It's been a long time coming, but Factorio has finally left early access. The game has already been more stable and feature-rich than most full releases for years, so this is really just a formality, I think. It's not the end of the development process, either, though we'll see what the future holds.

I've been playing since 2014, and was satisfied with the experience even then. The game has only continued to improve since then, and if you haven't played it, it's a fantastic experience.

Think we'll get a Quick Look?

Would be nice to see Vinny take a test drive through the official 1.0 version.

I love love love this game but i'm nowhere near organised enough to actually play it, i gave it 20 hours but i spent most of the time very slowly building things in the most jury rigged ways possible, planning is not something i'll ever be good at.

It’s cool this game left early access. I’m curious how this game is in its current state, since I only saw Vinny play it back in 2015/2016. That and Satisfactory seem like the best one of these games.

I don't know why my brain works in such a way that Factorio is so enjoyable to me, but it is. I was intrigued to figure out how long I've been playing this game, so I check and I purchased it on Steam March 16, 2016. That is 7 days after the Unfinished video they made, so I blame Vinny for my 1000+ hours addiction.

Heard it's quite an addictive game so for now I'm staying clear of it. Don't really have time to spend on that game now. Also it's quite pricey.

I played the demo a few days ago and quickly bought the full game. I've always liked the idea of these logistics titles but they often seem to require a lot of up-front learning which puts me off. Factorio however does a great job of spacing out gameplay systems; I've been hooked from the start and am slowly expanding my understanding as I work through the tech tree. Just observing the map and planning out the base is oddly satisfying.

@edmundus: I agree with you in that Factorio does a good job with pacing via the tech-tree compared to other logistics game.

Before the 1.0 release, I built one factory to the point where I launched a rocket. I'm looking forward to spending more time with the game and potentially making a mega-base. One thing I struggle with in Factorio is looking up a design for something vs trying to figure out myself. I have watched a lot of let's plays of Factorio, so the temptation to grab someone else's blueprint for red circuits, plastics..whatever is tempting, but also makes the game trivial at times.

For any new players interested, I found that turning the aliens/biters to be passive for your first factory helps ease you into the game. It can be overwhelming at first when you make your starter base and then you're suddenly under attack and losing parts of your base. The combat in the game can be fun, but it's not the core of what I find interesting in the game. (Though making assembly lines to produce artillery shells for an automated artillery train defense system can be fun!)

Personally, I find the biters to be an important part of the experience. That outside pressure against expansion, not to mention the actual need to make turrets and bullets and so forth, provides an extra little bit of gameplay to worry about that I think only enhances the game. (Not to mention how fun the late-game combat toys are.)

Regarding looking up designs: Yes, I recommend against that. Much of the enjoyment of the game derives from working these things out. I've found that there's always something you'll feel like changing in your designs, if you start over repeatedly, and this process of continuous optimization is what brings me back.

On the other hand, there is the idea of calculating the ideal ratios of different assemblers, for making a given end product. My feeling on the matter is that knowing these numbers doesn't give you the actual design, and in some cases can even conceal how you actually need to build your factory in order to make things work properly. (For example, it's one thing to know the ideal ratios of oil refineries and chemical plants for a given oil cracking setup. But you almost certainly still need to regulate oil cracking using some sort of circuit, to make things flow as-needed, despite what those ratios say.)

While you could insist on doing all the arithmetic yourself, we have these computer things which make it so much easier. When I first started with the game, I worked out these ratios with pen and paper, but this quickly became too tedious to bear, so I started writing code to take care of it. I kept building on this code over time and, long story short, I made this calculator that people seem to like. I don't see running these numbers as ruining the experience, since they don't really help with the problem of actually moving stuff around, or laying out the factory, or anything else, aside from clarifying future plans of how big a factory needs to be.

I picked up this game yesterday. I have a problem with it. I want to play it all the time. That is the problem.