[MOD 12.11+] Train Outposts

[SirRichie]

Train Outposts

for 0.13 support see the mod portal https://mods.factorio.com/mods/SirRichie/TrainOutpost

Info:
Inspired by RSO, this mod reworks the resource generation to strong encourage creating outposts connected by trains:

• resources patches are much rarer and further apart
• with growing distance from the starting position, resources patches grow in size
• easy configuration via map generation settings
• resource patches are endless, but yield soon drops below 100%, forcing constant expansion
• to counterbalance this, enemies are also rarer
• tracks are significantly cheaper (recipes yield 10x as much)
• fine-tuning via config.lua possible
• multiplayer compatible

• Latest Release: v1.0.3, June 6th, 2016
• Factorio Version: 0.12.12+ (tested with 0.12.23)
• Download: see below
• License: CC-BY-SA
• Website: https://github.com/SirRichie/TrainOutpost

Long Description

I love RSO and its idea, but was never quite satisfied with the resource distribution and general feel. Trying to fiddle with RSO's config failed so I decided to do a rewrite for myself and add a few things I wanted to have.

The key principle is that this mod forces the player to expand and significantly spaces out resource patches (much more than RSO does). Resources are endless, because I do not like that you have to abandon an outpost at some point. Generally speaking, with this mod, Factorio is tilted towards throughput management. Your initial resource fields are small, so you cannot place that many miners on it and they will soon suffer from decreased efficiency.

So you are forced to expand, build your first outpost (probably iron) and by the time you have automated a few more things for easier expansion, your second outpost starts to slowly produce less ore / second. You'll have to be considerate of your train network.

Ok, enough of that. As I said, I wanted a slightly different RSO and ended up with a rewrite. So I put it here and see what people think. Any (constructive) feedback is welcome.

Screenshots

Recommendations

When using this mod I recommend the following:

• use FARL, you'll cry if you don't
• use your favorite mod with better radars, the vanilla one will most likely not get you to the second patch

Planned things

Still on my list to do sometime

• Support for Bob's / Dytech, ideally find a way for generic mod support done
• Comment config.lua so it is clear what the fine-tune settings do
• remote interface for regenerating everything
• Balance values for a non-endless setting
• As always: more balancing

Version history

• 1.0.3
  Added interface function to re-initialize the resource settings
• 1.0.2
  Fixed not being able to load savegames
• 1.0.1
  Major update and improvements
  Use native math.random
  Works with any resource-adding mod per default and can be custom-configured in case of special needs
  Major code-rewrite for performance improvements
• 0.9.0
  initial release

[XyLe]

Remarkable effort! Thanks for sharing. To see exactly how much i like this mod i'm gonna need some time to play around with it =)

[Alekthefirst]

You left debug = enabled in config.lua

[SirRichie]

You left debug = enabled in config.lua

That is indeed true, thank you. I purged all debug statements from the code though, so this should really have no effect.

[Alekthefirst]

I purged all debug statements from the code though, so this should really have no effect.

Oh, ok. I just found it by accident while going through the configs for my lightly modded game to see if there was some things i didn`t want there, and i thought that some debug mode was definitely something to want turned off. Seems like you fixed it before release anyways though.

[SirRichie]

Check out data-updates.lua as well then, it contains some changes which you might not like then.
Also, curious to hear your feedback when you tried things out.

[psychobarge]

Hi and thx for your mod,

I've tried it and so far i think it is a great alternative to RSO. For me the first map generated with train outpost was playable and well balanced

[SirRichie]

Hi and thx for your mod,

I've tried it and so far i think it is a great alternative to RSO. For me the first map generated with train outpost was playable and well balanced

Thank you for the kind feedback.

[cpy]

Do you have other mod support? Like bob?

[SirRichie]

Do you have other mod support? Like bob?

No, not yet. It is planned for the next release though.

[Lime]

Great idea. I was also fiddling with RSO once to get the same result (rare patches with small endless resources), and I like what you're doing. There's two thing this mod lacks though - make those patches somewhat smaller, twice at least; and second - add support for mod ores. That's the priority #1 I'd say. Could be a great competitor to RSO.

[SirRichie]

Great idea. I was also fiddling with RSO once to get the same result (rare patches with small endless resources), and I like what you're doing. There's two thing this mod lacks though - make those patches somewhat smaller, twice at least; and second - add support for mod ores. That's the priority #1 I'd say. Could be a great competitor to RSO.

Thank you as well.
Have you tried playing with the map generation parameters (i.e. in your case, setting size to small or very small)?
You can also get smaller patches by modifying the base sizes and the distance adjust factor in config.lua. One goal was to make the balancing easier compared to RSO.
If map generation parameters do not give enough options, I might include a few prototype config files.

Support for mod ores is definitely coming. I wrote the code with that in mind, but mod support will need a few tweaks still.


Oh and as a final note: I do not really see this mod as a competitor to RSO (it probably is though, since it does pretty much the same thing). RSO was too much of an inspiration.

[NotABiter]

This mod appears to be incompatible with the Natural Evolution mod. Starting factorio with both mods results in:

Code: Select all

Error Util.cpp:49: __TrainOutpost__/data-updates.lua:20: attempt to index field 'autoplace' (a nil value)

That's unfortunate because for me there are three parts to having permanent outposts:
1. need for far-away resources
2. resources don't run out
3. a reason to not just kill all of the biters

Without #1 there's no need to expand. Without #2 there's no reason to have permanent outposts (just temporary ones). And without #3 there's no need to have distinct outposts - just wipe out all the biters and make one giant base. This mod takes care of #1 and #2. I wanted to use the RAGE Ore mod and the natural evolution mod (for the thumper) to take care of #3. And although the Natural Evolution mod is modularized, the thumper is part of the buildings sub-mod and unfortunately the conflict happens even if I only use that one sub-mod with this mod.

Have you considered addressing #3 within your own mod? One way I thought of doing it would be to make spawners (at least mid-to-late game ones) have a lot of HP and be fairly impervious to laser fire, enough to make them prohibitively expensive to take out (and maybe that expense can go up without limit the more spawners you kill). It would then perhaps make sense to just take out a swath of them to run rail through rather than wiping out all the space that a monolithic base would take. Having an even higher evolution-type hit due to taking out spawners might be another way to go, but there would have to be some real consequences. (Right now I pretty much don't care about evolution because eventually it maxes out anyways without it ever becoming a real problem/concern.) Another option would be to have biters, regardless of pollution, have a tendency to attack any large area with no spawners in it (and some player stuff in it) - the larger such an area, the more intense the attacks. That would not only encourage outposts, but a "production towns" approach rather than a single central base. (I like this last idea the best, even more than using the RO+NE mods.)

In anticipation of someone suggesting that sheer size (e.g. cost of walls being prohibitive) will take care of #3, I would point out that (assuming uniform distribution and static costs) N^2 (available resources) always overtakes k*4*N (perimeter costs) eventually. (And if you have to defend things like rails and power lines, that only makes the monolithic solution that much more tempting.)

[Elusive]

I had to fix data-updates.lua to look like this (to get it to work with Natural Evolution):

Code: Select all

require "config"

function add_peak(ent, peak)
  if ent and ent.autoplace then
    ent.autoplace.peaks[#ent.autoplace.peaks+1] = peak
  end
end

for resource_name, resource in pairs(data.raw.resource) do
	-- do not spawn the resource naturally
	add_peak(resource,{influence=-1000})

	-- make resource infinite
	data.raw.resource[resource_name].infinite = true
	if ((resources_config[resource_name] ~= nil) and (resources_config[resource_name].type == "resource-liquid")) then
		data.raw.resource[resource_name].minimum  = liquid_min
		data.raw.resource[resource_name].normal   = liquid_normal
	else
		data.raw.resource[resource_name].minimum  = resource_min
		data.raw.resource[resource_name].normal   = resource_normal
	end
end

for _, spawner in pairs(data.raw["unit-spawner"]) do
		add_peak(spawner,{influence=-1000})
end

for _, turret in pairs(data.raw.turret) do
	if turret.subgroup == "enemies" then
		add_peak(turret,{influence=-1000})
	end
end

data.raw["recipe"]["straight-rail"].result_count = 20
data.raw["recipe"]["curved-rail"].result_count = 20

[NotABiter]

Thanks, that seems to be doing the trick.

[SirRichie]

Thanks from my side as well.
I will check and include the code in the next release

[Olix]

Hello,

This seems like a good idea for a mod, I will try it.

However, in my attempts with RSO the problem I found was that sometimes my trains between outposts would make crash into the largest biters and so explode. I found this to be very frustrating, so in the end I just exterminated all the biters and made a huge perimeter wall anyway.

So perhaps you might consider increasing the toughness of the trains in this mod, or recommending a different mod that does that?

[SirRichie]

Actually, I never encountered this problem myself, but I agree that this may cause some frustrations (do you have modified biters?)

Anyway, I do see potential to make this mod modular, so people can choose to their preferences. I am currently in the middle of moving, so do not expect updates too soon.

[kaptcha]

Thanks, I've been looking for an endless resource mod a quite long time. The train tweaks is just a nice addition.
OP stated a radar mod is recommended, what are some good ones?

[Olix]

I had a go with your mod. I do like the idea, but I think the resource spot sizes get excessive as you travel away from the starting spot:



I had all resource locations on 'Low' frequency and 'Big' size though.

I was also surprised by the large empty area the algorithm generated in the area above and to the left of my starting location:



I wonder why that would be?