Factorio Roadmap for 1.0.

[steinio]

No this disables crossings of different belts..

[epiccraft_tv]

No this disables crossings of different belts..

I figured it would, and realized that after I posted it and didn't have the time to post/edit it but, I was thinking that there could be a different item the would merge or you could add a belt editor type thing where you would be able to config (in game) underground belts too connect and merge or something like that.

[Joefesok]

So, now that .13 is officially feature-complete, when're we getting the roadmap thread for .14?

[kovarex]

So, now that .13 is officially feature-complete, when're we getting the roadmap thread for .14?

People never stop

[binbinhfr]

People never stop

People has no ambition...
It's time to vote for 1.00 !!!

[Joefesok]

What can I say? New features are exciting, especially when they're as well done as these are.

[Koub]

People never stop

People has no ambition...
It's time to vote for 1.00 !!!

I hope to wait a long time before 1.0 is announced there is so much I want to see in Factorio

[jockeril]

People never stop

People has no ambition...
It's time to vote for 1.00 !!!

I hope to wait a long time before 1.0 is announced there is so much I want to see in Factorio

I'd like to see that list...

Mine includes a better looking GUI (I think it looks primal - like a first version of something better to come ) and as my signature says - RTL natural support so I can write hebrew station names ( for instance ) and stop inverting locale text strings b4 updating mods

[Joefesok]

I think right now we just need more piles of cool stuff.

Things like planes, trucks, RTS mode. Nukes.

[Drury]

I think right now we just need more piles of cool stuff.

Things like planes, trucks, RTS mode. Nukes.

Realistically, at this stage it's more about rounding up the edges, wrapping up and finally releasing the game.

[Zeblote]

I think right now we just need more piles of cool stuff.

Things like planes, trucks, RTS mode. Nukes.

Realistically, at this stage it's more about rounding up the edges, wrapping up and finally releasing the game.

For all we care about, the game is already released since a long time. This alpha/beta talk are just fancy words with no real meaning anymore

[Drury]

I think right now we just need more piles of cool stuff.

Things like planes, trucks, RTS mode. Nukes.

Realistically, at this stage it's more about rounding up the edges, wrapping up and finally releasing the game.

For all we care about, the game is already released since a long time. This alpha/beta talk are just fancy words with no real meaning anymore

Well not to these devs I don't think. Besides, in their shoes I'd hate to have an Early Access game on Steam for longer than a year, no matter what kind of progress gets made. That sticker isn't supposed to be an eternal thing.

[Joefesok]

I think right now we just need more piles of cool stuff.

Things like planes, trucks, RTS mode. Nukes.

Realistically, at this stage it's more about rounding up the edges, wrapping up and finally releasing the game.

For all we care about, the game is already released since a long time. This alpha/beta talk are just fancy words with no real meaning anymore

Well not to these devs I don't think. Besides, in their shoes I'd hate to have an Early Access game on Steam for longer than a year, no matter what kind of progress gets made. That sticker isn't supposed to be an eternal thing.

I mean, anybody who does even cursory research into Factorio knows it's already basically feature-complete. It's another case of Prison Architect syndrome: They could've released the game a year ago, feature complete, but instead they kept adding cool things to make it a really great game.

When that's the case, Early Access is more a sign that the game still has places to go, and new things to do. It's not a sticker that says "this game is not completed" anymore, it's a sticker that says "this game will have more content and updates."

[jockeril]

...
Realistically, at this stage it's more about rounding up the edges, wrapping up and finally releasing the game.

For all we care about, the game is already released since a long time. This alpha/beta talk are just fancy words with no real meaning anymore
.
Well not to these devs I don't think. Besides, in their shoes I'd hate to have an Early Access game on Steam for longer than a year, no matter what kind of progress gets made. That sticker isn't supposed to be an eternal thing.
.
I mean, anybody who does even cursory research into Factorio knows it's already basically feature-complete. It's another case of Prison Architect syndrome: They could've released the game a year ago, feature complete, but instead they kept adding cool things to make it a really great game.

When that's the case, Early Access is more a sign that the game still has places to go, and new things to do. It's not a sticker that says "this game is not completed" anymore, it's a sticker that says "this game will have more content and updates."

I'm with drury - Factorio is complete, particularly with the last additions of 0.13 and can be declared released, once they feel the bugs are ironed. There are many other games that get updated on a regular basis including AAA games like "PayDay 2" & "Euro truck simulator 2" that get updates and features (and payable DLC's, which factorio doesn't have to have) added to them every week or month !

Staying in Early Access status for over a year will keep more players away because of what games like "Banished" did (can't remember others, I had more in mind)

[Drury]

I mean, anybody who does even cursory research into Factorio knows it's already basically feature-complete. It's another case of Prison Architect syndrome: They could've released the game a year ago, feature complete, but instead they kept adding cool things to make it a really great game.

When that's the case, Early Access is more a sign that the game still has places to go, and new things to do. It's not a sticker that says "this game is not completed" anymore, it's a sticker that says "this game will have more content and updates."

There are games out there that already got released and still receive content updates.

In the case of Factorio, I'd argue the game isn't actually as complete as one might think. Relatively bug-free and graphically stunning, yes, but gameplay-wise, there are still some details to flesh out. Just read the top negative review on Steam, it's actually quite constructive even though it treats the game like it's a finished product and mostly exists just to get the same point I'm making across, not so much because the guy actually doesn't recommend the game.

I personally think the absolute biggest shortcoming of the game is the aliens - they still feel very tacked-on. That's not something that can be fixed by just adding more weapons and more aliens - to be more precise, it can be fixed by adding more weapons and aliens, but in an intelligent fashion. There ought to be some kind of counterplay there. Right now biters are just something that goes to die in turrets every now and then. The new flamethrower turret is a step in a good direction, it has it's strengths and flaws in actual combat, as opposed to autoguns and lasers whose flaws come mainly from operating requirements rather than combat situations. The way they kill aliens is practically identical (everything that enters their range dies). Choosing between those two turrets is just a matter of preference, and it can be argued that laser turrets are objectively more powerful and a favorite pick for most. And even if the turrets worked all against different sorts of aliens - where's the significance of using one over another, when every sort of aliens attack at once all the time?

A possible solution to that would be having specific alien nests that spawn only one type of alien, this could be communicated to the player in an intuitive fashion by having different aliens inhabit different biomes. Forest biome spawns alien A countered by turret 1, desert biome spawns alien B countered by turret 2, snow biome spawns alien C countered by turret 3, and perhaps with variations of each alien type that require the occasional fielding of a turret 4, 5 and 6. You know which turret to research and build relative to where you live, and learning what to use when and then making those decisions can be quite fun - more so than "do I spam laser turrets or laser turrets?"

And bam, suddenly we have a laundry list of features. New aliens, new turrets, new weapons, new biomes. Just to get basic counterplay going.

Sadly that's just one random example. Factorio still has ways to go when it comes to feature-completeness - especially endgame content, which is a nebulous concept that encompasses mostly functionally different and complex high-tier versions of existing concepts, like energy generation (imagine a nuclear reactor with a new uranium ore resource to boot). It could take years. I mean making that all that happen might technically count as "piles of cool stuff" anyway, but it's important to know why that cool stuff gets implemented in the first place - not to add piles of cool stuff, but to flesh the game out. It's all about filling those gaps, to make the game complete. 0.13 did a pretty good job making circuit network relevant, trains kick absolute ass now and the new turret as I said is a little step in a very good direction, not to mention rock-solid multiplayer at last, mod portal and achievements, but there's still so much more work to do just fleshing those new features out - which is kinda funny since those were added to flesh the game out overall. But things like RTS - I mean, I'm actually a huge supporter of the RTS idea, but the current combat needs to get better first and realistically I don't see RTS elements happening. Planes, trucks - perhaps nice to have, but is it worth the trouble? Does it solve any issues of the game? Nukes? Aren't the current weapons OP enough? (who needs nukes when you have cluster grenades? )

So anyway, hut-hut devs, fix them bugs and get to it while I figure out the warning lights on my train stations

/also about the aliens, I think I wrote this exact thing already... Well it's worth saying again

[Zeblote]

Why do we even need this idea of "complete"? The game is obviously already released (we are playing it right now!) but that does not mean it is "done", or will ever be. There will always be ways to improve existing features or add new interesting ones

I really hope factorio becomes one of these eternal games that are still active a decade later.

[Drury]

Why do we even need this idea of "complete"? The game is obviously already released (we are playing it right now!) but that does not mean it is "done", or will ever be. There will always be ways to improve existing features or add new interesting ones

I really hope factorio becomes one of these eternal games that are still active a decade later.

I'm pretty sure Wube has no intention of working on Factorio and only Factorio till the end of time, but I might be wrong. I'm not saying they should stop working on Factorio already, just that they ought to finish it, reach that state of nigh-perfection, where anything works with anything and everything makes sense. Once that's done, efforts can be focused towards maybe some post-release DLC, the "cool stuff" like RTS elements. But first the base game needs to become a complete package. It's getting there, it's closer than ever, but not quite there yet. So close yet so far, so to speak.

Many game developers don't finish their games, they just keep adding features upon features without thought. That's a modern trend of open development, where people keep asking for features without thinking about whether they really need them and developers try their hardest to deliver ASAP, no matter the cost or implications, and one just craves for the old days when game developers released simple, working packages without useless fluff and unfinished elements.

And yeah, Factorio is destined to be a classic, I didn't even expect this. I thought it was just a niche nerd thing, apparently Steam thinks otherwise.

[lancar]

....And yeah, Factorio is destined to be a classic, I didn't even expect this. I thought it was just a niche nerd thing, apparently Steam thinks otherwise.

I'd say it's already a classic, even before it's out of early access (as weird as that might seem).
There's just too much successful innovation here for it to be otherwise.

[Sebb767]

[...]
I really hope factorio becomes one of these eternal games that are still active a decade later.

I'm pretty sure Wube has no intention of working on Factorio and only Factorio till the end of time, but I might be wrong. [...]

You aren't wrong. But we'll probably see updates for a long time. The reason is profit: By now, factorio has a big market (there are a lot of casual players in for factory building and factorio is fun even for more casual players) and therefore there are many possible buyers. But it still has a big team and no long-term profit like CS:GO and its skin market, so we won't see updates forever. My guess is that we'll get another 2-3 years.

Whether factorio will keep its active community for decades to come is in question. It lacks a competitive aspect currently, so keeping up a long-term play value will depend on the modding community. Kind of like Skyrim.

If they build up a good PvP and AI systems, maybe paired with more versatile maps, I place my bet that there's still gonna be an active community in years.

[kovarex]

[...]
I really hope factorio becomes one of these eternal games that are still active a decade later.

I'm pretty sure Wube has no intention of working on Factorio and only Factorio till the end of time, but I might be wrong. [...]

You aren't wrong. But we'll probably see updates for a long time. The reason is profit: By now, factorio has a big market (there are a lot of casual players in for factory building and factorio is fun even for more casual players) and therefore there are many possible buyers. But it still has a big team and no long-term profit like CS:GO and its skin market, so we won't see updates forever. My guess is that we'll get another 2-3 years.

Whether factorio will keep its active community for decades to come is in question. It lacks a competitive aspect currently, so keeping up a long-term play value will depend on the modding community. Kind of like Skyrim.

If they build up a good PvP and AI systems, maybe paired with more versatile maps, I place my bet that there's still gonna be an active community in years.

It is not only about money. We also have to enjoy to work on it, we plan to do the version 1.0 in approximatelly a year, and than we shall see, maybe an expansion. We might want to take a break, and then eventually do a completely different game, or Factorio II, who knows. We might also start working on the AI instead