I find that with games like these I initially get totally sucked in, and then a short while later realise that what I'm doing (designing, optimizing, solving problems within constraints) is effectively identical to my day job and if I'm going to be spending brainpower on it I might as well be getting paid.
In case you still want in on the action and don't mind another game, Mindustry is also fantastic. Combined with a tower defense gameplay, its factory mechanics are easier and it's broken into levels which are much shorter than a typical Factorio playthrough.
Same here. As much as work, reading, wife, outdoor sports, etc, don't allow me to have a lot of free time for "useless" things like videogames and specifically Factorio, I have a feeling that this one would pull me in and have me spend possibly hundreds of hours per year playing it, which I know I don't want and... well, shouldn't, given my self-appointed priorities in life.
I am particularly interested in strategic videogames, and loved playing these when I was a kid and a young adult (Master of Magic, Master of Orion 2, Civilization, etc).
Factorio seems to be particularly interesting and challenging at the same time.
The thing is, I consume video games that tells a story, fir relaxation and down time. I do this while my gf watches her Netflix shows. Mad shoutout to LA Noire, 10/10 game, bonus shoutout to Outer Wilds another 10/10.
But Factorio? It is going to consume me. I can tell just by what I have seen and read. I want to do deep thought on real problems not video game things. I could be massively wrong, but I tread lightly around that title.
I wonder if the same thing would be possible for Rimworld, using some level of abstraction over pawns (as input/output connections) and minimum room configurations.
How would the clock work for that? wouldn't want part of the "die" to fall out of sync because someone stopped to grab a meal or fight an crazed boomrat.
That just sounds like somewhere you'd want clockless design. The brute force way to do it is to replace the clock with a "ready" signal from each subcomponent, so the next in the chain only does its thing when it knows all the inbound signals are good.