Build Colony in Late-game by Adding Airplane

[Bi11]

TL;DR

With an airplane, player can setup a new colony far away from the origin in late game.

What ?

In late game, expanding by building rails and place miners are boring and painful. Building a colony in a much rich place far away from origin is more efficient.
It plays like a new game with rich resource + death world + all tech on. Player can play in the same map by building a colony, and spend more hours before get bored again.

(Yes, it is game.player.teleport, but teleport is not fun.)

My idea is adding an airplane:
Airplane can travel at 1000km/h.
Airplane can only take off from or land on a runway / airport.
Airplane can forced-land on any plane surface where has no lakes, trees, enemies or any buildings.
Airplane can forced-land by user request or when it is out of fuel. But still requires a runway to take off.
Airplane can circle around a chart tag location.
Airplane can airdrop items during circling for emergency supply.
Airplane can airdrop bombs during circling to destroy enemies and trees.
Player can jump out of airplane with parachute during circling.
Airplane has a small cargo grid.
Airplane will be attacked if it is flying at low altitude, e.g., during landing, long time circling.
Airplane can be scheduled to travel between airports, and airdrop items at a chart tag location.
Chunks underneath the airline are NOT generated.
Only one type of airplane is sufficient.


So, to build a colony:
1. Send an airplane to a chart tag location far away, to detect terrain and resources.
2. Send an airplane to bomb all enemies and trees at the selected location.
3. Take on the airplane and fly to the new location.
4. Jump out of the airplane with parachute at new location. Airplane leaves and returns to base.
5. Start building the new base.
6. Call airplane to airdrop emergency supplies if necessary.
7. Player can get back to airplane after an new airport is built.

Why ?

I found some mod that are already have aircraft. But my idea is improving late game experience only, without interfering early game and mid game.
So, my airplane is designed to travel fast and far away, but not for transportation or killing.

Airplane may be also useful if new terrain in 0.16 contains mountains and oceans.

This also makes building mega factory more easier without mods.

[Jap2.0]

I don't get the don't generate chunks thing. I get what you mean about how it would save CPU, but how would you know where there are good amounts of resources or, more importantly, if you can land somewhere (eg. if there are trees in the way)?

[plazmicflame]

One of your points states that a plane can only "take off and land from a runway"... so if you don't have a runway built, you can't go anywhere.

I get the pain of what you're saying, I'm dealing with this now on one of my maps but I think people need to rely less on using a radar which reveals so much map and bogs down your CPU. My gameplay style now is to pick one direction (North, South, East or West) and just head in that one direction to find richer resources.

[Bi11]

One of your points states that a plane can only "take off and land from a runway"... so if you don't have a runway built, you can't go anywhere.

I get the pain of what you're saying, I'm dealing with this now on one of my maps but I think people need to rely less on using a radar which reveals so much map and bogs down your CPU. My gameplay style now is to pick one direction (North, South, East or West) and just head in that one direction to find richer resources.

I don't want to change early game or mid game experience. I'd like the airplane technical can be used efficiently only in late game.
I also like to add some weight limit to the cargo, e.g., you can not carry an airport or a nuclear reactor into an airplane. This makes it more challenge to get back.

After heading north by railway for about 10.000 tiles, I still can't endure it. I finally teleported my self to 100.000 tiles away.

[Bi11]

I don't get the don't generate chunks thing. I get what you mean about how it would save CPU, but how would you know where there are good amounts of resources or, more importantly, if you can land somewhere (eg. if there are trees in the way)?

You can send a airplane to fly in circles around a target to do the observation, like a surveillance aircraft. The chunks beneath the target will be generated (and will be kept for a few minutes at least).
What I mean is that the chunks between target and starting point are not generated, although an airplane flies over it.
1. Airplanes are fast, they will fly over a lot of chunks in a short time.
2. Airline route is not important. Underneath chunks are not important.
3. Assume the flight cruise at a high altitude (in stratosphere), so we can't see the surface clearly.

[Factoruser]

Well, some kind of multicopter would work... but the question is: for what ? The world of factorio is almost homogenous. Some sand desert patches and wood, but in principle just a carpet of resources and alien colonies.

What might be somehow useful/funny could be a "build train", that blasts away aliens and builds railways - what could be also done with turret- and roboport wagons... Unless you'd make gigantic deposits in distant regions, you don't have to expand very far.