Exchanging maps

[n9103]

He doesn't want to bloat the required info. Can you imagine what a pain in the ass it would be for someone to hand-copy more than 40 characters, should they have a need?
The basic need of this, is to share seeds so two people can generate the same map, rather than just trading the entire save folder.
Factorio already has everything you'd need to generate a map from a given seed, so long as all the variables match, why bloat the information more than needed?

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

[Nova]

Factorio already has everything you'd need to generate a map from a given seed, [...]

How??? o_O


Well, the COULD be the need to hand-copy the code, but well... ^^

[n9103]

It's there, didn't say it was accessible :p
The game already generates maps from given parameters, and it's a trivial task to make a random seed adjustable by the user.
By letting us have access to a string of characters to import and change those values, all the world gen parameters and the seed are set to the correct values, and the result *should* be the same as if you had gotten someone's brand new save folder.

[ficolas]

What about this+something similar to spore sharing?

You share an image, that is a normal image, but after the image data, there is more data, that is the game data, and just by dragging the image to the game, the game instas the map.

I think its something pwetty cool.

[cube]

What about this+something similar to spore sharing?

You share an image, that is a normal image, but after the image data, there is more data, that is the game data, and just by dragging the image to the game, the game instas the map.

I think its something pwetty cool.

It's super cool! Adding custom chunks to PNG is a thing I've wanted to try for a long time. But you know wat the old trailer says:

(In a deep voice with weird accent)You will have to start small.

I will definitely add this for 0.100.0

[Nova]

Using a picture is much more work than just some code. The problem with the large code (no hand-copy) also applies here.

[FreeER]

Using a picture is much more work than just some code. The problem with the large code (no hand-copy) also applies here.

What's the big deal with hand copying? It's a game, you're going to have to take the code from Factorio (on a computer) to Factorio (typically on another computer) 99.99999999% of the time. People are going to paste it into a post/email and the receiver is going to copy and paste that into Factorio, you don't cater to the minority you worry about the majority and after that you can think about making things easier if people are complaining. Even if you are at a friend's house you can use email or a txt file on a flash drive. If someone wants to do it manually, give them the option but why do it manually when there's no need to?

Also, is a picture Really that much more work? I mean you'd take a snapshot (just like when the you save a game) and then add some extra data (a string?) or use Steganography (.net) article: http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/22667 also (Java based) http://openstego.sourceforge.net

[immibis]

Why should the code be human-readable, if you're only going to copy-paste it?

[Nova]

Don't know. Maybe because you can manually edit the values. ^^

[Cordylus]

Implemented in 0.10.0

[n9103]

congrats on the 18 month necro to state the obvious.