[MOD 0.12.x] Terraforming - Bridges, Moats & Drawbridges

[MudRaker]

Type: Mod
Name: Terraforming
Description: Adds terraforming equipment - bridge builders, moat diggers and drawbridges
Graphics by: No-one yet ... I need help if anyone is interested
Version: 0.12.x
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Release: 19-08-2015
Tested With Version: 0.13.20
Website: This page.
Tags: defence, bridge, moat, logistics, robots

Recent changes - Oct 2016

• Fix localised technology names
• Upgrade to support 0.13 & 0.14 and add to factorio mod site - future updates posted at mods.factorio.com

[/color]Machines that terraform the planet: building fords and bridges, digging moats and drawbridges for safe passage across the moat.
Deliberately slow and ponderous machines. Low technology machines need constant attention and feeding of materials, but at higher levels can sustain long distances without intervention.

Bridges

Three different technology levels - fords, stone bridges and concrete bridges - for any span of water

Moats

Three different technology levels - dirt moats, stone paved moats and concrete moats

DrawBridges

Cross water easily and safely with draw bridges that drop as you approach - on foot, or in a vehicle

But lets not forget the trains - a bridge that only trains can cross

Prefabrication

Prefabricate terraforming packages in your main factory where the materials are:

Then use them in the terraformers for unattended operation over long runs & precise control over the number of squares terraformed

Logistics

Attack of the killer robots ... delivering materials as long as the machine stays in logistics range of a roboport.
]
Sadly, the personal roboport doesn't support logistics robots

Description

A new technology discovery has allowed the development of heavy terrraforming machines. Place them down, load them with the ingredients and watch them slowly inch their way across the landscape ... until they run out of materials or fill up with empty barrels. Keep those speed modules handy if you're in a hurry. These machines are talkative - complaining if not placed right, whinging if they collide with something important and gloating when the job is done - sorry about that, it's a fault in the programming.

Turn on detailed info with ALT or select the machine, and it shows an arrow (stolen from the liquid connection graphics) at the centre of the face it works on -the squares affected are the ones immediately in front of that. When working with water, remember that the last grass square is the "half grass, half water" graphic. The bridge builder moves forward over the bridge it is building, and the moat digger moves backwards away from the moat it is digging. You can stop the machines at any time, rotate them, reposition them etc to get any shape you want.

The moat digger works in any terrain but won't damage your placed entities, resources, players, enemies or enemy bases
To mine through unimportant resources, just place the moat digger directly facing a resource (or rotated to face it) - perfect for cutting through stone or superfluous coal. Just mine it & repeat or rotate it again to cut through multiple types of resources[/color]

Oh, and when your factory needs to expand, just fill in the moat with the bridge builder ford recipe and make a new one. Or perhaps in the other order if you don't want unfriendly visitors.

Fully multi-player compatible and tested and supports robot construction / deconstruction

The machines currently use and abuse the chemical factory graphics - updated graphics are a work in progress.
(Anyone willing to assist, please contact me ... graphics is *not* my strong suit)

Built to minimise performance overheads - tick handlers are only registered when machines are actually in use.
Railway bridges are even free, using only vanilla Factorio code once they are placed.
The mod can be removed from a world with no issues leaving the terraforming behind ... except that the drawbridges will no longer cover the moat

Protect Your Factory

Who says the natives are a problem?

Change List

Version 0.13.1

• Upgrade to support version 0.13 syntax and add to mod repository
• Avoid halting the game when multiple terraformers are running
  (Only use the message dialog to "talk" when there is only one player and only 1 active terraformer)

Version 0.12.4

• Fix bug where the non-logistic moat digger and bridge builder machines with multiple fuel slots don't work properly when using a recipe that includes a burnable ingredient
• Logistics terraformers now run on coal or solid fuel. They request coal by default - simply open the machine and load in the desired fuel to change what it requests. Note that every operation takes at least one fuel though, so solid fuel does not last any longer than coal!

Version 0.12.3

• Added prefabrication plant and recipes to allow ingredients to be combined into a single package that stacks to 100
• Added new logistics-enabled versions of the bridge builder and moat digger to allow robots to bring supplies & take away byproducts
• Added new prefabrication and logistic technology levels as separate branches beyond terraforming-3
• Changed concrete moat recipe to return the empty barrel (now that the range on one fill has been improved)
• Increased basic bridge-builder and moat-digger to two fuel slots to improve range
• Fixed bug where mining a terraformer fails when your inventory is full caused a registry problem
• Fixed bug where placing a bridge builder 2 to spaces from water caused it to start & immediately stop
• Fixed bug where a unnoticed syntax change caused a syntax error when a moat digger placed directly on a resource
• Improved handling of rotation of bridge builder to correctly start/stop based on facing to water
• Increased technolgy image resolution to 128 x 128
• Add new item subgroups for logistic machines & prefabricated packages
• Modified machine images to have transparent backgrounds to fit better with the improved base graphics
• Added config.lua file to allow some difficulty settings to be easily changed
• Added remote interface to allow presence & version to be detected

[jeroon]

<3 drawbridges!

[mngrif]

Drawbridges eh? Can they be used as atom-smashers?

[Xterminator]

On man this is epic! Once you get some graphics for the machines and stuff this will be amazing. May I suggest contacting YuokiTani about the graphics/sprites. He makes some amazing looking stuff.

I really like this idea, as I have wanted some type of terraforming for a long time.
Couple of questions... Is there any way to remove a moat once it's done? Or is it permanent?
And can you like specify where you want the machine to build a moat or bridge, or how does that work?

Anyway, great looking mod and I can't wait to see how it progresses. Would you mind if I did a mod spotlight on it once it's a bit farther along?

[Heli]

Beautiful mod, tried it and it is great . Is there any way to dig resource as well so moat wont be broken at places?

[MudRaker]

On man this is epic! Once you get some graphics for the machines and stuff this will be amazing. May I suggest contacting YuokiTani about the graphics/sprites. He makes some amazing looking stuff.

I really like this idea, as I have wanted some type of terraforming for a long time.
Couple of questions... Is there any way to remove a moat once it's done? Or is it permanent?
And can you like specify where you want the machine to build a moat or bridge, or how does that work?

Anyway, great looking mod and I can't wait to see how it progresses. Would you mind if I did a mod spotlight on it once it's a bit farther along?

Glad you're enjoying it
A moat is easily reversed with the ford ... the lowest tier of bridge building which just fills it in with dirt. Perfect for the expanding factory!

If you turn on detailed info with ALT or select the machine, it shows an arrow (stolen from the liquid connection point) at the centre of the face it works on ... the squares affected are the ones immediately in front of that. When working with water, remember that the last grass square is the "half grass, half water" graphic. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. The new graphics will make it clearer. The bridge builder moves forward over the bridge it is building, and the moat digger moves backwards away from the moat it is digger. You can stop the machines at any time, rotate them, reposition them etc to get any shape you want.

I'd love to have a mod spotlight done. I'll probably do one myself eventually to show off some of the obscure details but I just wanted to get it out there for now.

Beautiful mod, tried it and it is great . Is there any way to dig resource as well so moat wont be broken at places?

Thanks. In 0.12.0 it will never damage resources (or objects or players or enemies or enemy bases ) but it will do trees and big rocks
But I'll take that as the first enhancement request - it will be easy to do (but bye bye resource of course - it is not a mining machine).
In the meantime just do another moat along the edge of the resource, then join them up ... if you just put in one lot of ingredients, it will dig one hole and stop, This lets you fill in any gaps quite easily.

[MudRaker]

v0.12.1 now allows a moat digger to mine through a resource ... see updated description for details.

[waduk]

Ran into a Lua crash once, but forgot to take a screenshot. Can't reproduce the error.

Anyway, i love this mod, gonna use moat extensively. However, it's limited to short distance due the item stack size is low, need constant feed due lack of item,
We can't fire and forget, due the short work-span, but can't attend it either all the time while it try to digging hundreds+ tiles.

Also, a bug report, the concrete moat didn't give back the empty steel barrel. The dirt moat however, is giving back the empty steel barrel.

Edit :
I see the comment in recipe.lua, "-- NB: No barrel back for a concrete moat!!"

So it's an intended function? Not bug ?

[MudRaker]

Ran into a Lua crash once, but forgot to take a screenshot. Can't reproduce the error.

Anyway, i love this mod, gonna use moat extensively. However, it's limited to short distance due the item stack size is low, need constant feed due lack of item,
We can't fire and forget, due the short work-span, but can't attend it either all the time while it try to digging hundreds+ tiles.

Also, a bug report, the concrete moat didn't give back the empty steel barrel. The dirt moat however, is giving back the empty steel barrel.

Edit :
I see the comment in recipe.lua, "-- NB: No barrel back for a concrete moat!!"

So it's an intended function? Not bug ?

Sorry to hear about the crash ... I'll be happy to fix if you can provide any info.

The short work span is intentional as ultimately the moat is a very OP defense. It is also because the empty barrels only stack to 10 in vanilla Factorio and I didn't want to force that up. I originally didn't return the barrel at all which increases the moat cost (but interestingly does let it run twice as far with one full set of ingredients). I decided to change that for the dirt and stone moats but left it that way for the concrete moats so they were more expensive. So, yes ... intended function for now, but I'm willing to reconsider. One option would be to have a wood barrel for water rather than using the vanilla steel one.

Personally, I make 3 or 4 moat diggers and set them all going at once at different points along the moat ... it doesn't change the need to babysit them, but it is more productive in terms of distance covered for the time you spend looking after them.

I'm very interested in feedback from anyone on the price of the recipes and whether it the speed is reasonable or not.

[waduk]

I agree this is OP defense, and it need to be not so easy to lay moat.
IMO it needs to be run for at least two chunks, babysitting it for 10 tiles each is just too much..
Also, because we need to back and forth to the moat digger, the recipe must be convenient to refill. I found it somewhat not too easy (at a glance) what need to be refill, because the amount of ingredient spent is different among their stack size.
Sometimes i thought it need a new water barrel, but then turns out it need pick-axe. Then i thought it need either, then turn out it need more fuel.
Sure we can run into that moat digger with all ingredient at hand. But i play with only-need-basis style, never carry more than i need.
So in practice, i have turn back again to base to retrieve the needed ingredient.
And this was a problem for a machine that can run 10 tiles at a times.

I also try to setup a inserter with chest along the line, but they can't feed the moat digger.

So yeah,..simply too much manual work (and factorio is all about automating stuff).

The crafting speed was perfectly fine however, i don't have problem with that.

Also, a bit of visual, is it possible to make it move like train/car ? Not "jumping" through tiles ?
____________________________________________________________________
Huge idea, sorry if it's a bit of stretch, but IMO this is a perfect mod for this:

Can i suggest this is a train-track based machine ? It need to be placed on track, while the ingredient is being stored and retrieve from it's cargo.
Basically like this ?
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 97&t=13876

Or at least it moves smoothly like car/tank. a bit bigger than size of oil processing (4x4)

How about if we can't store the machine in player inventory?
it would be ridiculous to store such huge machine.
It need to be built on site.

Even if the machine is not that big (because it only make a small moat->kinda silly). I think the inability to cannot store in player inventory is a must.
Because if we need to build moat elsewhere, we have to redirect/drive the moat digger.
Obviously, because this thing is such a slow moving machine, it would be obstructing all the train travel if it came across.
Sure the player can destroy it/mine. but they will not get the machine back. Making a new one is not so easy, because the amount of time to build one is relatively high.

It would be interesting to deployed moat, because player need to planned ahead, not just plop the moat digger anywhere.
This will solve the problem of the "annoying" short distance, whilst making it hard to deploy. This is OP defense after all, it needs to be super hard to deploy such feature.

I can help you with the graphics, dying to learn 3D to mod factorio, but didn't have mod that i want to enhance graphically. This mod is perfect for that.
It could be awhile though, because i'm newbie in 3D graphics. But i definitely do it if you want me to help.
I'm thinking something like this :

[MudRaker]

I agree this is OP defense, and it need to be not so easy to lay moat.
IMO it needs to be run for at least two chunks, babysitting it for 10 tiles each is just too much..
Also, because we need to back and forth to the moat digger, the recipe must be convenient to refill. I found it somewhat not too easy (at a glance) what need to be refill, because the amount of ingredient spent is different among their stack size.
Sometimes i thought it need a new water barrel, but then turns out it need pick-axe. Then i thought it need either, then turn out it need more fuel.
Sure we can run into that moat digger with all ingredient at hand. But i play with only-need-basis style, never carry more than i need.
So in practice, i have turn back again to base to retrieve the needed ingredient.
And this was a problem for a machine that can run 10 tiles at a times.

I also try to setup a inserter with chest along the line, but they can't feed the moat digger.

So yeah,..simply too much manual work (and factorio is all about automating stuff).

The crafting speed was perfectly fine however, i don't have problem with that.

Also, a bit of visual, is it possible to make it move like train/car ? Not "jumping" through tiles ?

Hmmm ... okay, thanks for the feedback. I'll have another look at the recipes. I have a few ideas - using wood barrels is an option to avoid changing the stack size of the vanilla barrels. Or I could not give the barrels back (like the concrete moat is currently) but that just doesn't feel right to me. Another possibility is to require that the ingredients are "pre-packaged" in a normal assembler that can be fully automated then brought over to the machine. That would solve quite a few of the problems. I haven't tried an inserter along the path but in theory it should work fine ... briefly, while it is stationary ... I'll test it.

I agree factorio is all about automating stuff ... but digging moats is a bit different. You only do them occasionally and the need for attention is part of the price. To my way of thinking, just increasing the unattended distance to 20 or 30 should be sufficient. What I'd really like to do is have it fed by the logistics robots but I don't think I can swing that without changes to the C++ code (to allow request slots on an assembler )

In terms of movement - the problem is that (I think) it has to either be a type of assembler with recipes etc or a type of vehicle ... not both. So I went for the assembler. I also didn't want it to be as easy as just driving it around. And I couldn't find a way to put an upper limit on the vehicle speed or stop it going in 8 directions instead of 4. I've come to like the jerky movement and with the right animation I think it can work.

[MudRaker]

Can i suggest this is a train-track based machine ? It need to be placed on track, while the ingredient is being stored and retrieve from it's cargo.
Basically like this ?
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 97&t=13876

Or at least it moves smoothly like car/tank. a bit bigger than size of oil processing (4x4)

How about if we can't store the machine in player inventory?
it would be ridiculous to store such huge machine.
It need to be built on site.

Even if the machine is not that big (because it only make a small moat->kinda silly). I think the inability to cannot store in player inventory is a must.
Because if we need to build moat elsewhere, we have to redirect/drive the moat digger.
Obviously, because this thing is such a slow moving machine, it would be obstructing all the train travel if it came across.
Sure the player can destroy it/mine. but they will not get the machine back. Making a new one is not so easy, because the amount of time to build one is relatively high.

It would be interesting to deployed moat, because player need to planned ahead, not just plop the moat digger anywhere.
This will solve the problem of the "annoying" short distance, whilst making it hard to deploy. This is OP defense after all, it needs to be super hard to deploy such feature.

I can help you with the graphics, dying to learn 3D to mod factorio, but didn't have mod that i want to enhance graphically. This mod is perfect for that.
It could be awhile though, because i'm newbie in 3D graphics. But i definitely do it if you want me to help.

A track based version might be viable but it will be a quite different mod internally. I'll have a look at what that mod is doing when I get a chance, but I suspect it is based off the locomotive or cargo wagon. That loses the whole recipe idea and the impacts of that would need to be worked through. I'm not sure how the "assemble on-site" bit would work - there is nothing I know of in vanilla that works that way. If it didn't have to move it wouldn't be so hard, but the movement is what complicates things.

If you'd like to have go at some graphics feel free. I was thinking of a backhoe type graphic for the moat digger because it moves backwards and some type of ladder / plank placing machine for the bridge builder. I was thinking have including an animation to work with the movement - sort of like picking itself up and lurching forward. Depending on how long it takes you to progress, I may try to get some help from someone with animation experience ... but I'll let you know if that happens. I probably will seek some expert help for the drawbridge ... I can see the animation on that one being a bit complex (for me anyway).

[waduk]

I haven't tried an inserter along the path but in theory it should work fine ... briefly, while it is stationary ... I'll test it.

Sorry if it turns out a false bug report, i didn't thoroughly test "use the inserter along the path".

I agree factorio is all about automating stuff ... but digging moats is a bit different. You only do them occasionally and the need for attention is part of the price. To my way of thinking, just increasing the unattended distance to 20 or 30 should be sufficient. .

Different play style i guess..you only use them occasionally/only on main base. I plan to use them in every single outpost. And like other players, i have many of those, and ever expanding, and they were huge.
No wonder i felt the mod is too restricting, right ?

In terms of movement - the problem is that (I think) it has to either be a type of assembler with recipes etc or a type of vehicle ... not both. So I went for the assembler. I also didn't want it to be as easy as just driving it around. And I couldn't find a way to put an upper limit on the vehicle speed or stop it going in 8 directions instead of 4. I've come to like the jerky movement and with the right animation I think it can work.

Maybe you could trick it by mimicking train behavior ? If a single diesel train pull a lot of wagon, they move very slowly.
Tanks is also moves relatively slow, so something must controlling their speed.
I think moving based is better option than static assembler based, aesthetically and functionally (because they can carry a lot more ingredient).
It can do auto digging as long as the ingredient is available, the only caveat is they move very-very slow, i mean real slow. Slower than the tank, even slower than player walk.

About restricting vehicle direction, someone made a mod that can restrict vehicle direction, called Drive Assist. Maybe you can take a look at how he did it ?
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =87&t=6232

A track based version might be viable but it will be a quite different mod internally. I'll have a look at what that mod is doing when I get a chance, but I suspect it is based off the locomotive or cargo wagon. That loses the whole recipe idea and the impacts of that would need to be worked through.

FARL is better comparison,..i think...
Because FARL can lay track on top water.
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 61&t=13553
I use that drill mod just as graphical example, because i don't want you to think i want this to be a train mod...sorry about that.

I'm not sure how the "assemble on-site" bit would work - there is nothing I know of in vanilla that works that way. If it didn't have to move it wouldn't be so hard, but the movement is what complicates things.

Sorry,..I suggested that because as far as i know nobody has done it. All mod that provide new entity were instantly craft, no visual progress of that entity being build.

My suggestion is, it's just a visual trick.
Basically you have two entity, one is the "Under Construction" Moat digger, another is the "Finished" Moat Digger (a.k.a The Real Moat digger)
The "Under Construction" is static, and every time the player reach certain threshold, say every 10 %, like Missile silo, we replace the 10% construction sprite with the next incremental sprite (Since it was every 10%, there are 10 progress sprite.).
After 100 %, you replace that with the real Moat Digger sprite/entity.
If it's possible to do this in Factorio, i can do the graphic on that.

It's just a bonus/differentiation of this mod with the others, just for aesthetically purpose. Or like my previous suggestion, if the player cannot mine the Moat digger/can't store it in the inventory, this feature will be always be seen, since player will destroy it, and build the moat digger elsewhere (if they didn't want to move moat digger manually, that is).

If you'd like to have go at some graphics feel free. I was thinking of a backhoe type graphic for the moat digger because it moves backwards and some type of ladder / plank placing machine for the bridge builder. I was thinking have including an animation to work with the movement - sort of like picking itself up and lurching forward. Depending on how long it takes you to progress, I may try to get some help from someone with animation experience ... but I'll let you know if that happens. I probably will seek some expert help for the drawbridge ... I can see the animation on that one being a bit complex (for me anyway).

Hmmm. i can see the current "jumping animation" could work, although more complex with animation. I'm not sure how neat can i make a moving hand/hoe.
In my head, it would be easier to make an animated bucket excavator kinda thing, since the animation is just a bunch of cylinder rotation (wheel, the bucket, etc).
This is why i suggest moving like train/car/tank in the first place, because the animation (i think) is easier.

Gonna report to you if i have something to show. Gotta learn 3D fast, after i finished my work.

[bruteman]

so 12.7 apparently broke the mod with multiplayer keep getting a script error in MP now looking for entity "Player"

[MudRaker]

so 12.7 apparently broke the mod with multiplayer keep getting a script error in MP now looking for entity "Player"

Thanks for letting me know bruteman, I'll check it out and fix it.
If you have a copy of the error message / line number or a description of what you were doing at the time, that will help me find it.

[Terra_Incognito]

I have a strange bug in my game. Whenever I try and pick up any of the placed bridge builders I get the following error:

__Terraforming__/terraformers.lua:38:
assertion failed!

[cartmen180]

unless you add some sort of 'flying' mob this mod is just plain cheating imo.

[Swadius]

I think it's fine. The player can already turn off the biters completely if they want to focus solely on the building part. This just lets them fight the biters in a different way.

[Segundo]

@MudRaker: Can the Terraforming mod (0.12.1) be updated to work with the latest release of Factorio to date (0.12.17)?

When loading a save game in Factorio (0.12.17) the Terraforming mod gives the following error:

__Terraforming__/control.lua:92:attempt to
index global 'game' (a nil value)

Thanks for this great mod.

Update (20-11-2015)
Is MudRaker still around in the forums?

Or is there someone else who knows how to fix the Terraforming mod to get it working again.

[Grax]

If you want just bridges, you don't need this mod.
Edit demo-item.lua
line 15
condition = { "water-tile" }

change it to condition = { "floor-layer" }

And voila. No need to restart/regenerate map.