Friday Facts #418 - Space Age release date

[Anima117]

wait wait wait wait wait, those cargo attachments DONT let you use inserters on them?! Did i miss something when reading that FFF?! I really hoped i could use that to make a reeeeeeeally long space ship chest.

I don't think anything has been confirmed, but maybe they want to prevent you from basically teleporting items around by building super long chests and just putting inserters where you need to extract the items. That would feel kinda cheaty to me.

But I also don't think it should be robots only.

I personally think letting you drop inserters everywhere would be a mistake due to it being used as a very long chest as you said. However, I would say having an output gate that could be built, kinda like a pump to extract the items onto the belt would be fine. Plus you could probably sort things via whitelist or blacklist.

But I guess the robot solve the available space issue, as if you'd have a lot of items to transfer out, you would then either need a lot of belts, or use belts as a sushi belt and then sort things further. The robots solve that issue by just taking the item where it is needed and calling it a day. So yeah, I'd say having the output gate would be nice. Then again, maybe they also did that since that FFF.

[vonboy]

Have the devs said at any point whether the expansion will come to the Switch version or not?

[Zavian]

wait wait wait wait wait, those cargo attachments DONT let you use inserters on them?! Did i miss something when reading that FFF?! I really hoped i could use that to make a reeeeeeeally long space ship chest.

I don't think anything has been confirmed, but maybe they want to prevent you from basically teleporting items around by building super long chests and just putting inserters where you need to extract the items. That would feel kinda cheaty to me.

But I also don't think it should be robots only.

Looks to me like you can use at least one inserter from the central hub. So it doesn't look like exclusively bots.
Assuming you can use as many inserters as you can fit adjacent, you should have a fair amount of throughput.

Screenshot 2024-07-05 224515.png (145.48 KiB) Viewed 3974 times

[Anima117]

the whole "tiny chance for a rare item!" thing is ill. I really don't get it.

(from: https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-375 )

The excitement of getting directly a rare power armor from common ingredients when you are super lucky is the same as getting BAR-BAR-BAR in the slot machine, or the wanted item in the pay-to-win lootbox mechanics.

this also means that the other 99.9% of the time it will feel like crap. And think about speedrunning...
It baffles me how a mechanic like this would be desired by anyone.

if it was up to me, the drop table would look like this:
fff-375-quality-probabilities.png

the added complexity of having to filter out the occasional higher-tier item is not worth adding gambling-adjacent mechanics, imho


otherwise, cool beans.
best of luck!

I think the main thing that quality is used for, is really just "I have finished the addon, but want to make a megabase" or "I want to micro-optimise my entire factory". Both of which are things you do later. The fact that they want you to use the recycling machine to try and get better quality items should be enough to tell you that you only do that when you have excess production, or have setup a production specifically for this.

In short, it isn't something people NEED to use, unless they really want to engage with it. It is something that is however nice for people who do want their factory to be able to go even faster than it already does, in particular if you lack space to build on. See it like upgrading belts. If one red belt is as fast as two yellow belts, you technically never need to use red belts if you double your belts, since your input will still be the same.
Or maybe your main bus is blue belts, but that side factory doesn't need blue belts, you don't HAVE to change the yellow belts that are working fine for your input-output if it isn't necessary, it wastes ressources you could use elsewhere immediately.

Also it is a good thing for people who play challenges, like ribbon worlds, or super difficult deathworlds, as the size for expanding isn't really there, you could use the quality to upgrade your existing factory, doing more with less. Which also Fulgora and Vulcanus have space issues by their design.

[gnutrino]

wait wait wait wait wait, those cargo attachments DONT let you use inserters on them?! Did i miss something when reading that FFF?! I really hoped i could use that to make a reeeeeeeally long space ship chest.

Cargo bay extenders on space platforms were confirmed to not allow inserters all the way back in FFF-382

With the cargo bay extenders, can't we use the one big inventory as a teleport?
We aren't noobs Why do you think cargo wagon can't be placed in space. Only the central hub can be used to access the items with inserters. It can be utilised on a small platforms, but it can't be abused in a scalable way.

but no word that I'm aware of on whether that rule applies to cargo bay extenders on planets. I actually think it could/should be possible to allow inserters to work on them to remove the potential throughput limit it would otherwise have with the proviso that you can't insert anything into the landing pad or its cargo bay extenders, only pull things out to stop it being used as an on-planet item teleporter.

[Terrahertz]

There is now a screenshot clearly showing the Landing Pad with attached cargo bays, yet sadly it did not answer a question I had ages ago: Do Cargo-Bays on Planets have the same restriction as in Space: Inserters cannot take items out of them.
Because I'm not a big fan of the Idea of unloading the Pad entirely by drones.


Also: Any Ideas what the little Rocket-Thing above the bottom left cargobay is? Some sort of further delivery system?

wait wait wait wait wait, those cargo attachments DONT let you use inserters on them?! Did i miss something when reading that FFF?! I really hoped i could use that to make a reeeeeeeally long space ship chest.

See under Space Platform clarifications, it just does not say anything about the ground ones, but with throughput needed for 1kk SPM the Arms you can put next to the Landing Pad might be reaching their limit.

[Justderpingalong]

On a completely unrelated sidenote to the quality discussion going on...

First screenshot, noticing 2 things.
1: The illusive black science pack that they accidentally teased in the last FFF (and which I called out!).

2: What the frick is blue ammo?!

[FuryoftheStars]

2: What the frick is blue ammo?!

Tungsten?

[TaxiService]

I think the main thing that quality is used for, is really just "I have finished the addon, but want to make a megabase" or "I want to micro-optimise my entire factory". Both of which are things you do later. The fact that they want you to use the recycling machine to try and get better quality items should be enough to tell you that you only do that when you have excess production, or have setup a production specifically for this.

In short, it isn't something people NEED to use, unless they really want to engage with it. It is something that is however nice for people who do want their factory to be able to go even faster than it already does, in particular if you lack space to build on. See it like upgrading belts. If one red belt is as fast as two yellow belts, you technically never need to use red belts if you double your belts, since your input will still be the same.
Or maybe your main bus is blue belts, but that side factory doesn't need blue belts, you don't HAVE to change the yellow belts that are working fine for your input-output if it isn't necessary, it wastes ressources you could use elsewhere immediately.

Also it is a good thing for people who play challenges, like ribbon worlds, or super difficult deathworlds, as the size for expanding isn't really there, you could use the quality to upgrade your existing factory, doing more with less.

sorry, i don't get the point you're trying to make? ;_;

[edited]

[adam_bise]

All aboard the hype train!! Cant wait

[Merssedes]

Will account connection with Steam cover Space Age?

I mean back when I brought game, I did it on Steam, after which I connected account here with the Steam one. This allowed me to use non-Steam version (I personally dispise Steam as game launcher). So, will there be similar scheme for Space Age?

[Splitframe]

Slightly disappointed by the price, but exited for the game.

[Anima117]

On a completely unrelated sidenote to the quality discussion going on...

First screenshot, noticing 2 things.
1: The illusive black science pack that they accidentally teased in the last FFF (and which I called out!).

2: What the frick is blue ammo?!

Congrats for the black science pack. Given they said the last planet is dark, probably the essence of darkness at this point.

As for the ammo, I'm guessing probably something that is more powerful than the uranium explosive shells. Hydrogen shells perhaps?

[Terrahertz]

Interesting to see the entire discussion about Quality turned from: "Eww, your adding randomness to the game, and something almost like loot boxes" to "Those names are stupid"

I think the naming is good as it is, as this is familier to most players. Also like in many other games people will end up refering to quality tier more by color than by name.

[mmmPI]

That's an exhaustive recap, full of nice pictures, that probably hides a hundreds little unrevealed details
Also i had to check and 21 October 2024 is a Monday, who would have thought the game won't be released on a Friday ? not me

The Steam screenshots have some new content, I believe. Like the brainfruit trees from Gleba.

This is nuts !

Do Cargo-Bays on Planets have the same restriction as in Space: Inserters cannot take items out of them. ?

It was mentionned already , but it seem to me that from the screenshot you posted, the answer is a visible "yes"

ss_2055a2f75239c9935dd2e126bdc8d257a11980f0.1920x1080.jpg (1.4 MiB) Viewed 3869 times

That said, the Polish price is indeed stupid: higher than in Euro, British Pounds or Norwegian Krone! And before anyone says, yes, that's likely based on Steam's recommendations, which are indeed stupid.

Can confirm reading from steam that they are responsible for Polish price being higher than in Euro or Pounds.

An enigmatic 5th planet - promises some of the most unique gameplay but it remains shrouded in mystery. It's the furthest planet from the sun so it's dark and cold.

COLD PLANET CONFIRMED !!!!
i hope it also has snow, and that there is a super nice sound for walking on it !

[gnutrino]

Pretty sure we've already had the quality level names discussion several times before, not sure what you're expecting to add to it at this point...

[Terrahertz]

wait wait wait wait wait, those cargo attachments DONT let you use inserters on them?! Did i miss something when reading that FFF?! I really hoped i could use that to make a reeeeeeeally long space ship chest.

I don't think anything has been confirmed, but maybe they want to prevent you from basically teleporting items around by building super long chests and just putting inserters where you need to extract the items. That would feel kinda cheaty to me.

But I also don't think it should be robots only.

Looks to me like you can use at least one inserter from the central hub. So it doesn't look like exclusively bots.
Assuming you can use as many inserters as you can fit adjacent, you should have a fair amount of throughput.
Screenshot 2024-07-05 224515.png

You will get a decent amount, but with the 1kk SPM goal in mind, this might not be enough.
I just like the idea of building two long tracks on each side of the landing pad and filling trains up directly, instead of having this massiv swarm of drones start every time a platform unloads.

[Terrahertz]

Do Cargo-Bays on Planets have the same restriction as in Space: Inserters cannot take items out of them. ?

It was mentionned already , but it seem to me that from the screenshot you posted, the answer is a visible "yes"
ss_2055a2f75239c9935dd2e126bdc8d257a11980f0.1920x1080.jpg

Thats the Landing Pad not a Cargo Bay.

[fly]

Still disappointed with the whole Quality thing. I recall in the original FFF, where it was introduced, there was information about an option to disable Quality altogether. Hopefully, this is still the case. Another thing I'd like to disable is faster belts and stackable items on belts, as I see these as lazy gimmicks rather than improvements to the game.

Overall, though, I'm glad to know the release date now!

[mmmPI]

Thats the Landing Pad not a Cargo Bay.

Sorry didn't realize the nuance, because to me that's going to be the same, but i may be wrong ^^
( i mean on the picture we see inserter next to "the thing" , that's all it took from me )