RTS direction

[Maiyr]

I know I may be a minority here being so few in posts. I am all for a form of PvP RTS, but the way this game seems to design I feel the robots or combat units should also be fully automated. A fire and forget kind of system. Maybe some sort of beacon is place to tell where your war machine to head and you focus on automating their creating and creating defensive lines. There could be an upgrade that upon creation they hunt down enemy factions. When they see the enemy they send some sort of signal to rest of your units to head in that direction. If after so many tick and enemy is not found they go back to hunt mode where they endless wander the map till they find enemy factions. This way this process is automated in the spirit of this game. But these are just my thoughts.

[Dogone]

Yes

[IIIStrife]

I personally feel it would be cool to be able to get to an RTS mode early-on too, for those who would want to play a game almost entirely in an RTS mode, and then another game in the current mode.
Heck, maybe just a Throne room for other worlds, but also an RTS setting in world options would make the game be permanently in that mode from the start.

THAT would be pretty awesome.

[Skyfront]

I don't know if anyone in here know of or remember the Wintermaul Wars custom map from Warcraft 3. Making a Factorio variation of it might be a cool idea.

For those who don't know how it works, you basically are allocated resources and spend them on sending monsters towards your opponent, or on upgrading your defense, or on upgrading your capability to send monsters.

There are some different versions of the map. On some you can only send in waves while on others you can send whenever you want. On all of the maps I remember there were set intervals where you would get income. You increased your income by sending units. Sending 1 unit of a specific type would permanently increase the income for every income interval by a certain amount.
You also generated income by killing the units your opponents sent towards you.


The point of the game is to manage your resources in a way where you are able to overwhelm your opponents defenses without being overwhelmed yourself.

How best to make the game mode work and mesh with Factorio I am unsure about, but I see a lot of possibilities and areas of exploration. The game would need to be played on a standard map though.

I figure you could automate production of defenses and attacking units and research better technology for either attack or defense depending on what you as the player consider to be important for you at the point of time.

The income could be resources you need to spend on either crafting and crafting is done by building a factory to take care of it.

To make it work properly you probably need to incorporate a blueprint editor to make your setups in advance.

[ProphetofEden]

@Imp0815
We are aware that a distinguishing feature of Factorio is the building and automation. That is also what the community likes the most. On the other hand we have decided to include fight and survival elements in the game to provide some sort of pressure on the player and motivate him in his building. It could very well ended as a game simulating building a factory in real world (like China). Who knows if it would be better. What I like about the current approach is that is it sort of free. You are not forced to do that or that. You can go out and fight the enemies if you like or explore the world a bit (not much to explore for now though:|).

This release has been heavily focused on the combat since that was the most lacking part of the game. After this gets balanced we will be back on some factory building elements.

As ssilk mentioned there will be a way to play peacefully in the future. Probably via "trade with the natives" way. That way you will be able to get their artefacts and land for some of your goods. When that happens the automation will be almost complete:)

absolutly , though right now i think that we need something that gives more of a constant demand, i think if you did the rts part right then you could you really improve the game without taking anything away, you know look at the few robot soldier mods that are soo much fun if we could build factorys and hangers, that housed and released units and youo could give them simple demands like go here kill everything, but then also set up ai control systems that would control your robots and wage your war for you while you focus on getting resource demands met. p.s. sorry about my grammer and punctuation im being fueled by coffee rn

[AlastarFrost]

I like the idea of more permanent combat units that you can control, but i dont like the idea of just adding rts controls. The game is about automating stuff, so it would be more fitting to produce the units and then program them to defend your base. Adding command&conquer-like controls for your combad units just doesnt feel like factorio.

What i could imagine is a kind of beacon system, that tells the units what to do. (the "beacons" would not be interesting for biters, as they dont pollute anything, they are just metal plates in the ground for them)

Simple beacons would just move your units from production to the defense lines:
- Move in a direction (up/down/left/right) until you hit the next beacon or a biter to fight
- stop here and defend that place
With this, you could already send your units from the factory into a large square around your base

Advanced beacons could be aware of the number of units that are in between a network of beacons and let you set conditions, beacons that are aware of the units state are also in this category
- Move one direction if <condition> otherwise move another direction. -> Example: Have an inner and outer patrol route for your base. If the inner route has enough units, move them to the outer ring
- Wait x seconds after the last unit passed that beacon until you start moving -> Make sure that units dont stick all together and leave most of the patrol route undefended. Equals out spaces between patrol units
- Wait here until repaired/resupplied

This would allow to program your defenses in a way that feels the same as automating your factory. It is also a very simple way of programming robots, that fits to the stranded survivor theme of the game.

[TiTaN_3000]

Awsome would be if we could build realy expensive (2000 Iron / 1000 copper / 800 circuits) spawning buildings like barracks.
Those spawn an free soldier every 5 seconds heading in the direction of the next biter nest.
That soldier should be realy weak, but because its free you have no problem with them dying.

But as soon as you have some barracks they start to overwhelm the biters until the biters evolve and fight you back again, then you need to upgrade your barracks or add different units like sniper etc.

There should be a constant fighing back and forth between player units and biters.

You should also be able to set a rallying point for a group of barracks, from whitch they attack the next biter nest. (Maybe in an range of 200 around the rallying point)

If the biters evolve they need to have an area attack and be imune to low dmg attacks so that you cant kill them with mass bad units.

[British_Petroleum]

There should be an ultimate giant battle robot that you can build late game and control, with long range rockets, multiple lazers, fusion reactor & shield equipment

[kyranzor]

There should be an ultimate giant battle robot that you can build late game and control, with long range rockets, multiple lazers, fusion reactor & shield equipment

Like the Krogoth Kbot in Total Annihilation?

[Otterbear]

*Just my opinions:

Please don't make this game any more RTS.
Its an automation game, not a FPS.
I'm not even a fan of the bitters, as I think they just distract from the game.
Small rant here ---> The Bitters and thereby your avatar, are a nuisance and add more aggravation to a game that is very enjoyable with out all that. Tripping over pipes, and sliding all over on belts, is a very unnecessary complication to an ingenious game.
Adding goals other than the rocket would be a nice area to invest time in. (Side-missions, if you will)

I hope this game stays with it core idea, and leaves massive construction of projects to the player.(Enough with the massive armies of Constructo-Bots, and giant blueprints) Adding more in the way of recipes, and goals would/could further enhance game-play. Tweak what is already a fantastic idea, instead of re-creating it into something else entirely.

This game has a huge fan-base without changing it completely. To remove automation(or render it to some small part *the first few hours if that), and creativity( having to think of easier ways of doing things), for the sake of making it into some other game entirely, would do disservice to both your fan base and the game itself. IMHO

[Shin]

*Just my opinions:

Please don't make this game any more RTS.
Its an automation game, not a FPS.
I'm not even a fan of the bitters, as I think they just distract from the game.
Small rant here ---> The Bitters and thereby your avatar, are a nuisance and add more aggravation to a game that is very enjoyable with out all that. Tripping over pipes, and sliding all over on belts, is a very unnecessary complication to an ingenious game.
Adding goals other than the rocket would be a nice area to invest time in. (Side-missions, if you will)

I hope this game stays with it core idea, and leaves massive construction of projects to the player.(Enough with the massive armies of Constructo-Bots, and giant blueprints) Adding more in the way of recipes, and goals would/could further enhance game-play. Tweak what is already a fantastic idea, instead of re-creating it into something else entirely.

This game has a huge fan-base without changing it completely. To remove automation(or render it to some small part *the first few hours if that), and creativity( having to think of easier ways of doing things), for the sake of making it into some other game entirely, would do disservice to both your fan base and the game itself. IMHO

Well that's why there is a peaceful mode if you don't like biters... You know there are some people that would love to see a better combat system and more RTS elements. Me too. It is a game about automation but why not having both? This would only make the game more interesting. You still have the choice to turn things off so I don't understand whats your problem.
I hope improving combat is still a thing. I would really like to see that.

[aoironowind]

I really like the idea to be able to build fighting units. Units such as humanoid fighting drones, where we can load them with weapons and send a squad to automatically attack a alien base or defend a location.

[Mattyrogue]

You know what would be cool? Combat Roboports and Capsule Dispensers.

The new models for the Defender/Distractor/Destroyers look great, so why not give them some more usage by allowing us not just to automate their production, but also their deployment.

[kyranzor]

You know what would be cool? Combat Roboports and Capsule Dispensers.

The new models for the Defender/Distractor/Destroyers look great, so why not give them some more usage by allowing us not just to automate their production, but also their deployment.

Klonan's Combat Robot mod does that.

[eloy2030]

We are considering the rts direction of the game a lot.

Builder robots
Player could just order stuff to be built and where. It would be up to the builder robots, to get the needed materials from the logistic system and build it. This would be combatibile with blueprints (some kind of ctrl-c ctrl-v system, or even blueprint as item), building would take some time, and the more robots the player have, the faster it is.

Fighting units
Ordered like in rts, some kinds of robots/automated etc.
I could imagine, that these robots shouldn't be craftable like other items (I don't really like the idea of having few tanks in my pocket and placing them in front of the enemy base). Fighting units would still need ingredients and time like normal recipes, but would be only buildable in special buildings, and instead of producing items, the unit would exit the building.
This means these wouldn't be minable as well.

Throne room
Player would enter it, and he could start control the game in rts style, at this phase, he would already have robots for building stuff, and units to fight, so he would just order what needs to be done in bigger scale.

i thinks that's just PERFECT!

but i don't know how dated this post is right now. But i think it the next obvious step in the inner logic in the progress of the game. I've always thought that when u get to late game it doesn't make sense how everything gets automated but way we handle things.

[Deadly-Bagel]

Very dated... Considering that it says they're still just talking about blueprints and construction bots.

I don't know about the central control room idea but I really hope at least some sort of automated attack force is implemented into vanilla. My current game I've walled off a huge section of land, including my main base and most of my outposts. One big wall to go then I need to clean out all the biters inside it so I have a large biter-free area but... it's a lot of work to run all over the map like that. It took over an hour just to lay the west, east and north walls I've got and ensure they're stocked with construction bots and repair packs. I looked at it and decided I just couldn't be bothered. Why would I? Completed research, sufficient quantities of pretty much everything are stocked and production is all backed up. Only achievement left is 20 million green circuits. I just don't think the investment of time is going to pay off as I already have defences around my outposts and base.

[kyranzor]

Very dated... Considering that it says they're still just talking about blueprints and construction bots.

I don't know about the central control room idea but I really hope at least some sort of automated attack force is implemented into vanilla. My current game I've walled off a huge section of land, including my main base and most of my outposts. One big wall to go then I need to clean out all the biters inside it so I have a large biter-free area but... it's a lot of work to run all over the map like that. It took over an hour just to lay the west, east and north walls I've got and ensure they're stocked with construction bots and repair packs. I looked at it and decided I just couldn't be bothered. Why would I? Completed research, sufficient quantities of pretty much everything are stocked and production is all backed up. Only achievement left is 20 million green circuits. I just don't think the investment of time is going to pay off as I already have defences around my outposts and base.

I know it's not the base game, but have you tried my Robot Army mod? https://mods.factorio.com/mods/kyranzor/robotarmy

[TheDukeOfRockford]

Hi, when I read about the "throne room" concept, it made me wonder about implication for modding...

What if we can sort of mod a city building game with this? What if all units you control from "throne room" is a mix of humans and robots (or just humans)? In case of human-only, one could just as easily mod in a sort of city-building game set in industrial era on Earth.

Personally, I was dismayed when I discovered upon playing Factorio that you are actually playing a single character that builds up the factory system single-handedly. I actually thought you were playing as a sort of a colony administrator or a head of some state building up factories and such (not unlike Capitalism Lab, Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404), or Victoria II). It was a disappointment but it didn't stopped me from actually enjoying the game.

But a premise of running a city or a colony with Factorio's automation system would be, in my opinion, a interesting possibility for a mod.

However, I think the problem with this idea is that humans would probably require some sort of AI or something. I dunno.

Any thoughts on this?

[Kazaanh]

Add Vehicle Workshops to automate vehicle productions like tanks, give them AI core, let them use player-made supply stops with something like train-stops. Setup own patrol routes , give them garages so they would automatically respond to any heavy biter threat.

This would force player to create some highways to allow tanks to move around the base if he wants to use them, create depots, supply depots etc etc. Also ability to control them via headset or something, imagine the PvP with this.

[Earendel]

My mod AAI Programmable Vehicles adds some RTS elements. You can select vehicles and order them around so that they shoot enemies in groups. You can also use vehicles like expensive turrets.

You can add circuit-based automation to control the vehicles automatically, make them collect resources, do patrols, attack bases, etc.

Warning: The automation side is quite advanced, it is NOT geared towards the mod doing everything for you without you having to work for it, it's based around low level tools so you can do what you want.