Friday Facts #381 - Space Platforms

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-381

[SnowZyDe]

Omg

[MassiveDynamic]

7:00 am have been waiting all week for this

[Akronymus]

Disabling entities/buildings per surface has a lot of potential. I, for one, am really excited for it. Hopefully it is toggleable at runtime and not just at startup time. (Research x technology to unlock y on z surface, for mods)

[Tooster]

Hmm... The surface texture of the platform seems a bit noisy and quite hard to look at. It's all blending into one mosaic with other entities on the platform due to all those small bits and pieces on the surface. It's pretty hard to tell where the entity begins and where it ends

[Ghoulish]

Hype is building for 2.0, great stuff!

[rojcowles]

Hmm... The surface texture of the platform seems a bit noisy and quite hard to look at. It's all blending into one mosaic with other entities on the platform due to all those small bits and pieces on the surface. It's pretty hard to tell where the entity begins and where it ends

Right! My first thought was that the platforms are made from 100% pure unadulterated greeble!

Greeble being semi-random stuff modelers tend to layer onto basic spaceship designs to give them visual interests, think pipes, hatches, rivets, antenna, decals, etc that don't necessarily have a function in the design.

[Justderpingalong]

They really did say 'thou shall not bot base in space' huh. LET THE SPAGHETTI COMMENCE!

[NaurEnForven]

Awesome stuff!
I am very curious about the details of the asteroids mechanics.

• How is the number of asteroids determined, is it platform size related?
• Is it possible that the turrets run out of ammo if only platform local production is used?
• How many engines can I reliably run?

[kovarex]

How is the number of asteroids determined, is it platform size related?

Its determined by the route (later game routes have more asteroids and a bigger ones). And also by speed, the faster you go, the more and faster asteroids you meet.

Is it possible that the turrets run out of ammo if only platform local production is used?

Ofcourse, that is one of the ways you loose the platform.

How many engines can I reliably run?

It depends on many factors, including productivity, size of the platform etc.

[fishycat]

The thrusters look so good, very well done! So far I loved every new fff, so excited for all the new stuff!

[WeirdConstructor]

I love the whole concept. Just a few questions:

• Do the costs for the rockets stay the same as in vanilla?
• And how big is the inventory of the rockets?

[Kyralessa]

I love it!

Except for one thing that seems a little weird: Building purely by ghost.

I can understand why the platform shouldn't have logistic bots, but why couldn't it have construction bots? It feels like a break in realism...OK, OK, I already know what you're thinking.

But normally building is (a) done by the engineer, or (b) done by a construction bot. It feels really weird to have building done by...magic?

[IForgotMyName]

The inventory of the space platform hub is limited, but so called cargo bays can be constructed next to the hub to increase the capacity.

For some reason I remembered Mindustry.

[someone1337]

Definitely add stats of "space pollution caused" (=items thrown overboard) maybe per item, like produced, used.

[CureSafaia]

Something I hate about SE is the tediousness of cross-surface transfer and even though I expected space age to be much streamlined, I am happy to see it.

[firestar246]

I love it!

Except for one thing that seems a little weird: Building purely by ghost.

I can understand why the platform shouldn't have logistic bots, but why couldn't it have construction bots? It feels like a break in realism...OK, OK, I already know what you're thinking.

But normally building is (a) done by the engineer, or (b) done by a construction bot. It feels really weird to have building done by...magic?

I was a bit confused by this as well. Building is done purely by ghosts, but yet no bots? How does that work? Besides that, this all looks amazing.

[mexmer]

are we going now to have "trash wars in space" in multiplayer mode?

also what if bellow platform is planet without atmosphere, will not it make trashpile on planet surface?

so many questions with this.

on the other side, with that grab thing ... we can have trash(ure) hunt in space.

[cbass]

Awesome FFF! Really looking forward to the Space Age expansion. Love the thoughtfulness and attention to detail to the general flow and progression that is being done.

One thing that I might have missed, is it possible to have multiple space platforms? I tried to find if it was explicitly called out. In the post, it does refer to "platforms", but will it be possible to have multiple platforms? I can imagine how useful it would be to have purpose-built platforms for different things (ie, to have a small but nimble transport platform and a massive giga-factory platform and maybe one in between?)

Thanks again for a great update!

[DanGio]

I love it!

Except for one thing that seems a little weird: Building purely by ghost.

I can understand why the platform shouldn't have logistic bots, but why couldn't it have construction bots? It feels like a break in realism...OK, OK, I already know what you're thinking.

But normally building is (a) done by the engineer, or (b) done by a construction bot. It feels really weird to have building done by...magic?

I was thinking about this too :
- If you don't have the material, can you still place ghosts on the platform ? -> yes, as it is stated in today's FFF
- If material gets delivered, does construction occurs immediatly ?
- If only a portion of material is delivered, how does the game chooses what to build ?