Tech Tree Redesign Ideas - simplifying the spaghetti

[booljayj]

I'm a game developer myself, and I've been doing some thinking about the current tech tree in Factorio. I'm not sure how it was originally designed, but as it stands now it's a chaotic web of very odd decisions. I'm sure there are many things that could be done to improve it, and I want to throw out some ideas here to see how the community responds.

The Current Setup

First, let's examine the types of technologies found on the tech tree. There are three basic types:

• - Normal Technologies (80) - these unlock crafting items
  • - Ex. Oil Processing, Railway, Rocketry
  - Gateway Technologies (5) - these don't unlock crafting items, but are required to unlock other technologies
  • - Ex. Advanced Electronics 2, Flight, Laser
  - Upgrade Technologies (101) - these don't unlock crafting items, but they do improve item stats
  • - Ex. Bullet Damage #, Follower Robot Count #, Lab Efficiency #

The relationships between technologies are not consistent. For example, Advanced Electronics is a normal tech which unlocks advanced circuits and processing units required for many different technologies. However, Advanced Electronics 2 is a gateway tech that primarily leads to robotics. Some technologies unlock several different items and are required for many other technologies, and some only unlock a single item and end there (concrete, gates, land mines).

To research technologies, players need to produce 4 types of science pack. 2 of them can be crafted from the very start of the game, but the other 2 require technologies to unlock the packs. This effectively means that Alien Technology and Battery are unofficial gateway technologies, since they block anything that requires blue or purple science.

By the time most players reach Automation 2, they have created an automated research setup. For technologies using red and green science, this means that the research flies by in a very short time. So fast that it becomes hard to even care about the research you're doing. As you set up your initial base, every few minutes you select whatever technology requires the fewest science packs and just let it run. This is a very mindless setup, and it's hard to appreciate what you're actually researching and plan ahead.

As far as the logic behind required technologies, it's also a bit far-fetched. Laser is required for Military 3 even though none of the items it unlocks seem to require knowledge of lasers (however, you could make the argument that lasers are somehow required for manufacturing). On top of that, Military 3 requires blue science packs but does not depend on Battery, the technology that unlocks blue science packs.

Re-designing the Tech Tree

From what I can see, the best way to fix the weirdness in the tech tree is to redesign it from the start. The technologies themselves don't need to change in most cases, but the way they are put together and researched can definitely be changed.

The first step is to divide the tech tree itself and the technologies into three categories. Each of these categories has a science pack which corresponds to it. There is still plenty of overlap between each category, and requirements can span all three categories.

• - Production (red science): All technologies focused on creating raw components or improving material processing
  - Logistics (green science): All technologies focused on transportation and distribution of materials
  - Military (blue science): All technologies focused on offensive or defensive capabilities

Researching a technology in either category will require the corresponding science pack, but can also include other science packs for when there is overlap. For example, Fluid Handling is primarily logistics, but also helps with production, so it would require green and red science. Advanced munitions are primarily military, but are also production, so they would require blue and red science. The exact ratios and amount required would changed depending on the technology.

There is also a fourth science pack: purple. This is used exclusively for upgrade technologies, which are part of all three categories. An upgrade will require the same science packs as the original technology (maybe 60-80% as many), plus some number of purple. The greater the upgrade, the more purple required. Like in the base game, purple science is made with alien artifacts.

All four types of science can be crafted at the beginning of the game, and require 2 components to create (with the exception of purple, which requires 1). All of them can be crafted using the most basic assembling machine, including all their components.

So what stops players from just crafting everything from the beginning of the game? Simple: gateway technologies. Rather than unlocking nothing, these technologies unlock better science packs. These more advanced science packs require 3 or more components to craft, including the previous level of science pack. This means that a Red Science Pack Mk. 2 will require a Red Science Pack Mk. 1 and two additional components, each of which can be crafted with the more advanced assembling machines or chemical plants.

What does this mean for players?

With this setup, players will have a much easier time understanding which technologies they have to research, and a much more difficult time setting up automated research stations. Players will also have much more choice in how they direct their efforts in the early game.

Because of the way gateway technologies work in the new setup, players need to constantly evolve their research setups. Unlocking new science packs won't completely replace the earlier science packs, but as the players get further and further along in the tree they'll need to shift production towards the more advanced types. End game technologies become much more of a challenge to reach, and there is no such thing as a set-and-forget research station.

What does this mean for developers?

In short, a lot more work setting things up. The tech tree is already there, and it works well enough as is. Redesigning the whole thing will take time, especially when the whole idea of science packs is completely different.

However, I think the rewards clearly outweigh the costs. A better tech tree will make it easier to add new technologies in the future, and will be much easier for new players to understand. A single long meeting to change the tech tree and a week of work could mean turning on many more players. Not to mention that this would automatically solve a lot of the issues with late-game play.

[bobingabout]

Seperating the science packs into different groups, Production, logistics and military isn't a new idea, in fact I think it is a good idea, however... currently you have science packs 1, 2 and 3, each being more difficult to craft than the previous, giving you something to work for. if you simply changed them into categories, then once you can make the logistic science pack, you can just research all logistic items until the end of time.

What you'd need is multiple tiers of each. You could just keep the red science as it is, as a gateway pack into getting started, and most red science technology that exists would remain unchanged. But then when you would have green science, split it up into the 3 directions, each requiring a slightly different recipe to create. The existing Science pack 2 works well for logistics, it works for production too, but makes no sense for military, a military science pack for example might contain a gun, and a clip of ammo. Also material costs per pack should be taken into account, so each should require a similar number of copper/iron or other raw resources in order to craft.

One of the other issues that crops up when thinking about what to put in a science pack, especially for Production is... what do you put in the pack? Most production related items are machines, do you want to put an assembling machine in production science pack? Seems a bit beefy. so you'd end up putting machine parts in there, like gears... but they're in red science already. It basically means we're either missing machine parts, or it ends up looking something similar to logistics. As for military, you just end up filling them with guns and ammo.



There's also the issue that the way things work now, you need all the materials to be in the same lab to research, which means the lab needs to accept all materials. the alternative method is to create a different lab for each thing, so you have a logistics lab, production lab, and military lab. Not a bad idea in theory, in fact my mods add 2 new types of lab, and it seems to work, the issue is that while one type of lab is researching, the rest of the labs are left unused, and there's no way to have multiple researches that require different resources running at the same time.

[Bourbon20147]

yea, nice idea

[bobingabout]

One of the issues with trying to draw a full tech tree like that though is... the factorio tech tree was designed around realism (not strictly limited to it though), so one thing unlocks another, and this branch makes sense. As a result, there are a lot of interleaving crossing branchs, that fork and remerge, and go all over the place... like Spaghetti!

Actually, it would be more accurate to call it a technology web.

It's one reason why Factorio devs abandoned the idea of a full ingame tech tree diagram, and instead opted to display everything below, and everything above only the selected technology... so showing the branches and roots of only the selected technology, rather than the whole tree/web.

[booljayj]

@bobingabout: The system I'm proposing does still allow that kind of web of technology, it just makes it much easier to manage that complexity without trivializing it. By allowing players to separate parts of the tech tree in their mind, and by requiring different primary science packs for each part, players will have a much better understanding of what they're researching and how it fits into the big picture. You still have all the requirements that cross over and connect to different parts of the tree, but there's much more thought that goes into it.

For example: You want to research Railways (logistics), so you know you'll need a lot of green science packs, but railways require Steel (production), which will require a lot of red science packs to research. Trains also require Engines (logistics/military), so some number of blue science packs will need to be made. Players may find it easiest to make a factory for the red and green science, and make all the blue science by hand. They may also find that they need way more green than red or blue, so they'll need to shift production to match that. The same technologies are connected together to get to trains, but you actually have to put some thought into what you need to make it happen.

[booljayj]

@bobingabout: I think you also missed my point about gateway technologies. There are four different types of science pack (red, green, blue, and purple), and multiple levels of each of those (mk1, mk2, and mk3). Gateway technologies unlock the more advanced versions of the science packs, which are required to research more advanced technologies. That's why they're gateway technologies, they block access to higher technologies until they are researched, and once researched they will change the way you conduct further research by requiring you to revisit your science pack production systems.

As far as what goes into the science packs, consider the following as an example of how the science packs would require more and more complex components to produce:

Red science mk1 - 1 gear, 1 copper wire
Red science mk2 - 1 red science mk1, 2 electronic circuits, 1 steel plate
Red science mk3 - 1 red science mk2, 2 processing units, 4 plastic bar

Green science mk1 - 1 basic transport belt, 1 burner inserter
Green science mk2 - 1 green science mk1, 2 fast transport belt, 2 inserter
Green science mk3 - 1 green science mk2, 2 express transport belt, 4 fast inserters

Blue science mk1 - 1 regular magazine, 1 stone brick
Blue science mk2 - 1 blue science mk1, 2 piercing magazine, 1 gun turret
Blue science mk3 - 1 blue science mk2, 4 rocket, 2 laser turret

There's no reason to change the way that labs work, they don't function any differently. The only thing that has changed are the science packs required to research each technology.