Moralize me, please.

[Samwhell]

Gentlemen, (Ladies),

I need some encouragement. I want to play mods, though my last mod pack play-through was broken by 1.0. I'd never disparage the successes of Wube, and life is learning to let go, still I could use some moralizing.

I was playing a pack I made because when I first started my path into Factorio modding, I read a post that said they'd like to see a mod noob attempt an Angel/Bob/Py/SpaceEx in that cheeky manner redditors have.

Well, attempt #2 and hundreds of hours in, I'd finally made it to "blue" circuits, when 1.0 pops. Everything was patching well except for this one mod that did it's best to streamline Angel/Bob/Py that had like one little error. It had been taken over by someone else, and I tracked them down finally on GitHub, I even tried bribing him with money to fix it. It took about a month to get this all sorted. (He wouldn't take my money, we truly are blessed by these saintly modders). Though, when I went to update, everything else had broken.

Can I get some encouragement from ya'll. And maybe some direction on a preferred mod pack that, hopefully, has the least amount of probability of being patched into oblivion?

Thank you,
Samwhell

[Xorimuth]

Any large mod with more than a few thousand downloads is likely to be updated to a new factorio version very quickly, or if it isn't but it has a permissive licence (like MIT or GPL), then someone else will probably do it instead.

Any of the big packs like Bobs, Angels, Py, Space Exploration, Krastorio2, Industrial Revolution 2, Nullius etc, won't be going anywhere any time soon. Besides, we won't be getting any breaking updates from Wube for several months, if ever. Even if there is, there's nothing forcing you to update. You can just keep playing the same version that you start your map on and it will never break.

[Xorimuth]

PS: 'Moralize' doesn't mean what you think it does: it refers to 'morals' (ie right/wrong), it isn't the opposite of 'Demoralize' (which would be something like 'encourage').

[jodokus31]

Even if there is, there's nothing forcing you to update. You can just keep playing the same version that you start your map on and it will never break.

If you are on an experimental version, it helps to don't use the steam version. Otherwise, you are forced to update, when the experimental version is removed from steam.
Instead, you can use multiple zip versions parallel downloadable from webpage, which can be controlled by yourself.

[eradicator]

the least amount of probability of being patched into oblivion?

Any sufficiently complex and evolving system is eventually going to change to your disliking. Just fetch the stand-alone version from factorio.com, disable auto-updates and enjoy the freedom of playing the version you like best. Don't let yourself be bullied into updating when you don't want to. I keep a seperate installation for each large map I play, so I can go back to the old stuff whenever I want, or enjoy the new stuff whenever I want. Just imagine they're different games if that works better for you ;).

[ptx0]

Angel/Bob/Py

firstly, read the pages for those mods.

Angels tries to make accommodations for other overhauls (most notable Bob's and Omni).

Py does not. It even says not to do this on its mod page.

in any case, the fewer overhauls you include, the better off you'll be.

[ickputzdirwech]

I think you got to differentiate between mods breaking because Factorio updates and mods introducing breaking changes.

The easiest option for both cases is of course to not update. As said above the more popular a mod is the more likely it is that it gets updated for a new Factorio version. Even though your mods were a uncommon combination it sounds like this is no longer an issue. There is no big update coming for a long time so right now is the right time to start a very time consuming project.

If breaking changes from mods are an issue (I am thinking of recipe changes etc.) it’s still easier to continue your old map even if that means you have to build a completely new base. You already got some resources and research.

Lastly I want to say that you should do what you enjoy most. You don’t have to finish every play through.