[MOD 0.15] Portal Research (Asteroid Mining) 0.7.5

[doc]

Factorio mod by Doc

This mod adds a number of powerful late- and end-game technologies, unlocking amazing new items that enable the following:

• Use portals to teleport yourself (and items) quickly around the base
• Scan the skies for asteroids containing vast amounts of resources
• Deploy portals remotely to asteroids so you can travel there to set up a mining outpost
• Power your asteroid outputs (and your suit) with microwave energy and space-based solar power
• Launch space telescopes to spot even juicier asteroids for mining
• Wireless radio to send circuit network signals wherever you need
• ...And eventually much more!

Mod portal link: https://mods.factorio.com/mods/docpaisl ... l-research

Note: This is still something of a work in progress but has plenty of functional gameplay already. Recipes are unfortunately changing quite a bit between releases. The biggest problem is the GUI which is taking a lot of work!

Planned features include a variety of new satellite types to launch such as probes, spy satellites, research stations, a defense grid, and orbital mining lasers! New ways to transfer resources between your base and your asteroid outposts, such as orbital drops and a space shuttle network. More fun stuff to happen in space! And perhaps one day the ultimate crowning achievement, the Space Elevator.

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[Gully]

Hi, this is a cool idea. Portals as commodity in regular base-building, and then as a source for ressources late-game. Thank you for the mod!

[ArchtypeOfEpic]

Can't wait to see what this mod becomes!

[featherwinglove]

I've been waiting for the pair of mods (one for Factorio and the other for...) that combines Factorio with Kerbal Space Program such that you need to build your rocket parts in Factorio, actually fly the rocket in KSP, and your KSP science points get returned to the rocket silo in Factorio. This is the closest I've seen so far.

[doc]

That would be really nice, but it's semi-impossible to get data back from Kerbal to Factorio.

The only way I can think to do it would be single-player only and require a save+reload in Factorio every time to wanted to get an update from Kerbal.

[featherwinglove]

I don't think it would require a save/load of a Factorio game, but you would need a command in the KSP mod to read an inventory out of the Factorio game state, probably via a file in script-output reading a chest, which would mean the KSP mod reaching outside of its normal access in the KSP installation, which might not be possible. I'm fairly certain that it isn't possible for a Factorio mod. (It's easy in Linux, actually, but directory links are crude and nasty.) This means the combining mods might need to include a third executable to synchronize the required game state data. It would be a pretty brutal project to be sure. And it certainly would be single player only, although there is a possibility of having one player in KSP and another in Factorio on different systems with the synch programs going over the network. (Hmm... if synch is running on the server, it should be possible to run Factorio in multiplayer. KSP already requires modding for multiplayer, but it's a bit sketchy. Yeah, link is old, but KSP multiplayer modding is still pretty sketchy.) One gnarly thing would be game clock synchronization ...I just thought of something hilarious: Kerbin in KSP has a six hour day, while Nauvis has a seven minute day. I like to think of Factorio minutes as irl hours, so it doesn't seem as inhumanly fast (although building a space program from scratch in under five days even in the Edenic paradise set seed is still inhuman.) In KSP, it is extremely easy to time warp. The easiest way would be to synchronize on real world time only, and the synch program could feature some displays to show the time state in each game, allowing honour system synch if desired.

[tsunami]

Ladies, focus. Nerd glasses away please. Focus on the real game, Factorio. Everyone knows KSP is fake and Factorio is life!

Now what I wanna know is how is this mod coming along? I haven't really tried out since its first release. Can someone give some feedback? The bf finally got RSO tweaked to a setting that isn't too hardcore for me but isn't too easy for him and built a mod pack kind of middle line for both of us with a good balance. I really want him to add this but he needs to balance the pack again if he does. He really doesn't want to do any balancing after he sets up a server for us to play on. It's a private local server so even non server friendly mods he figured out a way to make run with no lag or rubberbanding.

[featherwinglove]

Ladies, focus. Nerd glasses away please. Focus on the real game, Factorio. Everyone knows KSP is fake and Factorio is life!

Everyone who hasn't played KSP

I'm not too sure what the mod's intent is because I'm certainly of the opinion that asteroid resources are intended for use in space, not for return to Nauvis, Earth, or Kerbin. In the case of the vanilla game, it does appear that the return of science packs actually doesn't depend on the return of the spacecraft or launch vehicle, which makes sense. I think it would be quite fascinating to beam back science packs rather than raw materials or even finished products other than science packs. And developments of the space hardware to develop higher yield science packs would be pretty nifty too.

[doc]

Ok a few things here for me to reply to (skipping KSP, because that is just making my head hurt right now!)

Firstly I am working on the next release (0.6) that adds a fair bit of new content and fixes a number of issues. I've just spent a few hours playtesting and I'm feeling quite satisfied with the overall game loop of the mod. I've added quite a bit of complexity to satellite building, because launching different kinds of satellites is really a major part of this mod.

In terms of what it's really about, well it started off just about portals, and all this space stuff just kept creeping in until it's more about that. The idea is you manage a network of orbital units which can be launched in rockets. These units will help you gather more resources (by, e.g. establishing outposts on asteroids) which helps you increase production to launch even more rockets. You will still have to build plenty of stuff on the ground to support your orbital network of course.

Yes the resources can be sent back to your base (since the first release) - for me it would defeat the purpose if this wasn't possible! The idea is to get (eventually) much easier access to huge ore patches to support your megabase. Right now the resources can be teleported back in Portal Chests but later on there will be a Cargo Catapult to send very high throughput containers down to the planet without the extreme power cost.

Regarding Space Science, yeah I've been thinking of a couple of ways to generate more of this, and help research in general. One of these will be some sort of orbital Research Station; the idea is very high speed and productivity, with free (or very cheap) Space Science, but you have to send bundles of all the other science packs up to it in rockets.

[doc]

I really want him to add this but he needs to balance the pack again if he does. He really doesn't want to do any balancing after he sets up a server for us to play on. It's a private local server so even non server friendly mods he figured out a way to make run with no lag or rubberbanding.

The mod is young and in flux but it aims to be quite well balanced with vanilla, most of its tech only really kicks in at or afterr the endgame anyway. I would wait at least for the next release anyway or maybe the one after if you want stability!

[doc]

Just released 0.6.1, adding a new Space Telescope to improve your asteroid search, and tons of other improvements.

[The Zero]

Hey, there's an issue with 0.6.1, plastic forming plant recipe actually crafts ordinary chemical plant, so there's no way to create plexiglass lenses. Tried switching it in the mod files, looks that it worked.

(edit: removed stuff about plastic plant not working, didn't notice heat reqs)

[buggy123]

Are modded ores supported by default? Could I run Bobs+Angels and have the modded ores show up instead of iron and copper?

[doc]

Hey, there's an issue with 0.6.1, plastic forming plant recipe actually crafts ordinary chemical plant, so there's no way to create plexiglass lenses. Tried switching it in the mod files, looks that it worked.

(edit: removed stuff about plastic plant not working, didn't notice heat reqs)

Thanks for letting me know - fixed in 0.6.2. That was a pretty silly mistake

[doc]

Are modded ores supported by default? Could I run Bobs+Angels and have the modded ores show up instead of iron and copper?

Not yet .. But there is however a script interface that allows you to add ores to the supported list, it can be used as follows:

Code: Select all

  remote.call("portal_research", "add_offworld_resource", "my-ore-name", weight, richness_multiplier)

These are the default settings:

Code: Select all

  { name="iron-ore",  weight=120,  richness=1 },
  { name="copper-ore", weight=100, richness=1.2 },
  { name="stone", weight=200, richness=0.8 },
  { name="uranium-ore", weight=1, richness=0.05 }

I am definitely considering having built-in support for the most popular mods like Bobs and Angels, however having still never actually got around to playing them myself I'm just not informed enough to decide which ores/rarity. If someone suggests to me some good settings then I will be happy to add this in a future update.

[judos]

Hi there,

your new release 0.6.2 seems to be completely empty Something went wrong with zipping the content maybe?

Cheers

[The Zero]

If someone suggests to me some good settings then I will be happy to add this in a future update.

I'll start somewhere else and come back and it will make total sense: It would be cool if you could get factorium ore added to RSO (resource spawner overhaul). If you take a look at it, it also contains configs for almost any mod ore there is, so you could get inspired there.

btw. any chance you could publish code on github? I'm tempted to mess with your mod a bit, by looking at the code it seems you have the concept very well thought through, I like that

[doc]

Hi there,

your new release 0.6.2 seems to be completely empty Something went wrong with zipping the content maybe?

Cheers

Well, I haven't been doing very well here have I

Just released 0.6.3, it should actually have some files in there this time!

[HorusOP]

Hi! I keep getting this really weird error related to your plastic plant; I'm on portal research 6.0.3

[adeade45]

Seriously? FORCING us to go nuclear? Come on man at least add a cheap heat generator for those of us who don't want nuclear.

I've got more than enough solar power for a base 10x my size, but now I have to build a nuclear reactor cause you decided to add a heat requirement to the plastic forming plant? Seriously?

UNinstalling, sorry. Not worth it. I'll just keep expanding my map to find ores.