[MOD 0.12.x] Unstable ground

[ShadowTheAge]

Unstable ground

Info:

• Most production buildings could be built only on special pre-generated platforms
• Name: Unstable ground
• Latest Release: v0.1, April 22, 2016
• Factorio Version: 0.12.29
• Download: Attachment or Mirror (MediaFire)
• License: MIT
• Tags: Base building restrictions

Please note: You have to start new map. Existing maps will become unplayable.

Long Description:

• Features:
• Stone platforms would be generated during map generation. Most buildings could be built only on these platforms
• Some buildings could be built anywhere: Conveyors (belts, underground and splitters), inserters, chests (except logistic chests), poles (except substation), pipes and pumps, rails (and signals and stations), lights, miners, pumpjacks, turrets, walls and gates.
• You cannot build stone platforms using stone anymore, and you can build concrete (and other surfaces added by other mods) over stone platforms only
• Size and frequency of stone platforms are configurable on a map-gen screen

• Misc info:
• You can build mining outposts and train stations anywhere
• I have planned to fill the world with sand to explain building restrictions. But sandy worlds don’t look very cool and interesting.
• Solar power now have downsides!
• Steel furnaces could be better because they require less space
• Lab efficiency is an okay research as “build more” is not always a solution (unless you planned for it)

Screenshots
Refinery island

Generator platform

Bob's mods (starter base & research)


More screenshots on extreme settings: Size set to very low and frequency to high! That is not your normal generation!
https://imgur.com/a/djb8G


Incompatibilities
None known. May be incompatible with terrain-generation mods. Some objects introduced in other mods could be incorrectly restricted/unrestricted but most of them should be fine. Landfilling mods may break the idea.
Compatible with bob’s mods (I’m playing right now with bob’s mods and this one, 20 hours in)

[Adil]

Quite interesting design idea. Though might seem I bit too restrictive. Or not. Concrete is not that difficult to come by in humongous amounts.

Derived Idea

Buildings can be placed everywhere, but with limited density.
If too many buildings are clustered together - bad things may happen (damage, destruction, falling to subsurfaces etc.)
Different buildings can have different mass.
Different types of terrain can require different measures to be transformed into stable surface. (Say sand can be stabilized with bricks, while soil requires concrete.) Or maybe not. The game has way too low diversity in geodesics to make distinguishable areas.

[ShadowTheAge]

You can place concrete over platforms only
It is restrictive. But you have infinite space to explore and platforms to build on.
It is even okay with bob's mods (which has three times longer production chains)

You just need to specialize your bases and move components with belts (and later trains)

[Adil]

Ow, I've misread that.
Now that's interesting concept on its own.

[Koub]

So Dune 2

[ShadowTheAge]

Yeah, kind of Harvest resources outside and bring them inside to process
You don't need to worry about the worm and competitors though

[Reviire]

You could do custom terrain for where you can't build, have it as a giant chasm and the stone platforms are just there. Water is darkened so it looks like it's really far down.

[Ratzap]

I rolled up a game with this, raven metal and RSO. I was wondering what settings you used for those screenshots, the Bobs one in particular is a pretty big patch. I went with default settings and got what look to be a lot smaller patches. I was also wondering if it is intentional that ores can spot on top of these patches? My map has a decent build patch in the starting area but a fairly big chunk is covered by the only iron ore.
Limiting space is good, it shakes things up and makes you think outside the usual 'X iron smelter blocks, Y copper smelter blocks and 4 lane buses' mentality.

[ShadowTheAge]

I have some iterations through the generation settings. Third screenshot is form the older generator (that's when i have started bob's mods player playthrough with a friend)
There were two issues: first, some patches were very fragmented (without control). Second, starting area sometimes had huge patches and sometimes barely any.
So I have increased frequency for starting area, now you are guaranteed to have at least few of them there, but their size is smaller.

You can find large patches outside of starting areas on default settings (even larger than that on screenshot), but you may have to search for it. The purpose of starting areas is to, well, let you start (starter smelting/crafting)
Or you can decrease "frequency" on a map-gen screen (that makes patches bigger but more distant from each other). This may be more convinient while playing with industrial mods.

As for generation:
- It is intended that you can have ores over these patches. I could have prevented that, but it may have conflicts with custom ores, especially with RSO (that spawns ores using custom algorithms)
- It is very hard to forbid placing trees over these tiles without losing compatibility with custom stuff (If modders get custom collision mask layers, it would be much easier in the future)

This mod is not for megabases. It is for specialized bases - e.g. you can have a distant base that only makes green circuits from imported iron/copper plates.
I have made it initially for my own playthrough (with a friend), we are enjoying this type of gameplay, then (after few iterations of bugfixes) I have decided to publish it.

[imajor]

This sounds exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot! I always end up building the same base, not anymore!

[miturion]

Great idea, this provides a whole new challenge.

[Cyres]

Awesome mod, but i tweaked it for me: Stone-path is still placeable and not generated via Worldgen

[Chaos234]

Well, nice mod but you should allow that concrete can be used to build new stone areas.

I changed this for myself because it was not possible which is very bad!

[imajor]

Well, nice mod but you should allow that concrete can be used to build new stone areas.

I changed this for myself because it was not possible which is very bad!

What do you mean? To be able to extend the stable area using concrete? What is the point of the mod then?

[ShadowTheAge]

Hello everyone! Thanks for your feedback!
The idea of the mod is to enforce some base building restrictions on a player as an additional challenge, and not just to increase building cost by forcing him to place stone/concrete underneath. I like challenges (if that's not time challenges) and that is one of them. But if you like having slightly different type of gameplay and my mod can help you - that's great! I've tested and fixed some bugs it before publishing it so if you want something functionally similair - you can modify its sources.

By the way, I've played it on (almost) lowest settings (size = very low, frequency - high, high frequency also decreases the size) and have some screenshots if you'd like to check
https://imgur.com/a/djb8G
I am still in that game, now working on a dedicated science platform

[Qon]

By the way, I've played it on (almost) lowest settings (size = very low, frequency - high, high frequency also decreases the size) and have some screenshots if you'd like to check
https://imgur.com/a/djb8G
I am still in that game, now working on a dedicated science platform

Thanks for sharing your album. I was curious what it would look like.

I currently have a NESTT playthough I'm not done with yet, and my big base. But I might try this later.

[Neemys]

Intresting mod, but as I don't like the concrete not buildable outside platform I try to edit it. I'm new to modding in factorio but was able to make concrete buildable everywhere. As concrete also enable the construction of specialized building I wanted then to block it. No real success.

I was able to make concrete block all building placement (just want specialized) but then placing concrete under building, belt or anything remove it (without giving back the removed item).

Any tips on how I can make only specialized building not buildable on concrete ? (but still buildable on stonebrick) so concrete can be use as road ?

Haven't check event, will do it later.

[ShadowTheAge]

Try this altered version
Here you can build concrete over tiles other then stone and water but you can't build buildings over concrete
It is not very flavourful (why can't you build over concrete?) so I am not making this version as master. Maybe I will add this as option. But I need to test it properly before.
Also you can't place concrete close to stone (less then 3 tiles) for the reason that you should not be able to place it close to water. Placing concrete close to water changes water to land (I don't know why).

P.S. Important! I Didn't write any migration scripts (yet) so if you have a game in progress, remove all concrete in your game before installing this version as concrete becomes a tile you can't build over!

[Neemys]

Nice, work like a charm thank you. Like you said, concrete act like near water when near stone-path (I can live with it). I haven't see any problem when placing concrete near water, act like normal as it forbid me from placing it to close (so not a problem).

Yeah I understand "why can't you build over concrete ?" But I don't like running over terrain (not because of the slow), doesn't feel like a real factory if I don't put road

If I encounter any problem I will tell you

Thank you.

[Neemys]

Road (concrete) having a gap when near stone path was weird finally.

So I ended up doing my own mod with your code. I added a custom tile (it's a colored concrete from color coding mod for now but can be changed) to act as building platform. It is non placeable, non craftable and non minable. I remove restriction on placing stone path and concrete so I can put them anywhere I want. I keep your restriction for building to be put only on tile (so they are placeable on platform, concrete and stonepath, so player see a red print when trying to build them on simple ground). Then I added a script which trigger when a building is put on the world and check if it is a restricted building and if yes, if it is on a platform. If it is not, I remove it and place it in player inventory. So those building placed on concrete and stonepath are removed.

So I can only build restricted building on platform and place stone path and concrete without restriction.

I tell myself that the restricted building need special "reinforced" floor (or special component in it) to work properly that's why simple concrete and stone path don't work for them


The only problem is I can't place building on tile which are on platform. I haven't find a way to know what floor is "under" the concrete (platform or not). The only solution I found (but not implemented now) is to keep track of all platform which have tile over them to know when a concrete is hiding a platform. The placement of any tile under an existing building is not restricted.

As it is your idea in the first place, I ask you if you want the script code to add in your mod (directly or by config) but you will need to maintain it. If you don't want it I will put the mod in it's own topîc in the forum so people can use it and will maintain it myself. If you take the script I will not post a mod because we don't need two mod doing te same exact thing.