Love this game so perhaps a little biased, both community managers Jace and Snoot we're devs and make some great content about the development and decisions of the game. I really enjoy there content.
> No, I do not let either game idle, as I consider it cheating.
On the other hand, I would argue that it is precisely how they are meant to be played. Of course there are always more things that you could do, but ultimately it's meant to be that you set up the system to run and then step back and let it work.
> No, I do not let either game idle, as I consider it cheating.
that's a bit weird to me, because both games are all about automation... do you insert materials into machines and remove smelted or manufactured items by hand? no? then you're idling as far as those machines are concerned, anyway. you're only ever working on a tiny fraction of a percent of the factory at any time, so all of the rest is? ... idling, that's right. running without you.
does it really matter if the percentage of machines working without you is 99.5% or a full 100%? I'd vote "no."
besides, if you fail to automate correctly, your factory performance will slow or even halt without you, exposing any flaws whether you're there or not.
automation and player idling are core gameplay mechanisms in these games.
not a popular opinion, I guess, but I stand by it.
automation is a core principle in these games. standing in front of 1 machine out of 10,000 or 0 out of 10,000 makes no difference; you're relying on your automation to act on your behalf on a large scale.
