Friday Facts #367 - Expansion news

[Sander_Bouwhuis]

So exciting, can't sleep anymore.

What I imagine :
• Sky / Underground / Water management
• Critters natives from those 3 environments
• Vehicles for those 3 environments
• Animal / Cybernetics mounts
• New measures against pollution
• Rust, erosion and machine lifetime
• Interaction with other intelligent entities
• New materials / minerals

What else guys ?
Let's play Factorio for a new decade !

Only the Sky/Underground/Water suggestion sounds interesting to me (personally).

I would like to add some sort of marketplace where you can trade (buy and sell) goods.

[rhynex]

So exciting, can't sleep anymore.

What I imagine :
• Sky / Underground / Water management
• Critters natives from those 3 environments
• Vehicles for those 3 environments
• Animal / Cybernetics mounts
• New measures against pollution
• Rust, erosion and machine lifetime
• Interaction with other intelligent entities
• New materials / minerals

What else guys ?
Let's play Factorio for a new decade !

some of them look nice but also some of them do not fit an expansion, a DLC. we buyers should be interested in those "content" that the expansion shall give to us and content in no other way possible to obtain without buying the expansion. if so then we should separate a few things about our expectations I guess.
I think there is a difference in what we can expect from Expansion or from 1.12

if mods can do what is listed then it is most probably just 1.12 content. if new mechanics are needed then I would put them in Expansion.
- vehicles for example are just content, not requiring new mechanics most probably. depends of course
- Rust, erosion, machine lifetime can be just content but requires new mechanics for sure to make things easier. maybe mods exist about these already and simple recipe changes can do wonders.
- New materials and minerals are simple, there are tons of mods for that and such a feature is not enough for another 30$ or paying for expansion.

I do not think expansion shall just introduce more complexity and problems, considering the direction devs took along the way after 0.17. I believe there shall be solutions that people shall wish for, or alternates for existing problems.
- new worlds or dimensions (as some mods introduced) is a nice feature for expansion.
- interaction with other entities is also nice.
- new multiplayer modes perhaps. not sure if exists but trading? PvP and so on. (I am sorry, I am really blind on what already exists)
- Some alternates for existing problems such as train tunnels, different vehicle dynamics (similar to AAI vehicles) or new logistic methods (surprise us please).
- I always thought nature can be part of expansion, like wind (hurricanes, lightning, asteroids), sea/water (waves), earth (earthquakes) related things but these are ll problems, and do not bring any solution to make expansion interesting.
- slowly going towards a little Satisfactory like, 3rd axis (elevation or deep mines/tunnels)
- New interaction with nature obstacles like swimming, flying would be nice, and of course vehicles for them but not sure if these would end up only at expansion, maybe 1.12
- super high tech mechanics like invisibility stuff, teleportation of short distances, temporary created invisible (or visible) walls for protection/offense
- some mysterious map elements for new game modes. resources should not be the only thing Player shall explore the world
- the world nature interaction can be increased but I am not sure how to make it interesting for a new expansion.
- the new jelly (not sure if it has a name defined) hints there shall be more enemies interacting with various surface entities (swimming or flying? still not sure)
- game scenarios with more story perhaps, adventure of an engineer on a planet. similar to Warcraft3 story mode.
- real pets that shall follow Player and help, maybe early game like spidertrons. Player can put ten fish in a bucket and with some magic the biter becomes a pet Player can interact with them and they become some helper for Player, similar to spidertrons but more dynamic manner, unlike a controlled way
- new enemy type, not sure if it would fit into the game, like a new race.
- trading for something, not only for good but tech perhaps.
- I cannot describe it and I have no idea how to implement it but maybe instead of tech researching, there can be a special way of tech advancing, like exploration. instead of researching for one tech to another maybe player would find laboratories on map to advance in tech, similar to that. the current game (with default settings) kind of wants you to be defensive and focus on sending a rocket by being defensive on map, not disturbing locals and so on, of course you can go crazy aggressive. but maybe there is "another" way, by exploration, not science research, maybe map research or trade. for example tech research is just a radar scan and it finds a "thing" on map, like a treasure, hidden mystery, blueprint, a never-seen tech thing etc. and then Player has to dig that thing up to advance, and of course maybe the "thing" is deep in biter zone so military is kind of forced (most players disable biters I guess). it shall introduce the dynamic approach in game instead of linear tech>>tech>>tech pattern.

anyway, more ideas for sure but I am sure devs can surprise us with good content.

[ptx0]

if the number of replies and views are any indication, i think most people have forgotten about the plans to release DLC for Factorio.

[TerraInFactorio]

Wow. Thats great. An 8th sciene pack that completes the set. And more new unlimited researches that need it. Cant await the expansion to release.

[kirazy]

if the number of replies and views are any indication, i think most people have forgotten about the plans to release DLC for Factorio.

63% more replies and 7000 less views than the Friday Facts from last June, and 30%/57% the number of views/replies as the Friday Facts announcing their future plans? Which was posted more than a year ago? And it's been just over two weeks?

I'm not sure why you're concerned.

[Shuisman]

I think no one had mentioned this part of the blog yet:

and we would also need to support the 1.1 map version loading indefinitely.

This means that maps will somehow be different in a fundamental way, I’m thinking:
1. Height (z levels)
2. Underground
3. New types of tiles (snow, ice?)
4. New types of enemy-bases
5. New resources (ore)
6. New resources (thermal energy)

Thoughts?

[liron_aramas]

Guys, have you thought about adding a step-down transformer to the game, for a less plausible power supply. just high voltage input, low level income, that's it. it looks strange when the entire power grid from the nuclear power plant rests on one village power line. no need to complicate through the yaur, as simple as possible, and believable. Please pay attention to this.

And also, tell me, do you plan to change sprites of assembly machines? In one of the FFFs, you mentioned that you wanted to change your appearance, but then you couldn't do it, you had to make a release. and variable drone station sprites - they will be implemented disgustingly (sorry, I love factorio, to be honest, I will buy everything that you launch)))).

[jaggmann]

Quite exited that the game is in further develpment . What if Factorio had an addition of personnel . What this entails is that there would be personnel assigned to each aspect of the factories function . The factory dependent on the presence of personnel .The story of an orbiting spacecraft that is in critical obital decay .The personnel land incrementaly and at random points around the map via drop pods.The player has to rescue them before the biters get to them .Upon being rescued they are assigned to factory buildings or systems .Research included .The personnel are vulnerable to biter toxin which spreads like pollution .The biters turn pollution into toxin which then spreads . The filter mod would be intregal to this .The player would rescue the personnel initualy by a small air unit which would be upgraded through research and component recipe . It would carry the drop pod with the personnel to the factory .

[Nidan]

I think no one had mentioned this part of the blog yet:

and we would also need to support the 1.1 map version loading indefinitely.

This means that maps will somehow be different in a fundamental way, I’m thinking:
1. Height (z levels)
2. Underground
3. New types of tiles (snow, ice?)
4. New types of enemy-bases
5. New resources (ore)
6. New resources (thermal energy)

Thoughts?

Considering the past development of factorio, I don't think there's any hidden meaning in that sentence.

3, 5, 6 can already be done now, by mods. Maybe 4 as well, not sure about that. No need to change the save game format. Same for 2, if implemented as an independent map.

Since they're promising new engine features, the save game format will likely change, but that's normal considering the past development.
What they probably mean is the usual dropping of compatibility for loading old saves. Usually every release can load and migrate saves from the last 2 releases. Given that, I'd expect 1.2 and 1.3 to be able to load 1.1 saves. In 1.4 support for loading 1.1 saves would be removed.

[jodokus31]

Guys, have you thought about adding a step-down transformer to the game, for a less plausible power supply. just high voltage input, low level income, that's it. it looks strange when the entire power grid from the nuclear power plant rests on one village power line. no need to complicate through the yaur, as simple as possible, and believable. Please pay attention to this.

You could add it as new suggestion here:
viewforum.php?f=6
I'm not sure though, if there's already a similar suggestion and what was the result.

[Kyralessa]

if the number of replies and views are any indication, i think most people have forgotten about the plans to release DLC for Factorio.

63% more replies and 7000 less views than the Friday Facts from last June, and 30%/57% the number of views/replies as the Friday Facts announcing their future plans? Which was posted more than a year ago? And it's been just over two weeks?

I'm not sure why you're concerned.

He's not. He's just trying to stir the pot, like usual.

[Xorimuth]

Guys, have you thought about adding a step-down transformer to the game, for a less plausible power supply. just high voltage input, low level income, that's it. it looks strange when the entire power grid from the nuclear power plant rests on one village power line. no need to complicate through the yaur, as simple as possible, and believable. Please pay attention to this.

fyi I wrote a mod that does this: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/PowerOverload
It's a bit clunky but it does the job. I'm not sure I'd want it in vanilla though, as realistic game mechanics don't always mean more fun for most people.

[liron_aramas]

there is such a game - oxygen not included, it is interestingly implemented there, nothing supernatural, does not bother at all, does not make the game worse for sure. I know about these mods, but they all look pretentious in vanilla factorio, overcomplicated and ugly.

[wildboar]

In Thailand Factorio was always sold for $10.

And you wrote, that expansion will be sold for the same price as base game ($30) - does it mean expansion will be here $10? Or it will be really $30 for expansion alone? Now I'm not sure if I'm waiting for release of the game or the crack.

[Koub]

In Thailand Factorio was always sold for $10.

And you wrote, that expansion will be sold for the same price as base game ($30) - does it mean expansion will be here $10? Or it will be really $30 for expansion alone?

Most likely the expansion will be the same price as the base game.

[Noorphish]

I´m sure, the price will be moderate compare to other games.

How many hours do you played Factorio? I´m round about 4128 h / 30 € = 0,007 € per hour game fun.

I don´t have a other game with this result.

[Bobbyoy2011]

So exciting, can't sleep anymore.

What I imagine :
• Sky / Underground / Water management
• Critters natives from those 3 environments
• Vehicles for those 3 environments
• Animal / Cybernetics mounts
• New measures against pollution
• Rust, erosion and machine lifetime
• Interaction with other intelligent entities
• New materials / minerals

What else guys ?
Let's play Factorio for a new decade !

I'm really hoping that the floating brain is actually a smart automation driven adversary that will actually base build and consume resource patches, in direct competition with the player. The biters might still be enemies but are unchanged in their behaviour, attacking both the player and the adversary. If the devs can pull this off that would be great. The reason I say automation driven is because I suspect that a lot of the automated testing that is used to test the balancing of the game can be potentially repurposed to actually be an AI. Even if it seems stupid in the long run I feel modders can improve on it after its delivered. Tweaking balances such as crafting time multipliers etc for the adversary can allow it to make up for its stupidity. Even if the adversary doesn't have access to all of the same buildings as the player but instead has some other set of simplified buildings that could allow for this new dynamic without totally killing FPS.

For example, they could have miners > smelters > energy buildings > tower defense buildings > buildings for building attackers (that use already existing biter swarming to group and attack the player) > and then some other buildings (radar etc), but essentially a set of buildings that ticks all boxes for a factory building adversary, without reaching the same long list of player buildings. Because you can achieve this without requiring the FPS requirement for 'an additional player driven by ai'

Expansion of the adversary should also be possible, for example into resource fields. We've already seen biters spawn into areas where they see pollution emenating into their bases, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to get an adversary to seek out and spawn mining buildings on top of resources.

I'd also like to comment on one of the previous posts that mentions interplay between base building as the core of factorio, and fighting an enemy. I would say that automation of war machines in the game would lend itself nicely to efficient war waging - its a lot easier to battle an enemy if your automated military complex is good enough to keep producing and feeding the battle, without too much manual intervention. I've experienced plenty of automation of all areas of factorio, but I feel there is less of a requirement to automatically produce armies of tanks etc (in Vehicle AAI mod there are tanks), and deploy direct into the fighting. I feel an adversary would produce more automation requirements (for war machines), not less - and will make automated factory building increase as the core aspect of the game, as opposed to reducing it.

Wube is already the king of automation, and in my opinion, it should be possible to give us an adversary in factorio.

So, in a nutshell, even though I'm already definitely going to buy this new expansion, I really hope Wube give us a factory building adversary to wage war against in factorio. Even a basic version, the modders can go sky high with this game with that new possibility.

Thanks

[shyguy]

Hyped AF for the expansion!!

But:

Not mentioning the high price (and I'm among many that paid 15$ or less for main game over 7 years ago), you're taking successful early access game that had a ton of community contributions and try to turn it into something developed completely behind the closed doors. And only motivation for that (as far as I remember previous FFF) is to not have modders spoil your expansion with their take on it. That's either very brave or...well, the other thing.

To these "it has to cost a million $ because i pretty much spent half my life ingame"-guys: You, your playtime as well as your disposable income aren't the only benchmark for the price/worth of this expansion.


Stay healthy and grow the factory

[Drakken]

Nobody is saying the expansion should cost a million dollars. That is being extreme. People are saying the $30 price, and then some, are worth it for a game like this. I agree with them. Nobody would be discussing the price at all if it weren't for some people being outraged at $30. Which is also extreme. If you have a personal computer to play this game on, I am sure you have wasted $30 or more to see a movie and get popcorn at some point in their lives. And that is for just a couple of hours of entertainment.

I like the idea of having to rescue either other space engineers or perhaps some friendly fauna on the planet that may be in danger from the biters due to our intrusion. Once rescued, they could be put into buildings/machines and act like modules but for earlier in the game. This would give incentives to go on missions to save them.

I am so looking forward to this expansion! The thought of smarter enemies is exciting. I hope that soon we will get some FFF to tide us over and to keep the hype going for this incredible game!

[lovewyrm]

I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but why is that preview of this jellyfish like creature so comparatively grotesque?

Looks like it has mammaries, too. Maybe that's just me, though, but, it does.
Why?

Why must it be so fleshy and gnarly and entrail like looking? Is it because the nests of the basegame aliens pulsate?
Well they're not as weird as this new creature.

Disgust is one of he lowest hanging fruits of inciting emotion, virtually anyone can do it with little effort.
Gangly hooked flesh tentacle boob alien woooooo look how fleshy it is, steam coming out of its boobs oooooohhh, isn't it shocking? Aren't you shocked to see such a creature?

No I'm not. I'd be more shocked if you managed to design something more refined, but, perhaps you can't, not anymore. Maybe the spark is gone.
(reverse psychology)

But seriously, kind of a nasty creature, I'm human, humans are beings that appreciate beauty. Sure, you can probably kill that thing, but, just because I can remove something doesn't mean I want it in the first place.
You can pick bunny droppings out of your cereal with a toothpick, but...do you want them in there in the first place?
Maybe... if you want THAT freakshow accosting the eyes of your players...