Friday Facts #187 - Space science & 0.15 graphics

[yoh1612]

So will old saves be compactible with 0.15? Because the new boilers are 2x3

[Kazinski]

YAY, waiting almost over, next tuesda is agonizing day in work while im knowing new wersion just is relased and im not able to play ASAP.

[ihcn]

I'm very excited for most changes here. I'm especially happy to see the turbine, after previous news that the turbine wouldn't be included and we'd just be routing our nuclear-powered steam through the regular steam engines. Although now that I think back, maybe what was cut wasn't the turbine itself, but the "closed loop" turbine?

One thing that worries me is the icons:

There are also many new icon replacements for the old awful things like mining drill, laser turret, rail signals, and more

I agree with most of these, but the old rail signal icons are actually excellent, especially compared to the new rail signal icons in the screenshot. Icons don't have to actually look like the thing they represent, they just need to resemble it so that the player draws a link between the icon and the item in their head. In many cases, it's better to have a simpler, easier to recognize symbol rather than a complicated one. These rail signal icons go too far in the direction of just matching their ingame counterparts imo, and the result will be less clarity.

Other icons I see that I think are a step down in terms of icon clarity are modules (These are the worst offenders!), projectile/laser turrets (the old ones didn't match what they were in game, but they were *very* distinctive/recognizable!), boilers, and electric drills.

The entire UI industry has moved away from skeumorphic design for this exact reason: Simple icons with few colors are much more recognizable than shaded icons with complex shapes and colors. Please consider going in a more simplified direction with icons!

[hoho]

I got sick two days ago. I'm almost certain I'll be healthy again by the release date. This kind of makes me sad

Will there be any new achievements or changes to old ones?

[Justderpingalong]

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN!!!

[nik12111]

I just don't know what to say.
This is so ......

[3trip]

Third icon, Mr fusion?! You Devs are Such a tease!

[izaq]

Best FFF evA! Props to the development team. You guys are awesome.
How long would it usually take for popular mods to get updated for new versions??? Factorio without Long Reach, Rail Layer and ... is kind of painful for me.

[Ghoulish]

Super excited. Can't wait for Tuesday. Awesome!

I really like the graphics of the nuclear stuff, the miners in particular with their slightly wonky design,

[Animar]

Well great, now I can't think of anything else than factorio the whole weekend.
I would love to start a new Factory right now and play wiht all the new shiny stuff untill I have to go to work again.

But at least we have a release date, don't turn back on that. I am going to plan a day off.

[purdueme91]

Goal for today: Invent and build time machine so I can fast forward to Tuesday.

Graphics look awesome. Even just the way circuits and steel sit on the belts looks better. This is the kind of attention to detail that makes this game and by extension, its developers, so awesome.

Tuesday can't come fast enough.

[amirbaki]

OMG I cant wait til 0.15 Tuesday ... the graphics look amazing, though I'm not too sure about this space science thing

[steinio]

Can we reuse the rocket?

[Kelderek]

Even apart from the fact that there is a new version release coming, this has to be one of the best made FFF posts you guys have done. Those graphics look amazing -- give those folks a raise!

I'm curious about the space science. I totally love this idea, I just want to understand it better. Would this be just data transmitted down from the satellite and somehow magically distilled into packs inside the silo? Just thinking ahead for future ideas here, but if that is transmitted data then maybe we could have a separate communication tower or satellite dish that would be needed to receive it If it wasn't transmitted data but is somehow an actual physical science sample (space dust/debris?) then maybe it would be cool to have it land somewhere within a radius range of the silo that launched it (possibly flagged somehow so logistics bots could retrieve it).

It just strikes me as odd that the science packs would show up inside the rocket silo, to my way of thinking it would be cool if they are delivered somewhere else separately (data receiving comm tower or some kind of drop pods).

How would you describe the way that the science packs end up in the silo?

I can wait to give all of this a try next week.

[Steppenwolf]

Man, that one can still experience it! The time until the end of the day is very long! A rethinking will then have to work. Let's see how the scores are changed. How much is then rebuild or is a reboot necessary?

[markjn]

Very awesome. Nuclear power is especially well done. I worked on a nuclear power plant for 6 years, and I like that the whole process is accurate, if--of course--oversimplified and gamified.

I'm excited to play!

[Jesperhk]

Finally!! Great job Factorio team!

[urza99814]

Although the changes look great my first reaction to rocket changes was how SpaceX mod will change. Gl to the developer of that one :p

Can we reuse the rocket?

Just felt like the above comments belong together

I was so excited for 0.15... but this... With all the FFF, all the great constant communication and such, all the awesomeness already delivered... I still did not expect THIS MUCH. This is gonna seriously screw up my plans for next week.... Looks insane, can't wait to play it!!

[Jesperhk]

Third icon, Mr fusion?! You Devs are Such a tease!

Pretty sure that's just Alien technology? if we are talking about the same thing..

[cpy]

MEGA HYPEUUUU!