Tanston

Member
Nov 29, 2017
343
Is techtonica still the only real option for a Satisfactory clone with controller support? I love this genre but never got to play Satisfactory as I just can't do mouse and keyboard anymore...too much carpel tunnel.

Currently playing atrio which is fine but a little too linear to really scratch the itch.
 
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Falk

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,148
i know folks have been testing foundry on Steam Deck

what that means for actual controller support though, shrug

also some UI elements are definitely struggle tier on the deck's screen size

I never gave oxygen not included a good try since I don't like the perspective (or art style tbh). I actually did buy it once but refunded it.

okay, put another way it's the dark souls of automation games lmao
 
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Falk

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,148
Foundry is fun! But why the inserters so big? And the ramp conveyors. Such big ramps.

I realize it seems silly to say this compared to Satisfactory where everything is extra huge, but I think everything being on the grid in Foundry makes me want to make everything super compact, but the need to have at least a 2 square buffer around the buildings on a side where you need to have loader + conveyor makes that a lot harder than it feels like it should be.

Thinking on it now I think I'm most directly comparing the sizes to Dyson Sphere Program and the way the Sorters in there work, where they kind of attach "in" to the building, so you can have your belt lines right next to the building. Or if there was a way to insert the product from one assembler directly to another when you're doing component parts of someting, that'd really help a lot too. Since the most compact way to do that I've seen is in a 3x3 space with a belt snaking between.

i treat it as a puzzle to solve really - wouldn't say no to dyson sphere style inserters but my understanding is it's a technical limitation of the game's framework - the loader needs an actual unique voxel assigned to it for the game to properly save its position due to the way the game stores things (which is similar to Factorio actually)

in any case you can still get ultra-compact layouts with a little ingenuity

couple of my favs from the steam guide:

94C9A752C2B1ED61239B49714C86AD1314C0C0C2


outside of the spacing between the columns and between the crushers/smelters (although you DO need 1 space there so the raw ore rubble doesn't make it onto the output belts) this is as compact as smelting will ever go

8B52ED991574D2E64285A38C89EB53D60DBCE850


concrete setup that takes only raw resources, square footprint, tileable as well, concrete/min calibrated to 16/min SP3
 
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Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,437
I ended up going with Foundry with my steam credit a few days ago and I do not regret it. Game is incredible and it's been awhile since something like this keeps pulling me back into it and making me lose perception of time. This is actually my first automation game ever and I feel like it's a pretty accessible one to jump into for a newbie to the genre. I'm absolutely terrible at optimization and my starter base area is a mess, but I'm definitely feeling a great balance of comprehending and employing newly researched mechanics and connections and the pressure of wanting to redesign earlier setups. At some point I just want to take everything I've researched so far and go start somewhere new - I see a particularly massive mountain in the distance that I'd love to hollow out and make into a multi-level facility.
 

Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,437
*looks at OP*

you are already dead
Lol the genre has always intrigued me as I enjoy city builders and micromanagement type stuff like that.. but I've never found an automation game where the visual aesthetic really resonated with me or drew me in. I'm not a fan of the look of Satisfactory so I never gave it a shot. I love Foundry's style, though.

edit: the other thing is I'm really big on procedurally generated worlds, so that was a huge draw for me in this case. The only thing that feels strangely missing in Foundry is a snowy biome... but it is an early access title and I haven't looked at a roadmap, if one exists, so I'm not sure if that's planned at some point.
 
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Falk

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,148
Lol the genre has always intrigued me as I enjoy city builders and micromanagement type stuff like that.. but I've never found an automation game where the visual aesthetic really resonated with me or drew me in. I'm not a fan of the look of Satisfactory so I never gave it a shot. I love Foundry's style, though.

edit: the other thing is I'm really big on procedurally generated worlds, so that was a huge draw for me in this case. The only thing that feels strangely missing in Foundry is a snowy biome... but it is an early access title and I haven't looked at a roadmap, if one exists, so I'm not sure if that's planned at some point.

oh very specifically they talked about the procgen in foundry basically being based off a heat map and a humidity map so you wouldn't get e.g. deserts next to tundras so i wouldn't be surprised if a straight up snow biome is in the works already.

p.s. the procgen is really, REALLY good - lots of interesting vistas and natural looking rivers/lakes
 

Love Machine

Member
Oct 29, 2017
4,260
Tokyo, Japan
I love checking this thread every now and then, seeing some cool new games/updates, reading some stories, and thinking "Maybe it's time to try DSP properly"... then I spot one of Falk's posts and I'm like
FhOkQpAXEB8-d1o.jpg:large


Foundry looks awesome, though. I'll no doubt get it eventually when it's on sale, become infatuated with it for a couple of days, then get distracted and completely forget how to play (my flowchart for playing literally any automation game, ever).
 

Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,437
oh very specifically they talked about the procgen in foundry basically being based off a heat map and a humidity map so you wouldn't get e.g. deserts next to tundras so i wouldn't be surprised if a straight up snow biome is in the works already.

p.s. the procgen is really, REALLY good - lots of interesting vistas and natural looking rivers/lakes
Awesome! I'll def be up to re-roll a world and play with the knowledge of what to research first and how to best prepare early factory lines once they implement new biomes.

Foundry looks awesome, though. I'll no doubt get it eventually when it's on sale, become infatuated with it for a couple of days, then get distracted and completely forget how to play (my flowchart for playing literally any automation game, ever).
FYI it's on sale right now. Introductory price is 10% off until May 16.
 

pronk

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,667
I made the mistake of buying Foundry to play on Steam deck - it says it has partial controller support on the Steam page, but unless I'm doing something wrong, it has no controller support whatsoever?

Edit 2: Tried again and it suddenly worked. Runs nicely enough on deck although it was working the fans a bit
 
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Falk

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,148
we had someone dedicated testing on the deck and i think they shared their controller profile

one of the biggest feedback was the UI panel things being incredibly hard to see and building being a little more finicky with thumbsticks, especially the large ones. devs are aware it's a pain point
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,743



This is kind of interesting, but also "ABC Factory" followed by "XYZ Factory"...

These last 2 game names are showing the laziness of the simulator genre naming. Goat simulator... lawn care simulator... etc.

Oh, there already is a crossover - chocolate factory simulator.

store.steampowered.com

Chocolate Factory Simulator on Steam

Enter the world of steam and sugar and become a master chocolatier in Chocolate Factory Simulator. Craft gourmet chocolate for your customers in your steampunk workshop with the help of your automaton assistant Nougat.
 
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Falk

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,148
i mean if it gets the point across, good? lol

better than some completely random noun which does nothing to describe a game