zlacker

What do you find motivating in software engineering?

I initially found Factorio interesting, mostly for the parts that encourage spreadsheet calculation, e.g. balancing the various rates of production and resource intake. Some other aspects appealed too, such as finding drill placements to fully cover ore deposits.

Where I lost interest is when the game became mostly about refactoring large transport belt networks. That reminds me of the non-fun aspects of programming.

>>bluebl+(OP)
I never particularly cared about belt optimization past 'good enough'. I spent most of my time trying to break things and find edge-cases in the control system. Working around the (purposefully nerfed to keep them from being too powerful) logistics bots issues was probably my favorite thing to tackle.

(That, and building vast quantities of artillery in the middle of almost fully red zones, then flipping the power switch for the loaders and watching the fun. :D)