Satisfactory is a great game. I can build something without worrying an external force will kill my production line.
Was there a factory builder game before Satisfactory 1.0 that had the following Satisfactory elements?
- Resources are infinite - that miner is never going to move
- No base destruction - I dread the day stringers can destroy a base
- Belts/conveyors can clip - sometimes you give up and just make spaghetti
- No thirst/hunger meters
Before Satisfactory, nah, I can’t think of anything nearly as chill, unless you count Factorio with the right custom settings.
Shapez and Shapez 2 definitely fit the bill, though, as others have mentioned, I only discovered them recently, when Shapez 2 released into EA.
Shapez is basically factory building reduced to its bare essentials. It’s a huge grid with sources of simple grey shapes and RGB colouring. The sources are infinite. You have to cut, paste, rotate, stack, and colour the base shapes to make complex ones and deliver large amounts to a central hub. The only “cost” for building is when you copy and paste a blueprint. Your main focus is finding the steps needed to produce the desired shape and the ratios of machines needed at each step to avoid bottlenecks.
There’s a 3D sequel that’s in Early Access but I haven’t tried it yet.
Shapez/2 are good examples. OP’s only criterion missing is the clipping.
Shapez 2 is a very worthy sequel, IMO. Adding logistics beyond conveyor belts is quite nice, and 3 levels of height give quite a bit more options when building. You do often benefit from a build staying at one level since it makes platform blueprints that consume 12n belts of input to make 12 belts of output quite a bit easier, but several buildings are intentionally impossible to do that with for challenge.
The difficulty levels are also pretty well done - I got some fun learning moments out of Insane in particular. Hexagonal mode is also interesting.
Oh wow, I completely missed that Shapez 2 had height levels. Thanks!
Factorio. You can turn off the biters with a single tickbox. As for resources, you can increase the patch richness and size to make them functionality infinite for your playthrough.
Factorio, or Dyson Sphere Program, are both absolutely excellent.
Foundry is an upcoming game that’s probably worth keeping an eye on.
Check out https://shapez2.com/
You can mod Minecraft pretty much into anything of your liking. Never made something as casual, but it’s possible for sure.
