Is the Steam version of Factorio behind?

[zOldBulldog]

I saw a post in the News forum indicating that Factorio 0.16 came out in mid-December. But when I bought Factorio from Steam (some days ago... mid-March) I got 0.15.40.

Can somebody enlighten me as to why the Steam version is so far behind, whether I can upgrade to 0.16 manually somehow, and whether there are any reasons for "choosing" to stay in 0.15 even if able to upgrade?

Blue skies and clear waters

[Bilka]

0.16 is experimental, so you have to opt-in: Right click factorio -> properties -> betas -> select 0.16.x

[zOldBulldog]

0.16 is experimental, so you have to opt-in: Right click factorio -> properties -> betas -> select 0.16.x

That makes all the sense in the world. I didn't realize there was an experimental branch.

That leads to the questions:

- Is it stable enough by now that it is OK for even a new player to use it?

- When upgrading, do I have to start a new world or does the old one carry over?

- When upgrading, do blueprints carry over?

- I am early enough in my playing that starting a new world would have little impact. Can you think of any reason for me NOT to go to 0.16?

[Bilka]

- Is it stable enough by now that it is OK for even a new player to use it?

Yes, I'd actually call it more stable than 0.15, unless a new update breaks something.

- When upgrading, do I have to start a new world or does the old one carry over?

You can open your old world in the new version, and it will be migrated to the new version.

- When upgrading, do blueprints carry over?

Yes

- I am early enough in my playing that starting a new world would have little impact. Can you think of any reason for me NOT to go to 0.16?

Some things were nerfed in 0.16, but nothing that should impact a new player, so there is no reason to stay on 0.15.

[zOldBulldog]

Awesome!!!

Thank you Bilka.

[eradicator]

Due to changes in terrain generation your map will look nicer if you DO make a new one instead of loading an old map though. Because the parts of your map that have already been generated obviously won't be updated to look like new maps do now. So if you're early enough in your playthrough that might be worth considering. (This is purely optical.)

[zOldBulldog]

Due to changes in terrain generation your map will look nicer if you DO make a new one instead of loading an old map though. Because the parts of your map that have already been generated obviously won't be updated to look like new maps do now. So if you're early enough in your playthrough that might be worth considering. (This is purely optical.)

The timing is perfect for restarting a world:

- I was doing the campaigns and got annoyed when I reached New Hope 3 (barely explored a tiny bit of it). I knew that I could beat it with the fast turret creep approach, but I want to do it "the right way", with oil production and so on. So I stopped there for the time being. This one I can just "continue as is" in 0.16.

- After the New Hope 3 thing, I had started a new world with minimum aliens to learn and experiment. Did so much trial and error that I finished researching all red/green science before doing green circuits or start producing oil. But as expected... I made a major mistake - I laid out my smelting stacks on the side of the bus instead of the start where I think *I* would prefer, but what is worse I messed up some of the layout.

- So I was already in the process of cleaning up my blueprints to start a new world with my preferred layout. I am going to need to do nothing I wasn't already planning to do. I think I was very lucky.


Thanks for the answers and advice.

[Aeternus]

If you do load older worlds, keep in mind that:
- Mods may end up being deactivated if you used any unless you update those mods first.
- Some recipes may have changed, so you may need to tweak your factory. For instance, as I recall the blue research switched the assembler 1 requirement to an electrical miner.
- If you open a REALLY old game (0.14 or older) game, you'll likely have some heavy redesigning to do, especially with the power plants, and your factory may end up on a blackout due to the boilers getting a size change.

[zOldBulldog]

I upgraded. Some features (like the new belt splitters and no need to use underground belt to achieve saturation) I like a lot. Others (like cliffs in their current form- as they *could* be very nice if changed a bit - I dislike, but since it is experimental I am confident that they will improve before the 0.16 release.

[OBXandos]

Cliffs are likely to stay as is in 0.16. It looks like they actually released 0.16 as stable today. I've just been turning them off as I don't feel they offer any meaningful game play.

https://factorio.com/blog/post/016-stable

[zOldBulldog]

Thanks OBXandos, They are frustrating in their current form (they are scattered obstructions instead of being long defensive walls .that would actually be useful), but I am managing. Will definitely look for the option to turn them off in my next game

I also noticed I unlocked a research called cliff explosives. I don’t yet have the materials but I hope I can use them to take out cliffs.