Friday Facts #282 - 0.17 in sight

[Burninator]

"So for 0.17, the water 'frequency' and 'size' sliders are being replaced with 'scale' and 'coverage', which do the same thing, but in a hopefully more obvious way. Larger scale means larger land features, while more coverage means more of the map covered in water."
How about changing coverage to sea level, with a slider going from low to high? That would be pretty clear as to what is happening wouldn't it?

[EnerJi]

Hello! Congratulations on the impending release of 0.17.

I wanted to check in and see whether signed binaries was still the plan for 0.17 (for macOS and Windows?)

See:
viewtopic.php?t=55063

and

viewtopic.php?t=62112

Thanks!

[T-A-R]

Congratulations, A big milestone is coming close:D. I can' t wait for the new recepies to become vanilla: large changes will happen, it feels like there is not much to do in my factories atm, since it will be obsolete soon.

My two cents about the mapgenerator

The new cliff setting are great!

It was a painfull process to realize that you can lose factorio by having bad mapsetting, adjusting the mapgenerator has a ruthless learning curve. Sooner or later i had to give up my factory for a better map setting as a beginner.

The landmasses in 0.16 did not feel satistfying: hard to create different dedicated large isles with large water in between, which gives a map its personal character. The isles shown in the FFF are better a lot.

However i do agree on the linked reddit post. From a defensive point of view the 0.16 mapgen is great. Doing large large walls is an other (more boring) job then choosing and setting up chokepoints, which has more effort for less work. So chokepoints are important map features, and work quite satistfying in 0.16. Combined with some nice cliffs the mapgen really provides as intended from a defensive point of view.

Another important thing about maps is building space. The shatter of the map is not fun too look at, and hard to plan your base, but once you start filling your outlines the shatter actually helps, since land is always near. But since water is so scattered it is actually hard to play without any use of landfill (some call it cheating) on 0.16.

I love seablock for the ability of shaping the map to your hand, vanilla should provide in map-shaping better. (rails, refineries, reactors etc.) Large water bodies provide in that. Even though larger bodies of water need more landfill, they can be filled more creative, since there is no vanilla waterfill (and imho it shouldn't indeed).

Previews are the best help in meeting expectations. Landfill balance might be reconsidered.

Maybe the map generator could help new players by calculating a difficulty level of the map based on resource availability and biter setting?

Could map settings be adjusted during gameplay (like continue playing a map after a update) so you don't have to start over while tweaking your personal flavor?

I love love love the book in book (directory) option. THANKS for implementing as suggested!:D.

[FactorioBlueprints]

Could you share an example of the json inside a 0.17 blueprint? I’d like to get factorioprints.com updated ASAP.

[Bilka]

Could you share an example of the json inside a 0.17 blueprint? I’d like to get factorioprints.com updated ASAP.

Same as 0.16 blueprints. You are the second person asking for this because of the FFF and I still have no idea what makes people think the format has changed.

[Serenity]

From a defensive point of view the 0.16 mapgen is great. Doing large large walls is an other (more boring) job then choosing and setting up chokepoints, which has more effort for less work. So chokepoints are important map features, and work quite satistfying in 0.16.

You could get choke points before too. Large islands connected by land bridges. Now you get land bridges, sure, but those bridges are also practically the only land. Especially as you go out farther. There aren't real islands anymore

[Light]

It nice to see nice real time map generation without having to constantly regenerate new maps. Especially with moisture control for a more custom starting area, which with Alien Biomes required a lot of regenerating to get the desired terrain. (Purples/Reds for a truly alien world)

Looking forward to the end of month release.

[POPISowyNumer]

We're getting new generator for maps, and god bless you all for that.
But this raises some questions too.
Cold biomes when.
Swamp biomes when.
Alium creep biomes when. Especially if they actually do creep and require flammenwerfers to be removed.

Both belts and bugsies need some love too. New tier, or just industrial style chute for bulk transport. More compelling enemies. Any plans for that?

[posila]

Hello! Congratulations on the impending release of 0.17.

I wanted to check in and see whether signed binaries was still the plan for 0.17 (for macOS and Windows?)

See:
viewtopic.php?t=55063

and

viewtopic.php?t=62112

Thanks!

Sorry, no signed binaries yet.

[SWSe]

Love this blog post, looking forward to 0.17.

Also appreciate devs answering here in the middle of the night Have a nice test-and-debug week!

[TigBits]

Mmmmmmyes.

Excellent, thanks.

[TOGoS]

Could map settings be adjusted during gameplay (like continue playing a map after a update) so you don't have to start over while tweaking your personal flavor?

Yep! In 0.17 you'll be able to switch into the editor ("/editor" in the console) and change the surface settings any time. Of course you'll have some overly square features where your previously-generated chunks and the new ones meet.

[roothorick]

Create a map without trees

I've always wondered, when you do this, how do you get your first power pole?

[5thHorseman]

Create a map without trees

I've always wondered, when you do this, how do you get your first power pole?

I suspect maybe logs will still be lying around. Though that makes me wonder... with no trees where would they come from?

EDIT: No I just tried in and at least in 0.16 there is no wood anywhere.

So it seems that without a mod, setting trees to "None" is an insta-lose.

[Tricorius]

A starting island that can be bridged to a mainland (via landfill) sounds good. A starting island with nothing but water around it sounds like a recipe for a factory that dies because it can't get more resources.

I'd like some clarification on which one we're getting.

A starting island with nothing but water around it,
It will be a somewhat 'challenge map', to launch a rocket with only the limited resources the Island provides

This is probably a sucktacular idea...but would it be possible to have rarer “underwater” resource fields pregenerated in some areas that can be “brought to the surface” and made mineable by landfill?

Probably too much work to do at this point, and I’m still not 100% sure if I like the idea. :: shrug ::

[TOGoS]

Create a map without trees

I've always wondered, when you do this, how do you get your first power pole?

I suspect maybe logs will still be lying around. Though that makes me wonder... with no trees where would they come from?

EDIT: No I just tried in and at least in 0.16 there is no wood anywhere.

So it seems that without a mod, setting trees to "None" is an insta-lose.

Some people just hate nature that much.

[WildBraas]

Hi!
Question about the names of railway stations. Do you plan to remove the limit of 50 characters (and 25 unicode omg)?
Because if you use [icons/iron-plates]-type icons in the names, the current length is not enough. By the way, limitless maps, limitless productions and 50 char limit. Come on...

The second question: can I add icons with a GUI choice when the name is being edited? I do not quite understand where you can see the compliance of the icons with their internal names.

Thank you!

[axxiz144]

Thanks for the info. I’m especially excited for the blueprint UX update. I use BPs extensively and so improvements here really improve my quality of life. I love the nesting of books and long name support.

A couple of ideas for making 6his event better:
- a mouse over of the icon shows a preview of the BP.
- a mode of the icon layout that uses a preview of the BP in the icon rather than the 4 sprite box (like how windows shows the icon for images).
- stretch goal: tags! Tagging BPs and searching for tags.

Thanks for all you do

[sutech]

If you speaking about islands… do you add boats/ war ships or water bitters? or you planing it to DLC ?

[GrumpyJoe]

Having to wait 1 year and over 2 months for a release is a bad idea

?
So as soon as 0.16 hit, you were on the edge of your seat, eagerly awaiting 0.17?
You never bothered about the 0.16.x releases? It wasn´t all just bug fixes, just like 0.17.0 will not bring everything they planned at once.

Last few weeks on the forums must have been one big SIGH on the moderator side