Factorio Forums

I just released my first ever mod and I would like to hear you feedback!

Here is a link to the mod portal:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/leighzermorphite


Short Description:
This small configurable vanilla friendly mod adds a brand new ore to the game, Morphite! Morphite is a supplemental ore that can be processed into the other basic ores (iron, copper, coal, stone). Processing can be done in hand or assembler with no research required. Processing is straight forward, 1 Morphite for 1 ore of your choosing! Morphite has the same mining hardness as iron. Processing time is the same processing time required to create 2 green electronic circuits.

Heads Up:
This is my first ever mod, even though it is relatively simple, it may have bugs. Please back up your saves and consider the risks of using a rookie modder's first mod! If you run into any bugs please PM me on the factorio forums and I will do my best to get back and help solve your problem!

Feedback: I would love to hear your thoughts on
Balance. From processing recipes/crafting times to ore patch placement, how does the balance of Morphite feel?
Performance. How well does the mod work? How does it fare with other mods enabled as well?
Ideas. What could be added to this mod that would make it more enjoyable? I have some ideas of my own on the mod portal post.
Other. Any other feedback is welcome!

Focus of the mod:
The primary focus of the mod is adding the single ore Morphite. It is aimed to be vanilla friendly so that folks can download the mod and have a brand new ore with little tuning required. It doesn't aim to add much additional complexity like some other popular ore packs can. Finally, Morphite is aimed to be a secondary/lesser desired ore compared to the others. It is meant to be not as good as getting the other ores directly. I like the idea of choosing between a close easy to mine patch of Morphite or risking it to get a more desirable iron patch. It is meant to be supplemental. If you need a surplus of a kind of ore, you can switch what processing you are using to gain a boost in exchange for some extra work. I think that leads to some interesting decisions to make. Lastly, I like that it helps fill out the map with something new and different rather than getting more iron/copper etc.

With all of that I look forward to hearing your thoughts and happy mining!

Edit: Updated crafting time.

It's a nice mod! I like how it can be used for multiple things.
Suggestion: Add some more new recipes of powerful or different things that can only be created using Morphite. They could be special entities, turrets, items, modules or anything else.

CJ5Boss wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 3:26 pm It's a nice mod! I like how it can be used for multiple things.
Suggestion: Add some more new recipes of powerful or different things that can only be created using Morphite. They could be special entities, turrets, items, modules or anything else.

Thank you very much I appreciate it! I have a couple ideas for the mod as well. I'll update the mod page with these.

I think the next piece I've been wanting to implement is a Morphite to crude oil recipe that is done inside of the chemical plant. One idea that I have seen people mention is a map that only has only one resource from which they could get everything they need. Although this wasn't my original intention with Morphite, it would fit this role well, and I think it could be something folks enjoy. This would also include a Morphite to uraniumn recipe. So then the basic necessary raw materials in a map would be Morphite, wood, and water. These additions would only really require a couple of researches added, and a couple of recipes. From a work load perspective this should on the simpler side to implement.

Another small feature that I've mentioned but not yet implemented is giving Morphite ore a direct fuel value. Given the current processing times it is quite easy to get Morphite out of the ground but it takes a bit of effort to process it down the supply chain. Giving it a fuel value will provide an early sink for players to utilize and adds convenience without much down side.

These are just a couple of my ideas. As for your idea I do agree it would be cool to have a few special buildings/items to build.

I think for these specials they should probably require a smelted version of Morphite (plates maybe even steel). There are a lot of ideas I could spit ball, but for now I will stick with an idea that I think could be quite realistic to implement. One problem in the mid to mid-late game is getting the map explored, and there isn't really a well suited tool for that given the stage of the game. My idea for a building would be a specialized long range radar. It would not provide any map visibility around it like the standard radar, but this would be in exchange for a larger scanning radius as well as a bit faster scanning speed. It would have to be quite expensive to make and take a good bit of power. This would be something you place around your border walls with your turrets, so you can get more of the map explored, and find your next big ore patch in an easier fashion.

For now special items are lower on my priority list given their complexity of testing/implementation and my limited time. With that, I will strongly consider and do appreciate any ideas folks have to offer. I look forward to more discussion on the ideas for this mod. Thank you for the interest in the mod and happy mining!

leighzer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:13 pm
Thank you very much I appreciate it! I have a couple ideas for the mod as well. I'll update the mod page with these.

No problem! I love experimenting with new mods and this one seemed interesting.

leighzer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:13 pm
Another small feature that I've mentioned but not yet implemented is giving Morphite ore a direct fuel value. Given the current processing times it is quite easy to get Morphite out of the ground but it takes a bit of effort to process it down the supply chain. Giving it a fuel value will provide an early sink for players to utilize and adds convenience without much down side.

As Morphite is an ore, I would suggest giving it one quick process that converts it to something like "Morphite fuel." As you said, the processes with Morphite take a while, so maybe this process could be very quick and provide the fuel. Just an idea as normally raw ores don't have a fuel value.

leighzer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:13 pm
For now special items are lower on my priority list given their complexity of testing/implementation and my limited time. With that, I will strongly consider and do appreciate any ideas folks have to offer. I look forward to more discussion on the ideas for this mod. Thank you for the interest in the mod and happy mining!

Also understandable. From the various mods I have looked at that implement new entities, like when I was browsing through some of pyanodons, the code does seem a bit tedious.

Sounds like you've got your plans up an running, I'm interested in following this mod's development much farther!

CJ5Boss wrote: ↑Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:27 pm

leighzer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:13 pm
Another small feature that I've mentioned but not yet implemented is giving Morphite ore a direct fuel value. Given the current processing times it is quite easy to get Morphite out of the ground but it takes a bit of effort to process it down the supply chain. Giving it a fuel value will provide an early sink for players to utilize and adds convenience without much down side.

As Morphite is an ore, I would suggest giving it one quick process that converts it to something like "Morphite fuel." As you said, the processes with Morphite take a while, so maybe this process could be very quick and provide the fuel. Just an idea as normally raw ores don't have a fuel value.

I have gone ahead and added Morphite fuel to the mod! I had to balance the recipe a bit as coal is an alternative power source you can turn Morphite into. I decided to make the Morphite fuel recipe twice as fast, but it costs double the amount of Morphite. So the trade off being you can opt to sacrifice more Morphite to create power faster, or you can opt for the slower, more resource efficient recipe and have to throw down more assemblers.

I also made the recipes capable of taking in production modules.

Happy mining!

re factorio v17.52 mod version 0.2.7

error when launching the game code snip from log file. error occurs with others and only this mod installed.

Thanks for pointing this out. The devs removed the global 'get_next_resource_index' used for placing ore patches (yay!). That ended up breaking most my mods. The fix appeared to be rather simple. I have rolled out updates for Morphite as well as my other mods. If you continue to run into or spot any new issues please let me know!

Thanks again!