I hear ya, I don't like derailments either.

I wonder if these tools shoud be in-game items, which the player has on the belt and can place like any other item.
If not, another type of interface is needed, probably mouse only and collapsable.

I like it. Have you mainly thought about the world or the map for these tools? In the world, I see less use for it, because of the scale and less ambiguity of spoken words. On the map however, I would very much like to designate areas, write comments like "I left my car here", mark biter b...

First of all: Nice and yesssssss :D But I'm going to play the mean guy now with stupid border casses to destroy you algorithm. Case 1: Dead-end rail with combined entrance and exit. The entrance signal to a dead end rail should be a block signal. (I think a chain signal wouldn't even work right.) It...

I am very much for line shafts for mechanical energy transfer. However, not only to connect steam engine and generator (It would be kind of mute, when there is only one use for the technology), but several more buildings. I remember some threads [1] about an expanded pre electric early game, where t...

1) Give turrets an activation animation of a few seconds once built, so you can't easily kill alien bases with turret creep. When I go for a turret creep, I build new turrets in the area protect by the previous line of turrets. While this suggestion will slow down the strategy, it does nothing to p...

I'm puzzled and sceptical about the tunnels. Would they be like an underground layer? Can stuff pass through them? Are the mountains you think of different from the proposed fake cliffs, other than general dimensions and the requirement for the cliffs to make one side appear higher up than the other...

I think biters should be like ants. Ants are far from brainless however. Their behaviour is motivated by ensuring their personal and their colonies well-being. This relates to what MalcolmCooks wrote. More importantly, it leads to a conflict: Avoid direct harm but attack threat. I think this needs t...

Yes, yes, yes, and while we are at it, there should be a change to the damage model as well: Lasers should primarily overheat enemies until they blow. This heat damage is not permanent like bullet damage, but dissipates quickly, when the enemy is no longer under fire. The permanent burn damage they ...

With games these days I got largely indifferent, where they put their stuff. Essentially, they are spamming it everywhere and a seldomly configurable. My general preferences are different from yours, though: Stuff in "My Documents" should only be there if it got specifically saved there by...

Shameless plug of own past topic Terrain elevation, hills and mountains with fake cliffs, with some discussion of technicalities and gameplay value.

I like the different ideas on alien actions.

The intended topic however was to talk about the reasons of alien actions. Why do they attack? What are their goals, when they attack? How do they ensure their success?

Did I just read "better rail system".
I sure hope this includes a fix for the "circles" *cough* *cough*.

My main problem with the current system, and to some extend with what you are suggesting, is the static decision tree which leads to one or another behavior. Since it is static, it is very easy to pinpoint the cause of certain behavior. Since it's a tree, by which I mean that once the decision is ma...

The aliens are a very managable threat, once you learn to watch your pollution, aka wiping them out, when they start to cough. Before I knew how they work, the aliens were a much more interesting threat. Now they are more like a nuisance. I don't want to suggest bigger/badder aliens, but a more unpr...

For me, it was very different. For the first game, I played the first campaign map and was surprised by the sudden end. I was hooked and wanted more. For the second game, I started a freeplay map and barely got science pack 2 before a stated a new game. Every game since then, I build bigger and bigg...

I fully agree on the need for a progression system, still I don't think research is a good way to do it. Apart from the problem with story consitency, which may be explained some way, here are some more issues, I have with it. It doesn't pace very good. The red phase works all right for me, but star...

May I just add darkening and decolorization to the list of suitable post effects.

The concept to achive the same things with different ressources depending on supply sounds intriguing, but I'm unsure if it is realizable in the factorio setting. A house may be built from wood or stone and be virtually equally good, but an inserter? Chemical plants may work with alternative organic...

Oh, I missed it. But you guys already linked my 2 cents about it. Had a good laugh at Peter34's comment, also, no it's totally not silly, you're silly. :P Id love to see more feedbeck on the question DerivePi raised: Which geometry is preferable, the new flexible one,   (https://forums.factorio.com/...

Yes, I think "theme" perfectly fits the purpose. Easy word and immediately transports the idea, that it is a collection of connected individual ideas. "Concept" doesn't do that. "Epic" sounds strange to everyone who doesn't know about the role of user stories in softwar...