One of my greatest disappointments from all the time I've spent in Multiplayer is that 95% of all games revolve around the concept of a "main bus", with the same blueprints pasted in the same locations by people who don't understand how the game really works and with the same outcome - a drawn out boring game with all imagination removed, that is always choked of resources because people don't understand that high density Intermediates (such as Green Circuits and Steel) should not be drawing their required resources from the bus, and if they do then the bus always dissolves into just a poor gaming experience that leads to infighting, blaming and a general poor experience by all those involved.
When added onto the fact that people tend to come across as being selfish and arrogant, only because there is a lack of means of communicating across time (fixed thanks to FFF #519), it leads to an overall bad gameplay experience and I found myself enjoying servers that allow blueprint placement less and less.
I have had so many games where people wish to starve the mall of resources for the sake of science, despite the fact that it is an exponential equation, and especially before the rocket launch but after the core required research is unlocked, scaling the base quickly results in more science being produced in the long run.
Nearly every game I set red belts/blue belts in the mall to have at least 1000 available (preferably a full chest on 10+ people servers), only to have others constantly set it back to 100, and then complain that there are no building supplies when they wish to build something, despite the fact that the mall should be building things in the background whilst we do whatever it is we wish to do - additional players require additional resources because you can scale far faster than solo.
My multiplayer experience eventually evolved to the point where it was far better to leave the main bus base, and create your own factory to get things done, and I believe this was especially true of most of the regulars I saw, where they always left the base because they don't want people touching their things.
What used to be a really creative logical puzzle to solve, has essentially turned into a grind fest in inefficiency.
The spirit of the game has been lost to main bus and city blocks, and I love the fact that 2.0 Space Age it is going to force people to think outside the box, to leave their comfort zone of doing the same things over and over again, every single day of every single week (looking at you FJFF server).
Let's break this down.
*Vulcanus*
Circuit Intermediates are essentially now "free" thanks to Vulcanus, with the only resource that would need monitoring being Calcite, this means you can have Vulcanus running in the background making quality++ intermediates essentially without a thought, keeping in mind we don't know what horrors lurk beneath the depths.
They've taken one of the most annoying parts of the game, the constant expansion and securing of iron and copper resources, and have instead handed you unlimited resources on a platter, allowing you to pump them from anywhere, and dispose of the excess anywhere too, I love this mechanic.
*Fulgora*
Fulgora takes the concept of scrap and recycling, as seen in multiple mods, and makes it an interesting puzzle of statistics, just to introduce the player to a new concept and way of thinking when it comes to acquiring items, and it is something that I hope people try without downloading blueprints, as I believe most will be amazed at what they can achieve when they just try; note to all - split the highest quantity of items from the belt first, with the rarest split off last.
*Gleba*
Gleba targets the resource hoarders, (shots were fired below the belt and they hit me with every single one), and forces us to create systems that use resources as soon as they are created and not let them sit idlily on the belts, such as what occurs on a main bus, or in chests and wagons, such as in city blocks, and encourages you to create efficient subfactories that deal with things as they occurring, creating a game all about logistical timing - this is the planet I am looking forward to the most because it is going to force me outside of my comfort zone.
And as for the forth planet, I honestly don't know, but I hope we have some super crazy alien tech to discover for as unlikely as it is - but a cold and dark planet, sign me up, you might even force me to use lights in my base.
All of these little concepts and puzzles shown so far, are going to greatly improve the long term wellbeing of the players of the game.
I believe many of us turn to Factorio because we are creatures of routine and enjoy problem solving, with ASD being a common trait, but that also comes with certain negatives such as being less than ideal communicators and often being forced to deal with other mental health issues and use gaming as an escape from our lives.
Due to a situation outside of my control, I have been on my own journey of dealing with substantial mental health issues over the past five and a half years or so, and I have often found that forcing new experiences upon yourself, to break the routine, will more likely than not result in a positive outcome despite how hard it is to do so at the time, and especially before you take that initial step.
You have nothing to fear about changes to the game, you are an amazing designer, capable of building incredible things, if you only give yourself the chance to do so, I believe in you.
For what it is worth, if you play multiplayer, try and build everyone up, try and be positive and compliment them on their little builds, as a little kindness can go a long way in someone's lives, and you never know how much others are suffering when they are simply laying down some conveyor belts.
*Megabases*
In terms of megabases, one of the main UPS draws are inserters, by moving the "bulk" of inserter heavy actions into the reworked fluid system, we are able to mitigate most of the UPS issues we were previously facing with large scale megabases, this will allow us to reach, as previously mentioned, 1 million SPM, for probably around the same UPS as we see now at 10.8k SPM.
Most ore patches are between 10-14 lanes of belt output in the late game, with trains typically being 4 or 8 wagons in length, using a 16-16 balancer with twin lane loading for the 2/3-8 trains was a no brainer until such time that direct train mining became viable.
The new changes will allow perfect balancing of your main ore trains without the need for a single splitter or balancer, excluding any calcite required for the Foundry, this amazing for UPS.
The new Stack Inserters will allow for 8x the items to be moved in one swing (from my limited understanding of Stack Inserters + Legendary Quality), again, this is 8x the throughput for a single call, think of this as not 2+2+2+2+2 = 10, but rather 2*2*2*2*2 = 32, small changes will scale vastly throughout the factory.
But all of this pales in comparison to the ability to run separate train networks, which means I will be able to build a "touring" train track for my children to travel around the factory that won't interfere with any other trains, I had one in my original world, but it was simply around some trees in the middle of the base.
My daughter absolutely loves "nature", and yes whilst I understand the irony of that statement when it comes to Factorio, (she has commented on the green water not looking healthy more than once), I have always tried my best to build within the nature that Factorio offers, to minimize landfill, cliff explosives and to try and not knock down any trees unless I have to, this is also why I have never made concrete outside of the required amount for nuclear power.
I will be able to play with her, build a little house for her somewhere green, with a TV (thanks FFF #419), especially if the expansion introduces something like a carbon scrubber to remove pollution from a chunk.
My son will be able to drive a train around and around and around, as he just loves trains and exploring, and obviously shooting biters with his Spidertron.
This update to the game fundamentally changes everything, at such a deeper level than what appears at first glance.
You have my deepest of thanks Wube, you have really shown yourselves to be the pinnacle studio to look up to in terms of how you approach designing a game.
You still have time to rename the quality tiers though
