Friday Facts #235 - 0.16 stable

[zebediah49]

If you are using the Microsoft debuggers, one of the standard extensions is useful here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... er/-chkimg

Any time I see a crash in which the disassembly is suspect, I use !chkimg to find out if anything differs from the executable. This extension is smart enough to know that differences caused by relocations or the IAT are benign and should only tell you about real differences. It's really quite useful as a way to avoid wasting time on crashes that are single bit flips due to the interaction of cosmic radiation and non-ECC memory.

I was thinking something similar, although it didn't sound to me like the current Factorio executable gets uploaded, so I'm not sure if that would work. Hence, my thought was including a checksum of the in-memory executable (and possibly the on-disk one as well?) along with the dump -- if the checksum differs from the nominal it's potentially corrupted for some reason.

[topforce]

Mod integration improvements (HanziQ, Rseding).

Any chance we will get option to automatically download mandatory dependencies for mods?

[kovarex]

Mod integration improvements (HanziQ, Rseding).

Any chance we will get option to automatically download mandatory dependencies for mods?

This seems to be an obvious feature to have.

[Uristqwerty]

If you are using the Microsoft debuggers, one of the standard extensions is useful here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... er/-chkimg

Any time I see a crash in which the disassembly is suspect, I use !chkimg to find out if anything differs from the executable. This extension is smart enough to know that differences caused by relocations or the IAT are benign and should only tell you about real differences. It's really quite useful as a way to avoid wasting time on crashes that are single bit flips due to the interaction of cosmic radiation and non-ECC memory.

I was thinking something similar, although it didn't sound to me like the current Factorio executable gets uploaded, so I'm not sure if that would work. Hence, my thought was including a checksum of the in-memory executable (and possibly the on-disk one as well?) along with the dump -- if the checksum differs from the nominal it's potentially corrupted for some reason.

What about a checksum of each N kilobytes, with relocations zeroed or otherwise made predictable? Then it would show whether the modifications are localized to a specific area without a full upload.

[Lyfe]

Mod integration improvements (HanziQ, Rseding).

Any chance we will get option to automatically download mandatory dependencies for mods?

This seems to be an obvious feature to have.

+1000

I would also love to have the ability to favorite mods & create lists (modpacks) directly from the website (mods.factorio.com), and be able to download a list (meaning all mods in 1 click or a specific url mods.factorio.com/user/<user-id>/list/<list-unique-id>, very practical for multiplayer/headless servers managers)

Also a nice addition for mod authors, is probably alerts when someone posts a message ? (it seems it's not the case with the current mod portal)

[Omnifarious]

One thing I would ask, wait for the robot/belt balancing until you've seen a test map or two in which someone has used a pallet mod and minimal robots. I think adding pallets and the associated hassle, and the amazing power they give, turning a 40 item/sec belt into a 4000 item/sec belt, would make them a really viable alternative to bots.

One issue, of course, is that it's possible to have robots move pallets, but if pallets are included in the main game, robots shouldn't be able to move them.

[CmdrKeen]

will screen space shadows be possible with the new shader model access?

[ManaUser]

Arachnophobia is not a joke, why would any developer introduce spiders to alienate part of potential customers?

Can't tell if serious, but it is (would be) a player vehicle. If it bothers you, just don't build it.

[Oktokolo]

Any chance we will get option to automatically download mandatory dependencies for mods?

This seems to be an obvious feature to have.

+1000
I would also love to have the ability to favorite mods & create lists (modpacks) directly from the website (mods.factorio.com), and be able to download a list (meaning all mods in 1 click or a specific url mods.factorio.com/user/<user-id>/list/<list-unique-id>, very practical for multiplayer/headless servers managers)

Automatic installation of mod dependencies implies mod lists. A mod list is just a mod containing only a list of dependencies.

[bigyihsuan]

We changed nothing about how it worked and somehow it was crashing less.

to be fair that's how i feel sometimes when coding

and also playing factorio
and everything in life

[dood]

Are you gonna put the new laser turrets into 0.16 too tho?

[LemonyFresh]

Congratulations!!!
It's been so amazing to watch this amazing game's development from pretty early on, and now 1.0 is almost here!

Also the Friday Facts have been a really awesome developer blog to read. I hope you continue this tradition for Factorio and future projects to come!

[Doomquill]

It has been once or twice elsewhere mentioned that there will be a native Research Queue mechanism. I'm hoping it's included in the GUI rework. PLEASE INCLUDE IT I'M BEGGING YOU

[Ormek]

i applaud you for your focus, i really appreciate the focus on fixing broken things in the game over adding new content, i know i am not the only one that despises bugs more than anything. thank you all very much for making this wonderful game!

And I applaud as well! Bravo!

Focus on finalization! Besides bug fixing that includes all the things you mentioned in the post: given the GUI the final polish, bringing the missions together and up to date, create all required mini tutorials.

It does not include adding new game elements, although a spidertron could be the incentive for the developers to make it through the “boring” times of 0.17 and 0.18 to get to 1.0!

What are your plans for after 1.0? Selling AddOns? Sounds legit to me

[ske]

Arachnophobia is not a joke, why would any developer introduce spiders to alienate part of potential customers?

True. Only people with arachnophobia will understand. 8 legs is evil. The spidertron can have 6 or 10 legs but not 8, please. It really triggers arachnophobia.

[Gentz]

Any chance we can get a way to decrease UPS without decreasing FPS? That would make debugging combinators so much easier.

[ske]

I've gone through the list again and there is one item missing: "Neuter the bots."

What about the bots and belts topic? Is everything to stay as-is till at least 1.0?

What after 1.0? Will you fork factorio into two branches like 1.0-stable-maintenance and post-1.0-development?

[Lubricus]

Hahah, cheat mode on top of the cheat mods out there...wtf is wrong with people that they feel they have to cheat more than the game allows them

With redirecting the execution there is no limit with what you can do with mods! An many mods makes the game harder not easier.

[Gnivom]

Please improve car driving when on latency!
You have manged so well to hide latency that I almost never think about it.
The three exceptions I can think of are:
1. Biters are not where you think they are, and often when fighting you teleport around a lot.
2. Getting run over by a train after having passed the rail 2 seconds ago.
3. Driving a car on high latency is impossible on anything but empty plains.
Number three semms the most annoying, and fixable, to me.

[Luaan]

Careful with the recipe tree. Don't forget that some mods give many different recipes with the same results - showing the whole paths all at once would be crazy. "What it's made for", sure - that'd be great. But do try how well the changes work with something like Bob's+Angel's mods.

Fluid mechanics changes are also probably going to make a lot of people nervous What's wrong with the "fluids sloshing around in the tubes" model?