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Comment by julianeon | Hacker News Reader

Anyone here own Factorio & Shapez who could compare them?

Might sound silly but Factorio's tutorial/learning curve complexity has intimidated me, so I started w Shapez, as easy mode Factorio. Liking Shapez so far.

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Shapez is much more guided, abstract, but probably still as complex as factorio.

Mindustry is simpler in complexity but much more aimed at "tower defense" style game play.

Satisfactory is like the child of Factorio and Subnautica, with a little of both games but not as deep as either.

Dyson Sphere Program is probably the truest successor to Factorio, but it's still very early access and just now adding combat.

I have both and found Shapez boring because of how claustrophobic the map is and how limited the resource types are. You can't build at the scale of Factorio because the game starts to lag (the downside of making a game in Electron perhaps). Once you've unlocked all the equipment types the rest of the game is just a loop of find some place on the map that has all the elements you need -> set up extractors + choppers + painters + combiners + stackers -> make belts to ship the product back.

With Factorio you have options for transport (belts, trains, bots) each with their own setup and maintenance challenges, and you have incentive to centralize production of an intermediate and then figure out how to distribute it to many other places which need it. With shapez you just set up new factories from scratch every time because there's only a handful of resources and they're all available everywhere in close proximity to each other.

Also the circuit stuff in Shapez is completely unnecessary unless you go for the goal of building an all-in-one (a single factory setup which can rearchitect itself to build any kind of shape you tell it to). In Factorio you use circuit stuff all the time even for basic tasks, like balancing belts or prioritizing resources to different parts of the factory or turning off parts of the factory to save power or...

I finished Shapez and then had no reason to pick it back up because there's basically only one way to finish the game. With Factorio I not only had variations in the base game I could explore (train bases vs bot bases vs spaghetti belt bases, electric furnaces vs staying with steel furnaces forever, not bothering with solar and nuclear and just staying with steam power forever, etc), I also have mods. With Shapez I have... a DLC that adds puzzles.

But yes, every pro of Factorio and con of Shapez that I listed could be the opposite for someone else. So if you like the low complexity of Shapez then you may not like Factorio.

I've obsessively played Factorio since 2014, probably logging over a thousand hours in it. I found Shapez a lot more finicky and overall way less fun. The challenges and progression in Shapez are mundane, the theme is abstract, and the UI and performance do not compare to the brilliant work done in Factorio. For what feels like a weekend project flash game, Shapez is very well done. But it doesn't compare to a project that's seen a decade of development from an incredibly talented team.

Another commenter mentioned Dyson Sphere Program, which is quite similar and also an impressive effort from its team. It introduces some refreshing differences for a seasoned Factorio player but doesn't yet have enough content/longevity.

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