Factorio Lore

[silman]

Hey all,

I recently bought this amazing game after my friend showed me it. I have only played a little bit but so far all i know about the main character that we play as is that he is preparing an extraterrestrial planet for colonization by building a rocket defense system. I read in the dev blogs that this is sort of a "dummy" end goal and the real ending will be much more involved. But besides that what else do we know of the lore of factoria? What year is it set in? What is our characters name? What is his armor made of? I think the devs should build up the world of factorio a little more (in their spare time, obviously the games content and creation comes first). Or maybe we can help the devs out by painting the picture that we believe resembles the world of factorio so they can gain inspiration.

Here's my take:

In the year 2253 Earth (as a united world) has created the first manned interstellar vehicle. This ship can support a crew for a trip to a star system within 50 light years. Work continues to improve this system for longer range travel, but we continue to neglect our own planets health as we innovate new technologies.

Year 2501, We are masters of energy, health, computing, travel, and most all aspects of technological growth, but this came at a price, as we are close to mining our own planet dry of its wood, coal, natural gas, water, and other resources. We have neglected our planets health for too long, but at this point trying to fix it is futile, we as a race set out a new initiative. Using the newest in intergalactic travel we find a suitable new home planet which we know can support life and aim to make it the new home for humanity.

It's the year 2751, after preparing humanity for the transition to a new planet and taking all the necessary precautions we are ready to colonize, We come across a large planet 163 lightyears away, large enough to support earths population and plentiful with resources, we vow we wont make the same mistake again. We are certain that it is suitable for life as it already supports insectoid creatures that are native to it. We know it is wrong to interfere with a planet that is already developing life, but we are desperate for a new home and humans have recently developed interstellar vehicles that can be manned to this star system efficiently and with a large crew to start the colonization process. We have spent the last few decades training a couple hundred men to colonize the planet, not knowing that these insectoids behave we arm them with basic weaponry and avoid using large arms in order to do minimal damage to our prospective new homeworld.

The crew arrive fine and with plenty of rations, but the landing of our ships angered these insectoids (Which we have now named "Biters"), they eagerly await our vessels doors to open and waste no time ambushing the ships. Our men are trained for this scenario though and have practiced similar situations in drill, what they didn't expect was the sheer amount of Biters. Our long range scanners did not detect underground hives of these insectoids and as a result the proper precaustions were not accounted for. It is a long and arduous fight, in the end all our vessels were destroyed and no one survived. Earth, realizing its enormous mistake by allowing the lives of its noble colonization crew to perish, insist that they must try for a new home world where they are sure nothing can harm them, a memorial is held for all the crew members...

No one realized that there was still one crew member left....

Franklin "Frank" Factorio, a relatively younger member of the colonization crew had taken the liberty of cowardice and by hiding inside a carcass of a large Biter had waited out the war. Now he arises from the rotting body to find his comrades annihilated and mostly eaten by the Biters, who have no moved on back to their Hives. Moving swiftly and quietly, Frank finds a clearing, free from any Biters and sets out to do alone what his crew was tasked with... (Ending edited, new ending below)

Moving swiftly and quietly Frank finds a clearing free from any Biters and sets out to return to earth, but in order to do so he must first manufacture an entire spacecraft with interstellar travel out of just the raw resources of the planet, a large task for just one man. In order to do this in a reasonable amount of time he will need to automate some of the building process. And so he sets out to make a one man space ship factory....

P.S. I am a terrible writer, but this is how it went down in my mind. Hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you think and tell me your ideas.

[-root]

Very cool. The game does need something like this to set the story. Right now its more a placeholder and certainly suitable for early access. But for the full release version there should be something like this.

Also, with a last name "Factorio", he sounds italian. Should be Franco Factorio

[Skellitor301]

I love to make backstory and lore, and reading through that made the game a bit more intriguing imo.

[bulldog98]

I really like this background story.

[Xterminator]

Great job. I really like it! Definitely makes the game more interesting with a back story like that. If you decide to continue it, make sure to post it, I would like to read more.

[ssilk]

I want to say, that the colonization idea seems not to be the vanilla game target; I decided to tell that, cause I think (know) the devs don't read all the discussions here... to avoid some saying: "man, I did wrote so much about it, I thought so much and then they just changed it. I'm pissed now."

And, no, I don't think the colonization idea would work as endgame-target, even if >50% of the forum would vote for it. (Maybe with 100%? )

I don't want to stop discussion about the endgame and colonization. It is not dead!! I really enjoy thinking about that and we still have the modding and many other ways to bring this or similar ideas into the game! I'm sure there are ways to do that.

PS: see also this post:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 954#p41954

[silman]

Thanks for everyones kind words and encouragment. I never was very good at writing (as you can tell by my excessive use of "we"), but I am glad people understood what I imagined.

@ssilk, This post wasn't to suggest and endgame of colonization, it was mostly for me to express how i imagined our protagonist got in the situation he is in. And don't worry, i definitely am not pissed of by your comment, i realize you are just trying to keep the community in line with what the devs are planning. I still think that this is a possibility for the reason our hero is on the planet, even if it may not be his goal now. Colonization is a HUGE task, even I was doubtful when i wrote that Frank set out to do what his crew was tasked with, because frankly (heh) it isn''t realistic.

Other suitable ending for my little story:

"Moving swiftly and quietly Frank finds a clearing free from any Biters and sets out to return to earth, but in order to do so he must first manufacture an entire spacecraft with interstellar travel out of just the raw resources of the planet , a large task for just one man. In order to do this in a reasonable amount of time he will need to automate some of the building process. And so he sets out to make a one man space ship factory...."

I actually kind of like this ending a little better.

[Laturine]

First and foremost I applaud you. An intriguing and captivating read. I do however find it quite unpleasant that our hero "frank" is a coward and serves his self interest above all. Perhaps after got out from the large biter carcass he vowed in his heart to complete the task his comrades died for and finish the job at all costs.

Or maybe he just finished his seven years of schooling and entered the One Sacrifice program where they send one graduate to an unknown planet in hopes of them building the rocket defense and colonizing the planet. Hundreds are sent out each year. The program has a 100% fail rate. Funding continues however.

Basically I need a hero to believe in. An unconventional hero perhaps but a hero none the less.

[silman]

@Laturine
I realize that cowardice is not a trait most people want to have in their protagonist (and even more so when you have to play as him), but i was trying to give him some humanity. I said he was a younger member of the crew to give the reader a sense that he hasn't fully developed strength in moral.

The reason i changed the ending is because its extremely unlikely earth would put the responsibility of preparing an entire planet for colonization (or even a portion of that planet) completely on one person. It's just such a huge task. This is why the One Sacrifice program you suggest isn't likely (at least in my mind).

A possible edit to the story is that he fought bravely with his comrades but realized when it was just him and a dozen others that fighting was futile so he took shelter.

[Turtle]

I think it's fine that he's a "coward" because it gives the story room for character development. After all, we get "Frank" to eventually craft armor and fight biters.

[Mangledpork]

I think a core part of any Factorio lore should be the loneliness. This guy is the only human on the entire planet with millions of biters and worms to fend off, and somehow he has to build an entire infrastructure there.
The guy is obviously an absolute tech whizz, so maybe he just hops from planet to planet building massive factories for some reason, and each time has to build a new rocket to move on. perhaps he's trying to get somewhere?
Or even...
Get away from somewhere?

A master criminal, a genius, who can turn lumps of iron and copper into machinery, circuitry, with barely more than his bare hands. Wanted across star systems for the theft of the most valuable techs mankind has ever produced, he has nowhere left to go. His pursuers have learned that given even the stone walls of a maximum security orbital prison he can eventually build deadly weaponry with which to escape. They had tried sealing him in a shielded workshop to do their bidding, and instead of guns he invented a new bomb that destroyed the facility and propelled him to freedom. Now they want only his head.
His only option is to venture beyond the conquered galaxy, deep into the heart of the biter worlds, where mankind has no hope of ever reaching.
And so, he hops from planet to planet, alone, each time building his next ship from whatever minerals he can gather. Every hop takes him deeper, each planet deadlier and more infested than the last, each factory more efficient.
One day, he may even reach... The Core.

Pretty happy with that, I managed to fit in how we keep playing new saves, each with more biters and less ores, and our factories improve over time.

[-root]

I think him being a coward actually fits the story.

If he was brave, he would have fought and died. By being a sook and running away, he tries to find an indirect way of defeating the biters.

Also, it also matches in with the early/mid-game where you spend a lot of time running away and looking to avoid confrontation with the biters.

[silman]

@MangledPork that's a great story. I'm glad people are adding their own take on what they believe fsctorios lore is all about.

@root I agree, I think him starting out as a coward and eventually conquering his fear as he conquers the planet is really fitting with the game.

[Skellitor301]

the cowardly survivor kinda does fit yet doesn't, mainly why not is because later in game we have him go out freely to biter nests to either clear them out for expansion or to collect alien artifacts. So perhaps not so much as cowardly than he was clever to see a better fit for survival, seeing his team outnumbered. In the great words of Sarge: "We're not retreating, we're advancing, to a future victory!" ( 10 cookie points if you know where that is from )

[-root]

Cowardice is just fear and fear is just the unknown.

After having lived on the planet for an amount of time and gotten used to the biters, Franco could have overcome his fear.

[Skellitor301]

kinda rare for a several day overcome of the fear, but yea that can be possible

[silman]

kinda rare for a several day overcome of the fear, but yea that can be possible

We have no idea how one day on this planet compares to one earth day. If the game is real time then several "days" pass in just one earth hour. But It may not be real time because i doubt it would take just seconds to build an entire stone furnace in real life. This brings us to another point of the lore, how long is a day on this planet?

And some points about the game: Is it meant to be real time? Why is it our hero can build these large mining machines in just a matter of seconds of earth time?

[ssilk]

https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... e=Game-day

[silman]

https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... e=Game-day

Thanks for the link.What an odd amount of time for a day(programming wise), but as it is its own planet we shouldn't expect it to divide evenly into our own (lore wise).

So yeah, in just one earth day is roughly is 205 days (if this game is meant to be real time), but is the game actually real time or sped up? Is he really building these machines in a matter of seconds?

[Mangledpork]

The day must be longer than it appears in-game, because if the planet rotated fast enough for days to pass like that, it would cancel out the gravity and fling everything into space.