Friday Facts #185 - Progress report

[AntiElitz]

Finally a USEFULL nightvison!
It may not look great, but it's a great choice from the gameplay point. From now on I think I will even use it!

[Durabys]

Omg, soo excited glad you chose to include the ability to place ghosts through the map, but will it be tied up with some expensive tech as you mentioned in the previous ff?

Nope

Don't you think that is a little bit OP? Why not add another level/tier to the "Automated construction" research, like e.g. "Automated construction II"?

[factoriouzr]

"This close to realease"
sooo, Next Friday?
that would be perfect... i got 5 free days at that weekend.
Friday off, Moneday off and Tuestday off

The release day will be a Monday or Tuesday and it will be announced in the week before, so earliest release is in 10 days.

Don't be too strict in holding to this.

I say release it today for the weekend, and deal with the bugs next week. I mean you guys are already playing it.

If you don't release it for this weekend, at least release it before next Friday so we can enjoy it over the long weekend.

That increases the workload for them by a ton. If they deal with bugs as they come in then they will have a small number of error reports for each bug. If they wait an entire long weekend for bugs to fill up there will be so many duplicates and it'll be very hard to sort through.

The experimental release they are going to do will have more then it's fair share of bugs, but I'd rather save the devs time then have them release a build far too early. The kinds of bugs they are going to have right now is going to be show-stopping bugs that will mean you can't play it all weekend anyways (corrupted save files, game-stopping feature bugs etc).

Let them finish their playtesting then give us the experimental version that will only contain bugs that you can mostly avoid/ignore.

It will likely take a few days to prepare a release, so even if they broke their rules the earliest you could expect it is mid next week, and with the long weekend coming up it's not a good idea from their perspective.

I can't wait for it either, but realize that begging for a release now is only going to slow down the next release

You are making a lot of big assumptions there.

The workload being bigger due to more unsorted bug reports, is questionable. Regardless of when people post bugs, they can make duplicates, and it's the same effort to sort them. The only difference is if you do it incrementally or all at once. Arguably, all at once is faster because you have time to focus on one task.

I can however see that it's faster for them to find bugs in their testing then to release it and have a bug that they "theoretically" could have found in testing, be reported multiple times. Again, this is theoretical, because if they find no serious bugs, then they saved no time and we had to wait longer to play it.

"The kinds of bugs they are going to have right now is going to be show-stopping bugs that will mean you can't play it all weekend anyways (corrupted save files, game-stopping feature bugs etc)."
This is another invalid and big assumption that is just not correct. It's possible that they may find such an issue, but it's also possible they won't (remember they improved their automated unit tests a long time ago). So far what they said is they tested for about a week and didn't find any issues. They also said that they want to test for about a week before release, and from this Friday facts, it sounds like they tested for almost a week already. So this weekend, or latest Monday or Tuesday release should be possible for a release based on the information we have.

From previous information given by the devs, making a release takes only a few minutes of someones time to start the automated build. Then waiting for the build (presumably around 1 hour), then uploading it to the site (perhaps this is also automated). Release notes are not a requirement. They can just post that the release is out, release notes coming Monday.

"I can't wait for it either, but realize that begging for a release now is only going to slow down the next release"
I wasn't begging. I made a suggestion and, again, you are making assumptions. Releasing now, may or may not slow down the next release. All I was saying is that it would be great to have it now, or for next weekend.

[Xterminator]

Oh man, so much good stuff! Those pipe graphics in the picture look fantastic, so I can't wait for the other high res stuff too! The night vision is a massive improvement over the last proposed idea, so great job with that guys. I am actually quite likely to use the night vision with it looking like it does in the FF.

Seems the release is very near by! Crossing my fingers for a week from this Monday/Tuesday hopefully. Hopefully the graphics can be finalized by then sense it sounds like pretty much everything else is ready to go.

Look forward to next Friday Facts!
Also welcome Ernestas.

[factoriouzr]

Omg, soo excited glad you chose to include the ability to place ghosts through the map, but will it be tied up with some expensive tech as you mentioned in the previous ff?

Nope

Don't you think that is a little bit OP? Why not add another level/tier to the "Automated construction" research, like e.g. "Automated construction II"?

How is it OP? You can place blueprints now. The only difference is that you walk, drive, or travel there in some way now, where with this approach you don't have to travel there. Besides, you will have to have roboport coverage there to have it build anyway, which means you have already been there. If you don't have coverage, it won't do anything until you walk there with a personal roboport or set up a network. It's a convenience feature. Just like I don't think crafting something in hand should require me to figure out all the intermediate things I need to craft and craft them manually first. It improves the gameplay.

I don't think this should be locked behind another research. Right now as soon as you get trains, you get automated train management with live video feed on each train. This is even more basic then that. Plus you start with a big map and a mini map at the start of the game.

[posila]

I wish we could try the new 0.15 as it is right now (bugs and all). I mean that's why we have the experimental build option right?

Idea is to play though freeplay game and test various things to catch bugs that most of the people would run into. That way we won't get bunch of duplicate bug reports for bugs that are easy to reproduce and fix, which will save us lot of time during first days of bugfixing. Also it is kind of nice if the new update doesn't crash every 20 minutes

Nice to hear you guys are having fun!

Two questions, though -
1. Who's Denis?
2. Will the shaders be optional? Some of us use pretty crappy on-board GPUs, which I'm afraid won't be up for the task

1. harkonnen here on forum
2. Shader can be turned off thourgh config/steam launch options, but I hope nobody will need to turn it off. The shader is very simple so any IGP should handle it. Hopefully even Intel GMA 950.

Was that NVG shot taken in the middle of the night? Anyway, it looks nice and simple, I definitely like it.
Can we expect user defined shaders? That would be a lot of fun to play with.

Yes it was.
Shaders probably won't be moddable in 0.15, current solution is temporary and we have to write both HLSL and GLSL shader. HLSL one is even precompiled. But you can go to Factorio data folder and change it if you want to experiment (but that will break in-game updater, if you don't use Steam).

[Cazadore]

I really hope for a experimentl-release early next week, so i can play the update on the coming easter weekend (4 free days for me)


One can dream...

[Jan11]

I hope too. (1 Week) ^^

[Vinnie_NL]

Some subtle hints in the FFF to a release next week. That would be nice and all, but if it isn't we are nevertheless one week closer to 0.15 compared to one week ago. I think it will be in April anyway which is soon anyway
I love the new nightvision! First time when I tried night vision went like this:
Oh this looks usefull, a nightvision research thingy
*starts research*
woohoo lets craft it the night vision goggles
puts them on
hmm it doesn't look that useful
puts them off 5 seconds later, never used again

And thanks for looking in the suggestions to improve the minimap

[JaredCR]

Nightvision looks very nice, and waiting for the ¨hundred minor features¨ !

[Uristqwerty]

I wonder if the night vision would look better or worse if it interacted with object shadows in some manner. Not doing anything does keep the art style more consistent, though.

[torham]

LOVE the new night vision. LOVE IT!!

[<NO_NAME>]

The new night vision is definitely step in the right direction. Although, if I were you, I would left it a little greenish to hint that it is still the night vision and not just a bright night. And, as you are already into shaders, you could make dark places grainy. It would look amazing.

[factoriouzr]

The night vision definitely looks good. Way better then the current green one that I never use.

Any chance of getting a researchable upgrade to highlight biters and biter bases as well. Not a requirement, but it would be really cool.

Any chance of also getting an upgrade to make it look like day time, or a different set of goggles? Not sure if it would make much of a difference, just think it might be a cool option. I mean we are in the future where we can craft factories in our pockets and carry trains in our pockets lol.

[TatsuZZMage]

If the Nvg are connected to a shader, how? cause if its done with the lua we could have modded goggles that display the world how ever the custom shader connected to em is setup ^_^ let that sink in.

[Tricorius]

Welcome Ernestas

Nightvision is 20% cooler

Nightvision is 2000% cooler.

(You missed a couple of zeros.)

[Avezo]

Consider making nightvision googles smaller in the armor grid though.

[Proxy]

Omg, soo excited glad you chose to include the ability to place ghosts through the map, but will it be tied up with some expensive tech as you mentioned in the previous ff?

Nope

just now i notcied.
I had to sacrifice Qualitiy in my little Pixel art to make it fit....
so how is your profile Pic larger than 50x50 Pixels?
Just a Admin thing?

[cybersteel8]

I kinda miss the green tint of the nightvision, but I am glad you made it so useful! I am one of the few that doesn't mind using the current NVGs, so maybe add even a small green tint?

Otherwise, so hyped for release! The HD textures in the NVG screenshot look beautiful - I can't wait to play with them.

[Klonan]

Omg, soo excited glad you chose to include the ability to place ghosts through the map, but will it be tied up with some expensive tech as you mentioned in the previous ff?

Nope

just now i notcied.
I had to sacrifice Qualitiy in my little Pixel art to make it fit....
so how is your profile Pic larger than 50x50 Pixels?
Just a Admin thing?

I changed the maximum avatar size to 140x140 a while ago, but it seems as though someone has changed it back in the meantime