(How) Does mod content get added to vanilla?

[Gandalf]

There are tons of good suggestions floating around, but I have noticed a lot of them get subdued
by references to mods. Mods are cool of course, but some features I'd really prefer to see in the
vanilla game eventually. Obviously not all mods are vanilla content material, in fact most of them
probably aren't. But there are a few that I think definitely belong on the dev teams todo list.

So my question is, do you (devs) treat content that has already been implemented by a mod with
the same priority as if there was no mod for it?
Also does it make any sense to open up a suggestion thread even though a mod already exists,
just to let the dev team know that there are people who'd like to see a certain feature in the
vanilla game?

My issue here is mainly, that a lot of discussion about new features seams to stop dead in its
tracks once a mod is revealed for it. It feels to me like this might actually inhibit the progress
of the main game, unless devs keep track of all the mods and how they are received?

Note that in asking these question I don't care too much about how it is included, i.e. if you
write a feature from scratch or even just include the mod as is. What I care about is a conflict
free, seemless inclusion that will be maintained by factorio staff developers.

Examples:

• https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =14&t=8352 FishSandwich's PVP.
  That's probably the most obvious candidate for a follow up to the recently implemented
  multiplayer.
• https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =14&t=6847 adds rail tankers. Imho
  those should absolutely be part of the core game. Transporting liquids in large quantities
  of barrels is just completely unnatural and trains are boring with only one type of waggons.

[cube]

We have a list of features to add that is mostly independent of what mods exist for factorio. Sometimes a feature in this list is inspired by a mod and sometimes it gets dropped because there is alredy a mod, but most of the time they don't mix.

PvP is going to be added sometime in the future for sure. We _almost_ started working on rail tankers in summer, but the idea kind of fell to the background. Still it is a thing I'd like to see in the game sooner or later.

[hoho]

sometimes it gets dropped because there is alredy a mod

Mods occasionally tend to "die". Have there been any ideas that you at some point wanted to add, a mod did it first so it got dropped but later on that mod died?

[Marconos]

I'm one of those payers that prefer things in the base fame rather than a mod. To me modes should be more about fundamental changes in how the game is played, not basic items. Mod type things are super fast trains, many variants of base items, tons of other resources, specialized production items or methods. Things like tankers, standard handling of all fluids, basic tiers if power and production etc I would really love in the base game.
My biggest concern on these boards is to see people ask questions and the answer by others is mod it. That is a nice to have option but at this phase in the game it should be more along the lines of discussing whether said feature should be in the base game or not.

[kovarex]

For me, one of the purposes of mods is to test new ideas and features before they are done "properly" in the main game.

I believe that great example is the piston mod for Minecraft, that was moved to vanilla, because it was obviously a great and simple concept.

I believe we stated in our roadmap, that 0.11 will contain first proof of concept of multiplayer, where 0.12 will have some of the things finished properly. One of these things is quite obvious possibility to have different teams, and pvp is just special case of it

So for me, when a mod exists and it works good, it is just another reason to put it into vanilla.

[Gandalf]

For me, one of the purposes of mods is to test new ideas and features before they are done "properly" in the main game.

That's pretty much what I was hoping to hear. I can totally see mods helping with "exploring" a concept so you don't end up throwing the vanilla game completely off balance with a new feature. Sometimes an extended proof-of-concept is really needed before you even notice potential pitfalls. But it calms me a lot to know that you guys don't just ignore stuff already that has a mod for it.

Thanks for your replies.

[Marconos]

Agree with Gandalf, love what you posted kovarex. The fact you are looking at mods and items that can be added and part of the base game is great.

[SuperSandro2000]

For example drones were first a mod and later vanilla content.