Friday Facts #131 - Roadmap shuffle

[dee-]

The "Get Run Over By A Train" achievement also needs a silver (10x) and gold (50x) tier

That aside - this has got to be the most bestest FFF!
- Modules in blueprints
- Blueprint book
- Redo of the train graphics and fixing the train distances, so they are whole tiles and vertical and horizontal distances are the same
- Underground pipes and belts can also be built the same way as poles
- and many more

Thank you!

[madpav3l]

I am looking forward to this

Graphical gui redesign - one of the big things that just had to be done sooner or later, we will definitely talk about it in detail in the future FFF

.
All the other things were revealed already except the "Ease of use", but this is something new and exciting!

[Jackalope_Gaming]

As the primary author of The 8L Train Project, I am practically jumping for joy at how you guys will be making similar changes to the base game, and more! Thank you so much for continuing to improve the game.

One question though: Will Wube Software be making a guide to better enable graphics mods? For example, train entities should be x pixels wide, or the slanted view is at 60 degrees up from ground so people using 3d rendering programs know what perspective to use?


Also, vertical tracks are a little off center to the right. Will that be fixed in .13?

[hauk70]

Seriously why fluid wagon pushed back? I do not understand what could be so complicated? as for me much more difficult spider.

[Xterminator]

By far one of most exciting FF for me! Even with some stuff being pushed to 0.14, there is still a ton of really great stuff being added to 0.13!

I am overjoyed to hear that pipes and underground Belts will be able to be placed like power poles, this is a massive quality of life thing, at least for me. Also the train changes and module stuff is super cool too. Not to mention the blueprint book! Will be so nice not to have to carry all these blueprints around in my inventory constantly. Haha

Hope you find some more members for the team so that we can get the features even quicker.

Bit sad that Spidertron and fluid wagon will be pushed back, but at least there is the Rail Tanker mod which works quite well anyway so not a huge deal.

Super excited!

[Choumiko]

Not currently. These things need to be answered and addressed in a meaningful way in order to do that:

• Should the modules be applied even if the machine recipes don't match real vs blueprint?
• Should the modules be applied even if the assembling machine type or the rotation doesn't match what's in the blueprint?
• Should the modules be applied even if the existing assembling machine already has some modules or some modules on the way?
• Should *all* of the modules be applied even if the existing assembling machine already has some of the ones to be applied? Or just the missing ones?

I wasn't able to come up with a satisfactory answer to those questions that would make everyone happy and left it at "just remove and replace the machines with the version that includes the modules you want" for now.

• No, as currently it also doesn't change the recipe when "blueprinting" over existing assemblers, also some recipes don't allow productivity
• Different type: No, # of module slots is likely to be different. Different rotation: yes or no? Undecided on that one, if type and recipe are the same i'd go with yes, else the previous point trumps it
• Yes, it should remove the unmatching modules and insert the new ones
• Just the missing ones, removing ones that will be applied a few seconds later seems unnecessary

To maybe make it more clear: I'm thinking of the new feature as some sort of fast replace equivalent for modules: You have modules lvl 1 in all your machines, and want to mass upgrade them to lvl 3. Upgrade one (tileable) module by hand, blueprint it and stamp it on the other matching modules.

There are a lot of those as well just most that read FFs tend not to care about the API stuff

API roadmap please??

[[DegC]RubenGass]

But why do we have to wait to get these delicious features that are already finished? Especially the multiplayer, I really want to set up a proper server for Factorio...

Still super hyped about 0.13. I'm not angry, I'm just dissappointed that it will take another two months

[Nividica]

Awesome job on your progress guys! I greatly look forward to 0.13

So many new shinies!

The underground pipe laying feature, OH. MY. GOD, I know it's been on the to-do list for a while.. So happy it'll be in 0.13. It was a real chore to mess with pipe over any distance.The blue print booklet, is just what the doctor ordered! Any chance of a sneak peak, a little gif maybe? Pretty please? With sugar on top?

Completely agree about long distance pipes. And if you are referring to an image of the blueprint book, FFF #108 http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-108 shows what it looks like. No more recycling the same few blueprint items just to save inventory space!

[indjev99]

I am just angry at myself for not being born earlier so I could work with you. But sadly I am only 16 years old.
BTW, the achievement icons look amazing!

[DaveMcW]

I am just angry at myself for not being born earlier so I could work with you. But sadly I am only 16 years old.

At the rate of schedule slip, they may still be working on Factorio 1 when you turn 18.

[RobertTerwilliger]

Cool. At first look it more like usability and graphics improvement, but I smell it will change really good game to even better.
I'm hoping very much you will have some time to implement taker wagons - I really do : )
Achievement icons look very neat - I like most the one with guy taking nap while bot is doing the work (2nd row, left one) - that's all about Factorio in single pic : )

[mngrif]

Artillery turret

oh
my
glob

!!!

[Nic]

Since the Loader is now on the roadmap - how will it work? Are you going to make it exactly like in the blog post or different from the original idea?

[ikarikeiji]

Modules in blueprints and dragging pipes? Best Friday Facts ever <3

[Zeblote]

Since the Loader is now on the roadmap - how will it work? Are you going to make it exactly like in the blog post

I sure hope they will!

[Marconos]

Great information, thanks for sharing with us the timing and where things are at.

June 1st date really sucks .. but if it's realistic, it's realistic.

Keep up the great work ... I'll see if I can get my 10k rockets launched on my map before it's released!!!

[Koub]

Mouth watering FFF

[jockeril]

So many great things - can't choose what I like more!

Question - will we be able to transfer a BP book from one map to others ? And to other computers ?

I Can't wait for 0.13 to come - I'm so excited

Thank you #factorio devs again, especially you Kovarex for this amazing game - I love it and you!

Also - I hope you will consider fixing R-T-L support so I (and other mod translators) don't have to invert R-T-L languages translations and the game will do it by itself.

[lancar]

I hope you guys can find some good additions to the team.

On the subject of icons, I went back to play factorio again after a long break and got to get a feel for the new tech icons. I'd seen them before in an FFF but it's still a bit of a different thing to see & use them in-game than on a summary screen on the website.

The result?
I was... confused.
The icons are extremely pretty, make no mistake. They're almost works of art in graphics quality and attention to detail...
...so much that they all blended together into a big mess before my eyes.

The old placeholder icons were not great, but due to their simplified nature they were significantly easier to distinguish from another at a glance.
I'm definitely not saying you should re-design new ones, but I think they could use a few quick tweaks to make them more easier to sort on the tech screen.

For example, color the top-left corner of the icon with the color of the highest research packs required for it - this would make it much easier to see which techs can be researched right now, and which needs the next tier(s) of science packs. It would also provide some extra "oooh!" feeling when you see techs with a purple tag. Purple is mmo-code for epic stuff, after all

Armor already use a good way to make themselves stand out from the other techs with the black silhouette of a man in the icon, and this kind of easy-to-see effect symbol is something I'd like to see added to some of the other techs as well to classify the different kinds of things you can research.
The damage up and fire-speed up upgrade for weapons, for example, currently use a targeting reticule and stopwatch art, along with red and blue tint (respectively), to indicate which does which. However, the abundance of red and blue in all the other tech icons diminishes the latter and the extreme detail of all the art blurs the former. I believe these could be improved with symbols that're easier to differentiate, like plain non-stylized up-arrows instead. Like the black armor-mod icons, they need to not be artistic so as to make it easier for the human eye to spot them.

I also think that techs could be categorized with some sort of marker that indicates which "tree" it belongs in (logistics, production, military). This would make it easier to find the area you wish to focus on when the box pops up.


Of course, all this might just be pointless when the proper research tree is released, but I figured I'd air my thoughts about it anyway.
As for the achievement icons, they're looking mighty spiffy I especially like how they remind me of actual trophies.

[Splitframe]

Before it drowns again: please make a little recap of the loader discussion. Maybe along the lines of which ideas you liked and which you didn't and for what reasons.
It doesn't need to be in a FFF a normal forum post would suffice too.