Factorio Forums

TL;DR

The game should restart only when manually exiting the installed mods listing instead of after exiting the portal listing.

What ?

Basically, I'm constantly getting annoyed when I have to restart in between if I install some mods and then realize that I need to update some. This should be changed such that I can first download stuff from the portal, exit the listing, download updates for mods, and only after that restart when I manually exit the mod GUI.

Why ?

Because this would reduce unnecessary restarts when dealing with a large-ish amount of mods.

+1 for disabling auto restart completly.

Sucked hard if you update mods and quickly change a startup setting - voilá - 2 restarts intead of 1 needed.

This is why we need a Launcher. do it all in the launcher = no restarts required.

Seriously, I was explaining to a friend what some updates might require you to do.

Update game: Restart required.
Mod changes won't let the game load: Disable mods, restart required (Could do this several times per launch attempt)
Update and reactivate mods: Restart required.
Changed some mod settings added by the updates: Restart required.


If you had a launcher, you could launch the launcher, and it just tell you that the game and these mods require updates, and do it all in one go, and even change the settings before starting the game for the first time.

Also the ability to selectively enable specific mods on specific saves without having manually enable/disable mods each time you switch saves (and restart the game).

Please correct me if i'm wrong but i don't think this is possible atm.

I knew when reading that op it's a cue for Bob's "we need a launcher". I even had a bet how many posts down you'd join in.
Joking aside a launcher/mod manager would still be a really nice to have addition.

Optera wrote:I knew when reading that op it's a cue for Bob's "we need a launcher". I even had a bet how many posts down you'd join in.
Joking aside a launcher/mod manager would still be a really nice to have addition.

To be honest, I thought the same thing.
But yeah, Bob's right.

I don't think Factorio should have a launcher. For the 99% of the time when you're just playing the game, and NOT fiddling about with mods and settings and updates, it's better as it is now where you can just run the game and... go straight into it instead of having to run a launcher first.

But... if you need to do updates, change mods and change settings that all require a restart, it should just put a "restart required" notice on the main menu with a button to restart, and not let you start or load a game until you restart. Then you can do all your fiddling about and then restart once.

Many games with launchers actually have two executables. One is the launcher, where you can update the game/install mods/change other options that might require a restart, and the second is the actual game executable. If you don't want to make changes, then you can just start the game itself.

Yeah - the restart could be manual, or there could be an option to bypass the launcher. I doubt the launcher would really have a significant impact on startup time, though.

Don't get me wrong, I have a love/hate relationship with launchers.

I love the fact that Launchers can do all the updates, and install mods and let you configure settings all that, but I also hate when you're forced to have to use a launcher.
This even extends to steam, create a shortcut to a game executable, run it... nooo, it's loading steam, whyyy~!?

Warframe, Rift, Trove, games I play that need a launcher, Warframe a double whammy because if you use the steam version the launcher forces steam to load first.
Startrek Online is a bit of a different story, you CAN launch the game without the launcher... but the launcher passes server configuration data to it (based on what region you're connecting from, etc) and just fails to get an internet connection without this information. In theory, if you know the configuration, you can pass it via command line.

Anyway, drifting off topic, Yes I want a launcher, but I want an OPTIONAL launcher, so you can just double click the executable in your x64 directory, and it loads the game as it does now. In fact, I don't really want anything in the game to change, I just want the functions mirrored to the launcher, so it can be done before loading the game if you know you have updates, or mod installs and configurations ahead of you.