[MOD 0.13] Challenge - defy other Factorio players

[binbinhfr]

Infos

• Type: Mod
• Name: Challenge
• Description: Define a challenge on a chosen map and try to complete it as fast as you can, or in a limited time. Publish it on the factorio forum (section Maps and Scenarios) to challenge other players, and see if someone can beat your personal record...
• Example: try an example here with the Cold Metal challenge or the Mino Mania challenge.
• Tested-With-Factorio-Version: 0.13.0
• Locale: english, french
• Multiplayer compatible: tested on a headless server.
• Tags: Challenge, solo player competition, race
• License: You are free to use and distribute this mod and also to modify it for personal use, but not to release a modified version without permission (unless visibly not maintained anymore).
• Portal download : https://mods.factorio.com/mods/binbinhfr/Challenge

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
Well it's obvious that you are not the kind of guy to invite people on your planet or even to surf on social network like SpaceBook.
You like to manage your factory alone and the company of aliens is just enough.
But it's also a fact that you like competition and challenge, and you do not spit on medals and trophees to decorate your home sweet home !

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DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION
That's why the Challenge mod offers you the possibility to define a challenge, on a chosen map with a specified mod's pack and with a specified starting inventory, and to publish this challenge on the Factorio forum (section Maps and Scenarios) to defy other players, and to see who is the most efficient player to achieve this challenge.

For example, goals of a challenge can be :
"craft 100 iron gear wheel and 200 copper or iron plates, as fast as you can"
"build 10 labs and produce 100 science packs 1, as fast as you can"
"kill 100 bitters and 50 spitters and launch 5 rockets, as fast as you can"
"collect the maximum mining resource you can dig in 10 minutes"

Some challenges would be quick to achieve, as a blitz challenge but needs a good optimization of your moves ; others challenges can last longer and will demand more endurance (like the ones including rockets launches).

The Challenge mod will help you create your challenge, but also monitor it completion, from the settings of the initial conditions to the final success report.
And other challengers will also be able to use the mod to complete the same challenge and to publish a proof of their success.

If you are the creator of the challenge :
- think about a challenge, with one or several goals.
- think eventually about additionnal mods to use. It's not mandatory.
- generate a good map, or create it using the map editor.
- open the Challenge interface and click on the "edit" button to define the Challenge
- define the goals of the challenge (each line is a goal to complete, which can be "collect", "build", "kill" or "rocket")
- define carefully the initial player inventory (do not forget a weapon, and a few ammos).
- define other options (alwaysday mode on/off, peaceful mode on/off, research on/off, all technologies available, initial buildings wipe, etc...)
- IMPORTANT : before making your own first attempt to complete your fresh challenge, don't forget to save the map you want to share, with its original resources distribution.
- play, complete your challenge and make a screencopy of you own success.
- note the challenge signature.
- publish the challenge on the forum (section Maps and Scenarios), with a little explanation, and at least : the map, a pack of mods and the challenge signature.

If you are a challenger, responding to a challenge :
- find a Challenge in the Maps and Scenarios section of the forum.
- download the map and the mods pack.
- copy the map zip file directly into your [factorio]/saves directory.
- backup/move your actual mods located in [factorio]/mods into another directory.
- install the mods contained in the mod's package in [factorio]/mods.
- run Factorio and load the map,
- do not mine any resource yet : the challenge needs to start on the original map to be valid.
- if you have a message that mods have been changed, then the challenge won't be valid : exit the map and check the mods that are needed (refer to the map's mods list ; note that the mod versions are not absolutely relevant, so you can use newer versions of any mod).
- click on the Challenge button to open the Challenge window (but do not click Edit to avoid reseting the challenge signature).
- study the goals, the initial inventory and the options, to learn about the challenge and prepare your first moves.
- then start the Challenge : the game will be reset, your inventory updated and the chronometer will start.
If the map does not match with the one of the challenge, you'll be warned that the challenge is not valid.
(you can verify once more that the challenge signature is the same as the one displayed on the forum challenge thread)
- play and complete different goals.
- you'll be informed when all goals are complete with a special animation and a report window.
- save the map to record you success in case of missclick...
- then make a screencopy (printscreen key under windows) with the Challenge success window opened and post it on the forum in the thread concerning the challenge.

IMAGES

IMAGES

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TIPS

TIPS
- you open and close the main window using the trophee button in the upper bar.
- at the right of this button, you have the challenge chronometer and the overall percentage of progression of your challenge.
- if you are not sure of an icon, you can click on any object/item to read its name.
- if you have several object in a same goal, then any object of the list can fullfill the goal.
- you can open or close the Challenge window at any moment to precisely monitor your progression.
- when a goal is completed, a timestamp is added to its line.
- there is no PAUSE feature, so if you click STOP, the challenge will be aborted and you will have to restart from the beginning.
- but you can save the game while the challenge is running and reopen it later, with the Challenge still running (so that's the way to make a PAUSE).
- in the challenge goals screen, you have a challenge signature. It contains 3 keys that help prooving that you complete the original challenge: the first key is unique to the challenge (and is changed as soon as you try to modify the challenge or use other mods than those included with the challenge), the second key is unique to the map (and changed as soon as map resources are modified), the third key is the max number of players who accessed this map.
- a challenge with a (*) at the end of its name is tagged as invalid : either the mods list or the map resources are not matching with the original challenge : check the mods, reload the original map.
- to achieve a "collect" goal, the items must be gathered in your inventory or your toolbelt.
- once a goal is achieved, it is not verified anymore, so you can consume the objects of the goal...
- you can still try to complete a challenge, even if the signature is incorrect.
- even if it is more a solo-oriented mod, it can be used in multi player. At the end, on the report screen, the number of players will be displayed.

TODO

TODO
- change the cursor when adding or deleting (putting a fake object in hand)
- include more goal types, with other conditions (ex: build a max of given objects in a fixed limited time).
- include special buildings conquests as goals.
- ask confirmation for start or stop or edit ?

KNOWN ISSUES

KNOWN ISSUES
- for the moment, to achieve a "collect" goal, the items must be gathered in your inventory or your toolbelt : it will probably be corrected in 0.13 and extended to assembly machines, chests, etc...

EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE
As an example, I posted a first challenge called "Cold Metal" in "Maps and Scenarios" section of the forum.
There is also a timer challenge called Mino Mania.
See here.

TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS
- For the moment, there is one locale for english and one for french (my native language).
- If you are a native english speaker, do not hesitate to correct my english choices.
- If you want to provide any other locale translation, please do, I'll integrate them.
- In case you don't know, the text to translate is in the ./locale/en/en.cfg file of the mod. It is a simple text file.

Download
For Factorio 0.13.X :
Please now use the portal for downloads (see link above or use ingame mod install/update), as I won't update both downloads links here anymore.

[StarFox31]

This is a cool idea. I will have to test it out once I finish my current game.

[binbinhfr]

Thanks. If you want to try an already defined challenge, I already uploaded 2 challenge examples in "Map and sceanrio" section of the forum. Have fun.

[binbinhfr]

working on update to 0.13 , should be ok wednesday evening.

[imajor]

This is an absolutely great idea. I really hope to see people posting their results!

[binbinhfr]

alas, there were not many returns, even if quite a lot of people seems to have download it and use it. I guess people play with it alone, in a blitz style...

[mbattjes@gmail.com]

When clicking the furnace or electric pole in the Edit menu, i get this error which throws me out of the game: Error while running the event handler: Challenge/control.lua:1247: Gui element with name chlg_flow_sel_200 already present in the parent element.
Happens on both 13.0 and 13.1

I'm a total noob when it comes to Factorio modding, so forgive my lack of knowledge, but i found that selector.entities in line 1242 was linking to game.item_prototypes in line 1245

(similarly selector.units is linking to game.entity_prototypes but i think that is correct)

So i changed game.item_prototypes to game.entity_prototypes.
Now i get an error related to entry.place_result in that same block of code. So i removed that part

Finally the game shows me a more usable error: Error while running the event handler: __Challenge__/control.lua:1249: Unknown style chlg_icon_curved-rail
I don't think curved rail can be crafted anymore so that might be the issue

[binbinhfr]

Finally the game shows me a more usable error: Error while running the event handler: __Challenge__/control.lua:1249: Unknown style chlg_icon_curved-rail

Hi, thx for your report.
You shouldn't change the control.lua the way you did, it will not help you : this part is just as it should be, the problem comes from something else
But reading this previous line, it seems strange that you have this error about curved-rail that does not exist anymore (I confirm), and which should appera at all... so I wonder if you are trying to load one of the old challenge examples that i posted ? Because they do not work anymore with the 0.13.x changes... Are you also sure that you downloaded the very last 1.0.4 mod version ? And more than that, are you sure not to use a 0.12.x factorio version ??? because these curved rails... My mod should not speak about them at all !!! because they are loaded at the beginning, when factorio is launched, and my mod is scanning factorio data. (or do you have another old mod that contain these rails ?)

Anyway if you create a new map and define your own challenge, it should work (it works when I tested it a few days ago...). But I wil test it again with 0.13.1 tonight.

If your problem persists, try without any other mod than Challenge.
And if still problematic, please send me the map you are trying to load.
I cannot go further without your map... (unless your map was a new empty one...)

As a first try, to avoid the initial error, before I came back home, you can try to change in line 1245, the code this way, moving the % test block inside the next block (do it from my original control.lua 1.0.4):

Code: Select all

			for name, entry in pairs(game.item_prototypes) do
				entry = entry.place_result
				if entry then
				    if i % selector_icons_per_line == 0 then
					   gui3 = gui2.add({type = "flow", name = "chlg_flow_sel_" .. i, direction = "horizontal", style = "chlg_flow_style"})
				    end
					gui3.add({type = "button", name = "chlg_but_enti_" .. name, style = "chlg_icon_" .. name})		
					i = i + 1
				end
			end

[mbattjes@gmail.com]

Thanks for the reply. I was using 13.1 on a new map. I checked some mods and it seems that Bob's mods is causing this error. I checked them all and it seems Bob's Power is the culprit. I have no idea why. It's a small mod, maybe someone with more knowledge than me can figure it out?

[mbattjes@gmail.com]

As a first try, to avoid the initial error, before I came back home, you can try to change in line 1245, the code this way, moving the % test block inside the next block (do it from my original control.lua 1.0.4):

Code: Select all

			for name, entry in pairs(game.item_prototypes) do
				entry = entry.place_result
				if entry then
				    if i % selector_icons_per_line == 0 then
					   gui3 = gui2.add({type = "flow", name = "chlg_flow_sel_" .. i, direction = "horizontal", style = "chlg_flow_style"})
				    end
					gui3.add({type = "button", name = "chlg_but_enti_" .. name, style = "chlg_icon_" .. name})		
					i = i + 1
				end
			end

Your suggestion to change the code works! I get no error now and i can open all of the edit menu's. I don't know if this fixes the conflict with Bob's Power but at least it doesnt crash anymore

[binbinhfr]

Thanks for the reply. I was using 13.1 on a new map. I checked some mods and it seems that Bob's mods is causing this error. I checked them all and it seems Bob's Power is the culprit. I have no idea why. It's a small mod, maybe someone with more knowledge can figure it out?

EDIT: Your suggestion to change the code works! I get no error now and i can open all of the edit menu's

OK, nice to see we solve this one (even if this crash in my mod must come from a problem in 0.13 data, I will check that) .I'll try to verify bob's power.

Anyway, in the next days, I will have to test and possibly redo the 2 challenge maps I already posted.
If you have a map with a new challenge, don't hesitate to post it with your result

[great_goddess_moka]

i cant seem to figure out how to open the challenge menu, i am trying to make a supply like challenge, the portal mod loader isn't working for me so i just downloaded the mod and put the zip file into the game just like i do with my other mods, could someone please help me?

[great_goddess_moka]

okay scratch what i said before, but i sadly cant add more then one objective of the same kind and i cant even really add very many different items in the same objective, when i click a item or icon it freezes and it selects it but i cant add it, plus the fact that i cant even start the challenge at all, i really want to use this mod but i cant use it in its current state, oh and a idea you should add a search bar or a scroll able box as when i open the collect objective i have a few mods that add a lot of items but i cant get them as they are off screen

[binbinhfr]

> but i sadly cant add more then one objective of the same kind

I just tested it on 0.14.19, and I can add any objectives, of the same kind or not.
Press the EDIT button
Then press the ADD button and select an objective type, and change the item and number.
Do this any time you want (press ADD again)

> plus the fact that i cant even start the challenge at all,

when you want to start it, just press EDIT again to exit edit mode, and then press START.

Then close the Challenge window (press CLOSE or the main icon) and play...