some progression, this means setting up your ore miners, to making basic things like ingots to progress the progression tree to unlock better and bigger factory machines like refineries and such.

Yes there is PvE if you wish it (can be turned to off so only mobs attack you if you hit them first),doesn't really affect factory process, hogs,spiders and a creature similar to the one from the Cloverfield film (the big monster not the little ones).

Also a very tame form of PvP if you play with others but nothing major that affects gameplay

Day night cycle yes apart from that no. You do have health to manage though requiring food/med packs

[Warlord]

Purpose: To advance in tech. For most of the gameplay, you have an objective of providing "X" amounts of certain item to a giant space elevator. Doing this unlocks a new tier of research that unlocks more advanced buildings, which let you make new items (or more efficiently make old things better). Use these new items to unlock the next tech tier. Overall, that is pretty much it. There is no "reward" other than having new things to play with. You can unlock more cosmetics, if your fancy turns to making pretty buildings or factory designs. No penalties either, if you take your time then you take your time.

Co-op: No special abilities per player. Each player can run around, make their own base, or contribute to the same base as you are. Each player can equip items differently, which you might consider to be "different" in terms of abilities, but that's it. The tech tree is a combined tree, so there is no "competition" in terms of racing to finish the tech tree before your friend.

PvE: throughout the world, resource nodes are generally protected by monsters. These monsters passively stand where they are and attack you on site. But there is no base defense, and no tower defense. They are simply an obstacle for you to overcome to expand your base resources. Creatures are: basically a Rhino, a dog that spits fireballs at you, spiders, and a nest that sends out annoying flying kamikaze flies.

Day/Night: Yes. The sun advances fairly fast, cycling from day to day in about.... half an hour, I'd say? Depending on the biome, it can rain, but it's cosmetic only. There are food items, but they are exclusively used for regenerating health, which you lose due to monsters or the game's worst enemy: gravity. No food/thirst bars.

Basically, it's one of a kind of game that you either will really LOVE, or the kind of game where you wonder what the fun is all about. A game similar to this (eerily similar) is Factorio, which has a demo.

[Vault Traveler]

Technically speaking its more a puzzle game.

[Jack-o-Lantern]

Also consider that it's missing (for now) a story that will be available at launch release

[sandrastarling]

Okay I'll try. I only have about 300 hours in the game but have yet to get past the 4th or 5th tier in construction, maybe I'm on the 6th now I can't recall. You are pretty much looking for resources, building or producing products (Iron ore - iron ingot ) etc. Once you produce enough of certain items you send them off and unlock new things to make (Iron sheets, plates, Iron beams, etc,etc.).

The goal is gathering those resources in an efficient manner. automating as much as you can, and unlocking new things. That is pretty much the goal. No food or water but you do need to heal. Monsters are more of a pain than anything. If you have played any FPS or RPG games you should be able to figure it out.

This developer is on update 8 and is dedicated to the project from my personal observations.
Update 8 allows us to play more "the way you want" so I'm thinking for starting a completely new game with no unlocks on tech and some more fun things less fighting things.

I'd go watch a few "let's play" style Youtube videos if you can't decide. I have enjoyed all my time playing and have goofed up plenty (including dumping my ride into a lake miles from my base) and still have fun.

Good luck, lets hear how it goes if you try it.

[Zak]

This is not a combat oriented game. You can fight some hogs, that's all. You can even turn that off. Combat is irrelevant in this game. No base defense at all and it will never get added according to the devs. So if you expect any pew pew action then this is not a game for you.

This is not a survival game either, no survival elements.

No talent tree. No skill progression. You just unlock tiers with new research and technologies and add slots to your inventory. One might argue it's kind of like skill progression, but this is as far as that goes.

It's all about building factories and automating production lines from resource extraction to the final product and it's played from first person perspective.

Watch some YT videos to get a better idea.

It's also work in progress so some thing may change still.

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

I see a lot of people say its a "Factory" game. So what is that?

A "factory game" is one wherein the primary game loop is focused on manufacturing.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

What's the purpose of the game?

Like Factorio, one could say "the factory must grow". The "official" goal is to progress your manufacturing capabilities through the tiers, sending products up the space elevator.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

Do you have quotas to make? If so, do you get rewards? Penalties?

There are production requirements to unlock further manufacturing abilities, but they are not time-limited; there is no failure, merely delay. The rewards are the ability to produce more advanced products in more advanced machinery; the "penalties" are merely that you cannot build the more advanced machinery and produce the higher-tier items until they are unlocked.

One could say it's very much a "set your own pace" experience.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

Is there a talent tree?

No talent tree, per se, but there are multiple manufacturing paths to follow, unlocked through the HUB and the MAM.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

In Co-Op how do players differ, in terms of abilities?

Players do not differ in abilities; "more workers is more workers". That being said, one player might enjoy exploration/traversal or non-automated resource gathering (food and a few other resources not directly related to manufacturing can not be automated), where another might feel right at home (pun intended) with base/factory building.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

Is there PvE? How does that affect the factory? Tower defence?

There are many indigenous creatures, with varying degrees of danger to the player... but they have absolutely no impact on the factory itself.
Tower defense is not a thing, and the devs have stated it won't be. Similarly, we have been assured that "building maintenance/repair" will never be a thing.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

What sort of creatures?

There are not as many variations as some might like, but there are at least 4 major "types", varied by the biome they live in. There are also variations in size and strength of most archetypes. I'll leave discovering the specifics as an exercise for the reader.

Players differ wildly in their opinions and estimations of combat difficulty... but you will encounter many opportunities to engage the local fauna should you choose to do so. You can also choose to never engage in combat, if you are observant (and perhaps quick on your feet) enough; you can choose to "build around them" in most cases, should you prefer. It really is almost entirely up to you how much interaction with the locals occurs.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

Is there day and night?

Yes, although having multiple stars in the local system blurs the lines between "night" and "day" somewhat.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

Survival elements like food, water, weather?

Food is solely a health restorative. No buffs, no debuffs, no starving.
There is water, but we can not actually swim. We can travel along the surface, but cannot swim "down".
Weather is limited to occasional rain storms, which (to my knowledge) have no impact on gameplay other than reduced visibility.

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

It's all so vague, yet it looks so interesting and I want to support devs who do good work. I just don't want to buy it expecting one thing, then get another.

The devs have definitely done good work. The controls feel good, with "jank" almost never being a thing (with some notable exceptions, if you count vehicles). The visuals are excellent; I've lost count of how many times I've unconsciously stopped what I was doing to simply stare into the distance as I discover a new vista.

Watch a few gameplay videos and/or streams and see if you get excited to do some of the things yourself... or just buy it and see. If you enjoy it, it's well worth the price; many of us have hundreds of hours of gameplay, if not thousands. If you don't enjoy it, you will most likely know before you finish the tutorial (ie, in time to get a refund if that's your choice).

[Endolymp]

I´m assuming you havent played Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program or games like that.
You progress in the sense that you get new equipment, new buildings and better items.

You can compare it to advancing through different stages of the game.
One upgrade line might look like this: First you have power generated from wood/Leaves, then biofuel, compressed biofuel and finally you unlock coal power, which lasts through most of the midgame. Later you unlock oil and different fuel types it converts into and the end of all is nuclear power.

To progress you need to mostly automate the ressources of your current tier, since you need lots of them to advance to the next science tier. Each tier you unlock multiple new buildings or items to use ressources better or faster. Designing manufacturing lines is a big part of this game.

You are guided fairly well on what to do next, but the main focus of a factory game is designing a factory that turns an input into an output as efficient as possible.

[MrPlowjoy]

Wow, blown away by the reasonable and helpful comments.

I've never played a Factory game, so that's where my questions really stem and useful to know that the PvE element is largely peripheral.

Thanks for taking the time, everyone. I'll take a look at some videos next.

[orthostatic]

Originally posted by MrPlowjoy:

Wow, blown away by the reasonable and helpful comments.

I've never played a Factory game, so that's where my questions really stem and useful to know that the PvE element is largely peripheral.

Thanks for taking the time, everyone. I'll take a look at some videos next.

Hope you enjoy it. I've definitely had more than enough enjoyment for what I spent to play this in Early Access, and I'm looking forward to what comes next for it. And yeah, PVE is most definitely peripheral such that you can tell the game to turn hostiles docile, so you can beat them up to farm their materials if you want and do so at nearly zero risk. (Nearly zero because occasionally they are radioactive, and radiation still stings you.)

Cheers.

[Remnar]

The game is enjoyable up to a point. Then you realize there is no point to the game. It'd be different if you were building parts to build a space ship, or a jump gate, or something cool to set your final goal on. But nope, you get to buy a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mug.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Remnar:

The game is enjoyable up to a point. Then you realize there is no point to the game. It'd be different if you were building parts to build a space ship, or a jump gate, or something cool to set your final goal on. But nope, you get to buy a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mug.

Have you played around in a sandbox when you were a kid? There was no point either, just your imagination. Somehow many people lose that imagination when they grow up...

[LoonyToons]

Originally posted by Remnar:

The game is enjoyable up to a point. Then you realize there is no point to the game. It'd be different if you were building parts to build a space ship, or a jump gate, or something cool to set your final goal on. But nope, you get to buy a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mug.

Technically speaking there's no real point in any game except for the satisfaction of reaching it's built in/player set end goal. Gaming is a hobby, something to pass the time between finishing work in the evening (unless your a night shift worker or a late finisher) and going to sleep to get up and repeat the cycle over again.

[Doctor Zalgo]

Originally posted by Vault Traveler:

Technically speaking its more a puzzle game.

I wouldn't call it a puzzle game so much as a systems engineering game. There's a guide from a systems engineer in the guides section that I thought was quite well done.