Friday Facts #283 - Prepare to Launch

[Klonan]

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-283

[Optera]

trololo

Edit: ah there it is.

[Gergely]

Allow me to observe a phenomenon called "hype".

It's likely happening. It's this week unless something unexpected happens!

[arrow in my gluteus]

As you can see, there are a lot of things happening at the last moment, but it seems that there shouldn't be a big obstacle in the way of release next week.

What about the 65 unassigned bug reports?

[mrvn]

Damn, there go my alien belt traps.

[Durabys]

Biters getting stuck on belts

The strategy to put belts in the path of bitters to upgrade defense is a nice piece of emergent gameplay, but we noticed, that it tends to be little bit too strong. It was discovered, that biters have a small bug in their code, that affects their movement by belts way much more than it should.

So posila went ahead and fixed that, and now, biters are still affected by belts, but it doesn't completely bug them anymore. How did we not notice it for like 2 years?

Hahaha. One Nerf that I can get behind. Getting onto MP maps and seeing this belt fugglyness everywhere was annoying.

[Optera]

I'm a little sad about loosing belt biter traps. Having them derp out and ride belt circles was hilarious.

[Aoz]

Everything looks amazing! Can't wait! Also really interested by the biter changes that have been going on.

The rocket silo looks gorgeous, but I wonder why the lights stop flashing once the silo begins to rise. You'd think they'd keep going until it launched, no?

[maxerature]

Did I hear "next week?"

I can't wait!

[BHakluyt]

Awesome stuff guys! And the new rocket silo looks cool. How about a rough time and date for 0.17 so that I don't have to check your site 50 times a day every day for the next week please?

[raiguard]

Does the new fluid algo really have enough problems to warrant delaying it? IMHO, since it's an experimental release, not everything has to be perfect right away. Why not let us devoted players rip it apart and find absolutely every edge-case that doesn't work for you? Sorry I just really want the new algo

Anyway, those CHESTS! I am in love. Chests were one of the few remaining "super-common entities" that still hadn't been updated to hi-res. And the new rocket silo... if I wasn't already drooling, that made me do it.

Looking forward to 0.17 next week! The factory grows.

[Ghoulish]

Can't wait, to have all these new shinnies to play with that you've been teasing us with for months!

[Monara]

I hope the fluid algorithm problems are still solvable.

The new rocket silo looks good, but it would be even better if the lights kept flashing all the time (and maybe a bit slower, to feel more "heavy"). Also the abrupt linear upwards movement and stopping of the rocket looks a bit fake, like it doesn't have any weight. Would it be possible to make it start rising slowly, pick up speed, and then slow back down into its final position? The same goes for the doors.

[darq]

Very cool design!
About the color of Infinity chest, I think that pink color was excellent to recognize when seeing from afar.

[Amarula]

Really happy about everything in today's post. A huge thank you to Bilka, having the wiki up-to-date right away is going to be a huge time-saver for me, while keeping the 0.16 available in the stable branch. So excited for launch next week!

[BlueTemplar]

I'm a little sad about loosing belt biter traps. Having them derp out and ride belt circles was hilarious.

Indeed :

[Stefa168]

Can't wait for the release!
(and for the new fluid algorithm )

[nucleargen]

need some vacation for next week... whole week

[voddan]

The new graphics looks awesome, thank you for the effort put in!

One object that sticks out thou is the character itself. It seems that the new resolution is not enough to convince the eye of the fine details. This is made worse by the fact that the character is always in the center of the screen, so I spend more time looking on it than any other entity in the game.

Do you think it would be possible to increase resolution for the character while keeping everything else as it is now? Could your graphic engine support that?

[JCav]

As you can see, there are a lot of things happening at the last moment, but it seems that there shouldn't be a big obstacle in the way of release next week.

What about the 65 unassigned bug reports?

I'm sure they're VERY thankful that you mentioned bug reports. I suspect they're so unfamiliar with releasing a successful game which has hundreds of thousands of sales, that they completely overlooked the concept of 'bug reports.'

Perhaps they're looking for an office manager?