Mindustry: an extremely high quality (and difficulty) FOSS tower defense game

It's great and all (it really is), but the target audience was just presented factorio 2.0 (and space age), so we're busy for a few months.
- but the target audience was just presented factorio 2.0
  I totally missed that this was a thing. Saw this and then bought the DLC yesterday at 7pm, figuring I'd get a couple of hours in before going to bed. (I get up early)
  Yeah, rigt. 4am this morning and I was still playing. .
- Sorry didn't know that. I'm not interested in Factorio because imo it looks terrible.
  EDIT: I'm gonna open an issue so Lemmy lets OPs edit and delete comments on their posts. The amount of argument on here is too bad for a standard centralized moderation model.
  
  The person you're replying to was just making a comment that alludes to the fact that people who like this genre get addicted to other games. It was a light-hearted comment and you're the one who got negative first. People asked you to elaborate on your negativity and you got defensive. Now you're doubling down on that defensiveness. I get it. I've been there. But come on, man. I think everyone's got the same interests in mind here.
  
  EDIT: I'm gonna open an issue so Lemmy lets OPs edit and delete comments on their posts. The amount of argument on here is too bad for a standard centralized moderation model.
  Lmfao
  
  I rarely downvote but this deserves one.
  If you want to be able to edit and delete comments from others you might want to look at hosting your own website where you can rule however you like.
  
  I'm gonna open an issue so Lemmy lets OPs edit and delete comments on their posts. The amount of argument on here is too bad for a standard centralized moderation model.
  That's a bad idea.
  
  I'm not interested in Factorio because imo it looks terrible.
  What do you not like about it?
  
  I'm gonna open an issue so Lemmy lets OPs edit and delete comments on their posts. The amount of argument on here is too bad for a standard centralized moderation model.
  LMAO you’re waaay too thin skinned to be given that sort of power. There is just some polite discussion of Factorio’s graphics going on.
  You should probably just leave Lemmy if you’re that hyper sensitive to any form of disagreement.
  
  I don’t understand. You think Factorio is visually not pleasing but Mindustry is? Are you for real?
  
  Spicy take around these parts.
  
  Factorio is amazing.
  
  I like how other people are being nice about it. Makes me have a little hope for humanity.
  You’re objectively wrong though.
  
  Factorio does look like Age of Empires with a 3 pack a day habit. And given pollution is a major mechanic in the game it's on theme.
  Mindustry meanwhile has the look of a game you'd find on one of those old 101 games on 1 CD! complilations you'd find back in the 90's, and yet it runs...well like every other game that's ever been packaged as a .deb.
  I don't really hitch horses with a game whose main gameplay loop involves keeping an eye on things that are off screen.
  
  EDIT: I’m gonna open an issue so Lemmy lets OPs edit and delete comments on their posts. The amount of argument on here is too bad for a standard centralized moderation model.
  Not only do you insult a game that many people have a huge amount of love for, for the weakest reason possible - then you get all salty because people disagree with you.
  And THEN, you complain to the developers that you should be able to delete other people's content that you disagree with?
  Seriously, get some perspective and stop being a douche. Please.
  
  Even as someone who doesn’t usually play the genre it’s a fantastic game
  
  Reading the room is a skill, not a burden... Keep your opinion, we also have our own. No wonder YouTube got rid of the down vote button and other social platforms don't really have one. Both sides pretty much want to suppress each other. No matter how much I like factorio, I don't think many people who do play it care about is looks and the people who also play mindustry also don't care how "terrible" it looks when we consider your standards as the measurement...
  You done goofed your reasoning. You rolled a nat 1 on charisma and intelligence check. Rip bozo

I wouldn't call the game 'extremely high difficulty', it even has some easier levels early on (at least when I played it a couple of years ago). I'm not a regular tower-defense or sim game player and I was able to complete Serpulo. It can be a challenging puzzle at times, but it's not a game I'd feel a need to warn people about difficulty-wise.
Disclaimer: this game may be addictive for some individuals.
Seconding (although I have a tendency to marathon the campaign of any game I think is excellent). No need for predatory tricks like loots, this is just a damn fun game.
It’s very weird for a FOSS enthusiast not to advertise one of the best open-source games of all time so here I am trying to make it spoken about again.
IIRC I found it in a 'top 100 FOSS games' list because it was one of the first which wasn't an open-sourced cloning of an existing game. No disrespect for clones and adaptations at all, but it's extra special to see original softwares so good that even people who don't care about FOSSness would use them.
- IMO the last few levels are complete horseshit, difficulty wise. You get sent massive waves that are undefendable unless you are sending a lot of shit and defending by attacking. Heck, i had like 10 sectors for minding and sending shit and still it wasnt enough. Maybe ill come back to this game someday and finally finish it.
- it even has some easier levels early on
  Yes but that's the thing. The difficulty increase is probably one of the highest in the game industry and all levels except for the first ones are quite hard. Also this is not just from my experience. I read an article about it somewhere in the past.
  but it's extra special to see original softwares so good that even people who don't care about FOSSness would use them.
  I looked into Mindustry after seeing it on a pretty big gaming YouTube channel (Real Civil Engineer) and there was quite a discussion about it so I would say it's a very successful indie title in general. That's also why it's a perfect advertiser of today's FOSS (alongside with YouTube downloaders lol).
  
  The game has a high skill ceiling and there is a fuck ton to learn but none of that is necessary. The game gets progressively hard as most do and there are some difficult levels (impact was one iirc) but it is by no means industry standard breaking, dark soul type game of tower defence. And the second planet erekir was surprisingly easy but I was already familiar with the game at that point so might be harder for new players but still fairly easy to play through (compared to serpulo).
  Don't be averted by the disclaimer if you don't like difficult games. You might fail a couple times but one you learn how or why you failed, you can easily be prepared the next time. Give it a shot and there is a good chance you might like it. Don't get on public multiplayer servers without finishing the campaign tho, you might not have a good time till you learn everything. If you really wanna try multiplayer servers, try not to disturb others and listen to what the veterans suggest.

It's also on Steam for a couple of bucks if you want a simple way to support the dev!
- That gives 30% to Steam though. Better use Itch.io as linked on the github page.
  https://anuke.itch.io/mindustry
  
  Income from Steam is what ultimately made gaming on Linux viable. And to do that, they made significant open source contributions.
  So I'll keep giving them money of course.

Unironically, I had to delete this game from my phone because I wasn't getting work done. This game slaps.
- Same, I played 8 hours in two work days (this is huge for me who usually plays 8 hours a month). This game is addictive as hell
- I found out about it on Android first but had a hard time with the interface. I put it on my PC and am now fully addicted.
- Unofficially the stylus on a Samsung phone is great for this kind of game
  
  I have a Samsung phone with a stylus, how do I get this game on my Android? I have almost no technical aptitude, so if you could be so kind to ELI5?
- Apparently it was popular in US prisons until it was banned.
  
  https://prisonjournalismproject.org/2024/03/31/popular-video-game-banned-federal-prisons/
  From my prison cell in Colorado, I conquered sites on alien planets, used conveyor belts to supply my factories, and organized weapons to defend against enemy attacks. I was playing Mindustry, a world-building game that relies heavily on logistics and strategy.
  For less than $2, I could lose myself in my Android tablet at night — then, when I slept, my dreams about the game replaced my usual nightmares. And I wasn’t alone: Inmates talked about the game over meals and at work.
  Then came an announcement from officials last July. Mindustry would no longer be on our prison-issued tablets.
  “I knew a lot of people would be upset when I read they were taking it away,” one inmate from Nebraska said. “I could walk around the chow hall, my work assignment and other areas — everyone was talking about it.”
  According to a statement from a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson, Mindustry was removed because it was “found to jeopardize the safety, security, and orderly operation” of federal prisons.
  When Prison Journalism Project asked for specifics on how the game jeopardized safety, security and orderly operation, the spokesperson said the Federal Bureau of Prisons does not discuss specific security practices or internal procedures for security reasons.
  The game’s fans here in Federal Correctional Institution at Englewood, a federal prison in Colorado, included a retired colonel for the U.S. Army.
  “All they’ve left us with are stripped-down children’s games,” he said.
  Another player had one of the most elaborate mining and distribution centers I’ve ever seen, the fruit of many hours of thought — which, of course, is one key to fighting recidivism.
  “Whenever I’m feeling upset, I can pick up my tablet,” the player told me. “It calms me down and changes my whole mindset.”
  Users have come up with their own explanations for Mindustry’s fate. One theory goes that players had used the game’s drawing pad to sketch dirty pictures or leave secret messages.
  Whatever happened, people are disappointed.
  “I wanted to buy a tablet,” one person said, “but now that they’ve taken Mindustry I don’t want one.”
  Sentiments like that are understandable. We are still without many of the tablet features we were told to expect, including free e-books through Project Gutenberg, video messaging, and a life skills program through Khan Academy.
  In a statement, the prison bureau said that games are controlled by a vendor, and that the bureau has “the right to remove any game that it deems inappropriate.”
  I miss the game. When I played it, I could stop dwelling on my past or my unknown future. And it encouraged me to be more social with others, especially when we would discuss strategy. My tablet now lies neglected in my locker.
  The player who put together the elaborate mining center isn’t shocked that Mindustry is gone.
  “It’s not uncommon for the BOP to take away something we like,” he said.
  This sucks. :(

Java? Sorry OP I only download open source software developed with Rust /s
- Rust
  C better. /s (probably)
  
  Assembly is the only REAL gaming language! Look at Roller Coaster Tycoon!

Don't forget the amazing Soundtrack

Excellent game - highly recommend

Gave it a shot this morning, I could see myself missing buses. However, I do really dislike mobile interfaces. My thumb is too wide to reliably click things
- it works great on desktop using mouse too
  
  Both controls (and UIs) are pretty different and weird to adjust to. I probably like PC more for rotating objects with a mousewheel is more natural than taps. Both feel bad at controlling your ship traversing the arena imho and I can't say how it could'be fixed in this overall control scheme.
- My thumb is not even that big but I still miss type.

Definitely interested in trying this one out. Haven't dove into the FOSS games category yet

The only thing I can put against dev is there's no x-platform sync between clients. Continuing your game on a phone could be a cool feature, even if not from some centralized server they pay for, but from your own google drive or whatever.

I highly recommend this game! I played through it with a friend and really enjoyed it. I think I recommend it with more than one player

environmentalists might not like it for obvious reasons.
- Because of the colonization and mining? Didn't bother me, similarly I don't like most armies but I can still find a military FPS fun to play.

Any one got other FOSS game tips?
- Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead! I don't recommend it on mobile unless you have no other choice (I'm largely not a fan of mobile games anyway though) but it's amazing on desktop. If you can get past the simple graphics (like dwarf fortress it hss ASCII graphics, but you can easily get different tile sets to add graphics for everything), it's an amazing game with a ton of content.
  It's a zombie survival rogue-like game, you don't gain skills or anything between runs (you can unlock different scenarios and professions though, or just unlock them all from the settings), but you do gain your own experience. You can have a character for hours, then die and make a new one that dies in 5 minutes, etc. Save scum if you want, but the whole point is to let your characters die and try something new (I save scum on longer-running characters when I run into new mechanics or monsters but that's it). When I say there is a ton to do, I mean it. People have added (and continue to add) a ton of content, and mostly with a focus on making interaction as realistic as possible.
  Want to kill zombies with traps? They can start with a basic tripwire to trip zombies to slow them down and alert you, and go up to mechanized blade traps that cut them in half quickly.
  Want to do a stealthy run? For melee, the Ninjutsu martial art has silent attacks and makes you walk quieter. For ranged, bows and crossbows are quiet (and can be made quieter with mods that reduce bow-string noise), but you'll want to make your own arrows eventually - and you can!
  Want some transportation? Cars! Plenty of broken ones scattered in cities and towns - decent amount that still work too. There's gas, diesel, electric, hybrid, and several other kinds of vehicles. You can train up your mechanics skill (or start with a high mech skill, if you want) for replacing/repairing parts, adding onto to existing cars, or even assembling them from scratch. Got something you don't know how to kill? A random car you find driving 40+ mph works wonders for turning problems into smears.
  Want to eat just candy and junk food? Your character will eventually get to varying levels of overweight which reduces your stamina and speed. Don't eat enough calories? Become skinny, decreasing your strength and health. It's not hard to eat balanced, but it is something to keep in mind.
  Find too many things you're trying to bring back to your car or base? Find a shopping cart (or my preferred item mover - industrial trash cans) and load items up, much easier to move more and heavier things in a single trip can even mount your shopping carts and trash cans to a car with bike racks so you can bring them with. Can also weld baskets or install trash cans in/on cars to increase your storage area.
  Want to do colony survival? You can recruit NPCs you find in the world and make a compound.
  Farming? Yep. Brewing/distilling? Yep. Magic? There's a mod for that. Loony-toons esque killing a big scary zombie with an anvil (or other heavy object)? Just put one on the roof and push it over the edge. Guns? Whole stores of them. Fire? I like lighting 2 story houses on fire, they make a ton of noise and draw in all the nearby zombies, then the falling debris and fire kill them.
- https://pioneerspacesim.net/ Although, after watching a few videos on how to play it, felt an itch to play Elite Dangerous. So haven't played Pioneer much.
- What do you mean?

Wow this game is great! Who couldn't enjoy something like this?
- Who couldn't enjoy something like this?
  FPS players?
  
  are there people that only play FPS?
  
  I love a good FPS and I loved Mindustry.
  
  Oops, fare point.

Awesome. I loved playing WC3 tower defense. How does this compare to those old school maps?

Thanks. Just picked it up on f-droid. Last update was 14 months ago, so I guess it's been balanced to perfection.

Well not really difficult, after you realize that you can put down buildings while on pause. The first few levels are easy tower defence... Later on you can win every level by building mid tier flying robots (iirc). Still... Great game!
- you can put down buildings while on pause.
  Now this! is a pro-tip. Thanks!
- There are definitely some maps on the new planet where I seemingly realized that pausing was strictly necessary as the waves start overwhelming the defenses and units to the point that I either run out of resources or they somehow sneak one drone in that wrecks havoc on the supply lines that are already packed with not enough space to add the turrets that can deal with the advanced units. Eventually, it really became a race to finish as fast as possible. Also, the staggered unlocks or limited resources on some maps were brutal.

If I want to play a factory game where you need to build defenses I'd go play Factorio and maybe stab myself in the throat a little because that's about how fun having to deal with enemies in a factory game is.
- Mindustry is much closer to the tower defense side of it.
  Or maybe the RTS side.
  There are even attack modes, where you build up an army to take on a fixed emplacement of enemy units.

I hated every second of it and it’s ugly as hell. Factorio is king.
(Trolling because Op is so super sensitive about it)
- I honestly didn't like factorio, which is odd because I'm pretty much the exact target audience (autistic). I bought it after buying Mindustry, played it for about 20 hours and then put it down and didn't pick it back up again because I realized that it just felt like work. I think the reason I didn't like it was that you spent 5 minutes coming up with a solution to some problem, and then spend 50 minutes implementing it, which bogs down the gameplay with monotonous block-placing.
- To be fair I tried it due to this post and I've already removed it, it does not do a good job of teaching new players what they are meant to be doing.
  I won't be too hard on it because I assume there's a good game in there but yeah presumably you already need to know factorio or whatever it's called.
  
  I played it for a few hours a while back, it was alright. It also took me a couple of times to get into factorio so I can understand. Still prefer factorio though, great art style, incredibly polished game.
  
  I've never played Factorio and had fun playing the game. I think there is supposed to be a tutorial when you first start the game? And I think the tech tree is a good guide for what to do next.