What mods are you using - and why?

[Ackos]

My games have been heavily modded for a long time. Some must haves:
Afraid of the dark
Alien biomes
angels
bobs
beautiful bridge railway (i hate landfill)
day night extender (I dont like the short day/night cycle)
evogui
fnei
farl
ltn
nanobots
no hand crafting or fast lazy bastard (I HATE Hand crafting!)
nixie tubes
rampant
squeek through
text plates
the fat controller
waitex
yarm

[Italian Cuisine]

Related question, under the "and why?" subject: Do you consider Long Reach to be cheating or quality of life improvement? Situations that could be considered cheating would be

• early-game manual operations
• pre-bot inventory refilling logistics
• biter nest turret creep/fast building of distant defenses

[Adamo]

Personally, I do, which is why I've attached "long reach" functionality to the power armor: better power armor you have, better reach you have.

[LordWampus]

I've picked up a few more useful mods:

Actual Craft Time - Exactly what it says on the tin. And Helmod is too complicated for simple stuff.
Max Rate Calculator - Because Helmod is too complicated for /anything/.
Multi-Product Recipe Details - Puts all the recipe outputs in the description (yay!). Not so useful if you're not AngelBobPy'ing or what-have-you but you do need...
radarplus for rso - ...because when you turn off Bob's you miss the big radar big time.
Todo List - In what universe would this not be useful?

You should go forth and obtain these fine mods asap.
The factory must grow.

[Mmmmmmorten]

Just wanted to drop in and say hi...

so... "HI!"

I still look into this thread and read through all the posts to see if any mods fit what I currently need - or if there is something new I have missed.
Not been so active in here, but have been playing a LOT of Factorio.

Think I have made the most difficult mod choice ever - installed and playing all Pyanodons mods:
Pyanodons Coal Processing
Pyanodons Fusion Energy
Pyanodons HighTech
Pyanodons Industy
Pyanodons Petroleum Handling
Pyanodons Raw Ores

Each of these will add 15-20 new buildings and 100+ recipes. The amount of new ores for start tech level and late game tech level is insane!
I have, as mentioned in earlier posts, played with mods for 9.600 SPPM with both, belt & robo based builds, and completed it.
Also done all Factorio achievements on Steam - and that is with no mods at all!

This is something completely different....

.... and "completely different" required a new set of mods...

First off was RSO - Resource Spawner Overhaul. This I found to be a MUST have for Py mods. It changes how the resources on the map (as in all the ore, tar, oil etc.) spawn on the map. Density, size and tries to avoid overlaps and make better shapes.
I found that you really need to read the information on this mod and tweak the setting. I found a map I liked and used RSO settings to tweak it until I got something I could enjoy.

The other mods that I started with from the beginning was Alien Biomes and Alien Biomes High-Res Terrain. This mod basically change your landscape to Snow, Vlocanic, Crater and variations of dirt, sand and grass. It does add a lot of stones that can be a pain to remove all from everywhere... But I really like it!

The amount of products made when using Py mods are insane. And I do all the time carry a lot of plates (at least 30+ types) to be able to craft all the buildings needed for Py. So I needed a bigger inventory, but did not really like the mods that give you an insane inventory space (to messy as I have yet to find an Inventory sorting or inventory search mod - anyone?).
I wanted a bit bigger inventory, but with the ability to carry more shit with me.
The solution ended up as two mods with two different purposes.
Backpacks Reloaded gave me three size backpack's that could store a lot more stuff without messing up my main inventory space. At the beginning you can only make the basics, but soon the big one that has a 8x10 inventoy.
Since I can have as many of these as I want (take 1 slot each) I basically have a potential humongous inventory space available.
I currently have 2 medium (red) and 5 big (blue) with me - each for different stuff: inserter, undergrounds and belt in one, buildings in one and mats in one etc.

The other mod I needed was TinyStart. It starts you out with a Tiny tier 0 armor with 20 robots and a mini low-output reactor. I did change the mod startup to load with "Fusion, Solar and extra battery" as I found that best.
Pretty early you can upgrade to TinyArmor lvl 2 - same space but a bit inventory bonus and better armor. Same armor grid space.
I found that I like these 20 hard working robots better than Nanobot's that I usually go with. (To compensate for not having Nanobots and termites - I do throw a LOT of grenades at trees).

Loader Redux gives better loading than inserters and found to be must, so testing this out with Deadlock's Stacking Beltboxes & Compact Loaders.

As usual I go with map with less water and use the Stone Water Well mod for water source. Yes, it's cheating, but really when you play Py - just getting stuff built to progress is time consuming enough. I know how to pipe water from lakes. Done it before, got the badge for it - let's just move on...

For information I use my usual mods: Max Rate Calculator (a lot) together with my usual FNEI. New to my Py build is Multi-Product Recipe Details and What is it really used for? that I found a must with so many more things to be made in so many different ways and different tech levels...

And finally to keep my sanity while playing I had to install ToDo List. Every time I see something that needs to be done, or I look at next item to build and the seemingly endless list of stuff I need to build the ting that I need to build the factory that produce the item I need to build the thing that goes into the other thing that is needed to make the mine for the ore I need for the alloy needed for the original thing I wanted to make.. Yeah.. you get it - Py is complex. The ToDo list keeps me sane and I use it a LOT. Keeps track of what needs doing and the order - and I like to be able to check stuff off as a sign of progress.

100 + hours and still only Red, Green and Mil science. Do not laugh, according to Pyanodon 90% of players starting builds with Py give up before they get to blue science. I would estimate at least 400 - 500 hours to finish, but I might be off with several 100 hours as this is my first test with Py and I spend a lot of time correcting mistakes. (as in having a BUS that is to small - it needs to be 10x normal with huge fluid bus space).

I watch OtakuShowboat building Py while I do it. Fun how we make stuff in different order and with different processes often.. Good for tips and tricks as he knows a lot. Also check out KoS & Aven. Pyanodon has a list of stream here.

I do not have LTN and LTN Tracker enabled yet. Installed, but not in use for the simple reason that I do not yet have trains. Got a BUS train - single line going all along the bus with a TTCCTT setup just to move me on the very long, and still rapidly growing BUS. Have very long belt and pipe runs, but still no trains (got the teck, but not the need yet). When I do (will have to see when I get to research Tech lvl 3) if I need to ship stuff into the bus - then these will go active...

OK, that was my - not so short - update.
Playing Fatorio a lot, but this one will take a loooooong time to finish (hope I will).

Thank's to all for your contributions to this thread. I drop by to find new stuff to use all the time so hope people keep using and updating this.

Have fun playing Factorio!

/old dude

[Mmmmmmorten]

Related question, under the "and why?" subject: Do you consider Long Reach to be cheating or quality of life improvement? Situations that could be considered cheating would be

• early-game manual operations
• pre-bot inventory refilling logistics
• biter nest turret creep/fast building of distant defenses

The "is this mod cheating" question comes up a lot. My though on this topic is:
If you have completed the Factorio Achievements on Steam you have basically completed Factorio to launch multiple times with absolutely no mods installed.
This proves you can do vanilla, basic down to the grit Factorio builds.

We have to remember that Factorio is a game and meant to be fun playing. If a mod makes the game more enjoyable for you then go for it!!

Since I have done all achievements I now play Factorio for fun and challenge and as you will see in my previous post (just above) doing Py mods now and I seriously need any help I can get from any mod that will help me

I do not really think any mod is cheating any more.
Play with or without biters and with as many mods you can get your computer to load - just have FUN!

/old dude

[Inglonias]

The only ones I can remember are these:

• Bottleneck because it is so, so useful. Oh my god is it handy.
• EvoGUI because I don't want to have to type /evolution over and over.
• Infinity Mode for creative mode shenanigans and testing builds. I have never enabled it and then hit save on a game I actually care about. I will occasionally plop down an infinity radar, to plan at the very start of my game, but that's it.
• ChunkyChunks is a mod that means I don't need to bring up the debug wndow to pull up grid lines. Most of the stuff I build is chunk aligned because I'm strange that way. The rail blueprints I use are chunk aligned. My bus is chunk aligned. My boutiques are chunk aligned and take less than half a chunk of space each. All of my things are aligned this way.
• I also have Afraid of the Dark installed, but it is disabled in my most recent game. Honestly, there's not too big a difference for me having it on and off.

[Yes-Man]

• 1000 Sounds : Different sounds for events (like dying etc); also, co-player is the creator, I'm a co-creator .. use it, it rocks! (especially the TRAIN HORN^^)
• Blueprint Flip & Turn : You want your 11to7 balancer flipped/mirrored? Got you covered.
• Bottleneck : It's just a great mod. Never would miss it. Also, color-blind options!
• Factory Planner : A new addition, because Helmod usability is just terrible. Can't do oil though, I think. Probably going back to web tools again.
• My Tree Mod : Aesthetics. I like trees. Fits into the economy.
• Napalm Artillery : Die alien scum! (But stack size reduced to one. Also nerfed a bit using the options.
• Noxys Waterfill : Again, aesthetics. Restoring shore lines including deep water. No defense usage allowed on server.
• Rampant : I like the unprovoked attacks and raids. Keeps the players on their toes. No crazy options though.
• Unlimited Resources (Oil Refresh) : Ore tiles respawn when emptied, oil gets refreshed every so often. Doesn't mess with the yield. Accompanied by appropriate map settings (ie large distances, few resources). Server is about building nice things, not about constantly expanding in order to find new resources.

[Yes-Man]

...
Todo List - In what universe would this not be useful?
...

True.
I always write it onto the map somewhere, using right click. Nice list, including icons^^

Looks something like this (although those are not my entries):

toDo.png (97.06 KiB) Viewed 5184 times

[Deadlock989]

Brief shout-out for Power Grid Comb, one of the most pleasing and stress-relieving mods available.