Friday Facts #385 - Asteroid Collector

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-385

[Theisen]

[Koub] No "first"ing here.

[MEOWMI]

I have to say, your choice for the grappling tentacle really is clearly the best one! The polished graphics and animation of course make it even easier to tell.

Also love the "behind the scenes" looks!

[aka13]

Hot take: Due to screens being 16:9, the ship should fly to the right, and not to the up direction, to maximize screenspace.

[gGeorg]

until now, you used word "chunk" as reserved for a squared section of map containing fixed amount of tiles.
In recent FFF you use word chunk repeatedly for asteroids. This inconsistency is confusing especially when translators of game help or wiki comes to play.

I would recommend use word asteroid or bolide or boulder.
Keep "chunk" in the range of current meaning.

[Ghoulish]

Love the insights in to how the game is developed.

[Theisen]

You should allow a way for us to toggle the draw lines for the debris in game, I watched the last video for 5 minutes wishing I could watch this in game with my station.

[Tynaty]

I feel like given the topic trend of the types of FFFs that's been giving detail towards touching several areas of the games systems, whether passively by nature of the feature/in passing as a light mention, or wholly dedicated to the detail of how it interacts with X and Y.

I'm getting a little concerned given nothing has even been alluded towards grazing anything content related towards enemy forces, whuch is a core, non-superfluous part of the game. I'm very curious as to what or when there'll at least be even a smidgen or dripdrop of anything related towards efforts with that system as it is just as imperative to the game as having a train, new surfaces, or even having inserters & conveyor belts in terms of both their implementation, interactions, and integration if I were to dare to be bold. And asserting that shouldnt be bold.

Hopefully soon we get at least even a small allusion towards the content in this area, as its been a rather flat sensation given the past two months. Be it an improvement towards performs & behaviors of the already existing Biters, a new weapon type with allusion that theres something we'll need it for; be it a player weapon or stationary fixture turrent or something new that synthesizes a dynamic between both, or a new enemy type we'll have to engage with overall as alluded to in FFF #367. All with the same emphatic flair of having to conceptualize and knead it into the workings of the game just like these new snake arms which are in themselves awesome and appealing as a draw towards this package given how its presented to us.

Greatly looking forward to the news regardless of what's ahead of us, though slightly hoping that those sort of game aspects are given at least a glance or passing nod for the people like me who resonate with Factorio through them so we aren't left in the cold. Factorio, to me atleast, has been one centered as its core values in being a fully featured game after all that respects the people that engage with it.

Nevertheless, enough pitiable groveling at the feet(?) of my machine gods regarding the fate of my people for the sake of logic & industry as the factory must grow. This is awesome stuff as always, thank goodness we didn't just get tractor beams or a silly little paddle n scoop.

[Hopscotch1337]

I feel like given the topic trend of the types of FFFs that's been giving detail towards touching several areas of the games systems, whether passively by nature of the feature/in passing as a light mention, or wholly dedicated to the detail of how it interacts with X and Y.

I'm getting a little concerned given nothing has even been alluded towards grazing anything content related towards enemy forces, whuch is a core, non-superfluous part of the game. I'm very curious as to what or when there'll at least be even a smidgen or dripdrop of anything related towards efforts with that system as it is just as imperative to the game as having a train, new surfaces, or even having inserters & conveyor belts in terms of both their implementation, interactions, and integration if I were to dare to be bold. And asserting that shouldnt be bold.

Hopefully soon we get at least even a small allusion towards the content in this area, as its been a rather flat sensation given the past two months. Be it an improvement towards performs & behaviors of the already existing Biters, a new weapon type with allusion that theres something we'll need it for; be it a player weapon or stationary fixture turrent or something new that synthesizes a dynamic between both, or a new enemy type we'll have to engage with overall as alluded to in FFF #367. All with the same emphatic flair of having to conceptualize and knead it into the workings of the game just like these new snake arms which are in themselves awesome and appealing as a draw towards this package given how its presented to us.

Greatly looking forward to the news regardless of what's ahead of us, though slightly hoping that those sort of game aspects are given at least a glance or passing nod for the people like me who resonate with Factorio through them so we aren't left in the cold. Factorio, to me atleast, has been one centered as its core values in being a fully featured game after all that respects the people that engage with it.

Nevertheless, enough pitiable groveling at the feet(?) of my machine gods regarding the fate of my people for the sake of logic & industry as the factory must grow. This is awesome stuff as always, thank goodness we didn't just get tractor beams or a silly little paddle n scoop.

be patient, there will come updates on enemy forces, haven´t you forgoten the pics they send alsmost 2 years ago?

[mcmase]

I'm getting a little concerned given nothing has even been alluded towards grazing anything content related towards enemy forces, whuch is a core, non-superfluous part of the game.

I would second this comment, though I wouldn't say I was "concerned" since we still have nearly a year of time which leads me to believe that some of the more "interesting" or new content rich FFF will come later in this release cycle. We still haven't learned anything about what the new planets will entail (which is arguably more "core" to the expansion than new enemy types, since new planets is the entire point as to why we go exploring space), so I'm very much expecting a series of FFF about planets, what new elements each planet brings, whether new environments, ores, items, science, etc. I feel like thus far, we have barely scratched the surface of actual new content the expansion will bring, it seems to me that everything we have learned about so far, except for the space platforms themselves and quality, the only other entirely new system we've been shown, falls under QoL and improvements to old systems that will be a part of v2.0 for all players, not just expansion holders.

I get the feeling that there is still a massive repository of unannounced content. Every new trickle of information about what is coming looks more and more awesome. I can't wait until we learn about new combat systems and enemies, as I hope combat gets a huge improvement with the expansion to make it non-trivial for late game.

Thanks as always for the behind-the-scenes look at how the tentacles were created, I love seeing the developer / coding side of things and all the work that goes into even the tiniest detail!

[TheoMarque]

Love your descriptions making of proces. This nerdy thing game is created by nerds for nerds.

But, little off topic, can we build them (or variations) on surface for fishing a fishes od smal bitters to munch them into something useful?

[picklock]

Another interesting FFF.

I find it exciting and interesting to see how the Asteroid collector has developed from the idea to the realization and what thoughts are behind it.

Of the concepts shown, I also like the current realization the best.

[Kadet123]

What if in mid game, before personal construction bots are available, we had a tentacle backpack that helped us build things?

Tentacles could be early-ish game tech after inserters, that we later upgrade for space use.

[Dylan J. McGrann]

I feel like given the topic trend of the types of FFFs that's been giving detail towards touching several areas of the games systems, whether passively by nature of the feature/in passing as a light mention, or wholly dedicated to the detail of how it interacts with X and Y.

I'm getting a little concerned given nothing has even been alluded towards grazing anything content related towards enemy forces, whuch is a core, non-superfluous part of the game. I'm very curious as to what or when there'll at least be even a smidgen or dripdrop of anything related towards efforts with that system as it is just as imperative to the game as having a train, new surfaces, or even having inserters & conveyor belts in terms of both their implementation, interactions, and integration if I were to dare to be bold. And asserting that shouldnt be bold.

Hopefully soon we get at least even a small allusion towards the content in this area, as its been a rather flat sensation given the past two months. Be it an improvement towards performs & behaviors of the already existing Biters, a new weapon type with allusion that theres something we'll need it for; be it a player weapon or stationary fixture turrent or something new that synthesizes a dynamic between both, or a new enemy type we'll have to engage with overall as alluded to in FFF #367. All with the same emphatic flair of having to conceptualize and knead it into the workings of the game just like these new snake arms which are in themselves awesome and appealing as a draw towards this package given how its presented to us.

Greatly looking forward to the news regardless of what's ahead of us, though slightly hoping that those sort of game aspects are given at least a glance or passing nod for the people like me who resonate with Factorio through them so we aren't left in the cold. Factorio, to me atleast, has been one centered as its core values in being a fully featured game after all that respects the people that engage with it.

Nevertheless, enough pitiable groveling at the feet(?) of my machine gods regarding the fate of my people for the sake of logic & industry as the factory must grow. This is awesome stuff as always, thank goodness we didn't just get tractor beams or a silly little paddle n scoop.

I think it’s too soon for concern. I would suspect that much of the new biter/enemy content will be for the new planets, and they just aren’t ready to show us the new planet stuff yet. We’ve got a whole year of these updates, so they gotta save something good for later.

[Tertius]

It's very interesting to see how things get created for real where there is nothing initially. From zero to ideas to concept drawings to a decision to a tentacle animation that''s real. Great!

I like the steampunk-like appearance of these tentacles. Fits the theme of the game perfectly. My second choice would be the scoops, but I can see ending platforms up as V, W, WWW shapes as well.

[ChefOfRamen]

Love your descriptions making of proces. This nerdy thing game is created by nerds for nerds.

But, little off topic, can we build them (or variations) on surface for fishing a fishes od smal bitters to munch them into something useful?

Ooh, yes, let us catch fish with these please!

[computeraddict]

until now, you used word "chunk" as reserved for a squared section of map containing fixed amount of tiles.
In recent FFF you use word chunk repeatedly for asteroids. This inconsistency is confusing especially when translators of game help or wiki comes to play.

I would recommend use word asteroid or bolide or boulder.
Keep "chunk" in the range of current meaning.

There are map chunks and asteroid chunks. This is well within the capacity of every language on Earth to differentiate. Even a single sentence about either should let anyone differentiate the context.

Asteroid is already in use for the unchunked asteroids. Boulder does convey the small and spacey nature of the rocks (and ice!) in question when there is a perfectly good English descriptor, asteroid chunk, which does. Bolide is a word for a bright or crater forming meteor and totally unsuitable to describe small spaceborne pieces of a larger asteroid.

If you are desperate for another English word that means "smaller piece of a larger whole", might I direct you to fragment, sliver, shard, piece, or splinter?

On another note:

One known issue around the time I was starting out with the collector was platform speed. With high quality thrusters, the platform could eventually move so quickly that turrets could not turn fast enough to shoot incoming asteroids in time.

This is definitely a problem that you can feel in SE as well, as beyond a certain speed you have to rely on the mod's energy shields. Hopefully they've got some vanilla solutions in store for us in future FFF's with those big asteroid cracking weapons.

[Tynaty]

But, little off topic, can we build them (or variations) on surface for fishing a fishes od smal bitters to munch them into something useful?

Agree, definitely need some fish gameplay outta these bad-boys

[Hares]

I wonder if xTerminator would have anything to say on this FFF post.

BTW, liked this FFF. Literally Factorio Friday Fact -- a fact for Factorio you wouldn't know otherwise, posted on Friday.

[Xorimuth]

I'm getting a little concerned given nothing has even been alluded towards grazing anything content related towards enemy forces, whuch is a core, non-superfluous part of the game. I'm very curious as to what or when there'll at least be even a smidgen or dripdrop of anything related towards efforts with that system as it is just as imperative to the game as having a train, new surfaces, or even having inserters & conveyor belts in terms of both their implementation, interactions, and integration if I were to dare to be bold. And asserting that shouldnt be bold.

Hopefully soon we get at least even a small allusion towards the content in this area, as its been a rather flat sensation given the past two months. Be it an improvement towards performs & behaviors of the already existing Biters, a new weapon type with allusion that theres something we'll need it for; be it a player weapon or stationary fixture turrent or something new that synthesizes a dynamic between both, or a new enemy type we'll have to engage with overall as alluded to in FFF #367. All with the same emphatic flair of having to conceptualize and knead it into the workings of the game just like these new snake arms which are in themselves awesome and appealing as a draw towards this package given how its presented to us.

Greatly looking forward to the news regardless of what's ahead of us, though slightly hoping that those sort of game aspects are given at least a glance or passing nod for the people like me who resonate with Factorio through them so we aren't left in the cold. Factorio, to me atleast, has been one centered as its core values in being a fully featured game after all that respects the people that engage with it.

The expansion contains 4 additional planets. Each of which has its own unique theme, resource, challenges and gameplay mechanics. Most of them also have different military targets.
- FFF 373