Friday Facts #262 - Hello my name is: Compilatron

[Klonan]

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-262

[Koub]

It reminds me of Claptrap XD

[Edit] I forgot to tell the most important : I think the idea is brilliant. As always, whatever many suggestions we make, the devs always manage to surprise me the right way with either an idea if their own, or a twist on the community's suggestions they choose to implement.

[Drury]

Hopefully less annoying though

[Skeletpiece]

[Reika]

Please tell me the robot assistant is only in the tutorial campaign, or has an option to disable it. I do not want a Factorio version of Clippit/Clippy/whatever the name of that awful waste of space and attention is.

[Proxy]

the robot looks like a Minecraft sheep with the face of basically anything in Enter the Gungeon

like seriously, it's just this face



combined with this body



and it's amazing.

also i noticed the red assembler... tier 4 assemblers?
new stuff? maybe finally water platforms repalcing landfill?

lastly, Hi my name is...

[eradicator]

It reminds me of Claptrap XD

And Ninja-Claptrap! ;). Easily one of the best characters in Borderlands. But writing a good "funny sidekick" is not an easy job at all.

Allow accessing Lua scripts by __MOD-NAME__/script.lua style path, so you can reference the same Lua scripts from multiple scenarios in one mod.

Does this have any limitations or does it universally apply? I.e. can things like the factorio-stdlib now suddenly be used without requiring every mod that wants to use it to copy all the files? Can my mod now magically "local tools = require __boblibrary__/tools.lua? If yes this is a pretty hefty paradigm change, and a very welcome one.

[ratchetfreak]

this gives me an idea for a assitant mod where you can send compilatron and access buildings through him

though it's going to be tricky regarding inventory and only letting his inventory (if any) interact with the buildings.

[victhor003]

FINALLY AAI Mod will have a proper AI and will be able to open gates!!! Just amazing =D
Also you are doing a great job with the update so far guys, Keep up!

[someone1337]

This sounds awesome.

Could you make it a slow and stupid helper unit, that you can for example tell to "stand here and slowly mine that coal and bring it to a building", and/or make it a slow construction-bot

[Matthias_Wlkp]

Biter campaign confirmed!

[Amarula]

Please tell me the robot assistant is only in the tutorial campaign, or has an option to disable it.

Compilatron will be great for the tutorial! (like the companion cube in portal squee)

I would suggest it be turned off by default in regular gameplay, with an option to turn it on when the player needs it.

[torham]

Jesus Christ, not another annoying critter to tell me what to do! I absolutely detest the helper bot in Fortresscraft, and is the main reason why I do not play that game. Now you say you want to bring that stupid thing into Factorio???KHBN Y!E*(&YIUASHDJKXCNJAYHD(*&"£

[fendy3002]

Please tell me the robot assistant is only in the tutorial campaign, or has an option to disable it.

Compilatron will be great for the tutorial! (like the companion cube in portal squee)

I would suggest it be turned off by default in regular gameplay, with an option to turn it on when the player needs it.

Then devs will need to maintain 2 version of message popup, 1 said by compilatron and another for non-compilatron mode.

Not that I disagree with the option though. I think maybe compilatron at later stage can prefer some usability (like able to put charging station for power armor or defense laser or extra inventory).

[Klonan]

Please tell me the robot assistant is only in the tutorial campaign, or has an option to disable it. I do not want a Factorio version of Clippit/Clippy/whatever the name of that awful waste of space and attention is.

Yes it will be Campaign/Tutorial only

[tk0421]

A red factory?

[CzBuCHi]

Nice, but first two questings that pop in my head are:
1) What happend when player shot at compilatron? (will shot back or just politely send player somewhere?)
2) What happend when compilatron have close encounter with train?

[H8UL]

Cute! This makes me want to go back and play the tutorial and campaign when it comes out

[quyxkh]

Just tell me there'll be a way to make Compilatron angry. Kill one, another appears? But only on April 1?

[Omnifarious]

I think this is nifty, and a really great solution to a bunch of tutorial mode problems.

My main worry is that it will take away from the lonely castaway feeling of the game. And it's only a worry, a point of concern. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it, just that you should consider this change by applying a few different lenses to how you view the game and possibly adjusting accordingly.

As I said, it really helps out with making the tutorial missions be a lot more cohesive and sensible. And I can also see how Compilatron might work as an early game robot who is both useful, and so painful to use that construction robots are still a big win. Having something else tediously place all the buildings one-by-one, something that is constrained to move on land, is almost as bad as having to do it yourself.