[MOD 0.13.0] Satellite Radar

catalyst518 · Post by **catalyst518** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 7:21 am

Satellite Radar

Name: Satellite Radar
Latest Version: 0.4.1
Factorio-Version: 0.13.0
Description: Boost radars by launching satellites.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Latest Release: 2016-06-28
Download-Url: Latest Version
Latest 0.12.x Release: v.0.3.1

Long Description

Put your satellites to good use! Each satellite launched on a rocket contributes to the global surveillance network. There are currently 17 added levels of radar performance. Each level changes three parameters of the vanilla radar:

increases the always visible square range of each radar by one chunk in both directions
increases the max scanning range of each radar by one chunk in both directions
decreases the time to scan each sector

See this table for the current levels included in the mod. The columns are left to right: level, visible range dimensions, scanning range dimensions, total satellites required, energy (time) to scan each sector in MJ. Once there are 1632 satellites in orbit, the visible range will be 41x41 (vanilla is 7x7), the scanning range will be 169x169 (vanilla is 29x29), and the energy per sector scanned will be 1MJ (vanilla is 10MJ). The formulas are based on each chunk added to the visible range requiring 1 satellite and the scanning range scaling appropriately.

Hovering over any radar and reading its name will indicate the current level of the radar network.

If running the mod for the first time on an existing map with satellites already in orbit, all vanilla radars on the map will be upgraded after the next rocket launch with a satellite on board. Think of it like initializing the connection between the ground radars and the satellites already in orbit.

The radars are automatically upgraded as the total satellite requirements for each level is met via rocket launches. When building a new radar, simply craft and place like usual, and it will be built with the correct level parameters automatically.

Feel free to increase the max level beyond the provided 17 or change the parameters of each upgrade to require more or less satellites (look in settings.lua in v0.2.0+). The current values were chosen to yield roughly 100-200 hours of playtime before reaching level 17, at which point the radars will hopefully be balanced with deep late game expansion needs.

It would be great to have someone test the performance of the mod on a very large map with many radars and satellites.

This is my first mod for the game, so let me know if there are any suggestions, problems, or questions.

Picture

Mod Compatibility

Changelog

Previous Version Downloads

SatelliteRadar_0.4.1.zip: Satellite Radar v0.4.1; (9.89 KiB) Downloaded 949 times

seronis · Post by **seronis** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 7:59 am

This is now my favorite radar mod. Thank you.

Zeblote · Post by **Zeblote** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 10:02 am

1173 satellites?! Maybe that should be more like 50 or 100?

Descryant · Post by **Descryant** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 12:14 pm

Loving the idea! Do you think this would work as-is with RSO Radar?

seronis · Post by **seronis** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 12:51 pm

Zeblote wrote:1173 satellites?! Maybe that should be more like 50 or 100?

Im not the mod dev but I DO NOT think it should be any lower than that. Personally the number could be doubled or tripled IMO. There are people who have factories capable of launching multiple rockets per minute. Also the MAX EFFECT is something you should almost never actually attain. Thats the point. To ensure you always have further progress to make so it should be expensive enough you almost never max out.

catalyst518 · Post by **catalyst518** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 3:46 pm

seronis wrote:
Zeblote wrote:1173 satellites?! Maybe that should be more like 50 or 100?
Im not the mod dev but I DO NOT think it should be any lower than that. Personally the number could be doubled or tripled IMO. There are people who have factories capable of launching multiple rockets per minute. Also the MAX EFFECT is something you should almost never actually attain. Thats the point. To ensure you always have further progress to make so it should be expensive enough you almost never max out.

When the radar size is increased from 3x3 to 20x20, you gain 391 units of coverage. I think at least one satellite per sector added is reasonable for small bases, but you'd only need a handful of level 17 radars to completely cover a small base. Also, this mod is intended for past the usual end game. I didn't feel the need to expand the radar range until I hit my current stage of designing for 1 rocket per 10 minutes. I won't reach level 17 until almost 200 hours later. After such a long time, I expect to have outposts hundreds of chunks away from my main base. Also, I'm playing with RSO, so the distance from base to outposts increases quickly and vanilla radars can't keep up with the expansion rate.

As seronis mentioned, max level is something in Factorio that should always seem difficult to obtain in the beginning of the game. Think about when you found out the requirements to launch just 1 rocket. It only seems possible once you think big and scale up your production.

As with everything in Factorio, you're welcome to change whatever to fit your own play style. The current parameters were chosen to help out way past the end game of just 1 rocket launched.

catalyst518 · Post by **catalyst518** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 3:56 pm

Descryant wrote:Loving the idea! Do you think this would work as-is with RSO Radar?

Looking at the code of the RSO Radar, it just upgrades the base values of the vanilla radar one time. If you installed Satellite Radar in addition, Satellite Radar would override the RSO Radar changes automatically once you reach level 1. For reference, RSO Radar changes the visible range to 6x6 and a search range of 28x28. In Satellite Radar, level 3 has 6x6 visible range and 20x20 search range and also a reduced search time.

By the way, I created the mod since I reached that point when playing with a RSO map that vanilla radars don't do much. I think my mod's solution is a little more elegant than a one time free upgrade of the parameters.

sfrazer · Post by **sfrazer** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 10:05 pm

What about just starting it at level 3?

Something like this?

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Ta ... 0,17%7D%5D

catalyst518 · Post by **catalyst518** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 10:48 pm

sfrazer wrote:What about just starting it at level 3?

Something like this?

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Ta ... 0,17%7D%5D

Yeah, that's easily doable. And...now I'm realizing two places in the code that should have been more flexible to make simple parameter changes like this faster.

I don't really want to upload a new .zip just for a custom parameter change and then have it floating around online when people are looking for the original mod, so you'll need to edit line 21 (new minimum satellite requirement for level 1), line 23 (new minimum requirement for level 17), and line 28 (new formula for level: solve the total satellite equation for x) in control.lua. Also line 21 (new energy per sector equation), and lines 22 and 23 (new ranges of scans, just add +3 to each line) in radar.lua. Both files are found within the mod .zip.

If you can't figure it out, let me know. I'll add better custom satellite progression support to my list of improvements for the next version.

Edit: This is now much more reasonable to do in the newest version. Just edit the values in settings.lua.

catalyst518 · Post by **catalyst518** » Sat Apr 16, 2016 3:41 am

Update Released: Version 0.2.0

Download: SatelliteRadar_0.2.0.zip

Changes:

I had been misinterpreting the game variable controlling the search area dimensions. The actual size of the scan region has not changed, but my listing of the dimensions is now accurate (e.g. level 17 is actually 41x41, not 20x20). This also required an update to the formula for the number of satellites for each level. Due to this change, it now only requires 1 satellite per chunk added to the visible area. These are the new values. For posterity, here are the old values.
Added settings.lua to enable easier editing of the level progression curve by users interested in using a larger or smaller number of satellites and/or levels.

seronis · Post by **seronis** » Sat Apr 16, 2016 6:07 pm

Good changes. This is definitely my defacto radar mod now. Any chance you also mod Space Engineers ? I dont even have that game yet but considering getting it soon and for me it scratches the same type of playing 'itch'.

catalyst518 · Post by **catalyst518** » Sat Apr 16, 2016 11:56 pm

Update Released: Version 0.2.1

Download: SatelliteRadar_0.2.1.zip

Changes:

Added compatibility with Launch Control 0.1.2-unofficial.

wild_dog · Post by **wild_dog** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:19 pm

Hey man, love your idea, but I ran into a problem.

You coded the mod using game.player.gui.left.rocket_score to find the amount of satellites (if any) that have been launched.
However, if the map you are playing on has ever been played in multiplayer, this will not work, since game.player can't be used anymore (after all, there is no longer a THE player, there are/have been multiple)

I fixed this for me by replacing game.player with game.players[1].
This appears to be working consistently, even if you create a new map with only you in single player mode.

Since it appears that all players in the map have the same score, you don't need to index over all players to get the proper score (at this time).

Just thought I'd let you know so you could apply it in a future update for multiplayer compatibility.

Vas · Post by **Vas** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:41 pm

Another single player only mod? That sucks, I had to delete this from my server. :/
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpcleidhodwo7 ... .35.27.png
Error while running the event handler: _ _ SatelliteRadar _ _/control.lua:6: Map doesn't contain 1 player, this function can't be used

EDIT: Wild dog's fix did not work, placing a new radar crashes the game with the same error.

wild_dog · Post by **wild_dog** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 10:22 pm

Vas wrote:Another single player only mod? That sucks, I had to delete this from my server. :/
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpcleidhodwo7 ... .35.27.png
Error while running the event handler: _ _ SatelliteRadar _ _/control.lua:6: Map doesn't contain 1 player, this function can't be used

EDIT: Wild dog's fix did not work, placing a new radar crashes the game with the same error.

Really? and the error was control.lua:6: even after you did what i did?

i have had to replace it in 6 instances on my side, in line 5, 7, 8, 15, 17, and 18, but that may not have been his latest version.
Lemme check and get back to you.

EDIT: on his latest release (0.2.1) i've had to eddit it at 3 lines, line 6, 8 and 9.

it became this:

Code: Select all

function CalculateLevel(a)
  satellites=0
  if game.players[1].gui.left.rocket_score==nil then
    satellites=0
  elseif tonumber(game.players[1].gui.left.rocket_score.rocket_count.caption)>=0 then
    satellites=tonumber(game.players[1].gui.left.rocket_score.rocket_count.caption)
  end
  satellites=satellites+a
  level=LevelEquation(satellites)
  if level<=0 then
    return 0
  elseif level>=maxlevel then
    return maxlevel
  else
    return level
  end
end

i tried to replace a radar and it seemed to work fine, though i have to admit that i only have 4 sats in orbit and no active other players so it might not be the best test.
could you link mod file that you fixed so i could take a look?

the only pitfall that i can think of right now is that you eddited it to player[1] when it should be playerS[1], but to say more i would need your mod file and latest crash report.

Vas · Post by **Vas** » Wed Apr 20, 2016 6:40 am

I've updated this mod for multiplayer compatibility, and added this thread to the "homepage" in the info and updated the version number as well.

EDIT: Wild Dog, you were right, I did miss the S.

I release this unofficial update so that no one makes the mistake again. xP

catalyst518 · Post by **catalyst518** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 3:24 am

wild_dog wrote:
Just thought I'd let you know so you could apply it in a future update for multiplayer compatibility.

Vas wrote:I've updated this mod for multiplayer compatibility, and added this thread to the "homepage" in the info and updated the version number as well.

Thanks to you both for pointing this out. I've never played a multiplayer map and don't really intend to, so this could have been overlooked for a while. I've released an official patch with the changes you both figured out correctly.

catalyst518 · Post by **catalyst518** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 3:24 am

Update Released: Version 0.2.2

Download: SatelliteRadar_0.2.2.zip

Changes:

Added multiplayer support. Thanks to Vas and wild_dog.
Added compatibility with Train tracker 1.0.0.
Updated info.json with link to this thread.

Qon · Post by **Qon** » Wed May 11, 2016 8:21 am

Bugs:

Makes all items made from radars into satellite radars. I see you have updated it for train tracker compatability, but this isn't the only mod that your mod destroys. Instead of making your mod compatible with each mod it destroys one by one as it is reported, try to make it compatible with all mods ever made or will be made in the future by at least checking if the item you are replacing is a regular radar or satellite radar. Whitelist instead of blacklist, please. It destroyed Train Tracker, STRS radars, Factorio Basics/Extended, Item Collector and every other radar mod or mod that makes things by modifying radars...
"Factorio Extended 0.1.3 - Upon reaching level 1 in Satellite Radar, all special radars (Mk2 and surveillance radars) will be replaced with the appropriate level of satellite radar."
It was replaced with the same level as every other radar. This is not working. I'm not convinced even max level satellite radar is superior to the surveillance radar but I don't have the numbers.
Uninstalling will probably remove all radars since you chose to make each upgrade a separate item. Not sure if this can be fixed with the current API but it would be nice if it didn't destroy all my radars twice... Also it's messy. Isn't it possible to modify the radars instead of making new ones?

I haven't tested balance yet but from the numbers it sounds like these are a very expensive way to get very underwhelming results. All other radar mods I've tried are more powerful than this without sending a single rocket.

Also you say "tiles" in your description when I think you mean "chunks".

Qon · Post by **Qon** » Thu May 19, 2016 11:41 am

Qon wrote:Bugs:

Makes all items made from radars into satellite radars. I see you have updated it for train tracker compatability, but this isn't the only mod that your mod destroys. Instead of making your mod compatible with each mod it destroys one by one as it is reported, try to make it compatible with all mods ever made or will be made in the future by at least checking if the item you are replacing is a regular radar or satellite radar. Whitelist instead of blacklist, please. It destroyed Train Tracker, STRS radars, Factorio Basics/Extended, Item Collector and every other radar mod or mod that makes things by modifying radars...

Well this is easily fixed. My version is basically compatible with all mods ever made or ever will be made unless they do something that is inherently incompatible (also replaces vanilla radars instead of making a new entity type with separate recipe). So it works with all the things I listed above and the Ion cannon targeter too. And fusion power "safety zone" would probably also have been destroyed in the old version.

You name the radars things like "radar2" which could potentially collide with someone elses mod though. Qonsider naming it "satellite-radar-2" or similar instead in case someone makes a Mk2 radar and calls it "radar2" because think like you q:

Edit: please read http://freedomdefined.org/Licenses/NC
NC is not gaining you anything. No one will sell your mod. You are only potentially interfering with people who make youtube videos of your mod and other similar grayzones where someone might make an indirect profit. And with SA the NC spreads :/

If you decide to remove NC then I give v0.2.3 the CC BY-SA 4.0 license as well with this statement.

Edit: Bugfix. Use 0.2.4 instead of 0.2.3.
Edit: Bugfix. Use 0.2.5 instead of 0.2.4.

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[MOD 0.13.0] Satellite Radar

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