Friday Facts #160 - Playtesting

[kovarex]

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-160

[deef0000dragon1]

Something thing that I think needs to be added if you do mark 2 steam engines and boilers is steel pipes, or pipes that can move more fluid in general to match consumption/production at a mark 2 level.

[orzelek]

Figure some way to have low level personal construction robots earlier in the game.

Yaay for this one.
It's really needed especially when we add mods
And better betl building mechanics sounds tempting too.

[Vizzy]

One suggestion I might make in regards to content would be some way to automate biter base killing. The mod Robot Army (viewtopic.php?t=23543) is a good example but I think the idea would really benefit from an official implementation because of the complexity of things like pathing.

Thanks for posting more excellent Friday Facts

[Ratzap]

Reading that made me so happy. It's like a top picks list of player changes, if only more devs would play their own product and make changes accordingly.

Expansion/DLC sounds good to me, I would be fine with giving you Wube people more money for this fine game.

[MrGrim]

One suggestion I might make in regards to content would be some way to automate biter base killing. The mod Robot Army (viewtopic.php?t=23543) is a good example but I think the idea would really benefit from an official implementation because of the complexity of things like pathing.

Thanks for posting more excellent Friday Facts

Indeed, if the intent is to nerf turret creeping then it would be helpful if something could be done to help alleviate the tedium of mid/late game land clearing. It would be difficult to do this while also maintaining the pressure that biter expansion and pollution mechanics provide which I personally think are quite enjoyable. I just wish there was an option when it comes time to seize more territory beyond the very manual and repetitive process there is now. The first 100 biter bases burned to the ground are fun.. the next 100 less so..

[akastalker]

Figure some way to have low level personal construction robots earlier in the game.

Yaay for this one.

I am currently trying to make mod with follower robot, that can build ghost objects with items from player's inventory (something like abandoned Quick Prints, but more immersive), can help fighting, refueling machines, fetching items, cleaning dead bodies.
But now I am in doubts if it's worth it.

[Supercheese]

Decrease the bounding box of burner mining drills,chemical plants and pumpjacks so walking in between them is possible.

Squeak Through in vanilla!

[Zaichik]

Another thing for gameplay:
The only mod I consider to be vital for my enjoyment of the game is the Long Reach mod. It just smooths out gameplay a ton. You might increase the radius at which you can interact with things in the base game.

[Colossus]

Low-tech robots?

[ManoftheSea]

Merging items with different health:
Please do not. Could you instead add a mechanic to allow pocket repairs? Maybe it's a module in the armor, maybe it's a research that just enables the capability, but rather than potentially losing items because of picking them up unfixed, allow them to be fixed while an item.

I'd like to see blueprints earlier than robots. It's convenient to be able to ghost-place items while in the manual stage, just for counting spaces sometimes, even if I have to manually turn ghosts into actualized items.

[hipscumbag]

I'm very glad to hear of the proposed changes to oil wells. Often it seems that I've no longer set up the train tracks than the pumpjacks have run dry! This can be especially tedious given the endgame's enormous demand for advanced circuits, processing units, and speed modules.

In the past I have used the RSO mod to alleviate this problem, but I would be especially excited to see changes implemented in vanilla.

[aubergine18]

Merging items with different health. - We didn't do the item merging, as we didn't want the player lose his precious items as two 49% items would merge into one, which would prevent the player from repairing both for just a few repair. In reality, I feel that the annoyance of having 8 different stacks of laser turrets/walls in my inventory is not worth the rare possibility of losing an item or two.

I'm not sure whether this means it is or is not planned, however, mods such as factorissimo make use of health of items as a way to keep track of which factory was mined so that it can be placed with same contents in new location.

Finding 4 - The interactive tips and tricks is a must

Can this be moddable please? This sort of thing would be really useful for scenarios, custom campaigns and advanced mods. It would also be very useful if per-game achievements system existed that also triggers events more infos.

[sniderthanyou]

Merging items with different health:
Please do not. Could you instead add a mechanic to allow pocket repairs? Maybe it's a module in the armor, maybe it's a research that just enables the capability, but rather than potentially losing items because of picking them up unfixed, allow them to be fixed while an item.

+1, I was just coming to suggest the same thing. Even without pocket repairs, I would prefer to keep the existing system over the proposed merging.

Everything else looks great! I'm really looking forward to trying 0.15, especially with the new science packs.

[Mooncat]

Look forward to the MK2 artworks.

Finding 3 - the most needed changes

Please add one:
- better map gen so it guarantees every map is playable.

I know this has been discussed many many times, but this should really be fixed. I have seen people from different forums asking "how to play on this map?", showing pictures of their characters isolated by water.
This is not ideal. This has to be fixed before v1.0 is released.
Possible solution: besides changing the algorithm for map gen, we can also give the player a slow personal lifeboat to start with. When the character moves to water, the lifeboat is used. (Like the engineers in Red Alert 3 )

[kovarex]

One suggestion I might make in regards to content would be some way to automate biter base killing. The mod Robot Army (viewtopic.php?t=23543) is a good example but I think the idea would really benefit from an official implementation because of the complexity of things like pathing.

Thanks for posting more excellent Friday Facts

Indeed, if the intent is to nerf turret creeping then it would be helpful if something could be done to help alleviate the tedium of mid/late game land clearing. It would be difficult to do this while also maintaining the pressure that biter expansion and pollution mechanics provide which I personally think are quite enjoyable. I just wish there was an option when it comes time to seize more territory beyond the very manual and repetitive process there is now. The first 100 biter bases burned to the ground are fun.. the next 100 less so..

I forgot to mention that. This will be solved by the artillery train!

[Vizzy]

I forgot to mention that. This will be solved by the artillery train!

Oh boy!

[Danacus]

I like all your ideas!

[hipscumbag]

I forgot to mention that. This will be solved by the artillery train!

That sounds great, especially given the newer, easier rail building system!

[hansinator]

Yeah I'd also appreciate automated warfare. Cleaning hundreds of biter bases manually spoils the fun in a game about automation.

I am against automatic merging of damaged items in my inventory, although the possibility to merge items itself is a good idea. Maybe it could be done manually. For example when I drag one damaged item and drop it onto another in my inventory.