Factorio, modifying and creating custom levels
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 9:14 pm
Hello everyone
I would like to start out with saying that you should have some basic knowledge of lua, otherwise this will not make any sense to you.
I recently acquired Factorio, because I loved how it looked. I love mods, so naturally I had a look at the levels. Apparently, it is really easy to modify since it is all written in lua. For example, I made Level 03 spawn no creeps at all. This basically made it like free play, with no danger at all.
Basically, for each level there's a couple of files. First, there's blueprint.dat which I assume is the "blueprint", as in terrain, ore veins, creep spawners etc. I couldn't open it, since it's a .dat file and I do not know the format. It would be awesome to be given access to edit level and perhaps make new ones. I know I would have a lot of fun with it.
Then there's control.lua which basically, as far as I can see, defines the 'rules' of that specific level. For example, it includes what you start with, if you can research or not, what recipes you know from the start and also which recipes you learn from certain events, which is also defined in control.lua. It's called storytable and checks for certain events, and then makes you learn new recipes and writes a message ingame. I managed to make level 03 not spawn any creeps, have the character know the sentry tower recipe known from the start and start with metal armor too.
I really love how you guys did all this. It makes modding and hopefully creating custom levels soon, very easy.
Thank you for putting your money and time into making this awesome game, and I really hope you reach the funding.
I have also created a subreddit, to hopefully get some more attention. http://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/
For the header, I used the picture from your main website, which I hope you won't mind, otherwise I'll be happy to remove it.
I would like to start out with saying that you should have some basic knowledge of lua, otherwise this will not make any sense to you.
I recently acquired Factorio, because I loved how it looked. I love mods, so naturally I had a look at the levels. Apparently, it is really easy to modify since it is all written in lua. For example, I made Level 03 spawn no creeps at all. This basically made it like free play, with no danger at all.
Basically, for each level there's a couple of files. First, there's blueprint.dat which I assume is the "blueprint", as in terrain, ore veins, creep spawners etc. I couldn't open it, since it's a .dat file and I do not know the format. It would be awesome to be given access to edit level and perhaps make new ones. I know I would have a lot of fun with it.
Then there's control.lua which basically, as far as I can see, defines the 'rules' of that specific level. For example, it includes what you start with, if you can research or not, what recipes you know from the start and also which recipes you learn from certain events, which is also defined in control.lua. It's called storytable and checks for certain events, and then makes you learn new recipes and writes a message ingame. I managed to make level 03 not spawn any creeps, have the character know the sentry tower recipe known from the start and start with metal armor too.
I really love how you guys did all this. It makes modding and hopefully creating custom levels soon, very easy.
Thank you for putting your money and time into making this awesome game, and I really hope you reach the funding.
I have also created a subreddit, to hopefully get some more attention. http://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/
For the header, I used the picture from your main website, which I hope you won't mind, otherwise I'll be happy to remove it.