RedEye9 wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 14:49:

Burrito of Peace wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 14:41:
I forgot that I owned this game. The last time I played it, getting started was very much a grind. Has that been eased?

I went to look at it and Steam said I owned it.
Humble Ukraine bundle to the rescue.
My backlog is now 3 RedEye9 lives worth.

OH SHIT. I was just thinking "might finally be time to pick this up." But I own it too bc I got the Ukr bundle!

El Pit wrote on Mar 25, 2023, 13:11:
Damn! Instead of finishing the game they introduce many new problems with the engine change. Not good in my opinion. How about FINISHING STARCITIZENTORY first and using Unreal 5 for a sequel or a new game?
I love Satisfactory. I have hundreds of hours in it and was hoping that the game would get finished by the end of 2024 because there is not much more to patch or do. But now I guess it will be 2025 only if everything works out great and more likely 2026. By then, we might even have Half-Life 3. Finish the game, guys! Okay?

Yeah, I watched the video, and I didn't really see anything that justified upgrading the engine. I'm sure they're gaining valuable experience that they can apply to future games, but it didn't seem necessary for this.

I suspect you will like the game once you get into it BoP. It's the perfect game for anal retentive, detail oriented people like you and me

I had a spreadsheet I kept open on my second monitor, to keep track of how much of each resource or item I was producing, and how much I was using.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 18:41:
Thanks Tact and TFP!

Glad to help. If you have specific questions feel free to ask here or contact me through the site. As for the bio-fuel... something to realize is they only burn fuel as necessary. SO, it very reasonable to completely over build it. If you have 10 (or 20) Bio-Fuel generators burning solid fuel to support your base, a full load of 200 in each will last A LOT LONGER than if you only run the 4 or 5 generators you need to cover your usage.

Thanks Tact and TFP!

So I'm a big fan of this game.. so I'm sorta biased.. but:

This is wrong on all counts.
This game is first of all pretty demanding as-is, certainly if you get into very large factories. So you need a pretty beefy system for a good experience. and even then you might struggle. UE5 actually has the potential to significantly REDUCE the workload on your system under these conditions, because the world partitioning and renderer is so much better at handling huge open worlds with lots of detail.

Jonjonz wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 06:35:
Um thanks for my morning hipster PR weasel fix.

So a game that everyone thinks is just peachy and fun, is going to jump to a bleeding edge engine that will up the detail levels in ways that have absolutely no benefit to the game play, to the detriment of increased tech requirements to run it while breaking all community content and players save games and becoming too cpu/gpu intensive such that a good chunk of the player base will no longer be able to run it.

If it is not broke, don't fix it.

This will not end well.

Mr. Tact wrote on Mar 25, 2023, 16:55:

thestryker wrote on Mar 25, 2023, 16:39:
Personally speaking their gameplay is great and doesn't need to be expanded upon (at least not enough to justify a new game)

What exactly are you referring to as "gameplay" here? Because basically the game is resource collecting and factory building. Which is fine for me because I like factory games, but I don't know if I would call it "great gameplay" even if I do like it. Unless you are in love with the first-person perspective I think DSP does a better job. But they are both great games.

From a factory building standpoint DSP was definitely the better game last time I played it, but I like the overall package of Satisfactory better.

Gameplay I'm just referring to all of the game mechanics: how placement works, nodes not running out of resources, factory balancing, various forms of movement the combat etc. As they've expanded on these systems they've all become more fun and interesting. I just don't see any fundamental changes required to any of their systems which would be a notable improvement. Now by the time they hit final release I may be disappointed with where they didn't go, but right now it's on a pretty great trajectory.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 14:41:
I forgot that I owned this game. The last time I played it, getting started was very much a grind. Has that been eased?

Yeah, grindy, but not like it feels meaningless. It takes a while to bootstrap up to the point where things can sort of run themselves.

It's slow to get started because initially you only have generators that burn biomass, and you need to keep cutting down trees for them. Until you get coal power, your power supply is limited, and you have to keep manually putting biomass in the generators. You also don't get drilling rigs at first, just hand digging and small portable drillers you can build.

However if you want to bypass some of that there are pre-made community maps you can start with that have some of the basics done for you like give you a vehicle to start with so slogging stuff around is easier, or even a pre-built power station. There's even a map with a ready to go rail network and a power station to run it.

There's a whole online map editor/viewer here with blueprints you can place on a custom map and then download the map: https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/interactive-map

There's a debug flag that puts the game in creative mode so you can just build.

There's also an online map viewer/editor here that will let you customize a map and give you

Burrito of Peace wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 14:41:
I forgot that I owned this game. The last time I played it, getting started was very much a grind. Has that been eased?

The start is very hand craft heavy, if that's what you are talking about, it is still there. It is simply their push to give you the idea you need to automate everything. *shrug* It really isn't too bad, especially if you have already done it once. Especially the power -- I've seen plenty of first time players on Twitch get frustrated with the bio-fuel situation. If that is what's stopping you, try to push through until you have coal power up and running. Things improve once you have coal power up....

Burrito of Peace wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 14:41:
I forgot that I owned this game. The last time I played it, getting started was very much a grind. Has that been eased?

I went to look at it and Steam said I owned it.
Humble Ukraine bundle to the rescue.
My backlog is now 3 RedEye9 lives worth.

I forgot that I owned this game. The last time I played it, getting started was very much a grind. Has that been eased?

Wow, a lot of FUD here about this. Don't get your panties in a bunch. I remember a lot of howling when version 7 was releases, but in the end it was a great improvement over 6.

I spent hundreds of hours in the game, and I finally finished the last space elevator challenge and got nukes working (balancing production for nukes was challenging). The game brought me a lot of joy. Once I got my factory design working well (I went for one incredibly tall conveyor system) I stuck with it. Not one of those people, so far, who want to go back and now build the prettiest factory, but there may come a day when I revisit it.

I don't have a problem with them going to UE5. In actuality, this is a game that will greatly benefit from UE5. For instance, if they wanted to make the map any bigger they're up against some hard limits now in UE4.

If you like your game as it is, then I strongly recommend you disable auto updates for the game, and stay on version 7 (doesn't look like Steam lets you do this anymore, although you can set it to update only when you run the game and then cancel it I suppose), and backup the entire game folder just in case if you want. That's what I'm going to do today just to play safe. I will wait until version 8 is stable and then take a look at it, and by then I may be in the mood to start all over again with more attention towards making my factories look nice versus functionality.

As pointed out in the video, this is not expected to break saved games, but they are strongly recommending you backup your saves just in case. These guys have always tried hard to keep saves compatible. You have to give them that.

As for people bitching about mods breaking: The devs have never included any support for mods in the game. They don't have a problem with mods, and encourage the community to work on them but mods have always been a community thing. Again, you want to keep your mods until they're reworked for version 8, then stay on version 7.

Comparing this game to Star Citizen is extremely unfair. These guys have done amazing things, and have been very pro community. The fact that they've spent 5 months behind the scenes quietly doing the conversion before they even announced this, means they're doing it right. Watch the video. They aren't just going to spring this on us, they've been working hard to make this fairly painless. The game just keeps getting better, and I'm excited to see where they go with it.

JonJonz: He explicitly states in the video that the minimum hardware requirements for version 8 are the same as for version 7, so anyone who can play the game now, will be able to continue playing the game. In the long run, going to UE5 should actually improve performance. Nanite alone will improve performance as this game is practically made for Nanite.

Most of the changes are going to be under the hood, which will allow them to add or improve features that are limited under UE4, and also make it easier to make changes to terrain, which right now is a PITA. The most notable thing will be vehicle physics, which really did need some work.

Nanite really won't improve visuals directly. What it does is improve performance by not rendering complex poly's for distant objects. Indirectly, it means they can improve visuals down the road if they decide to, because now the engine doesn't have to work so hard to render that mountain in the distance in full detail that you can barely see anyway.

This comment was edited on Mar 26, 2023, 13:20.

Um thanks for my morning hipster PR weasel fix.

So a game that everyone thinks is just peachy and fun, is going to jump to a bleeding edge engine that will up the detail levels in ways that have absolutely no benefit to the game play, to the detriment of increased tech requirements to run it while breaking all community content and players save games and becoming too cpu/gpu intensive such that a good chunk of the player base will no longer be able to run it.

If it is not broke, don't fix it.

This will not end well.

This comment was edited on Mar 26, 2023, 06:47.

They will be , it is stated in the video.

Jaxx wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 00:25:
And more than likey the save files will not be compatible. Rip

Jaxx wrote on Mar 26, 2023, 00:25:
And more than likey the save files will not be compatible. Rip

Yeah another reason to stop playing for now on both of my game worlds/saves. I expect big patches to kill a save file but after restarting 4-5 times even just casually playing it gets boring.

And more than likey the save files will not be compatible. Rip

I’m hoping Nanite makes the landscape look significantly better once you get up high and look out. Also, the engine change may fix the “problem” of land not being interactable if you’re moving too fast. I want to set up travel tube rail guns so i can get to a few locations around the map near instantly, but currently you can’t do that because you fall through the ground and into oblivion when you arrive.

I dont think it will add significantly to the release schedule. They have spent 4 months on switching (but also working on the game) And sure there will be issues, but I think it will have some huge benefits that will save time in the long run. When you have stuff like Nanite, and the new world partitioning system and the inclued physics, you get the majority of the optimization for free. So those things will be a huge timesaver, I think. Once they get the actual switching out of the way, they can focus on content and not worry so much about performance etc.

El Pit wrote on Mar 25, 2023, 13:11:
Damn! Instead of finishing the game they introduce many new problems with the engine change. Not good in my opinion. How about FINISHING STARCITIZENTORY first and using Unreal 5 for a sequel or a new game?
I love Satisfactory. I have hundreds of hours in it and was hoping that the game would get finished by the end of 2024 because there is not much more to patch or do. But now I guess it will be 2025 only if everything works out great and more likely 2026. By then, we might even have Half-Life 3. Finish the game, guys! Okay?

thestryker wrote on Mar 25, 2023, 16:39:
Personally speaking their gameplay is great and doesn't need to be expanded upon (at least not enough to justify a new game)

What exactly are you referring to as "gameplay" here? Because basically the game is resource collecting and factory building. Which is fine for me because I like factory games, but I don't know if I would call it "great gameplay" even if I do like it. Unless you are in love with the first-person perspective I think DSP does a better job. But they are both great games.

El Pit wrote on Mar 25, 2023, 14:13:

thestryker wrote on Mar 25, 2023, 13:53:
This year is the 4 year anniversary. Part of me wishes they'd finished the game, but I also get why they haven't. They released it in a fairly polished state, but pretty early in terms of concepts. I'm also not really sure there's much meaningful for a hypothetical sequel from a gameplay standpoint.

Really? Like having many planets to destroy, sorry, strip of resources, sorry, use with ecological wisdom and have space factories and space transports and so on? Many, many meaningful possibilities for a sequel.

You're aware that they made (and continue updating) the world in Satisfactory by hand and that's a good chunk of why it's good right? If they were to have many planets with space factories/transport they'd have to abandon the design or massively increase the team size. I think space by itself could offer interesting new mechanics, but that hardly sounds like a new game rather an expansion.

Personally speaking their gameplay is great and doesn't need to be expanded upon (at least not enough to justify a new game) so I'd much rather see expansions (extra planet etc) than an attempt at a new game. I do know that the economics of that usually don't add up though sadly no matter how popular the base game happens to be.