Friday Facts #370 - The journey to Nintendo Switch

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-370

[Tokk]

A whole other year without an update is very sad news.

Factorio got as big and well known as it is due to the early-access model, perhaps it would be a good idea to rethink the stop of this idea?

[Virus7021]

A question about why mods are not on the switch version:
Is it because of nintendos requirements? Limited access to file system/network?
Or has it to do with ARM and the mentioned problem with undefined behaviour?

[wellczech]

From FFF: I settled for "the average player should be able to finish the game by launching a rocket and the game should maintain 60 UPS". Luckily, the performance met that target, even if it was quite close.

I guess no mods for performance reasons.

[Kyralessa]

The reason why we still don't share specific details is, that we have to sadly inform you, that it still won't be ready sooner than in a year from now. Once the estimates get reasonably close, we will start dropping some FFFs.

I respect your dedication to quality, a dedication practically unparalleled in the software world.

Take your time. Make it good.

[BattleFluffy]

Twinsen, I know mods are not supported on the switch version - but will scenarios be supported on the Switch version? I spend the past ~4 months developing a scenario :> It would be nice if that works on the switch.

Regarding the expansion, take all the time you need friends. We support your decisions.
Peace and love <3

[Loewchen]

This is very exciting, I have questions:

1. You previously mentioned that modding would not be a thing on the Switch, does that include scripting that is directly inserted in a save file without a mod download? If yes, would servers using this method not be shown in the Switches server browser? If no, does that not undermine the reasons for not having modding in the first place (memory usage, mature content)?
2. Now that the game runs on ARM even with support for cross platform play, will there be a general ARM release (15011)?
3. Expecting an influx of crashes and desyncs in a month, where do people find log files and desync-reports on their Switches?

[fishycat]

Interesting read as always! Thanks for the unexpected FFF. Now that we roughly know when to expect the expansion I can start some laid back combinations of mods i always wanted to play, without the "preasure" of an expansion around the corner.

[Koub]

where 12 people spent 5 full days racing to finish the game before the end of the week.

Now that's LONG !

[matjojo]

Great work on the switch stuff! I like the style for the UI in the switch, though it does remind me a lot more of 0.12 factorio than the new UI. Is that on purpose?

And for the extension, another year to go at least. A long wait but surely worth the time. Very happy to see that you lots are putting this much time into it. Very exciting stuff.

[Tertius]

I like the story of how the Switch port was developed. Being in IT myself, I feel you have a healthy team with good working cooperation between everyone, so I congratulate you. Must be satisfying (don't want to say fun) working at Wube.
It looks like magic how you navigate through all the menus and dialogs. Great work!

I don't like the long waiting time for the expansion, but not very much. For my part, I have enough to do with vanilla (and mods) for another year.

[SHiRKiT]

Not doing FFF updates for the expansion is the biggest bummer I've seen in a while. Sad to see that this is the path you guys took.

[Xeorm]

Not doing FFF updates for the expansion is the biggest bummer I've seen in a while. Sad to see that this is the path you guys took.

Same. I really missed the updates, and just generally hearing about what's happening.

[Twinsen]

This is very exciting, I have questions:

1. You previously mentioned that modding would not be a thing on the Switch, does that include scripting that is directly inserted in a save file without a mod download? If yes, would servers using this method not be shown in the Switches server browser? If no, does that not undermine the reasons for not having modding in the first place (memory usage, mature content)?
2. Now that the game runs on ARM even with support for cross platform play, will there be a general ARM release (15011)?
3. Expecting an influx of crashes and desyncs in a month, where do people find log files and desync-reports on their Switches?

1. Scripts still work, so scenarios and "soft-modded" games will work, this includes soft modded servers. But I have some bad news about servers; because of some requirements from Nintendo, you won't find dedicated servers in the server list, only games hosted from the game client(direct IP connect should still work regardless). The main reasons for why modding isn't there is we would have to be much more strict in policing offensive mods. Also performance and crashes: many, many mods would cause the game to randomly run out of memory or have poor performance. And finally user experience: most mods will be designed without controller in mind and will have very clunky broken or missing interactions. For a typical console player all these are pretty big issues.
2. There's no plans for more releases on ARM as I don't think there's that much demand, but it's something that is now more likely to come in the future as it becomes more popular. Just because the game compiles on one ARM platform, it doesn't mean it will just work on all of them. Adding a new platform comes with a lot of work, such as creating a possibly complex build script, setting up a build server, setting up a test server, setting up distribution(website, steam, more?) and dealing with maintaining everything for the whole time(e.g. updating the build script when we change to a newer C++ standard, fixing any compilation issues that arise because of different compilers). On top of that, is we are talking about Mac, add the whole notarization, signing and whatever else they need and change all the time. There needs to be someone dedicated to making it happen and maintaining it.
3. The Nintendo Switch system has an automatic crash reporter so players should simply press "accept" when prompted(and make sure crash reporting is not disabled in their settings) and I should get most the necessary information. Desync reports are problematic, as desync report saving is disabled(since there's no clear, simple way to take files from the console). For now desync reports can be created by hosting a game on the console and connecting from a PC, since the client is the one who will be forced to create a desync report. If it looks like desyncs are a problem, I will work on further solutions for sharing desync reports.

[DanGio]

I love FFFs. But the reasons stated for stopping them are still valid. 50 FFF basically saying "we're not ready, soon" don't seem necessary. People, don't forget that FFF drained a lot of dev time

[Raphaello]

that it still won't be ready sooner than in a year from now.

That's really not what I expected. Oh well, this on the other hand gives me time to finish nullius and try the new PY mods...

I respect the amount of attention you put in and I am happy you want to give us a fully baked expansion for a full price rather than settling for a cash grab.

The only wish I have is to be able to get more regular info on expansion - to satisfy my curiosity and to manage expectations of all of us.

[Loewchen]

Good to know, thank you.

[maniak1349]

won't be ready sooner than in a year from now

Sad! Well, at least we know now that you are getting there, albeit slowly. Thanks for letting us know.

[dasiro]

FFF's kept a lot of people aware of the game and the journey towards the release was longer than the time it took to finish the game for everyone. I've had several early-access games that never delivered. What kept us going was probably the visible progression and mods, even now years later. So I wonder whether it's still worth the wait if modders are leaving and new ones don't really fill their big shoes left behind.

[AlphaStrike]

I love FFFs. But the reasons stated for stopping them are still valid. 50 FFF basically saying "we're not ready, soon" don't seem necessary. People, don't forget that FFF drained a lot of dev time

Not doing FFF doesn't seem to have affected their rate of dev for the expansion at all...