Mod for making start-of-game more involved

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dpacbach
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Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by dpacbach »

Hi there,

I would really like a mod that does the following and so I am wondering if it is already out there.

Background: normally at the start of the game the player is able to build some basic items such as:

* burner mining drill for mining
* burner inserter for logistics
* offshore pump, boiler, etc., for power
* a few more things

assuming that the player has the appropriate ingredients (and also the player may start out with some of those items already in inventory).

Mod request: however, I would like a mod that prevents the player from even building any of the above things in the beginning of the game until some technology is researched. For example, the player should not be able to build a burner mining drill until the appropriate technology is researched (a new technology would have to be added I suppose). So therefore the player would have to mine by hand until then.

Along the same lines, I think that electric energy/power is given to the player too easily, and so the same would go for the offshore pump, boiler, steam engine, etc. in that they would require a technology first before building.

What is the minimum set of items that the player would need to be able to build at the beginning? Perhaps just a stone furnace and science lab? Basically, I would like the player to start out with nothing and also start out not being able to build anything that is not absolutely essential without first researching some technologies.

Anything like this out there?

Thanks in advance
David

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eradicator
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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by eradicator »

Take a look at Xander Mod it has a vastly extended pre-electricity era. You do still get 2 burner mining drills at the start for free, but it takes quite some time and research until you can build any more. In the beginning everything (assemblers, inserters, labs) runs on coal and coal coke.

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by dpacbach »

thanks, but that looks like more of a game overhaul -- I am just looking for something that adjusts the very start of the game, not adding any items/units, only adding a few technologies that would be required to e.g. build burner mining drills and electricity.
David

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by eradicator »

dpacbach wrote:thanks, but that looks like more of a game overhaul -- I am just looking for something that adjusts the very start of the game, not adding any items/units, only adding a few technologies that would be required to e.g. build burner mining drills and electricity.
David
I see. Yea, Xander overhauls quite a bit more than that. If you want the minimum you'd have to at least add a burner lab or some...other mechanism...to research, because the normal lab requires electricity which you wanted to restrict to later stages of the game. Unless you want to use something like Hand Crank Generator (yea, i made that :P) to be able to make a small amount of manual energy in the beginning until you can automate electricity.

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by dpacbach »

I like the idea of the Hand Crank generator actually, I think that might be a cleaner solution than making burner variants of the various other buildings (like burner labs as you mentioned). That way it would allow pushing electricity just a bit further still into the game since the player could in theory operate any building (even factories) using the hand crank generator. Then, when you finally get to steam powered electricity, it will feel like more of an accomplishment since in a sense you are automating that which you were previously doing by hand with the hand crank.

But instead of only getting one from the spaceship (which it looks like your mod does) the player could perhaps craft them and place them where power was needed.
David

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by bobingabout »

Bob's Electronics probably will, because a lot of the things you need electronics for will be more complex.

Though to really make it worth doing, you want bobores and bobplates too, but then you're getting away from just making the start more involved.
Creator of Bob's mods. Expanding your gameplay since version 0.9.8.
I also have a Patreon.

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by eradicator »

dpacbach wrote:But instead of only getting one from the spaceship (which it looks like your mod does) the player could perhaps craft them and place them where power was needed.
David
You can just enable the crafting recipe and "easy recipe" options in the mod settings to get exactly that ("easy" should probably be renamed "early game" as the default recipe is gated behing higher technologies). I've been thinking about changing the default options for a while, but the original "spirit" of the mod was the "you get only one" thing.

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by dpacbach »

Ok so basically now I am envisioning a mod that does precisely the following (no more/less):

- Start of game there is a hand-crank generator that the player can craft and must use it for all electricity needs
- The player cannot initially craft burner mining drills or electric miners, so mining must be done by hand
- Player can craft stone furnaces
- There will be 2-3 additional technologies added (that the player will likely want before Automation) that will give
the player access to steam-powered electricity (and associated items), burner mining drills, etc.

Normally I'm not big on mods or playing with mods, but in this case I think that the very start of the game goes a bit
contrary to the spirit of factorio in that too many things are given to the player for free (in particular, burner mining drills
and steam-powered electricity). By putting those things behind technologies I think the player will feel a bigger
sense of accomplishment when they become available.

Is there anyone who knows how to make mods that can make it (well, apart from the hand-crank generator which
has already been done by eradicator)? If not then I suppose I will have to figure it out... :-)

David
Last edited by dpacbach on Wed Apr 25, 2018 11:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by Deadlock989 »

You want to force a ton of manual mining, but add more research that also has to be crafted manually and you have to literally stand over your lab holding down a mouse button until it finishes? Sorry, doesn't sound like much fun at all.

If you don't know it, look at AAI Industry. It extends the pre-electricity phase of the game, adds a burner lab, and adds a lot of hefty research before you even gain the ability to pipe water.
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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by eradicator »

Deadlock989 wrote:[...] literally stand over your lab holding down a mouse button until it finishes? Sorry, doesn't sound like much fun at all.
My HCG does not require constant mouse pressing. All values are configurable in-game.
Hand Crank Generator Description wrote:By default it takes 15 seconds to fully crank and then provids 20kW of power for 5 minutes [...]

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by dpacbach »

@eradicator Sorry just realized I called you exterminator instead of eradicator ;-)

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Re: Mod for making start-of-game more involved

Post by eradicator »

dpacbach wrote:@eradicator Sorry just realized I called you exterminator instead of eradicator ;-)
I felt it unnessecary to mention. But if you noticed yourself you might as well edit the old post ;). "Xterminator" is a well known youtuber btw :P.

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