zlacker

>>DonHop+(OP)
When I saw this title, I first thought it was about understanding the cockroach-like aliens in Factorio, but it is actually about queuing and congestion and parallel processing with conveyor belts and factories!

With the caveat that Factorio is EXTREMELY addictive, properly described as "programmer crack", here are some other Factorio related discussions:

Factorio – a game where you can automate basically anything (factorio.com)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11266471

http://www.factorio.com/

"This game is like crack for programmers." -kentonv (Tech lead for Cloudflare Workers, author of Sandstorm.io, Cap'n Proto)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11269098

Raycasting engine in Factorio game – Facto-RayO v1.0 [video] (youtube.com)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19878688

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lVAFcDX4eM

Factorio to talk about horizontal scaling of software services (medium.com)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19095271

https://medium.com/@chrisfauerbach/gamification-of-horizonta...

Mapping Factorio with Leaflet (cloudflare.com)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18185058

https://blog.cloudflare.com/mapping-factorio-with-leaflet/

>>DonHop+f
Pro-tip to others who think 'Programmer Crack' is hyperbole- it is not.

Factorio does have a rather steep learning curve, and the UI is not the most intuitive. But. Once how it works clicks, it clicks, and suddenly morning. And I'm in my 40's, I'd thought my days of unexpected overnights while working on fascinating problems were mostly behind me. Highly recommended, but be aware.

>>Baeocy+9V
> Factorio does have a rather steep learning curve

Not... at all? I mean, Vim has a steep learning curve[1]. Factorio is a game meant for the masses.

Of course any game is hard to master, but in that case any game that is not made for 3 year olds has a steep learning curve. You won't know how to set up and manage a 1kspm factory from day one, but that's okay, you can start by exploring and have a lot of fun doing that.

[1] (if you ignore that you can just start by hitting "i" and save with "<esc>:wq" and you have an ordinary editor, but that's not the point.)

>>lucb1e+761
The fact that you would even consider comparing the controls of a video game to vim probably means it’s not the most intuitive.

>>vlunkr+A61
I think the parent was assuming "steep learning curve" here was qualified as "for a piece of software used by programmers"; while the people that downvoted them assume "steep learning curve" here was qualified as "for a game." It is certainly easy to learn compared to a code-base; it is certainly hard to learn compared to Bejeweled.

Mind you, compared to other “programming games” like e.g. Shenzhen I/O, the main gameplay loop of Factorio is quite a bit simpler to wrap your head around. It's only when you try to ultra-optimize everything that it reaches that level of complexity. (Or when you "program in Factorio", ala "programming in Minecraft.")