Friday Facts #217 - Just another Friday Facts

[Tev]

Please don't mess too much with expensive setting, rather fix the base settings disbalance.

[stretch611]

For overlapping resources, I like the idea of just mixing them in place. An exception for the start area so that you have time to research filter inserters before you need to start separating.

On this note, How about adding some type of "filter miner" to the tech tree. Initially, allow you to choose which ore is removed (or all ores) leaving the rest in the ground. While you ultimately will determine how to balance this, I think a recipe on the order of a normal miner plus a red chip should be appropriate. Maybe a third level of mining research that will allow a miner with a second output on the opposite side so that the separate resources can be mined at the same time and placed on different belts.

Slightly offtopic, but with new miners, maybe make the advanced ones a little faster. As the game progresses, some of the ore patches get quite large. Appropriately, the patches are denser in the middle. My current game had a patch of copper with about 8m ore (iirc.) The outer areas were mined out completely, leaving me with slightly over 1m copper ore in the center of the patch. However, due to the speed of the miners, it takes forever to mine enough ore to fill a train. While I can add speed modules, these can be cost prohibitive before late game.

Furnaces and assemblers improve with tech, why not miners?

Edit: One other suggestion... I had a mixed coal/uranium patch. Would it be possible to allow Sulfuric Acid to flow through the miners with coal only? I was able to work around with it, but it was a pain. So far, I have only had the coal take a chunk out of the side... but if I get a patch which has a round patch in the middle of a larger patch surrounding it on all sides, it would be a bigger pain. (I've seen this a few times with other ores, it would be workable with gaps between miners, but still a pain.)

[hoho]

Making sure the starting area is not covered by trees.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If a scenario included crash landing and a debris field, the explosions and resulting fires would make a nice clear area in which to start building, while adding some initial excitement.

Hmm, let me try that out

Just be sure to implement it in a way that the pollution generated from the burning forests won't trigger biter attacks.

I don't think people would like it very much if they have to start fighting off enemies within first couple of minutes of the game while they haven't even produced resources for ammo

[Biker]

So hyped for 0.16!

[aRatNamedSammy]

Making sure the starting area is not covered by trees.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If a scenario included crash landing and a debris field, the explosions and resulting fires would make a nice clear area in which to start building, while adding some initial excitement.

+1 also, why having your stuff on you, instead, just look at debris to find your stuff
..maybe also few random things too, which survive the crash ... like a steam engine or any low level stuff

[ske]

How about adding some type of "filter miner" to the tech tree.

I would strongly oppose that as we have sorting technology already with the filter inserters, circuit networks and recipies. Having mixed ores would add to the fun.

What I would suggest is to be able to select specific recipies in smelters since a smelter will happily pick up anything (e.g. iron plates) and try to smelt it. On mixed belts they may become stuck often when not using dedicated filter inserters.

[Lav]

What I would suggest is to be able to select specific recipies in smelters since a smelter will happily pick up anything (e.g. iron plates) and try to smelt it. On mixed belts they may become stuck often when not using dedicated filter inserters.

That would be nice for electric furnaces. There are no electronics in earlier smelters though so it wouldn't make sense with them.

[Durabys]

Making sure the starting area is not covered by trees.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If a scenario included crash landing and a debris field, the explosions and resulting fires would make a nice clear area in which to start building, while adding some initial excitement.

Hmm, let me try that out

Wait. Something like this from Supreme Commander?

[Zavian]

Making sure the starting area is not covered by trees.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If a scenario included crash landing and a debris field, the explosions and resulting fires would make a nice clear area in which to start building, while adding some initial excitement.

Hmm, let me try that out

I've said something similar, but I was talking about adding an impact crater to the start area, and a using the impact to justify a start area that was mostly clear of trees (with perhaps some burnt trees still standing, and the normal scatter of logs). The impact crater could also provides a suitable site for some water in the start area.A crashed ship would be a nice touch, possibly with a debris field. (But those would probably require new art assets). In my opinion you don't necessarily need explosions etc in the start area, though showing the crash and fireball could be a nice start to the game.

[Lav]

I've said something similar, but I was talking about adding an impact crater to the start area, and a using the impact to justify a start area that was mostly clear of trees (with perhaps some burnt trees still standing, and the normal scatter of logs). The impact crater could also provides a suitable site for some water in the start area.A crashed ship would be a nice touch, possibly with a debris field. (But those would probably require new art assets). In my opinion you don't necessarily need explosions etc in the start area, though showing the crash and fireball could be a nice start to the game.

This would also neatly explain why biter nests are more sparse around the crash area, to the point of non-existence in the center.

P. S. And why the biters are so pissed at you.

[FasterJump]

Wait. Something like this from Supreme Commander?

Best STR ever

[Lemlin]

An interesting suggestion is to to have a dynamic ore generation based on the lowest amount of ore currently present on the map.
More iron than copper = higher chance of a copper ore patch to spawn.
Stone/uranium/coal might have a modifier to avoid having too much ore spawned.

[hitzu]

My two cents:
Mixed ores when overlapped except in the starting area.
A nuclear-like explosion and an impact crater with ship debris on start to visually justify the bare spot.

[stretch611]

Making sure the starting area is not covered by trees.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If a scenario included crash landing and a debris field, the explosions and resulting fires would make a nice clear area in which to start building, while adding some initial excitement.

Hmm, let me try that out

I've said something similar, but I was talking about adding an impact crater to the start area, and a using the impact to justify a start area that was mostly clear of trees (with perhaps some burnt trees still standing, and the normal scatter of logs). The impact crater could also provides a suitable site for some water in the start area.A crashed ship would be a nice touch, possibly with a debris field. (But those would probably require new art assets). In my opinion you don't necessarily need explosions etc in the start area, though showing the crash and fireball could be a nice start to the game.

I like this idea. A forest burn near the crash site can be similar to the effects of when you torch a forest with a flamethrower. This would be an ideal way to thin out the nearby forest instead of removing them completely.

Personally, I don't want a complete removal of trees in the starting area. I use the wood as a fuel source without needing to walk over to the coal patch and waiting to mine it before everything gets automated. Also, wood is needed in early game, quite significantly for electric poles before steel processing is up and running. My issue is that dense forests are pain to remove in early game.

[stretch611]

An interesting suggestion is to to have a dynamic ore generation based on the lowest amount of ore currently present on the map.
More iron than copper = higher chance of a copper ore patch to spawn.
Stone/uranium/coal might have a modifier to avoid having too much ore spawned.

While this is interesting, the problem I foresee is how it can be implemented with Map Exchange Strings. If someone explores east first, and someone else explores west, they will get different ore patches. A Map Exchange string would no longer give the same challenge when reused or passed to a friend.

[pleegwat]

I like the idea of linking to biome, or otherwise spawning more iron in some directions and more copper in others. By later game, you're training it around anyway, so if you need iron, expand in a direction which has iron, and if you need copper, expand toward copper.

[TheRaph]

Making sure the starting area is not covered by trees.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If a scenario included crash landing and a debris field, the explosions and resulting fires would make a nice clear area in which to start building, while adding some initial excitement.

Hmm, let me try that out

I like this idea, too.

This will also explain why no mobs are there ...

And if the spaceship could be "mined" in some way, you can gather the some starting resources this way.

[Twinsen]

What are the controls like on the tank? Can the driver control the wheels while the passenger controls the cannon? That would be super cool!

There will be a toggle that can switch who controls the weapons(driver or passenger). So the driver can drive while the passenger can shoot.

[MageKing17]

What are the controls like on the tank? Can the driver control the wheels while the passenger controls the cannon? That would be super cool!

There will be a toggle that can switch who controls the weapons(driver or passenger). So the driver can drive while the passenger can shoot.

Will it be possible for the driver to control one weapon while the passenger controls another (e.g. driver fires main cannon while passenger fires machine gun)?

[keyboardhack]

In Friday Facts #207 there was a small note about the mod portal being worked on. It said that a new version would probably be out a month after #207. Any interesting progress on this, or has it encountered unexpected delays?