Factorio Forums

Creating a space platform would only extend the game, it wouldn't really be something that people would consider as "the end" I would think.

As factorio technically has no real end, the "end game" should be some sort of infinite thingy that one can keep on doing for however long they want.

For example there is some mod I've heard that creates drop pod crashes that the player has to supply with random items. Some sort of similar "quest" system making the player to produce items for some sort of infinite black hole would be a nice thing I think.

Problem is, Factorio doesn't have any limitations (except your computer and free time). So what is a reasonable goal? Do you make a requirement of ~300 hours to finish the game? Many players would never finish, and those who do probably won't start another one. Look at the rocket, to a beginner that's a very daunting goal even 2-3 games in, yet players have made it a trivial thing. One rocket per minute is it? So how do you make something "hard" but "fair"? Heck, instead of building a satellite why don't you just put yourself in the rocket and leave the planet, this creates an "end" to the game. So what to do?

Mods are the answer, once you've played enough vanilla pick up a mod with an endgame. These are designed by players so will vary wildly depending on the designer's experiences and capabilities so there is a broad spectrum of possibilities.

Deadly-Bagel wrote:Mods are the answer

It sure is for me.

I tend to turn "complexity" (more like resource/time sinks and extra layers for production chains and higher research costs, really) to 11 and have had worlds with 300h+ in them where I haven't even reached alien science yet.

I found Factorio took hundreds of hours to complete anyway. Mind you my factorys been through various redesigns, and I still consider it kinda suboptimal.

Factorisimo is making for a nice end game

When looking for new features for 0.15 I would like to remind you guys that there are still 24(!) unsolved reports in Waiting for 0.15 , some of them keep getting postponed since 0.12.
Especially the train pathfinding issues require sub-optimal workarounds on the player and get reported again and again.

Fixing those once and for all might not be as fancy as adding things with lots of legs, but it will be so much more useful

Greetings Loewchen

For .15 I would love to see some kind of combat robot that I can build and then send out. Something along the lines of RTS style combat systems. I want to play a builder and have my minions do all the fighting for me.

Loewchen wrote:When looking for new features for 0.15 I would like to remind you guys that there are still 24(!) unsolved reports in Waiting for 0.15 , some of them keep getting postponed since 0.12.
Especially the train pathfinding issues require sub-optimal workarounds on the player and get reported again and again.

Fixing those once and for all might not be as fancy as adding things with lots of legs, but it will be so much more useful

Greetings Loewchen

and some some from 8.8 as well

Loewchen wrote:When looking for new features for 0.15 I would like to remind you guys that there are still 24(!) unsolved reports in Waiting for 0.15 , some of them keep getting postponed since 0.12.
Especially the train pathfinding issues require sub-optimal workarounds on the player and get reported again and again.

Fixing those once and for all might not be as fancy as adding things with lots of legs, but it will be so much more useful

Greetings Loewchen

I know and I'm not forgetting, I kind of disallowed programming anything once the bugs are solved, and then until the waiting for 0.15 are solved, so no worries.

Balinor wrote:For .15 I would love to see some kind of combat robot that I can build and then send out. Something along the lines of RTS style combat systems. I want to play a builder and have my minions do all the fighting for me.

Such a mod exists - "robot army"

Yeah but there should still be a better means of mass-clearing biters in vanilla, if not automated then very easy (but expensive). Such as a souped up tank with a big module grid kitted out with loads of shields and weapons.

Hi, devs

Regarding "Gui reskin and possible improvements" for 0.15, should we expect a huge rework on the modding API related to GUI?
Will we be able to make draggable frames, scrollbars (like the color bars for locomotive), text-area (multilined textfield), map view (locomotive), or other things that are in Factorio but not exposed for modding?

Mooncat wrote:Hi, devs

Regarding "Gui reskin and possible improvements" for 0.15, should we expect a huge rework on the modding API related to GUI?
Will we be able to make draggable frames, scrollbars (like the color bars for locomotive), text-area (multilined textfield), map view (locomotive), or other things that are in Factorio but not exposed for modding?

Some of it could happen. The gui reskin shouldn't affect much of the rest of the modding gui.

kovarex wrote:Some of it could happen.

You mean the new element types?

kovarex wrote:The gui reskin shouldn't affect much of the rest of the modding gui.

I don't really know how I feel about this. A part of me is hoping for a more convenient API, especially for aligning UI elements. Another part of me feels happy and relieved because we don't need to make huge rework on our mods.

kovarex wrote:The gui reskin shouldn't affect much of the rest of the modding gui.

Is it mostly color changes and tweaks to background images?

Mooncat wrote:A part of me is hoping for a more convenient API

As long as the API remains relatively stable (with occasional bugfixes and API enhancements) it should be possible to create a fairly robust wrapper class for it using Lua.

Deadly-Bagel wrote:Yeah but there should still be a better means of mass-clearing biters in vanilla, if not automated then very easy (but expensive). Such as a souped up tank with a big module grid kitted out with loads of shields and weapons.

I like the idea of automating biter "management." I'd say manual clearing is already really easy, though. Once you get to a hundred+ follower count and maxed out flame thrower I'm having absolutely no trouble just mowing down huge areas of biter mega bases at 95%+ evolution factor. They melt before my eyes nearly as fast as my 5 exoskeletons can move me. All that limits me is my inventory size for ammo and bots. I don't even really have to be paying very close attention to what I'm doing.

I find the most difficult thing is keeping the ground I take. A perimeter defense is a priority right after clearing a large area or they'll repopulate it very quickly. I'm actually quite happy with the biter aggressiveness changes in 0.13. They're keeping me on my toes and not letting me forget that they're a factor.

What kind of trouble are you having with them?

Quick question: Is there a research queue planned to be inplemented? I ask this because I was planning to update my research queue mod, but when snooping through the files I stumbeled upon this localisation: I know queueing isn't listed in the roadmap, but this makes me curious.

I don't feel the need to update the mod if in a 'few' months v0.15 comes out with a fully working queue build in.

Yes, it is implemented, we just disabled it as we had to fix the gui representation of it. It will probably be done in 0.15

brunzenstein wrote:

Balinor wrote:For .15 I would love to see some kind of combat robot that I can build and then send out. Something along the lines of RTS style combat systems. I want to play a builder and have my minions do all the fighting for me.

Such a mod exists - "robot army"

It does indeed exist. However in a game that is heavily based upon automation this stands out as an extreme missed opportunity. Kovarex has briefly mentioned RTS style things as something they "could" or "might possibly" look at one day and if people bring it up every now and again it might keep the idea percolating around in his brain while he is working on other things and then just maybe we'll have a completely awesome way to automate combat without having to resort to mods that may or may not do the job and may or may not be updated for the life of the game.

Balinor wrote:

brunzenstein wrote:

Balinor wrote:For .15 I would love to see some kind of combat robot that I can build and then send out. Something along the lines of RTS style combat systems. I want to play a builder and have my minions do all the fighting for me.

Such a mod exists - "robot army"

It does indeed exist. However in a game that is heavily based upon automation this stands out as an extreme missed opportunity. Kovarex has briefly mentioned RTS style things as something they "could" or "might possibly" look at one day and if people bring it up every now and again it might keep the idea percolating around in his brain while he is working on other things and then just maybe we'll have a completely awesome way to automate combat without having to resort to mods that may or may not do the job and may or may not be updated for the life of the game.

Not to forget the automated ressource harvesting.

kiba wrote:

DaveMcW wrote:They accept donations. https://www.factorio.com/donations

Cool. I didn't know about that.

Though the donations wouldn't be enough to subsist on for a team, anyway.

It's quite conceivable that it could be, this game is insanely popular, do you realize it has over half a million Steam purchases, at $20.00? That is a damn successful independent game, and I could not have picked a more deserving one either. That's something like one in 638 US citizens. It is genuinely original and fun, and I think if the devs play it right, it will have fantastic longevity. So far so good, it is primed that way, and if they keep it on course for such, it will get there. Like Skyrim, as another poster suggested. But without the AAA price and purchaseable expansions, or the AAA sized dev team and graphics. There's still another 50 million people of untapped market, at least. That's one of the nice things for indie games, the potential market is vast relative to the investment (look at minecraft). Getting as much of it as possible is difficult, however, especially in such a respectable way so as to get donations. Let's hope they can keep it up forever.

One key ingredient is to ensure that the most passionate and appreciative customers always feel respected, because it's very important for long term success to retain their respect in turn. (Without alienating anyone else of course - there are no "elite".) Their numbers only go down, not up, so retention is key. They maintain the wikis, maintain and develop the mods (which in turn helps develop the game), and they fill the forums with impressive things and critical analysis. That's the kind of longevity in games like Dwarf Fortress (though it's free).