Factorio Forums

Since Science packs 1, 2 and 3 are getting renamed to Automation, Logistic and (I can't remember the last one), and being set up as tiered, it would be cool if there were a few techs that only needed green science, rather than only needing red science.

I'm thinking Logistics 1, Automobilism, and Trains (just the basic trains research, not the stations and signals) would be a good set.

Would also give a small challenge for sushi-science folks, in that some later techs don't need green science. This is already (sort-of) done with cliff explosives needing only red&green, but relying on a black tech (explosives).

There might be a few other techs that don't really need Automation Science, but could need Blue, or Black Science.

Science pack 3 is Chemical science.

But I agree that the whole "This is tech 3, so you need science packs 1, 2 and 3 to unlock it" thing is a bit on the annoying side, why not just science pack 2? why not just production science pack? (Which I always saw as science pack 4 anyway, and high-tech as science pack 5)

Strongly agree. It's not actually a significant change mechanically or gameplay wise (slightly more or less resource usge, whoop-de-doo, and even then, the amounts would probably be tweaked to keep costs similar) but thematically it makes a huge difference, and would help new players understand what certain technologies are for much better.

What happens late-game when you only have infinite tech left?

Do you maintain it as-is, and have this weird state where some tech in the middle arbitrarily excludes the first two packs?
Do you not use the first two packs, making that part of the base effectively useless?
Do you make it vary by recipe, basically combining both effects?

Those early packs are fundamental packs, something that you carry all the way, not unlike green circuits.

However, as an alternative suggestion, if logistic packs had automation packs as an ingredient, it would make a lot more sense. It would be painfully obvious that logistic packs are the next tier, since it literally requires the first pack, and that chemical packs are the next step after that.

In the end, I think it'll stay as-is, because it would look weird to always have the first two slots empty in labs.