Everything except the losing interest part is what people love about factory games. So while they have your interest, realize that you are absolutely playing them "correctly". But if you don't like iterating your designs (not everyone does, and that's OK), then these are probably not the right genre for you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I've been sucked into Factorio quite thoroughly, until the automation, optimization and debugging started feeling too much like what I do at work. I mean, I enjoy the process (which is why I got this work in the first place), but doing it in my free time as well is a bit much

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Check out Shapez 2. The first game was pretty basic but I really enjoy S2 as a Factorio lite. It's much much less complex, but there's still plenty of room to build crazy contraptions as you unlock more stuff to build with. Most major upgrades will make you want to refactor your whole base, but after you finish delivering a certain type of shape you no longer need to make more (except sometimes as components for new shapes). So I'll pretty regularly knock out like half my factory and make a new and improved assembly line for the new shape I need to deliver.

It's good, give it a look. I get quite sucked into it and it doesn't have as much mental overhead as Factorio does. There's also no biters, which makes it a much more relaxing factory game.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I've enjoyed shapez 1 a lot, back when it was shapez.io. Definitely giving the sequel a try.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Played shapes2 and it is really fun but for me it feels heavier. When i play some Factorio mods there are times when it gets overwhelming and shapes have the same problem for me. Takes a couple of days or weeks to recover.

Also the rebuild everything thing in shapes 2 is not really true. When you get a few hours into the game the stuff you deliver is stuff you want to deliver forever to gain operator levels. The secondary stuff that isn't forever stuff is what makes me give up. Fatigue of rebuild or something... Good thing we are all different :)

[–] Brokkr 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I have to take breaks sometimes and be in the right mood. I find that I like to play more when I'm going through a boring patch at work and I need something mentally stimulating.