Factorio Forums

Space Platform (The mod)
Unsatisfied with the fact that you can only launch a satellite into space? Want to launch yourself into space and continue your base IN space?
(And unsatisfied that the space platform from https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-74 is nowhere to be found ingame yet)

This mod is work in progress. The basics work, but it can expand into something bigger

Now you can! With SPACE PLATFORM. (The mod)
This adds:

• A "Crew capsule" item, which you can launch with a rocket to ride into space towards your space platform.
• You first have to launch a satellite as the initial platform.
• On the platform you have a "free" ride back from the rocket stationed there.
• Smaller "cargo silos", that can launch large amounts of cargo into space. These rockets are way cheaper to build. And launch their cargo into the cargo receive containers on the platform.
• Auto launching of cargo rockets. The cargo receive containers have request slots. If the amount in the container is less then the requested amount, and a cargo rocket is completely stocked up, it will auto-launch the cargo rocket to refill your platform with items.
• Special item to expand your platform in space. Which you need to construct IN space. As it requires a special assembler that only works in space.

NOTE: This mod might case incompatibilities with other mods that use rocket launches. This is because I replace the cargo in a rocket during launch of a rocket. I replace it with a satellite to prevent the "Rocket launched without a satellite" message, that happens per default. As this mod launches a lot of rockets, you do not want this message. This means that every rocket launch will count towards successful satellite launches in other mods.

Other cool note: You actually RIDE the rocket into space. Your screen will be fixed on the rocket during a launch with a crew capsule.

Screenshots:
LINK: https://mods.factorio.com/mods/daid/space-platform

Hey I just wanted to let you know that this is great, and you should keep working on it (if you aren't). Needs a bit of art-help, but we really do need rocket-accessed space platforms. It's a great idea! needs fleshing out a bit, maybe ensure pollution up in space has no affect on the ground, and maybe that alone would be a good reason to do manufacturing up in space?

This mod is great, but I just can't have my rocket cargo replaced with a satellite, because then I can't play with mods like cargo rockets and ion cannon. I just edit the senario to fix the launch messege. Surely there is another way around this problem? I had fun playing with it untill I found it breaks ion cannon!

Wildejackson wrote:This mod is great, but I just can't have my rocket cargo replaced with a satellite, because then I can't play with mods like cargo rockets and ion cannon. I just edit the senario to fix the launch messege. Surely there is another way around this problem? I had fun playing with it untill I found it breaks ion cannon!

It shouldn't directly break the ion cannon mod. But I didn't test it. I'll have a look at it, because it should only replace the cargo with a satellite when it detects a launch that is intended for this mod. So an ion cannon launched in the normal rocket shouldn't get replaced. But I could have missed something.

I'm no artist (obviously). So if someone would help out on this area it would be great.

I don't think pollution in space effects the ground world.

I'm not a 100% sure yet how to continue this mod. I kinda started it as "can this be done?"
What can we do in space? Do we need to construct something big here? Do we have some extra rare resource here?
Do we want a (better) way to transport fluids up? Right now you could barrel oil, send that up, unbarrel it, and process it. However, you do not have access to water this way. And you are kinda stuck with the barrels in space as there is no automated "downwards" transport.

Wildejackson wrote:This mod is great, but I just can't have my rocket cargo replaced with a satellite, because then I can't play with mods like cargo rockets and ion cannon. I just edit the senario to fix the launch messege. Surely there is another way around this problem? I had fun playing with it untill I found it breaks ion cannon!

It doesn't break the ion cannon mod. I just tested. My mod ONLY replaces the cargo if it detects a launch it cares about, and it does not care about ion cannon launches, and thus it does not replace them.
(If you use a crew-rocket or a cargo-rocket to launch the ion cannon it will most likely not work. But it works in the normal rocket silo)

The cargo rocket mod still has some issues due to we picked the same name for 2 objects.