After 5 years in early access, Satisfactory is finally out—here's what's new in 1.0

In a vicious, targeted attack on my free time, automation game Satisfactory is entering full release today, a full five-and-a-half years after it launched in early access in 2019. In that time it's added multiple tiers of increasingly complex production line objectives and the parts and tools needed to build them. It's added trucks, trains, nuclear power, particle accelerators, dedicated servers, blueprints so you can copy and paste entire elaborate builds, and perhaps most importantly of all, zooping. You haven't lived unless you've zooped, man.

The short version is there's way more to do in Satisfactory than there was in the beginning, there are way more ways to do those things, and there also way more tools to dial up the efficiency of how you're putting together your factories. You'll still start a new game by slowly hand-assembling iron plates and rods, but before long you'll unlock blueprints that let you cut down on the repetition of laying down row upon row of manufacturing, to focus more on the fun big picture stuff. Or you can ignore those blueprints and lay down every piece one at a time. I'm not here to police your fun.

What I am here to do is lay out how Satisfactory has changed in 1.0, specifically since its most recent update. Most of the things I mentioned in the first paragraph have been in the game for years, at this point. So what's, like, new new in today's full release? Here's a quick overview of the important stuff. 

Satisfactory is a heavy game, at least in certain instances—when you're standing in the middle of a giant factory with thousands of buildings and items all around you, or apparently when you're driving in vehicles, which required some major hit detection processing around foliage and other obstacles. 1.0 includes some significant optimizations that should be a blessing on low-end and high-end hardware, and even dedicated servers, as highlighted in this video: 

Getting buildings perfectly aligned in Satisfactory has always been pret