Friday facts #153 - 0.13 Stable, 0.14 Experimental

[Klonan]

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-153

[katyal]

Vehicles with equipment grids! oooohhhMAGerd!!!!

[Xterminator]

New multiplayer sounds and looks awesome already! Hopefully this will help server work at least a tiny bit better with more people on them.

And damn, vehicles with equipment slots is crazy cool. Having exoskeletons in a vehicle to make it go faster is perhaps not the most realistic, but hey it's worth it! Having shields on my car will be super helpful seeing as 90% of the time my car dies its cause I run into something. xD

Great update and can't wait for 0.15!

[Masterfox]

Now that grids get more stuff, how about changing the form of equipment from rectangles to "L"-shapes or something?

[Project Dark Fox]

Now that grids get more stuff, how about changing the form of equipment from rectangles to "L"-shapes or something?

Lower tier vehicles getting equipment slots only makes me think of other personal equipment you could put on that may be very cheap and therefore comes with some disadvantages.
One such idea: Armor Plating (1x2 or 2x1, possibly rotateable), grants an extra 20 hit points to the vehicle's HP. 2-5% slower vehicle acceleration. No energy drain. Cannot be mounted on Power armor. No research required, probably requires a small amount of iron and/or steel to build.

[fomal]

Is that webm a reflection of how we can expect 0.15 to come out in a matter of hours due to the worker cloning technology you've adopted?

[tigerbird1]

Suggestion: vehicle detectors! Outputs onto the circuit network when a vehicle is infront/on-top of it. imho, it would make "gas" stations simpler for (off-)road vehicles, but trains could probably get some use too. Currently there is no way to attach the car/tank to the circuit network which limiting in certain regards. It could even be used to switch "load-outs" of the vehicle equipment grid is it is accessible to inserters.

Maybe a variant could detect players, which could be useful for locking gates and stuff in multiplayer?

Amazing game too! Loving the v13.x updates! I can't wait for the new stuff coming up too!

[krag123]

This is going to be amazing, now you can have trains able to protect themselves. Outfit trains with defense lasers and fusion reactors

[malecord]

You ask ideas for modules? Some random stuff I not so unusually come to wonder

Stealth module
Purpose: exploring far lands without necessarily clear nests
How it works: once activated consumes a lot of energy and stops if shooting or receiving damages. Basically it increases its efficiency with batteries/solar panels/reactor techs

Radar module
Purpose: exploration
How it works: once activated extends player vision

Jetpack
Purpose: movement
How it works: it consumes a lot of fuel (depending on what it is actually moving) but it allows you to move fast and over obstacles like water (Flying trains? Why not. Ever seen back to the future?)

Portable Factory:
Purpose: faster "manual" crafting
How it works: it crafts stuff in parallel to the player. More modules more crafting. E.g: with 4 modules equipped you can for instance craft 5 green circuits at the same time

Logistic module:
Purpose: connects to logistic network
How it works: allows you to order/trash stuff in the trunk (although I guess this is redundant for player armor)

[The Phoenixian]

First reaction? "Oh Hell Yes."

As far as suggestions go, I think the first and most obvious is an onboard electric generator: Just as any real world car can pull energy from the engine to run it's peripherals, so too could vehicles use their fuel stocks in order to power grid equipment.

If it's 3x3, 4x2, or otherwise significantly smaller than than the portable fusion reactor, it would likely remain competitive with the final onboard power supply well into the late game, due to not taking up nearly as much space in vehicle with fewer grid slots. Of course, constant power consumption does push players to use more efficient fuels, but that's a plus, not a minus.

Beyond that, the biggest thing I'd like to see is a module for automatic control (essentially turning the vehicle into an RTS unit), but I'm well aware that's a pretty tall order.

[orzelek]

You are missing the best parts:
Cargo wagons with logistics roboports and next to them cargo wagons with personal defences. Mobile "depot" on wheels with built in fire power to fend of some stray biters.
And a mobile logistics "base repair" trains that arrive at base, do the repairs/replace destroyed stuff and then continue to the next one.

Big thanks for this to dev team

[Mangledpork]

Somebody make that mod! Go, go, go!

[y.petremann]

I really like the fact that mods can now enable equipement grids for vehicles.
Having equipement being categorized made me think of something great.
Basicaly a lot of machines have modules or are affected by modules.

What I think about is to replace the module system with equipement grid, machine could have a grid equaly relative to the number of slots * size of modules.

I propose that module get 2x2 size so by default machine with:

• 1 module slot = 2x2 grid
• 2 module slot = 4x2 grid
• 3 module slot = 6x2 grid
• 4 module slot = 4x4 grid
• 4 module slot = 10x2 grid
• 6 module slot = 6x4 grid
• 7 module slot = 14x2 grid
• 8 module slot = 8x4 grid

Here what I think about actual equipements on machine :

• portable solar panels offer small energy boost (max to 160kW/210kW for assembling machine 3)
  • fully powered electric mining drill
  • max to 80kW/150kW for assembling machine 2
  • max to 160kW/210kW for assembling machine 3
• portable fusion reactor offer large energy boost
  • fully powered assembling machine 3
  • 750kW/4MW for rocket silo
• energy shield offer resistance from attack
• battery offer an energy buffer in case of power loss (would work like roboport)
• personal laser defense offer integrated defense
• discharge defense offer remote triggerable defense (or disabled)
• exoskeleton would be disabled (machine don't move) or would be modified so it would augment speed
• personal roboport would be disabled for machines that don't have storage for bot, would work with logistic bot instead of construction bots, machine network will only work on itself and logistic chests that are in range. would only do logistic with filtered slots
• nightvision (wh... wait ... what ? ... why ... Machine don't need to see in darkness ...)

Proposed ones :
Polution filters would filter a part of polution generated by machine, would have upgrades
Storage upgrade would add storage slot (allowing for internal filterable buffer for machines)

As we can see almost all modules are replaced by an equivalent
Exoskeleton could basicaly replace speed modules
Portable solar panel and portable fusion reactor could replace efficiency modules

Only Productivity modules would be left over

Also for energy, all module cosumption would be drained from e

[Adael]

Great news!,
thanks you. This is by far my favourite game in years!!!

[y.petremann]

Somebody make that mod! Go, go, go!

I'm about to make a mod to see effects of modules in vehicles, but I would not be able to do and release this night, so at least if tomorow there is no mods, I will do it !!!

[ghastendee]

does the grid work in vehicles right now? i cant find it

[Slayn25]

Great job Factorio team! You guys are awesome.

[Zeblote]

Am I missing something? Opened a tank in 0.14 and it doesn't have a grid.

[orzelek]

Am I missing something? Opened a tank in 0.14 and it doesn't have a grid.

I think it needs to be modded in - default ones don't have it.

[hitzu]

What if the Fusion Reactor would turn the locomotive into an Electric Locomotive and feed it with power