Random Ramblings #9

Regular reports on Factorio development.
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kovarex
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Random Ramblings #9

Post by kovarex »

Once the 0.7.5 got stable, we got some time to do some of the refactoring and code cleaning. While doing this, we also unified some of the internals.
For example: crafting time 1 was equal to 0.55 seconds, and crafting speed 1 of assembling machine was equal to 30% crafting speed of the player. These were arbitrary numbers kept in the game from ancient versions of Factorio.
In 0.8, crafting time 1 will mean 1 second, all crafting speeds of assembling machines will relate to this speed.

Tomas continued to smooth the new trailer, some of your pointers were good inspiration (More info about the new trailer: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=5&t=1603)
We will have the first session with the guy who is going to make the trailer music tomorrow.

We have small nice new feature, to limit the size of the inventory, useful to avoid one product eating your whole production without the need to fill the other chest slots with wires or use circuit network.
Image

Albert is working on the terrains, this is the testing preview of the grass, you can see what can be done with different tile sizes and more variations, while cuba is working on the code behind it, so it all works correctly with transitions.
Image

I finished another small campaign level, I'm trying to avoid to force the player to build the same base from the start all over again in every level, so there is some diversity, sometimes he starts of half constructed base, sometimes he has to repair half destroyed base and extend it, sometimes he has to build improvised base to build just some needed components from the stockpiled resources from previous mission.
I also wanted to have a car travel level, but I have not really good ideas what to put there to make it at least partially interesting :)

We were afraid we would have to eat just rice next month, but sales were were really nice the last day and half thanks to Soaryn and his activity on twitch (https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =19&t=1625). Almost 50 new people bought the game in the past 24 hours, so I'm looking forward to have my hard earned beer soon :)

I'v heard that Factorio players like graphs, so I present you one here. This is graph of commit frequency (commits per week) to Factorio.
Image
Here you can see some notable points:
  • A) I'm quitting my job to work on Factorio full time
  • B) My girlfriend left me
  • C) Tomas joined the team
  • D) First public version (0.1) released on christmas day
  • E) Indiegogo campaign started
  • F) 0.3.0 version
  • G) 0.4.0 version
  • H) 0.5.0 version
  • I) 0.6.0 version
  • J) Our small holiday time
  • K) 0.7.0

SilverWarior
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Re: Random Ramblings #9

Post by SilverWarior »

Nice. I'm looking forward to new features.

As for graph. I suggest you change the picture somehow as phpBB forums automatically crop the picture if it is to wide (whole picture isn't visible).

TOMII
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Re: Random Ramblings #9

Post by TOMII »

About B)
When you'll get your first Lamborghini She's gonna cry SO hard. :D

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Re: Random Ramblings #9

Post by FrozenOne »

>limit the size of the inventory

Bah, why do it simple when you can make it complicated :P You could have just added Wooden Box/Pallete that has only one item stack slot. Or just adjust wooden chest, there is not much difference between wooden/iron/steel, nobody uses the middle one.

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Re: Random Ramblings #9

Post by kovarex »

FrozenOne wrote:>limit the size of the inventory

Bah, why do it simple when you can make it complicated :P You could have just added Wooden Box/Pallete that has only one item stack slot. Or just adjust wooden chest, there is not much difference between wooden/iron/steel, nobody uses the middle one.
This is good point and we actually wanted to do it this way first, but there are 3 reasons to pick this
  • This is useful for logistic chests as well, especially if you use just provider chests to supply the player
  • With smaller box, we were not exactly sure about the size, sometimes you want one slot, sometimes 3 or 5 and adding 3 different items would add unneeded mess to the item list/recipe guis
  • The gui is easier to use than I expected and easy to get.

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ssilk
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Re: Random Ramblings #9

Post by ssilk »

I helped me out putting something unused into the chests. Heard this trick was used also in minecraft. But it is just awful and need often up in "oh, now I can place a belt and put the stored stuff out of the chest" which is most times not so good. Much better like so and it will work for 95% of all cases and eliminates the need to cable everything. ;)
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kovarex
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Re: Random Ramblings #9

Post by kovarex »

ssilk wrote:I helped me out putting something unused into the chests. Heard this trick was used also in minecraft. But it is just awful and need often up in "oh, now I can place a belt and put the stored stuff out of the chest" which is most times not so good. Much better like so and it will work for 95% of all cases and eliminates the need to cable everything. ;)
Yes, this was the common method, and the main disadvantage was, that you couldn't use the control click to get everything.

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ssilk
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Re: Random Ramblings #9

Post by ssilk »

You said you search ideas for a car level.

#1 You have some parts of a factory, basically mining, smelting, assembling. All is connected with express belts.
And you need the car, because everything is mined: the factory starts working, mines produce items and an item touches a c14 package and buuummmm.
Or something different which forces the player to hurry up. The idea is just, that the express belts transport faster than you can run (some lake, underground belt and you need to run around).

#2 A train starts with something important inside. We need to follow and have to stop the train, because otherwise it will fall into a ground and is destroyed. We try for example to place the car on the tracks before the train. The car is destroyed of course, but happily we have a second. :) I let the solution open, but a fun solution would be to build some track which leads the train in a circle until the fuel runs out.

#3 We need to activate four buildings (hyper radio signal station), but we need that in a given time (because not enough power).

#4 Even with a car you are too slow to reach the target. The trick is, to use an express belt to speed up the car (just tested yesterday, that this really works :) )

#5 Using the car as power generator. :)
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Math3vv
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Re: Random Ramblings #9

Post by Math3vv »

#6 you spawn with a car and in 20 sec. an army of bitters will come at you. and you have to drive for your life to a safe base with 100 laser turrets and then do some objective, like destroying 5 bitter bases to get payback (you could also learn the player about basic power armor)

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