Alien evolution in 0.13 - too slow?

[moldilocks]

So 13 hours into my current game (default starting conditions) and I finally have fully tricked out Power Armor Mk 2, with multiple Mk 2 shields and batteries, personal fusion reactors, exos, personal roboport, the works. I'm researching Rocket Speed 3 and the rocket launch is in sight. Yet entering the new /evolution command produces:

• Evolution factor: 0.2734 (Time 50%) (Pollution 32%) (Spawner kills 16%)

Medium biters don't start appearing until the evolution factor reaches 0.3 in version 0.13, and large biters at 0.5. I have a fairly low-pollution style of play, but I could easily have deployed far more solar panels and efficiency modules far earlier than I did. I'm still a newbie, but I'm pretty sure if I controlled more resources earlier, skipped non-essential techs, and did everything a bit faster, it would be possible to complete the game before medium biters evolved.

Too slow?

[Koub]

I think you are really a low pollution profil player . I've always found the evolution factor too fast, back in 0.12 and before. I haven't had the time to play Factorio since 0.13 yet, so can't answer directly to your question though.

[LuckyStar]

Swarms with big biters/spitters as a majority, appears mid-game for me

Needless to say, I am a sucker for pollution. I want the biters and spitters TO COUGH DAT AIR AND SUFFER

What I'm trying to say is, since you go with low pollution (and not many spawner kills either, I believe) you are rewarded with puny enemies.

[moldilocks]

It wasn't terribly difficult to keep the pollution that low, though. I mostly relied on steam through the nights and took ages to upgrade to electric furnaces.

I guess I avoided a positive feedback loop: Because alien evolution was low, I was only getting attacked by small biters, which meant there was no need to go out and destroy spawners. If evolution was higher, I'd have had to take out more spawners, which would have pushed evolution even higher.

[Rahjital]

Electric furnaces pollute more until you stuff them with efficiency modules, so you may have accidentally avoided some pollution by delaying the upgrade.

[British_Petroleum]

I've always thought the evolution was too slow, but i guess it's nice this way because it doesn't rush the player to get military improvements, so you can relax and spend time on your designs.

[Photoloss]

I've always thought the evolution was too slow, but i guess it's nice this way because it doesn't rush the player to get military improvements, so you can relax and spend time on your designs.

Not so much "too slow" and more "not dynamic enough". If you're a fairly new player and spawn in a desert with few trees you're probably toast once evolution actually kicks in, with little indication as to what you did wrong except "more of everything next time". On the flipside, if you're a veteran player, preplan your goals, spawn restart until you get a dense forest and have the patience to not burn it down immediately you can fight every single fight on your terms, if at all.

Since the "fun" value caused by forced pacing via faster evolution is very subjective I think a simple change would be a global scaling factor for any increase to evolution. If you like desert aesthetics but not the pollution constraints from lack of trees turn evolution down and be safe with basic gun turrets for ages. If speed-converting all available resources into maximum pollution still isn't challenging enough crank it up 10x and go to that same desert.
This should also be easily applicable to more complex fan-suggested mechanics like adapting to damage types.

[Marconos]

My preferred start. Desert, medium spawn area, high to very high enemy density and very frequent. No solar lots of coal. Without that the aliens are a yawn at best. With that, you can start having some fun!!

I don't know if biters need to evolve faster or just have pollution spread even faster to make them a real problem, not just something that you go "oh look a biter, guess I should research a military tech since I'm almost done with the game".

[Koub]

My preferred start. Desert, medium spawn area, high to very high enemy density and very frequent. No solar lots of coal. Without that the aliens are a yawn at best. With that, you can start having some fun!!

You're the kind of guy who stuffs his shoes with piled glass before running a marathon, because "hell, Marathon alone is not fun enough. And I'll run it backwards this time, just for fun" .

[Grendus]

The biggest question in my mind is what kind of spawn did you have? My current game spawned in the middle of a forest next to a huge lake, biters almost never attack and it's easy to keep their nests pushed back past the edge of the pollution cloud. I'm getting ready to build the rocket and I'm only just now getting to laser turrets. Whereas I've had games where the biters attacked as I was getting into green science because I was in the desert with a tiny lake so the pollution spread very fast.

I'd love to see alien evolution as a changeable setting in the world gen though. On high you'd be seeing medium biters by the time you upgraded to armor piercing rounds, on low you'd be launching about when they got spitters.

[moldilocks]

I finished at 18 hours, and after being quite sloppy about pollution control towards the end, and slaughtering a few spawners just for fun, finished on

• Evolution factor: 0.3771 (Time 42%) (Pollution 31%) (Spawner kills 25%)

I'm sure I could finish the game before medium biters.

The biggest question in my mind is what kind of spawn did you have?

Mostly surrounded by desert, actually. Though according to the wiki, forests help reduce the spread of the pollution cloud, but don't affect the rate of evolution.

Electric furnaces pollute more until you stuff them with efficiency modules, so you may have accidentally avoided some pollution by delaying the upgrade.

For me, the whole point of electric furances is that you can put efficiency modules in them, greatly reducing smelting-related pollution.

[bobucles]

For me, the whole point of electric furances is that you can put efficiency modules in them, greatly reducing smelting-related pollution.

Electric furnaces produce less pollution from smelting, but far more pollution from using steam boilers. If you have solar power then it's a huge drop.

Playing low pollution is kind of difficulty breaking. Oh well.

[Deadly-Bagel]

The evolution might get another overhaul if they ever fix weapon balance. Problem is once big biters start coming in you need laser towers and the combat shotgun + power armour to deal with their attacks and nests respectively so if the evolution is too fast, those who don't play for the (lacking) combat aren't going to have fun.

In the meantime, set your starting area to small. Nests will spawn closer and you'll need to clear them out more frequently, which will push the evolution forward.