What is Bob's mods?

[Sander_Bouwhuis]

I've played quite a bit of Factorio, and heard a lot of chatter about people using Bob's mods. Can someone tell me what it is? I tried looking on Youtube, but I only see Bob's Angel mods. I think that's a different mod(?)
Even searching on mods.factorio.com did not help me.

Please inform!

[hewhoispale]

I've played quite a bit of Factorio, and heard a lot of chatter about people using Bob's mods. Can someone tell me what it is? I tried looking on Youtube, but I only see Bob's Angel mods. I think that's a different mod(?)
Even searching on mods.factorio.com did not help me.

Please inform!

It's a large collection of (somewhat) modular mods that expand and complicate the game. It is largely focused around adding many more intermediate products such that you aren't just turning raw plates of metal into sophisticated machinery directly. A circuit now requires a board to mount it on, wiring, solder, and resistors instead of just running two pieces of metal into an assembler.

Bobs-Angels is a slightly different beast, it takes Bob's Mods and layers another set of mods (Angel's) on top of them, these ones are largely focused on revamping the process of refining materials. More intermediary steps in ore sorting, smelting, and petro-chemical processing notably. Getting iron plates, for example, means mining the ore, crushing it, sorting it, running it through a furnaces, and casting the molten metal to plates instead of just putting ore directly into a single furnace.

Both mods sets are largely about increasing the logistical demands in Factorio while attempting to more closely model some of the processes at work.
They can get wicked complicated and aren't for everyone, but if I've found the puzzle enjoyable. I've also played them only as part of SeaBlock, which is a special kind of crazy and not a good starting point for everyone.

[Sander_Bouwhuis]

Aha, ok!

So, does it replace vanilla Factorio, or do you still use the same things like assembling machines and electric miners and nuclear reactors and such?

Where is the wiki to see the recipes and such? (to understand what does what, and what goes where).

[bobingabout]

The mods are applied on top of the base game, as an extension to it. it adds a lot of complexity in some areas, and in others just adds more to it, such as assembling machines 4, 5 and 6, with appropriate advanced materials costs.

There is no wiki right now, we're still trying to figure out the best way to go about this sort of thing, due to the fact that the mod has over a dozen components, and most of them are optional, and depending what you install recipes and even factory chains themselves can change quite drastically.

[Sander_Bouwhuis]

Ok.

Can I download all the mods as 1 pack and enable/disable the parts I like/dislike?

I only see a topic for v0.15 viewtopic.php?f=51&t=44915
Is v0.16 beta supported? Or are you waiting for v0.16 to release?

[bobingabout]

Ok.

Can I download all the mods as 1 pack and enable/disable the parts I like/dislike?

I only see a topic for v0.15 viewtopic.php?f=51&t=44915
Is v0.16 beta supported? Or are you waiting for v0.16 to release?

you sir, are blind: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=55347
0.16 is definitely supported.

You need the library, it is recommended you install the mods Ores and Plates as a starting point, then after that you can pick and choose what to install.

Electronics will significantly change everything, because everything costs electronics, so people recommend that you don't use it for your first play through.
Revamp is basically the endgame mod, it mostly changes things related to the rocket silo, but also does an overhaul to the oil technology tree, and how you go about making sulfur.

Inserters allows you to configure all the inserters quite massively.


But yes, you can either go about installing whichever mods you want from the list there, or you can use the drop box link, which allows you to download the entire folder as a zip file. you will then need to extract the mod packages from inside into the mods folder, then disable whichever parts you don't want to use.

Also, go through the mod options page in the main menu, there are a lot of settings which can lead to a very different game.

The default options are what I recommend you use. the defaults do change from time to time. Typically, I'll release a new feature (like the most recent inserters overhaul) and have it turned off by default, but turn it on by default in the next major release.

[Sander_Bouwhuis]

Wow, it's all a bit overwhelming.

I'll just download it all and try it out. Thanks a bunch for all of this.

Maybe the Factorio guys should hire you and make this an official game mode.

[Aeternus]

Heh, they somewhat did... the guy got a sneakpeek at the Factorio source. Have to admit, it's probably the most comprehensive - and probably one of the most popular - modsets of Factorio. That inserter mod especially deserves to go into the base game, even when it makes the longhanded one obsolete.

[Light]

That inserter mod especially deserves to go into the base game, even when it makes the longhanded one obsolete.

Completely undermining the entire point of creative designs by allowing incredible reach in any direction within a large radius? There's a good reason it's not in the base game, because it's called cheating.

It's great for those who don't mind doing so, but hardly appropriate for the base game.

Wow, it's all a bit overwhelming.

This is how it may feel at first, but then later on you feel other parts are lacking development and install Angels, then you branch into other mods more and more until you eventually can't bring yourself to play vanilla anymore.

At least that's how it seems to go for most people, myself included. There's just nothing better than facing a new build challenge and spending hours designing something grand, unlike vanilla where you can launch a rocket in 6 hours with a rather small and simple setup. Give it a fair chance and ask questions if needed, as the modding community is very supportive with helping players get started.

[bobingabout]

That inserter mod especially deserves to go into the base game, even when it makes the longhanded one obsolete.

Completely undermining the entire point of creative designs by allowing incredible reach in any direction within a large radius? There's a good reason it's not in the base game, because it's called cheating.

It's great for those who don't mind doing so, but hardly appropriate for the base game.

Yeah, I understand that view, which is why not only is it it's own mod, but it even has an option to turn off the highest reach.
The more simple long toggle though, maybe that could be in vanilla instead of having a dedicated long inserter for it.

[Light]

That inserter mod especially deserves to go into the base game, even when it makes the longhanded one obsolete.

Completely undermining the entire point of creative designs by allowing incredible reach in any direction within a large radius? There's a good reason it's not in the base game, because it's called cheating.

It's great for those who don't mind doing so, but hardly appropriate for the base game.

Yeah, I understand that view, which is why not only is it it's own mod, but it even has an option to turn off the highest reach.
The more simple long toggle though, maybe that could be in vanilla instead of having a dedicated long inserter for it.

The long toggle I've been accustomed to using due to your inserter overhaul has been rather nice for the very fast (especially filter) inserters, that I will easily agree with. The vanilla long inserter being much slower and unable to carry stacks makes it implausible in late-game vanilla, usually for megafactories with the single rocket a minute goal.

Having fast, stack, and especially filter inserters easily modified to long would have led to much better vanilla designs.

[Sander_Bouwhuis]

This is how it may feel at first, but then later on you feel other parts are lacking development and install Angels, then you branch into other mods more and more until you eventually can't bring yourself to play vanilla anymore.

I've started a game last night, and I think it's really exciting not knowing what will happen next. I've set up steam engines and copper, coal, and iron mining. Next is automating red bottles so I can start researching basic things.

Regarding 'cheating': I always play with infinite ores and long reach and I can walk through everything (even water and machines). Finally, I turn aliens off because I just want to build stuff without being constantly interrupted.

Edit:
Ok, I installed all the Bob mods and turned everything on except for enemies.

Just about everything after the red Erlenmeyer flasks is new.
Trying to make green Erlenmeyer flasks is about as difficult as launching a rocket in vanilla Factorio.

To make green Erlenmeyer flasks all you need are basic belts and brown inserters.
Sounds easy, right?
Basic inserters need tin and iron, so they are actually easy.
Brown inserters, however, are amazingly hard.

You need iron plate (easy) and iron gear (easy) and basic circuit board (very hard).
Basic circuit board needs wood. Wait, what? Wood?!? Yes.
Luckily we now have green houses where we can grow them. Which requires seedlings. Which we can create in a circular economy to make wood from seedlings and make seedlings from wood in a feedback loop.

Done! Easy, right? NOOOOOOOOOO. We need assembling machine 2 because brown inserters need 3 components.

Assembling machine 2 requires a BUNCH of components. I mean, seriously, we're talking about maybe a dozen new components including electronics, carbon, tin, tin copper wire, solder, resin, ...
Most of these require special furnaces and distillers and electrolysers and what not.
Further, trying to get lead is actually a LOT harder also. You get both lead and nickel ore. Aaaaaaaaaaaand of course we don't have filter inserters yet, so we can't easily separate them.
Ok, let's get rid of the nickel ore by making nickel plates.
Hmmm... that requires oxygen?!? Ok, then I need to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. More machines, more components.

Done? No? Need solder?!? AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!

That's when I saw it was 2:37 in the night, and I have to get up at 6:30. OOPS.

Conclusion:
THIS SHOULD BE A GAME MODE IN FACTORIO!!!
The Bob mods is to vanilla Factorio, what vanilla Factorio is to Pong.

DEVS, HIRE THIS GUY NOWWWWWWWWW!!