Friday Facts #406 - Space Age Music

[Molay]

For the last track I see a bunch of fairies or gnomes tinkering away in glee in some hollowed out gigantic tree. Some first, jungle or water planet, definitely sounds alive and well hydrated lol. Hard to explain, but it's whimsical and joyful and things are getting done in a pleasant way. I'd be shocked if that planet had much combat. Though I could totally see it having some sort of aliens buzzing around and doing stuff, building things of some form, though not overtly hostile in nature.

Odds are I'm completely wrong but that's what I feel listening to it.

[FuryoftheStars]

In FFF 382, they mentioned "heavier weapons" for space platforms.

Even heavier than Artillery? ^^

What do they want us to fight? Cthulhu? ^^

No, just heavier than normal gun turrets. Having finally gotten the chance to watch the video and seeing the rocket turrets, those could be it (or there could be more). But they're not firing many rockets, so they could be low on ammo? And the platform may be moving a wee bit fast to give everything time to handle the asteroids (the faster you're moving, the less time everything has to even do damage). Interestingly, though, nothing appears to actually be targeting and shooting at it, either.

That said, I think that video answers an earlier question about repairing damage, etc.

[adam_bise]

I dunno, can't explain it, but I have always preferred the definition of synthetic video game music. I grew up listening to Nobuo Uematsu, Matt Uelmen, Kinuyo Yamashita, etc.. The first 2 songs sounded like soup. Where is the rhythm? Where is the percussion? The 3rd one was almost completely missing any melody and an over emphasis on post effects.

Sorry, but that is how I felt when I heard them. Who knows? Maybe it will grow on me after a few thousand hours.

It's not like the first 2 songs are bad. They just would have fit better in a Lord of the Rings scene. The 3rd one though, was like 3 notes and the rest is just effects.

[Soheil]

See The Rocket Turrets Atlast

[mcmase]

The first few seconds of the last music file gives me heavy simcity 4 vibes, specifically some rush hour expansion tracks. I REALLY like it.

I think either "gridlock" or "bumper to bumper"

It makes me think of puzzle pieces sliding around.

The second sounds aerial. My guess is something like flying islands from Avatar.

I absolutely agree, the start of the secret track I immediately thought of a scene in a film where the inventor that nobody believed in was tinkering in his workshop, finally coming up with a solution. Perfect for Factorio!

But as to a planet, I absolutely got a windy feel, somewhere high up.

Toward the end I felt like it was underground. Maybe a planet where the surface is uninhabitable and you have to live in tunnels and dig them out.

So far, this week's FFF has shown us new music, revealed the name of Aquilo, and shown rocket launcher turrets! Is that all? I don't think I had known any of these facts confirmed before.

Also, just to say again, the Vulcanis video absolutely shows me I will never upgrade to tier 4 belts, they are simply way too fast. (See suggestion to replace tier 4 with stackable belt, perhaps?)

But all of the music is amazing, I am a huge fan of great soundtracks in games, listen to soundtracks all the time, even for games I don't play or haven't played in years. Some posts are saying (mostly Fulgora) is too loud, but also wanted to say that the music is amped up for the videos, I'm sure it won't be nearly so loud while actually playing!

[MeduSalem]

No, just heavier than normal gun turrets. Having finally gotten the chance to watch the video and seeing the rocket turrets, those could be it (or there could be more). But they're not firing many rockets, so they could be low on ammo? And the platform may be moving a wee bit fast to give everything time to handle the asteroids (the faster you're moving, the less time everything has to even do damage).

Well, if it is different and powerful enough at medium-long distance I could tolerate that. ^^

Btw by looking at the video from the FF above I had the feeling that rocket launchers are not good enough for that purpose tho.
It seems like the rocket turrets don't have all that much of a greater range because they activate basically at the same time as the gun turrets in the front line. At the point the rockets start to fire the gun turrets are mostly finished with the asteroids. Ontop of that comes the flight-delay from the rockets before their impact. With that limited range & delay I don't know if they are really all that viable for platforms, maybe more against various enemies on planets because of the resistance stuff.

Don't know, maybe we will need more info on that to make proper assumptions.

Interestingly, though, nothing appears to actually be targeting and shooting at it, either.

That is why I have the feeling that it may require artillery. ^^

That said, I think that video answers an earlier question about repairing damage, etc.

The video already makes me wonder if there is a point where it will actually be more efficient to go as fast as possible to the next planet and while doing that accepting some asteroid damage & repair it, than it would be to waste even more resources to shoot & pulverize everything. Like with everything, I am sure there is a breakeven point. xD

I already assume there will be some maniac (maybe me) who does a statistic how frequent certain asteroid sizes are going to be and do a calculation of how costly it will be to maneuver to planet x with distance y/time z if you just push through the field without wrecking everything. Or better said "how many turrets are enough to minimize the costs while accepting some asteroids to slip trough". ^^

[lbos.fff]

Hey, i cannot reallx express how great this soundtrack is to my ears.

[And i even do not want to roughly estimate the cost of this fantastic work] in my hymble opinion the soundtrack itself is worth 1-2 AAA-video games (at least for the snippets you provided)

[husnikadam]

My guess for the 3rd planet is something along the lines of a lot of life - very foresty planet, neutral forest animals along foresty biters

[mmmPI]

I like the idea of the music being there to help the player focus, and differents atmosphere on different planets and space. That seem so natural when presented, but it had to be done. It may help alleviate the repetitiveness, when the music is too distinctive, it feels like a playlist repeating, it's different than when the music itself is repetitive. The last track of 8 minutes is full of variety in that regard, but it's only 8 minutes ! Even 5 hours of music risk feeling repetitive after 500 hours of playing the game. It may take a year or two for me to start wishing to play without the music or my own music for a choosen atmosphere. I like that factorio is not a game that punishes you for not listening to the game sound. In terraria you can't play in the jungle without the sound because you need to hear the attacks of the bees and the traps triggers an others things. You can at least cancel the music you don't want to hear with music boxes that overide them, or "skip" them in EU4, after you hear Sabaton for the 150th time, it's not the same feeling of "epic" than the first few , Music can be a sensitive topic

That being said, i really enjoy the different music presented, even if they are WIP, you could say music hasn't always been recorded and is always wip when musician plays it Must be hard to put the final cut.

I like the rocket turrets in the video in the space platform, i like the animation of the platform regrowing after getting hit, i think the shape of the platform is not very efficient because it will act like a space sweeper for asteroids, maybe it's the aim, otherwise orienting the rectangle the other direction to be narrow would reduce the risk of collision. Hearing it after prolong period of the others more noisy atmosphere will be relaxing and conveying weightlessness i expect

I feel some Star Wars vibes for the soundtrack of Vulcanus, some epicness from big budget movies, the instruments maybe. Plus the sounds of the machines, giving high tech vibes and clickety cliks like maybe like one could imagine on the matrix. Which is different feel from the images only, which made me think of Lotr balrog and diablo, not space-related. Feels like you came from space, to land in the Moria, can't wait to play !!

Fulgora is the hard rock planet, dully noted, when does the drums kicks ? Ok there's electronic and electricity sound, but those are just sound artifacts from musicians plugging their instruments before the concert no ? My favourite part is when it does naaa na naa naaa but i also like the others sounds, i think it has already played 20 times just during the time of correcting the typos.

For the undisclosed planet, the early part before 3:50 made me think of someone climbing a mountain, or some water stream falling down from mountain that cannot gain speed fast enough, a little jumpy journey with some slow downs on the road, maybe inside of the mountain a train cart rolling on old tracks and the mechanism playing music is also a little failing, but there is a constant progression nonetheless and tension building. Then at 3:50 it has some feels like looking/flying over/down the valley but not all the troubles are behind and it's just the calm before the storm. It's only around 6:00 that there is less tension, danger averted or something, sounds more organic, foresty spring, or something but still at the end, it's unclear if everything will be alright.

I have no idea what the next planet could be about or too many, but i'm confident the music will fit
Also i think the people trying to decipher the name of the future planets will have something to say with the picture of the music partition

[relytor]

The beginning of the final soundtrack reminds me of rain. I'm guessing an acid rain planet?

[bnrom]

This is so cool! I didn't expect to be so excited by this or the other sound FFs, but great sounds really add a lot!

I also really like the improved space platform visuals: the clouds of dust moving, and the strong contrast between how much the dust moves, and how much the stars move. I think the stars could maybe do with moving a tiny bit less, dunno.

[FunMaker]

In my opinion the 2 missing planets are:

• Aquilo
• Glieba

Excerpted from the screenshot list recording schedule. Aquilo matches with the expectation of a water planet...

[serhatozgel]

I did not read the whole thread out of excitement so sorry if this is a repeat.

Can the sheet music be made available even if as a purchase-able option?

Musicians among us would love to play some Factorio music or do some covers!

[MeduSalem]

I like the rocket turrets in the video in the space platform, i like the animation of the platform regrowing after getting hit, i think the shape of the platform is not very efficient because it will act like a space sweeper for asteroids, maybe it's the aim, otherwise orienting the rectangle the other direction to be narrow would reduce the risk of collision.

From a hypothetical point of view the most efficient shape for the platform would be a circle (which would be annoying to build). So for simplicity I'd say go for an octagon or square shape.

The reason here is because it will have the least area for the size of the platform; which is the main factor influencing the weight and speed of your platform. It is probably the best trade off between area for turrets & other stuff as well as area for thrusters and overall speed of the platform. ^^

The more rectangle or other weird shapes you go the more inefficient the weight becomes, and then you need even more thrusters (which themselves likely also add to the weight) to maintain a desired speed, so even more infrastructure to defend the whole platform.


If you make the platform narrow and long you only trade the "attack surface" against the "time "factor";
Because if you make it narrow you cannot fit as many thrusters there, so the platform will be much slower; and then the chance of something slipping through like that huge asteroid will be more common because of the time factor since it takes the platform longer to get anywhere.
Not to forget that a narrow platform getting hit by a big asteroid like that will be more catastrophic than for a wider one because it may wreck the whole line up of turrets, possibly allowing for even more smaller asteroids to hit as well, leading to a domino effect, because there will be less or no turrets defending while they are being repaired. xD

[Kadet123]

In my opinion the 2 missing planets are:

• Aquilo
• Glieba

Excerpted from the screenshot list recording schedule. Aquilo matches with the expectation of a water planet...

Was just going to comment on this same thing. Might be Gieba?

[bnrom]

If you make the platform narrow and long you only trade the "attack surface" against the "time "factor";
Because if you make it narrow you cannot fit as many thrusters there, so the platform will be much slower; and then the chance of something slipping through like that huge asteroid will be more common because of the time factor since it takes the platform longer to get anywhere.
Not to forget that a narrow platform getting hit by a big asteroid like that will be more catastrophic than for a wider one because it may wreck the whole line up of turrets, possibly allowing for even more smaller asteroids to hit as well, leading to a domino effect, because there will be less or no turrets defending while they are being repaired. xD

I believe the number of asteroids you encounter scales with how fast the ship is moving. This would make moving slower safer, as it gives your turrets more time to fire and means that the turrets need to do less total asteroids health damage per second to keep the platform safe.

[Kadet123]

I'm noticing the space platform has a circuit controlled reactor, which I like. I don't recall if that's been mentioned in a FFF before.

[FunMaker]

In my opinion the 2 missing planets are:

• Aquilo
• Glieba

Excerpted from the screenshot list recording schedule. Aquilo matches with the expectation of a water planet...

Was just going to comment on this same thing. Might be Gieba?

Gieba might be right. It's hard to see And i am certain, that this breadcrumb was put there on purpose.

[Kadet123]

I don't understand the laser turrets on the backside (engine side) of the space platform. Unless in space there's some sort of danger that can come upon the ship from behind.. Space bugs? Or maybe its defenses for when docked?

[mmmPI]

From a hypothetical point of view the most efficient shape for the platform would be a circle (which would be annoying to build). So for simplicity I'd say go for an octagon or square shape.

The reason here is because it will have the least area for the size of the platform; which is the main factor influencing the weight and speed of your platform. It is probably the best trade off between area for turrets & other stuff as well as area for thrusters and overall speed of the platform. ^^

I don't know this must also take into account the relative speed of the platform and the asteroids, as if the platform move faster than any asteroid, then the "back" doesn't need any defence against incoming debris. I'm thinking of the triangular shaped starwars super destroyer. It would be an interpolation between that and a circle i suppose while the relative speed affecting it. I don't know how it would affect in game need for turrets if you have more thruster or less.

The more rectangle or other weird shapes you go the more inefficient the weight becomes, and then you need even more thrusters (which themselves likely also add to the weight) to maintain a desired speed, so even more infrastructure to defend the whole platform.

That's forgetting about the iconic star wars empire destroyer which are triangular, like arrow pointing in the direction they are moving.

If you make the platform narrow and long you only trade the "attack surface" against the "time "factor";
Because if you make it narrow you cannot fit as many thrusters there, so the platform will be much slower; and then the chance of something slipping through like that huge asteroid will be more common because of the time factor since it takes the platform longer to get anywhere.

I disagree, you can make your long and narrow platform having a series of mini wings like airplane and birds have 1 pair of wings, but some insects like lullabies have 2 pairs of wings, and the spaceplatform could have 20 or 40 pair of wings, quite short to serve as attach point for thruster. Then the narrower your platform the fastest

If the wings are thick enough you can have turrets on them, othewise they need be short enough for turrets in the main body to protect them.

Not to forget that a narrow platform getting hit by a big asteroid like that will be more catastrophic than for a wider one because it may wreck the whole line up of turrets, possibly allowing for even more smaller asteroids to hit as well because there will be less or no turrets defending while they are being repaired. xD

This i agree is a severe limitation. The ratio perimeter/area is bad, and increasingly bad, so the defense is made more and more expensive. Now, maybe if the platform move fast enough though , you don't need to protect its side with as much turret. In the extreme case where the travel is short and you go hyper speed, no rock has time to hit laterally, only those you will smash into from the front are the problems. So you could have some tiles that served as battering ram, to make sure the important part isn't damaged.

Like centipede but with wings instead of legs, and the head of those sheep that headbutt, why not ?