Saved games and future updates

[Daqidius]

Greetings fellow engineers,

i have a questions that is bugging me. Although i like to start fresh sometimes , i would like to build a mega base that will last and i will play it (on and off) for months maybe years
I realized it is possible by Xterminator's base tour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRYQcVb_5W0) where the guys have been playing the vanilla game through several patches over long period of time

The Question
1. VANILLA - If i start the game will my saved game be compatible in the future ? I understand if there will be change in recipes (like the Oil overhaul) the base will need to have adjustments, but in general will it work in coming years ?

2. MODS - in the mentioned base tour no mods were used, i have the same question as above but now with Mods ? If Mods will not be obsolete will the game still load and be playable ?
I dont use some overhaul mods , just some QoL (like squeakthrough) or some small additions (like AirFiltering or Nanobots) mods.

[MassiveDynamic]

In the past, and I'm sure in the future also, I have been able to continue my games through updates without incident. Mods are typically updated very quickly. If you are only using small and or QoL mods, there should not be any issues. As you say, some recipes may get updated, minor changes may be made, but typically the factory is easily capable of refitting.

[Yoyobuae]

VANILLA: The game is released. There won't be any more major changes like "oil overhaul". At worst maybe some designs that rely on very specific internal Factorio behavior could break.

MODS: In general all mods can be removed and save file will remain "playable". How playable depends on the extend a mod changes the game. If a mod only adds things then those things would disappear when you remove the mod. If mod changes some aspect of the base game (ie. recipes) then those things could break when the mod is removed (ie. missing recipes).

[Koub]

If you want to be 100% sure your ongoing base will be playable forever (or at least as long as hardware and OSes don't have changed enough that Factorio won't run any more on your computer), then download the zip version on the website, the mods you might want, and disable auto-updates. You're guaranteed nothing will come and break your map.

[Daqidius]

If you want to be 100% sure your ongoing base will be playable forever (or at least as long as hardware and OSes don't have changed enough that Factorio won't run any more on your computer), then download the zip version on the website, the mods you might want, and disable auto-updates. You're guaranteed nothing will come and break your map.

do you know if you can revert to previous version in Factorio ? like if you chose to update , then everything will be messed , is there a option to revert ?

[Koub]

No. I'm not saying it can't work, just that if your save is migrated upon version upgrade, unmigrating it is impossible. So just don't count on it.

[Kyralessa]

do you know if you can revert to previous version in Factorio ? like if you chose to update , then everything will be messed , is there a option to revert ?

Use .zip installations. You can have as many .zip-installed versions as you want. In addition to version compatibility, another big advantage of going the .zip route is mod compatibility. Different Factorio installation folders can have different sets of mods so you don't have to check or uncheck mods and restart to fit the mods you were using with a particular saved game.

You can even install all the way back to 0.6.4 if you want to see what Factorio looked like as a wee lad.

The older versions can be found here: https://factorio.com/download/archive

[Daqidius]

Use .zip installations. You can have as many .zip-installed versions as you want. In addition to version compatibility, another big advantage of going the .zip route is mod compatibility. Different Factorio installation folders can have different sets of mods so you don't have to check or uncheck mods and restart to fit the mods you were using with a particular saved game.

You can even install all the way back to 0.6.4 if you want to see what Factorio looked like as a wee lad.

The older versions can be found here: https://factorio.com/download/archive

I had no idea about this possibility, i guess it does mean you can not play it via steam, i just checked 3 update option in steam and they are (update, update only when launch, high prio update)

but hell it is really interesting , thx man

[mergele]

Steam does offer access to a lot of previous versions.

[Koub]

Steam does offer access to a lot of previous versions.

Until it doesn't

[Zavian]

Steam does offer access to a lot of previous versions.

Until it doesn't

True. But I expect major releases like 1.0 to be around for quite a while. (But using the .zip version is a better idea, if you are worried about updates breaking your mods/base).