Factorio Forums

Let the player buy efficient factory blueprints with resources. Sell them in parts like a blueprint for red circuit boards or a blueprint for an advanced module. The player pays for them with raw resources. Let people buy them even before they have robots and make it so they just have to fill in the spots for various machines and then supply with resources.

Right now you can go online and copy other people's designs which is a little more tedious than what I've proposed, plus you wouldn't have to leave the game. Players would be more likely to become proficient with complicated stuff like wiring, oil layouts and so forth if they have a working example right in front of them.

I don't understand, why I should pay virtual things for them, that can be produced by automated factories en masse.
I see the players job here in choosing the right blueprints, which already takes a lot of time.

What I'm with you, is, that there is some kind of "shop", like the mod-portal, where a player can upload/download blueprints within the game.

I suppose it could be possible with the new blueprint library coming in 0.15?

I am not sure about BUYING them. But as I said there should definitely be a way to import/export your blueprints from the game blueprint library.
Right now we use Blueprint String mod for that which allows you to export your blueprints into a text string and share it using forums. Devs stated that they have no plans to add such functionality so I donno.
I still think import/export should exist in some way, not only by sharing it in MP game (declared feature).

See https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-161 Infinite Research and Blueprint Library