Roll mods into the base game

[McDuff]

TLDR

Some mods are very useful but they rely on community support, which can be spotty. Would like a community process for flagging up mods to be rolled into the base game, with original author credit.

What, why etc

Some mods change the game totally, which is great. But some others add functionality which expands the base game while leaving the core mechanics intact. However, these mods can sometimes get left behind as their developers move on.

If we think about some mods as "beta/alpha testing" functionality which players might want but which the main game developers don't have the time to create themselves, could we make a case for rolling some mods into the main game?

One thing that springs to mind, for eg, is "creative mode," which provides a lot of useful resources for those times when you're trying to sandbox solutions and don't want to bootstrap a whole new game to do so.

Another potentially interesting, although more obviously contentious, mod, would be Logistics Train Network, which expands the existing train system considerably. For something like this, there would obviously be some refactoring work and figuring out which bits would need to get redone to make them fit, but hopefully there could also be ways of bringing the community in to help out (even perhaps with funding for additional man-hours of coding work).

I don't think anyone would want Bob's or Angel's overhauls to be rolled in, but there are others which could be adopted and integrated.

This could potentially be an area of "post 1.0" development.

[Deadlock989]

Logistics Train Network

No thanks.

If it's a mod you like, download it, play it. I don't see what's lacking here.

[Ranakastrasz]

Its not exactly uncommon.

My mod, Minable Rocks got implemented.
Omni-barrels or whatever it was called was implemented.
Belt Filters (in the form of priority splitter settings) was implemented
Nuclear power was implemented (albiet simplified)
Landfill was implemented
Circuit interface for many entity types was implemented.
Liquid Train wagons were added.
Roads were added (sort of, concrete and brick can be placed)
Artillery was added (Quite a few mods added stuff like it)
Arguably, Personal roboport 2 counts as well. I know some mods added higher tiers of modules, even if I don't recall an exact example of Roboport 2.

Any number of config mods that change gameplay constants like pollution/Alien Expantion were added via config.
MARATHON was added (expensive recipes)


Overall, quite a few mods got implemented, more or less. Probably forgot a few admittedly.

Logistic trains would be a good choice I believe, given my limited understanding of it.

As for creative mode, There is a command to enable Cheat mode, giving free instant crafting of anything to the player. Currently we don't have vanilla objects to freely create/destroy items automatically. There IS a power interface which lets you create/destroy power at arbitrary rates (although it doesn't play nice with accumulators)

[McDuff]

Deadlock: That's why I marked that one as contentious. It adds rather than changes, but it might require too much refactoring. Much of the LTN functionality crops up here as suggestions and requests so there's definitely some demand for more flexibility. It might not work, but it could be discussed.

Ranakastrasz: It's the items and such that make Creative Mode handy to the point of, for me, indispensible while working out ideas. Being able to just say "hey let's assume this is a train station delivering iron gears" is great because then you don't have to build it and can solve the sub-problem you're working on.

[Ranakastrasz]

Ranakastrasz: It's the items and such that make Creative Mode handy to the point of, for me, indispensible while working out ideas. Being able to just say "hey let's assume this is a train station delivering iron gears" is great because then you don't have to build it and can solve the sub-problem you're working on.

Hence why I pointed that out. There IS a creative mode, but it doesn't have anywhere near as many features yet as the corresponding mod.

[McDuff]

Quite so.

I think that's the standard for the kinds of mods that would work for a project like this. "Standard functionality+" mods, rather than game changey mods.

[Deadlock989]

Currently we don't have vanilla objects to freely create/destroy items automatically.

https://wiki.factorio.com/Prototype/InfinityContainer

Granted, it's a pain to use. But a lot less laggy.

[Deadlock989]

I would prefer to see an annual mod competition with prizes, or a regular monthly-ish Mod Spotlight as part of FFFs. They've done it occasionally in the past but I don't remember one for a long while.

[mp0011]

Stop minecraftizing Factorio. Core game MUST be kept simple (KISS principle). For everything else are mods - that's why they exist.
"Voting" for mod to import into vanila is also pointless. IF game has 1 000 000 user, how manu users should vote to implement mod into game?

[bobucles]

There are very few mods that truly make the base game a straight up better experience.

Creative mode mod is definitely superior to the default sandbox options. It includes cheat smelters, cheat beacons and all sorts of useful things to build in a sand box way.

Bottleneck is a great debug tool for fine tuning your base but it isn't really needed in normal play. You can already tell if a base is functional if everything is moving.

[Koub]

Stop minecraftizing Factorio. Core game MUST be kept simple (KISS principle). For everything else are mods - that's why they exist.

I disagree with this. a few years ago, I'd have approved, but experience has changed my mind, and this experience is ... Bethesda games (mostly). I've played TESO, (and a lot of Bethesda games before) and the number of times I have heard "not in vanilla, but there's a mod for that" is mindblowing. The problem is that it touched very core parts of the game that should NOT need mods. Like autostacking in the bank for example. At some time, a grouping helper (because vanilla did not have a proper functionning group finder). You pay no attention, and after 6 months, you have 50 or 60 mods that asphyxiate your game, and you have to wait a few months every update before all abandonned mods you have been used to find someone to reboot them.

Vanilla should offer a complete and coherent gameplay experience, with no "holes". I don't say vanilla should fit every single need, but there are mods that made it into the game at some point because they were necessary to make the game feel consistant as a whole.

I think LTN and creative mod are amongst them, along with the ability to cut/paste parts of your base (when you have built everything one tile too short, prior to construction bots for example).

Mods that mirror blueprints, upgrade planner, bottleneck, FARL, Autofill, helmod, autosearch, research queue, Even distribution, Nixie tubes, What is it really used for?, recursive blueprints, sticky notes are also good candidates in my opinion. They add different levels of practicity and automatability, and feel like vanilla Factorio.

[fiery_salmon]

AFAIK the best ideas are already getting added, so this idea is redundant

along with the ability to cut/paste parts of your base (when you have built everything one tile too short, prior to construction bots for example).

I think that construction bots should be available from start (and are in my games, thanks to mods)

upgrade planner (...) autosearch, research queue (...) What is it really used for?

inclusion is planned, hopefully will happen soon

[mp0011]

Those simple and not game-changing mods may and should be added. I do not think that anybody may lose interest in playing Factorio just because devs have added ability to do some basic stuff easier. But that's all, no big mod-packs or game changing stuff some players may want to add into core game... And I am sure devs will be spammed with such requests as soon as they add any single mod "just because community demanded it". Then, suddenly, Factorio will end like Minecraft, with hordes of kids on servers, and devs adding pets instead of fixing stuff and creating new content for old-time users...

[dood]

I think the most crucial ones would be long reach and creative mode.
The first one is just too much quality of life gain for a little bit of "immersion" break to ignore and the second one is kind of a given, a testing site to build blueprints in is a basic feature.
Everything else like belt stacking or early bots of some sort will most likely be implemented anyway.

[fiery_salmon]

I think the most crucial ones would be long reach and creative mode.
The first one is just too much quality of life gain for a little bit of "immersion" break to ignore.

reach limit in base game is intentional

[dood]

I think the most crucial ones would be long reach and creative mode.
The first one is just too much quality of life gain for a little bit of "immersion" break to ignore.

reach limit in base game is intentional

Are there stats somewhere to see how many people use a mod?
How many players use long reach? I call more than 50%.

[5thHorseman]

I think the most crucial ones would be long reach and creative mode.
The first one is just too much quality of life gain for a little bit of "immersion" break to ignore.

reach limit in base game is intentional

Are there stats somewhere to see how many people use a mod?
How many players use long reach? I call more than 50%.

Maybe 50% of the mod-using players (though I doubt it) but no way 50% of all players.

I personally use it. I'd support an in game setting for length of reach, and allow it to go ridiculously far (read: as far as Long Reach) and I'd happily use that instead of installing Long Reach. But the default setting is fine for most people and many I suspect consider it "cheating."

[Zavian]

I regularly play with mods. But only very rarely long reach. I'm much more likely to grab squeak through/bottleneck/autofill or a bot start mod. If you check https://mods.factorio.com/downloaded the most downloaded mod is RSO, then Bobs, then Farl, bottleneck, and Angels refining.

[McDuff]

And I am sure devs will be spammed with such requests as soon as they add any single mod "just because community demanded it". Then, suddenly, Factorio will end like Minecraft, with hordes of kids on servers, and devs adding pets instead of fixing stuff and creating new content for old-time users...

I'm sure that's either not going to happen or can be easily ignored. The community on here tends more towards the acetic than towards demanding stuff for the sake of stuff.