Friday Facts #190 - The quiet days

[factoriouzr]

I love the survival aspect of the game as a result of the biters. Ever since I first started playing the game (0.11 or before), biters have never been given any significant attention.

They are a part of the game I really enjoy, and I would love it if they got more love before calling it a 1.0 release. There are many suggestions, but some that I would like to see include:
+more varieties of biters (without biters that can teleport into your base or dig into your base), you have to be able to reasonably defend against them, but more then just biters and spitters and stationary turret worms would be great
+more interesting AI behaviour, such as actually taking a group of biters from one nearby base that actually tries to move to a place to setup a new base instead of just appearing there. That way you don't have to put victory poles everywhere to prevent biters spawns inside your base, but you isntead use logic. If biters can't get past the perimiter, they can't start a base in the centre of your base.
+other interesting biter AI such as picking better targets, changing up which targets they attack etc
+more options to tune their difficulty (for eg. now in 0.15 they appear everywhere within your base, around your defences etc. They appear right outside turret range too (and you can't tune the minimum expansion distance).
+add different and rarer biter bases with special boss type biters
+add less likely rare events with tougher enemies that attack once you get enough pollution, evolution etc
+add more biter attack types

In summary I love the biter survival aspects of the game but even on death world (I have done this many times in previous versions too by putting everything with biters on max and using Bob's mods which adds much tougher biters), they are just not that challenging or interesting. This is probably the most overlooked aspect of the game and needs attention before 1.0.

[CrushedIce]

I think you should add a few new achievements for the content of .15
For example finish the game on DeathWorld or the other difficulty presets, build nuclear reactors (maybe for building a large setup) or something like "research (infinite) technology x times"

Shouldn't be much work and I'm sure some people would appreciate it

[Jarin]

although personally, I am determined to reach the achievements myself regardless if they are already awarded or not.

Thankfully, in-game achievements are tracked separately from steam (and, I think, per-gameworld), so you can still earn them legitimately.

[thereaverofdarkness]

I love the survival aspect of the game as a result of the biters. Ever since I first started playing the game (0.11 or before), biters have never been given any significant attention.

They are a part of the game I really enjoy, and I would love it if they got more love before calling it a 1.0 release. <snip> This is probably the most overlooked aspect of the game and needs attention before 1.0.

I agree. The main things I want expanded before full release are pollution and enemies.

Someone else on the forums had a cool idea to make a biter hive cluster appear several hundred tiles away from you when you start, and have more hive clusters indefinitely, spaced a long distance from each other, and the one nearest your base would be active at all times and would actually build bases and units to combat you. Should you defeat the central command portion of the hive cluster, the assault will cease and the remaining biters will scatter and go into anarchy. From then on, the region formerly belonging to that hive cluster will be a safer place to build.

[SirLANsalot]

Automated Combat

Found this lovely mod a while back
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/kyranzor/robotarmy

Pretty much automates combat for you, the robots are fun and do a good job at keeping the biter bases far away. Endgame the rocket and flamer bots are good at taking out even the largest of bases, also configuring the squad sizes to be bigger helps too.

As for Trains when I hear bridge I think of being able to build over water without the need to fill it in, rather then building over your base (which is silly, just design better )

[thereaverofdarkness]

Rather than a bridge over rails, I'd like to have underground rails which can put a portion of the tracks underground. It should have a minimum distance of like 10 track tiles, and should cost a lot of stone brick and steel as bracing for the tunnel. But I'd also like to see a bridge that can be built over water. Probably it would be made from concrete and steel. It would have the disadvantage of being higher tech than landfill, and the advantage of costing less total stone and allowing you to build larger paths more easily. Plus it might just look cool, and if water ever becomes a limited resource, the bridge doesn't eliminate water underneath it while the landfill does. And if we get watercraft, they can go under the bridge.

[Drury]

It'd be cool if landfill got replaced with steel grate floor of sorts. Place it down anywhere, including over water. If it's over water, you can still see the water underneath, but you can walk and build stuff on it. Functionally basically the same thing as landfill, visually much cooler and doesn't make you scratch your head when you build it around a water pump and the pump still works. Makes your footsteps go clang clang.

[jessjade]

oh it totally makes sense now. thanks so much for the update!

[Shadowkeeper256]

I tried to delete Factorio's achievements.dat, but it got restored from Steam. So I really hope you will be able to fix this issue, although personally, I am determined to reach the achievements myself regardless if they are already awarded or not.

Turn of steam cloud, then have the game generate a new achievements.dat by deleting the old. Should work (it's one of the reasons I don't use the cloud, I'll decide when a file needs to be replaced by a backup thank you very much ...)