[MOD 1.1] Natural Evolution - All things Alien!

[Lennartos]

Please ignore that, it was MuWeather not Natural evolution that was the root cause.
Removing NE just made it last a lot longer before it desynced.

[Demosthenex]

I dont know why, but Artifact collector cant be picked using "Picker" mod or even build via blueprint or removed with deconstruction planner

As to "picker" This is because the "placed" collector does not have an item-prototype associated with it. I will shoot the author of picker the fix for that shortly.

And I have a fix for blueprint/deconstruction which still allows the range circle but it now shows up as a chest correctly

You are right about the prototype.
This fix you have, is it needed on my end or "picker" mod end?

Was this fix implemented? I'm using Natural_Evolution_Enemies_6.4.0.zip and still can't place collectors via blueprint. Thanks!

[Mylon]

Any chance you can tweak enemy base spawning / retaliation a bit? I do like that biters are much more aggressive, but biters respawn way too fast in vanilla making taking territory difficult already. When nests are super dense, the retaliation makes taking territory difficult. Not so much the giant wave, but the sustained rush that just keeps coming since so many needs must be cleared. The extra durable nests just feels like insult to injury. The challenge ought to be keeping expansion bases alive, not working with whatever resources can be grabbed at spawn.

I only was able to grab territory once I installed Bob's Warfare to abuse the OP sniper turrets.

[Mylon]

Idea: Terraformer reverses desertification.

[TheSAguy]

Any chance you can tweak enemy base spawning / retaliation a bit? I do like that biters are much more aggressive, but biters respawn way too fast in vanilla making taking territory difficult already. When nests are super dense, the retaliation makes taking territory difficult. Not so much the giant wave, but the sustained rush that just keeps coming since so many needs must be cleared. The extra durable nests just feels like insult to injury. The challenge ought to be keeping expansion bases alive, not working with whatever resources can be grabbed at spawn.

I only was able to grab territory once I installed Bob's Warfare to abuse the OP sniper turrets.

Are you playing with NE Expansion?
Since 0.13 biters have been a lot more dense. I've got some tweaks in NE Expansion to make enemy base spawn location a little further away from the player on low evolution, but eventually, around 40%+ it will start go get closer than Vanilla. Besides that, NE does not actively spawn any bases. Note that RSO does also affect spawns.

Idea: Terraformer reverses desertification.

This is actually a pretty cool idea.
On scan complete it can look for a desert tile and change it. Might look into implementing it once 0.15 comes out.

[TheSAguy]

Question on Artifacts

So it looks like with the release of 0.15 that Alien Artifacts will be removed.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to plan to leave them in my mod.

Does anyone have ideas on how they should be tweaked?

Thanks.

[Mylon]

I like the alien techs in NE. They're a nice change and it makes sense for them to use artifacts. Getting the rocketry tech makes sense to not require artifacts. I'd go with the 0.15 change on vanilla techs and keep artifacts for NE techs/buildings.

[doktorstick]

Artifacts are one the few things I don't like about NE. The developers--and I agree--made a gameplay design decision to remove them from spawners. Collecting them is Not Fun(tm) as you progress later in the game. I also feel this is the case with NE, even with the artifact collector. Not to mention the literally thousands of entities on the screen when a collector dies and you don't have the time/energy/resources to replace it, or when you slaughter waves and waves of them out in the wild, artifacts get sprinkled everywhere. (The latter is made worse by smarter alien mods since their attack vectors are more varied.)

Instead perhaps you could have a rare-queen biter that stays around its spawner. Killing that drops something that can be used for the Breeding/Hatchery recipes. You can study it, refine it, and get a lot of "goo" that's needed to fuel the recipes (i.e., you don't need one queen per one build). This also has the benefit of encouraging players to hunt for the queens and get out from behind their walled garden of industrial pollution.

As for technology, golden bottles seem appropriate. Genetic/bio-engineering is high-tech.

[andreiosu]

Hi is there a way in the config to stop worms from shooting units I think thats a bit over powered

[Berkys32]

I dont know why, but Artifact collector cant be picked using "Picker" mod or even build via blueprint or removed with deconstruction planner

As to "picker" This is because the "placed" collector does not have an item-prototype associated with it. I will shoot the author of picker the fix for that shortly.

And I have a fix for blueprint/deconstruction which still allows the range circle but it now shows up as a chest correctly

You are right about the prototype.
This fix you have, is it needed on my end or "picker" mod end?

Was this fix implemented? I'm using Natural_Evolution_Enemies_6.4.0.zip and still can't place collectors via blueprint. Thanks!

No, it wasnt, I came here to ask for fix again

[mtilsted]

Is it me, or is this mod impossible to play with a minimal starting area and default starting resources?

Because with these settings I get no oil without clearing bases, and there is no way to clear any bases as long as they got 3000 hp each, and I don't have any oil to flame thrower/explosives.

How about setting building hp to evolution*3000 (Minimum: 350) so buildings are possible to kill in the beginning without oil, while still making them tough later in the game.

I do like this mod, but I am looking at something which really make bitters a danger early game. With this mod I can get most red/green science without ever needing more then 5 turrets to defend my entire base with a minimal starting area.

[WhatTheDuck]

Question about RSO + NE

In regard on page 25. I didnt deactivate in RSO the option for use_RSO_biter_spawning. What will happen if i keep playing on my actual save-game and change the use_RSO_biter_spawning to deactivated?
Will it slowly increase or will i have soon the same result like it was deactivated from the beginning.
I would like to avoid a new save-game. But i dont want to play on "easy-mode".

And to get the whole think correct, i have to deactivate use_RSO_biter_spawning and activate use_vanilla_biter_spawning. After this NE works probably?


Thx for your help : )

[orzelek]

Question about RSO + NE

In regard on page 25. I didnt deactivate in RSO the option for use_RSO_biter_spawning. What will happen if i keep playing on my actual save-game and change the use_RSO_biter_spawning to deactivated?
Will it slowly increase or will i have soon the same result like it was deactivated from the beginning.
I would like to avoid a new save-game. But i dont want to play on "easy-mode".

And to get the whole think correct, i have to deactivate use_RSO_biter_spawning and activate use_vanilla_biter_spawning. After this NE works probably?


Thx for your help : )

NE works in both cases.
Spawning decides only on how dense are biters - vanilla is potentially much more dense then NE. Biters will expand in both cases - RSO spawning leaves them a lot more room to expand so it seems much slower then.

[WhatTheDuck]

Question about RSO + NE

In regard on page 25. I didnt deactivate in RSO the option for use_RSO_biter_spawning. What will happen if i keep playing on my actual save-game and change the use_RSO_biter_spawning to deactivated?
Will it slowly increase or will i have soon the same result like it was deactivated from the beginning.
I would like to avoid a new save-game. But i dont want to play on "easy-mode".

And to get the whole think correct, i have to deactivate use_RSO_biter_spawning and activate use_vanilla_biter_spawning. After this NE works probably?


Thx for your help : )

NE works in both cases.
Spawning decides only on how dense are biters - vanilla is potentially much more dense then NE. Biters will expand in both cases - RSO spawning leaves them a lot more room to expand so it seems much slower then.

ok thank you. English isnt my native language, i m not sure if i got everything right.

So this means when i activate
1. use_RSO_biter_spawning = low dense
2. use_vanilla_biter_spawning = high dense

3. deactivate both = Natural Evolution spawning = medium dense?


PS: i love your mod : ), i played only my first 2-3 games without it and i didnt liked the missing threat

[orzelek]

Question about RSO + NE

In regard on page 25. I didnt deactivate in RSO the option for use_RSO_biter_spawning. What will happen if i keep playing on my actual save-game and change the use_RSO_biter_spawning to deactivated?
Will it slowly increase or will i have soon the same result like it was deactivated from the beginning.
I would like to avoid a new save-game. But i dont want to play on "easy-mode".

And to get the whole think correct, i have to deactivate use_RSO_biter_spawning and activate use_vanilla_biter_spawning. After this NE works probably?


Thx for your help : )

NE works in both cases.
Spawning decides only on how dense are biters - vanilla is potentially much more dense then NE. Biters will expand in both cases - RSO spawning leaves them a lot more room to expand so it seems much slower then.

ok thank you. English isnt my native language, i m not sure if i got everything right.

So this means when i activate
1. use_RSO_biter_spawning = low dense
2. use_vanilla_biter_spawning = high dense

3. deactivate both = Natural Evolution spawning = medium dense?


PS: i love your mod : ), i played only my first 2-3 games without it and i didnt liked the missing threat

Points 1&2 are correct.
If you do 3 (deactivate both) you'll get no biters.
Natural Evolution doesn't spawn enemy bases - it only plays with biter settings of existing ones.

[Mylon]

You may want to look into my Global Warming mod for how I handle desertification. This way you can make deserts appear in places besides where biters die. And it would be relatively simple to reverse the process to turn desert into grass via the terraformer.

Link: https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Mylon/GlobalWarming

[matrix]

I try the mod in multiplayer game and it's easier than bob's mod only... I don't understand... You said "game will became harder"... I don't see it !

Explain?

EDIT : ok it's harder when we attack alien, but they don't attack realy first^^

[Airat9000]

author hello
1 questions - what in code to dirt in kill

1 - dirt 1number
replacement
2 - sand

[WhatTheDuck]

Just finished a long play through.
Was a lot of fun. Had pretty tough starting settings. Used RSO, but let the game do the Enemy Spawns. (A lot more then)

Final_Score

Killed a lot of biters.

Start_Settings

I never felt as if I was in any danger though. Don't think my Evo ever got over 55%.
So I'm going to update my mods a little. I've already created a Config standalone for NE.
Now really tweaking the 'Hard' setting. If you choose hard, I want it to be hard.

Like to hear some suggestions.

If anyone is interested, here is my mods I used and save.
Mods
SAVE

I can confirm this. I didnt finished my last game because me and a friend get bored. The last time we played natural evolution the attacks were really though. But this time it was to easy. To attack the enemy base was still dangerous but to defend the base some walls and 4 Towers per sector was enough. We had about 75% of all technologys.

[wolfling]

So we have a network of Collectors on our perimeter to pick up any alien stuff left by the bugs... mostly to prevent/reduce the inevitable entity bloom that occurs from them all over the ground.
Problem is, once in the Collector it is being instantly allocated a Logistics Robot to pick it up. Is there any way of disconnecting a Collector from the Logistics network? It would also reduce the amount of bots lost for travelling over spawners to pick up stray artefacts from distant places...
And if anyone's about to suggest sending them by belt, that's what we do; but the bot still comes to fetch. (Then gets turned away empty handed as the artefact is long gone on the belt.)
And the suggestion of not requesting the artefacts? That's so we can auto-trash them and not have to continually be unloading our already tight inventory.

Thanks,
Wolfling