MOD [ 0.18.x / 1.1 ] Bio-Industries

[scadl]

Hello, TheSAguy.
I do really like your mod, it add's very useful machines and items, which makes gameplay much more intresting.

But, from first time i've lunched your mod, the sprite of "bio solar farm" are really annoys me. It's obviously taken from game with isometric projection, while factorio uses top-down projection.

Graphic projection types

Graphical_projection_comparison.png (1.51 MiB) Viewed 10023 times

So I decided to make my own sprite for this building. I created it just by placing 4 vanilla solar panels side by side, and toning it in warm green. I don't think you'll like my replacement. But if you decide to include it your upcoming updates, I attach them to this post.

Sprites

Bio_Solar_Farm_On.png (32.53 KiB) Viewed 10023 times

Bio_Solar_Farm_Off.png (26.3 KiB) Viewed 10023 times

Personally, with this sprite, I can finally see the where this solar farm colliders are...

Screenshot ingame

427520_screenshots_20170610210657_1.jpg (542.64 KiB) Viewed 10023 times

[TheSAguy]

Hello, TheSAguy.
I do really like your mod, it add's very useful machines and items, which makes gameplay much more intresting.

But, from first time i've lunched your mod, the sprite of "bio solar farm" are really annoys me. It's obviously taken from game with isometric projection, while factorio uses top-down projection.

Graphic projection types

Graphical_projection_comparison.png

So I decided to make my own sprite for this building. I created it just by placing 4 vanilla solar panels side by side, and toning it in warm green. I don't think you'll like my replacement. But if you decide to include it your upcoming updates, I attach them to this post.

Sprites

Bio_Solar_Farm_On.png

Bio_Solar_Farm_Off.png

Personally, with this sprite, I can finally see the where this solar farm colliders are...

Screenshot ingame

427520_screenshots_20170610210657_1.jpg

Hey Scadl,
A lot of people have complained about the Solar farm graphic, you're the first to give me an option
May a use your graphic? I'll put it in a future release as an option to choose alternative graphic.

Thanks.

[scadl]

A lot of people have complained about the Solar farm graphic, you're the first to give me an option

It's strange. If I write critiques, I usually provide some options or links to the articles, providing better solutions...

May a use your graphic? I'll put it in a future release as an option to choose alternative graphic.

Of course you can. This is why I published it under second spoiler.

On top of that, I also created a little bigger sprites for this building, which will be less pixelatted, if you keep current building size in tiles, but adjust sprite scaling. Her it is

Big sprites

Bio_Solar_Farm_On.png (50.8 KiB) Viewed 9687 times

Bio_Solar_Farm_Off.png (46.06 KiB) Viewed 9687 times

I also created icons for this new building look. They are in zips:

solar-farm_sprite-and-icon_ORIG.zip

(63.81 KiB) Downloaded 169 times

solar-farm_sprite-and-icon_BIG.zip

(95.91 KiB) Downloaded 164 times

[FallenPaladin]

I actually have a request, this is something that my brother and I could use in our game, however I can't find it anywhere. A reverse splitter: meaning it just reverses what is on the belt coming in, back out on the other direction.

http://imgur.com/a/ZpDQs

[scadl]

FallenPaladin, if I understood you right, you could use this part of bob's mods.
I think it does exactly you asking.
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Bobingabout/bobinserters

[tsunami]

Can anybody give a reasonable explanation for a use of a bio cannon? From what I can tell it's a stationary base killer with limited range.

[TheSAguy]

Can anybody give a reasonable explanation for a use of a bio cannon? From what I can tell it's a stationary base killer with limited range.

Hey tsunami, are you Timothy who wrote here on the Mod portal?
I can only tell you how I use it.

I play on pretty hard settings (basically a combination of Death-world / Rail World.) with the following Mods to make things more challenging:
Natural Evolution Mods
Bob's Mods, including Enemies.
Swarm
and Rampant!

When I hit about 60% evolution, I find it extremely difficult to wipe out spawners when there are 4 or more of them. This is when the Bio-Cannon come in to play for me.
I create my wall of turrents and put a Bio cannon or two behind it to wipe out the group of spawners so I can get to that precious resources.

The Bio Cannon is by nature Offensive and not Defensive. It's meant to assist you in creating Rail Resource Outposts.

You could try Additional Turrets Mod, it might have something you're looking for.

I've actually installed it for the first time in my current game, but have not yet used any of his additions.

Hope this helps.

[tsunami]

I don't use biter mods but I do play with biters in the base game turned up. I find my play style is I like a small buffer to get started (RSO for larger buffer time or more space) or just big starting area tends to do the trick. Then let the biters come at me. Usually by the time I am trying to push my base out they are already fighting back pretty hard.

I keep going back and forth on RSO or not because one of the biggest problems I have with it is uncovering a large area quickly causes frame issues especially when using other mods (like Bio Industries and 10 others), and RSO actually spreads everything out so far that even at 1 minute min/max expansion speed the biters take hours to reach me and of course finding resources is like playing Russian Roulette. But playing without RSO means even at very low settings you have to find that map seed with less than 20 patches of ores in the start area just so you have a place to start building and doesn't have 75% of your start area blocked by water to prevent resources spawning. Water is less of a problem thanks to landfill in the base game but if you cant get stone then its still an issue.

It's just me being picky. I'll just turn the bio cannon off and find use the other cannon mod I have for dealing with the biter nests since robots can place them down and pick them up. I like the bio cannon it's just the range felt too vulnerable for me. The way you described it I tried in a sandbox world and it worked wonders though so I get its use now. I just don't use insane biter mods so no need for me, sorry. I prefer what little sanity I have left.

[Light]

When loading any save that formerly had the bio cannon enabled, but was toggled off since then, this keeps popping up:



I have the bio-cannon disabled since I use the Additional Turrets mod, but most saves were made before the toggle was added. I'm rather tired of constantly switching it on and off when going through many save states.

[TheSAguy]

When loading any save that formerly had the bio cannon enabled, but was toggled off since then, this keeps popping up:



I have the bio-cannon disabled since I use the Additional Turrets mod, but most saves were made before the toggle was added. I'm rather tired of constantly switching it on and off when going through many save states.

Light,
Could you please delete the file: "\Bio_Industries\migrations\Bio_Industries_1.6.0.lua" and let me know if the error still happens?
Thanks for the report.

[Light]

When loading any save that formerly had the bio cannon enabled, but was toggled off since then, this keeps popping up:



I have the bio-cannon disabled since I use the Additional Turrets mod, but most saves were made before the toggle was added. I'm rather tired of constantly switching it on and off when going through many save states.

Light,
Could you please delete the file: "\Bio_Industries\migrations\Bio_Industries_1.6.0.lua" and let me know if the error still happens?
Thanks for the report.

Deleting both the 1.6.0 and the 1.6.1 migration files allowed it to function properly.
Thank you.

[TheSAguy]

Deleting both the 1.6.0 and the 1.6.1 migration files allowed it to function properly.
Thank you.

Thanks, I'll have it fixed in the next release.

[Veni]

As a bioengineer I am a big fan of the mod concept, but I am finding it impossible to justify using biofuels over solar. Particularly with the power of the solar collectors you added. I can't see a design to gain non-trivial net energy. For the most part I have just been using this mod for planting hundreds of trees to control pollution.

Would you be available to talk about the stoichiometry, yields, and rates of the biofuel/solar stuff? I have my degree in this and could help you make it pretty realistic and more useful.

[TheSAguy]

As a bioengineer I am a big fan of the mod concept, but I am finding it impossible to justify using biofuels over solar. Particularly with the power of the solar collectors you added. I can't see a design to gain non-trivial net energy. For the most part I have just been using this mod for planting hundreds of trees to control pollution.

Would you be available to talk about the stoichiometry, yields, and rates of the biofuel/solar stuff? I have my degree in this and could help you make it pretty realistic and more useful.

Thanks Veni,
I'd appreciate your feedback on the bio fuel balancing.
As for solar, I'm really not changing any thing there from base, just condensing it.

I'm totally open to change/add recipes also. Or add new products.

Let me know.

[Veni]

I started by calculating out the costs to run through recipes and process the fuel. I didn't finish because I hit problems
Fuel Net Energy (boilers operate at 50% efficiency)
40x Raw Wood ~50 MJ up to 75 MJ if converted to coke
75x Raw Wood -Net loss relative to 40x raw wood. It takes 5 wood and over 35 MJ of fuel to make the fertilizer. It does make energy faster but the extra land for the infrastructure makes it less efficient.
150x Raw Wood -The addition of sulfuric acid and wood pulp almost doubles the cost of the fertilizer, but this is probably worth it. its 11x faster than the 40x level. Probably ~ 2-3x after costs.
-You are using stone, iron, and oil at this point in a non-renewable manner.

At this point I had a set of recommendations:

I would drop the following resources. They add complexity without rational benefit.
Wood pulp. (Ends up being an exploit. You can turn wood into wood pulp to double the energy value)
Nitrogen, CO, (Just use air)
Cokecoal, Charcoal. (just use coal for the other two. You could add a coke research to give trains a flat acceleration bonus.)
Cellulose ( I would swap to an algae & Syngas based biofuel approach).



Make saplings a 0-2 reward for cutting down trees. Also a by product of the tree farming. Maybe remove turning dry wood into living trees.

Add a High Efficiency Boiler that heats water to 250*C. Just recolor a normal boiler. It should have 80% efficiency and produce 66% of the pollution of a normal boiler. The tech should be after concrete and advanced material processing and should also unlock steam turbines.
Ingredients = Boiler + 5 concrete + 5 steel

Large numbers are difficult in recipes. I would move some aspects around.
For example with the greenhouses. Use saplings to build them and change the production. So tier one production would make 4 wood and 2 saplings every 30 seconds from 1 sapling and 100 water. Tier two would be 1 fertilizer, 500 water, and 1 sapling to make 20 wood and 2 saplings in 30 seconds. Tier three would be 1 advanced fertilizer 500 water and 1 sapling to make 60 wood in 60 seconds. Doesn't have to be this; but a little fertilizer goes a huge distance in hydroponics. IRL most solutions are 1 drop fertilizer in 1 bottle of water or so.

I will discuss the biomass/algae/syngas stuff in another post. The lower tech end is beginning to wear me out. (I have some health issues)

[FallenPaladin]

I'm having issues with MOD mismatch on "Linux" server vs "windows" client. The "windows" sever to "windows" client does work however.

Linux:

0.382 Loading mod base 0.15.26 (data.lua)
0.657 Loading mod Bio_Industries 1.7.1 (data.lua)
0.710 Script technology-functions.lua:98: Technology bi-advanced-biotechnology does not exist.
0.711 Script technology-functions.lua:98: Technology bi-advanced-biotechnology does not exist.
0.711 Script technology-functions.lua:98: Technology bi-advanced-biotechnology does not exist.
0.711 Script technology-functions.lua:98: Technology bi-advanced-biotechnology does not exist.
0.711 Script technology-functions.lua:98: Technology bi-advanced-biotechnology does not exist.
0.711 Script technology-functions.lua:98: Technology bi-advanced-biotechnology does not exist.
0.711 Script technology-functions.lua:98: Technology bi-advanced-biotechnology does not exist.
0.756 Loading mod base 0.15.26 (data-updates.lua)
0.801 Loading mod Bio_Industries 1.7.1 (data-updates.lua)
0.850 Loading mod Bio_Industries 1.7.1 (data-final-fixes.lua)

[TheSAguy]

I'm having issues with MOD mismatch on server vs client...

I'm not sure what that means...
Can you try and delete your mod and re-download it?

[FallenPaladin]

I've already tried, I updated the previous info. But you never know, I just rebooted the "Linux" server, maybe that might fix the issue.

Update: Reboot didn't fix the issue.

Update: Redownload the mod again to both the "Windows" client and "Linux" server, same file copied to both (still same error). "Windows" server to "Windows" client no problem thou...

[TheSAguy]

I've already tried, I updated the previous info. But you never know, I just rebooted the "Linux" server, maybe that might fix the issue.

Update: Reboot didn't fix the issue.

Update: Redownload the mod again to both the "Windows" client and "Linux" server, same file copied to both (still same error). "Windows" server to "Windows" client no problem thou...

Anyone else experiencing this issue?

[FallenPaladin]

Update: Figured it out.

When I downloaded the file from the site, I also erased the mod_settings.json. Upon doing so it went back to default settings on the "Linux" headless server, which the clients were not matched up with on the settings. So every time, no matter how many times, I download the file the settings for the mods "contents" would not match up. If your are going to run a "Linux" headless server, go into the mod_settings.json file with a simple txt editor and change the values to either (true) or (false) so you can match your client settings.

Under: Options---> Mods---> Startup Tab {For those who don't know}


SO, a reminder to anyone and everyone make sure that your settings in the mod, match up with your servers and clients or you will get the same error.