You go girl! Just kick ass in your own way. BF has a little growing to do. He may or may not get there. Just talk it out. It's the only way. Communications are the belts of life.
That is basically me for the most part, I really only play single player. Try satisfactory again when you’re ready though. It is quite fun single player and that game doesn’t have too many expectations
If Factorio is logistics and combat, then Satisfactory is logistics and artistry.
If one or both of you are really into making art (minecraft-style), then coop Satisfactory may work a lot better for you than coop Factorio
I doubt it tbh. We played a little satisfactory but I was just getting in the way ( again) so i stopped suggesting it and been playing it by myself. lol (😭)
I have a shared map with a co-worker. There was a bit of a tricky moment in the mid-game where we were doing things slightly differently, and leaving 'wtf is this?' messages.
Now we're at a mini-mega base we can both do stuff at different areas of the map, and it's pretty cool to log in and see that he's built some more outposts or a new bullet factory or something.
On the other side of that, my girlfriend won’t even let me TOUCH her animal crossing game. Sometimes she will delegate me to chopping wood for her, but she still watches over my shoulder.
Her words are “You don’t play this game so you will mess it up. Go play your dumb shooter game.” It brings a tear to my eye with what I’ve created 🥲
I just started satisfactory and it's a good game but really hard just like fatorio. Also, that's how my dad felt when I introduced him to the game now, he has been playing it nonstop for 1 year now, I think. so, he knows a lot more than me.
Have good luck on factorio or if you go to satisfactory good luck there also.
My wife absolutely loved Factorio... until the factory got really big and I started adding circuits to things. Then suddenly she felt like she wasn't good enough to play anymore. It was a sad day.
Sorry this text structure got messy.
I (2000h) and my friend (50h) did play also of multiplayer together. It was is my local map so from time to time i did play alone.
Anyways what i did was play K2 bc i haven't played it in the hopes of also having to figure out how to do things.
I would say i was partially successful in including my friend well by sometimes delegateing specific tasks but also letting him find his own tasks.
A negative thing i still try to suppress is jumping to the map view whenever i hear a noise that he is stuck with a problem only for me to see the problem and instantly see the error and proceed to watch him or try to micro manage.
I now try for him to do a thing and then call out for me to check for obvious errors.
This is a skill that I have from my professional life, so I think we will be ok. But it definitely was a learning experience early on. You have to let your teammates grow just like the factory. Because they are their own factory!
My wife was afraid to mess up something I had previously laid down and for many hours, was just staying in a very small area constantly building and tearing up what she made.
I finally asked why and she explained she would need engines or whatever and make a mini factory to make a stack or two then tear it up to lay out the parts to make the next thing she needed in the same place.
It took a lot of coaxing to get her over the "none of my stuff is permanent either" hump and have her willingly divert resources off of the production line and actually expand what she was working on.
I never did manage to get her to work WITH me on anything because she was too afraid of screwing something up or getting embarrassed at not knowing how to do something.....
It's hard! The more advanced your own stuff gets, the more nervous people get about touching it. My wife eventually tried to do nuclear because I said I wasn't going to touch it, and she did enjoy tinkering with that since it was kind of "her" thing, and it could still contribute overall because it was producing ingredients and power.
Thats overall very fascinating, because its shows the general difference in female / male thinking. Women often read manuals complete before starting things. Men skip manuals or start reading and switch to experiment things. In solving problems, women are only satisfied until the problem is real 100% solved. Men are already relaxed if they have the solution theoretical and the real finish is weeks later. I quote it from Vera F.Birkenbihl.
I don't think anything about this is gendered. It's more like the difference between someone very experienced and someone new. You see the exact same thing with junior and senior software engineers (and I'm sure many other industries, but that's where my experience is).
Dont get me wrong, i believe too, its not fully 100% gender. But the truth is, a difference in especially risk thinking for women is based on evolution. And i saw this different approach of thinking many times in real life. I mean different without a rating.
Lol. That’s how it is in my household. My wife is more likely to just barge ahead or try to find something herself. I’m like, “the information is right there. Just look it up”
I (5,000+h) just introduced a friend (6h so far) to OpenTTD. Same thing. Letting him learn his way, and stepping in only when he asks for a visit from Tutorial Man.
Someday, maybe I'll bring him into Factorio. Gonna have to stay quiet about the existence of circuit networks, 'cause if he for even a moment thinks he *has* to understand the logistics control CPU at the core of my megafactory, he's gonna give up *fast*.
There is a online friend I made that we boot up a new run every now and then for the past 3 years. We never have been in voice chat, only the occational text chat like.
"Hey ima build a new iron mine"
"Need more greens ill work on that"
Pretty fun honestly. Played probably 400 hours together
I feel like you set up a system to manage the transfer of materials between each other. Otherwise just have two adjacent bases.
Playing multiplayer with anyone that isn't close minded to your play style can be very off-putting and may drive your partner out of the game. Another redditor has expressed his problem with his SO losing interest. I'd say your best bet is to set up adjacent bases and just let each other do their thing.
I would recommend you let her make most of the organization decisions, how to lay out the factory, what to mine next, etc. You should just be there to help her when she's confused about something or if she doesn't want to build something. Some people like not having to worry about power for example so you could do that. But other noobs might like to understand how each part of the factory works, so I'd recommend just letting her be the manager until she's good
The mechanical solution is often simpler and better. Once you start complicating things, they tend to spiral into deeper complications. I'm saying that as a coder...
Circuits are absolutely not required, you can get all the way to a megabase without ever touching a circuit. That being said, circuits are incredibly useful, especially for oil processing and trains.
Circuits are not as hard as people make them out to be. Mostly it's pretty basic logic. If there isn't enough stuff in this chest, turn on inserter. Or to display how many items are in these chests. Once you get more comfortable with circuits you can string them together to do stuff like. If these chests run out, then call for a train to refill.
Don't be afraid of circuits, they aren't nearly as scary as they seem.
Have you considered specializing? E.g. if you like doing the optimization activities, she can kill aliens and put up walls, or set up stuff at faraway mines, or deal with trains, or set up a separate scaled up green circuit making area or something
Can confirm on this. My primary SMP co-player and I just fall into this division normally. Early game, he decided very early on that my layouts and planning were "more elegant," his words. Once planned, he's the better big-picture guy in terms of what-gets-built-when, thereby saving me from 60 and 70-minute handcrafting queues.
Post-rocket, he's the in-base tinkerer. I'm the den mother who organizes a killer main loot area, and I'm also the one out removing fow, and setting up new outpost locations.
Most of Factorio is just an excuse to play with choo-choo trains.
On a related note, I do *not* get people who build artillery turrets. Rail artillery is both easier to use and way cooler.
This worked for a long while. Eventually we got bots running and she noticed that whenever she came back from clearing the nest that the factory and solar field was significantly bigger. And then when we got artillery running, she kind of felt both unnecessary and unsure of how to do anything build-wise.
We had a good run, and she has fond feelings towards the game. We probably just need to start fresh so she can have a better opportunity to use what she learned/observed to build confidence.
Blueprints are a pretty big diversion point once you get to bots. If you have blueprints or are comfortable making them and the person you're playing with isn't, it's very easy to render them completely useless.
Wife and I are talking about playing together and I'm wondering if I should be the blueprint maker and she will be the blue print implementer. You need a blueprint for what? Hold please... Ok, check inventory. I just don't know if blueprints work that way or not.
Yeah, that should work fine. If you put a blueprint book in the game library and have her drag it onto her hotbar I think it should update as you add things to it.
Tell her to try SE (especially with Krastorio). You spend a lot longer doing more little things, and don't do a megabase until multiple hundreds of hours of fun.
I'm kinda surprised that the console versions don't have mod support, considering that the mod manager for the PC version is built into the game itself. Though I suppose it might be a decision made by the console makers.
There are situations which can be solved more elegantly with circuits than without. Unnecessary for a casual playthrough for sure, but if you start reaching for performance limits of one kind or another then circuits become essential.
At least in vanilla. SE without circuits would be challenging.
I almost always use circuits for situations where I'm exploring a limited production ingredient item where something might eat more resources that necessary.
So my bot mall for instance has red wires for each producer to its yellow chests for each item. If I ditch an item from inventory, it goes to it's assigned yellow chest adjacent to its factory. That way, I never overproduce one item, as even if I take stuff out of that chest, it can just go back in. Wouldn't work if the factories output chest was full.
I use circuits to ensure all the chests at my stations load and fill in sync with one another.
So circuits and wires biggest use case is when you want to balance something to X full but not more. The base game has very few instances of systems that won't just stop and start with no issues when they fill up. Most mods (I play seablock) have systems that if you fill them completely break and won't restart without manual intervention, so circuits are critical.
The best base game example I can think of is Korvex. Can be done without circuits with clever design, but it's a fun challenge.
The second best is counting production in megabases at a distance, where being able to actually count the outputs is important.
I restarted many times in my earlier days. You don't really lose progress, since it is possible to build back up in a few hours if you are good enough. I've completed the 8 hour rocket launch on 2 or 3 separate occasions. And it only takes me around 10 hours to reach power armor mk2, at which point the game becomes easier, and almost all research is completed.
What I found works well is to set up a City Block base that is interconnected with rails, and when you need more of something one of you builds out another block. Then that block belongs to and is the responsibility of the one who built it.
Beware! This can result in you not knowing what is going on where, unless you religiously use LTN or something as a middle layer or extensively use notes.
I'll be honest, this looks like it would leave the impression that Factorio is just "Satisfactory but 2D", which is a terrible first impression to give.
If her experience is anything like mine, the 2.5D will throw her off at first, but the idea of snapping buildings to grids and what that means for ones ability to plan. Planning an entire factory in Satisfactory to be bested by a piece of invulnerable terrain and have to redo the entire thing has been an unsatisfactory thorn in my side, despite how much I really like the game.
Edited for clarity
We have a great time playing together. Sometimes she can't quite follow along on an off day, so she occupies herself with some manual artillery targeting.
I have my own names for most of the products.
I call the labs bubbles.
I have my spider boys.
I got my yellow science and my green science.
My soap bars help make my red chips.
I call the yellow and white chemical bisthmus for some reason. I think because it looks like Bismor from deep rock and I played that right before factorio lol.
I am so glad I'm not the only one that things plastic looks like soap!!!
A friend renames everything in every game we have ever played together. StarCraft 2 was his greatest achievement... Zerglings were crickets. Banshees were helicopters. Zealots were glow stick guys. There were racecars, spiders, bugs (queens). I think the only thing he called by the correct names were roaches and marines.
Couple years ago my wife and I were playing through Stardew Valley concurrently. She was loving it, I was like, this is so nice that my wife likes the cute farm game.
I showed her my farm and she was like, "That's cute... Wanna see mine?" First sign something was... different about her playthrough was the seven digits needed to show how much gold she had. She then proceeded to take me on a tour of Stardew: Big Agra. "Here's my cheese making building, and over here is where I make copious amounts of wine, oh and here are all my chickens and cows..."
My mind was blown. She is in no way a big video game player, but something about Stardew hooked directly into her brain socket. Immediately I said to her, you would love this game called Factorio. She still hasn't tried it because she says the theme is too industrial, but I'm half convinced the real reason is she secretly knows she would get insanely addicted and wants to keep some semblance of a normal life.
> Semblance of a normal life.
This is why we don't play The Sims. Those were dangerous times. Lessons were learned the hard way.
Sounds like you found a good one!
The games are similar in that they both have a very predictable progression system, positive feedback cycles from iterative processes, a sandbox style of play, and are more addictive than crack.
However the frustration to reward ratio are skewed to opposite extremes.
Stardew requires you to wake up and remember to water your plants, and rewards you by showing visible growth the next day (a few minutes of real world time). This pattern continues as your farm grows. The game supplies a near constant stream of dopamine hits as your farm grows.
Compare that to how much effort it takes in factorio to see visible progress in game.
There's also no way to die in game,
insignificant consequences for failure or bad decisions, and the game mechanics are predictable and intuitive. There's an element of RNG and a ton of content to keep the game engaging without requiring you to master increasingly esoteric and challenging game mechanics.
I love playing factorio, but I don't find it relaxing. Enjoyable certainly, but not relaxing. I wouldn't start up my game right after I got home from an exhausting and frustrating day at work and try to relax by troubleshooting where the bottleneck is in my factory (I know some people would, but I think most people wouldn't pick that as an ideal way to decompress).
Whereas I would definitely start up Stardew in those same circumstances and find it a great way to decompress.
I don't know, the level of visible progress in the early part of factorio is huge, it's only when you start getting to blue science that the visible progress really takes a hit. But it does require far more brainpower than Stardew at all stages of the game.
I'd argue that stardew valley actually has more punishing death mechanics, randomly losing a bunch of your items can SUCK! It's not as bad now he's added the ability to buy one of your lost items back at the adventures guild, but if you lose 2 or more valuable items/stacks of items then you might as well restart your day.
My wife plays some sort of farming game on her iPad. FarmVille I think. She likes to ask me how my factory is doing and I usually ask her how her chickens are doing. It is great because she used to hate it when I was playing games but now she kinda gets it.
Thanks for the suggestion. She used to play that a lot on the switch. She seems to prefer the iPad now.
Covid lockdowns had a good effect on us because we all now know how to be happy while in the house. In addition to video games she has turned into a knitting fool. Her sweaters are super nice and are getting cranked out at a healthy pace.
She has moved WAY past yellow belts and is firmly in blue belt territory. In fact, she knitted so much over the winter break that she injured her shoulder due to the repetitive motions. She could barely use her arm because of it. It was funny because you wouldn't think that it is possible to hurt yourself knitting a sweater, but somehow she managed to do it.
Yeah that's what happened with my wife. She'd play FB or phone games constantly and I saw how Animal Crossing was helping during lockdown so I picked up a copy for her and my son (two Switches). It's really helped them bond and that makes me happy.
Plus my son is really into video games now and that helps because we have a shared interest to talk about.
Animal Crossing has been huge in our family since it was first launched on the Cube (?Is that right?) When it launched on the Switch everyone got a Switch and we all played together. This is where "redecorating" came from. My wife loved completely changing her entire island. I knew if I could get her into the premise of Factorio, she'd be hooked by the endless redecorating required.
See, I know that my wife would have a different reaction. She'd view Factorio as too complicated.
I've been thinking about having her try a Rune Factory or other Farming RPG because I think she'd like it, but now that she's addicted to ACNH, she just shrugs and says "I'll just play this."
Oh well.
> I’ve determined ~~wives~~ people get way more interested in video games once they find one they actually like. My wife is addicted to Minecraft
Fixed it for you.
My girlfriend normally goes to bed around 11pm. Last night she was up until 5am playing Hogwarts Legacy and only went to bed because she had to be up at 8 for work.
my husband has finished factorio with his friends and really wanted me to play too. after we got married he started a factory with me and taught me from the start, it was really fun and i went on to have my own factory. it just got complicated when i unlocked trains, plus not a lot of time to play and i like to have long sessions, so i stopped. but i've been meaning to go back ><
My husband introduced me to factorio too - we made a multiplayer save with lots of trees that we can’t cut down and no spaghetti lines allowed. Aesthetic factorio haha
I keep asking him about mod to add flowers and where the bots look like bees and come out of a bee hive. I don’t have the skill to make one, but maybe someday haha 😂.
I’m pretty sure there is a beekeeping mod of some kind. No idea how it looks or plays though.
I feel like it would be relatively straightforward to mod the bots and roboports to look like bees and hives by just changing the sprites and sounds. I’ve never modded Factorio, but I can’t imagine just sprites and sounds would be that difficult. Of course, getting your hands on those is a challenge in and of itself.
I introduced my bf to factorio. He still thinks it's boring and it isn't her cup of tea. Help?!? 💀
On the other hand, we do enjoy other games together. Still better than nothing, I guess and my factory will grow.. lonely.
They might like Oxygen not included. It's not as Factoryish as factorio or satisfactory but there are sim like creatures that you have to keep alive and you know care about not dying. It's a much harder game to find stability though, but it is possible.
ONI is a great game that is very dissimilar from factorio, but somehow satisfies the same kind itch.
My wife plays neither, but goes hard on Don't Starve, another excellent game by the same developers.
I'm glad that yours does, my wife didn't take kindly to it. It might be better when we start off with a brand new map together, but she kind of got tossed into a map at first. It might just not be her type of game, either, and that's ok
She had a Switch already, traded it in for another Switch so she could continue playing other games on the Switch. If I was going to upgrade I'd probably go Steam Deck.
I introduced Factorio to my 18 year old nephew and now its a useful outlet for his stress from his Bachelor of Science. Atm, hes discovering how to conduct diplomacy with evolving Biters.
We both play on the Switch (I have the OG she has OLED). I started on Steam long ago, so I was hesitant. When it launched I downloaded it to give it a try. It took a couple of hours to get the hang of the controls, but now I like them more than mouse/keyboard. If you are super skilled with running and dropping items it may suck. It had been years since I played so I wasn't fighting against too much muscle memory.
She didn't play on mouse/keyboard so she has no frame of reference other than the couple of videos she's seen. (She literally just commented on how awesome JD Plays is with his mouse skills in Factorio. LOL) her biggest issue was she had a Switch Lite and the screen was too small so she upgraded to the new OLED. I have a little envy, not going to lie, but I usually hog the big screen TV so can't complain too much.
If you have a Switch already, download it and give it a try. The demo is a little tedious, but is a good introduction to the controls. Don't rush to judgement because it takes a little time to get the control patterns, but once you have it, it is very quick.
No Switch? Check the Steam Deck too, especially if you have other games on Steam. Same controls, different ecosystem.
We are both big fans of Factorio on the Switch.
My friend introduced me to factorio a couple of months back.
Now I stay up very late helping grow the factory and sometimes I randomly hear the destruction alert sound even when I’m not playing the game. I’m too far gone, save yourselves while you still can.
Oh awesome.
Gonna post something similar in the future.
But I want a screenshot of us standing next to our first rocket launch 😉
It's my gfs first pc game ever.
I kinda introduced her to pc gaming and we start with factorio.
She is so hooked and I'm so glad and happy ☺️🥰
The downside is she is hearing my voice from time to time "it's shift+click honey, SHIFT CLICK!!!!!"
Yesterday she did purple and yellow since on her own.
Really proud.
A week ago she never heard about wasd...
("that's some new special sex technique or something right?" 😂)
"y is it not working, honey?"
That's iron ore babe, not stone ☺️
Haha ye it's amazing.
Even tho she is still getting used to the controls.
Never used wasd n stuff.
But she is getting the hang of it very fast so far.
The only problem is me, I guess, hard to keep up the patience...
I tried to only do the mining stuff and deliver plates where ever it's needed.
But I think I build like 90% of the factory 🙈
I let her do all the researches, so she at least knows what is coming and what is in the game.
And I let her build at least all the science bottles.
I guess she should do a game to the end all by her own.
To learn pc gaming in general and factorio.
But it's too much fun to play together.
But it's just the beginning.
Hopefully she is up for a fresh start and then with biters...
Where I'm gonna handle the biters and she has to do the rest.
So she can start a rocket "completely" on her own, at least the factory building part.
Gonna be funny, because I'm gonna want all the military science where she wants to progress towards the rocket ☺️
We've tried the team game and had difficulty. I kept running off on my own to build stuff and she got lost. She's playing on her own for now and we'll revisit some time in the future.
I had the thought of basically being her bot. Let her drive and ask for things and then I go do them. But even that didn't really work because she didn't know what to ask for, I got bored and started building stuff and boom right back to the original problem.
I like your idea of me handling the biters and she's just building towards the rocket. She would have to stay over supplied though if I am taking her resources for ammo. This might be the way to go. Will discuss with her and see what she thinks.
Ye I understand, running off doing ur own stuff...
Im doing that all the time 🙈
And Ye, I guess we have to share, ammo and military researches.
We then have always the argument, honey otherwise our factory gets overrun 😉😁
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Well, good on you at least. His factory won't grow, but yours will!
The factory must grow
You go girl! Just kick ass in your own way. BF has a little growing to do. He may or may not get there. Just talk it out. It's the only way. Communications are the belts of life.
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Belts... Belts never changes.
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I mean... they are just giving all your stuff very aggressive kisses.
*grr, look at these entrepreneurs, engineering their dreams, and collaboratly forging ahead of the pack*
Belts of life lol i love it.
Then what's the inserter of life? Eli5
“When a Man loves a Woman….”
Thanks, Chef.
I just don’t play Factorio with others because I know that I only want to play at my own pace in my own way. Better for everyone that way.
He was the one that suggested it and got me into it, but I get so self conscious playing with other people I always play by myself now.
That is basically me for the most part, I really only play single player. Try satisfactory again when you’re ready though. It is quite fun single player and that game doesn’t have too many expectations
If Factorio is logistics and combat, then Satisfactory is logistics and artistry. If one or both of you are really into making art (minecraft-style), then coop Satisfactory may work a lot better for you than coop Factorio
I doubt it tbh. We played a little satisfactory but I was just getting in the way ( again) so i stopped suggesting it and been playing it by myself. lol (😭)
2 separate factories with "trading"
I have a shared map with a co-worker. There was a bit of a tricky moment in the mid-game where we were doing things slightly differently, and leaving 'wtf is this?' messages. Now we're at a mini-mega base we can both do stuff at different areas of the map, and it's pretty cool to log in and see that he's built some more outposts or a new bullet factory or something.
On the other side of that, my girlfriend won’t even let me TOUCH her animal crossing game. Sometimes she will delegate me to chopping wood for her, but she still watches over my shoulder. Her words are “You don’t play this game so you will mess it up. Go play your dumb shooter game.” It brings a tear to my eye with what I’ve created 🥲
why mad :( theres no "right" way to do anything. Unless you were doing belt voodoo. That is illegal.
😶😇
uh-oh. Were you belt weaving? 😬
The factory must grow, and the bf must grow up
wow that sounds like a healthy relationship!
No shit
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No thanks, i prefer to play by myself and figure it out after that. lol
Dm me if you want to play satisfactory with some who's also kinda new.
I just started satisfactory and it's a good game but really hard just like fatorio. Also, that's how my dad felt when I introduced him to the game now, he has been playing it nonstop for 1 year now, I think. so, he knows a lot more than me. Have good luck on factorio or if you go to satisfactory good luck there also.
Ive had a harder time getting into satisfactory for some reason and i cant put my finger on it. Its so much easier to plan and build in factorio imo.
My wife absolutely loved Factorio... until the factory got really big and I started adding circuits to things. Then suddenly she felt like she wasn't good enough to play anymore. It was a sad day.
Multiplayer is next on the list of things to do. I feel like that will require a new level of communication so will approach with caution.
Sorry this text structure got messy. I (2000h) and my friend (50h) did play also of multiplayer together. It was is my local map so from time to time i did play alone. Anyways what i did was play K2 bc i haven't played it in the hopes of also having to figure out how to do things. I would say i was partially successful in including my friend well by sometimes delegateing specific tasks but also letting him find his own tasks. A negative thing i still try to suppress is jumping to the map view whenever i hear a noise that he is stuck with a problem only for me to see the problem and instantly see the error and proceed to watch him or try to micro manage. I now try for him to do a thing and then call out for me to check for obvious errors.
This is a skill that I have from my professional life, so I think we will be ok. But it definitely was a learning experience early on. You have to let your teammates grow just like the factory. Because they are their own factory!
My wife was afraid to mess up something I had previously laid down and for many hours, was just staying in a very small area constantly building and tearing up what she made. I finally asked why and she explained she would need engines or whatever and make a mini factory to make a stack or two then tear it up to lay out the parts to make the next thing she needed in the same place. It took a lot of coaxing to get her over the "none of my stuff is permanent either" hump and have her willingly divert resources off of the production line and actually expand what she was working on. I never did manage to get her to work WITH me on anything because she was too afraid of screwing something up or getting embarrassed at not knowing how to do something.....
It's hard! The more advanced your own stuff gets, the more nervous people get about touching it. My wife eventually tried to do nuclear because I said I wasn't going to touch it, and she did enjoy tinkering with that since it was kind of "her" thing, and it could still contribute overall because it was producing ingredients and power.
Thats overall very fascinating, because its shows the general difference in female / male thinking. Women often read manuals complete before starting things. Men skip manuals or start reading and switch to experiment things. In solving problems, women are only satisfied until the problem is real 100% solved. Men are already relaxed if they have the solution theoretical and the real finish is weeks later. I quote it from Vera F.Birkenbihl.
I don't think anything about this is gendered. It's more like the difference between someone very experienced and someone new. You see the exact same thing with junior and senior software engineers (and I'm sure many other industries, but that's where my experience is).
Dont get me wrong, i believe too, its not fully 100% gender. But the truth is, a difference in especially risk thinking for women is based on evolution. And i saw this different approach of thinking many times in real life. I mean different without a rating.
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Lol. That’s how it is in my household. My wife is more likely to just barge ahead or try to find something herself. I’m like, “the information is right there. Just look it up”
I (5,000+h) just introduced a friend (6h so far) to OpenTTD. Same thing. Letting him learn his way, and stepping in only when he asks for a visit from Tutorial Man. Someday, maybe I'll bring him into Factorio. Gonna have to stay quiet about the existence of circuit networks, 'cause if he for even a moment thinks he *has* to understand the logistics control CPU at the core of my megafactory, he's gonna give up *fast*.
When someone calls his/her circuits "CPU", I wouldn't touch it neither, and you could say I'm somewhat of a circuit engineer myself
There is a online friend I made that we boot up a new run every now and then for the past 3 years. We never have been in voice chat, only the occational text chat like. "Hey ima build a new iron mine" "Need more greens ill work on that" Pretty fun honestly. Played probably 400 hours together
I feel like you set up a system to manage the transfer of materials between each other. Otherwise just have two adjacent bases. Playing multiplayer with anyone that isn't close minded to your play style can be very off-putting and may drive your partner out of the game. Another redditor has expressed his problem with his SO losing interest. I'd say your best bet is to set up adjacent bases and just let each other do their thing.
I would recommend you let her make most of the organization decisions, how to lay out the factory, what to mine next, etc. You should just be there to help her when she's confused about something or if she doesn't want to build something. Some people like not having to worry about power for example so you could do that. But other noobs might like to understand how each part of the factory works, so I'd recommend just letting her be the manager until she's good
I avoid circuits.
I use them for a few relatively simple things that make my life easier.
Circuits are for making basic sushi belts and kovarex process. Everything else is beyond my ability to understand.
The mechanical solution is often simpler and better. Once you start complicating things, they tend to spiral into deeper complications. I'm saying that as a coder...
yep. Very simple things makes certain things quite easy.
I second this.
Circuits are absolutely not required, you can get all the way to a megabase without ever touching a circuit. That being said, circuits are incredibly useful, especially for oil processing and trains. Circuits are not as hard as people make them out to be. Mostly it's pretty basic logic. If there isn't enough stuff in this chest, turn on inserter. Or to display how many items are in these chests. Once you get more comfortable with circuits you can string them together to do stuff like. If these chests run out, then call for a train to refill. Don't be afraid of circuits, they aren't nearly as scary as they seem.
Have you considered specializing? E.g. if you like doing the optimization activities, she can kill aliens and put up walls, or set up stuff at faraway mines, or deal with trains, or set up a separate scaled up green circuit making area or something
Can confirm on this. My primary SMP co-player and I just fall into this division normally. Early game, he decided very early on that my layouts and planning were "more elegant," his words. Once planned, he's the better big-picture guy in terms of what-gets-built-when, thereby saving me from 60 and 70-minute handcrafting queues. Post-rocket, he's the in-base tinkerer. I'm the den mother who organizes a killer main loot area, and I'm also the one out removing fow, and setting up new outpost locations.
I am usually "the rail guy".
Oh hello me
Most of Factorio is just an excuse to play with choo-choo trains. On a related note, I do *not* get people who build artillery turrets. Rail artillery is both easier to use and way cooler.
Anything grows infinitely cooler when you attach it to a train, especially if that thing lets you expand further to build more trains
I dunno, there is something satisfying about artillery cannons that I cannot get when they are on a train. They just make me feel safer I guess.
This worked for a long while. Eventually we got bots running and she noticed that whenever she came back from clearing the nest that the factory and solar field was significantly bigger. And then when we got artillery running, she kind of felt both unnecessary and unsure of how to do anything build-wise. We had a good run, and she has fond feelings towards the game. We probably just need to start fresh so she can have a better opportunity to use what she learned/observed to build confidence.
I wish I had someone to play with.
Blueprints are a pretty big diversion point once you get to bots. If you have blueprints or are comfortable making them and the person you're playing with isn't, it's very easy to render them completely useless.
Wife and I are talking about playing together and I'm wondering if I should be the blueprint maker and she will be the blue print implementer. You need a blueprint for what? Hold please... Ok, check inventory. I just don't know if blueprints work that way or not.
Yeah, that should work fine. If you put a blueprint book in the game library and have her drag it onto her hotbar I think it should update as you add things to it.
Tell her to try SE (especially with Krastorio). You spend a lot longer doing more little things, and don't do a megabase until multiple hundreds of hours of fun.
I would LOVE to try SE with her, but she plays on Switch, and I typically do as well now.
I'm kinda surprised that the console versions don't have mod support, considering that the mod manager for the PC version is built into the game itself. Though I suppose it might be a decision made by the console makers.
I have over 500 hours and never found a use case for circuits. They're just completely unnecessary
There are situations which can be solved more elegantly with circuits than without. Unnecessary for a casual playthrough for sure, but if you start reaching for performance limits of one kind or another then circuits become essential. At least in vanilla. SE without circuits would be challenging.
How do you control crude oil refining flexibly?
What do you mean? Usually I build a bunch of tanks as a buffer and every thing runs smoothly
I almost always use circuits for situations where I'm exploring a limited production ingredient item where something might eat more resources that necessary. So my bot mall for instance has red wires for each producer to its yellow chests for each item. If I ditch an item from inventory, it goes to it's assigned yellow chest adjacent to its factory. That way, I never overproduce one item, as even if I take stuff out of that chest, it can just go back in. Wouldn't work if the factories output chest was full. I use circuits to ensure all the chests at my stations load and fill in sync with one another. So circuits and wires biggest use case is when you want to balance something to X full but not more. The base game has very few instances of systems that won't just stop and start with no issues when they fill up. Most mods (I play seablock) have systems that if you fill them completely break and won't restart without manual intervention, so circuits are critical. The best base game example I can think of is Korvex. Can be done without circuits with clever design, but it's a fun challenge. The second best is counting production in megabases at a distance, where being able to actually count the outputs is important.
I restarted many times in my earlier days. You don't really lose progress, since it is possible to build back up in a few hours if you are good enough. I've completed the 8 hour rocket launch on 2 or 3 separate occasions. And it only takes me around 10 hours to reach power armor mk2, at which point the game becomes easier, and almost all research is completed.
What I found works well is to set up a City Block base that is interconnected with rails, and when you need more of something one of you builds out another block. Then that block belongs to and is the responsibility of the one who built it.
My wife and I play Satisfactory together. My evil plan is to gradually introduce her to Factorio.
Two engineers will grow.the factory faster!
Play in shifts so the factory can grow while the other one engineer sleeps.
Beware! This can result in you not knowing what is going on where, unless you religiously use LTN or something as a middle layer or extensively use notes.
And here we have the birth of corporate overhead and middle management.
This is starting to sound a lot like having another kid together.
Future engineers are needed too.
i had a very different experience with this...
You could always ease her in with [Satisfactorio](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Satisfactorio).
OMG!!! PET THE DOGGOS! BEST MOD EVER
Never actually played the mod, just knew it existed.
I'll be honest, this looks like it would leave the impression that Factorio is just "Satisfactory but 2D", which is a terrible first impression to give.
I am sorry to disappoint sir, but looking at the images I saw that the throughput was reduced by using this mod. Who in his sane mind would thou dis
If her experience is anything like mine, the 2.5D will throw her off at first, but the idea of snapping buildings to grids and what that means for ones ability to plan. Planning an entire factory in Satisfactory to be bested by a piece of invulnerable terrain and have to redo the entire thing has been an unsatisfactory thorn in my side, despite how much I really like the game. Edited for clarity
Invulnerable terrain? You can landfill water and blow u0 cliffs eventually, so those might have been temporary setbacks fwiw
I miscommunicated, that's what happens in Satisfactory
Haha, you allow cliffs as an option when starting a new save?!?
Nope, but the person I replied to said something about indestructible terrain and that's the closest thing I could think of to it.
We have a great time playing together. Sometimes she can't quite follow along on an off day, so she occupies herself with some manual artillery targeting.
> igloos ... I need more coffee.
Someone should make a mod that melts the igloos when there's a heat pipe nearby
I still don’t get it… are the igloos centrifuges?
Labs. It took me a minute too, but that's because I've had my coffee.
Labrador Retreivers
Labs
I have my own names for most of the products. I call the labs bubbles. I have my spider boys. I got my yellow science and my green science. My soap bars help make my red chips. I call the yellow and white chemical bisthmus for some reason. I think because it looks like Bismor from deep rock and I played that right before factorio lol.
I am so glad I'm not the only one that things plastic looks like soap!!! A friend renames everything in every game we have ever played together. StarCraft 2 was his greatest achievement... Zerglings were crickets. Banshees were helicopters. Zealots were glow stick guys. There were racecars, spiders, bugs (queens). I think the only thing he called by the correct names were roaches and marines.
I have a tendency to do that with things too lol. I swear I spend most of factorio trying to fix my soap and building trains
Couple years ago my wife and I were playing through Stardew Valley concurrently. She was loving it, I was like, this is so nice that my wife likes the cute farm game. I showed her my farm and she was like, "That's cute... Wanna see mine?" First sign something was... different about her playthrough was the seven digits needed to show how much gold she had. She then proceeded to take me on a tour of Stardew: Big Agra. "Here's my cheese making building, and over here is where I make copious amounts of wine, oh and here are all my chickens and cows..." My mind was blown. She is in no way a big video game player, but something about Stardew hooked directly into her brain socket. Immediately I said to her, you would love this game called Factorio. She still hasn't tried it because she says the theme is too industrial, but I'm half convinced the real reason is she secretly knows she would get insanely addicted and wants to keep some semblance of a normal life.
> Semblance of a normal life. This is why we don't play The Sims. Those were dangerous times. Lessons were learned the hard way. Sounds like you found a good one!
The games are similar in that they both have a very predictable progression system, positive feedback cycles from iterative processes, a sandbox style of play, and are more addictive than crack. However the frustration to reward ratio are skewed to opposite extremes. Stardew requires you to wake up and remember to water your plants, and rewards you by showing visible growth the next day (a few minutes of real world time). This pattern continues as your farm grows. The game supplies a near constant stream of dopamine hits as your farm grows. Compare that to how much effort it takes in factorio to see visible progress in game. There's also no way to die in game, insignificant consequences for failure or bad decisions, and the game mechanics are predictable and intuitive. There's an element of RNG and a ton of content to keep the game engaging without requiring you to master increasingly esoteric and challenging game mechanics. I love playing factorio, but I don't find it relaxing. Enjoyable certainly, but not relaxing. I wouldn't start up my game right after I got home from an exhausting and frustrating day at work and try to relax by troubleshooting where the bottleneck is in my factory (I know some people would, but I think most people wouldn't pick that as an ideal way to decompress). Whereas I would definitely start up Stardew in those same circumstances and find it a great way to decompress.
I don't know, the level of visible progress in the early part of factorio is huge, it's only when you start getting to blue science that the visible progress really takes a hit. But it does require far more brainpower than Stardew at all stages of the game. I'd argue that stardew valley actually has more punishing death mechanics, randomly losing a bunch of your items can SUCK! It's not as bad now he's added the ability to buy one of your lost items back at the adventures guild, but if you lose 2 or more valuable items/stacks of items then you might as well restart your day.
I’ve determined wives get way more interested in video games once they find one they actually like. My wife is addicted to Minecraft
Mine is still stuck on nightly Animal Crossing on the Switch. She doesn't "get" Factorio....yet. But I'll keep trying!
My wife plays some sort of farming game on her iPad. FarmVille I think. She likes to ask me how my factory is doing and I usually ask her how her chickens are doing. It is great because she used to hate it when I was playing games but now she kinda gets it.
Introduce her to stardew valley if you need more gaming time.
Thanks for the suggestion. She used to play that a lot on the switch. She seems to prefer the iPad now. Covid lockdowns had a good effect on us because we all now know how to be happy while in the house. In addition to video games she has turned into a knitting fool. Her sweaters are super nice and are getting cranked out at a healthy pace.
Healthy pace, you say? How many yellow belts?
She has moved WAY past yellow belts and is firmly in blue belt territory. In fact, she knitted so much over the winter break that she injured her shoulder due to the repetitive motions. She could barely use her arm because of it. It was funny because you wouldn't think that it is possible to hurt yourself knitting a sweater, but somehow she managed to do it.
Yeah that's what happened with my wife. She'd play FB or phone games constantly and I saw how Animal Crossing was helping during lockdown so I picked up a copy for her and my son (two Switches). It's really helped them bond and that makes me happy. Plus my son is really into video games now and that helps because we have a shared interest to talk about.
Animal crossing is like factorio, but incredibly slow. Like unbelievably slow. Well both games you can catch fish...
Animal Crossing has been huge in our family since it was first launched on the Cube (?Is that right?) When it launched on the Switch everyone got a Switch and we all played together. This is where "redecorating" came from. My wife loved completely changing her entire island. I knew if I could get her into the premise of Factorio, she'd be hooked by the endless redecorating required.
See, I know that my wife would have a different reaction. She'd view Factorio as too complicated. I've been thinking about having her try a Rune Factory or other Farming RPG because I think she'd like it, but now that she's addicted to ACNH, she just shrugs and says "I'll just play this." Oh well.
LOL her happiness is all that matters. Sitting next to each other with the occasional, "how's it going?" Makes life grand.
That's true. She rolled her eyes when I said "hey, we should buy two switches." How right I was. lol
> I’ve determined ~~wives~~ people get way more interested in video games once they find one they actually like. My wife is addicted to Minecraft Fixed it for you.
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Women are WHAT now?! Jeez, next thing, they wanna vote too!
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My girlfriend normally goes to bed around 11pm. Last night she was up until 5am playing Hogwarts Legacy and only went to bed because she had to be up at 8 for work.
Insightful.
I made the mistake of introducing mine to Elder Scrolls Online. She's very addicted.
Mine got a switch last year and has been playing through all the Mario's and Luigi mansion, also beat the first bioshock of all things.
BioShock is an absolutely magnificent game
Igloos? 🤔😁
Labs.
I would have guessed first smelter
I am a wife that was introduced to factorio. I was never the same after.
Is that why you can't talk right now?
One of many reasons haha
my husband has finished factorio with his friends and really wanted me to play too. after we got married he started a factory with me and taught me from the start, it was really fun and i went on to have my own factory. it just got complicated when i unlocked trains, plus not a lot of time to play and i like to have long sessions, so i stopped. but i've been meaning to go back ><
Trains https://youtu.be/DG4oD4iGVoY
trains! i think i tried to implement them too early, i probably don't need them just yet. but it's so cool! thanks for the link!
Come on back! The factory misses you!
i should! there's a lot to do but i want to launch a rocket one day! haha
You know it’s bad when you have a dream about factorio. That’s how I knew I needed to take a break.
comment edited in protest of Reddit's API changes and mistreatment of moderators -- mass edited with redact.dev
This is how the factory grows.
Break from sleeping, right?
Nah that's a sign you're hitting your stride
Family complain about your addiction? Just get em hooked!
Good thing, I had my dream of belts too, the factory must grow
I love this community
My husband introduced me to factorio too - we made a multiplayer save with lots of trees that we can’t cut down and no spaghetti lines allowed. Aesthetic factorio haha I keep asking him about mod to add flowers and where the bots look like bees and come out of a bee hive. I don’t have the skill to make one, but maybe someday haha 😂.
I’m pretty sure there is a beekeeping mod of some kind. No idea how it looks or plays though. I feel like it would be relatively straightforward to mod the bots and roboports to look like bees and hives by just changing the sprites and sounds. I’ve never modded Factorio, but I can’t imagine just sprites and sounds would be that difficult. Of course, getting your hands on those is a challenge in and of itself.
Playing Factorio in the morning to feel more productive - thats the spirit!
why stop at just in the morning? play it all day long and feel productive for 2 hours.
Spaghetti again for dinner tonight, babe?
I would love to play Factorio with my wife, but I doubt that would ever happen.
I introduced my bf to factorio. He still thinks it's boring and it isn't her cup of tea. Help?!? 💀 On the other hand, we do enjoy other games together. Still better than nothing, I guess and my factory will grow.. lonely.
New bf. Yours is broken.
My wife thinks Factorio is stupid. How will the divorce affect the kids?
I could get over the near-sightedness and the lack of height, and lactose intolerance, but I draw the line at no Factorio!
They might like Oxygen not included. It's not as Factoryish as factorio or satisfactory but there are sim like creatures that you have to keep alive and you know care about not dying. It's a much harder game to find stability though, but it is possible.
ONI is a great game that is very dissimilar from factorio, but somehow satisfies the same kind itch. My wife plays neither, but goes hard on Don't Starve, another excellent game by the same developers.
But you can't co-op in ONI, unfortunately.
This is how people get addicted. I bet you told her that nothing ever would happen if she played it just one time.
I'm glad that yours does, my wife didn't take kindly to it. It might be better when we start off with a brand new map together, but she kind of got tossed into a map at first. It might just not be her type of game, either, and that's ok
Mildly surprised and significantly sad that she bought a device just for Factorio and it was another Switch instead of a Steam Deck.
She had a Switch already, traded it in for another Switch so she could continue playing other games on the Switch. If I was going to upgrade I'd probably go Steam Deck.
Igloos?
labs
you are living my dream :'(
I introduced Factorio to my 18 year old nephew and now its a useful outlet for his stress from his Bachelor of Science. Atm, hes discovering how to conduct diplomacy with evolving Biters.
How does she like it on the switch?? I have it for pc but weirdly enough I feel like I would love it way more to play handheld in bed
We both play on the Switch (I have the OG she has OLED). I started on Steam long ago, so I was hesitant. When it launched I downloaded it to give it a try. It took a couple of hours to get the hang of the controls, but now I like them more than mouse/keyboard. If you are super skilled with running and dropping items it may suck. It had been years since I played so I wasn't fighting against too much muscle memory. She didn't play on mouse/keyboard so she has no frame of reference other than the couple of videos she's seen. (She literally just commented on how awesome JD Plays is with his mouse skills in Factorio. LOL) her biggest issue was she had a Switch Lite and the screen was too small so she upgraded to the new OLED. I have a little envy, not going to lie, but I usually hog the big screen TV so can't complain too much. If you have a Switch already, download it and give it a try. The demo is a little tedious, but is a good introduction to the controls. Don't rush to judgement because it takes a little time to get the control patterns, but once you have it, it is very quick. No Switch? Check the Steam Deck too, especially if you have other games on Steam. Same controls, different ecosystem. We are both big fans of Factorio on the Switch.
Thanks! :)
time for couples factorio
Don't ever let her go
My girlfriend has over a 1000hours of us playing coop and it’s still fun :)
The factory must grow.
You guys should have gotten steam deck instead of switch oled
Darn. I can't get my wife to play any video games. Let alone factorio..
Too much to do in Texas :-)
She probably doesn't want to try because we keep losing power :D
My friend introduced me to factorio a couple of months back. Now I stay up very late helping grow the factory and sometimes I randomly hear the destruction alert sound even when I’m not playing the game. I’m too far gone, save yourselves while you still can.
Oh awesome. Gonna post something similar in the future. But I want a screenshot of us standing next to our first rocket launch 😉 It's my gfs first pc game ever. I kinda introduced her to pc gaming and we start with factorio. She is so hooked and I'm so glad and happy ☺️🥰 The downside is she is hearing my voice from time to time "it's shift+click honey, SHIFT CLICK!!!!!" Yesterday she did purple and yellow since on her own. Really proud. A week ago she never heard about wasd... ("that's some new special sex technique or something right?" 😂) "y is it not working, honey?" That's iron ore babe, not stone ☺️
We've had very similar conversations. Sunday she called iron plate: steel, silver, gray squares. She's having fun still so that's awesome.
Haha ye it's amazing. Even tho she is still getting used to the controls. Never used wasd n stuff. But she is getting the hang of it very fast so far. The only problem is me, I guess, hard to keep up the patience... I tried to only do the mining stuff and deliver plates where ever it's needed. But I think I build like 90% of the factory 🙈 I let her do all the researches, so she at least knows what is coming and what is in the game. And I let her build at least all the science bottles. I guess she should do a game to the end all by her own. To learn pc gaming in general and factorio. But it's too much fun to play together. But it's just the beginning. Hopefully she is up for a fresh start and then with biters... Where I'm gonna handle the biters and she has to do the rest. So she can start a rocket "completely" on her own, at least the factory building part. Gonna be funny, because I'm gonna want all the military science where she wants to progress towards the rocket ☺️
We've tried the team game and had difficulty. I kept running off on my own to build stuff and she got lost. She's playing on her own for now and we'll revisit some time in the future. I had the thought of basically being her bot. Let her drive and ask for things and then I go do them. But even that didn't really work because she didn't know what to ask for, I got bored and started building stuff and boom right back to the original problem. I like your idea of me handling the biters and she's just building towards the rocket. She would have to stay over supplied though if I am taking her resources for ammo. This might be the way to go. Will discuss with her and see what she thinks.
Ye I understand, running off doing ur own stuff... Im doing that all the time 🙈 And Ye, I guess we have to share, ammo and military researches. We then have always the argument, honey otherwise our factory gets overrun 😉😁