This whole bottleneck and recursive challenge part - that is a very long way to say that

FACTORY
MUST
GROW

Ah, I remember way back when, 2014 or so, I first discovered this game. I thought, "Building a factory? That doesn't seem like much fun. Who'd enjoy that?"
Then, I decided to give the demo a try.
Next thing I knew, the sun was gone. Needless to say, I sunk quite some time into this game since.

small thing, but when the devs mentioned minecraft they were referring to stuff like buildcraft and IndustrialCraft, and the other big tech mods, which Factorio gets alot of it's DNA from

Bro you're making me want to play factorio again...

@6:45
Factorio is one of the best-optimized games of all time, up there with rollercoaster tycoon, with handcrafted assembly optimizations in certain areas. The point where you break the game engine is essentially impossible to reach, and the point where you break your computer hardware is still far beyond the realm most people operate in.

There are players that go for 'megabases' with so many millions of entities that they have to start worrying about lag, but that just introduces a new cost to optimize for in your designs!

Why am I having withdrawal symptoms from watching a Cracktorio video right now?  Strange, for some reason it has magically installed itself on my computer.  I guess it couldn't hurt to start it up.

I put 117 hours into it in my first week of owning it

10/10

It's insane to think that Zach made the closest thing to a Factorio back in his early days, before Zachtronics.
For those not in the know: around that same time, Zach created Infiniminer, the game that Notch would base Minecraft on

I bought the game November 2014 while it was still in kickstarter. It's been a long time playing and I'm now at around 7-8k hours. Great game

Some one recently solved solar panel lay outs analytically  to have the optimum 50 x 50 set up.

Factorio really is special when it comes to being addictive. Every friend of mine who plays it had some weeks where nothing but the game mattered. Its everyones most played game even if it isnt their favorite game. This extreme flowstate where you always have new tasks in front of you and the solution is never that hard but also not trivial, its just sooo satisfying....

And then there are the mods...
*war flashback*

Lots of people know that the ingredients for science packs are no accident, and particularly so for logistic science packs or green. What you may not have noticed is that the materials you need to automate those science packs made of intermediate products are also used in defenses.
Automation science pack: copper plate, and gear wheel, used in the gun Tourette along with iron plates, which you already need to have automated in order to make gear wheels. Plus, the ammunition is another iron plate derivative product.
Chemical science pack: the materials used to make engine units plus engine units themselves are the same materials that go into flamethrowers. You also need to automate oil processing in order to make the chemical science pack, which means you have oil available as fuel for the flamethrowers.
Utility science pack: electric engine units, batteries, and electronic circuits, go into flying robot frames, but are also the ingredients of the laser Tourette.
And obviously the other science packs, all requiring completed products to make, also complement your defenses. Military science checks that you have upgraded ammunition, and automated walls. Now, I have seen grenades used as a defense in a death world, but it’s not sustainable and really this is an offensive item. Belts and inserters are the lowest tech way to refill gun turrets with ammunition when they our spent, so automating logistic science pack ensures. You have all the materials to create a perimeter defense that is self fed. All the steel from the utility science pack, and the advanced circuits from the chemical science pack as well as the gear wheels from automation science pack are used to create Robo ports. The flying robot frames from utility science pack are used to create construction robots, which is the next step in automating your defenses – making them self healing. Even the repair packs are made of items you already have from automating science. Science is defense automation in disguise.

About halfway through the tutorial, about 1300hours in. I wrote my steam review, I thought I had a decent grasp of the game.
I am proud to say I have now finished my tutorial and understand circuit networks.

Congratulations......... you have now convinced me that i want to watch you do a factorio play through

I found out about factorio near the end of the winter semester of my first year of university and it single handedly dropped my gpa by a noticeable margin. After I beat the game and starting trying to make a mega base, I got so stuck I procrastinated playing the game which was good for my productivity. Then the dlc came out the following year... But this time I was sort of prepared and knew that I would get heavily addicted, so it didn't end up getting too in the way of academics. However, my first playthrough of space age save is currently at 320 hours, as I've been designing a mega base(s) that heavily rely on trains. But I also got stuck after a few months of work, so I now am doing a death world run. Until I get stuck...

The first time I heard of the game I watched a full playthrough then beat the game with almost no learning curve. Now I have a new learning curve where I have to learn the Space Age content... RIP

2:18 simple when you download factorio you computer starts sending signals to your keyboard to start sweeting pure unaltered crack which then gets picked up by your fingers that falls on your doritos getting into your bloodstream

It's evil because I feel physical pain when I realize I got to go to work tomorrow.

0:30 Funny joke... But there is a Nullius mode exaclty about crafting grass on lifeless planes