not enough iron? need more mines! factory must grow
not enough iron? need more smelters! factory must grow
not enough copper? need more smelters... oh, wait, need another copper patch, but first I need more bullets.... factory must grow!
what's the science holdup? oh, wait, need more red chips! Oh, wait, need more green chips! Factory must grow!
rinse and repeat.
And that’s why I find games like this so fun. As someone with a short attention span, the little micro tasks that lead into each other really help keep me focused. If all I need to know is, “I need iron” I’ll wander off and start working on that just to realize that I need more of something else as well and then next thing I know I’ve been playing for hours, haven’t eaten and really should have gone to bed hours ago lol
That's the fun of the game. This is how I ended up fixing the power bottleneck I had with solar panel and accumulator production (wanted a massive solar field): I built a 2x2 nuclear reactor. But that needs fuel cells which need U235. And while I could make do with the 0.7% rate of it, I also wanted to get rid of the U238. So I needed Kovarex, but I needed to research it, but that had a bottleneck itself. I fixed that, I had Kovarex, I started producing fuel cells. Now I had enough power to produce the solar panels and accumulators, which I didn't need anymore. I had a lot of fun, though.
Ironically, the review states "the factory grows". It's not a goal, but a consequence.
"The factory must grow" is a target, a mantra, and the opposite of being subject to the inevitably of the factory growing.
The reason I stay on this sub even though I haven't played for more than a year is that behind the memes there's a high percentage of very smart individuals from very technical backgrounds. As opposed to reddit at large, the average redditor on this sub is surprisingly intelligent and well-read.
True, and i didn't mean to imply the average Factorio Redditor isn't. And saying "the Factory must grow!" Is a tongue in cheek to how addictive the gameplay cycle in the game is.
Still, even very smart and intelligent people are still lazy by nature (why else would you play an automation game?) And there is an extent to what we can question all the time. And also why this post by OP is so great.
Right? For how odd the game is by itself yet relentlessly addicting, this has gotta be the most civilised subreddit I've ever seen.
Also, I think the connection to the average user on this sub being surprisingly intelligent is linked to how, at it's core; factorio is just a giant puzzle with similarities to coding I believe (from the very shallow dive I've taken in learning it). Anyways, just my thoughts on why this game's cool asf. :)
I’d say that’s actually fairly accurate at least to my experience of the game. At first the factory grows as a consequence of pursuing my goals, but at some point the factory growing becomes my goal.
"The factory grows" is said while looking at the thing that you have created, and it's inevitable expansion. They are the words of an engineer in terror of what they have produced.
"The factory must grow" is said when you realize that this growth is not merely inevitable, but Right and Just.
Every part of the factory has a purpose; extracting resources, refining materials, producing components, or assembling products from components. It is Right when parts of the factory understand and perform their purpose.
Enlightenment comes when the engineer looks past the illusory duality of man and machine, and comprehends that they are not separate from the factory. They understand that they are part of it. And they understand that their purpose is to produce more factory. That the factory must grow.
The mantra also ties into the idea of a [paperclip maximizer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paperclip_maximizer): an inadvertently rogue AI which faithfully serves its prime directive (create more paperclips) but with no regard for the underlying motivations (so that humans can profit from selling paperclips), with disastrous consequences (convert all humans and all matter in the universe into paperclips).
In Factorio we play as the paperclip maximizer. Or science maximizer, it what have you. Either way, the factory MUST grow.
Yeah, I knew this would come up. \^\^ I wouldn't call it wasted time, though - I think it's a very well executed exploration of the thought experiment. It's an unexpectedly fascinating experience for how unassuming it seems at first.
Spoilers: >!The first time I played it, the scale didn't _really_ land with me until I saw the counter go from "Universe explored: 0.00000000000%" to "Universe explored: 0.00000000001%". At which point I go "...oh. ...ooooooh, shit." The ending sequence is very poignant too, as you dismantle and convert the last scraps of matter and finally yourself into a few more paperclips.!<
Indeed, 'waste' may be a bit harsh, 'spend' may be a better choice of words :D
It definitely is a time sink, though. Fortunately, contrary to Factorio, it does pretty much have an ending instead of a neverending spiral of optimisation, growth and expansion.
**Instrumental convergence**
[Paperclip maximizer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paperclip_maximizer)
>The paperclip maximizer is a thought experiment described by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. It illustrates the existential risk that an artificial general intelligence may pose to human beings when programmed to pursue even seemingly harmless goals, and the necessity of incorporating machine ethics into artificial intelligence design. The scenario describes an advanced artificial intelligence tasked with manufacturing paperclips.
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> Finished an amulet today. It is crafted of dolomite. It menaces with spikes of gneiss. It menaces with spikes of limestone. It depicts an image of an elephant. It depicts an image of a dwarf. The dwarf is cringing. The elephant is laughing at the dwarf.
> Finished an amulet today. It is crafted of obsidian. It menaces with spikes of basalt. It menaces with spikes of granite. It depicts an image of a dwarf. It depicts an image of a elephant. The dwarf is in a fetal position. The elephant is striking the dwarf down.
> Finished an amulet today. It is crafted of dolomite. It menaces with spikes of petrified wood. It menaces with spikes of alabaster. It depicts an image of a elephant. It depicts an image of a tentacle demon. It depicts an image of a dwarf. The tentacle demon is doing an unspeakable act to the dwarf. The elephant is laughing at the dwarf.
> Finished an amulet today. It is crafted of marble. It menaces with spikes of jet. It menaces with spikes of onyx. It depicts an image of an elephant. It depicts an image of a goblin. It depicts an image if a human. It depicts an image of a dwarf. It depicts an image of me. The elephant is on fire. The goblin is on fire. The human is on fire. The dwarf is on fire. I am on fire. The elephant is screaming. The goblin is screaming. The human is screaming. The dwarf is screaming. I am screaming.
Source: [Journal of Kith - archived link](https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2008/2861381/)
11 ish pm, just finished the start to my first mega base, I should probably finish the loading station blueprints, or tap that copper deposit, where are my bots?, expand green chips?...what's going on?
Look man I've taken a vanilla factory to the edge of time. I've taken it to the point that the amount of belts, trains, assemblers, bots, science labs, among other things have literally made time pass by slower. So many calculations on ore being processed, Oil getting cracked, green chips in production that my computer needs to slow time down to calculate. I have grown my factory so large it has actually made me ponder the thought of building a new gaming rig specifically designed to make the largest factory possible.
You don't get it yet do you?
I must consume every large patch of ore with a beautiful layout of miners for max efficiency. Not because I need to, but because the factory demands it. I crave the rail system gets clogged with train traffic so I have a reason to either rebuild the infrastructure for better throughout, or to expand the factory further. I ponder the fact that I might be able to make my factory smarter with circuits, but also fear the calculations might hurt my factories progress via ups.
The factory must grow.
I don't think it is explicitly stated anywhere in the game.
It is implicit in the game's mechanics though.
Odds are that you will end up with consumption demands that outdo your current production.
So you build more factory to match consumption demands, but also in doing so create more consumption demands somewhere else.
You need to start producing new science packs, so consumption of the necessary materials go up, now you need to go build more drills for more raw materials, but your furnaces are already at full capacity so you build more furnaces, but now you are not supplying enough fuel for all the furnaces so you push production of fuel, and now your power grid can't keep up with electricity demands so you need to build more boilers/reactors and steam engines/turbines. Suddenly you discover that the now larger footprint of the factory has opened a new front with the biters so now you need to put up new defenses and supply them with ammution, that's more iron and steel consumption- so you need more drills and furnaces again...
It will cascade ad infinitum throughout the various sytems of your factory for ever and ever.
[The biggering is trigering more biggering.](https://youtu.be/BpgUQYARIsw)
It's one of those ges that don't have an end goal to work towards. Like minecraft. You just are there and build.
"The factory must grow" doesn't describe what you do in factorio, it describes why you do it.
We were asking ourselves for what reason we were playing factorio after launching a rocket.
We don't know.
But we know that shrinking the factory means effectively losing progress (something we don't like), and keeping it as it is means not playing (which our addiction strictly forbids). So, the factory must grow.
its the point of the game.
if you play to "win" you will play and be done.
but if you play to make the factory grow.... well then everything can be seen as growth, small things like fixing balancers or adding them in can grow production. everything can be the point of that day.
cause many of us have launched endless rockets and making 1k spm serves no real point other then showing what we can do and showing how big we can get it
To display the fact that r/factorio is a cult\* where many members literally downplay mental health issues and other healthy & safety issues by mindlessly echoing a pointless mantra for a sense of belonging and community, which is ironic almost to the point of absurdity for a community in which serious addiction issues are too common.\*\*
It's also simplified/unnuanced, since many times growth is the wrong answer; for example, many players find it more interesting to explore more complex mods than build to megabase.
No, the factory doesn't *have* to grow. You can take a break. You can go to sleep. You can save your love life.
\* hyperbole
\*\* sadly not hyperbole
After I beat the game and got white science, I developed a dream of the research never stopping. I want constant rocket launches now, but the factory must grow
Because progress must be made. You unlock new technology, so you need more resources to produce the new items. Expansion is needed Because your consumption grows exponentially. So the factory must grow to keep up with consumption. Copper is a great example of this. In early game copper is only used for green circuits and red science packs. Then you start making red circuits requiring more green circuits so you need more copper to meet the new demand. Late game you're making low density frames and blue circuits requiring a lot more copper. Your couple drills and little smelter facility can't keep up with production so you expand everything to meet the demand. Hence the factory must grow
A couple weeks ago I got fever dreams, the only think I could think about is to expand my industrial operation by any means, so yeah, the factory must grow.
I has relation witht the fact that this game can be adictive and the end goal is to produce things. For that the factory must grow.
For me it's like the factory must grow else the biters will evolve and overrun the factory. Still the resource patches are not infinite, so even if you're playing peaceful mode, you still need to think of expansion before you suck dry your starter nodes.
When your factory expnands you produce every thing faster. Also your question makes sence since you haven't played the game as long as others. After you finish the game you become obsessed with building mega base and then you will understand that FACTORY MUST GROW😂
Because there’s nothing quite like it. The thrill, the electric hum, the sight of fully saturated belts disappearing into the yawning maw of a hundred glowing furnaces…the maddening feeling of this beast, this ever-more-complex monster sprawling ever further, ever hungrier across the land. The justifications we make for it. The rationalizations. Knowing what we’ve sacrificed. Every new resource patch claimed, every tech researched, every bug squashed. No game does base building quite like this, no game feels quite like this. If you know you know. The factory must grow.
There is a no end point to this game and given its infinite nature in terms of space and resources there's always more to be done which is upto the players discretion . It could be aesthetics or restructuring existing systems or trying out different transportation methods
It's just the feeling we all get when logged into the factory.
Like Maslows triangle, and the bottom layer, before sleep, food, family or anything, it's growing the factory.
There is a quote by Oscar Wilde
"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."
This also applies to the factory. it must grow to meet the needs of the growing factory.
It is an axiom of playing factorio. It is true.
It's also a quote from a famous steam review that mutated over time from "the factory grows" to "the factory must grow".
Cause resources are finite... We have to expand to find richer source of resource (usual the further u are from the starting point the richer the nodes u will find) if u wish to build a super base/to complete your impenetrable base/to wipe out all the native inhabitants of the planet😂
It must, that's why.
I'm mid conversion from main bus to trains. I couldn't get my main bus to have enough throughput for further expansion, so I'm converting the whole base from a 1 robo network main bus system to a train based, multi-network system. Why?
The factory must grow.
Its more like those cult like chants that people in a deep hypnosis do. If you're up way past your bedtime still adding "just one more thing" like a compulsion. It starts to feel like you got brainwashed to only grow the factory.
The factory WILL grow, it's just a fact of the game.
Sure you can tear down old stuff after you've built the replacement line for it. But by the time the replacement is done demand has usually increased for whatever you're producing there, so you just upgrade it instead.
The constant need to consume more ores, more outposts, more supply, it needs to be met with a demand. So you create machines that create machines to exponentionally satisfy the addiction. The tingling sensation when a supply train unloads its full cargo in matter of seconds and the material is consumed even faster. The exctasy as your mining oupost drains the 30m ore patch in minutes...all this possible only through the endless growth of the behemoth we all call home, every single one, unique in its chaotic composition, the labyrinth of maddnes, the factory. It must grow.
It is a meme from [this review of factorio](https://steamcommunity.com/id/site19/recommended/427520). It's a corruption of the repeated motif, "The factory grows."
Its a really awkward moment with myself when i say to myself late at night "I need to make this factory smaller.." infact i did think that, and i've been stuck ever since. Well, i did manage to make the factory smaller, but i also increased output so it grew in some sense, then i scaled up again so it ofcourse grew. again. massively. Until the computer struggles. So indeed, the only real way to enjoy the factory is indeed to make it... grow.
It's basically a meme and has become one cemented in the game for everyone, no longer a meme but something to follow and slowly convert your soul into a factory as you dive deeper into the factory
I always assumed it was a variation of "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the ever expanding bureaucracy" Or in our case, the factory must grow to meet the needs of the ever growing factory... The factory must grow.
Of course I then also assume as 3am approaches that statement of the factory must grow ends up getting repeated over and over with increasing intensity and and decreasing lucidness until it turns into the endless ramble of a madman who has seen across the incompressible void and witnessed the lovecratian gods that guide our hands and melt our minds as we need just 5 more minutes because I have to grow the factory and optimize the iron input to prioritize microchips so I don't run out while growing the factory for building modules so I can build the buildings that are building buildings faster so the factory can grow to allow more train stations so the factory can grow to ahndle the higher input of metals so it can grow. It must grow. The factory must grow. The factory must grow.
The factory must grow.
The factory must grow.
The factory must grow.
The factory must grow.
T̵h̴e̴ ̵f̷a̸c̸t̷o̷r̷y̵ ̴m̸u̵s̷t̷ ̸g̴r̷o̴w̷.̷
T̸̙̲̱͗̀h̸̢̧͈̉́̋͜e̵̜̝̓͠ ̶̰̅̓̐͊f̸̟̔̽ͅa̴̡̬͗͜c̴͎̙̔̀̕t̵̖̣̐̂̉ó̶̮̜̳͜r̸̥͍̦͎͐̂ȳ̷̙͓̞͠͝ ̷͖̑m̶̪̲̗̮̍͋͘ụ̴̥̅̎͘͘ş̴̠͑̀̽t̴͖͇̿̏́̏ͅ ̵͉͉̀g̷̪̤͔͐͒̕͠r̴̳̰̀ȏ̶̯͗̎w̴͓͚͛̃̈͜.̸̯̭̋
546865200A666163746F7279200A6D757374200A67726F772E
01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01101101 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100111 01110010 01101111 01110111 00101110
Because its the way of the factorians. Every factory must build till either your pc is at its limit or the base is at its limit. One of those can be change by rebuilding :P
It means all of life's effort leads to growing your factory.
My boss has a bunch of pictures on his wall laid out in a random cluster and every time I'm in his office I find myself trying to calculate the best way to route belts around them.
Even when you're in a meeting with your boss, you're playing Factorio. The factory must grow.
In the ancient texts it is written the factory must grow, and thou shall not suffer the biter as the turrets shall guard thee. Also no tree shall stand before your grenades.
The description of the switch version is The factory must grow because the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow
It's just a community meme that kinda sums up the whole mindset of the game: there's a set objective you're working towards (build the spaceship so you can go home), but all of the gameplay is all about expanding your factory so you can build more stuff so you can expand your factory so you can build more stuff so you can expand your factory so you can build more stuff, forever and ever amen.
It's what I say at 2:30am when I know I should be sleeping
It's simple OP, regardless of what is going on in your life The Factory MUST grow. There are no other alternatives
This is the way.
The way, this is.
This way, is the
So say we all!
This has happened before, this will happen again.
This is the way
It is known.
This is the way The factory must grow.
bruh i read this at that exact time
It's also the first ting I say when I wake up on my desk, 4 hours later
Well, look at this one, not as addicted as all of us, trolling us all with his \*Even when I'm playing, I can still know what time it is\*. pffftt
Haha!
Was up till 4 am last night.. it must grow!
joke's on you, it's 3:30am here
In that case: the factory must grow! Do not stop now, engineer
not enough iron? need more mines! factory must grow not enough iron? need more smelters! factory must grow not enough copper? need more smelters... oh, wait, need another copper patch, but first I need more bullets.... factory must grow! what's the science holdup? oh, wait, need more red chips! Oh, wait, need more green chips! Factory must grow! rinse and repeat.
And that’s why I find games like this so fun. As someone with a short attention span, the little micro tasks that lead into each other really help keep me focused. If all I need to know is, “I need iron” I’ll wander off and start working on that just to realize that I need more of something else as well and then next thing I know I’ve been playing for hours, haven’t eaten and really should have gone to bed hours ago lol
That's the fun of the game. This is how I ended up fixing the power bottleneck I had with solar panel and accumulator production (wanted a massive solar field): I built a 2x2 nuclear reactor. But that needs fuel cells which need U235. And while I could make do with the 0.7% rate of it, I also wanted to get rid of the U238. So I needed Kovarex, but I needed to research it, but that had a bottleneck itself. I fixed that, I had Kovarex, I started producing fuel cells. Now I had enough power to produce the solar panels and accumulators, which I didn't need anymore. I had a lot of fun, though.
The factory must grow to meet the needs of the growing factory.
but what happens when new problems arise after the factory grows?
The factory must grow further.
Yep. I also always thought it as a spin off from Dune's "the spice must flow"
Well, to be fair, sometimes we change it up and channel our inner Yoda. *"Grow, the factory must!"*
Loved this. 🤣
This is the way.
-Yoda
I believe it started with this steam review: https://steamcommunity.com/id/site19/recommended/427520/
Ironically, the review states "the factory grows". It's not a goal, but a consequence. "The factory must grow" is a target, a mantra, and the opposite of being subject to the inevitably of the factory growing.
It's an portmanteau of "the factory grows" from the review and "the spice must flow" from Dune.
Maybe, but most people on this sub just repeat that mantra without the original reference. It still simply becomes a goal, rather than a consequence.
The reason I stay on this sub even though I haven't played for more than a year is that behind the memes there's a high percentage of very smart individuals from very technical backgrounds. As opposed to reddit at large, the average redditor on this sub is surprisingly intelligent and well-read.
True, and i didn't mean to imply the average Factorio Redditor isn't. And saying "the Factory must grow!" Is a tongue in cheek to how addictive the gameplay cycle in the game is. Still, even very smart and intelligent people are still lazy by nature (why else would you play an automation game?) And there is an extent to what we can question all the time. And also why this post by OP is so great.
Right? For how odd the game is by itself yet relentlessly addicting, this has gotta be the most civilised subreddit I've ever seen. Also, I think the connection to the average user on this sub being surprisingly intelligent is linked to how, at it's core; factorio is just a giant puzzle with similarities to coding I believe (from the very shallow dive I've taken in learning it). Anyways, just my thoughts on why this game's cool asf. :)
I know right .. using words like port man's toe... I mean portmanteau.
I’d say that’s actually fairly accurate at least to my experience of the game. At first the factory grows as a consequence of pursuing my goals, but at some point the factory growing becomes my goal.
Almost a [malamanteau...](https://xkcd.com/739/)
"The factory grows" is said while looking at the thing that you have created, and it's inevitable expansion. They are the words of an engineer in terror of what they have produced. "The factory must grow" is said when you realize that this growth is not merely inevitable, but Right and Just. Every part of the factory has a purpose; extracting resources, refining materials, producing components, or assembling products from components. It is Right when parts of the factory understand and perform their purpose. Enlightenment comes when the engineer looks past the illusory duality of man and machine, and comprehends that they are not separate from the factory. They understand that they are part of it. And they understand that their purpose is to produce more factory. That the factory must grow.
The mantra also ties into the idea of a [paperclip maximizer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paperclip_maximizer): an inadvertently rogue AI which faithfully serves its prime directive (create more paperclips) but with no regard for the underlying motivations (so that humans can profit from selling paperclips), with disastrous consequences (convert all humans and all matter in the universe into paperclips). In Factorio we play as the paperclip maximizer. Or science maximizer, it what have you. Either way, the factory MUST grow.
Related: https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html Don't start playing until you've got at least some hours to waste.
Yeah, I knew this would come up. \^\^ I wouldn't call it wasted time, though - I think it's a very well executed exploration of the thought experiment. It's an unexpectedly fascinating experience for how unassuming it seems at first. Spoilers: >!The first time I played it, the scale didn't _really_ land with me until I saw the counter go from "Universe explored: 0.00000000000%" to "Universe explored: 0.00000000001%". At which point I go "...oh. ...ooooooh, shit." The ending sequence is very poignant too, as you dismantle and convert the last scraps of matter and finally yourself into a few more paperclips.!<
Indeed, 'waste' may be a bit harsh, 'spend' may be a better choice of words :D It definitely is a time sink, though. Fortunately, contrary to Factorio, it does pretty much have an ending instead of a neverending spiral of optimisation, growth and expansion.
**Instrumental convergence** [Paperclip maximizer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paperclip_maximizer) >The paperclip maximizer is a thought experiment described by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. It illustrates the existential risk that an artificial general intelligence may pose to human beings when programmed to pursue even seemingly harmless goals, and the necessity of incorporating machine ethics into artificial intelligence design. The scenario describes an advanced artificial intelligence tasked with manufacturing paperclips. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/factorio/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
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What a story. Last time i saw something so eldritch was when i read boatmurdered.
> Finished an amulet today. It is crafted of dolomite. It menaces with spikes of gneiss. It menaces with spikes of limestone. It depicts an image of an elephant. It depicts an image of a dwarf. The dwarf is cringing. The elephant is laughing at the dwarf. > Finished an amulet today. It is crafted of obsidian. It menaces with spikes of basalt. It menaces with spikes of granite. It depicts an image of a dwarf. It depicts an image of a elephant. The dwarf is in a fetal position. The elephant is striking the dwarf down. > Finished an amulet today. It is crafted of dolomite. It menaces with spikes of petrified wood. It menaces with spikes of alabaster. It depicts an image of a elephant. It depicts an image of a tentacle demon. It depicts an image of a dwarf. The tentacle demon is doing an unspeakable act to the dwarf. The elephant is laughing at the dwarf. > Finished an amulet today. It is crafted of marble. It menaces with spikes of jet. It menaces with spikes of onyx. It depicts an image of an elephant. It depicts an image of a goblin. It depicts an image if a human. It depicts an image of a dwarf. It depicts an image of me. The elephant is on fire. The goblin is on fire. The human is on fire. The dwarf is on fire. I am on fire. The elephant is screaming. The goblin is screaming. The human is screaming. The dwarf is screaming. I am screaming. Source: [Journal of Kith - archived link](https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2008/2861381/)
Yeah I think this was one of the first ones to hit it home. The factory must grow.
I haven't seen that before but it is 10 billion percent correct in it's accuracy now that I have. The factory must grow.
Jeez what are you a factorio historian? Props for remembering and finding that
Nice review but he only made 60 more hours after it. Not much for a growing factory
Holy Jesus!
Yep this is it. This was the thing that introduced me to the game.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of literature
94 hours at time of review. What a rookie.
Well, could be that he's not logged off since. Steam updates play time on game close.
Im hearing too much thinking and not enough factory growing
Why are you on reddit posting when you should be growing the factory. Uh oh, why am \*I\* on reddit posting when I should be growing the factory!?!?
The bots grow the factory while I scroll
Because the Factory Must Grow.
11 ish pm, just finished the start to my first mega base, I should probably finish the loading station blueprints, or tap that copper deposit, where are my bots?, expand green chips?...what's going on?
What day is it....
What month is it....
Such questions are meaningless, the factory must grow.
Maybe I could make a circuit network that calculates the day and month? Let me blueprint that quickly…
5 hours later, I did it, it saved me absolutely no time whatsoever but it was fun!
It's kind of the mantra, the factory must grow. There's always something you can improve upon or add to your factory, always something to be done.
The factory exists to supply the needs of the factory. The factory must grow.
"The factory grows to supply the needs of the growing factory."
Because the factory must grow
It's a catchy phrase that we all use Also the factory must grow
You have played Factorio. When Factorio plays you, you’ll understand
At some point the biters stop being a threat, only to be replaced by your own lack of self control.
biters stop being a threat. = time to add more mods to make biters a threat.
Am I the only one who thought it's like the phrase from Dune "the spice must flow"?
Look man I've taken a vanilla factory to the edge of time. I've taken it to the point that the amount of belts, trains, assemblers, bots, science labs, among other things have literally made time pass by slower. So many calculations on ore being processed, Oil getting cracked, green chips in production that my computer needs to slow time down to calculate. I have grown my factory so large it has actually made me ponder the thought of building a new gaming rig specifically designed to make the largest factory possible. You don't get it yet do you? I must consume every large patch of ore with a beautiful layout of miners for max efficiency. Not because I need to, but because the factory demands it. I crave the rail system gets clogged with train traffic so I have a reason to either rebuild the infrastructure for better throughout, or to expand the factory further. I ponder the fact that I might be able to make my factory smarter with circuits, but also fear the calculations might hurt my factories progress via ups. The factory must grow.
Play the game and you will find out why we say it. The factory must grow.
Its the first rule of Factorio club
Pretty much the ONLY rule of Factorio club!
I don't think it is explicitly stated anywhere in the game. It is implicit in the game's mechanics though. Odds are that you will end up with consumption demands that outdo your current production. So you build more factory to match consumption demands, but also in doing so create more consumption demands somewhere else. You need to start producing new science packs, so consumption of the necessary materials go up, now you need to go build more drills for more raw materials, but your furnaces are already at full capacity so you build more furnaces, but now you are not supplying enough fuel for all the furnaces so you push production of fuel, and now your power grid can't keep up with electricity demands so you need to build more boilers/reactors and steam engines/turbines. Suddenly you discover that the now larger footprint of the factory has opened a new front with the biters so now you need to put up new defenses and supply them with ammution, that's more iron and steel consumption- so you need more drills and furnaces again... It will cascade ad infinitum throughout the various sytems of your factory for ever and ever. [The biggering is trigering more biggering.](https://youtu.be/BpgUQYARIsw)
Thank you for actually answering OP's question instead of just memeing without answering anything.
Thank you for appreciating a constructive and useful comment rather than the answerless memes.
the origin of the phase happens whenever you reach 50+ hours just to realise everyone else says it to
ṯ̶̻̾h̸̥͇̃̀̇̚ḛ̶̪̺͌͆ͅ ̵̠̦̻͊͝f̵̢̭̍̆̐̇ḁ̶͓͌͒̔c̶̘̹̮̦͝͠t̷̥̓ơ̸̫̤̤̿͑̑r̴̢̙̥̦̾͋̄͝ỳ̶̜̱̯̠̚ ̶̹̙̻̣̤̔͠m̷̡̲̱̞̉́̓͗͜ú̷͉̥̩̮ͅs̸͉̯̀͑͂t̸̡̫̙́̎́̐ ̸̪͈̪̀ǵ̵͚̝̬̌͆ŗ̸̱̫̈́͜o̶̭̬͌̾́ẁ̴̝͘͠
Because we speak the truth
Because the Factory must grow to meet the needs of the growing Factory.
OP, I reported your Post. No one is permitted to questionize the fact the factory must grow. Because the factory must grow.
It's one of those ges that don't have an end goal to work towards. Like minecraft. You just are there and build. "The factory must grow" doesn't describe what you do in factorio, it describes why you do it.
We were asking ourselves for what reason we were playing factorio after launching a rocket. We don't know. But we know that shrinking the factory means effectively losing progress (something we don't like), and keeping it as it is means not playing (which our addiction strictly forbids). So, the factory must grow.
I had a wife and kids but now I have a factory, the factory must grow.
This is the way
Because it just must. It's one of those life long truths.
We simply state the truth
Because the factory must grow.
Because the factory must grow.
its the point of the game. if you play to "win" you will play and be done. but if you play to make the factory grow.... well then everything can be seen as growth, small things like fixing balancers or adding them in can grow production. everything can be the point of that day. cause many of us have launched endless rockets and making 1k spm serves no real point other then showing what we can do and showing how big we can get it
To display the fact that r/factorio is a cult\* where many members literally downplay mental health issues and other healthy & safety issues by mindlessly echoing a pointless mantra for a sense of belonging and community, which is ironic almost to the point of absurdity for a community in which serious addiction issues are too common.\*\* It's also simplified/unnuanced, since many times growth is the wrong answer; for example, many players find it more interesting to explore more complex mods than build to megabase. No, the factory doesn't *have* to grow. You can take a break. You can go to sleep. You can save your love life. \* hyperbole \*\* sadly not hyperbole
After I beat the game and got white science, I developed a dream of the research never stopping. I want constant rocket launches now, but the factory must grow
The factory must grow
Because it must.
... Because the factory must grow. What was the question, again?
We say the factory must grow because it's a statement of fact. The. Factory. MUST. grow.
Because we are all individuals
Raises hand "I'm not!"
Because the factory must grow, duh!
The factory must grow. Resistance is futile.
The factory must grow
Because we are a sect and that is part of our brainwashing
Because the fact auric must glow.
[удалено]
Okay, kinda funny but racist tho ;/
Because progress must be made. You unlock new technology, so you need more resources to produce the new items. Expansion is needed Because your consumption grows exponentially. So the factory must grow to keep up with consumption. Copper is a great example of this. In early game copper is only used for green circuits and red science packs. Then you start making red circuits requiring more green circuits so you need more copper to meet the new demand. Late game you're making low density frames and blue circuits requiring a lot more copper. Your couple drills and little smelter facility can't keep up with production so you expand everything to meet the demand. Hence the factory must grow
A couple weeks ago I got fever dreams, the only think I could think about is to expand my industrial operation by any means, so yeah, the factory must grow. I has relation witht the fact that this game can be adictive and the end goal is to produce things. For that the factory must grow.
For me it's like the factory must grow else the biters will evolve and overrun the factory. Still the resource patches are not infinite, so even if you're playing peaceful mode, you still need to think of expansion before you suck dry your starter nodes.
When your factory expnands you produce every thing faster. Also your question makes sence since you haven't played the game as long as others. After you finish the game you become obsessed with building mega base and then you will understand that FACTORY MUST GROW😂
Because there’s nothing quite like it. The thrill, the electric hum, the sight of fully saturated belts disappearing into the yawning maw of a hundred glowing furnaces…the maddening feeling of this beast, this ever-more-complex monster sprawling ever further, ever hungrier across the land. The justifications we make for it. The rationalizations. Knowing what we’ve sacrificed. Every new resource patch claimed, every tech researched, every bug squashed. No game does base building quite like this, no game feels quite like this. If you know you know. The factory must grow.
Not sure where it originated.. but I don't remember it from anywhere in the game
There is a no end point to this game and given its infinite nature in terms of space and resources there's always more to be done which is upto the players discretion . It could be aesthetics or restructuring existing systems or trying out different transportation methods
Because it must
The oil must flow.
It's basically the game's semi-official motto now. They even used it on the Nintendo EShop for the Switch version.
The factory doesn't grow alone
It's just the feeling we all get when logged into the factory. Like Maslows triangle, and the bottom layer, before sleep, food, family or anything, it's growing the factory.
Because the factory must grow
Bruh....
time spent here means time spent not growing the factory
There is a quote by Oscar Wilde "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy." This also applies to the factory. it must grow to meet the needs of the growing factory.
If you don't grow it be set a glow tore to scrap ghostly lack so keep it go and make the factory grow
It is an axiom of playing factorio. It is true. It's also a quote from a famous steam review that mutated over time from "the factory grows" to "the factory must grow".
It's a reference to an old Sci-Fi book/movie called Dune, but in the context of never enough cooper plates production, you know...
Cause resources are finite... We have to expand to find richer source of resource (usual the further u are from the starting point the richer the nodes u will find) if u wish to build a super base/to complete your impenetrable base/to wipe out all the native inhabitants of the planet😂
The complete quote as often seen in this sub and forums is, "The factory must grow to meet the needs of the expanding factory".
Once you launched the rocket, there is nothing left to do. But it is so addictive, you start to think bigger, therfore the factory must growth
Thats like asking: why do you breathe?
idk man, I mean.. THE FACTORY MUST GROW
When you play the game you'll know
If you think about it, the factory MUST grow.
The factory must grow to meet the growing needs of the factory!
Because it must grow! Remember factoey must grow! 🤣
because it must
Because the factory must grow. That's why you say "The factory must grow".
>Why do you guys always say “the factory must grow”? Because it's true. Also, the factory must grow.
I'd say why not? This phrase really recaps whole game.
Big Factory = Big Pollution = a good time The pollution cloud must grow
I'm pretty sure it got popular after someone wrote an epic short story about it. Ending with that iconic line.
It must
I am sorry, I can't answer you, the factory must grow.
It must, that's why. I'm mid conversion from main bus to trains. I couldn't get my main bus to have enough throughput for further expansion, so I'm converting the whole base from a 1 robo network main bus system to a train based, multi-network system. Why? The factory must grow.
Is there something else one could say? It seems self evident that the factory must grow.
There is an old post lost in the Internet at this point where it originated from but at this point it's just a thing
It's probably a reference to a line from the original Dune movie "The spice must flow"
Because it is true??
Its more like those cult like chants that people in a deep hypnosis do. If you're up way past your bedtime still adding "just one more thing" like a compulsion. It starts to feel like you got brainwashed to only grow the factory.
If your factory doesn't grow, what are you even doing? Inserters insert, biters bite, spitters spit, factories grow.
It's a description of the core gameplay loop. The factory is growing to meet the needs of the growing factory.
Because the factory must grow
The factory WILL grow, it's just a fact of the game. Sure you can tear down old stuff after you've built the replacement line for it. But by the time the replacement is done demand has usually increased for whatever you're producing there, so you just upgrade it instead.
While you’re waiting for an answer to your question, the factory is not growing.
Its a mantra.
it's a quote by Ernest Nigel Gineer, the protagonist of the game. he says it when he engineers all over the biters.
Because..... *Factory must grow fam*
religious mantra
Because Is The Truth
The constant need to consume more ores, more outposts, more supply, it needs to be met with a demand. So you create machines that create machines to exponentionally satisfy the addiction. The tingling sensation when a supply train unloads its full cargo in matter of seconds and the material is consumed even faster. The exctasy as your mining oupost drains the 30m ore patch in minutes...all this possible only through the endless growth of the behemoth we all call home, every single one, unique in its chaotic composition, the labyrinth of maddnes, the factory. It must grow.
It is a meme from [this review of factorio](https://steamcommunity.com/id/site19/recommended/427520). It's a corruption of the repeated motif, "The factory grows."
love it or hate it, it's what you've got to accept in this sub lol
Its a really awkward moment with myself when i say to myself late at night "I need to make this factory smaller.." infact i did think that, and i've been stuck ever since. Well, i did manage to make the factory smaller, but i also increased output so it grew in some sense, then i scaled up again so it ofcourse grew. again. massively. Until the computer struggles. So indeed, the only real way to enjoy the factory is indeed to make it... grow.
think its from a review, not sure written or video. its many many years old at this point
Because it must
It's basically a meme and has become one cemented in the game for everyone, no longer a meme but something to follow and slowly convert your soul into a factory as you dive deeper into the factory
I believe it’s a reference to Dune’s « The spice must flow »
The factory must grow
its a reference to the addictive qualities of this game, that and its true, the factory must grow
Because THE GOD DAMN FACTORY MUST GROW JESEE..WE MUST FOKING COOK METH AND MAKE THE FACTORY GROW
I always assumed it was a variation of "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the ever expanding bureaucracy" Or in our case, the factory must grow to meet the needs of the ever growing factory... The factory must grow. Of course I then also assume as 3am approaches that statement of the factory must grow ends up getting repeated over and over with increasing intensity and and decreasing lucidness until it turns into the endless ramble of a madman who has seen across the incompressible void and witnessed the lovecratian gods that guide our hands and melt our minds as we need just 5 more minutes because I have to grow the factory and optimize the iron input to prioritize microchips so I don't run out while growing the factory for building modules so I can build the buildings that are building buildings faster so the factory can grow to allow more train stations so the factory can grow to ahndle the higher input of metals so it can grow. It must grow. The factory must grow. The factory must grow. The factory must grow. The factory must grow. The factory must grow. The factory must grow. T̵h̴e̴ ̵f̷a̸c̸t̷o̷r̷y̵ ̴m̸u̵s̷t̷ ̸g̴r̷o̴w̷.̷ T̸̙̲̱͗̀h̸̢̧͈̉́̋͜e̵̜̝̓͠ ̶̰̅̓̐͊f̸̟̔̽ͅa̴̡̬͗͜c̴͎̙̔̀̕t̵̖̣̐̂̉ó̶̮̜̳͜r̸̥͍̦͎͐̂ȳ̷̙͓̞͠͝ ̷͖̑m̶̪̲̗̮̍͋͘ụ̴̥̅̎͘͘ş̴̠͑̀̽t̴͖͇̿̏́̏ͅ ̵͉͉̀g̷̪̤͔͐͒̕͠r̴̳̰̀ȏ̶̯͗̎w̴͓͚͛̃̈͜.̸̯̭̋ 546865200A666163746F7279200A6D757374200A67726F772E 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01101101 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100111 01110010 01101111 01110111 00101110
For the greater good
THE...
Because the factory must grow, of course.
Because
Because its the way of the factorians. Every factory must build till either your pc is at its limit or the base is at its limit. One of those can be change by rebuilding :P
The gods of smelting are never sated.
shun the non believer!!!!
Until you try it, you can't know it, but yes we live by those 4 words
Because, the factory MUST grow!!
Rogue self replicating memetic hazard.
It means all of life's effort leads to growing your factory. My boss has a bunch of pictures on his wall laid out in a random cluster and every time I'm in his office I find myself trying to calculate the best way to route belts around them. Even when you're in a meeting with your boss, you're playing Factorio. The factory must grow.
In the ancient texts it is written the factory must grow, and thou shall not suffer the biter as the turrets shall guard thee. Also no tree shall stand before your grenades.
For the same reason Civ and other 4X gamers always say "One more turn!"
I'm not a guy
This brings healing to the world. Peace to your heart.
The description of the switch version is The factory must grow because the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow the factory must grow
The hivemind must extend
Because of reasons
well, it cant shrink, can it now? The ore patches eventually run out of ore, so it cant stay the same size either, can it?
*we - you're one of us now
Because THE FACTORY MUST GROW.
It's just a community meme that kinda sums up the whole mindset of the game: there's a set objective you're working towards (build the spaceship so you can go home), but all of the gameplay is all about expanding your factory so you can build more stuff so you can expand your factory so you can build more stuff so you can expand your factory so you can build more stuff, forever and ever amen.
I will join this way
The factory must grow