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PaperclipPerfector
4mo ago
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Notes -
My honest review of the Factorio expansion, after getting through (ish) all four planets: I don't like it, and I think it doesn't really feel like Factorio except for Vulcanus.
The good stuff is that elevated rails and Vulcanus really are fun. And some of the stuff the other planets get you is fun (notably mech armor and the electromagnetic plant). Vulcanus in particular they just knocked it out of the park. Interesting new enemies, liquid metal processing is fun as hell, you have multiple (strong) ways to generate power, even the music slaps.
Unfortunately the bad stuff is... every other planet. And also quality (more on that later). Fulgora is really a pain with how cramped your builds are. Even on bigger islands there's not much room, and the need to use accumulators for lightning really cuts that space down further. Gleba combines one of the least fun things in the game (dealing with belts jamming up), and a new un-fun thing (spoiling timers) Bots at least make Gleba manageable, but trying to do a belt base is hell. Then it caps off with the extra kick in the dick that Gleba science both spoils and gives you less science per pack thanks to the timer ticking down as you transport it back to Nauvis. And it doesn't even give you a cool new building which is useful back on the main base like Fulgora or Vulcanus did. On top of all that, the enemies just aren't very interesting. They basically act like biters, except they can cross walls so you need more firepower. The spore mechanic is just pollution under a different name, so there's really nothing interesting going on there. Aquilo makes logistics much harder thanks to needing heat, and it makes bots impossible to use effectively. Not only that but you have to make shit tons of ice foundation (and import concrete) just to be able to have a half decent production setup, both of which are slow. I finally gave up on the expansion when I realized that I would need several thousand concrete+ice (above and beyond what I already did) just to make 60 SPM. Not to mention getting to the more outlying ice islands once my starter supply of lithium brine ran out. I already have spent 270 hours on this save, and I can't really see myself putting in more time to do all that, research the tech needed to get to the solar system edge, and building a ship to do it.
Quality is one of those things which seemed like it would be fun, but wound up not being fun. Just unlocking it makes the interface harder to use (I had to break my deeply ingrained habit of set recipe->hit esc when setting up new buildings), and it's such a pain in the ass the way it's all or nothing. You have to have belts carry only one quality of item or your machines will jam up constantly. Would've been much better if quality ingredients gave an increased chance at a quality result (with full quality being guaranteed as it is now).
Overall, it feels like Kovarex really loves compact belt spaghetti bases and tried to make the expansion push you in that direction as hard as possible. Aquilo is by far the worst with the bot energy usage penalty (probably unsurprising since Kovarex said in the past he regrets adding bots to the game), but three of the five new environments (Aquilo, Fulgora and space platforms) are extremely space constrained. And I just... don't like that. I like doing big, sprawling builds where I make pollution that blots out the sun and I laugh as the biters break on my defenses like waves on rock. Vulcanus is really the only planet of the four that still feels like Factorio (minus the biters part), and it's a shame.
Obviously many people do enjoy Space Age. But ultimately I realized... I just wasn't having fun any more, and haven't been for a long time. I thought about continuing just to finish the game (I am closing in on the end), but ultimately decided to not give into the sunk cost fallacy on this one. I wish that we had gotten more content like Vulcanus (which is honestly incredible, 10/10) and less of the wild divergence from the base game. But c'est la vie.
The 200 hour negative review.
Yeah... I had a very rough start and it took me 100 hours to even get to the expansion content. Then at first I was having a blast, and even when I got to planets I didn't like as much I wanted to try them all before passing judgement. Thus my fairly absurd playtime.
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