What happens after 1.0 release?

[Usul]

Hi!

Sorry if this might have been asked many times before, but I cannot find the answer on the official web site. What does the release of 1.0 or end of Early Access mean in terms of further development? No more updates? No more bugfixes? Or bugfixes yes, but no new features? Or none of the above? Please explain, as this Aug 14th seems to be hyped and marking something, but it's unclear to me what.

Thanks!

[DaveMcW]

The main purpose of the release date is to build marketing hype. All development is frozen so marketing materials can be updated to match the current version of the game.

There are many ideas for new features, so I am sure we will see some updates eventually. It is less clear whether that will be a minor update, an expansion pack, or Factorio 2.

[Usul]

Elaborate on "all developement is frozen" please. This contradicts the next thing you say, about "new features".

[Krazykrl]

Elaborate on "all developement is frozen" please. This contradicts the next thing you say, about "new features".

This means that Factorio isn't going to fundamentally change game concepts. Like changing belts so they now carry 3 items at a time instead of 2. The devs are working on finishing what's in the game already. After 1.0, extra content will be made to improve upon what is already finished in 1.0.

[Koub]

And be sure the devs will communicate when they decide the time has come. All discussion up to that point is just unproductive chatter.

[Mythoss]

And be sure the devs will communicate when they decide the time has come. All discussion up to that point is just unproductive chatter.

Yeah! No one should discuss anything on the forums! Probably easier to moderate that way amirite?

[zombieroboninja]

And be sure the devs will communicate when they decide the time has come. All discussion up to that point is just unproductive chatter.

Yeah! No one should discuss anything on the forums! Probably easier to moderate that way amirite?

i lol'd.

I'm excited for 1.0. It means I can finally start work on my dream 'super duper mega factory' that I've been putting off because I don't want new versions to break my factory. And then I can get really angry when they release 1.1 and break my factory.

[Koub]

And be sure the devs will communicate when they decide the time has come. All discussion up to that point is just unproductive chatter.

Yeah! No one should discuss anything on the forums! Probably easier to moderate that way amirite?

Haha well no that wasn't the idea. First of all, I was talking as the community member-me, not the moderator-me (when I'm moderating, I write in a specific color). And I was just expressing my personal opinion about the fac that any speculation about post 1.0 is just that : pure speculation. The devs haven't even said there could be a post 1.0 yet (even if I do hope so).

[Mythoss]

And be sure the devs will communicate when they decide the time has come. All discussion up to that point is just unproductive chatter.

Yeah! No one should discuss anything on the forums! Probably easier to moderate that way amirite?

Haha well no that wasn't the idea. First of all, I was talking as the community member-me, not the moderator-me (when I'm moderating, I write in a specific color). And I was just expressing my personal opinion about the fac that any speculation about post 1.0 is just that : pure speculation. The devs haven't even said there could be a post 1.0 yet (even if I do hope so).

Gotcha, you gotta admit, "unproductive chatter" might not be the best phrase to use, but I don't think you intended it that way.

[jamiechi1]

Maybe someday there will be a 2.0 version in 3d. Which will be much better than the other Game which will not be named.
Or maybe something completely different.

[Durentis]

Maybe someday there will be a 2.0 version in 3d. Which will be much better than the other Game which will not be named.

Hope not, but who knows.. perhaps it would be great for its own reasons and enough people would love it to justify the time and energy to create it. But 3d isn't always better and I can't imagine any way that 3d would make Factorio better. I mean, is EVE Online strictly better than TW2002?

[Krazykrl]

Maybe someday there will be a 2.0 version in 3d. Which will be much better than the other Game which will not be named.

Hope not, but who knows.. perhaps it would be great for its own reasons and enough people would love it to justify the time and energy to create it. But 3d isn't always better and I can't imagine any way that 3d would make Factorio better. I mean, is EVE Online strictly better than TW2002?

I mean... the only real way that rewriting the entire game for 3d would gain... is depth in the literal sense.

Belts are practically the only linkages anyhow, and building layered spaghetti would be absurd. You can already zoom in and out, and the camera is already third person. Other than needing to rewrite practically all of the renderer, and adding a few belt/train/bot Z interfaces... it's technically possible.

Now, would it improve gameplay? Probably not. X and Y space is already infinite. Z space would needlessly complicate things for very little benefit. Parallax occlusion in a spaghetti factory would be pretty neat though.

[jamiechi1]

How about 2d+?
Add the capability to rotate view angle in 4 directions.
And let us have real bridges like Command & Conquer did in the early days.
Basically just one more level up in a similar way that we go 1 down for underground belts.
Real bridges over the water.
And how about some water based biters.
There are some advantages of 3d. But I am thinking a ways off anyway.

[ssilk]

Why only one layer above and below?
I always think to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. Factorio and RCT2 share many similarities but RCT2 did some things better:
- isometric angle of view
- genius ways to build landscape
- genius ways to build tracks and coasters.


Building 90 or 45 degrees rocks and place stuff on it.



Building underground. Quite irritating when you lose track where your are.


Real 3D? Like Minecraft? Well I don’t think so. Factorio is more like a puzzle game, like RCT2. Minecraft isn’t (in my opinion).


Not saying this must be in Factorio 2. But how cool would it be to
- use isometric view: you can see more, make higher buildings, blend out buildings in front
- complex landscape layouts
- build belts over cliffs/hills
- have bridges, tunnels
- use strategic advantages of height
- have flowing water/lack of water
- explore and build underground caves and mines
- build elevators for lores/trains into underground
- build more complex factories by building above existing parts
...


It’s clear, that this means to rewrite Factorio nearly from scratch. Too much of the current gameplay depends on being 2D.

P.S.:
- to have visitors (up to 100000) that pay for riding a belt
- having a fish Imbiss (Fish farms, fish industry)
- need to have toilets (needs water and water cleaning)
- cleaning robots to suck up all of the puke from the visitors
- achievements for the most beautiful factory in the world
- having a train with a looping

[Illusion13]

Maybe someday there will be a 2.0 version in 3d. Which will be much better than the other Game which will not be named.
Or maybe something completely different.

I mean, isn't that just Satisfactory?

[netmand]

This is a trick question, yes?

ok, I'll bite:
Whenever anything actually makes it to 1, it ends. It's all over, nothing more to do. But none of us can let it go, like launching the rocket, we continue, falling past the event horizon of the black hole that is Factorio.

Escape now while you can.

[Hannu]

There is huge difference between 2D and 3D. All puzzle things of Factorio depend on how to cross, combine and divide flows in 2D. Adding the third dimension would make things supereasy. Someone may like it, but it would change the game essentially. Things could me make complex again by adding complexity. But I think very few players would like to combine 10 ingredients to every intermediate products. 2D gives interesting puzzle aspect on non tedious complexity level.

One possibility would be to set artificial restrictions which keep logistic effectively 2D, but just add graphical 3D models and free movements. It could be interesting and be popular, but megabases would be impossible. It is clearly impossible to handle tens of thousands of 3D objects even with high end gaming computers. Factorio entities use couple of polygons and even simplest cartoon looking 3D models would take several tens of polygons. Even bigger difference comes from projection. 2D projection with limited zoom out shows few hundreds of entities in one view but 3D perspective projection can show enormous. You can climb on hill and watch whole your base. If viewing sidtance is limited to couple of hundreds of units like in Minecraft, it destroys the most of the entertainment.
Because it is why I would like to see 3D world. I could see huge working systems in one view.

[jamiechi1]

Why only one layer above and below?
I always think to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. Factorio and RCT2 share many similarities but RCT2 did some things better:
- isometric angle of view
- genius ways to build landscape
- genius ways to build tracks and coasters.
...

I like the idea of using Rollercoaster Tycoon as an example of how 3d might work. But I prefer RCT3 myself. I like the ease of changing the landscape and how RCT3 allows me to easily make tunnels and water features. I think that type of system would be simple enough not to slow ones system down too much, and I believe it would make a really great 2.0 Factorio. I do like a rotatable isometric type view (3rd person), with or without an avatar. I am not suggesting that the game should change more to something like Satisfactory.

[Krazykrl]

Why only one layer above and below?
I always think to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. Factorio and RCT2 share many similarities but RCT2 did some things better:
- isometric angle of view
- genius ways to build landscape
- genius ways to build tracks and coasters.
...

I like the idea of using Rollercoaster Tycoon as an example of how 3d might work. But I prefer RCT3 myself. I like the ease of changing the landscape and how RCT3 allows me to easily make tunnels and water features. I think that type of system would be simple enough not to slow ones system down too much, and I believe it would make a really great 2.0 Factorio. I do like a rotatable isometric type view (3rd person), with or without an avatar. I am not suggesting that the game should change more to something like Satisfactory.

The thing is... once you get to a 360 rotation around objects in isometric view; you practically have the capability to do 3d directly. Since the assets you need to design all faces would be in 3d. And using a 3d engine would actually be easier graphically, since current-day videocards are designed to render huge 3d scenes. This is a major reason why Factorio has issues with sprite atlas size, and VRAM usage; GPUs nowadays just aren't designed with 2d sprite graphics in mind.

[ChoMar]

he thing is... once you get to a 360 rotation around objects in isometric view; you practically have the capability to do 3d directly.

Yes... and if I look at Games, Satisfactory vs. Factorio,Planet Coaster vs. RCT3, Cities Skylines vs. SimCity 4... I always find myself the "not full 3d version" to be better. The 3d - thingy always gets... messy. I dont care about the technical implementations much, but with full 3d there is always some beauty lacking. Its always like you can do stuff just "good enough" but never "excelent".