Friday Facts #64 - The plans

[kovarex]

The news from our progress and something about the future plans can be found here: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-64

[OBAMA MCLAMA]

The high-res car/steam engine looks amazing, but you mention mod. Would that require everyone in multiplayer to have it enabled also?

[FishSandwich]

I really like the idea of making a spaceship as endgame content, but am also really disappointed that it'll only be used to transport goods so the player can become a 'rich bastard'. I'm really hoping that's not a permanent end game.

[kovarex]

The high-res car/steam engine looks amazing, but you mention mod. Would that require everyone in multiplayer to have it enabled also?

It wouldn't. It would be the same as with the scenario pack, the mod would be ignored for version checking and it wouldn't change the game at all so the players would be compatibile.

[kovarex]

I really like the idea of making a spaceship as endgame content, but am also really disappointed that it'll only be used to transport goods so the player can become a 'rich bastard'. I'm really hoping that's not a permanent end game.

The possibilities for later are almost endless, but we have to make some ending and go towards 1.0 release next year. After that we can go back and extend other parts of the game.

[FishSandwich]

I really like the idea of making a spaceship as endgame content, but am also really disappointed that it'll only be used to transport goods so the player can become a 'rich bastard'. I'm really hoping that's not a permanent end game.

The possibilities for later are almost endless, but we have to make some ending and go towards 1.0 release next year. After that we can go back and extend other parts of the game.

That's good, because I know you guys can come with a better idea than that.

[Cloner]

To me this ending idea is totally fine. Though i would really like all the cpeers to attack me for 10 minuted before lift off (maybe so hard that the game turns to tower defence style).
Also it would be great if the middle of game was a little longer (once you get the railway stuff but before full scale logistics bots), because currently the train system is useless for victory purpose. Perhaps making later research require much more bottles would help.

[kovarex]

To me this ending idea is totally fine. Though i would really like all the cpeers to attack me for 10 minuted before lift off (maybe so hard that the game turns to tower defence style).
Also it would be great if the middle of game was a little longer (once you get the railway stuff but before full scale logistics bots), because currently the train system is useless for victory purpose. Perhaps making later research require much more bottles would help.

Something like that will probably happen
But I personally use trains much sooner than logistic robots transportations, they are quite easy to research and create.

[ColonelFailure]

I love the sound of the new endgame. LOVE IT.

And as far as the high res pack is concerned, I simply cannot wait.

[lancar]

What about the other things you've mentioned in the roadmap for .12, like the oil tanker railcar and such. Is that still in the cards for .12 or will it take a backseat in favor of the expanded endgame?

[Warfire]

The spaceship ending sounds a lot like A Dark Room - is this an inspiration? Factorio shares a lot of ideology with A Dark Room in general actually. Also reminds me of the space victory in the Civilisation games. I like the idea of building a ship etc, gives your factories something to do once all the science packs are built, but I don't think "getting rich" is the ending Factorio deserves.

I hope you guys can keep working on that

[Sejemus]

So, if we get to build a space ship in space.. What's preventing us from building orbital nuke launchers to nuke those aliens? That would be quite expensive of cause, but it would be another use for uranium when that is added to the game Just a thought. Speaking of nukes, I can't wait to see if/how nuclear energy or other mechanics related to uranium or nuclear will be added to the game

[Cordylus]

What's preventing us from building orbital nuke launchers to nuke those aliens?

For the nuke endgame rockets go here:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =15&t=7141

[Sejemus]

What's preventing us from building orbital nuke launchers to nuke those aliens?

For the nuke endgame rockets go here:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =15&t=7141

That sure is.. uhm.. Interesting.

[cpy]

I will take a break until more bugs are gone and enjoy polished version later. Looks like things are going well and higher res textures look like someone finally found glasses and can see clearly again. Looking great and getting better.

[THENIRL]

That end game content really seems on the right track, although I believe it's still a bit lacking... it gives the impression that the engineer is some sort of scavenger, or freelancer or something. Maybe adding some sort of human threat, then?

[Blackence]

Smaller save files? great!

The "fixed-point floats" should be "fixed-point numbers" though. If the decimal point (or should we say "binary point"?) is fixed, it's no longer floating.

[darksparks]

space ship building is cool.. but money meh.. money is a way to buy a new hero item.. it.. in.. itself is not a hero's goal.. just a means to an end.. a hero gets gold to buy new Armour.. even if it is realistically greedy.. O.o a game where i kill the natives, pollute the planet, and get greedy rich digging holes in-place of forests.. why im not the good-guy at all =(

what about you can use the ship to visit new more hostile maps.. ie.. harder conditions.. like lava, underwater, acidic, ice, lunar.. ect
would be cool to have to build domes and be forced to fit factory within habitable circles that cost allot of ?plastic? to make.. maybe colony starts with a big dome and the basic few resources.. and smaller domes can be built allowing more land to be used.. (underwater/acidic/ice)
lava maps could have small snaking pathways of safe ground and areas that become molten frequently.. requiring bots to permanently bridge areas..
in these maps natural safe zones can be guarded by swarming biters.. and resources are slim..

this would lead to planet types mod packs.. and i would want to rush endgame just for the difficulty and variation.. making the start a kind of tutorial
the ship would always be lost on landing, and trying to make plastic in a tiny cramped dome could produce deadly pollution.. id need to build pollution scrubbers that use a big space.. or die from toxins.. and id love the difficulty spike and pressure for perfect design =)

[GewaltSam]

I think this basic idea for endgame gives a lot of room for later additions to gameplay, after you completed the core game. I got some thoughts about that:

1. If you are going to sell stuff on some kind of market place, there should be fluctuating prizes (maybe even market saturation). Let's take for example a simpler system, like different products simply have different prices (the more high-tech the higher the price): People will just build whatever has the best production costs in relation to value and mass produce it. But if prices change and maybe some more "exotic" products are wanted from time to time, the production on the planet has to be flexible. That would change every playthrough simply by changing the stuff you need to get to that "rich bastard" status

2. Don't forget, one doesn't only have to sell stuff on this market; buying should also be possible, and of course there should be some resources / equipment that you can only get from space. That would be a good opportunity to open some completely new endgame options (don't forget mods), and it's also a nice way to get new content into the game when needed without breaking old maps and factories.

3. If one is going to sell stuff on a global market, there should be some kind of score (although I think just a number is kind of boring; maybe you could think of something more original to show success?). This score shouldn't simply be generated by how much you sell; else people will just wait for more production to get a higher score. Maybe the flight into space gets more complicated or dangerous after some trips into atmosphere? So you need a bigger/better ship to do more trips and raise your overall score. I don't know if it would be a good idea to make playtime a factor, but that's of course also possible and should be pretty simple.

4. If you think about adding said score, there's also the possibility to make some ship or platform upgrades super expensive; those would help with the dangers of space travelling, give more space for trading, make the flight faster and/or give a higher score at the end. But if you add all this, a new ship to replace a crashed one would be a much bigger resource investment.

5. All who think that this isn't a good idea for endgame, remember that it could only be the beginning. Colonization is on hand on this hazardous planet, so it's still possible to build "platforms" with other uses like starting ships; for example habitats for colonists, etc. Then there's still a plan for things like food production chains (I guess; at least it's still on the content page ), maybe new / underground ores, etc. But I think the spaceship is a very good idea to add lots of new content with it, and I don't even want to speculate what our modding community could do with that


Overall, I am pretty stoked for what you got planned for us. Keep up the good work!

[ssilk]

This is what I see: bring lots and lots of stuff on the ship, the ship needs to be built bigger and bigger, the needed resources are exorbitant, the pollution hilarious. The aliens will come in never seen masses, testing your four rows of lasers and find some weak point.

The spaceship needs to be optimized. Modules at the right places, the combination of parts. Ah, I know, this is the idea taken from "Into space".
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=2756
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... Into+space
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... Into+space