Time acceleration

[Alien_Squasher]

So you know how time acceleration works in KSP? I'd like to see something similar for factorio, where accelerated time it's counted in real play time as well. I do this with creative mode currently so it doesn't disable the achievements, but what's wrong with time acceleration? Time acceleration would make Factorio wayyyy less tedious at times, like when you're walking a billion miles inbetween your first coal miners and your iron smelters before you build a belt betwen them.

This would make the game so much better.

[impetus maximus]

KSP?

[Koub]

Kerbal Space Program

[impetus maximus]

Kerbal Space Program

danke. i wish people would stop using acronyms for typing something once.
if you are going to refer to something 10+ times in a post fine, but at least spell it out once.

sorry for the rant. carry on.

[featherwinglove]

+1 for the suggestion

One day, several months after I had purchased Kerbal Space Program, I was walking along (I mean literally along Saskatchewan Drive in Regina) when I found the real KSP.

[Koub]

Like in https://mods.factorio.com/mods/binbinhfr/TimeTools ?

[featherwinglove]

Yes, exactly. The intent, at least, since I've never got the mod to work to my satisfaction. (I suspect it's because my GUI stuff is overloaded. Thanks in advance for fixing the GUI stuff.)

[JohnyDL]

the ability to speed or slow the clock on vanilla servers without commands (i.e. to preserve achievements) to allow sped up early game or slightly slowed late game (to stabilise multiplayer latency issues) would be awesome

[Alien_Squasher]

Like in https://mods.factorio.com/mods/binbinhfr/TimeTools ?

My suggestion is: The Factorio Devs implement this as their own idea, maybe some mod influence, but base it off of the gamespeed command. Because in and of itself, using the gamespeed command isn't cheaty, nothing changes how the game plays. Add in a nice looking GUI if you want, but the fact of the matter is, the #1 reason why I always end up abandoning factories early game or mid game is because I don't have enough time to really play the game. And for the non lua console users a nice time acceleration GUI based on the gamespeed command would be a major bonus to the game because then no more waiting for half an hour for the oil train to show up so you can crank out the plastic you need to craft advanced circuits to make the processors you need for your fusion reactor, which prevents this https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... armour_but

[Koub]

The fact I linked a mod in this topic is due to 2 things :
- First, so that people who want a time control bar know that at least there is already a mod, which is handy.
- Second so that they see the mod as a proof of concept, and discuss if that's the way they want the time bar to work (or if it has flaws that should be corrected if aded to vanilla).

I personnally think a way to control the speed of ingame time vs IRL time is a must have for most real time games (at least where testing the player's reflexes is not the main challenge of the game as in car race games). So I'm totally supporting the suggestion.

[Rseding91]

If you're ever waiting for things in the game then you're playing the game wrong: the entire point is to automate everything you're waiting on such that you don't ever have to wait for it. If something is taking too long - you build more so it doesn't take as long.

That being said: you can always use mods if you don't want to play the game the way it was intended.

[Koub]

Actually, I mostly need time accel before the fusion reactor, and its ability to power a few exoskeletons in a power armor Mk I/II.
Because running around can take quite some time, and after you've got used to your running speed, and start a new game, you feel you're crawling like a slug. Accelerating running speed while keeping time flow constant would be cheaty, but accelerating time so that you (player) lose less time running forth and back feels OK to me.

[quyxkh]

What, no love for the dune buggy?

[Koub]

When your map is spaghetti, or before you discover the tech, you can't use the buggy.
There is also the case of people with megabases who wish to divide gamespeed by 2 to get steady 30 UPS instead of stuttering between 30 and 60.

[Terukio]

I do not believe that there should be time acceleration in this game. Like the dev said, if you're waiting for something, just build bigger.

In my opinion, the dune buggy comes early enough in the game that your base is not massively spread apart...even if it is the buggy moves super quick. If your base happens to be a bowl of spaghetti, then you could clear a road for your buggy and lay down some stone brick so you know you wont hit a tree or a building.

Game working as intended.

EDIT: Going to the mega base reply, carry a buggy with you so that when you exit your train that got you from one point to another you can still move rather quickly. Yes the game does slow down with a mega base, but if you're building a mega base chances are you have mastered the game and got all the achievements already, so modding is a non-issue.

[JohnyDL]

I tend to disagree, a little Time acceleration doesn't hurt sometimes, it's all very well saying "well automate it and do more" but

If you've tapped and are using all the resources available and focusing all those resources where you want them and are still waiting on more turrets to be made to expand your base that sucks

Having a second silo doesn't help your rocket complete any faster no matter how many rocket parts you're making

Sometimes there are tedious bits of the game even while you are doing something, namely tree chopping early game

And the benefits of time deceleration in MP and other places are well known and using commands or mods to change the value ruins achievement run Multiplayer maps

There are times in this game that time tricks would be worth it

[Alien_Squasher]

If you're ever waiting for things in the game then you're playing the game wrong: the entire point is to automate everything you're waiting on such that you don't ever have to wait for it. If something is taking too long - you build more so it doesn't take as long.

That being said: you can always use mods if you don't want to play the game the way it was intended.

So how do you suggest that you get past that initial resource crunch? Or the subsequent waiting for research? It's not like you can just crank out 200 labs worth of science early or midgame. Even if you follow the ratios 100%, of the time as exactly as possible you still have to wait for at least 1-3 hours for research. So there's still a reason for time acceleration. Also note that not everyone is a factorio dev or someone who pays attention to ratios. Sphahetti cluter****s can be a lot of fun and an interesting challenge and change form the time tested main bus method.

[Zavian]

You can start building whatever you will need next and/or expand some of your existing production. In a typical factory there is almost always something useful you can expand or otherwise build. (Ok. If you are just playing until you launch a rocket or accomplish some other task, then towards the end you might decide that you don't need/can't be bothered to expand the factory further, but even then the only reason I can see someone needing to wait 1-3 hours for research before the end game infinite research is because they didn't build big enough. Even at only 45 packs/min 1000 research for a rocket silo is only 22 mins. And you can spend those 22 minute laying out your production of rocket parts.

Besides how would your cpu cope trying to run 600 updates/second if you tried to do even x10 time acceleration? KSP can do it because during warp there is no physics calculated, and orbits at any time in the future can be determined precisely from the known starting conditions.

[JohnyDL]

I don't think full on 1000x or more acceleration is necessary, just 2x would be fine, put it this way if I have an hour to play and I set myself a goal I'd want every advantage I could get to have the most out of my time for that goal. I don't want to have to be distracted doing something else during that time. Say I want to set up a mining outpost and a train for it I can do that in an hour, but if I'm waiting on something maybe a few dozen mining drills and I have to waste my time doing something else and decide upgrading a few lines of bus might be a 'good' use of my time, and end up getting carried away doing that using 20 of my limited minutes doing that for no immediate benefit and now can't complete the setting up mine target. I'd feel like I got nothing done, in spite of making some progress I feel like I wasted my free time not doing what I planned to do.

It's not that the bus didn't need updating or that I'm actually worse off or that I couldn't do that job next time or start now and finish next time, all those things are possible but I having a small plan foiled by being made to wait a minutes that could have been gotten back with a little acceleration is annoying.

Same situation but there's time acceleration available I go to 2x speed and instead of being bored waiting for 10 minutes and getting distracted for 20 I can wait for 5 and grab a coke while I wait, watching what I'm waiting for tick up, then I run over to the location and whoa too fast I can't work at this speed and acceleration at 1x again, I set up the mine and the train and ride it back with 2x acceleration and having completed the goal for today I start on the task of upgrading the bus. I actually end up getting the same amount of bus built but it's just a way of using up the last of my time with a never ending job. At the end rather than feeling frustrated at a lack of progress and that next time I can't start on my next target instead I'm actually happy I've done my plan and a little more and next time I can work on something else.

[Alien_Squasher]

You can start building whatever you will need next and/or expand some of your existing production. In a typical factory there is almost always something useful you can expand or otherwise build. (Ok. If you are just playing until you launch a rocket or accomplish some other task, then towards the end you might decide that you don't need/can't be bothered to expand the factory further, but even then the only reason I can see someone needing to wait 1-3 hours for research before the end game infinite research is because they didn't build big enough. Even at only 45 packs/min 1000 research for a rocket silo is only 22 mins. And you can spend those 22 minute laying out your production of rocket parts.

Besides how would your cpu cope trying to run 600 updates/second if you tried to do even x10 time acceleration? KSP can do it because during warp there is no physics calculated, and orbits at any time in the future can be determined precisely from the known starting conditions.

First of all, constant building and expanding isn't logistically possible, Early games you have belts with an item throughput of 13.33 items/sec, pretty low. So trying to build miners to mine iron to make miners to mine copper to make more miners to mine more iron to make turrets to defend your walls so you can build more miners to mine more iron to make ammo. Even basic defense requires a fair bit of waiting for things to pick up. Even if you crank out 45 science packs a second (that if you're going with red science, is 5*45 assembly machines, which is the astronomical 225 assembly machines for ONE TYPE OF SCIENCE, on a belt that only has a throughput of 13.33 items/second, or if you wanna go with something more expensive which is 26.667 items a second for fast belts it's still gonna take 2 lanes to fit that all on there, and if you're using all science types then that's a nightmare.) So the age old phrase "Build it bigger" runs into that. Then there's the biters, so what happens when you're waiting to research the bullet damage so you don't get royally screwed by the biters at first so you can follow the plan of build it bigger? You're going to wait. So while yes, build it bigger works, very well, time warp would still be very useful.


Also I don't know why you guys are against this, it literally would not change anything about the game. It would just make the grindy bits less grindy. But apparently either A) you argue for the sake of arguing, or B) you're one of the people who plays Elite Dangerous and thinks all games should be super grindy.

Also, about updates, my PC handles x40 time accel no problem with the gamespeed command.

Finally, if you are for whatever reason opposed to time accel then just make the gamespeed command not a cheat, and make it not disable achievements so I can actually get past midgame.