#Feedback on Manufacturer Mode

3 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

novel grove
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I started playing Manufacturer mode shortly after the release. I've played other modes before, so I'm no novice to the game. 40 hours of gameplay later, I've gotten my operator's license and built the vortex. He's my feedback of the experience. Overall, Manufacturer Mode has strong potential and feels like it could eventually surpass Vortex mode but it's not quite there yet. Some of this feedback is not specific to Manufacturer Mode, and is just things that could be improved from that playthrough.

Progression and Balance

  • It really needs a Machine Mode stage. Jumping straight to space belts misses the chance to build single belts of simple shapes in the early game.
  • Cutters felt largely unnecessary throughout most of the run. Needed them at the start, and at the end. Never made a blueprint for them.
  • Spiral resources appear overly rich in the center. The patches are too large.
  • In my playthrough I never felt the need to any alternate shape recipes. Likely, this is a sign that the milestone goals were too low.
  • I also never felt the need to use research stations.
  • I felt there were noticeably fewer shapes than Vortex Mode, and this meant there were fewer choices.
  • It often made more sense to scale up existing production rather than using alternate recipes.
  • Many of these balance issues seem potentially solvable through modding.
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Unclear Systems

  • Rockets don't have good throughput information. It shows shapes being consumed on launch, but launches are too infrequent for this to be a useful indicator of things working properly.
  • What's the throughput of a space pipe in number of launchers? The Codex for Space pipe says it's 4 lanes per level. And I think it's wrong, because it was increased in the penultimate release. The math says it should be 24? I didn't actually try connecting that many space pipes. The space belt is documented at 4 space belts per belt launcher in multiple places, much more conveniently.
  • I could not figure out why some donated shapes were underproducing. I was seeing production of 714/min instead of the expected 720/min, except when actually watching the belts. Need more tools to diagnose issues like this. I considered trying to build a trigger circuit for when the belt falls below full, but latches are tricky to build with logic primitives.
  • I really wish the game had alerts. For example, configurable alerts when throughput drops for a particular junction or shape delivery.
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UI

  • At lower zoom levels, overlapping train line colors blend together visually. For example, adjacent red and green lines would appear yellow.
  • Tracing train lines back to their origin was often tedious. The game could use a tool to highlight all lines converging on a selected tile.
  • In RYB color mode, manufacturer names no longer correspond to their associated colors.
  • Black paint inside pipes is difficult to distinguish from empty pipes, especially in dark mode.
  • Route configurator behavior on curved track pieces was unintuitive and inconvenient. Dragging a new route from an existing curved track would make existing routes follow that track, requiring rework every time. Instead, I would expect only the new color to go straight, and all existing routes, especially active routes, to continue on the curved route.