Benie's Games Blog

Yesterday was the Minecart Rapid Transit server’s 4th anniversary. And this time, of the other three times, I finally decided to attend. Why? I really had nothing else to do except watch Youtube videos.
Plus, Soleurs reminded me. So I thought “ehh, I should at least attend one anniversary!” and wrote it down on my calendar. Though my brain thought it was the 3rd, instead of the 4th anniversary. Aka, I miscounted.

Trying to even join the server got a bit messy, with the console of MultiMC saying it couldn’t load up Java. Fixed it by pointing to the correct path. Apparently the auto-detect feature bugged out after I had updated my Java version to the latest (which was a month ago).
And joining, it was pretty much as expected of typically coming back for a visit. The occasional “BENIE!!” praises and stuff like that. And then Soleurs PMs me to thank me for showing up. Yet he was known as ‘Moleurs’. The irony in this is he hated being called this, and now he’s calling himself it. The reason being of rumors of Yoshi doing the final ‘The Mole’ season, sometime this year. HOORAY for this! Hopefully we’ll finally have a game that doesn’t involve a single person that doesn’t have to lift a finger and still fucking wins!! >:(

Anyway, I asked him of where are the festivities, hoping things would be different compared to a typical visiting day. He said how they’re planning something for the 5th anniversary, and mentions Yoshi was going to do something as well that day. Though that never happened.

So I spent the day flying around the Old World, occasionally watching the chat for anything out of the ordinary to pop up. But it was the usual discussion about trains and planes.
Oh yes. There was this guy that was saying how Pewds (PewDiePie) likes the server, and people kept telling the guy that Pewds doesn’t even play Minecraft and stuff like that. Then the guy was saying how we need a statue in Pewds name, and said how he would give us a bad Yelp review and stuff like that. It was quite funny, and was the highlight of the day.

Then he starts using racist words against people, saying they ‘triggered’ him and that he’s autistic. Most people did their best to ignore him and talk in one of the private channels (going by the order of the Mods). Some, like myself, really wanted to troll him. Because he was just daring us. He seemed like a harmless troll, and that’s all he was. And eventually the Mods had enough of his crap and temp banned him for 30 minutes.

Even as I write this, I want the guy to come back and ‘troll’ us again. He reminds me of a person in Central City in /gm 1, asking to be killed repeatably. And if we didn’t, he would just keep yapping about something he cares about.
Just FYI to anyone that gets pissed off at me over this, I do NOT make fun of autistic people. I never have, and I never will. So cool your jets, Tumblr.

That was the only real exciting thing that happened in the afternoon. Left at 6 and ate dinner. When I got back, things had changed for the better. Suppoe was on, and he asked me to help him with a road. Of course I agreed to finally have something FUN to do on this server(that I like).
The road was unlike anything I’ve messed with. It wasn’t covered with the traditional black asphalt-looking blocks. The surface was stone brick slabs instead. And I questioned him, if this is allowed. Because the road rules strictly state that it must be made out of asphalt-looking blocks(black wool or black stained clay). His response was a bit shocking. He said that this is Omricon’s road and he’s helping him with it.
The moment he said it was Omricon’s, I saw the resemblance. I remember his city. B3, on the old world. And what “fun” I had to go through to get I-0 to Gund Valley. Basically, he wanted this tunnel to remain unchanged. I couldn’t even have a central line, which bugs me to this day (whenever I look at it). Since back then, getting marble from the Nether didn’t exist.

So I helped him for the evening, while also listening to autobus22 in another private channel talking about how utterly shit his life is (in order to get anyone to be compassionate). I was very much compassionate. No one should have to go through such a life like he is.
He also apologized directly to me for the way he had treated me over the years. I told him how “it’s just water under the bridge”, but really I have absolutely no idea what he was even talking about. I don’t ever remember him annoying me. But I accepted his apology nonetheless.
Anyway, after the talk, he asked me to check out his roads. I did. They were nice, but nothing really special. Then I went back to suppoe who was about ready to leave for the night. Told him I would help with the road (because that’s what I do). Even it being as awkward as it is. Not to mention the pillars. They look too advanced for me to hand-copy (while also focusing on extending the road).

As I’m planning and the day is starting to come to a close, Soleurs gets perms to do a firework show in Fairfax(the Old World). I decide to join this, but I would greatly regret this decision later on.
For when he did his show and everyone got the soundtrack to it, it…was Disney music. Oh. my. GOD I felt I was about to throw UP!! Seriously! All of this “wish upon a star” crap!! AHHHHH!!! I think I would rather listen to Justin Beaver(yes, I know I didn’t get his last name right) than this shit! I would even listen to the FRIDAY FRIDAY GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY song than this shit!! 😛

After being subjected to 12 minutes of pure torture, I..I apologized to Soleurs. I had to. I felt like an asshole and I wanted to make it right. I told him the show was actually pretty good, and I loved how well the fireworks were choreographed with the music. He apologized to the music, and told me he has three shows that don’t have Disney music (on July 4th and two Christmas shows).

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Overall, this was a good anniversary. I met Chief again, who was his normal happy self (aka, wanting to shock everyone, but he couldn’t since he resigned due to college). I didn’t meet Tulsi, which is ohh so good. Having to explain why I blocked/defriended him on Skype is not something I wanted to mess with.

Oh!! I nearly forgot this! I’m now part of the MRT Discord group. Yes, Discord. That chat program I had to get to talk to that Elite Dangerous Exploration Expedition group (a month ago). I got the invite from frozen, who said “glad you came back :D” I wonder if frozen thinks I’ve come back ‘for good’.
But really, the Discord server is just there for me to talk to people off-server (like suppoe, which was never possible in Mumble). This is a good thing.

Tomorrow, the Europeans will be celebrating the 4th anniversary (for some odd reason, but whatever. I don’t judge). So I may or may not come on. Depends if suppoe needs me or not. I do feel sorry for the Europeans, though. I really hope they like Disney music as Soleurs is going to do an encore of the show that day.
First Brexit and now this. Oh the humanity.

Instead of exploring the cosmos in Elite Dangerous, I’m actually quite bored with that game again. But instead of what I’ve been doing and wasting money on games that I never play after paying for (for some reason that even I don’t know the answer to), I’ve been watching a particular Youtuber.
This Youtuber has been co-oping with a guy named ‘Aavak’ (who has a pretty cool Elder Dragon-like avatar) doing the “Factorio Beginner’s Guide”. This guide has helped me greatly with my factory. And I highly recommend it (if you haven’t updated to 0.13 yet).

Now the main Youtuber, who calls himself ‘shenryyr2’ has played quite a lot of games on his, I assume second channel (hence the ‘2’ at the end of his name). He mainly plays a game genre that I stay away from; real time strategy games. Mainly, games that require micro-managing of the player.
I feel these type of games are exceptionally tedious and complicated. But that’s just my opinion. I know there are several, like Shen, that play these. And that’s fine for me.

There are two particular games that have actually caught my interest enough to consider. Stellaris, and Stardew Valley.
The first one, feels like (to me), Spore’s Space Stage done right. Mainly due to how the races in the game, all of the people look like that race. But unlike Spore’s Space Stage, it is… immensely feature-detailed. It’s mainly based on starting out of your Homeworld and exploring the galaxy. And of course, you are definitely not alone out there.
But what makes the game really stand out from Spore, is the core features. You can name your Empire, which isn’t possible in the other game. You can also set how your Empire will work as a species, and other species. You can be a ruthless dictator. You can tell your species that getting slaves and “laying your eggs in their bodies” as Aavak had his, or be a peaceful Sloth race (as Shen had his).
As for the races, shockingly (from Aavak’s initial playthrough), there doesn’t seem to be a dragon-like race. The closest, is Hydras. But you can actually play as the Human race (but on a fictional Earth-like world).. or not even that.
Yeah, you can choose what type of world that your Homeworld will be (and what world your species prefers. The other types of worlds can be unlocked through research.

But this is where the game loses me. And that’s when you’re looking for a planet to colonize. And that is “tile size”. Typically (from Shen’s playthough), you’ll want to find good-sized planets that are 15 or more tiles, with 6 being the minimal and 25 being the maximum. Each tile may (or may not) have one or three types of resources; Food, Research, and Power. How you place your people, depends on how profitable that planet is. This alone just makes me feel uneasy. It’s one of those “with practice you’ll get better” things (which bug me to no end).

That’s not the only thing that bugs me. There is no Easy difficulty. The default is ‘Normal’. You can increase it, but not go below it.
I just..dunno. I do like how it (if this was ‘Spore 2’ in disguise), feels like a huge step up. But it also feels too BIG of a step up. With this, I am 75% against getting it, and 25% for getting it.
Overall, the game kind of feels too micromanaging for me. Again, maybe that’s just me. If the game ever went on sale…maybe I’d pick it up (as it does have an ingame tutorial for first time players. Maybe it might help me).

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And now we look into something completely different. It’s not a typical top-down RTS game, and the character selection screen feels kind of like Terraria. And that’s “Stardew Valley”.
Dan did a video about it last year. He actually liked it, but that was the only video he did (compared to two videos of Factorio). This game, from Shen’s playthrough, seems a lot more friendly to casual players.
In this, the player’s aging grandfather gives you a ‘gift’ for you to get away from city life of working at a dead end office job for the rest of your life. And this gift is a way to completely have a fresh new start, and live the life your grandfather feels you deserve; life on your own farm. He has given you the deed, and you can move right in to a happy little town named ‘Pelican City’. His only dying wish, is to keep the family name alive. Now in this game, you can also have your chosen player avatar get married and have a kid in it, if you wish(there is even an option that you can marry the same sex). But if you’re smart, you’ll hold up on it. Because really, you have all the time in the world. There’s really no rush.

This game is quite easy to get into, compared to the other one. The object, is pretty much what the player has set for their character. It can be to get all the money they can. It can be to get the biggest fish. It can be..pretty much anything. And I’m sure there’s just so much more to this game. I just haven’t seen it yet (from Shen’s playthrough).
Of course, farm life being as simple as life could be, has challenges. However, they are quite small from what I’ve seen so far. And that’s just to make sure you’re planting the right seeds in the right season, making sure you water them once everyday (with rainy days really being helpful in that regard), and keeping crows off your crops (but in the early game, you’ll be able to unlock a scarecrow to take care of that problem).
So really, there’s hardly any challenge. It really is a game for casual players. The only real thing keeping me away is how repetitive some of the activities can be. Thankfully, this can be somewhat broken down by the player finding other things to do.

The only real thing (that I’ve seen so far) that you have to worry about, is the Energy bar. This is drained from working or doing repetitive tasks like fishing. It can be slightly filled up by eating crops or other things. What’s awesome is there are no main needs to worry about. No need to eat or drink. But the only other need is sleeping. You must return home by 12am and sleep in your house, or your energy bar will go down. Yet what’s awesome about this is, you’ll have a full Energy bar by the time you wake up, which is not exactly possible IRL (unless you sleep 8+ hours or drink lots of coffee)… you know who you hard-working people are.

Final verdict for Stardew Valley, is currently 65% for and 35% against. I feel cautiously optimistic. It looks like a fun, slow game for anyone to enjoy. It doesn’t give that “git gud” feeling. What it does, it gives a feeling of “there’s no need to rush. Take it slow. Relax. You are in no real danger.” Plus, what I hear, this game was made and maintained by only one guy. That is amazing. The level of love for this game and his fanbase. We really need to see this more often.

So those are my thoughts on both of these games. They both deserved a mention. There is another game that’s appearing on my radar as a possible ‘want’ candidate (No Man’s Sky). But that’s for another day. Depends if either Shen or Aavak decide to do a playthrough on this. Would be awesome.

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EDIT: Stardew Valley is no longer on the ‘want’ list. It’s not even supportive of me, because it doesn’t support 1824×768. It’s another sign the devs are phasing out 4:3, as the highest supported resolution is 1280×768. I really hate this. It feels nothing more than a gimmick to force people to get more expensive hardware.
I tried to deal with it, but my head refuses. I get a really bad headache from eyestrain, seeing the bright big colors on the screen. There’s not even a brightness setting.
It’s a real shame. I really wanted to play it, but my body isn’t ready. And it pains me to ask for a refund because of it.

“Incoming message from, CMDR Benie. Current location: FLAME SECTOR GG-Y D4 | Current sector: (450 : -359 : -820) | Playing message…”
Greetings, viewers. This is Commander Benie once again, broadcasting from the deepest regions of space. Or at least, far away from the bubble. I have reached, and passed the Witch Head Nebula. Enclosed are a few images of being as close to I can to the Nebula. Sadly, unlike Maia, there are no systems that go into the center of it.

Something peculiar happened as I was approaching the Nebula. As I was looking at the system list for which planets were still listed as ‘UNDISCOVERED’, I noticed several ‘COL 70 SECTOR’-named systems that were colored red, and had the word ‘Permit’ in the place of the distance. Upon landing on another moon, I managed to launch a coms buoy to establish communications to the Steam Forum (yes, Steam still exists in the 32nd century) and asked there. I was told how this was “locked for future content”.
How odd indeed. What could they be hiding this far from the bubble, to require a permit? Unfortunately I could not get deeper into this investigation as the buoy ran out of power. Without a station for thousands of lightyears, I’m having to make things out of primitive duct tape and wire and hope they hold together.

Speaking of such, I feel these SRV pictures will have to be quite limited. I can’t find any Phosphorus anywhere. I found plenty of Sulphur to refuel the SRV’s fuel tank, but the other metal, which is also required to refuel the SRV, seems rare. Which is obviously bad for me.
I’ve been told before I left the bubble by a fellow CMDR, to seek high metal content worlds. Yet I fear my SRV will run out of fuel before the time I finally find some Phosphorus. By then, I would really be screwed (as I wouldn’t be able to get back to the ship). But I think this is why ‘hardcore’ explorers with their shiny Anacondas, have multiple SRV bays.
Right now, the SRV has just under three quarters of a tank left.

I actually wish I had a ‘Conda right now, instead of a cramped dinner table behind me with a mini-fridge of where I keep all of my freeze-dried snack pills. This ASP isn’t even big enough for a food replicator. Then again, I couldn’t imagine spending nearly 5 million on rebuy costs. Plus, parking a ‘Conda on a planet, is a lot more difficult than parking an ASP.

Anyway, I’m halfway to the Orion Nebula. Space Madness is starting to get to me. I feel if I see another ice planet, it’ll be too soon. My brain tells me that I just need to land on one of these planets and stay at a system for a few days, and then move on. Or even, just not scan every system I come across.
Hell, if I didn’t need the money, I wouldn’t be wasting time scanning every damn system out there to get to my destinations. I would had been halfway to the Bubble Nebula about now.

I’m even considering on joining an actual expedition to see what’s out there. Maybe then, it won’t be so boring out here by myself, with the ship’s computer being my only companion. Well, whatever happens, I just hope it doesn’t send me back to Obsidian Orbital in pieces.
Before I end this lengthy message, before my coms buoy died, I was getting long range chatter from two beings. One of them calls themself ‘AarkTheDragon’. Interesting. An actual dragon somewhere out here? Or just a human in a dragon outfit that loves to do what humans of the early 21st century called “cosplay”.
Until the next message, CMDR Benie, signing out. Fly safe, commanders.

“Message end”

Commander’s Log, stardate 062616. Commander Benie reporting in from Sector ‘1,000 : -1,065 : 0’. Oh, and ‘The Raging Dragon’, my ship, says hi as well. I am currently a quarter away (238.45Ly) to my first real destination; the Witch Head Nebula, which will connect me to Barnard’s Loop and the Orion Nebula. It’s been days since I’ve left Maia and seen another ship besides mine. In Maia, the center of the Placius…Pleciu.. FUCK IT!! However the fuck it’s spelled Nebula!!
“Commander, it is spelled ‘Pleiades’. The Pleiades Nebula.”
Thank you, computer. Anyway, I tried to find traces of the mysterious alien race called the “Barnacles” on the various landable moons here. No luck, but I did find lots of crashed SRV’s with occupied life pods near them, with legal cargo. Helped myself and made a few credits here and there. Of course, my findings were not ignored by the pirates. Damn trolls of the galaxy. I swear, they’re like Creepers from that early 21st century game “Minecraft”. Except they don’t explode and destroy your ship.
I eventually got bored looking and decided to go to Witch Head, scanning random systems on the way there.

I’m starting to grow bored doing this repetitive task over and over. I really wish there was a station that I could dock and sell my valuable exploration data. Only this would really keep me going. But way outside of the bubble, I’m really on my own out here.
I did manage to see a few interesting systems, such as landing on a planet that looked like it was made out of cheese. I still remember back in the 20th century, how we thought the Moon was made out of cheese.
Another interesting find, was from twin moons orbiting a ringed gas giant. What was truly interesting about these two, is their close proximity to eachother. So close that I could reach out and touch it while standing on the surface of the other. They were nearly exact twins, except for one being slightly larger than the other.
Landing on the larger one, the view was breathtaking. This is what my little camera drone got (aka the Dev Camera).

Seeing how they have very little gravity, I believe it’s understandable how they’re that close. If one of them had close to Earth-like gravity, the two would possibly tear eachother apart.

I really hope space madness doesn’t make me decide to fuck this expedition and go back to the bubble. I really can’t wait to get close to Bernard’s Loop. The view has to be fucking incredible. Until then, this is Commander Benie, signing out.

Haven’t played Elite Dangerous in awhile, but I wanted a break from Factorio. As said, the Engineer update was released possibly a month or two ago. Thankfully it didn’t take me long to re-learn all the controls I bound to my HOTAS.
So the first change I noticed was the new Outfitting screen. I have mixed feelings about this. I liked how everything was displayed infront of you instead of in categories (and this feels clunky).
However, with having them in their own categories, it makes it easier to search for what modules I need (as only that specific module type will show up in the search). And with it, I ripped out my mining build and went with a more deep space exploration build, and it only costed me two million credits. Not bad.
Basically got a standard SRV vehicle bay, and a better fuel scoop that can fill up my fuel tank pretty good.
Oh yeah, there’s an off-game change I need to mention. The website, coriolis.io, now finally..FINALLY shows upgrade advice (similar to ingame)!! No more tedious guesswork! No more having to ask for build advice! 😀
It shows info as you mouse over the upgrades, if this is a better or worse upgrade for your entire build. And I used it the best I can, and feel satisfied with the results.
Though I wish there was a “can’t find this particular module in this system? Click here to try and find a system near you that has it” option. Even one ingame would be super helpful.

Second change I notice (this one is ingame), which is really helpful, is the addition of Bookmarks to the Galaxy Map. An example of this is “I want to plot out my course for future exploration!”, or “Show me where this system is, incase I ever feel like going there!” It’s as simple as selecting a system and look for the flag icon, and select ‘Bookmark location’ and a little blue flag will show up over the system.
To remove bookmarks, they added a Bookmarks tab (between the Course and System tabs). Here you can select any of your existing Bookmarks. You can Delete or Edit the name of the bookmark.
Do have a small complaint about this. I don’t understand why you’re not allowed to remove the bookmark outside of the Bookmarks tab, as the Bookmark button turns red and becomes unavailable.

The other changes, I’m really liking them. Haven’t tried out the Engineers yet, but this is what I’ve discovered about them. The player has a choice of three Engineers, each one based around the three main things the player can do (Bounties/Exploration/Trading). Check your messages and you’ll see invites of them wanting you to come to them and chat.

And then there’s the more lifelike vocal system when it comes to a spaceport/settlement;
-Soon as you jump to where a station is, you’ll hear a message about how this place requires you to request docking before going in. You’ll get a different message depending on the level of security (and if it’s a Settlement on a planet).
-Will tell you what your assigned hangar number is, vocally instead of just displaying it. In other words, the “Docking request granted” voice has been changed.
-Will tell you in meters, how close you are from your assigned port. Will also notify you if you are speeding (only heard this with spaceports).
-An additional vocal has been added after “docking successful, engines disengaged” is played after landing. It welcomes the CMDR to the station.

Other changes I’ve seen;
-If your ship (and its current build) is unable to reach a system, the game has the Plot Course button unavailable. I like this change, as it’s no longer confusing if I can go to that really distant system or not.
-The Controls menu is now in their own categories, instead of one big mess.
-The pre-recorded messages that play when you’re in a station, can also be heard when you’re in a hangar.
-When at a planet settlement, the area is now protected by System Authority Vessels (for high security). In addition, they now inform the tower when they’re heading into and out of the station.
-There’s been some new vocals added when in spaceports and settlements.
-When selecting a spaceport or a settlement, there has been added radio chatter.
-New types of settlements have been added.
-New sounds have been added when moving around in the Galaxy Map.
-The mission screen has been completely changed. To explain this best, it shows all minor factions of the system and the current rankings that you have with them(even pictures of the faction leaders). It also shows the Community Goals that can be seen galaxy-wide. Personally, the old system worked for me.
-New “Local News” has been added when in an inhabited system, such as more news in the system and station news.

An issue I’ve seen;
-The AI seem to not know how to dock correctly now. They attempt, then either stop attempting or miss the landing pad (which eventually causes them to be destroyed by the station’s laser cannons).

Despite the bugs with the AI (and now knowing the random “I want your cargo, even though you don’t have any!” pirate interdiction thing isn’t fixed either), overall.. good update.
Anyway, the whole reason I’m even playing again is I want to go back to all the places I visited and then some (starting with the first Nebula I managed to reach). Because it’s about time that I use this ASP Explorer for the reason I bought it; getting to all the Nebulae that I can, and eventually to the center of the galaxy (and maybe all the way out towards Beagle Point.. if my ASP can even handle that far of a jump).
I’ll be exploring Coalsack, the Horsehead Nebula, the Orion Nebula (and the famous Orion’s Belt), the California Nebula(my original destination), the Bubble Nebula, and a few others. It’ll be fun, and you guys can even be part of the journey! Because I’ll be posting pictures of anything interesting in my exploration (using separate blog posts, of course).

American Truck Simulator was updated today. The long-awaited second free DLC has been released, and players can now drive to and from Arizona. Visit our national landmarks like The Grand Canyon, and the Hoover Dam with Las Vegas rebuilt.
Want a more realistic driving experience (aka, longer driving times to make the ‘Long Distance’ perk have a purpose in this game)? The map world has been made bigger, from 1:35’th of the US, to 1:20’th of the US.

Lastly, SCS tweeted out an an image of the map, showing the significant map size upgrade. But a closer inspection of I-10 shows it going further East, which would connect it through New Mexico. This shows some promise that this state is to be the next DLC state to be worked on.

I haven’t checked out the update, but I do hope this map size update finally fixed I-80 between Oakland to Sacramento from being split in two.

So there I was, bad-mouthing Elite Dangerous for being grindy and having no real goal. Factorio, could be possibly worse. Though it’s not a game you have to play online, the complexity is…mind-blowing.
The game has an end point, which is to launch a rocket (after going through hell and back to make the required parts). However, I’ve been playing for 2+ weeks and I haven’t even started collecting alien artifacts. Mainly because when I started, I’m playing on peaceful (aka I haven’t been killing Biters, destroying their nests and taking their artifacts). But then came a point where the Biter nests were getting in the way of a future outpost to get more Copper Plates into the factory). But to be honest, I actually feel sorry for the Biters.

How can I possibly feel sorry for an enemy? The fact they lived a peaceful life until the player character showed up and started polluting everywhere as if he was living on Earth… with no fucks given to their well-being. The only way they can stop this intruder, is by destroying their work (which is running up and being rekt by turrets). And the game gives the player character LOADS of ways to kill the innocent creatures. And then their forced to evolve into larger, harder to kill versions. All in a brave effort to stop the pollution-spewing factories.
How about creating peace of the Biter population? Yet I doubt they want peace. They just want the player to get the fuck off their home and stop polluting their planet, which in my opinion is a reasonable request.

But this isn’t about the Biters (or the fact you can completely remove them from the map with mods/console commands). This has to do with the difficulty of the game. Granted, this is welcomed difficulty by many. And many kudos to these people that enjoy beating their heads into a wall of trying to figure out how to get the best output out of a resource. You really have to be a special breed of human to handle it.

But if you were to ask me (which you probably aren’t, but yet why are you even reading this blog post?)… actually, let’s just pretend you asked me. Here, I’ll give you a fake $100 bill and you say you asked my opinion! That should grab your attention. 🙂
Anyway, my opinion.. well, enjoy that fake $100, because you’ve already heard my opinion. It’s really quite obvious, with ramblings of all my other blogs. How I don’t like being challenged. Especially to this magnitude.
Blue Science, was a headache for me. I had to ask for help. I had to get a random person on the Internet (aka the Factorio Steam forum), to help me set it up. The guy is from Russia of all places (absolutely no offense against Russian people by the way), yet types in fluent English (which is good for me).
The guy’s a pretty good builder. He even showed me around his own factory (and if I thought Blue Science wasn’t a nightmare.. a mod collection called “Bob’s Mods” that make the game EVEN HARDER… ffs.

Obviously, the demographic of game devs is changing as the changing of people. Elite Dangerous is a clear example of this. People seem to want more rewarding games, with lots of challenge to help them there. And I’m falling in-between the cracks, still wanting things to be ‘simple’ and ‘easy’. Hence, why I feel “there’s no games out there for me”.
I have nothing against Factorio. It’s DAMN good at what it does; offering a plethora of challenges while keeping the gameplay fun and rewarding. Some even say “it’s what Minecraft should had been”. And it clearly shows good changes that should had been made.

However, Modded Minecraft also has things that are better than Factorio (in my opinion). The prime example, being having multiple ways of acquiring, and processing a resource. And alternate means of power. Factorio’s mods, seem to all be to improve the base game. Only a few (such as Bob’s Mods), offer any real alternatives to acquiring and processing resources. Where Modded Minecraft has TONS.
For example, instead of mining, you can go to The Deep Dark and set up a Quarry, and have your resources taken to you. I have not seen ANYTHING like this in Factorio.

Of course (and I actually hope), that as the game ages and eventually gets fully released, mods will be like Biters and eventually evolve into alternate resource processing means. Just today, I saw a Roboport-like device that drones will mine resources for you. These kind of things, I want to see more of.

I just want to win the fucking game already. I feel like I’ve been playing on this map for far…far too long and making hardly any progress. Yet to do so, I need tons of Purple Science (which comes directly from Alien Artifacts). And what I hear for the components of making the Rocket Silo, it makes Blue Science as easy as Green Science (in terms of complexity).

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$20 well spent, though. This game has possibly kept me active in it than any other game in history. I guess, feeling that “Ohhhh!!” moment when you finally figure out an issue, is quite rewarding.
That, and.. it has trains. I like trains. *looks around for a sudden train going through his room to run him over*