[klyrs]

Factorio has some real challenges to it -- ticks are extremely fine, and for example, the speed of an inserter is dependent on availability of electricity. Combine such aspects with, say, the plurality of materials which may be on a belt. I fear that the plurality of possible states would move the problem from being compute-bound to being memory-bound.

[BenoitP]

Yep, such details would eat memory at a fast pace. However, non 100% electricity and non backed up belts could be considered an "off the main path", and be resolved computationally; sort of like the Java JIT deoptimizing an edge case and going back to the interpreter mode.

Players would then strive to make stable, robust bases with as few states as they can. Failing to do so would mean the slow path, and their factory struggling to progress in IRL time.

The optimizing limit doesn't have to be a hard-coded threshold, it could be defined as a cache with a limited capacity.