[MOD 1.1] Xander Mod v3.6.1

[eradicator]

It's not all that much computer processing

Migration cost is not an issue at all. It's vastly more important to do things the right way then to save a few seconds on something that is only done once. Try loading a really old really big vanilla map in latest vanilla. Just the renaming of entities can take more than half a minute - but that's totally ok.

Regarding recipes not enabled from your stockpiles mod -

Co-relating .researched directly to .enabled is an interesting approach. But it seems my statemend was unclear: I do not lack the technical knowledge to implement *some* method to enable recipes. I have too much knowledge and so for every method i can think of i can also think of a potential mod that would break if i use it ;). So my problem is one layer higher - deciding which "potential mod" i care less about.

For example toggling the tech off and on again also re-applies recipes, but "potential mod" might break because this causes on_research_finished to be raised for a tech that supposedly was already researched (reset_technologies() has the exact same effect). But at least there *is* an event that mods can handle while directly toggling recipe.enabled happens silently.

Code: Select all

local function reresearch_technology(technology)
  if technology and (technology.researched == true) then
    -- Have you tried turning it off and on again?
    technology.researched = false
    technology.researched = true
    end
  end

for _, force in pairs(game.forces) do
  reresearch_technology(force.technologies["plastics"])
  end

CTRL+SHIFT+F is also new to me; thank you.

Ctrl+Shift+E/F came brand new with 1.0 :D.

Although I don't understand --check-unused-prototype-data either, for what that's worth.

Well, under normal circumstances it shoul (almost) not print anything at all. Does it print alot for you?

[argbla]

HI, I just started playing Xander Mod yesterday and I'm having a great time. I've tried other recipe rework mods before, and I can't put my finger on why, but this is the first that's felt this coherent.

I have a thing with stories and games where the suspension of disbelief relies on consistency. Maybe congruence is the word? I dunno, but this mod does a fine job of it.

I'd like to mention that I have not found collecting wood to be tedious, and this is with spawning in a desert. I just read trees were just changed to give 24 instead of 4 wood. It likely would have been tedious without that change, but I think that's a good solution given you grow out of using wood and the organics sorts of things other mods do never feel like they fit with the game.

Anyway, good job, I look forward to playing this as it develops. I'm teeming at the thought of a large scale factory with this mod and the upcoming train stop limit.

[pletiplot]

Hello,
I play this mod. I found that chemistry industry is very complex and it is quite similar to the real processes. On difference from vanila, you often have some waste which must be treated. One way is a dump, but many of the products are flamables: Carbon monoxid, hydrogen, ethylen etc. which could be used as a fuel, but there is no boiler for consuming such materials.
Thanks.

[depsylon]

The high power turbine is unavailable for us, or more precisely we can't research it. We researched the low power ones and then later researched nuclear energy which only gave us the low power ones again. And because they produce less than half of the energy we can't really use Nuclear Energy. Is there a solution ?

[khadgarion]

Hey folks!

if anyone is looking to make Xander mod work with 1.1 there are a few tweaks that will make it work. Do so at your own risk though, no warranty expressed or implied...

edit the info.json in all 3 zip files so the version says 1.1 (the main mod zip, and the two graphics pack zips)

in the main mod zip there are two missing png files in graphics->tech->combat->defensive structure
I copied the turrets-2 file and renamed the copies "stone-walls.png" and "turrets.png"

The png file in graphics->tech->logistics->belt->"logistics-3.png" needs to be upsized to 256x256
same needs to be done to graphics->technology->production->smelting-machine->"xm-furnace-steel.png"

I am pretty sure that's all I changed to get it working.

[MrSanderz]

@khadgarion Thank you for the fix, it loads!

[PTTG]

I've been thinking of making a small Xander tweak mod to add concrete and reinforced concrete walls. Probably, those would just be more efficient recipies for walls that used more sophisticated types of concrete. I was also thinking of adding a refinery process to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. Any other very simple changes people want?

[khadgarion]

I've been thinking of making a small Xander tweak mod to add concrete and reinforced concrete walls. Probably, those would just be more efficient recipies for walls that used more sophisticated types of concrete. I was also thinking of adding a refinery process to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. Any other very simple changes people want?

I like the idea of concrete walls!

The other thing that would be nice is to have the high pressure steam turbine available. As far as I can tell it's in the game, but no research adds it? Should probably be in the same tech as the nuclear reactor.

[dzbanek]

Repofme1, any news on 1.1 update? I would like to try your mod.

[Repofme1]

Hi all -

First, sorry for disappearing for the past few months. Sometimes I need to simply forget about the community for a while, in order to focus on the content, and my external life. However, I have good news: Xander Mod is getting close to nominally complete! The only major features left are the rocket parts, artillery, and the spidertron. Once these are finished, which should be soon, I will be ready to publish a fairly large update with a bunch of new material, including an upgrade to Factorio 1.1.

While this is a major milestone in the project, it does not mean that the mod is 100% done, or the end of my involvement. Some while ago, I mentioned that I had considered leaving once the mod reached this point, but after further thought I have decided to stay with it. Here's a clarification: when I say that the mod is nominally complete, I mean that it includes my most essential ideas, and applies them to the entire base game in a coherent manner. More specifically; the majority of the ores, materials, and parts are present; and are appropriately applied to make all of the machines, vehicles, and weapons; with suitable technologies to research the whole mass.

Another, less visible aspect has been playtesting the mod, to make sure that it stays fun to play, and that one can feasibly beat the game in a reasonable amount of time. I'm happy to say that this has gone quite well: despite playing this mod build for the first time, and making a chaotic and inefficient factory, I've still had a lot of fun. I'm about 70 hours into my current test world, and close enough to the rocket that it seems likely to be complete by 80 or 90 hours. Looking back, this seems a bit high, but then I remember that it took me 40 hours to beat Factorio the first time I played it - and that Xander Mod is four or five times more complicated

Currently, although the project has come a long way, it still has plenty for me to do. Naturally I have probably missed a few bugs and features, which will need to be corrected as discovered. A bigger issue is that many areas of the game could use a big-picture rework, consisting of balance improvements and other tweaks, to connect the whole mod together in a more sensible way. This situation arose because I wrote most of the features kind of individually, without a unifying system for tech levels, balance costs, etc. Now that I will have a solidly acceptable version published, however, I feel much less pressure to reach a goal quickly. Therefore I should be able to take a step back, look at the mod with a wider perspective, and work on making it more logical overall.

Looking forward, I plan to continue working on the mod, but published updates might be larger and less frequent. I'm quite uncertain about the schedule, since it depends on how further playtesting goes, as well as things like my motivation, and how busy real life keeps me. Overall though, I'm satisfied with the project, and very glad that Factorio has such an awesome community to participate in!

[Repofme1]

Hi all -

Woohoo! The long-awaited update is done at last!

I know that this one has been on the slower side, even by my normal. This is mostly because of its sheer size: over 10 main new features, loads of testing and tweaks, a couple bugfixes, and of course compatibility with Factorio 1.1. Unfortunately, issues like the winter holidays and my occasional lack of motivation (modder's block? ) made any intermediate updates impractical. But anyway, I'm glad, because it's here now.

Anyway, like I mentioned in my last post, the mod is now tentatively complete! (Or preliminarily - is that even a word? Finished to a functional but preliminary degree.) The post, from two weeks ago, explains it a little better, but the short version is that I'm now satisfied enough with the mod to slow down a bit. The past 6 months have felt like a rush to get here, a point where I feel the mod is acceptable for general use. It's still far from perfect, but consider this perspective: this is the first time that a full game, including launching a rocket with satellite inside, has been possible with Xander Mod! And I am happy to say, that in my test world, I reached this point at 82 hours 45 minutes. Not too bad, considering the base game took me 40 hours the first time I played. Also, my current Xander Mod factory is horrendously inefficient - but is was a ton of fun

To reiterate the previous post a bit, my work with the mod is not over. Much remains to do, from fixing bugs, to a few more small features, and importantly some big-picture stuff (notably re-balancing notably pollution and energy use, plus improved pages for the mod portal and main forum post). But all of these can go at a more leisurely pace, especially with some important work coming up for me in real life.

Gosh, what a journey this has been. Looking back, I was so naive when I wrote and published the very first - and horribly broken - version of this mod. However, these past few years have been a valuable learning experience, thanks to the incredibly strong Factorio community. I deeply appreciate the developers, the broad player base, and especially all of you who decided it was a good idea to try Xander Mod, for giving the game such a vibrant spirit.

To finish off, here's the (mostly) complete changelog:

New features:

• Rewrought laser turrets (again), and added a tier 2 laser turret
• Rewrought rocket launcher & ammo
• Rewrought tanks & ammo
• Rewrought combat robotics
• Rewrought cliff explosives again, better
• Finished rework of modules, including tier 3
• Rewrought beacons
• Rewrought power armor mark 1 & 2
• Rewrought portable equipment: portable solar panel, portable fusion reactor, personal battery 1 & 2, belt immunity, exoskeleton, personal roboport 1 & 2, night vision, energy shields 1 & 2, personal laser defense, discharge defense
• Rewrought nuclear industry: uranium processing, power, kovarex enrichment, weapons
• Rewrought automation 3
• Added new tier 3 catalytic chemical plant, an upgraded combined chemical reactor and oil refinery
• Added first aid
• Rewrought artillery
• Rewrought spidertron

Bugfixes:

• Fixed high-tension electric pole recipe
• Fixed chem reactor quick-replace
• Added missing recipe unlock for gold wire to advanced electronics 2 tech, plus migration
• Corrected high-temperature boiler to accept crude fuel as well as chemical
• Fixed cyclical dependency where assembler 3 could only be made in an assembler 3

Tweaks:

• Increased unit cost of laser tech
• Added laser as prerequisite for advanced electronics 2
• Moved first stack bonus for regular inserters back to inserter capacity upgrade 2 tech
• Changed piercing shotgun shells to use alloy steel instead of regular steel
• Changed batteries to use plastic instead of glass
• Changed accumulator recipe to use coils and cast iron parts instead of cable and cast iron blanks
• Changed second plastic bar recipe to use polyethylene in addition to nylon
• Changed laser turrets prereq from military science pack to military 3
• Increased unit cost of explosive rockets tech
• Reduced recipe time for air cryo-distillation from 10 to 5 seconds
• Increased recipe time of improved railroad track from 0.5 to 1 second
• Changed advanced steel production to better resemble real processes (direct ore reduction plus oxygen steel conversion)
• Rebalanced solder wire to use less phenol
• Halved time of gold wire recipe
• Reduced recipe times for circuit wafers
• Reduced recipe time for silicon boule
• Changed VLSI wafers to use aluminum instead of chromium, to remove anomalous dependence on production science
• Rebalanced explosives in recipes
• Tweaked advanced oil processing to make more liquid oil and less petroleum gas
• Halved recipe time for water distillation
• Reduced a few recipe ingredient costs in chromium and stainless steel production chain
• New graphic for electrolyzer 2
• Changed stack sizes for low density structure, rocket fuel, and rocket control unit to 20
• Reduced sodium hydroxide consumption in bauxite -> aluminum hydroxide refining

[khadgarion]

Cool. Looks like I might have to start (yet another) new game. Thanks for sticking with this mod!!

I li ke to play with biters enabled, will see how a new game plays out with the tweaks you have mentioned.

[jodokus31]

Congratulations for major feature complete milestone.
Good to see, you are sticking to it.

One day, I have to try this mod again. There are so many things to play in factorio, the amount is overwhelming.

[orzelek]

Please let me know if you changed resources etc since RSO might need an update or two after all the changes.
If you can grab it and take a look and tweak the config or update things that are missing etc it would be the best.

[McMaster]

Let's start good old realistic Xander mod game session. Thank you !

[SciGuy101]

Hello,

I am thinking of starting my first non-Vanilla game and found Xander Mod.

What other mods would any of you recommend to be used with Xander Mod?

[jodokus31]

Hello,

I am thinking of starting my first non-Vanilla game and found Xander Mod.

What other mods would any of you recommend to be used with Xander Mod?

I guess RSO was recommended to get proper resources. But I don't know, if its up to date, yet

Maybe additional valves and flarestack, or is it a thing already?
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Flow%20Control
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Flare%20Stack

Of Course FNEI, Helmod or something like that.

[khadgarion]

I'm not sure if I just had a fluke while using RSO, but it generated a lot of same ores (tons of skarn)bbut I had to go really far to find another coal patch besides the starter one. Banded iron was a bit far but not too bad. All resources set to the middle slider (default settings). I have biters on too so its been an adventure getting there.

[Repofme1]

Hi all -

Another update out. This one took a while, as I've been spending less time on Factorio, but I'll talk about that in my next post. For now, here's a general list of the changes:

Features:

• Added tier 2 fluid handling: longer underground pipe, larger storage tank, faster pump
• Added high-capacity accumulator
• Added tier 2 wall (reinforced concrete) and gate (alloy steel)
• New(-ish) entity graphics: high-pressure steam turbine, high-tension big electric pole, concentrating solar panel, high-power gun turret, high-intensity laser turret
• Updated several item and tech icons

Bugfixes:

• Added correct unlock of gold wire recipe to advanced electronics 2

Tweaks:

• Adjusted balance of several logistics and production machines
• A few extra descriptions

[khadgarion]

I am glad to see another update. Thanks for continuing to work on this wonderful mod =)