Friday Facts #425 - Behind the legs

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-425

[mikiqex]

I don't like how legs in the Spidertron's new animation stretch all the way during a regular walk sideways (on the screen). The original looked somewhat orderly, while the new looks a bit funky to me, creeps me out a bit, to be honest.

[Hares]

You can also share knowledge of already-scanned position between different spidertrons, to improve performance for a taskforce.

[glee8e]

I actually kinda prefer the old animation to stay. the old spidertron animation is slighly less natural and looks like a mechanical beast, especially when its legs often stretch into very unnatrual length. This behavior constantly reminds you that this is but a game and can really help to alleviate the fear. The new animation on the other hand really looks like a real spider... TBH it is a lot more likley to provoke arachnophobia.

[gravityStar]

Absolutely, the new spidertron movement is creepy. I think I would prefer the old spidertron movement (or some facsimile in the new movement system) to stay. Maybe re-order the spidertron's leg movement groups to be more symmetrical?

[Terrahertz]

Somehow the new Spidertronwalk looks less smooth to me, it also look more goofy than creepy, but that also might just be me

I like the look behind the curtain, but the choice of topic also makes me wonder a bit: There are only 8 more FFFs to come until release, assuming the release date stays as it is, and there is still a lot of ground to cover:

• Enemies on Vulcanus (as hinted in the last paragraph if this FFF)

• Fulgora might not actually have enemies, as it's a dead world after all, at max there might be some old robots or something

• Uses of the buildings unlocked on Gleba on other planets are still open

• An entire planet is still missing

• Maybe there is also something more to do in space, than cargo-platforms and the one in Nauvis Orbit producing Space-Science

• New equipment was hinted at in previous FFFs

I am starting to get the feeling we will not have a full picture of everything on release and I am a bit divided on what to think about that

[cpw]

Welp. Guess I'm not going to be playing 2.0 at all without"eldritch horror removal" mods. Super sad. I could tolerate the old spidertron because it wasn't very spidery. Well done on making it very spidery.

[denshlk]

+1 to people saying that old spidertron animation is better. To be honest I didn't use the thing much because I moved to modded games after launching the first rocket, so I don't think I am spoiled with simply 'old way is better'. It might be that you mixed up the footage somehow, but this looks kinda buggy with legs, espicially the last 5 seconds. It might be that it needs to loop through legs faster because it seems like last leg is dragged before it starts moving but then the steps would be smaller it would look less spidery...

Love the optimization descriptions though!

[Shadow_Man]

Absolutely, the new spidertron movement is creepy. I think I would prefer the old spidertron movement (or some facsimile in the new movement system) to stay. Maybe re-order the spidertron's leg movement groups to be more symmetrical?

+1, new spiderwalk in left-right directions is awful.
Maybe rotate leg movement groups alongside movement direction?

Second one: Why aren't the PLDs firing at flying enemies?

[Niyu.Cuatro]

I really like the new animation for the spidertron. looks more than a physical object than a floating head with leg sprites attached.

[GregoriusT]

Why aren't the PLDs firing at flying enemies?

Now that you say it, yes that really bugs me, its Personal Laser Defense, the P and the D kinda make for "Point Defense" if you abbreviate it like that, so yeah those Wrigglers should definitely be shootable, otherwise we get the unblockable Wriggle Kick!

[fly]

Maybe I'm not being very attentive, but I don't see any difference between the old and new animations

Second one: Why aren't the PLDs firing at flying enemies?

I also noticed this. Now I also wonder if I can shoot them with the weapon in hands?

[Molay]

Arachnophobia is still such a weird thing to understand. I get that your amygdala fires off the fight and flight response before you're actually aware of what you've seen, but surely with prolonged exposure to the stimuli (spidertron) you will eventually regulate down that phobia, no? Likely not the case with real spiders or whatever, but does the phobia not relent after a while when viewing robot spider-likes in video games? Or is it just too intolerable to even get to a point of habituation? Genuinely curious.

Really loved to see the fight with the evolved enemies, gleba will not be my first expansion of choice, looks like something I want to hit a bit later and well prepared for sure. That's nicely done for sure. I do wonder, is there an incentive to go to Gleba as your first planet? I.e. would the increased challenge of facing this place with less tech at your disposal be worth the struggle by giving access to something early? Not sure I'm formulating that right. Just wondering if going to Gleba first could be a high-risk high-reward kind of deal. It's rocket turrets and spidertron afaik, and with the other places having no enemies (?) it seems to not be something you really need early anyhow.

[Avalanche]

Please Wube, add an option to disable Spidertron sway, even more so when the spidertron stops moving and the screen view moves back and forth a bit before actually stopping.

I do find this disorientating, but even more than that the overshoot/recovery just before stopping proper, has caused me to misclick many, many, many times, so I get out of the spidertron to move around on foot, as a stop on foot is exact.

I've looked for a mod to disable it many times, but not found one.

Is this issue just me?

[Rseding91]

Please Wube, add an option to disable Spidertron sway, even more so when the spidertron stops moving and the screen view moves back and forth a bit before actually stopping.

I do find this disorientating, but even more than that the overshoot/recovery just before stopping proper, has caused me to misclick many, many, many times, so I get out of the spidertron to move around on foot, as a stop on foot is exact.

I've looked for a mod to disable it many times, but not found one.

Is this issue just me?

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=104637 TLDR: there is no built in "sway" it's simple byproduct of how spidertrons move with legs and not something that can just be turned off.

[TheoMarque]

As others, new spidertron move is... not stable. At very large speeds, might look like messy graphics without any legs due screen fading.
New enemies are nice, but, on Gleba, cane we cover planet with concrete and kill any life under it?

Vulcanus and Fulgora need some enemies like mosquitoes in real life, not hard to kill but annoying and trivial to defense. Why? The same idea as on highways on flat deserts need some curves.

[StrangePan]

You can also share knowledge of already-scanned position between different spidertrons, to improve performance for a taskforce.

Yep! All Spidertron and Pentapod legs that have the same collision mask and bounding box will share exclusion zones. Some details might not have made it into the FFF.

[dgls]

In both versions, the first step is strange. She stretches her front leg too far and doesn't bend her back leg.
The movement crossing obstacles is more natural in the new version.

[yngndrw]

Do the pathfinding changes mean that Spidertrons will now be able to find their way around larger bodies of water, when remotely controlled?

[fishlips13]

I think I agree that the old Spidertron movement looks better. Works great for the Pentapods, doesn't look nearly as good on a robot. It's kind of twitchy and jerky. It's lost some of what made mechanical and cool.