Friday Facts #386 - Vulcanus

[FuryoftheStars]

If you read ALL of the post, you CANNOT landfill lava. Lava is permanent. Which is good.

Wrong.

Ahem. Please read that first line, near the end.

You might want to read your own screenshot again....

that you can't landfill (for a long time)

That does not mean it is "permanent".

[Ciber]

I hope they also have a "planet" like the jupiter moon IO which is far from the sun but still very volcanic due to tidal forces.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Vulcanus seems kinda like a mix between Io's vulcanism and Venus's toxic/caustic atmosphere, though obviously toned down to make it possible to survive there. Adding Venus is a pretty neat twist on the "lethal lava planet" trope.

[Qon]

If you read ALL of the post, you CANNOT landfill lava. Lava is permanent. Which is good.

Wrong.

Ahem. Please read that first line, near the end.

Over time, the lava has become more of a pivotal part of the gameplay because it provides a lot of new opportunities: It is a new obstacle that you can't landfill (for a long time),

Excellent self own, confirming that you are wrong with your own quote. Maybe read what you quote next time, I was considering quoting that part myself also. But I decided 1 instance of them confirming that lava is going to be landfillable was enough. So yes they say it several times that lava can be landfilled. It's ultra confirmed.

[V.V.V]

Will there be hazardous weahter conditions?
Since every volcanic active region creates it's own weather, this would be a great opportunity to see such a thing as an obstacle in game.
Weather events like acid fog or rain that corrodes machinery, ash rains that slowly bury areas and buildings (maybe slow down belts) and ash storms that blow away the piles of ash again. CO2 pockets that require oxygen tanks to survive. Heat waves that vaporise water and dry out water resources until it rains again.
Or lava bombs that rain down close to lava fields and smash things while providing resources, or dry lightningstorms that disturb electricty when they strike into unprotected power lines?
And what about catastrophic events like eathquakes, lava eruptions, pyroclastic flows or lahars? Stuff that can change landscapes, cripple your progress but aside from the challenge also provides opportunities?

[pleegwat]

But I'm not entirely sure about the name. Doesn't exactly fly off the tongue. I can't really tell anyone about Volcanus unless I want them to roll on the floor laughing irl.

Vul-can-us. Don't let the A be long or let the c get grouped with the first syllable

It’s not too late to change it to Vulcanos or Vulcanis!

Now that all depends on the grammatical case doesn't it?

[Impatient]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the thoughts and visions you had in mind, when you created the art.

[Agamemnon]

First thought: Ooooh pretty!

Second thought: On second look I am sure, we will still see a lot of changes. There's still something 'off' about these new cliffs. It may be that they blend in so much structurally that you had to make them stand out by shade instead... and that works good on the first concept art, but on mixed terrain it doesn't really sell the 3D illusion to me.

Thrid thought: The kind of Basalt-Column-Lookalike cliff structure from Nauvis is what I actually expected to see and work well on a volcanic planet with barely more than a hue change needed. Why wouldn't it? It was considered, right? Could this be one of those cases where the best solution is hiding in plain sight? (By which I mean: Transfer the Nauvis cliffstyle to serve Vulcanus exclusively and put your efforts into finding a working redesign for Nauvis cliffs instead - because that wouldn't have to compete with Nauvis lush and green surroundings for the title of best looking rock on screen - and thus you got more idea space to work with)

Fourth thought: I am thinking wayyy too much about this, don't I. -.-'

[Dmytrozern]

- eruptions: regional reduced visibility

I second this so much. Different cosmetic effects sound so immersive. Even if that is just a simple fade in/out effect depending on the current biome. Flying ashes, lower saturation at certain biomes, reddish hue shift in lava biome or the planet in general. And can you even imagine what modders could do if they had this tool? So many possibilities for guiding atmosphere and immersion.

[Elyviere]

This week's post felt a bit too spoilery for me. I actively avoided reading it, but since it still shows up on Steam's recent news it's impossible to avoid the name and image of said planet. Personally, I'm very much looking forward to jumping into the game on release without any knowledge of the planets. Finding out what's to come and figuring out the challenges feels like part of the fun to me.

I would appreciate if the Friday Facts could be titled something like "Unveiling the 2nd planet" with a black image of the planet rather than showing it in the title. That'd make it easier for people like me who want to avoid seeing too much of the game before its release.

[Miroro]

Nice FFF for me. Unfortunately I read a little between the lines and as it is said that tne Vulcanus is the most advanced developmant and it is still not yet finished then it means that other planets require even more work.
I only hope that most of the already spent time was for game engine and planets development will go very fast.
I'm just worry a bit that the final release date may be postponed.

[mcmase]

Awesome post, so excited to see some new content, and hope that we get more of this in the coming weeks! Seeing the team improve on current systems over the past months was great but I was truly holding my breath every Friday for new content teasers! Volcanus looks amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on the expansion. The challenges provided by the environment alone are awesome, and that's not even to speak about the not-so-subtle hints at what other new content might be awaiting us once we touch down...

Nice FFF for me. Unfortunately I read a little between the lines and as it is said that tne Vulcanus is the most advanced developmant and it is still not yet finished then it means that other planets require even more work.
I only hope that most of the already spent time was for game engine and planets development will go very fast.
I'm just worry a bit that the final release date may be postponed.

I don't want to make less of the amount of work that goes into this, our original estimate of "at least a year" in August means there is still so much to be done! But I would think in making that sort of statement, the team would know that all of the major systems have been defined and at least prototyped (things like new items, machines, enemies, etc.). To me the main driver for planet development seems to be art design and some balancing and algorithms to make everything fit together. And well, with Nauvis and Volcanus done that's already halfway there.

The devs have honestly earned my trust, and I imagine most of the playerbase as well save for the most cynical among us, through open communication and charging an aggressively low price for the game and expansion. If they say it needs to be delayed, I'd accept that they are making the expansion well worth my time, and not going to sell us something that only half-works until a year of patches roll out. It's a rare gem these days to find devs this committed to quality (lol) and it's one of the reasons Factorio is one of the greatest games of all time.

[Zogtorio]

Yay, had a hard time not leaving my mouth open seeing those vids, great job

Yes, volcanic planet is expected and a cliché, but i certainly don't mind, it looks great and i like the implied mechanics. I hoped for a showcase of some new toys tho, but hey, maybe next week (2nd level conveyor to get over lava maybe, just like trains?)

It made my imagination rolling for sure, here is some of my daydreaming - another two typical planets - all in one! Welcome to the icy waterworld! Huge icebergs cover virtually whole surface of the planet. First, you get to set up a grid of detectors like radars/sonars/seismic... to map out whatever lies below the ice. Finding what you are looking for, you need to excavate the site before the mining operation gets going. Will you drop a prepared tungsten projectile from orbit? Use the oxygen your reactor has been busy with electrolyzing from ice the whole time and pump and burn it in along with nearby methane lakes (And hopefully not disturb whatever lives in there)? Or launch a few nuclear boys you got packed from Nauvis? When the job is finished and you got all you came for, looking at you proper spaceship, just like the one you crashed here with in the first place you wonder. Should you leave the system and get back home? Or you send it alone with a message to keep out and claim all for yourself as a new God of machinery?

Whatever you came up with, im sure it will be awesome, just like the game we already have and i selfishly claim that you take whatever time you need for it to be even better! (as i just barely launched my first rocket unmodded so i am sure i wont be even remotely done with it before the expansion is ready, sorry, eager veterans )

[Zogtorio]

my guess and hope is that there is 2 kinds of cliff explosives:

- weak version for the soft rock-based cliffs present on Nauvis
- strong version for the hard rock-based cliffs present on Vulcanus

this way, getting rid of cliffs on Nauvis isn't postponed too much.


I guess with the Thermal Vents it will be possible to install some kind of steam turbine to produce power? And/or probably condense Water?

You get water mixing sulphuric acid with calcite, so i imagine that would be the mechanic to get it

[SteelWolf300]

Remember the teaser from FFF #372... Just a wild guess, could this be a collector for these sulfuric acid geysers?

fff-372-postcard.png (2.58 MiB) Viewed 3488 times

The biomes look fantastic btw, I really like the chimneys and puddles in particular.

[XT-248]

I do not get the fuss about landfilling lava (with late-game technology).

The benefit of a potential bottomless source of Iron, Copper, and Stone outweighs the benefit of having a sizeable buildable area in every direction.


Also, meh, would I want to void items in the lava when the alternative way to get more resources out of unwanted items exists: Recycler?

[FuryoftheStars]

Also, meh, would I want to void items in the lava when the alternative way to get more resources out of unwanted items exists: Recycler?

Recycler isn't actually voiding, it's just breaking down with a high rate of loss. Plus we're not sure where in the tech tree it is, yet, and it's a part of the Quality mod that some people may not use.

[Twisted_Code]

As long as the planet would still be interesting even if the lava were removed then it is still a strong design. Adding lava doesn't have to detract from the other features of the planet as long as it is done right.

This is such a practical example of the rule of thumb tvtropers would probably know as "Tropes Are Tools" or, more generally, the idea that something isn't good or bad based solely on itself, you have to judge it based on its environment and how it is used. Designing experiences like games is a bit of a balancing act between the mundane and familiar, vs. novel and exciting. If you make it too mundane and familiar, it becomes cliché and boring, as you noticed could happen here. However, if you go too far with the novel and surprising elements, you risk making your audience feel alienated and lost.
Yeah I've seen "lava in space" before, but I think the way you are going with this makes it much more than that superficial definition. Even "volcanic planet" is fairly superficial. From the sound of things, the lava itself it's only the focus in one of the three major biomes, and you can't do anything useful with it until endgame.

Speaking of using the lava, I really like that idea. I think Mindustry has a similar process where you heat up scrap in order to recycle it, but once again, the similarity is not necessarily bad. Personally, at least, I never got to the point of being able to use the recycling process in Mindustry, so I'm excited that I might be able to play around with a similar thing here, once you release 2.0! Can't wait!


PS/One thing I'm wondering: If lava will be a fluid, presumably, will it be technically infinite, allowing a "renewable" source of copper and iron (Besides what you can get on a space platform, I guess)? I've always wanted some sort of renewable source, even if it's rare and hard to use. I can of course pave over more of the Enemy force's stuff (not sure if I should call the non-Nauvis enemies "biters") to access more resource nodes, but I am definitely not saying I wouldn't do both! (And I would like this better than what I usually do of just setting all resource nodes to be very deep but scattered. Train world FTW)

[Tricorius]

Also, meh, would I want to void items in the lava when the alternative way to get more resources out of unwanted items exists: Recycler?

Recycler isn't actually voiding, it's just breaking down with a high rate of loss. Plus we're not sure where in the tech tree it is, yet, and it's a part of the Quality mod that some people may not use.

Agreed, we don’t know where it is in the tech tree. But I would guess it’s around the time you hit space as that is where quality would start being most beneficial.

As far as it being part of the quality mod, they could still use it and just not make any quality modules.

[FuryoftheStars]

Agreed, we don’t know where it is in the tech tree. But I would guess it’s around the time you hit space as that is where quality would start being most beneficial.

Maybe, but it could also require materials from the other planets to even make. We just don't know enough about it, yet.

As far as it being part of the quality mod, they could still use it and just not make any quality modules.

Unless you're hosting a MP server where you specifically don't want Quality used, in which case the only way to guarantee that (afaik) is to not have it available from the start.