[0.17+] Space Exploration WIP

[Earendel]

Progress update:

The closed testing went well. ZombieZilla was quite a hero and found almost all the bugs that were reported.

There was more work to get spaceships ready than expected, largely due to the way that they can potentially interact with other mod features.

As a result I'm a few days behind but it should be ready for an experimental release in a few days.

[369659139]

Check the mod everyday。

[Earendel]

Space Exploration is now publicly available: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/space-exploration

It is still in experimental / alpha status.

[keyhenge]

Quick mod incompatibility report since I use a bunch of mods.

error.PNG (33.47 KiB) Viewed 6466 times

This error happens with:
- All of picker's tools (this family of mods: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/PickerExtended)
- Bulk teleporters (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/bulkteleport)
- Teleporters (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Teleporters)

Without knowing anything about the API, teleporters seem like a hard fix/not on your end, but I don't know why Picker's stuff would be interfering.

EDIT: Also, would using alternate world gen (e.g. https://mods.factorio.com/mod/islands_world) break progression/other planets?

[Earendel]

Quick mod incompatibility report since I use a bunch of mods.

error.PNG

This error happens with:
- All of picker's tools (this family of mods: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/PickerExtended)
- Bulk teleporters (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/bulkteleport)
- Teleporters (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Teleporters)

Without knowing anything about the API, teleporters seem like a hard fix/not on your end, but I don't know why Picker's stuff would be interfering.

Teleportation breaks things because you can move items around, so it breaks the whole planet-to orbit, interplanetary and interstellar separation.
Picker Extended has a lot of stuff bundled together, but includes the ability to copy-paste chest contents, so you can essentially teleport entire storeage warehouses to make a free rocket. You should be able to install the standalone picker features like https://mods.factorio.com/mod/PickerBlueprinter.

EDIT: Also, would using alternate world gen (e.g. https://mods.factorio.com/mod/islands_world) break progression/other planets?

I don't know.

You test you can use this debug command to reveal all zones and immediately unlock the uplink view:
/c remote.call("space-exploration", "debug_set_global", {debug_view_all_zones = true})

If you check a few planets and they're all islands then that's a problem. Let me know either way because if it is a problem I might be able to fix it.

[keyhenge]

I don't know.

You test you can use this debug command to reveal all zones and immediately unlock the uplink view:
/c remote.call("space-exploration", "debug_set_global", {debug_view_all_zones = true})

If you check a few planets and they're all islands then that's a problem. Let me know either way because if it is a problem I might be able to fix it.

After testing it for a bit, it seems Nauvis is generated with islands while the rest use your custom generation. Thanks for the awesome mod!

[orzelek]

I'd recommend that you add incompability with RSO for now. Until I get to redoing the generation to be per surface it won't work properly and leave other planets empty.

[Earendel]

I'd recommend that you add incompability with RSO for now. Until I get to redoing the generation to be per surface it won't work properly and leave other planets empty.

Thanks, it is marked as incompatible for now, just let me know when it's working multi-surface.

[Porter65]

Do you have a roadmap somewhere?

Namely, how will you make the experience different, from planet to another? I know the minerals differ, but still, do you think that's different enough? I was thinking of different aliens species with different behaviors or capabilities. Basically reskinned biters, but with different properties. Some might be blindingly fast , some might fire from a very long distance, some might split into smaller aliens upon death, some might have explosive death. Some might be fighting against each other, etc. Just so that's not always the same thing.

Also, perhaps as you expand outward, you discover new ore types, that are mandatory to expand further outward. Basically like an Anno game where you need to produce the new resource X to reach progress level Y that will allow exploring to discover resource Z that is needed for progress level W.

That said, impressive work! Best modder ever!

[Earendel]

Do you have a roadmap somewhere?

Namely, how will you make the experience different, from planet to another? I know the minerals differ, but still, do you think that's different enough? I was thinking of different aliens species with different behaviors or capabilities. Basically reskinned biters, but with different properties. Some might be blindingly fast , some might fire from a very long distance, some might split into smaller aliens upon death, some might have explosive death. Some might be fighting against each other, etc. Just so that's not always the same thing.

Also, perhaps as you expand outward, you discover new ore types, that are mandatory to expand further outward. Basically like an Anno game where you need to produce the new resource X to reach progress level Y that will allow exploring to discover resource Z that is needed for progress level W.

That said, impressive work! Best modder ever!

I have not posted a roadmap yet, I just need to reformat my todo list but other things keep jumping in first, like fixing bugs.

I had thought about planet specific enemies and I was thinking that you could have fore spitters on lava planets, ice spitters on ice planets, etc. That is the sort of thing that might come out of compatibility patches with things like bobs enemies.

There are things like ruins, abandoned ships, and other secrets to discover planned. Maybe I can also cause some of the stuff from the ruins mod to be on certain planets? There are some planets in the raw universe file specifically flagged as abandoned worlds, they just don't spawn any ruins yet.

I am planning to have more space-specific resources like helium-3, water ice, and methane ice.

I was planning to add fusion power, but it's in a lot of other mods so it might be better for me to focus on compatibility with those.

[Qon]

My experience so far: I installed the mod, loaded my world. Looked at all the chaos for 30 seconds. I closed the map and removed the mod.

No thanks! Not with this ridiculous Robot Attrition mod dependence.

(I know I should start a new map)

I'm considering re-releasing a fixed version of this mod without the mod dependencies and mod incompatibilities so you can choose your mod pack yourself? So that you can use bots and teleporters etc if you want. Depends on if people want this.

[Earendel]

My experience so far: I installed the mod, loaded my world. Looked at all the chaos for 30 seconds. I closed the map and removed the mod.

No thanks! Not with this ridiculous Robot Attrition mod dependence.

(I know I should start a new map)

I'm considering re-releasing a fixed version of this mod without the mod dependencies and mod incompatibilities so you can choose your mod pack yourself? So that you can use bots and teleporters etc if you want. Depends on if people want this.

That person loaded the mod before there was any content in it.

You can't steal my mod, hack it up and re-release it. I've put thousands of hours into it, what is wrong with you? Also, look at the licence.

The mod is currently in an experimental mode where I'm trying to get finish core features before worrying about where teleportation can fit into the tech tree. If you don't like the restrictions then wait until it is out of alpha and then decide if you want to use it.

[Qon]

[Moderated by Koub]

[Porter65]

[Moderated by Koub]

@Earendel
Your outline/road map seems very interesting. I'll definitively follow your progress.

[Qon]

[Moderated by Koub]

[steinio]

From the mod license:

Modification

Restricted.

You may make alterations for you own private personal use only.
You are not allowed to distribute anything altered, or derived from this mod with the following exception:
You may post partial modified sections of this mod in the mod portal discussion section or official forum thread for this mod for the purpose of providing bug fixes or enhancements.

[Moderated by Koub]

[Porter65]

@Earendel: compatibility error with reverse factory, on micro black hold data, recipient item count 0. Dunno if the culprit is your recipe or the other mod.

[Qon]

[Moderated by Koub]

[Earendel]

Thanks for the support everyone.

@Earendel: compatibility error with reverse factory, on micro black hold data, recipient item count 0. Dunno if the culprit is your recipe or the other mod.

My recipe confuses the reverse recipes. I released an update that should have fixed the problem. Maybe the issue has come back because the mod load order changes. Can you just confirm which version of Space Exploration and Reverse Factory you're using?

[Earendel]

[Moderated by Koub]

[Moderated by Koub]

I think you have misjudged me, and what you said did hurt me but I'm going to keep trying to be reasonable here.

You seem to have a problem with the dependencies and incompatibilities so let me explain and clarify a few things.

Alien Biomes is required because they were originally intended to be part of the same mod. They were developed together, Space Exploration exists partially in for the purpose of putting certain biomes into self contained planets. The planets would be mostly meaningless without it. It think that is more than enough reason for it to be a dependency.

AAI Industry is required because the mods were developed together and some common intermediate items. If there are a lot of requests to remove this dependency I can do, but it is additional work and not a priority for me at this time. If someone wanted to help with separating them that would be fine with me.

Bullet Trails is optional. It was not optional before, that was a mistake.

Text Plates is no longer a dependency or even optional, that was only during earlier closed testing when I was leaving messages on spaceship. I don't think you even had access to that version.

Robot Attrition is a dependency because without it all new planet bases and space stations end up being bot bases. A core part of the mod's challenge is the difficulty in getting a space stations and resource efficient planet bases established. If you don't like it the the crash rate is configurable so you can turn the rate right down and not have to worry about it. The important thing about doing that way is that people know they're making the game it easier than intended.

Teleportation is incompatible for the moment. I will be adding compatibility for those mods, but they need to be excluded until I do that. If there is one you'd like me to prioritize, just ask.

Infinite ores are not compatible because it directly conflicts with the planet running out of resource mechanic. Needing to move from planet to planet late game is a core mechanic of the mod. I don't see any other way around this.

Also please remember this mod has only just come out of closed testing and is not complete.

Polite suggestions welcome as always.