I think this fits the theme, and is a pretty nifty game:
Factorio is the King, no doubt. It has far less to do with EA than most released commercial games and reasonably speaking hit 1.0 months if not years ago.
FortressCraft Evolved is another game that I love, but it takes more effort to get into. Totally worth it, but certainly follow DeepT’s advice, even on faster speeds people will complain about grind. Sometimes that’s them not understanding it’s a production chain game and you need to scale out production - you don’t need 2 smelters you need 30+. Other times it’s a legitimate complaint, play on something faster than normal at least.
And it should be said that Factorio is objective/goal oriented, even without a ‘campaign’. It’s not just a sandbox, if that puts people off. You’re ultimately working to build a rocket to escape the planet, and don’t need to work on optimisation/excessive automation if you don’t want to. I had great fun doing that without sweating too much about perfecting my factory.
@DeepT I will check out Fortresscraft Evolved then, thanks!
@Fozzle I was looking at Space Engineers a while back and saw this review on Steam:
He didn’t like that they were charging for skins, apparently. :D
I had just seen that yesterday, looks very cute! I hope there’s some kind of story or goal besides just make stuff for the sake of making stuff.
There are goals, there’s story, there’s easily 20+ hours of content and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this game.
Isn’t there a thread here on Qt3? I remember Tom liking all the info the UI is giving and there were other folks who really liked it. I just played it for 2 hours but I should definitely go back. And yes, initially it’s very cute! I might reinstall tonight…
I’ll second/third Factorio as the high-water mark. It has lots of complexity, goal-based play, and it supports multiplayer if that’s important for you.
Infinifactory is also excellent, although the difficulty ramps up severely near the end. Solo-play only. It’s comparable to a 3D version of SpaceChem.
I tinkered with one of the Satisfactory betas and enjoyed it, but I’m waiting for it to be more or less content-complete. I like the aesthetic, and it supports limited multiplayer.
I also played a fair amount of Big Pharma, which is factory-building with economic considerations thrown in. It’s definitely more puzzle-y, since space constraints are a factor.
Oh, and I guess it’s worth mentioning Factoryidle, although it relies a bit too much on the “idle” part for my liking. You have to wait for your factory to generate money to unlock new parts, and the wait time varies from minutes to days, like an idle game.
I hear its amazing :D
It is amazing! Still waiting for more paid DLC :)
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Wasn’t there another game recently released by indie studio that had basic polygonal graphics but also had a bit of a Transport Tycoon vibe?
perhaps?
Thanks for the reminder. It’s about time I try out the actual release version of this game.
Yep that was it! Thanks :)
It’s been a long day and I can’t remember the name, but doesn’t @cliffski2 have a automotive simulation game on Steam?
I’m not sure, but I think I’ve read him praise Production Line, maybe you should look at it.
I really enjoy Factory Town. It’s still early access, but it’s chock full of features, very playable, and has lovely playmobil graphics and a soothing sound track. It’s my favorite in the genre right now.
Really, though, if you want to go totally bonkers in gluing together industries, I don’t think you can top OpenTTD with the FIRS industry set. This is the cargo flow for the “extreme” economy:
https://bundles.openttdcoop.org/firs/releases/3.0.0-alpha-1/docs/html/extreme.dot.svg
Also, Logistical.
Factorio with the Industrial Revolution mod is fantastic and complex yet logical. You need a lot of intermediary products, but they make sense, like bearings for engines, tubes and rivets for pipes, etc.
The Industrial Revolution mod is great. It’s more complex than the base game, but not crazy complicated like some other big mods. It’s like a nice expansion.
What’s the main goal of the Industrial Revolution mod?
Don’t know whether it was an intentional long joke but it made me laugh! Thanks :-)