[0.13.x][0.13.3] Bob's Tweaks mod
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 7:56 pm
Hello all,
After discovering Bob's Mods I was very impressed by the scope of the modification. I played tens of hours with the mod and had so much fun doing that. However, I always felt Bobingabout stopped at 90% as there was still a distinction between stock and mod items, research and recipies. For example - iron and other gears, iron/copper and other ores were in different tabs. The technologies were missing quite a few prerequisites (especially the late game ones around titanium and tungsten processing). After overtaking the stock electronics in the mods, technologies had wrong prerequisites set as well. I'm a completionist and those bits irked me quite a bit.
Initially I embarked on creating a separate "ultimate" mod containing all the mods together and having all those omissions fixed. However, apart from being in a direct violation of the license (don't do it at home, kids! ), it was quickly apparent that it won't be sustainable. Bobingabout has been and still is actively making many changes (kudos to him for that! ). It is also clear that he puts priority on flexibility and compatibility with other overhaul mods so mixing and matching is possible.
The second approach and much more sensible one was to create a separate mod that would modify Bob's mods content in a non-intrusive way. This way it would not violate the license and would be easier to maintain.
After a few discussions with Bobingabout and reviewing the changes I was encouraged to release this mod to a wider audience.
Changes vs. Bob's mods:
The best way to experience it is to start a new game (and to go through the whole technology tree), however, it should be perfectly fine to load an existing save. If you decide to do the latter, run this command to reset the recipes and technologies:
Please treat it as a research project and please do leave your feedback. It will be invaluable for Bobingabout to see your impression and thoughts. If there is enough support, some of those changes might be incorporated in the Bob's Mods.
Ath
After discovering Bob's Mods I was very impressed by the scope of the modification. I played tens of hours with the mod and had so much fun doing that. However, I always felt Bobingabout stopped at 90% as there was still a distinction between stock and mod items, research and recipies. For example - iron and other gears, iron/copper and other ores were in different tabs. The technologies were missing quite a few prerequisites (especially the late game ones around titanium and tungsten processing). After overtaking the stock electronics in the mods, technologies had wrong prerequisites set as well. I'm a completionist and those bits irked me quite a bit.
Initially I embarked on creating a separate "ultimate" mod containing all the mods together and having all those omissions fixed. However, apart from being in a direct violation of the license (don't do it at home, kids! ), it was quickly apparent that it won't be sustainable. Bobingabout has been and still is actively making many changes (kudos to him for that! ). It is also clear that he puts priority on flexibility and compatibility with other overhaul mods so mixing and matching is possible.
The second approach and much more sensible one was to create a separate mod that would modify Bob's mods content in a non-intrusive way. This way it would not violate the license and would be easier to maintain.
After a few discussions with Bobingabout and reviewing the changes I was encouraged to release this mod to a wider audience.
Changes vs. Bob's mods:
- Reordered a lot of items and recipes. See the current order in the screenshots below.
crafting and filtering tabsI still don't have a good idea how to order the resources tab - should it be: powders, plates and beams; or some other way of categorizing, like: direct smelting, chemistry processing, derivatives.
I introduced many more groups so the items are aligned vertically as well (alien packs and sciences, belts, inserters, or various container handling in the fluids tab).
Hopefully it all makes it easier to find things around. - Put all missing prerequisites into the technology tree. Some of those missing prerequisites have already been put into the latest Bob's Logistics mod (those changes have been incorporated in the current version of the tweaks). Expect more of them to find their way into the base mods over time.
The idea behind it was to make sure you cannot research something and then being unable to craft it due to missing stuff. - Removed the blue pack recipe from batteries technology and created a separate technology just for it (Research). It allowed me to put a prerequisite on all technologies using it. Then I expanded the idea altogether for green packs (new technology - Basic Research), purple (?) packs (existing Advanced Research) and alien packs (existing Alien Technology and Alien Research). Hopefully it will make the progression bit clearer.
The idea behind is exactly the same as in the point above - now you cannot even attempt to research a technology before mastering the science packs on this level. - Small tweaks to unlocks in some technologies. For example - barrel is unlocked now in Barrelling instead of Fluid handling. The same goes for crude oil barrelling.
- Small changes to some of the recipes, for example - all higher level transport belts and splitter require lubricant. Express transport belts and splitter require steel gears instead of iron ones to make the progression somewhat smoother (than jumping straight from iron to titanium).
The best way to experience it is to start a new game (and to go through the whole technology tree), however, it should be perfectly fine to load an existing save. If you decide to do the latter, run this command to reset the recipes and technologies:
Code: Select all
/c for index, force in pairs(game.forces) do force.reset_recipes() force.reset_technologies() end
Change log
Kind regards,Ath