The Ending (Spoilers, obviously)

[Drib]

Okay! I saved the day! So to speak.

Spoilers, obviously, as the title says, ending spoilers, etc.

Anyway, aside from a very nice animation, it's kind of a nothing burger. I mean ADA presumably takes over the result of Project Assembly and a new ADA is instantiated, to absolutely no effect, and the Pioneer gets to just sit around alone on the planet until they die of old age I guess.

No payoff for the weird SAM/Mercer/Somersloop hive mind messages, no sense of helping humanity as a whole, though that could be predicted by the evil corporation vibe anyway.

I guess the idea is that the Pioneers are sort of a Von Neumann machine? Given that the end of the project involves "Biochemical Sculptor" items, and at least one tech description includes mention of clones, I assume the idea is that Ficsit lands a pioneer, they build up a factory, the assembly includes clones for more pioneers, and then it's sent out to seed another world. But to what end? I guess maybe it's just an AI programmed for infinite growth that lost the actual purpose ages ago?

Anyway, sort of an anticlimax, and it immediately removes any drive to continue with the factory, unless it's just to sink all your stuff so that you can have all the tickets and unlocks.

So i thought I'd ask other people's thoughts on the ending. For me, it's... fine, but lacks payoff for a lot of the threads set up during play.

[Ryuukaze]

When they said they decided that a big story was not possible without the rest of the game suffering, and they decided to do a smaller storyline, I realized it wouldn't be much.

But I *did* still think it'd be more than this. Other than the snark, I think this storyline was what we all imagined from day 1 when we were plopped onto a planet and told to build up massive amounts of stuff and send it to space.

Okay, they tried to misdirect with the "save the day" stuff, so we'd think the stuff would go to Earth, and not another new planet. Small twist. But ... Wow. So small.

I'm not mad, just disappointed.

But I'll admit that I prefer a small curated experience that lasts about 20 hours and has an interest plot/lore to the 150 hr factory-fest that this game chose to be. (The devs said 150hrs, not me.)

I honestly don't know how you'd force people to build such big factories if it didn't take that long, though, so it's not even wrong. And some people are clearly completely enthralled with it, so they know their audience.

But I'm definitely a plot guy, I guess.

[Belgerum]

I agree on many points. The ending felt really disappointing after all of the things that were required to reach it.

All of the effort I put into my factory was all seemingly pointless, as the only reason I was told to do it ("save the day") ultimately seemed to be false, and was rather just to perpetuate the cycle of pioneering planets. We never see any solid results of our efforts other than the "sendoff" animation. The player has no agency in their fate, nor does the result of lots of effort feel like a true reward.

And yes, a lot of plot threads and interesting aspects of the planet are just left completely uninvolved with the ending, which is dissapointing. Why doesn't the strange voice that ADA communicates with have some kind of reaction or dialogue about the "sendoff"? What about the crashed ships that are scattered across the map with hard drives? It just makes the entire journey to the endgame feel even more pointless since nothing that contributed to my progress mattered in the end.

And to that matter, since we are just left behind on the planet to continue building factories and doing as we please with the planet, is it really an "ending" at all? It doesn't feel like it. It feels like I just finished a questline or smaller goal, not the final storyline ending. Nothing changed. Nothing impactful happened. Usually the end of a game is meant to be memorable and climactic to help players look back on their time with the game fondly. But the ending of Satisfactory is just about the least memorable part of it for me, and it certainly didn't feel like a climax.

Makes me hope that they add more alternate endings or other options for concluding the story in future updates. Maybe if you communicate and build a friendship with the strange alien hivemind, they can give you some kind of alternate end condition than just completing Project Assembly? I dunno.

[Famine]

well, after you 'win', you can get a golden 'employee of the planet' mug, and then a golden factory cart.

aside from that, you can still hunt sloops, mercer spheres, hard drives, and just explore and build in general. and i have to say, actually getting some of these recipes is a real game-changer when you learn how to use them.

so now that i have noticed the mathematical advantage of water in ore processing, i need to completely redesign some factories. and at this point that means tons more blueprints. some parts of the learning process only happen after you get to a certain point after all.

[Green Cat]

As far as I can tell, the devs have issues with ending stuff.

There is no auto upgrade system, so everything upgrade 1 by 1 (aka no vision on how to take things further with automation).

the blueprints mk1 - mk3 are also a good example since people did bring up how time consuming it is to create everything one by one by one. Even if you can create 1, let's say, coal generator, you still need to manually create another copy, another, another, and of course, connect all the pipes, belts, and electric wires manually for every last one of them.

And what did the devs understood? increase it by a little.....

Trains: They look hyper mega advanced yet there is no "remove limiter" so they can go 200 - 500 kmh at the cost of more electricity.

And of course, the combination of the 2 i just mentioned: you still can't create a full unload or load train station that you can easily copy paste, but instead you need to create 1 by 1 (talking about the "unload" version)

The portals? Let me not even start with how annoying it is that you need to WAIT until it charged up... on top to constantly consume item to maintenance connection??? I played other games that had portals, they where the OP thing, the indication that you have reached end game and there is nothing more to do. Aka this "needs to constantly consume". You NEED to wait for it to Charge if you link up. only 1 connect instead of being able to chose where you want to be teleport. Aka instead of selecting to "link" you should be able to select where to arrive. So again, this also shows how they have difficulties understanding how to finish something.

And let me not even start with no 3rd flying jet pack/hover system. Aka something that constantly uses flue and does not need you to touch the ground to refill. OR the hover to actually use battery as an electric source

But, without any doubt, the greatest is by far: No wireless electricity system. Image building the Radar and everything in it's range is "connected" to wireless electricity.

This would save tens of hours.

And while the "no power" in advance settings does indeed save real life time. Sadly it does take away the joy of creating power networks and such. But then again, I had enough after 100 hours (normal game play) to wire everything and double if not triple check to find anything I missed.

BTW, as I did the collect all stuff, ADA did send some information to the alien we keep talking. Aka she essentially send herself to him since, as she communicates with him, she did mention over and over again that she is disappointing with humanity (the best example is when she said that humans fail to understand long term consequences, aka that even save the day will only buy short time since they don't do anything beyond profit making)

[Dwane Dibbley]

Its reversed world, where machine is leading and human is used as disposal unit to do the work.

But this kind of game is not rly about story...

[Dooma]

Well, to be honest, it was clear from the beginning that you are somehwat of a drone sent to do the manual labour. The whole bee hive flair is really pressed into ones face, starting with the basic color settings.
And that the humans are basically long dead already and we are just drones cloned by our AI Overlord ADA, really isn't that big of a surprise.
It would actually have been more of a surprise if one would have gotten the golden ticket home instead.
The story itself is nothing new, and there have already been made sci-fi movies with exactly the same topic in mind. (I think the name of the movie was "Moon", one should really watch it.) I certainly would've liked a little "wow-effect" and not what i guessed it would be from the start. It's like watching a crime series and already knowing who "did it"...

[Ryuukaze]

Originally posted by Dooma:

Well, to be honest, it was clear from the beginning that you are somehwat of a drone sent to do the manual labour. The whole bee hive flair is really pressed into ones face, starting with the basic color settings.
And that the humans are basically long dead already and we are just drones cloned by our AI Overlord ADA, really isn't that big of a surprise.
It would actually have been more of a surprise if one would have gotten the golden ticket home instead.

I don't think people are complaining that Ficsit treats us like cogs in a machine.

We're complaining that Coffee Stain didn't make us feel like we got a reward for an outstanding accomplishment that they feel should take a gamer 150 hours.

I know that the journey is the reward, etc etc. But that just isn't how people are wired, and ending the game with a disappointment seems bad.

[Rymorea]

I think the story is not written with ending. The small game The planet crafter story more well written with multiple endingins than this game. I hope devs add and correct the story more good in the future after fixing all bugs. Maybe a DLC ?!

[Drib]

Originally posted by Rymorea:

I think the story is not written with ending. The small game The planet crafter story more well written with multiple endingins than this game. I hope devs add and correct the story more good in the future after fixing all bugs. Maybe a DLC ?!

Planet Crafter was pretty solid for what it was. I mean it definitely shows its indie, low-budget looks, but it was a pretty fun and interesting little experience.

[Pyro Penguin]

the story was always a lie

[Mighty Joe Young]

Originally posted by Famine:

well, after you 'win', you can get a golden 'employee of the planet' mug, and then a golden factory cart.

aside from that, you can still hunt sloops, mercer spheres, hard drives, and just explore and build in general. and i have to say, actually getting some of these recipes is a real game-changer when you learn how to use them.

so now that i have noticed the mathematical advantage of water in ore processing, i need to completely redesign some factories. and at this point that means tons more blueprints. some parts of the learning process only happen after you get to a certain point after all.

all due respect that has nothing to do with the story this post is talking about lmao

[Drib]

Well, at least it's not just me being dissatisfied. Good to hear I'm not just missing something or being a grumpy old man about it.

Ending was a bit bland but I thoroughly enjoyed the game regardless, so I can't really complain.

[spitnaz]

I was expecting some sort of twist where the AI was going to destroy the earth, but I have mixed feelings about the ending.

When the final animation was happening, I enjoyed the "I made that feeling." And when it ended and I was left alone on the planet without purpose, I think that disappointment was an experience appropriate to the game story, so even if unpleasant, oddly satisfying, if you know what I mean. Also, I was about ready to be done, so it was the right length for me. All in all, I'm satisfied with the save the day ending.

I did complete all the research, so I was disappointed that there seemed to be no conclusion or payoff to the alien technology. That felt unfinished.

[Drib]

Originally posted by spitnaz:

I did complete all the research, so I was disappointed that there seemed to be no conclusion or payoff to the alien technology. That felt unfinished.

Same. ADA even stops talking after like 30 or 40 of them. Sometimes they comment on the MAM research, even seeming uncomfortable with some of the actions, but yeah, then it fizzles with no resolution and no commentary from them.

It's very odd. I like the weird speech pattern that the aliens use, but the lack of any kind of conclusion is galling.

[kosmikza]

Originally posted by Pyro Penguin:

the story was always a lie

But not even any cake!