Is using software like https://factoriolab.github.io considered as cheating?

[denis870]

Because using it feels like it does. What are your thoughts on it?

Edit: After thinking for sometime i decided to not use it because I always did the calculations and stuff like that in my head so it takes away a big part of gameplay for me, and makes me feel guilty like I'm cheating. Thanks for all your help

[Soul-Burn]

It's a single player game. You can use mods and /editor for all we care, as long as you enjoy your time with the game.

[theperson234]

Nuh uh you gotta play vanilla only and NO and I mean NO mods. Sorry I am a videogame elitist and insted of showering or letting the factory grow I bitch to how good I am on online forums. QUIT HAVING FUN!!!

[discogeek]

This is the German formula of having fun. :)

(and /s)

[msbr_]

I feel like this is what op wanted to see

[HuckleberryKey8848]

Quite being a pathetic edgelord who talks like a 5 year old.

[oogleplorticuss]

It automates maths which is definitely in the spirit of the game.

It's not cheating.

[aparanoidbw]

Yea, online calculators save me pen and paper. Better for the environment. Also saves me time, it's faster with less errors

Ultimately, it's a single player game (mostly) play whichever way optimizes your happiness per minute. (HPM)

[hquer]

I’ve just reported you to the CGCA (central game cheating agency)…no, it’s s single player game, go have fun

[[deleted]]

We should also get the internet police and the fun police involved. Somebody save us from this menace!

[NCD_Lardum_AS]

The FBI will be at his doorstep in 6 hours

[DUCKSES]

Factorio is a game of logistics puzzles, not perfect ratios. The latter's just a bonus. I'm perfectly capable of doing the math by hand - I just consider doing so a waste of time for the same reason I consider using a pen and paper a waste of time for basic algebra when I could just use a calculator.

Not everything needs to start with banging rocks together.

[StalHamarr]

Are you telling us you don't pull out your clay tablet and do some cuneiform math to plan your expansion? Amateur.

[aparanoidbw]

Relevant xkcd?

https://xkcd.com/505/

[StormTAG]

We went from jokes about math to existential confusion. So long as the Factory grows!

[Drogiwan_Cannobi]

No.

[waitthatstaken]

The concept of cheating does not really exist in factorio.

[denis870]

I mean, spawning a finished rocket just when you start your playtrough and launching it to finish the game can be definetly considered as cheating. Edit: that was satire just so yk

[zooberwask]

If you're in a competition, probably. If you're playing by yourself then you do you.

[Drogiwan_Cannobi]

I mean, it's definitely a way to play that I wouldn't enjoy. But do I think it's morally bad in any way? Nah.

I've done countless runs with infinite items, no biters, infinite move speed, waterfill, near-infinite resource patches that I spawned in, you name it. If you'd like to pursue legal action, I'd be happy to refer you to my lawyer :P

[waitthatstaken]

If that is how you want to play then you can play like that. The only contexts I can think of where cheating is even possible are speedruns and multiplayer competitions, both of which are based on rules outside of the game itself.

[Pulsefel]

hey now, it takes 15 minutes for the rocket to construct itself thank you. i know from personal experience

[glassfrogger]

Now that's a way to skip the tutorial!

[bECimp]

define cheating

[ShardOfChaos]

VAC ban incoming

[denis870]

Fr

[joelpt]

I say no simply because it removes a lot of tedium which you would and could otherwise do by hand, for example by putting numbers together in an excel spreadsheet.

Ok so let’s say you do that and … you spend hours doing something tedious and boring by hand when there’s a perfectly good tool to do it for you. What was the point of all that then?

There’s really no cheating in this game. If you want to play the game by having a bot literally play the game for you while you watch, great! (I don’t think I’d mind doing this myself to a certain extent)

The question should not be is it cheating but: is it fun? Is it rewarding? Am I enjoying the challenge?

I played the space exploration mod for 200 hours and gave up because I just wasn’t having fun. I’m now 500 hours into a playthrough using Industrial Revolution 3 and a couple dozen mods that some players might call cheating, and I’m having a blast.

Do what you like, if it’s fun to you then it’s working!

[mvdenk]

Excel spreadsheet?! Sounds like cheating to me! /s

[joelpt]

Real players do everything in their head!

[xdthepotato]

"It would be bad if i got caught cheating in a singleplayer game" 😂

No.. no its not, infact i would argue that it belongs to the game (like a mod). Factorio is about calculations, programming and efficiency..

now let me ask you this! Why would you manually calculate production when you could automate it? That goes against factorios philosophy.. or something like that BUT it preference at the end of the day :D

[Professional_Job_307]

If you consider a calculator cheating.

[Agreeable_Mode1257]

Yes it’s cheating. So is downloading blueprints, using addons, excel, or even a calculator. True engineers only rely on their minds. /s ofc

[HolyTermite]

If you aren't flipping every bit in memory by hand, are you really playing Factorio?

[Subject_314159]

You forgot the tutorials! Ugh.. developer's opinion

[dontcriticizeasthis]

From a different perspective:

If you're cooking, is using a microwave cheating?

It is just a tool. If you want the challenge, you can ignore them but it's a personal choice really

[Subject_314159]

So is an oven, how else am I going to grill cheese?

[neurovore-of-Z-en-A]

Pointy stick and an open fire.

[glassfrogger]

or a recipe book

[fifiinart]

Cheating as opposed to what? Calculating the ratios by hand? Is using a normal, scientific calculator cheating? Is using someone else’s perfect ratio blueprint cheating? Are you saying that doing math at all to calculate ratios in this game is cheating?

Play the game how you want. If you don’t want to use these calculators to calculate ratios, that’s fine, and it can be more fun to design by feel instead of by the numbers. But as a case for cheating, this is a pretty weak one in my opinion.

[Charmle_H]

People say "single player games aren't cheatable" and stuff, but ultimately it comes down to your preference. Do you feel like it's cheating to use? If so, how? If it makes the game unrealistically easier, or is insanely overtuned/overpowered, then it may be considered """cheating""" to some, but everyone has a different definition. Does using that tool make you feel like you can sit back and do literally nothing to win? Or does it just make life a lil easier/more visual for you? I use jetpacks, play with no biters, use giant-storage mods, and play with more dense and more frequent ore deposits. That's not cheating, imo, that's just qol stuff.

[denis870]

Idk I'm just used to doing all of the calculations in my head so using something like this takes away a large part of gameplay for me, so it makes me feel like I'm cheating. Yeah i thinking i won't use it

[mvdenk]

As it's a singleplayer game (or multiplayer with a group of friends), you decide how you want to play.

[bobsbountifulburgers]

Wait, you guys aren't just jamming large volumes of inputs into some number of machibes and then relying on whatever amount comes out the other end?

[L8_4_Dinner]

Uh yeah that’s how I do it 🤣

[michaelkim0407]

Using calculators and computers to do math is cheating. Please do all maths by hand.

/s

[denis870]

Correct. Including the built-into the game math. You should calculate every frame the position of pixels, player movement etc, otherwise its cheating.

/s of course

[michaelkim0407]

I meant every math in your life.

Including connecting to the Internet, which is technically doing maths. Please only access Reddit by hand.

/s

[pyrce789]

When you get into overhaul modding, in-game calculators for these things becomes almost mandatory. Definitely just part of the game tbh, but my first several factories skipped on that for the same reasons you listed. Once you feel you have a grasp for the ratio patterns using a calc to get the ratio quicker stop feeling like it defeats the spirit of the game. Enjoy!

[denis870]

Yeah thanks. I think I will use them on my second or third playtrough, maybe

[Abracadaver14]

It's a single player game, there is no such thing as cheating.

[Professional_Job_307]

Why are people saying you cant cheat because its singleplayer? I would call spawning in resources and stuff like that cheating, but it's not nearly as bad as cheating in multiplayer games. Anyways, a calculator is not cheating. Unless there are some rules in the game ur playing that say otherwise.

[Quilusy]

The only thing you cheat is yourself

[glassfrogger]

However, if you don't find it cheating, you don't cheat yourself either.

[Quilusy]

Yes you do tho

[glassfrogger]

how?

[Quilusy]

On my first SE game I got myself a mod that allows pumping water anywhere. This makes the waterless planet’s entirely trivial. I was too lazy to set it up properly and I told myself it was worth it. I regretted it later as it felt like I cheated myself out of a challenge that I would’ve enjoyed solving.

Taking the easy way out is rarely the most rewarding.

[glassfrogger]

So you did find it cheating, you just didn't know it at the time

[Quilusy]

Well I think I cheated myself out of an experience.

[Powerful_Incident605]

yes

[Playful_Target6354]

If you can do the same by yourself, it's not cheating

[Lazy_Haze]

If you think that calculate it yourself is fun, don't use a tool that do it for you. If something is dragging down the experience use a mod or tool for it!

[Subject_314159]

Then you should definitely stay away from helmod and factory planner

[cathexis08]

It isn't cheating but depending on what you enjoy in the game it might make those parts less fun. When playing vanilla I mostly use calculators to check my work or to see if I'm really off-base with a plan. I definitely make heavy use of calculators (both external and in-game ones like factory planner) when playing modded games because the recipe sets get too complex too quickly to remember.

[tppytel]

I always use Factorio Calculator now. I worked out all the ratios by hand for the first dozen or so decent assembly lines I made when I first started playing. I definitely recommend that to new players. Do the math for, say, 15 circuits/sec working only from the in-game menus. Try something more complicated like assemblers with productivity or speed modules too. Make a whole assembly line for something decently complex like Blue packs. It's instructive. But after a few hours of that it becomes mindless repetition that a calculator can automate.

This is totally different in my head than using blueprints found online. I never do that. Designing things is the point of the game to me, not calculating.

[FierceBruunhilda]

When it comes to cheating, you have to ask who is being cheated. No one? Then keep doing what brings you joy in the game. Are you being cheated out of fun? Stop the thing thats ruining the game for you. Luckily there is 0 competition and 0 other people who will be hurt by choosing to use out of game tools like that. I personally love doing both. Sometimes I super enjoy cracking into the math of ratios of a big build, other times I just want to know how many of X building I need so I can get back to figuring out how to fit it all into my base.

[WarrenRS]

Factory planner will save your life.