Type: Mod
Name: Research overhaul
Description: Completely changes the way research is done in Factorio. Please read the long description for details.
License: Public Domain
Version: 0.0.1
Release: -
Tested-With-Factorio-Version: 0.12.20
Category: Overhaul
Tags: Research
Download-Url:
Background: purpose of this mod
I estimate that I spent about 1500 hours with Factorio so far, building numerous factories, both small and big ones. Recently I started to feel that the way research is solved in Factorio is bothering me more and more with every playthrough. I always thought that the idea of progressing science by "studying" existing items by crafting / collecting them and turning into science packs is brilliant. However, now I can spell one major problem that I have with this system: providing resources and items to assembling machines that produce science packs usually consumes about half of my factory. Instead of building "fun" stuff, I was stuck with maintaining supply lines for research. Worse, once all technologies are researched, half of my factory becomes useless. I could simply start with all technologies researched, but I don't want research to be completely gone.
The idea
The idea is rather simple: let research be a separated system, not connected to production lines: production lines for science packs don't require any resources used in the "normal" part of factory, they have their own recipes with their own materials. At same time I didn't want it to become too easy, so I added another layer of complexity to this new system, as explained below.
New science packs
There are 12 different science packs in this mod. 4 of them could be called "base science packs" - they are equivent to science packs from vanilla Factorio. 8 new science packs are "specialized science packs". Their role is explained in the following table:
Notice that all new science pack have to be crafted in new Assembling Machines called "Research Stations". You can't craft them in hand nor in normal Assembling Machines anymore.
Example
This screenshot shows how it works in practice (in very simple case). Research labs are researching Turrets technology, which requires 1x Military Science Pack and 1x Basic Science Pack.
TODO:
1. Ballance! I will have to play two or three complete playthroughs with this mod and adjust probably all the numbers
2. Better graphics, both for Research Stations and new Science Packs.
Note:
As this mod changes everything related to research, it will most likely make any other mod that adds new technologies unplayable!
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 8:39 pm
by aklesey1
Nice mod, but it reminds me the system from dytech in some releases
Here i so more simple sytem for crafting - no resources need for craft, i donno that's good or not good, but that good for fast researching? may be we need to see the crafting time and energy consmuption of machine for each types science packs
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 10:11 pm
by ZombieMooose
definitely keeping an eye on this mod
any plans on making it bob's mods compatible?
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 11:58 pm
by kds71
diongham wrote:any plans on making it bob's mods compatible?
Maybe in the (somehow distant) future, it will take a lot of time to ballance it for vanilla. Once I'm done with that I will see what can I do next
Edit: I've spent some time playtesting this mod and I have to say that I'm enjoying it so far. However, it is apparent from the very beginning that the ballance is totally off. I think that I will start with increasing length of research and vastly increasing cost of crafting Research Stations and Laboratories.
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 7:41 pm
by matjojo
This looks hella nice. I'll be here waiting for release!
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 9:11 pm
by Factorio2016
Red packet for free? Interest in the battle for resources disappears !
I understand your idea (I have installed and looked), as for you and me and for many in a normal game, not enough production!
I have a similar idea in terms of expanding production, but the other in the direction of realism! Looking for the time and effort to create the modification.
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 2:03 am
by Lurkily
I like this concept a lot, but red packs should cost something . . . even if it's just high fuel consumption. (or lots of electricity, which often amounts to the same thing.) Beyond that, I like this a lot. A lot a lot. I always thought that the basic packs should be a vital component of the more advanced packs.
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 1:27 pm
by Lurkily
I had an issue where I started a game, then reloaded it, and once I reloaded the game, all technologies reverted to requiring the original science packs. Hrm? This makes my old research facility (in it's budding stages, thankfully,) quite useless.
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2016 3:03 am
by Darloth
I'll second the high electricity consumption suggestion...
But, to go a little further - how about somehow making it require semi-random amounts of electricity in big chunks. That way, not only do you need enough steady input, but you need capacitance as well, and probably a good backup power system if your research units happen to all roll high on the "how much power shall we draw today?" roll, or suddenly your factory cuts out for a little bit? Would that be enjoyable, perhaps?
In short, I'd like some sort of thing I have to do besides making more research nodes.
You could also make the advanced research stations require artifacts or processing units or other difficult to source components, possibly quite a large number thereof.
This would also allow for further upgrades at the same tier - do you build large, energy inefficient Research 3 processors that just take the stuff you've got, or do you drop some rarer resources on the smaller, more efficient versions at the cost of not having those resources elsewhere?
That sort of tradeoff would make increasing the research throughput more thoughtful in my opinion.
In general though... I really like this idea
Re: [MOD 0.12.20] Complete research overhaul
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:38 pm
by kds71
Sorry for not replying for a long time. I was playing with this mod, balancing and testing it and I have to say that I'm not satisfied with the result. What become of this mod isn't what I wanted to achieve. I had to rethink the initial idea and eventually I decided that I want to make even more drastic changes to the research system (starting with getting rid of the entire research tree and technologies altogether ). It still requires a lot of work before I can publish it here, I will post an update as soon as possible.
