Factorio is much more like software development. Especially when you notice that your earlier assumptions were wrong and you need to refactor your base, tearing down all the stuff you build earlier.

And the fact that the dev has a weekly newsletter with dev updates, that helps

FFF (Factorio Friday Facts)

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-432

Today will be the last FFF before the expansion launches next week.

It's NEXT WEEK?! That made me so happy I got goosebumps. I gotta take some vacation days.

And not just next week, but Monday next week!

I'm off every Monday! So let's hope it's morning at my place when it drops.

More like you need to be off every October and November to start playing the expansion when it drops.

Factorio Space Age countdown

https://vojtykcz.funsite.cz/factorio-expansion-countdown/

see you in another year!!!11

I’ve tried Factorio and could never get into it … Satisfactory on the other hand is a game where I can look at the time and realise I should of had lunch two hours ago

I really want to try factorio, but now I usually see games as non-productive activity (that's my problem and I know it, in my defense, I've already spent way too much time gaming in college and did nothing), I wonder if factorio can make my software skill better in terms of designing and critical thinking, if that's the case, I would love to have fun and practice as well

Factorio is definitely good for your brain - it rewards focus, refactoring, problem solving, linear thinking... But yes, in the end, it's non-productive in any physical sense.

A weekend of watching movies/shorts feels way worse than a weekend growing the factory. It's definitely a step up, but the best would be to get out of the house more often besides going to the office.

One day at a time (recovering from a lot of past emotional pain).

It's a great game but if you play it you WILL get addicted. Approach it with the care you would have when trying a new recreational drug.

Non-productive activity time is a Good Thing that improves everybody's life when done in moderation. At least Factorio is generally better than drinking, doomscrolling, or gambling in terms of social responsibility.

Factorio.

As a developer, I'd never thought I'd like to solve for getting off the planet, fighting monsters, building trains and tracks while trying not to pollute too much.

The last part is a truly unrealistic

If you find pollution is not a challenge, try a deathworld run. If you can already beat a normal deathworld - turn down trees/moisture, turn up pollution diffusion ratio; then you can add rampant, armored biters, bob's enemies, etc. I recommend the infinite ore patches mod as well, you will be defending the starter patch for a veeery long time.

My favourite recent challenge was "New Game +", you start with all tech (perhaps except damage upgrades) unlocked, but biters also start at 1.0 evolution. You technically don't need any science to launch a rocket, but you still have to figure out how to build a mall (and enough defences) before triggering a single attack.

Factorio is an excellent tower defense game!

> Factorio is an excellent tower defense game!

It really is, isn't it. You're incentivized to protect every last thing, not because of some arbitrary points system, but because they're all part of a big, interconnected system that needs to work in order to survive.

In my book, Factorio is up there at the top of best games of all time.

I'm expecting a large dropoff in HN activity when the new expansion releases

I'm half expecting FAANG stocks to move downwards as engineer productivity takes a hit.

Hedge funds currently trying to work out how long they expect the developers to be enthralled with the Factorio update.

I’ve played a lot of factorio but it did eventually get old for me.

In the same vein I am enjoying shapez (search for the free web version) and shapez2

There are a lot of Factorio overhault mods!

DoshDoshington is my favorite youtuber for this type of things, really intresting and the engineer mind that he has is fascinating

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgQ39dt3Qmc

See also DocJade, Ryan Brown and Venzer

I don't know, but I have to say I was surprised how quickly this one took off, esp. given it's the middle of the night across the U.S. :)

is Civ big on HN? I rarely see it mention. Its my favorite, so would love to find people here who enjoys it as well

Please don't drag me back in, I've already lost a good chunk of my twenties to that game

Did you see the Civ VII announcement? ;)

There goes my thirties too I guess

Considering how Civ' impacted my student years, I wowed to never touch it again. I thought I would never suffer addiction - I was wrong.

I like tetris. I found these two to be the most fun for me:

- https://www.goodoldtetris.com/ - http://farter.cn/tetr.js/

First one is "NES-style" with fast lock in, no ghost and so forth. Second one is for fast play, with ghost and no fast lock-in. I have no clue about current tetris, but i think that's the modern style, no???

Edit: I believe tetris friends was the website where i started playing more tetris some years ago and the version from farter came closest to it, after it got shut down

My vote goes to Oxygen Not Included

I want to love that game, but it has sharp corners that you only discover with time, and that require painful workarounds. Factorio devs, on the other hand, actively eliminate almost every such case, making the playtrough just pure bliss

That's something I have noticed with a lot of really good games. The edges are all lovingly smoothed off by hand. It's a lot of work.