Friday Facts #401 - New terrain, new planet

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-401

[aka13]

Earendel, you are a magician. You make me warm up to cliffs!
Thank you for the effort, I am really looking forward to the Nauvis changes.

[Wenihal]

"the new terrain is extremely customisable"

best part

[Justderpingalong]

Wait you're telling me I no longer have to rush cliff explosive research?!

Also this madman actually went ahead and changed... just about everything and then still left old mapgen as an option just because he could. This is why we love factorio.

[gGeorg]

Until now, I didnt know I need a canyon in my base.

Thanks man.

[datkensign]

"I shall call it your grave!"

[Ghoulish]

What an awesome update!

[layus]

This amazing !
Now the terrain gains in personality.

I have two questions:

* When exploding a cliff, the terrain difference between above/below will be less meaningful. Does the terrain change after an explosion ?

* There is a lot at play with elevation, but factorio remains a conceptually flat world once the map is generated. What about elevated trains ? Are they supposed to go above cliffs ? What if an elevated train became a normal train by reaching higher terrain ?

I think elevation is so important in the map generation that it probably should get a bigger role in the gameplay too.

[Dial-up]

try clicking on the rocket at the bottom of the article!

[Drury]

Is it weird that this FFF got me more fired up than the others?

People don't talk about it much, but a huge part of the fantasy of this game is the environment and what you do with it. And this is a huge improvement on that.

Then again, I'm also one of those weirdos who uses green modules and builds around the trees rather than through them, so...

EDIT: oh yeah, and what's this about, hmm?

[Vadymaus]

This is actually very important because Nauvis will not be as boring compared to the new planets and will be fresh. Previously, the world of Factorio was just random noise to the player. The mindset was: “The biters will be destroyed, the cliffs will be removed, the water will be landfilled, why even bother with this world, it's just a sandbox." But now the feeling is different, perhaps it’s just my perception. We'll find out when 2.0 comes out.

[Syriusz]

Love it! When I saw new planets I really hoped you will update Nauvis quality to mach and you delivered! Thank you!

[Terrahertz]

That looks amazing, good job!

The images of the dead ends made for quite the good laugh.

The mentioned customization of map generation at the end reminded me of something: How will map generation look in the expansion? Are there more tabs so we can setup each planet individually or do the planets just share the parameters?

Maybe this can be the topic of a future FFF, maybe after all planets have been revealed.

[Xanos]

What an absolute beast of an FFF blog entry!
Amazing work, and amazingly shown and explained. Kudos!

I am really looking forward to see this in action in the game

[Bersalius]

Very good update, I really apreciate it.

I have a suggestion: could you make double or triple cliffs? When it happens the sprite of them could change, so you can deliver the ilusion of height, making it fell like a mountain.

Here some examples:
Age of Empires II



Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines



I love cliffs and allways wanted to see how they can be improved. Anyway, keep it up!

[mcmase]

Today I learned I had completely forgotten how many planets were planned in the expansion, I thought we were awaiting the reveal of only one more planet at this point....

Corridors are amazing, I didn't know I needed them!

Now that I know there are 2 more planets yet to be announced I am holding onto hope for a "raid planet" where combat is the main theme!!!

[adam_bise]

This 'simple' idea ended up turning into a planet generation overhaul.

I love you guys! I've always enjoyed playing with the map generator. So glad it is getting improvements!

[vark111]

Well done. I might actually consider turning cliffs on again.

[morhp]

Wow, the new terrain looks so much better now!

[pkkushagra]

Do we get new creatures living in water i hope so in expansion