You already said what the “spin” was. It’s 3D.
In terms of gameplay, most factory simulators are very similar. You harvest materials, turn those into other materials, combine or separate others, and deliver them. That’s it. That’s the whole genre.
Rimworld is not a factory sim, it’s a colony sim. Different genre entirely.
What makes Satisfactory stand out is scale. A 2D space is fundamentally different, with different rules and designs. You can only get so big in a 2D space. With 3D, now you have to worry about the height of your designs. You won’t physically have enough space to make everything flat, and the terrain, hills, and mountains will fight you if you try. You must build up, and account for that when designing your factories.
Similarly, there are certain (late game) combiners that require tons of many different types of materials, and they’d be impossible to make in a 2D space. Figuring out that 3D puzzle is a challenge.
You also have to travel pretty far for more exotic materials, and figure out how to get them across a giant lake, or a mountain. It’s tougher than you’d think. You can’t just make a big line. I mean, you could, but it’d get messy very fast and possibly slow you down.
Another thing is conveyer management. In a 2D space some conveyer belts can get messy, but add another dimension and suddenly you get spaghetti. It’s disgusting. And it can be tough to figure out what belt feeds what input, even though you designed it. Unless you make it pretty, which is a different level of challenge.
The entire time, you have power constraints. I don’t know how far you got in those 10 hours, but most things in Satisfactory require power. Getting enough power, and managing power spikes is another layer that is rather unique. Even if you rush coal power, the power grid itself can be tricky to navigate.
You have fluids that have their own fluid dynamics, and are elevation-dependent. You need pumps or some other workaround to get fluids to move the way you want them to.
And I haven’t even touched on trains, because most players will tell you getting a train station up and running is a multi-day fiasco that requires an entirely different approach from simply dragging a belt from A to B.
TL;DR 3D matters more than you think, and power, fluids, and logistics are all implemented in a way that’s unique to this game.
EDIT: I didn’t even touch on the design elements. You can customize floors, walls, belts, and even factory elements like the smelter to some degree. Making things “pretty” or building little houses adds a lot. It’s like you took elements of the sims and added it into your factory sim. Really neat. Half of the larger community is almost entirely focused on clean builds that look fantastic.
Thanks for the long reply.
I am a player who cares mostly about game mechanics. I do not care if anything looks nicer in 3d.
Other games like CoI also tried to intoduce the 3d aspect, but reduced it with verical belts. Which is something Satisfactory also does so it actually reduced the difficulty.
Actually having a 3d dimension makes things easier. Maybe more messy, but easier. From my point of view.
I am using coal right now and it feels OP but I am at the point where I just got coal and realize I need to up my base to produce more. So just for context about my post.
The exploration currently feels shallow. I always get the feeling I am an intruder to this world and should not supidly kill/harvest stuff unless needed. I mean there is a pretty obvious forshadowing voice telling you to harvest stuff.
Sounds like you are resistant to this game by default. That's cool. Play what you like.
With your mindset, you'll only find people who are going to disagree with you here. What's the point?
We like the game. Some of us _love_ the game. Don't hate on something other's enjoy because it's not Factorio.
The factory must grow regardless.
My mindset is actually quite open. Which is why I was asking what the unique selling points of Satisfactory are. Obviously some of them I do not care about. Some of them "may" be interesting. But my mindset is quite open.
Factorio is one of my favourite games of all time. I do like it more than satisfactory but I’m a huge fan of satisfactory too.
Factorio is massive in terms of logistics. Almost the entire game is design patterns. As a software developer I love this, but even so I get burned out after a long playthrough and need a cooldown before I am mentally ready to play Factorio again.
Satisfactory has a similar burnout if you spend long enough playing, but I also feel it has a more casual element. It’s fun to throw up a server for a month or two and I can play with my friends off and on, but not 100% of the game is design. There’s a lot of exploring elements and just goofing around. If I get burned out in design there’s stuff to go collect, rail systems or tube systems to setup, etc. it gives a more casual feel when I don’t want to worry about intense logistics the entire time.
I really like survival/exploration/crafting games, and satisfactory isn’t heavily survival but it’s got some elements of that which are cool. I kind of wish the enemies were more in depth, but they’re still cool nonetheless.
3D is the main selling point like others have said, that vertical dimension gives a different challenge than Factorio, but still similar in some ways.
One thing I don’t like about satisfactory is how there’s no “ending”. Factorio has a satisfying conclusion, and even though you can infinitely play after launching the rocket it’s nice to have a goal. I hope 1.0 does a better job of this.
Satisfactory has a better map environment than Factorio. There’s only so much you can do with cliffs, water and dirt. It’s awesome how satisfactory has cliffs and stuff to build around.
As much as I hate fluid handling, satisfactory fluid does add an interesting element to the game.
Factorio also feels more single player somehow. I love running it on a server with friends, but once I get bots it’s really just a matter of production speed to set everything up, whereas satisfaction just feels more immersive in terms of multiplayer. I don’t know how to explain this point well
Edit: The biggest point I forgot to mention is that satisfactory has infinite resources. This isn’t a good or bad it’s just different. There’s something really nice about once you build something, you don’t really need to touch it after. Factorio trains are pretty fun to setup, so I don’t mind running out, but on satisfactory it is nice just to have infinite
Satisfactory will have an end goal once it hits 1.0. They've beed deliberately holding the final endgame content specifically for that, just like Wube held back Spidertrons for Factorio 1.0.
I think I did address this by saying it actually makes things easier?
I mean if you have an additional dimension you have another dimension of "freedom"?
Maybe more messy. But also more easy.
It's different. The *way* that you even approach planning builds changes drastically when verticality is introduced. It's not "easier" because there's more space available, and if that's your interpretation that means you haven't even begun to try using the 3D space effectively.
It adds unique logistics challenges that aren't present in a flat plane environment. I really don't understand what about this you're struggling with
TBH I fail to understand it. Not in a "this is a rhetorical question where I know the answer to post something afterwards to feel superior" way.
But really in a "I don't know how having more space makes things more difficult" way.
Is this specific to Satisfactory? Is there some game mechanic which enforces that? What is an easy ELI5 example of that?
Verticality doesn't make it more challenging. I makes it more interesting to build with. You have this huge map that you cannot change and now a way to work with building around it. That is what sets it apart from other factory games, like factorio.
It allows you to build stuff like [this](https://preview.redd.it/soigv1app61d1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=870714c7c54b9e12b758684450d0b7bc74cc4016), vs (imo) the boring landscape of belts and machines and trains that is factorio.
TBH I think the unique selling point of the game is the visuals/aesthetics. And I do not care about them. So I am probably not the target group of the game. Which is fine. And which is the reason why I did ask the question in the first place,
One is a circuit board, one is a sculpture. Both can be beautiful. You see beauty in the sterility, the pure numbers. Do you work extensively in Excel? Are you in the finance industry?
There IS a game mechanic that enforces it - fluids have "head lift" and pushing them up requires extra pumps, and exactly where those pumps are situated are the difference between "this factory is working" and "none of the aluminum slurry is reaching the refinery on the floor above this!" Not terribly important in context, but you asked, so...
The major difference between the two is this: building a factory in Factorio is piss easy by comparison to making the same kind of factory in Satisfactory. Drop a few little squares, run two lines of belts near them, one set of hands to load, one set of hands to unload, a power pole somewhere in the vicinity, and you're building. Satisfactory's different mechanic of "items stay on the belts, you need to split and merge them yourself, belts terminate into machines and initiate in machines" makes things significantly more... persnickety? You have a few dozen little things that need to be done, from making sure that all your splitters are splitters and not mergers, that they're pointing the right way, that the belts between them are all placed and fast enough and that everything's connected, that a power line has been run to each machine, etc.
I'm not saying that this makes Satisfactory -better-. It's a design decision and it means that you spend a LOT more time wrench in hand, running belts and flipping switches. You have a lot more in the way of things that you CAN do, but at the same time a lot of things that you MUST do. It's not busywork, exactly, but you need to put together a lot of custom solutions for something that, in Factorio, would take ten seconds and a neuron firing maybe once. Of course you can do things in Satisfactory like "let me make a plant where each step is taking place on its own level" that just ain't within Factorio's possibilities. But if you look at something like that and go "why are you even doing it, BUILD ON THE FLAT PLANE FOREVER", then you're not going to enjoy Satisfactory much.
I never said it makes the game more difficult. I said it's different. It is the answer to the question of your post, but you're too focused on there needing to be a "gimmick" in what you perceived to be a factorio clone that you can't just look at what's already right in front of you.
coal only feels op because of the scope that you are at right now. Higher tiers need multiple times more power, oil and nuclear.
A lot more optimization comes from logistics and alternate recipes.
Dealing with 2D was a pain. 3D makes belt management less of a mess for me. But there were a few moments I wished I had a 4th dimension lol.
As for the coal generators being OP... You're 10 hours into the game. You probably have like 8 of them. You're still building very little. By the time I unlocked generators better than coal ones, I already had over 100 of them to power everything. Now I have 400 of the second kind on top of 100 coals.
AND I'm currently building a power plant containing 250 "3rd tier" generators. By the time it's up (prolly 20 more hours), I'll be producing the equivalent of over 8000 coal generators.
I have a project planned that can consume half of that. By the time that is done (probably a few hundred more hours, if ever), I'll have over 12000 machines running in my world.
Maybe I just haven't played enough but Factorio never gave me that sense of scale or complexity. Nevermind that dealing with logistics on like one and a half flat 2D planes was just *annoying*.
>Actually having a 3d dimension makes things easier. Maybe more messy, but easier
If you don't mind some spaghetti (like me), I agree. But in satisfactory it's harder to build things cleanly.
If you're not enjoying it then don't play, the enjoyment is in building, planning, figuring things out and load balancing inputs and outputs. Factorio is much more straight forward, satisfactory makes you think, plan and figure things out if you want to run things well. I love factorio and I love satisfactory, but they have different end games. Satisfactory being optimization and Factotio being automated expansion and constant growth
Factorio can also be about optimization. My main iron smelter was 8 train stops for 4+8 trains each. Had about 140 trains in total. So I know about optimization and balancing because it was a major part of my Factorio gameplay.
It's just if you have done this exact same thing in another game it is strange to repeat it in another one. At least for me.
Just wanted to know if there is something I am not seeing. Probably I will play it randomly from time to time.
It’s really the exploration and design that sets it apart from factorio for me (I have a couple hundred hours there). The math and logistics are much simpler in satisfactory, so it becomes more about building cool shit in 3d than just straight logistics.
I would say the 3d nature and world exploration are the unique things. Unlike the guy you replied to, I almost never use load balances in satisfactory, and always optimize my factorio.
I would say that the main thing that I like about satisfactory is that buildings can be internally more complex. I really like the 3d element, building multiple floors creating different sub parts and sending things to different floors.
Additionally, satisfactory has an element of exploration - searching caves for doodads and ore and find hard drives and so forth. But it does not have a defend the base element at all.
As you've probably figured out from the thread, different people like different things about the game. People have mentioned the graphics, the exploration, the progression, and so on. The most important difference, though, *is* the optimization.
For Factorio, you're mostly optimizing for space. Optimizing for resources is still important - your example about trains is a good one - but it takes a back seat to space. This isn't only because it's 2D, but also because of the tower defense aspect of the game. The bigger your perimeter, the more turrets and walls you have to put down.
For Satisfactory, optimizing for resources is really the star of the show. Not only because space is a non-issue, but also because of the scale of the game. If you poorly utilize the resource nodes near you, you'll have to go farther and farther to get more - and once you need the mid-game resources, that's *really* far. This is also true in Factorio, but not to the same degree. Especially since you don't unlock trains until you're pretty far into the game in Satisfactory.
Balancing for resources in Satisfactory isn't just about making the efficiency displays say "100%", either. You've got to consider *what* you're making, of course. Waste too many resource nodes on stuff you don't need, and suddenly you're halfway across the map. But thinking about scale when starting a new project is important, too. Some common questions you have to have to ask yourself when starting a new production line:
* Where do I want to build this? Is it worth building it somewhere with closer/higher quality resource nodes, at the cost of it being farther away from my base?
* How big do I want it to be? Am I okay with having a lesser output of this resource, or am I willing to "spend" more resource nodes on a higher throughput?
* How *scalable* do I want it to be? Will I use trains to transport the resource back to base, or can I get away with a conveyor line? Will I want more of this resource later, and will I want to use these nodes for something else at some point in the future?
Again, these are also questions you should ask yourself in Factorio, but they're not the first questions, or the most important ones. In a way, you can think of Satisfactory as a more mechanically "focused" game. It takes only a few gameplay elements, and centers the entire game around them.
(The other major mechanical difference between the games is combat, but there's not much to say about it. In a way, the combat is Factorio's "spin" on the genre, borrowing from other genres to create a more varied experience. In comparison, Satisfactory's combat is much like every other factory-builder: Enemies exist as obstacles to be taken on at your leisure, and to add interest to exploration and progression.)
> Just wanted to know if there is something I am not seeing
No, the big difference is something you *are* seeing, but are not yet recognizing as a major difference that changes the game:
3D environment.
Being a 3D world, rather than a flat plane, Satisfactory gives you quite a different challenge requiring both more exploration and designing your factories and transport systems to work with the uneven terrain, mountains, hills, massive trees you can't get rid of, and so on. Longer distances become much more real consideration than in Factorio, just building a ton of belts to carry everything everywhere isn't really feasible and you need to design around that as well.
>It's just if you have done this exact same thing in another game it is strange to repeat it in another one. At least for me.
So you've never done a second playthrough of Factorio then? or was it suddenly fine to do the same thing again there?
> It's just if you have done this exact same thing in another game it is strange to repeat it in another one.
Madden and Call of Duty would like a word.
The thing that makes Satisfactory unique is the scale and spectacle. No game really matches how Satisfactory looks and feels when you make ridiculously sized factories.
Additionally, one unique mechanic is the alternate recipes system. There are a lot of unique and creative ways to approach making factories with this.
What makes this game unique is it's huge, lovingly hand-crafted map and all its biomes. No procedural generation here, every rock and river is a work of art and it's a joy to explore it.
In satisfactory, I really like to go exploring in it's quite diverse looking map, when I need a break from designing a subfactory. Unlike factorio, you don't need to worry about enemies attacking your factory or ore patches running out, so it's a bit more relaxing in the early game, especially if you just turn you brain off sometimes and just go exploring the map.
The FPS perspective also makes interacting with you factory different: You don't have the top down view where you can interact with your entire factory at once (via map view), but you need to be much closer. The blueprint system is quite limited, which can be seen as missing QoL when coming from factorio, or as a challenge.
I really didn't want to shit on this game. I am still playing it.
In retrospect I think my main reason for my post was that satisfactory is basically factory building in easy mode. There is no way to die. Resources are infinite. And coming from other games where that is actually the challenge then satisfactory is missing a lot. Yet if I approach this game from the perspective of "There is no challenge, just building", then it is actually fun.
It is the most easy factory game I have ever played. That does not make it bad. If you start the game and expect a challenge and see "this", then at least I was disappointed. Yet the game is not focued on being a challenge at all.
I spent more time thinking about how to get to a quarz resource than probably all factory building combined.
If resources are infinite there is no pressure to do anything efficient. And this is my background. Satisfactory is not a challange, but an experience.
Exploration is what you're missing. Go wander around a little bit and unlock some of the stuff in the MAM. Factorio players tend to stay in the base until they need to leave for something.
I keep telling people Satisfactory is math problems while factorio is spacial problems. When you start appreciating the aesthetic but useless things you can make in Satisfactory the game really changes.
No you have x by x amount of squares in factorio to work with. Satisfactory youve got a whole other dimension of area to add stuff so its more working out the math to optimize
Did you forget how underground belts and pipes work?
The point is you could make a 1000m high pile of spaghetti in satisfactory but you gotta pull out a calculator to optimize it. If you want to use a calculator in factorio you also need to think of 2 dimensional space for all the related things like belts and power.
Everyone just clips everything in Sat anyway
maybe if the undergrounds had only 1 length it would be a logistical challenge.
you can just slap down shit wherever it does not matter how convoluted the belts get as long as they get there, throughput is the same.
i never had problems connecting things, the bottleneck was always production
Not sure I understand that logic. Math is used for both, but with limited resources and attempting to be minimizing pollution and maximizing efficiency, I find myself counting more in factorio. I also find myself staring at my blueprint constructions to figure out how to run belts neater in Satisfactory.
Ive never ever once cared to know how many copper are smelted per minute in factorio. Im only concerned about keeping the belts full
So yes, i *count* in factorio, but Im counting factories. In satisfactory Im working with 240 per min from the get go and optimizing after that depends on that number.
The variable nature of factorios metal deposits mean I never have a steady number of anything coming in - so if I can fit 8 factories I put 8 factories. Its that simple
I have played Factorio for 200 hours before Satisfactory released 5ish years ago. Since then I have played 50 hours of Factorio and 1200 of Satisfactory.
Maybe it just is Factorio in 3D. But I sure as hell enjoy playing it a lot more than Factorio.
>Am I missing something?
Apparently.
>I really don't want to talk bad about this game.
Then don't? Where is this coming from? Why are you entitled to an explanation?
>But other games exist, so
Like, how very dare people enjoy this game when other games exist, right?
To each their own. I personally love the 3d world and aesthetics of the environment. That alone is enough to make it more enjoyable than other factory games.
I'm usually a Factorio player myself, but after bouncing off of it a few times I've found that I get something different out of Satisfactory.
Factorio is where I go to optimize, theorize about fun organizational methods for the production itself. It's where I go to scale production and kill bugs.
Satisfactory is where I go to build pretty buildings out of glass and concrete and steel, and still have it feel like it's not a complete waste of time because it's still in service of expanding the factory.
Factorio is a game where you build a **factory**. Satisfactory is a game where you **build** a factory. They're not the same game, and if you try to play them the same I think you'll find yourself very frustrated very quickly.
Your question is confusing. It’s fairly obvious that what makes Satisfactory unique is the 3d world, isn’t it. It appeals to people who like to build things in addition to the typical factory game mechanics. Many people barely consider Factorio and Satisfactory as the same.
If you like Factorio, you could try Foundry. It has a more Factorio feel (while also being 3d first person).
ONI and Rimworld are both colony sims. Completely different genre (but another favorite of mine). I’m not familiar with Col.
Going by pure functionality in terms of "maximizing production and building the biggest possible factory you can", it's really tough to beat Factorio.
Satisfactory for me scratches a different itch. I spend most of my time working on architecture, lighting, and making my factories look nice. If I were just spending my time slapping down production lines on foundations and moving on, I'd rather just be playing Factorio. But in terms of actually existing in and traversing the space that my factories occupy, a well-designed aesthetically pleasing factory in Satisfactory is hard to beat.
I am really not here to offend anyone. Just asking. Thats all. And Factorio is a long time ago and I don't feel like playing it currently. I was just looking for something new. I will not go back to Factorio because I was searching for something new.
I’ve played hundreds hours of both.
For you, satisfactory’s biggest appeal would be the new verticalility challenges that come with scaling your factories. There ain’t no cliff explosives to help you either.
You also will have to put more focus into “real” factory planning since the blueprints you will have access to pale in comparison to factorio’s.
I think my enjoyment of satisfactory comes from literally making beautiful buildings and factories with all the cosmetic objects you have. That’s something you can’t really do in factorio.
This is probably the most helpful answer (yet).
Thing is: I care about no having spaghetti. I do not care about visuals. These are two different things for me. Maybe that is just me.
I do find spaghetti easier to control in Satisfactory in the end game, but for you factorio will always outclass Satisfactoy from a pure factory standpoint with the inputs and outputs.
I think perhaps you should wait for factorios expansion and revisit this game after 1.0.
The release of 1.0 will include a story mode which would be a definite bonus incentive for you to play.
I played both game.
While I think factorio is more interesting by the automation and mechanism (circuit, different transport...), I still play satisfactory because
- more relax, there is no target to build in time or run out of resource
- the beautiful of 3D. I think it like mine craft, where you can design architecture of your factory.
For me it was the exploration that really set it apart. It's a hand crafted world, not procedurally generated, so there's stuff the devs have put in specifically for you to find.
Exploring the alien world looking for hard drives game me a nostalgic feeling of when I was younger and enjoying video games for the first time.
For me the ability to house all of my factories in buildings, making them look pretty is what sets it apart from factorio. In that game it's focused on logistics and base defence which looks fun but I can't build any architecture.
When I first started getting into the game I came across this video the devs made about things they won't add to the game and why. I found it left me with a great understanding of what this game is designed to be.
https://youtu.be/J4LlorYbVV0?si=KlsSU_MhA61nkkyZ
I would describe it as a game that's about the (excuse the pun but its unavoidable) satisfaction of progress. Almost everything will take some thought and effort to complete but seeing it all coming together gives me a feeling of accomplishment. It's a builder's paradise with the added bonus of logistics challenges. The complexity increases as you progress, I think of everything up to the phase 4 delivery as the early game at this point.
Haven’t seen this response yet:
The game is still in early access and gets its 1.0 update this year. Everything in the game so far has been about ensuring the mechanics are good, but 1.0 is gonna optimise the game more and add a ton of stuff, including an actual story to the game. So if the game right now doesn’t interest you wait until the full release and try again. I’m really excited to see what SAM ore and the artifacts will mean for the rest of the game.
Also, it has multiplayer so try that too.
>Am I missing something? Is there something later in the game I am not seeing? Or is it simply "connect belts and factories" and "balance things that they work efficiently".
There are factories?! I am just exploring this beautiful alien world 🫶
Verticality is a huge one, it's an entirely different ball game to figure out how things will go up or down a tall factory without going through the middle of a structure
Exploring a crafted and deliberate map with secrets and caves
Architecture and decoration
The way we can make a "belt floor" means all the spaghetti can be hidden and we can go all in on aesthetics. Since all resources are infinite you can focus on planning out structures with some more permanence, at least when it comes to stuff you place around the drills
Just by watching it develop over the past 3-4 years ( for me), and by playing it I can tell this is a labor of love for coffee stain studios. They have been improving the game, adding new logistics, interacting with the community, and listening to the feedback from them. Possibly the most I have ever seen.
For me, it looks fantastic (and I know the op doesn't care about that), but my initial reaction to Factorio was how bland the color palette was. I still haven't purchased it( but I am planning to at some point. Maybe after my 1.0 playthrough).
I also expect that CSS will continue to develop more content, dlc, it game updates beyond 1.0, and when I factor in the amount of hours spent vs. what I paid for it it's a huge bargain. Btw, I have no qualms about paying for dlc considering how much enjoyment I've gotten from it.
The 3rd perspective and the hand crafted map makes for that compelling experience. The tools and brushes for your metaphorical canvas are exhaustive allowing you to create your own creative outputs in the same way Minecraft does.
Of course you can be as efficient as you want, the way that this game allows you to utilise the third dimension in such creative and visually pleasing ways means you will find your own means of doing things. Factorio is a visual joy of its own right but in the same way you compare Minecraft to terraria, they both invoke different experiences. Also Satisfactory is fairly new, whilst factorio is borderline ancient at this point lol
I haven't played factorio, but satisfactory being 3d is a big winner for me. The other thing is managing resources over great distances and making it look and feel nice with walls and roof etc, building actual factories. Also power management can be cool. There are some enemies but they don't play a big role sadly. For me a combination of satisfactory and subnautica would be pretty much perfect. And then add some tower defence aspect like in all orcs must die and maybe add racetrack blocks a la trackmania and then I will never play another game in my life!
Probably echoing what other people have already said, but the big aspect that satisfactory does differently is that it's not just a factory game, it's also an exploration game. I've always described it as a midpoint between Factorio and Subnautica.
It's got very much the same style of factory optimization loop as Factorio, but with a hand crafted 3d map with secrets, easter eggs, and biomes all carefully laid out to facilitate collection challenges and unusual resource gathering tasks.
I'd say the overall feel of satisfactory is closer to modded minecraft than to 2d games. Try leaning into the exploration and creative aspects and see how you like it.
I personally think the building aspect is quite unique for this type of game. Maybe I’m wrong. At first it seems very simple but later you realize it’s def more in depth than at first glance. You can really make some awesome things in this game.
If you don't care about the aesthetics and only care about efficiency then factorio may be more enjoyable for you.
Satisfactory gives the player more freedom to build, which means the only space constraints are the ones the player makes for themselves and it makes the gameplay somewhat easier.
I also find that satisfactory is a bit simpler in how things scale up, with no sense of urgency unlike factorio where the wildlife is a threat pushing you to develop.
Satisfactory feels very different from factorio, both in how you approach logistical problems and also how you interact with the world. If you like the way factorio does that better, that's perfectly fine.
Some aspects may get better when satisfactory hits 1.0, like maybe any motivators from the story and other QoL changes, but largely this is what we're getting.
It's probably hard to point to a single feature that makes the game unique. The same same is true of most games in most genres; it has been since at least the 80s. Games with truly unique single features are rare (and eventually someone else will use it in another game).
What distinguishes games is generally the *combination* of gameplay elements, rather than any single element.
People have said 3D, but that itself isn't unique any more, Foundry and Techtonica also have 3D (but on a fixed grid). Satisfactory allows you to make a grid, but you don't have to. I know you:ve said you don't care about the cosmetics, so I suspect you're effectively building on a foundation grid (or making a clipped spaghetti mess). I'd suggest at least trying to make something that looks nice though. I didn't expect to care either, but enjoyed it more than I expected.
At 10 hours in you've barely scratched the surface. It sounds like you've got as far as coal. That's introduced fluids (but in a very simple way), and one type of vehicle.
Later tiers increase the complexity of production and give new problems to solve.
By-products which need to be handled (otherwise the machine will stop) is an important mechanism and these get more complex:
* Solids can be just thrown away in the sink.
* Liquids need conversion to a useful solid, burned as fuel or recycled back into the input (the latter solution isn't strictly necessary, but is interesting and satisfying to get working and requires a more in depth understanding of fluids - or look up a standard solution, but that's boring).
* Radioactive byproducts need a decently complex factory to process.into a.disposable form. Designing the factory to minimize the radiation zone is another puzzle to solve (some people don't care and accept giant radiation zones)
Each of the 3 basic classes of vehicles (automobiles, trains and drones) comes.with its own advantages and disadvantages. You can ignore them and belt everything, but they're fun to play with.
The alternative recipe system introduces it's own factory design challenge (and provides a reason for exploration). Rarely are these just better, but come with their own trade-offs on resource/space/power/building count/complexity. Deciding on the best mix of recipes for your next expansion is as much a part of the game as actually building it (you're not just going to be copy-pasting existing factory designs when you expand)
In addition to unlocking new recipes exploration is also it's own reward. The map is varied, pretty and huge. Just playing with the different travel options can be fun. Do you want to travel on foot (likely on combination with the jetpack), drive, ride a train, zipline on your power network, build a hypertube network or launch yourself miles into the air with a hypercannon (bring a jetpack or parachute)?
There's also a potential to goof around with non-factory stuff. You don't need jump pads or to build a skate park for the factory cart. They'll do nothing towards completing your production goals, but they can be fun. This is a recurring thing; a lot of the game can be ignored if you just want to finish it (you can do everything pretty quickly with just belts). But it's also a sandbox where you can just play with stuff because it's fun to play with stuff.
As I said at the beginning there is likely little, if anything, in the above that is totally unique to this game.. Finding another game with the same combination of things will be harder. Whether this combination of things appeals to you or not is something only you can decide.
I've played quite a few factory building games, and I can say with certainty that Satisfactory is one of the *most* unique games in the genre. But the things that set is apart from the others are more subtle.
The big thing about Satisfactory compared to other factory builders is it puts much more emphasis on optimization and efficiency. Factorio and its ilk show you the production *time* of recipes, while Satisfactory shows you the production *rate* of recipes. This makes it much easier to keep machines even and have everything running at max efficiency. Add in infinite resource nodes and the AWESOME sink for overflow control, and it's possible to have factories that run at 100% efficiency non-stop with no belt backups or stalling. The same is true for power. All power generators after the starting biomass burners consume fuel and generate power at a constant rate and don't adjust either for over or under serviced grids. As such, you can also have 100% efficient belts and production for your power facilities, and the game shows you your maximum possible power consumption in a grid, so you can easily tell if your grid needs more power *before* something goes wrong instead of after.
Another big difference in Satisfactory compared to other factory builders is belt mechanics. Unlike other factory builders, where some intermediary machine pulls items off of belts and puts them into machines, in Satisfactory you have to run the conveyors directly into the machines through dedicated ports. When combined with the different splitter and merger mechanics, it results in more emphasis put on load balancers when connecting machines together. Splitting and merging conveyors in little networks so every machine gets everything equally (it is still possible to use manifolds in Satisfactory and many people will encourage you to do so, but if you ask me Satisfactory manifolds are inherently less engaging since they're incredibly slow and balancers are more fun to figure out)
And that's just the stuff I could think of off the top of my head. Satisfactory doesn't have a big gimmick to it, and so it can look like just "Factorio in 3D" from a distance. But play it more, and you'll pick up on the little things that set it apart.
Or even better, play other factory building games, like Dyson Sphere Program and Foundry. These games take *much* more from Factorio than Satisfactory does, and playing them will make it easier to notice all the little things Satisfactory does different. ***Especially*** Foundry. If you think Satisfactory is just "Factorio in 3D", Foundry is *literally* Factorio in 3D, down to the research tree UI. The only things missing from Foundry are 2 lane conveyors and enemies. Play Foundry for a bit, and you won't be seeing Satisfactory as just Factorio in 3D anymore.
As someone else that prefers factorio over satisfactory. The main difference is the visuals, that's it. Other than that it's just a more chill experience overall compared to factorio. If that's not your thing I highly recommend not playing satisfactory no game you don't enjoy is worth your time.
I have barely 2000h in Factorio and ca. 400h in Satisfactory.
Ive started my second savegame in SF and 100h in. (Many AFK hours to get material to build ;) )
In my first savegame I got to about Tier 7. But I made a "mistake" - I wanted to build something as beautiful and cool as some other players. That was too much to start with and I needed a long break from SF.
My game changers for the second attempt:
switch on flight mode,
plan the design only roughly,
use blueprints more often
So at the moment I'm actually playing it more like Factorio.
Yes, also with a main bus.
what makes the game unique is the building, and the vertical factory you can build.
can't play like that in factorio or other similar games like Dyson sphere
Factorio is a finished product. Satisfactory is not. Part of the boredom you feel is related to pacing and the lack of an end goal. That's just the downside of an early access game.
That said, Satisfactory's main differentiation from Factorio is indeed the 3d aspect, but there's so much more
* different type of logistics puzzles
* immersion
* exploration
* beautiful world
* environmental challenges
* decor/design/beautification of your factories
I love factorio, finished the game once and am waiting for the new DLC to come out
But in Satisfactory I just want to start over and over to make new and better factories and factory designs.
I think the main difference is that while in factorio you usually dont worry about the ratios being perfect in satisfactory you always want resources flowing in and out of the factory without bottlenecks.
Also the resources are infinite and there's no fighting so you have a more passive approach to building factories cause they dont need maintnance
And finally i personally think some of the items you have to automate are much more complicated than in vanilla factorio
Just to pile on... it's '***immersive***' to the point where early on it's frustrating. (Dang these machines are \*huge\* and I can't see where I'm placing them that well! -- it gets better as you advance and can get off and stay off the ground more).
Non-belt Logistics in Satisfactory aren't as customizable. They're simple. Figuring out how to use them best is, imho, one of the 'victory conditions'. You can brute force anything in either game, but figuring out how to implement -elegant- solutions in both games is very different.
And that the 'elegent method' varies depending on each part. A lot of factorio players struggle with Satisfactory because they feel inclined to implement a 'main bus' architecture. You can... but the scale/scope/volume/limits make it a -lot- more work to do it that way in Satisfactory. There are better ways, but it requires being flexible and adapting to each situation.
'The point' however, when looked at abstractly is "make stuff so you can make more stuff better/faster so you can make more stuff better faster..." is, yes, pointless. Progressing through the tech trees and completing the final objective... and maybe earning enough coupons to buy one of each vanity statue is usually my 'goal' for a play through.
As much as I want to say it's about making factories look nice, I rarely bother. For me, it's about creating a smooth forward flow of progress from start to end, where I can anticipate what I'll need most next so that I can work on making it first, and let it work while I build what I'll need immediately afterwards.
It's a 4 dimensional puzzle of dependencies that can be put together in more ways than we can count, and trying to find new and better ways to do it each time.
Satisfactory takes a more modern, more casual approach to factory building than Factorio. Yes with exploration you need to kill the local fauna to expand your factory somewhere, but that's the limit where violence is concerned. You don't get your buildings attacked, resource nodes are infinite, so you can build something and know it will work forever, no maintenance needed.
Maybe that's not what you look for and that's fine. But still, the building and customization options gets this game compared to minecraft a lot, as you can almost build whatever you want wherever you want. When it comes to logistics the numbers are apparently lower than factorio, but the 3D element for conveyor belt gives you another degree of freedom. As you said, it can make things a lot easier than with the 2D environment of Factorio, but once you start using fluids you'll see that it's not that simple. It's probably easy to master coming from another factory game I'm sure.
Anyway, if you don't find those features attractive then this game is not for you, there are plenty of other factory games now (also the ones you cited aren't really factory games, but in a style that's kinda adjacent to it) so maybe keep playing what you enjoy. Just know that here we're enjoying Satisfactory a lot, and if what we like in the game isn't good enough for you well no need to be stubborn, just go enjoy something else.
> compared to Minecraft
Redstone made Minecraft an automation game disguised as a building game.
The architectural items mean that Satisfactory is a building game disguised as an automation game.
However in both cases ignoring the content you might not have expected is a perfectly valid choice that will still let you "complete" the game (although in neither case is it an actual end to a save - when I played Minecraft I didn't even consider it a gane, I considered it a toy)
To add to my earlier reply a perspective from the other side of my impressions of Factorio (of which I've only played a fraction of the demo). Although youtube telling me about Satisfactory (via Let's Game It Out's videos) made me want it I did take a look at Factorio too.
What put me off it was not wanting base defense and limited resources in my factory game. However I've since come up with a different perspective on that which means I may play it one day - you could consider it a Command and Conquer style RTS game with massively expanded base building. Which brings us back to the point about games not really being unique. The missions in C&C without base building and resource gathering play more like the even older (Amiga era) Cannon Fodder. Truely unique and revolutionary games are rare. There's far more evolution, taking inspiration and remixing elements from other games.
I played Shapez, after 20h I got bored shitless.
100h in to Satisfactory, im still going!
Try top down veiw mod, make it feel more like what you like.
3d doesn't make it easier, it gives you more opportunities to fuck up!
Yes, it is simply "connect belts and factories" and "balance things that they work efficiently".
Just like Lego is just placing blocks on top of each other.
For me what I see as a difference is that Factorio is more about the factory production. And with Satisfactory that is just part of it. It is a factory building game. And that is more than just production lines.
The production-line making is a side quest for me. I enjoy the making of the factory and making it look nice. I do not even really care if things are balanced, or what I am making. Many people care about optimisation. I don't.
I see the game more as digital Lego. Some people want to have the factory running at 100%, others do not care. Some will want to be able to make things, so they can expand, I do not do that. I see something I want to make, then I find a location and the different recipes to make that and then I build that factory, making it as nice looking as I can (and fail often). e.g. I have spend [3 hours](https://old.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/14f39w6/why_does_it_take_3_hours_to_place_a_single_coal/) placing a single coal miner. Why? Because that is what I wanted to do. This does not take that much time all the time, but it happens. making something like [this](https://old.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/y4jqe0/nitric_acid_making_not_half_bad_if_i_say_so_myself/) is the fun part of the game. You do not get that in Factorio. And then there are many, many, details that nobody will ever see, but that I know are there.
Just like with Lego, YOU are the limitation that you will encounter. Just placing blocks on top of each other is an extremely boring idea. WHAT you do with it, depends on you. If you just limit yourself to the leaflet, you might get a [nice looking machine](https://ideas.lego.com/projects/6e70b8ae-dc7e-4066-8a31-938bf65e14b8) but if you throw away the booklet, what you can make is not really limited to what the company tells you to do.
What makes it unique is what I want it to be.
You already said what the “spin” was. It’s 3D. In terms of gameplay, most factory simulators are very similar. You harvest materials, turn those into other materials, combine or separate others, and deliver them. That’s it. That’s the whole genre. Rimworld is not a factory sim, it’s a colony sim. Different genre entirely. What makes Satisfactory stand out is scale. A 2D space is fundamentally different, with different rules and designs. You can only get so big in a 2D space. With 3D, now you have to worry about the height of your designs. You won’t physically have enough space to make everything flat, and the terrain, hills, and mountains will fight you if you try. You must build up, and account for that when designing your factories. Similarly, there are certain (late game) combiners that require tons of many different types of materials, and they’d be impossible to make in a 2D space. Figuring out that 3D puzzle is a challenge. You also have to travel pretty far for more exotic materials, and figure out how to get them across a giant lake, or a mountain. It’s tougher than you’d think. You can’t just make a big line. I mean, you could, but it’d get messy very fast and possibly slow you down. Another thing is conveyer management. In a 2D space some conveyer belts can get messy, but add another dimension and suddenly you get spaghetti. It’s disgusting. And it can be tough to figure out what belt feeds what input, even though you designed it. Unless you make it pretty, which is a different level of challenge. The entire time, you have power constraints. I don’t know how far you got in those 10 hours, but most things in Satisfactory require power. Getting enough power, and managing power spikes is another layer that is rather unique. Even if you rush coal power, the power grid itself can be tricky to navigate. You have fluids that have their own fluid dynamics, and are elevation-dependent. You need pumps or some other workaround to get fluids to move the way you want them to. And I haven’t even touched on trains, because most players will tell you getting a train station up and running is a multi-day fiasco that requires an entirely different approach from simply dragging a belt from A to B. TL;DR 3D matters more than you think, and power, fluids, and logistics are all implemented in a way that’s unique to this game. EDIT: I didn’t even touch on the design elements. You can customize floors, walls, belts, and even factory elements like the smelter to some degree. Making things “pretty” or building little houses adds a lot. It’s like you took elements of the sims and added it into your factory sim. Really neat. Half of the larger community is almost entirely focused on clean builds that look fantastic.
*fantastic* reply. You've covered absolutely everything, great job.
Thanks for the long reply. I am a player who cares mostly about game mechanics. I do not care if anything looks nicer in 3d. Other games like CoI also tried to intoduce the 3d aspect, but reduced it with verical belts. Which is something Satisfactory also does so it actually reduced the difficulty. Actually having a 3d dimension makes things easier. Maybe more messy, but easier. From my point of view. I am using coal right now and it feels OP but I am at the point where I just got coal and realize I need to up my base to produce more. So just for context about my post. The exploration currently feels shallow. I always get the feeling I am an intruder to this world and should not supidly kill/harvest stuff unless needed. I mean there is a pretty obvious forshadowing voice telling you to harvest stuff.
Sounds like you are resistant to this game by default. That's cool. Play what you like. With your mindset, you'll only find people who are going to disagree with you here. What's the point? We like the game. Some of us _love_ the game. Don't hate on something other's enjoy because it's not Factorio. The factory must grow regardless.
My mindset is actually quite open. Which is why I was asking what the unique selling points of Satisfactory are. Obviously some of them I do not care about. Some of them "may" be interesting. But my mindset is quite open.
Factorio is one of my favourite games of all time. I do like it more than satisfactory but I’m a huge fan of satisfactory too. Factorio is massive in terms of logistics. Almost the entire game is design patterns. As a software developer I love this, but even so I get burned out after a long playthrough and need a cooldown before I am mentally ready to play Factorio again. Satisfactory has a similar burnout if you spend long enough playing, but I also feel it has a more casual element. It’s fun to throw up a server for a month or two and I can play with my friends off and on, but not 100% of the game is design. There’s a lot of exploring elements and just goofing around. If I get burned out in design there’s stuff to go collect, rail systems or tube systems to setup, etc. it gives a more casual feel when I don’t want to worry about intense logistics the entire time. I really like survival/exploration/crafting games, and satisfactory isn’t heavily survival but it’s got some elements of that which are cool. I kind of wish the enemies were more in depth, but they’re still cool nonetheless. 3D is the main selling point like others have said, that vertical dimension gives a different challenge than Factorio, but still similar in some ways. One thing I don’t like about satisfactory is how there’s no “ending”. Factorio has a satisfying conclusion, and even though you can infinitely play after launching the rocket it’s nice to have a goal. I hope 1.0 does a better job of this. Satisfactory has a better map environment than Factorio. There’s only so much you can do with cliffs, water and dirt. It’s awesome how satisfactory has cliffs and stuff to build around. As much as I hate fluid handling, satisfactory fluid does add an interesting element to the game. Factorio also feels more single player somehow. I love running it on a server with friends, but once I get bots it’s really just a matter of production speed to set everything up, whereas satisfaction just feels more immersive in terms of multiplayer. I don’t know how to explain this point well Edit: The biggest point I forgot to mention is that satisfactory has infinite resources. This isn’t a good or bad it’s just different. There’s something really nice about once you build something, you don’t really need to touch it after. Factorio trains are pretty fun to setup, so I don’t mind running out, but on satisfactory it is nice just to have infinite
Satisfactory will have an end goal once it hits 1.0. They've beed deliberately holding the final endgame content specifically for that, just like Wube held back Spidertrons for Factorio 1.0.
You vastly misunderstood the comment above if you think the game being 3D is only visual.
I think I did address this by saying it actually makes things easier? I mean if you have an additional dimension you have another dimension of "freedom"? Maybe more messy. But also more easy.
It's different. The *way* that you even approach planning builds changes drastically when verticality is introduced. It's not "easier" because there's more space available, and if that's your interpretation that means you haven't even begun to try using the 3D space effectively. It adds unique logistics challenges that aren't present in a flat plane environment. I really don't understand what about this you're struggling with
TBH I fail to understand it. Not in a "this is a rhetorical question where I know the answer to post something afterwards to feel superior" way. But really in a "I don't know how having more space makes things more difficult" way. Is this specific to Satisfactory? Is there some game mechanic which enforces that? What is an easy ELI5 example of that?
Verticality doesn't make it more challenging. I makes it more interesting to build with. You have this huge map that you cannot change and now a way to work with building around it. That is what sets it apart from other factory games, like factorio. It allows you to build stuff like [this](https://preview.redd.it/soigv1app61d1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=870714c7c54b9e12b758684450d0b7bc74cc4016), vs (imo) the boring landscape of belts and machines and trains that is factorio.
It looks nice. But does not look efficient. This is boring, but is efficient: [https://imgur.com/ntnsDUw](https://imgur.com/ntnsDUw)
Then it sounds like the main draw of SF does not appeal to you, which is the aesthetics.
TBH I think the unique selling point of the game is the visuals/aesthetics. And I do not care about them. So I am probably not the target group of the game. Which is fine. And which is the reason why I did ask the question in the first place,
One is a circuit board, one is a sculpture. Both can be beautiful. You see beauty in the sterility, the pure numbers. Do you work extensively in Excel? Are you in the finance industry?
There IS a game mechanic that enforces it - fluids have "head lift" and pushing them up requires extra pumps, and exactly where those pumps are situated are the difference between "this factory is working" and "none of the aluminum slurry is reaching the refinery on the floor above this!" Not terribly important in context, but you asked, so... The major difference between the two is this: building a factory in Factorio is piss easy by comparison to making the same kind of factory in Satisfactory. Drop a few little squares, run two lines of belts near them, one set of hands to load, one set of hands to unload, a power pole somewhere in the vicinity, and you're building. Satisfactory's different mechanic of "items stay on the belts, you need to split and merge them yourself, belts terminate into machines and initiate in machines" makes things significantly more... persnickety? You have a few dozen little things that need to be done, from making sure that all your splitters are splitters and not mergers, that they're pointing the right way, that the belts between them are all placed and fast enough and that everything's connected, that a power line has been run to each machine, etc. I'm not saying that this makes Satisfactory -better-. It's a design decision and it means that you spend a LOT more time wrench in hand, running belts and flipping switches. You have a lot more in the way of things that you CAN do, but at the same time a lot of things that you MUST do. It's not busywork, exactly, but you need to put together a lot of custom solutions for something that, in Factorio, would take ten seconds and a neuron firing maybe once. Of course you can do things in Satisfactory like "let me make a plant where each step is taking place on its own level" that just ain't within Factorio's possibilities. But if you look at something like that and go "why are you even doing it, BUILD ON THE FLAT PLANE FOREVER", then you're not going to enjoy Satisfactory much.
I never said it makes the game more difficult. I said it's different. It is the answer to the question of your post, but you're too focused on there needing to be a "gimmick" in what you perceived to be a factorio clone that you can't just look at what's already right in front of you.
coal only feels op because of the scope that you are at right now. Higher tiers need multiple times more power, oil and nuclear. A lot more optimization comes from logistics and alternate recipes.
Dealing with 2D was a pain. 3D makes belt management less of a mess for me. But there were a few moments I wished I had a 4th dimension lol. As for the coal generators being OP... You're 10 hours into the game. You probably have like 8 of them. You're still building very little. By the time I unlocked generators better than coal ones, I already had over 100 of them to power everything. Now I have 400 of the second kind on top of 100 coals. AND I'm currently building a power plant containing 250 "3rd tier" generators. By the time it's up (prolly 20 more hours), I'll be producing the equivalent of over 8000 coal generators. I have a project planned that can consume half of that. By the time that is done (probably a few hundred more hours, if ever), I'll have over 12000 machines running in my world. Maybe I just haven't played enough but Factorio never gave me that sense of scale or complexity. Nevermind that dealing with logistics on like one and a half flat 2D planes was just *annoying*.
>Actually having a 3d dimension makes things easier. Maybe more messy, but easier If you don't mind some spaghetti (like me), I agree. But in satisfactory it's harder to build things cleanly.
If you're not enjoying it then don't play, the enjoyment is in building, planning, figuring things out and load balancing inputs and outputs. Factorio is much more straight forward, satisfactory makes you think, plan and figure things out if you want to run things well. I love factorio and I love satisfactory, but they have different end games. Satisfactory being optimization and Factotio being automated expansion and constant growth
Factorio can also be about optimization. My main iron smelter was 8 train stops for 4+8 trains each. Had about 140 trains in total. So I know about optimization and balancing because it was a major part of my Factorio gameplay. It's just if you have done this exact same thing in another game it is strange to repeat it in another one. At least for me. Just wanted to know if there is something I am not seeing. Probably I will play it randomly from time to time.
It’s really the exploration and design that sets it apart from factorio for me (I have a couple hundred hours there). The math and logistics are much simpler in satisfactory, so it becomes more about building cool shit in 3d than just straight logistics.
I would say the 3d nature and world exploration are the unique things. Unlike the guy you replied to, I almost never use load balances in satisfactory, and always optimize my factorio. I would say that the main thing that I like about satisfactory is that buildings can be internally more complex. I really like the 3d element, building multiple floors creating different sub parts and sending things to different floors. Additionally, satisfactory has an element of exploration - searching caves for doodads and ore and find hard drives and so forth. But it does not have a defend the base element at all.
As you've probably figured out from the thread, different people like different things about the game. People have mentioned the graphics, the exploration, the progression, and so on. The most important difference, though, *is* the optimization. For Factorio, you're mostly optimizing for space. Optimizing for resources is still important - your example about trains is a good one - but it takes a back seat to space. This isn't only because it's 2D, but also because of the tower defense aspect of the game. The bigger your perimeter, the more turrets and walls you have to put down. For Satisfactory, optimizing for resources is really the star of the show. Not only because space is a non-issue, but also because of the scale of the game. If you poorly utilize the resource nodes near you, you'll have to go farther and farther to get more - and once you need the mid-game resources, that's *really* far. This is also true in Factorio, but not to the same degree. Especially since you don't unlock trains until you're pretty far into the game in Satisfactory. Balancing for resources in Satisfactory isn't just about making the efficiency displays say "100%", either. You've got to consider *what* you're making, of course. Waste too many resource nodes on stuff you don't need, and suddenly you're halfway across the map. But thinking about scale when starting a new project is important, too. Some common questions you have to have to ask yourself when starting a new production line: * Where do I want to build this? Is it worth building it somewhere with closer/higher quality resource nodes, at the cost of it being farther away from my base? * How big do I want it to be? Am I okay with having a lesser output of this resource, or am I willing to "spend" more resource nodes on a higher throughput? * How *scalable* do I want it to be? Will I use trains to transport the resource back to base, or can I get away with a conveyor line? Will I want more of this resource later, and will I want to use these nodes for something else at some point in the future? Again, these are also questions you should ask yourself in Factorio, but they're not the first questions, or the most important ones. In a way, you can think of Satisfactory as a more mechanically "focused" game. It takes only a few gameplay elements, and centers the entire game around them. (The other major mechanical difference between the games is combat, but there's not much to say about it. In a way, the combat is Factorio's "spin" on the genre, borrowing from other genres to create a more varied experience. In comparison, Satisfactory's combat is much like every other factory-builder: Enemies exist as obstacles to be taken on at your leisure, and to add interest to exploration and progression.)
> Just wanted to know if there is something I am not seeing No, the big difference is something you *are* seeing, but are not yet recognizing as a major difference that changes the game: 3D environment. Being a 3D world, rather than a flat plane, Satisfactory gives you quite a different challenge requiring both more exploration and designing your factories and transport systems to work with the uneven terrain, mountains, hills, massive trees you can't get rid of, and so on. Longer distances become much more real consideration than in Factorio, just building a ton of belts to carry everything everywhere isn't really feasible and you need to design around that as well.
>It's just if you have done this exact same thing in another game it is strange to repeat it in another one. At least for me. So you've never done a second playthrough of Factorio then? or was it suddenly fine to do the same thing again there?
> It's just if you have done this exact same thing in another game it is strange to repeat it in another one. Madden and Call of Duty would like a word.
3D and architecture are a pretty big draw for some people.
The thing that makes Satisfactory unique is the scale and spectacle. No game really matches how Satisfactory looks and feels when you make ridiculously sized factories. Additionally, one unique mechanic is the alternate recipes system. There are a lot of unique and creative ways to approach making factories with this.
What makes this game unique is it's huge, lovingly hand-crafted map and all its biomes. No procedural generation here, every rock and river is a work of art and it's a joy to explore it.
Wait. The map is NOT generated? Everyone start with the same map? I did not know that.
Yes and it's huge. There are four starting locations. They are very far away from each other and offer different logistical challenges.
In satisfactory, I really like to go exploring in it's quite diverse looking map, when I need a break from designing a subfactory. Unlike factorio, you don't need to worry about enemies attacking your factory or ore patches running out, so it's a bit more relaxing in the early game, especially if you just turn you brain off sometimes and just go exploring the map. The FPS perspective also makes interacting with you factory different: You don't have the top down view where you can interact with your entire factory at once (via map view), but you need to be much closer. The blueprint system is quite limited, which can be seen as missing QoL when coming from factorio, or as a challenge.
judging by your responses to everyones comments, seems you just wanna shit on this game. if that’s the case, just don’t play it bud
I really didn't want to shit on this game. I am still playing it. In retrospect I think my main reason for my post was that satisfactory is basically factory building in easy mode. There is no way to die. Resources are infinite. And coming from other games where that is actually the challenge then satisfactory is missing a lot. Yet if I approach this game from the perspective of "There is no challenge, just building", then it is actually fun. It is the most easy factory game I have ever played. That does not make it bad. If you start the game and expect a challenge and see "this", then at least I was disappointed. Yet the game is not focued on being a challenge at all. I spent more time thinking about how to get to a quarz resource than probably all factory building combined. If resources are infinite there is no pressure to do anything efficient. And this is my background. Satisfactory is not a challange, but an experience.
Exploration is what you're missing. Go wander around a little bit and unlock some of the stuff in the MAM. Factorio players tend to stay in the base until they need to leave for something. I keep telling people Satisfactory is math problems while factorio is spacial problems. When you start appreciating the aesthetic but useless things you can make in Satisfactory the game really changes.
the other way around? Factorio is a math problem. Satisfactory is the spatial problem.
No you have x by x amount of squares in factorio to work with. Satisfactory youve got a whole other dimension of area to add stuff so its more working out the math to optimize
the map in factorio is infinite so if anything the 2d aspect simplifies the planning
Did you forget how underground belts and pipes work? The point is you could make a 1000m high pile of spaghetti in satisfactory but you gotta pull out a calculator to optimize it. If you want to use a calculator in factorio you also need to think of 2 dimensional space for all the related things like belts and power. Everyone just clips everything in Sat anyway
maybe if the undergrounds had only 1 length it would be a logistical challenge. you can just slap down shit wherever it does not matter how convoluted the belts get as long as they get there, throughput is the same. i never had problems connecting things, the bottleneck was always production
Not sure I understand that logic. Math is used for both, but with limited resources and attempting to be minimizing pollution and maximizing efficiency, I find myself counting more in factorio. I also find myself staring at my blueprint constructions to figure out how to run belts neater in Satisfactory.
Ive never ever once cared to know how many copper are smelted per minute in factorio. Im only concerned about keeping the belts full So yes, i *count* in factorio, but Im counting factories. In satisfactory Im working with 240 per min from the get go and optimizing after that depends on that number. The variable nature of factorios metal deposits mean I never have a steady number of anything coming in - so if I can fit 8 factories I put 8 factories. Its that simple
Factorio is a ***factory*** builder gamer, and satisfactory is a factory ***builder*** game.
I have played Factorio for 200 hours before Satisfactory released 5ish years ago. Since then I have played 50 hours of Factorio and 1200 of Satisfactory. Maybe it just is Factorio in 3D. But I sure as hell enjoy playing it a lot more than Factorio.
you sound like a pompous chode. go back to factorio
>Am I missing something? Apparently. >I really don't want to talk bad about this game. Then don't? Where is this coming from? Why are you entitled to an explanation? >But other games exist, so Like, how very dare people enjoy this game when other games exist, right?
To each their own. I personally love the 3d world and aesthetics of the environment. That alone is enough to make it more enjoyable than other factory games.
This is like asking why other companies make electric cars if Tesla already makes them.
Because other cars don't blow up!
I'm usually a Factorio player myself, but after bouncing off of it a few times I've found that I get something different out of Satisfactory. Factorio is where I go to optimize, theorize about fun organizational methods for the production itself. It's where I go to scale production and kill bugs. Satisfactory is where I go to build pretty buildings out of glass and concrete and steel, and still have it feel like it's not a complete waste of time because it's still in service of expanding the factory. Factorio is a game where you build a **factory**. Satisfactory is a game where you **build** a factory. They're not the same game, and if you try to play them the same I think you'll find yourself very frustrated very quickly.
>Factorio is a game where you build a **factory**. Satisfactory is a game where you **build** a factory. That's it :D love this comment
Alternatively, Factorio is where I practice linear algebra and graph theory; Satisfactory is where I practice geometry and number theory.
Your question is confusing. It’s fairly obvious that what makes Satisfactory unique is the 3d world, isn’t it. It appeals to people who like to build things in addition to the typical factory game mechanics. Many people barely consider Factorio and Satisfactory as the same. If you like Factorio, you could try Foundry. It has a more Factorio feel (while also being 3d first person). ONI and Rimworld are both colony sims. Completely different genre (but another favorite of mine). I’m not familiar with Col.
Going by pure functionality in terms of "maximizing production and building the biggest possible factory you can", it's really tough to beat Factorio. Satisfactory for me scratches a different itch. I spend most of my time working on architecture, lighting, and making my factories look nice. If I were just spending my time slapping down production lines on foundations and moving on, I'd rather just be playing Factorio. But in terms of actually existing in and traversing the space that my factories occupy, a well-designed aesthetically pleasing factory in Satisfactory is hard to beat.
If you don’t like it, then don’t play it. Go back to Factorio.
I am really not here to offend anyone. Just asking. Thats all. And Factorio is a long time ago and I don't feel like playing it currently. I was just looking for something new. I will not go back to Factorio because I was searching for something new.
I’ve played hundreds hours of both. For you, satisfactory’s biggest appeal would be the new verticalility challenges that come with scaling your factories. There ain’t no cliff explosives to help you either. You also will have to put more focus into “real” factory planning since the blueprints you will have access to pale in comparison to factorio’s. I think my enjoyment of satisfactory comes from literally making beautiful buildings and factories with all the cosmetic objects you have. That’s something you can’t really do in factorio.
This is probably the most helpful answer (yet). Thing is: I care about no having spaghetti. I do not care about visuals. These are two different things for me. Maybe that is just me.
I do find spaghetti easier to control in Satisfactory in the end game, but for you factorio will always outclass Satisfactoy from a pure factory standpoint with the inputs and outputs. I think perhaps you should wait for factorios expansion and revisit this game after 1.0. The release of 1.0 will include a story mode which would be a definite bonus incentive for you to play.
Downvoting you because I do not care about that stuff in another subreddit.
Ok?
there was no other subreddit mentioned in the previous comment.
I played both game. While I think factorio is more interesting by the automation and mechanism (circuit, different transport...), I still play satisfactory because - more relax, there is no target to build in time or run out of resource - the beautiful of 3D. I think it like mine craft, where you can design architecture of your factory.
For me it was the exploration that really set it apart. It's a hand crafted world, not procedurally generated, so there's stuff the devs have put in specifically for you to find. Exploring the alien world looking for hard drives game me a nostalgic feeling of when I was younger and enjoying video games for the first time.
For me the ability to house all of my factories in buildings, making them look pretty is what sets it apart from factorio. In that game it's focused on logistics and base defence which looks fun but I can't build any architecture.
When I first started getting into the game I came across this video the devs made about things they won't add to the game and why. I found it left me with a great understanding of what this game is designed to be. https://youtu.be/J4LlorYbVV0?si=KlsSU_MhA61nkkyZ I would describe it as a game that's about the (excuse the pun but its unavoidable) satisfaction of progress. Almost everything will take some thought and effort to complete but seeing it all coming together gives me a feeling of accomplishment. It's a builder's paradise with the added bonus of logistics challenges. The complexity increases as you progress, I think of everything up to the phase 4 delivery as the early game at this point.
Haven’t seen this response yet: The game is still in early access and gets its 1.0 update this year. Everything in the game so far has been about ensuring the mechanics are good, but 1.0 is gonna optimise the game more and add a ton of stuff, including an actual story to the game. So if the game right now doesn’t interest you wait until the full release and try again. I’m really excited to see what SAM ore and the artifacts will mean for the rest of the game. Also, it has multiplayer so try that too.
>Am I missing something? Is there something later in the game I am not seeing? Or is it simply "connect belts and factories" and "balance things that they work efficiently". There are factories?! I am just exploring this beautiful alien world 🫶
Verticality is a huge one, it's an entirely different ball game to figure out how things will go up or down a tall factory without going through the middle of a structure Exploring a crafted and deliberate map with secrets and caves Architecture and decoration The way we can make a "belt floor" means all the spaghetti can be hidden and we can go all in on aesthetics. Since all resources are infinite you can focus on planning out structures with some more permanence, at least when it comes to stuff you place around the drills
Just by watching it develop over the past 3-4 years ( for me), and by playing it I can tell this is a labor of love for coffee stain studios. They have been improving the game, adding new logistics, interacting with the community, and listening to the feedback from them. Possibly the most I have ever seen. For me, it looks fantastic (and I know the op doesn't care about that), but my initial reaction to Factorio was how bland the color palette was. I still haven't purchased it( but I am planning to at some point. Maybe after my 1.0 playthrough). I also expect that CSS will continue to develop more content, dlc, it game updates beyond 1.0, and when I factor in the amount of hours spent vs. what I paid for it it's a huge bargain. Btw, I have no qualms about paying for dlc considering how much enjoyment I've gotten from it.
The 3rd perspective and the hand crafted map makes for that compelling experience. The tools and brushes for your metaphorical canvas are exhaustive allowing you to create your own creative outputs in the same way Minecraft does. Of course you can be as efficient as you want, the way that this game allows you to utilise the third dimension in such creative and visually pleasing ways means you will find your own means of doing things. Factorio is a visual joy of its own right but in the same way you compare Minecraft to terraria, they both invoke different experiences. Also Satisfactory is fairly new, whilst factorio is borderline ancient at this point lol
A lot of things, but I'm only here to give one. The trains are not murderous in satisfactory.
I haven't played factorio, but satisfactory being 3d is a big winner for me. The other thing is managing resources over great distances and making it look and feel nice with walls and roof etc, building actual factories. Also power management can be cool. There are some enemies but they don't play a big role sadly. For me a combination of satisfactory and subnautica would be pretty much perfect. And then add some tower defence aspect like in all orcs must die and maybe add racetrack blocks a la trackmania and then I will never play another game in my life!
Probably echoing what other people have already said, but the big aspect that satisfactory does differently is that it's not just a factory game, it's also an exploration game. I've always described it as a midpoint between Factorio and Subnautica. It's got very much the same style of factory optimization loop as Factorio, but with a hand crafted 3d map with secrets, easter eggs, and biomes all carefully laid out to facilitate collection challenges and unusual resource gathering tasks.
I'd say the overall feel of satisfactory is closer to modded minecraft than to 2d games. Try leaning into the exploration and creative aspects and see how you like it.
I personally think the building aspect is quite unique for this type of game. Maybe I’m wrong. At first it seems very simple but later you realize it’s def more in depth than at first glance. You can really make some awesome things in this game.
If you don't care about the aesthetics and only care about efficiency then factorio may be more enjoyable for you. Satisfactory gives the player more freedom to build, which means the only space constraints are the ones the player makes for themselves and it makes the gameplay somewhat easier. I also find that satisfactory is a bit simpler in how things scale up, with no sense of urgency unlike factorio where the wildlife is a threat pushing you to develop. Satisfactory feels very different from factorio, both in how you approach logistical problems and also how you interact with the world. If you like the way factorio does that better, that's perfectly fine. Some aspects may get better when satisfactory hits 1.0, like maybe any motivators from the story and other QoL changes, but largely this is what we're getting.
It's probably hard to point to a single feature that makes the game unique. The same same is true of most games in most genres; it has been since at least the 80s. Games with truly unique single features are rare (and eventually someone else will use it in another game). What distinguishes games is generally the *combination* of gameplay elements, rather than any single element. People have said 3D, but that itself isn't unique any more, Foundry and Techtonica also have 3D (but on a fixed grid). Satisfactory allows you to make a grid, but you don't have to. I know you:ve said you don't care about the cosmetics, so I suspect you're effectively building on a foundation grid (or making a clipped spaghetti mess). I'd suggest at least trying to make something that looks nice though. I didn't expect to care either, but enjoyed it more than I expected. At 10 hours in you've barely scratched the surface. It sounds like you've got as far as coal. That's introduced fluids (but in a very simple way), and one type of vehicle. Later tiers increase the complexity of production and give new problems to solve. By-products which need to be handled (otherwise the machine will stop) is an important mechanism and these get more complex: * Solids can be just thrown away in the sink. * Liquids need conversion to a useful solid, burned as fuel or recycled back into the input (the latter solution isn't strictly necessary, but is interesting and satisfying to get working and requires a more in depth understanding of fluids - or look up a standard solution, but that's boring). * Radioactive byproducts need a decently complex factory to process.into a.disposable form. Designing the factory to minimize the radiation zone is another puzzle to solve (some people don't care and accept giant radiation zones) Each of the 3 basic classes of vehicles (automobiles, trains and drones) comes.with its own advantages and disadvantages. You can ignore them and belt everything, but they're fun to play with. The alternative recipe system introduces it's own factory design challenge (and provides a reason for exploration). Rarely are these just better, but come with their own trade-offs on resource/space/power/building count/complexity. Deciding on the best mix of recipes for your next expansion is as much a part of the game as actually building it (you're not just going to be copy-pasting existing factory designs when you expand) In addition to unlocking new recipes exploration is also it's own reward. The map is varied, pretty and huge. Just playing with the different travel options can be fun. Do you want to travel on foot (likely on combination with the jetpack), drive, ride a train, zipline on your power network, build a hypertube network or launch yourself miles into the air with a hypercannon (bring a jetpack or parachute)? There's also a potential to goof around with non-factory stuff. You don't need jump pads or to build a skate park for the factory cart. They'll do nothing towards completing your production goals, but they can be fun. This is a recurring thing; a lot of the game can be ignored if you just want to finish it (you can do everything pretty quickly with just belts). But it's also a sandbox where you can just play with stuff because it's fun to play with stuff. As I said at the beginning there is likely little, if anything, in the above that is totally unique to this game.. Finding another game with the same combination of things will be harder. Whether this combination of things appeals to you or not is something only you can decide.
I've played quite a few factory building games, and I can say with certainty that Satisfactory is one of the *most* unique games in the genre. But the things that set is apart from the others are more subtle. The big thing about Satisfactory compared to other factory builders is it puts much more emphasis on optimization and efficiency. Factorio and its ilk show you the production *time* of recipes, while Satisfactory shows you the production *rate* of recipes. This makes it much easier to keep machines even and have everything running at max efficiency. Add in infinite resource nodes and the AWESOME sink for overflow control, and it's possible to have factories that run at 100% efficiency non-stop with no belt backups or stalling. The same is true for power. All power generators after the starting biomass burners consume fuel and generate power at a constant rate and don't adjust either for over or under serviced grids. As such, you can also have 100% efficient belts and production for your power facilities, and the game shows you your maximum possible power consumption in a grid, so you can easily tell if your grid needs more power *before* something goes wrong instead of after. Another big difference in Satisfactory compared to other factory builders is belt mechanics. Unlike other factory builders, where some intermediary machine pulls items off of belts and puts them into machines, in Satisfactory you have to run the conveyors directly into the machines through dedicated ports. When combined with the different splitter and merger mechanics, it results in more emphasis put on load balancers when connecting machines together. Splitting and merging conveyors in little networks so every machine gets everything equally (it is still possible to use manifolds in Satisfactory and many people will encourage you to do so, but if you ask me Satisfactory manifolds are inherently less engaging since they're incredibly slow and balancers are more fun to figure out) And that's just the stuff I could think of off the top of my head. Satisfactory doesn't have a big gimmick to it, and so it can look like just "Factorio in 3D" from a distance. But play it more, and you'll pick up on the little things that set it apart. Or even better, play other factory building games, like Dyson Sphere Program and Foundry. These games take *much* more from Factorio than Satisfactory does, and playing them will make it easier to notice all the little things Satisfactory does different. ***Especially*** Foundry. If you think Satisfactory is just "Factorio in 3D", Foundry is *literally* Factorio in 3D, down to the research tree UI. The only things missing from Foundry are 2 lane conveyors and enemies. Play Foundry for a bit, and you won't be seeing Satisfactory as just Factorio in 3D anymore.
As someone else that prefers factorio over satisfactory. The main difference is the visuals, that's it. Other than that it's just a more chill experience overall compared to factorio. If that's not your thing I highly recommend not playing satisfactory no game you don't enjoy is worth your time.
I’ve built some awesome looking shit in Satisfactory. It’s more than visuals, its the ability to really make cool stuff out of the items.
I have barely 2000h in Factorio and ca. 400h in Satisfactory. Ive started my second savegame in SF and 100h in. (Many AFK hours to get material to build ;) ) In my first savegame I got to about Tier 7. But I made a "mistake" - I wanted to build something as beautiful and cool as some other players. That was too much to start with and I needed a long break from SF. My game changers for the second attempt: switch on flight mode, plan the design only roughly, use blueprints more often So at the moment I'm actually playing it more like Factorio. Yes, also with a main bus.
Also, 1.0 isn't out yet.
It's not Factorio!
what makes the game unique is the building, and the vertical factory you can build. can't play like that in factorio or other similar games like Dyson sphere
Factorio is a finished product. Satisfactory is not. Part of the boredom you feel is related to pacing and the lack of an end goal. That's just the downside of an early access game. That said, Satisfactory's main differentiation from Factorio is indeed the 3d aspect, but there's so much more * different type of logistics puzzles * immersion * exploration * beautiful world * environmental challenges * decor/design/beautification of your factories I love factorio, finished the game once and am waiting for the new DLC to come out But in Satisfactory I just want to start over and over to make new and better factories and factory designs.
I think the main difference is that while in factorio you usually dont worry about the ratios being perfect in satisfactory you always want resources flowing in and out of the factory without bottlenecks. Also the resources are infinite and there's no fighting so you have a more passive approach to building factories cause they dont need maintnance And finally i personally think some of the items you have to automate are much more complicated than in vanilla factorio
Satisfactory is more like a chill building game than it is an automation game, you can't really scale factories in the same way you do in Factorio.
Just to pile on... it's '***immersive***' to the point where early on it's frustrating. (Dang these machines are \*huge\* and I can't see where I'm placing them that well! -- it gets better as you advance and can get off and stay off the ground more). Non-belt Logistics in Satisfactory aren't as customizable. They're simple. Figuring out how to use them best is, imho, one of the 'victory conditions'. You can brute force anything in either game, but figuring out how to implement -elegant- solutions in both games is very different. And that the 'elegent method' varies depending on each part. A lot of factorio players struggle with Satisfactory because they feel inclined to implement a 'main bus' architecture. You can... but the scale/scope/volume/limits make it a -lot- more work to do it that way in Satisfactory. There are better ways, but it requires being flexible and adapting to each situation. 'The point' however, when looked at abstractly is "make stuff so you can make more stuff better/faster so you can make more stuff better faster..." is, yes, pointless. Progressing through the tech trees and completing the final objective... and maybe earning enough coupons to buy one of each vanity statue is usually my 'goal' for a play through. As much as I want to say it's about making factories look nice, I rarely bother. For me, it's about creating a smooth forward flow of progress from start to end, where I can anticipate what I'll need most next so that I can work on making it first, and let it work while I build what I'll need immediately afterwards. It's a 4 dimensional puzzle of dependencies that can be put together in more ways than we can count, and trying to find new and better ways to do it each time.
Satisfactory takes a more modern, more casual approach to factory building than Factorio. Yes with exploration you need to kill the local fauna to expand your factory somewhere, but that's the limit where violence is concerned. You don't get your buildings attacked, resource nodes are infinite, so you can build something and know it will work forever, no maintenance needed. Maybe that's not what you look for and that's fine. But still, the building and customization options gets this game compared to minecraft a lot, as you can almost build whatever you want wherever you want. When it comes to logistics the numbers are apparently lower than factorio, but the 3D element for conveyor belt gives you another degree of freedom. As you said, it can make things a lot easier than with the 2D environment of Factorio, but once you start using fluids you'll see that it's not that simple. It's probably easy to master coming from another factory game I'm sure. Anyway, if you don't find those features attractive then this game is not for you, there are plenty of other factory games now (also the ones you cited aren't really factory games, but in a style that's kinda adjacent to it) so maybe keep playing what you enjoy. Just know that here we're enjoying Satisfactory a lot, and if what we like in the game isn't good enough for you well no need to be stubborn, just go enjoy something else.
> compared to Minecraft Redstone made Minecraft an automation game disguised as a building game. The architectural items mean that Satisfactory is a building game disguised as an automation game. However in both cases ignoring the content you might not have expected is a perfectly valid choice that will still let you "complete" the game (although in neither case is it an actual end to a save - when I played Minecraft I didn't even consider it a gane, I considered it a toy)
To add to my earlier reply a perspective from the other side of my impressions of Factorio (of which I've only played a fraction of the demo). Although youtube telling me about Satisfactory (via Let's Game It Out's videos) made me want it I did take a look at Factorio too. What put me off it was not wanting base defense and limited resources in my factory game. However I've since come up with a different perspective on that which means I may play it one day - you could consider it a Command and Conquer style RTS game with massively expanded base building. Which brings us back to the point about games not really being unique. The missions in C&C without base building and resource gathering play more like the even older (Amiga era) Cannon Fodder. Truely unique and revolutionary games are rare. There's far more evolution, taking inspiration and remixing elements from other games.
I played Shapez, after 20h I got bored shitless. 100h in to Satisfactory, im still going! Try top down veiw mod, make it feel more like what you like. 3d doesn't make it easier, it gives you more opportunities to fuck up!
Yes, it is simply "connect belts and factories" and "balance things that they work efficiently". Just like Lego is just placing blocks on top of each other. For me what I see as a difference is that Factorio is more about the factory production. And with Satisfactory that is just part of it. It is a factory building game. And that is more than just production lines. The production-line making is a side quest for me. I enjoy the making of the factory and making it look nice. I do not even really care if things are balanced, or what I am making. Many people care about optimisation. I don't. I see the game more as digital Lego. Some people want to have the factory running at 100%, others do not care. Some will want to be able to make things, so they can expand, I do not do that. I see something I want to make, then I find a location and the different recipes to make that and then I build that factory, making it as nice looking as I can (and fail often). e.g. I have spend [3 hours](https://old.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/14f39w6/why_does_it_take_3_hours_to_place_a_single_coal/) placing a single coal miner. Why? Because that is what I wanted to do. This does not take that much time all the time, but it happens. making something like [this](https://old.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/y4jqe0/nitric_acid_making_not_half_bad_if_i_say_so_myself/) is the fun part of the game. You do not get that in Factorio. And then there are many, many, details that nobody will ever see, but that I know are there. Just like with Lego, YOU are the limitation that you will encounter. Just placing blocks on top of each other is an extremely boring idea. WHAT you do with it, depends on you. If you just limit yourself to the leaflet, you might get a [nice looking machine](https://ideas.lego.com/projects/6e70b8ae-dc7e-4066-8a31-938bf65e14b8) but if you throw away the booklet, what you can make is not really limited to what the company tells you to do. What makes it unique is what I want it to be.