Friday Facts #189 - Specifying the 1.0

[factoriouzr]

What about other promised features such as being able to see everything in the logistics network. The only way to see this now, is still with the ancient GUI when you hover over a logistics item and it's cut off and becomes useless very quickly after getting robots because the items run off the screen and jump positions too fast. This would be a great integration into the production GUI with an ability to search for specific items.

Try pressing L button in game. And be amazed.

s*** how did I miss that. Why is there no button for this along with the production tab, or why is this not in the productions tab. Why is this hidden lol.

Thanks for the tip. I love it

[Jarin]

Can we please please *please* have the ability to drive straight down a road without having to install a mod?

[factoriouzr]

Can we please please *please* have the ability to drive straight down a road without having to install a mod?

+10

Yes, good point, I use a mod for this too.

[Nofew]

What happened to dirty mining? D: That's the one single feature I've wanted since the first few times I've played Factorio!

[Aurilika]

Sorry for the confusion I was trying to summarize a previous suggestion I made (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38496). This feature is not in the game now and running cables for distant outposts is a chore and would make this more difficult. Basically what this boils down to is that train management in this game is too basic.

I was unsure whether or not to resurrect that thread or post it here, but you can already do several of the things in your suggestion without mods. I'm not trying to criticize you here, I'm just trying to help you (and others) have fun.

You have 10 iron mining outposts. You can name them all Iron Mine, and they will only show up as a single stop in the scheduler window, which reduces clutter. You can set it so that each train is only available as a stop by just wiring the chests at that stop to the stop, so trains will only bother showing up if they can be fully loaded (station is enabled if it has more than 6k iron ore, etc.). You don't need any long distance circuit connections, just the area around the stop. Each train only needs 2 stops then, Iron Mine and Iron Unloading. They will automatically only pick ones where they can fully fill themselves from. You could even have different iron unloading stations scattered around that it will only stop at if they need iron. If you had a huge train network you could subdivide and have "Iron Mine West" as a subgroup if going to any iron mine would result in a lot of excess travel.

You have a supply train that delivers supplies to various outposts. The Train has two stops, its loading station, and a Station named "Supply". All you have to do is build a new station, rename it to "Supply", set up a simple logic circuit from the chest/logistic network of the stop that flags the station as a stop if it's missing any of the supplies it needs, though you can also make that logic decision into just a blueprint, so all you'd need to do is use the blueprint, then rename the station. The Supply train just hangs out at the headquarters then unless there's any station that needs supplies, in which case it will automatically go to that station, drop off what supplies it needs and then go back home. The only disadvantage is that it would have to go home after every stop. You could make it automatically visit multiple stops before going home, but then it may be lacking supplies by the time it got to the later stops.

[Artman40]

What happened to dirty mining? D: That's the one single feature I've wanted since the first few times I've played Factorio!

Same. Problem with devs stating that "mining productivity research seems to be solving the problem" is that despite all the tech you can get, your mining procedures will be same once you get your electric mining drills which is very early in the game. Also, the productivity doesn't give that high of a boost.

[factoriouzr]

Sorry for the confusion I was trying to summarize a previous suggestion I made (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38496). This feature is not in the game now and running cables for distant outposts is a chore and would make this more difficult. Basically what this boils down to is that train management in this game is too basic.

I was unsure whether or not to resurrect that thread or post it here, but you can already do several of the things in your suggestion without mods. I'm not trying to criticize you here, I'm just trying to help you (and others) have fun.

You have 10 iron mining outposts. You can name them all Iron Mine, and they will only show up as a single stop in the scheduler window, which reduces clutter. You can set it so that each train is only available as a stop by just wiring the chests at that stop to the stop, so trains will only bother showing up if they can be fully loaded (station is enabled if it has more than 6k iron ore, etc.). You don't need any long distance circuit connections, just the area around the stop. Each train only needs 2 stops then, Iron Mine and Iron Unloading. They will automatically only pick ones where they can fully fill themselves from. You could even have different iron unloading stations scattered around that it will only stop at if they need iron. If you had a huge train network you could subdivide and have "Iron Mine West" as a subgroup if going to any iron mine would result in a lot of excess travel.

You have a supply train that delivers supplies to various outposts. The Train has two stops, its loading station, and a Station named "Supply". All you have to do is build a new station, rename it to "Supply", set up a simple logic circuit from the chest/logistic network of the stop that flags the station as a stop if it's missing any of the supplies it needs, though you can also make that logic decision into just a blueprint, so all you'd need to do is use the blueprint, then rename the station. The Supply train just hangs out at the headquarters then unless there's any station that needs supplies, in which case it will automatically go to that station, drop off what supplies it needs and then go back home. The only disadvantage is that it would have to go home after every stop. You could make it automatically visit multiple stops before going home, but then it may be lacking supplies by the time it got to the later stops.

Interesting Idea. I will have to try that. It doesn't exactly solve the same issues I am trying to solve, but it does alleviate some. For example, if I want it to grab resources in real time, it won't unless there is enough at one outpost. Also It will favor closer outposts until they get exhausted or severely slow down in production before it goes to further outposts. I like balancing the mining from each outpost.

Having said all that though, I like your suggestion and I think it will make it easier and more enjoyable for me to play with trains. Thanks for sharing .

How can I flag a station as a supply stop if it's missing resources based on filter inserters connected to the logistics network at the outpost. I have the inserters unloading from the train to passive providers if a quantity of an item is less then a value I set on the inserter. Can I reuse this limit? I would hate to have to redefine the limits again.

Also is there a way to set a constant combinator for eg. to how many of each good I want and have the train stop enabled based on that, and also have the filter inserters respect those amounts too? Ie. right now I have 2 stack filter inserters unloading 12 unique items into 12 passive providers per wagon. Is there an easier way to do this that's less configuring and micro managing?

[factoriouzr]

Sorry for the confusion I was trying to summarize a previous suggestion I made (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38496). This feature is not in the game now and running cables for distant outposts is a chore and would make this more difficult. Basically what this boils down to is that train management in this game is too basic.

I was unsure whether or not to resurrect that thread or post it here, but you can already do several of the things in your suggestion without mods. I'm not trying to criticize you here, I'm just trying to help you (and others) have fun.

You have 10 iron mining outposts. You can name them all Iron Mine, and they will only show up as a single stop in the scheduler window, which reduces clutter. You can set it so that each train is only available as a stop by just wiring the chests at that stop to the stop, so trains will only bother showing up if they can be fully loaded (station is enabled if it has more than 6k iron ore, etc.). You don't need any long distance circuit connections, just the area around the stop. Each train only needs 2 stops then, Iron Mine and Iron Unloading. They will automatically only pick ones where they can fully fill themselves from. You could even have different iron unloading stations scattered around that it will only stop at if they need iron. If you had a huge train network you could subdivide and have "Iron Mine West" as a subgroup if going to any iron mine would result in a lot of excess travel.

You have a supply train that delivers supplies to various outposts. The Train has two stops, its loading station, and a Station named "Supply". All you have to do is build a new station, rename it to "Supply", set up a simple logic circuit from the chest/logistic network of the stop that flags the station as a stop if it's missing any of the supplies it needs, though you can also make that logic decision into just a blueprint, so all you'd need to do is use the blueprint, then rename the station. The Supply train just hangs out at the headquarters then unless there's any station that needs supplies, in which case it will automatically go to that station, drop off what supplies it needs and then go back home. The only disadvantage is that it would have to go home after every stop. You could make it automatically visit multiple stops before going home, but then it may be lacking supplies by the time it got to the later stops.

Interesting Idea. I will have to try that. It doesn't exactly solve the same issues I am trying to solve, but it does alleviate some. For example, if I want it to grab resources in real time, it won't unless there is enough at one outpost. Also It will favor closer outposts until they get exhausted or severely slow down in production before it goes to further outposts. I like balancing the mining from each outpost.

Having said all that though, I like your suggestion and I think it will make it easier and more enjoyable for me to play with trains. Thanks for sharing .

How can I flag a station as a supply stop if it's missing resources based on filter inserters connected to the logistics network at the outpost. I have the inserters unloading from the train to passive providers if a quantity of an item is less then a value I set on the inserter. Can I reuse this limit? I would hate to have to redefine the limits again.

Also is there a way to set a constant combinator for eg. to how many of each good I want and have the train stop enabled based on that, and also have the filter inserters respect those amounts too? Ie. right now I have 2 stack filter inserters unloading 12 unique items into 12 passive providers per wagon. Is there an easier way to do this that's less configuring and micro managing?

There is an issue even with the base implementation of this. If I set up two train stops as you describe, now the train is on it's way to my station and the condition changes and the stop becomes disabled, the train immediately stops and tries to go back to the first stop. The issue is that it might stop on a one way track or in an intersection. When it's not double headed, it won't find a path. I have to try this, but I might be able to get this to work if I add a roundabout somewhere in my rail network. Haven't built the network yet under 0.15 game.

[DOSorDIE]

Thank you Dev for make Factorio with 0.15 the best game ever for me/us!!!

What i like to see in 0.16/1.0:
1. An Arty <-- feed the beast to get the area clear to expand.
2. Dirty Mining
3. Something that mark miner to deconstruct or mark it easy visible when its empty
4. A simple Autoresearch feature what i can switch on/off and take the cheapest resaearch automatic after 10-20 sec when i dont chosen on.
5. An ealy lumberjack (what ever) maybe a assembler what automatic and slowly kill the trees around it.
6. For higher challenging something like orechaos ... exept in the starting area.
7. That when i have more exoskelets that i not start with full speed. Instead start slow and will be faster with time
8. That i can drive in a straight line with a car/tank
9. A hotkey to disable/enable bots ... but sometimes you dont want it
10. Much better personal solar panels because the are complete useless now to use it with bots
11. A early personal generator that work with burnable things to make it possible to work very early with bots
12. A Starting Option where are i get: 4-6 Construction Robots, a battery, that burngenerator and an armorless Suite that can hold that 2 things
13. Harder nuclear power .. make sure that it dont overheat!

You see the most thinks i want are only Qualitiy of Life changes because your Game are nearly perfect for me!

The Spidertron i would also like to see.

[Aurilika]

How can I flag a station as a supply stop if it's missing resources based on filter inserters connected to the logistics network at the outpost. I have the inserters unloading from the train to passive providers if a quantity of an item is less then a value I set on the inserter. Can I reuse this limit? I would hate to have to redefine the limits again.

Also is there a way to set a constant combinator for eg. to how many of each good I want and have the train stop enabled based on that, and also have the filter inserters respect those amounts too? Ie. right now I have 2 stack filter inserters unloading 12 unique items into 12 passive providers per wagon. Is there an easier way to do this that's less configuring and micro managing?

I think the best way would be to have 12 deciders around a roboport that are linked in to it, and if any one of the deciders reads less than that quantity, it outputs some signal, and then the stop would be connected and set to enabled if there is at least 1 instance of that signal, so that any one of them would trigger it. That would be a little bit of work to set up, but you could save the whole thing as a blueprint to be reused. You could set a constant combinator that outputs a signal that all 12 deciders compare against for an easily changeable limit. You can also wire that same signal over to the inserters as well, would take a decent amount of wiring, but as before you can blueprint it as well. As for the unique items, that probably is the best way (to have 12 inserters), unless they implement item filters for chests.

There is an issue even with the base implementation of this. If I set up two train stops as you describe, now the train is on it's way to my station and the condition changes and the stop becomes disabled, the train immediately stops and tries to go back to the first stop. The issue is that it might stop on a one way track or in an intersection. When it's not double headed, it won't find a path. I have to try this, but I might be able to get this to work if I add a roundabout somewhere in my rail network. Haven't built the network yet under 0.15 game.

Ah, hadn't run into that yet, guess my network isn't big enough, not sure if there is a good way around that one, other than just making sure there is plenty of space for trains to turn around and get back on the right track by going forward.

[LuxSublima]

Hi,

A quick comment about the blueprint based gameplay - I think random is an essential part of Factorio.

jon

I agree - a whole game mode locked to one map forever seems like a lost opportunity to make such a cool idea even cooler. Maybe there could be a default seed that everyone uses most easily, but let people adjust the seed optionally so they can see how their strategy adapts to unknown locations.

[RubiksImplosion]

I love the idea of a blueprint mode, It would be quite fun to design a modular factory that you can quickly place down.

[LuxSublima]

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-189

Kovarex you and your team are amazing. Such professionalism -- wouldn't be surprised if in the future you all are in textbooks at game development courses as a case study in doing it all very, very right.

One thing I hope is still being considered for 1.0: The original presentation of nuclear included a water cycle with cooling towers. Those towers are _so_ iconic, and I long to be able to use them. I hope they make the cut.

Either way though, bravo for such a great game as it nears such a significant milestone. You all have given me hundreds of hours of enjoyment, and I don't doubt there will be thousands more.

[Darci of Mountain]

Please, don't stop at 1.0!
I know that it won't be much profitable, but at least consider paid expansions, do not discard all the ideas you had because they are new features. I would gladly pay for expansions, I already gifted my friends with Factorio so many times as it feels as a nice reward for the devs of a SOFA KING GREAT GAME.
Keep up the good work!

I Would love a Starbound/Space Engineers/Factorio mashup.
We need to pollute galaxies, not a single planet.

More and more guns please.
It feels so easy to throw a lot of laser turrets on the defence line (nuclear reactors, anyone? pff), it should be more rewarding the hard way(LOTS and LOTS of cooper/steel foundries to feed an awful lot of assemblers throwing ammo thorough the base)... More turrets like a MK2 version of the initial one would be nice. Uranium ammo is nice, really nice. The turret range is awful, not to mention the time it loses to "pop up".

Thanks for this game devs, we really, really love you.

[oLaudix]

Blueprint based gameplay

I made myself a mod that does exacly this. Gives me power armor some items and research for robots and blueprints. I have like 5 blueprint books with different stuff and its a lot of fun to play this way. I tweak and change them every playthtough and each time i achieve the endgame faster which gives a lot of satisfaction and spares me hours of grinding to test stuff.

This is also one of the reasons i like this game so much. If i get bored i can mod it easly and i basically have entirely new game.

[funkanaton]

I feel like special mode would be a great starting point for pvp based games. A little faster pace in a rts sort of way perhaps

[AndrewIRL]

A quick comment about the blueprint based gameplay - I think random is an essential part of Factorio.

I agree - a whole game mode locked to one map forever seems like a lost opportunity to make such a cool idea even cooler. Maybe there could be a default seed that everyone uses most easily, but let people adjust the seed optionally so they can see how their strategy adapts to unknown locations.

Also agree. Presumably the logic is that if the terrain doesn't change then the blueprints can be identical and you can stamp out an entire factory fitted to the environment - people could collaborate to build the one perfect factory. But I'd rather use smaller blueprints and fit them to random environments. Please make the blueprint based gameplay default to a particular map seed but also provide a random option.

[Chaoseed]

The reason for it is, that we usually tend to automate mining drill production at this stage anyway as it crafts slowly and is needed in large quantities. The point of the science packs usually is to guide the player to automate things that he should have automated anyway, and this seems like more natural choice and part of the semi-hidden message of: "Oh, you want to automate blue science pack, it costs a lot more iron that the previous ones, so you will probably have to mine more, so it is a good time to automate the mining drill production.".

Wait...what? Okay, I'm still playing the stable 1.4 and not the experimental 1.5...But I never automate mining drill production. In fact, I never automate assembling machine production either...Really, the only automation I do is to create basic resources, or science packs, or rocket parts. Why would you spend time setting up factories for, say, mining drills, when you can just hand-craft them on site, and you don't have to split your iron production again?

[sowieso]

I would like that you give the aliens some more attention for 1.0. I understand that many people don't like to kill enemy bases for science packs, but now there is no reward anymore if I clean the enemy bases which makes it frustrating. Would be nice if buildings (and biters) drop something useful again, nothing mandatory though. Maybe ammunition for some new alien gun? Or some ingredients for ammunition which improves it. Or maybe create fake aliens buildings from the purple stuff that limit enemy expansion.

For after 1.0 (as an addon) I'd love to see space factories. Of course they should be dependent on the planet factory as there should be products that require space and planet products. Anno 2070 was a nice example of joining two-layer production (surface and subsurface).

[Jarin]

What happened to dirty mining? D: That's the one single feature I've wanted since the first few times I've played Factorio!

Same. Problem with devs stating that "mining productivity research seems to be solving the problem" is that despite all the tech you can get, your mining procedures will be same once you get your electric mining drills which is very early in the game. Also, the productivity doesn't give that high of a boost.

Agreed on both points