Friday Facts #365 - Future plans

[pletiplot]

On thing in summary is missing: scorpio Neobuthus factorio was named after the game.

[gorbag]

Factorio needs a good campaign, with a proper story.

I agree. What's fun about, e.g., starcraft is the story and the gradually increasing difficulty as you work through it. Freestyle is fun too of course, but some solid campaigns would be worth add-on money too.

And adding multiple enemy types (which require different strategies to hold off) would keep things interesting for quite a while. How about something like worms that can burrow under your factory and appear in the middle of it? Aerial creatures?

And then of course we'd need orbital mind control lasers (™ Steve Jackson Games) to help bring the nasties to heel.

[Roodvlees]

A big expansion? We already have that in mods. Why not make a completely new and different game? As in, nothing to do with Factorio.

[TheEnemy42]

I'm not sure how many from Wube are following the subreddit so I'd like to just post this here as well to extend my thanks to everyone on the team:

the 1.1 release is the final release of the vanilla game.

To be honest, in a way it kinda makes me a bit sad but all good things must come to an end. Thankfully it's not really the end and I look forward to even more adventures from Wube. But a congratulations is in order on a job well done!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank kovarex and the rest of Wube. I thank you for a great game, that has given me untold hours of fun, both playing alone, with random strangers online sharing the same interest, colleagues and with my kids and family, including my brother who for a time lived far away and we used Factorio as a way to keep up. I thank you for your open community engagement, both on Reddit, on the forums and by the regular FFFs that has always been a joy to read.

I feel proud from having been able to participate in this great game as a local language translator, knowing that however small part it is in the big scheme of things, I was able to help make it a better game for others to enjoy.

Thanks for all the fish and I look forward to the next step!

[Molay]

I think there's opportunity for a smaller DLC before you add more exciting features with a proper expansion. I think a DLC Campaign would be a perfectly fine thing to have.

On the upside, if people skip this smaller DLC, it won't affect multiplayer or balance whatsoever, as it is entirely self-contained and using existing game.

It may yield additions to the modding API as a side effect, which everyone could benefit from whether they buy it or not.

It should be a lot faster to create than a big expansion, giving us some cool content while work on the expansion continues.

Whether a linear story driven campaign, or something more sandboxy with randomly generated regions you build up and connect to one another in a campaign map (thing anno 2205 or 1800). The campaign could be bundled with a free patch if you so choose (many companies release DLC along FLC), for example if the campaign were to make use of different biomes (with Earendel on the team that seems a no-brainer), said biomes could be made available to everyone in the form of a "FLC" (or you'd just call it an update presumably ^^)

Either way I'm looking forward to the future, I'm excited you're expanding the team, and so so glad to see the name Earendel there. With him you can certainly reach for the stars

[Drury]

I want clearly a weather aspect more important in the game. There should be rainy days with less solar production. Even better with regional affects, which makes desserts more effective for solar.

And changing wind direction, which influences the direction of pollution, making it more unpredictable where next attack came from and raises the advantages of green modules even more.
...

There is so much to do, what makes Factorio even better than it is already

Frankly, that's all I wanted too. Just ways to add more atmosphere to the game and perhaps change up the gameplay a bit in the process.

Recently I played an islands game with MoWeather, dectorio and Alien Biomes. I was going for a kind of Tropico feel in Factorio, y'know, sun-kissed palm tree beaches, tropical jungles, wooden floorboards, rainy days, industrial waste, dirty cargo ships.

Around Christmas I got some of those cheesy holiday mods, y'know the ones that swap power poles with candy canes and science packs with presents? Mixed that with Industrial Revolution 2 and the mod that reskins all temperate textures with snowy/icy ones. Also got a mod to increase night time and darken it a bit, it played nicely with the nighttime illumination update and the steampunky vibe of IR2 earlygame, factory felt like a cozy elf village with boiler fires and steam everywhere. Shame there's no mod for actual falling snow.

It was fun to experiment like that, see what kinds of vibes you can get from just this one game. From a gameplay perspective I'd be curious to try a mod that adds some kind of uncertainty to the game. It's pretty common for mods to take advantage of the % chance to produce a certain thing that the kovarex process does, but in the end that is also predictable - you just filter all the resources and that's that. Maybe if there was some kind of fluctuating supply/demand mechanic? Sometimes you might want to produce a lot of a certain type of item, but then other times it's another item. I feel like there's room there to introduce new gameplay to tackle that issue, as it stands the whole game is made to accommodate building factories only for producing as much science as possible. Some kind of big competent official expansion that introduces that kind of gameplay variety as well as variety in various vibes could maybe work?

Maybe like an expansion where you have to satisfy the needs of some kind of galactic market? You go from planet to planet and mine the local resources available and make them into products that you sell for science packs. If you sell too much of a certain resource, the price goes down, so you have to shift into manufacturing a different product that's currently in demand. Naturally, the simple products like gears would always be cheap through basic market dynamics (it'd be easy to flood the market with them) and complicated ones like blue ciruit kinda expensive, so it wouldn't be completely bonkers different to the vanilla game, but the market could shift in unexpected ways due to random events and cause you to reconsider the balance of your factory on the fly. Oh yeah, and you'd be able to buy things off the market too, so if you're on a planet or in a biome where a certain resource isn't readily available, but it's kinda cheap on the market, you could just import it. Until you import too much and it gets expensive, forcing you to go out and actually get it. Perhaps there could be new machines for manually causing rapid shifts in your production, like a way to swap modules en-masse, or, hear me out on this, finally give us the damn circuitable splitters?

So that's like my one idea that I can think of which I don't know if mods can do.

[geekoid]

I'd like to echo TheEnemy42's sentiments and congratulate the entire team at Wube for this fantastic journey.

I discovered Factorio through a complete stranger I met in the pub, about 5 years ago. He was actually sitting and playing this game on his laptop while drinking at one of the tables in the bar, and it immediately gave me flashbacks to my addiction with the first Civilization game (yeah, I bought that when it first came out in 1991!), Total Annihilation and Command & Conquer.

To find a game that captivated me that much once again? I immediately bought a copy on my phone.

What a fantastic journey it has been! Thank you, Kovarex and team, for taking us with you on it.

As for the FFF future plans, I also think expansion packs would be the way to go. I'll never flinch about buying new add-ons to Factorio, since there's no doubt Wube can can create wonderfully captivating content.

I'd also be very happy to pay for being part of those packs during Early Access and help to shape their final form.

[Ringkeeper]

my credo always is "no pre-orders" . Always... well at least since i got some crap that i pre-ordered.

Any way... where is the pre-order button?

[bar10dr]

Had to log in to express my 100% agreement with your assessment regarding how to go forward.

One big expansion pack is in my mind the best option.

You could also let some of the content spill over to the main game, just to get people who otherwise wouldn't check out the expansion pack; try the game again, and then purchase the expansion pack after they get re-hooked again

The only thing would be that it would have to be something different I think, just adding more recipes and enemies isn't enough.

I really like the way Dyson Sphere did it, where you can finish one planet, then move on to the next; and all the planets together forms a whole. Since a planet isn't infinite in area, you get satisfaction and a sense of completing something once you are done with it. And sometimes it makes sense to go back and re-do a planet as well.

Perhaps the next step could be to venture into space, and conquer more and different planets with different challenges?

Whatever you end up making, I'll be sure to love it. Keep up the good work.

[Gehaktbal]

my credo always is "no pre-orders" . Always... well at least since i got some crap that i pre-ordered.

Any way... where is the pre-order button?

I will join these many comments. After having spent so many hours on factorio I need a pre order button of something to support u. Just buying extra copies feel silly.
Even if it turns out shit I dont care. Then again, I already know it will be of the highest quality.

[Filter62]

Factorio needs a good campaign, with a proper story.

I like the theory that the planet isnt alien, its earth after a bioweapon apocalypse.

Dunno about earth scenario you mentioned, but full blown campaign sounds nice, always wanted something like this, but to be worth it, it should be at least 15-20hrs long, with good story)

[boksiora]

Please add more races

A race similar to the Protoss from Star Craft with their own tech tree and units will be great DLC content

[Filter62]

my credo always is "no pre-orders" . Always... well at least since i got some crap that i pre-ordered.

Any way... where is the pre-order button?

I will join these many comments. After having spent so many hours on factorio I need a pre order button of something to support u. Just buying extra copies feel silly.
Even if it turns out shit I dont care. Then again, I already know it will be of the highest quality.

Yeah, give me pre-order button))) Even if it's something like DLC *Name undecided*, I still pay, I have unwavering trust in Wube as developers. =D

P.S. Btw, what actually could be done is space stage shown long long ago as expansion pack)))

[bormand]

where is the pre-order button?

Honestly, let them work at comfortable speed, without pressure from that pre-orders.

[Kladdey]

Whenever you release it - I'll buy it.

[Mylon]

I hope the expansion means the base game will be discounted. I almost always way for the GOTY edition to get the "full" game at a reasonable price. And this is one reason why I'll never buy the "complete" EU4.

[Jon8RFC]

Ok, well, there are still features that people want, so what about also...

A feature bounty system? If enough players want a new feature and they collectively pledge an amount where a particular developer finds it worthwhile, then that dev pockets 100% of bounty once the feature is implemented. None to Wube since the features aren't seen as "worthwhile" for Wube to do, but if a developer wants some extra cash, what's the harm if it further polishes the game?

[ElCapitan1701]

Hi,
I will buy any DLC you develope, that is for sure.

I had hopped it will be more frequent, smaller DLC as I am like to "finish" games. So Mods are not really my world, and after one playthrough I dont play games again in singleplayer. So a steady flow of new official content would have kept me busy...but hey, after more then 8 years you have earned the right to do what ever makes fun.

But I would like to encourage you to do a complete new game. Different setting, different genre, something new. Imho the games the AAA companies do are all the same and mostly of two or three types of games. So there a plenty of areas which would benefit from your game developing philosophy and the way you do games.

You did factorio. Its perfect. So this could be it. I am not sure if you only can make it worse, so think twice before doing it. And I also dont know how old you are and if this is the end of your career. It would be a worthy end. But if there are still 20 years before you, do a new game. Fall in love again. And take us with you (Or not).

[tolomea]

You could call reset on the base mod, wipe the tech tree and all the art. And make another game in the engine using your tool chain. Explore a different point in the design space.

Civ 2 vs Alpha Centauri.

It's chance to consider if the current research cost ramp is the only way to do progression.
A chance to change things like belt/inserter mechanics or get get rid of / overhaul drones.
Experiment with a different aesthetic, hi-tech or even more steam punk, or heavily biological etc.
etc etc

Personally, for my 5 cents, I'd be curious about a progression where the cost is in the factory not the science packs.
Maybe copper wire can only be made slowly in small volumes at level n, and all the n+1 machines require crap loads of it, but the n+1 machines also let you make it much faster.

[ThorsDragon]

Super hyped already for the expansion! xD Really happy that you guys have decided to go this route!!