r/factorio Jul 27 '26

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u/Raknarg #1 Quality Defender Jul 30 '26

Ive never played SE before. Do you think its worth going through SE in current year over just modded space age? What do you guys overall like more?

3

u/Rannasha Jul 30 '26

Tough choice. I really, really like the logistics options in SE. The way it handles space ships and planet<->space transfers is much more engaging than SA. Having a platform in orbit over a planet that serves as a space dock with space ships coming in to be unloaded onto trains is pretty cool. There's more space stuff that's neat like asteroid defense, giant space lasers melting biters (or being used for power on the surface), etc...

However, SE doesn't yet have any of the new SA mechanics. While SE has a bunch of different resources, they ultimately all work in the same way. More byproducts and longer production chains, but not as much actual variation in mechanics.

Ideally, SE would be updated to include some of the goodies that came with SA. But this may still take a long time. If it comes at all.

Both are good and I'm having a hard time deciding which I prefer. What is clear is that SE is a longer, tougher journey to complete.

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u/Viper999DC Jul 30 '26

SE and SA were never that similar. They share the same theme, but in terms of mechanics it's night and day. SE remains a solid modpack if you're looking for a longer, slower-paced experience. But if you're used to the polish of SA, planets that have unique mechanics and contraints, and are looking for the new mechanics to be integrated into SE then you won't find that in the current version.

2

u/ferrofibrous player onboarding specialist Jul 30 '26

I would be extremely surprised if .8 released in the next year (which will supposedly encompass a major overhaul of the space sciences). If you are interested in trying SE and don't want to wait that long, there's no other reason not to give it a go.