Friday Facts #431 - Gleba & Captivity

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-431

[DeadMG]

This looks pretty cool, but uh... those of us who like to play without biters? K2 already showed that this can be an annoying issue if you incorporate biters as part of the production chain and this sounds like you are giving people who play with biters a factory advantage over those who don't which seems pretty unpleasant

[jamezhall]

PLEASE - What happens when you turn off biters? This question hasn't really been answered. Many of us want to just build factories.
Same with the FFF with the worm - What happens when enemies are turned off?

[deef0000dragon1]

I am with the group that desires the option to turn biters and other enemies off. (That said, Ideally separately for each planet if possible cause I love the combat mechanic on vulcanis because I get to choose when I combat).

It feels like its going to be a big pain to a lot of people who just want to play "factory game", not "factory and combat game".

[Anima117]

Interesting. FInaly a reason to not wipe all biters off the planet. Having live eggs after Gleba's tech is unlocked is a pretty cool idea for a factory design, as you will have mastered the art of keeping your production on a short shelf life, this time you would have a safety risk to your entire base. Imagine a biter or two hatch, and they break anything in your plant, meaning the entire production that is currently out will hatch shortly...

Also, since you can transport stuff from Gleba to the other planets, I wonder if the eggs will have a long enough shelf life to be sent to other planets. If so, I wonder if the biters like the other creatures or if they just can't handle the environment. Or if you can have mechanised biter units as a defense system. (I doubt that last part, but it would be funny having heat seeking biters )

[mumu1000]

drugs, it's obviously drugs...





I'm so hyped for the expansion !

[TheoMarque]

What about change inserter graphics to be more accurate to machine that serving? Detecting a machine type and change appearance, just for visual reason. For example like slider from machine onto belt.
How to obtain biter nests when they spanwing constantly biters in large groups? Biters can attack biolab? Maybe new combat technique that deactivate biternests for a while?

And... we saw fourth science pack on the belt!

[Hares]

So, each mind-controlled spawner should be in a secure perimeter surrounded by gun/laser turrets which can immediately incapacitate any newborn biters and a rocket turret armed with mind-control capsule in order to prevent disasters.

[Tynaty]

Finally some good fucking food.. This is what I have always wanted and dreamed of, and escalates, elevated, propels (etc.) Factorio into being THE premier game to play for me from now on. Brilliant iteration upon the gameplay, and I can't wait to see how this unravels in its completed form on launch day.
One thing comes to mind is that I think its fantastic that it links planet progression together in a beautiful dovetail, in some ways I wonder if this benefits Nauvis itself more than Gleba overall, but still a lovely additional incentive reason to go there.
Also curious if evolution will play a factor at all in this addition.

[Terrahertz]

So should we rename the engineer to the "Mad Scientist"? A lot of what you are doing on Fulgora and Gleba makes it look that way

Jokes aside, very good additions to the game, I was hoping we are getting an upgrade to the laboratories.

So there are 4 new Planets, but I see 5 new Science Packs, is the black one some kind of end game space science pack?

How does one improve agriculture with biter eggs? Turning them into fertilizer?
Can you pick up and move captured spawners? Otherwise waiting until the artificial ones are available to craft productivity modules 3 at scale seems a bit annoying.

Btw, did I get it right that the changes to Gleba mean there are no ore deposits anymore and everything is done via aggriculture now?

[ledow]

Feels much like a return to "having to get purple science from biter nests", which I always missed.

[burninghey]

Finally, some serious alien technology! Bad badass eggs spoiling into something that could destroy your entire production chain.. how dare! Love it.

[morse]

Do captured nests still consume pollution? Is it a viable strategy to convert all the surrounding nests to reduce the pollution expansion? What happens to the eggs if they are not collected? Do eggs spoil into hostile biters? Are there other uses for the eggs? It would be a shame if this whole mechanic is only useful to build a couple dozen of biolabs.

So many questions...

[doktorstick]

I'm pleased to see they are leaning more into enemies and a reason for some post-survival. It opens up much more design freedom and gameplay.

[Criperum]

How about moving biter nests? All nice lab designs has to be thrown away? Is it like neverending oil field? Or it's supposed to be captured in numbers?
How do eggs spoil in chests? In machines?

[doktorstick]

Do eggs spoil into hostile biters?

Biter eggs also make use of the spoiling mechanic as they spoil into live biters. I'd assume they are hostile as there's nothing to suggest their instinct has been corrupted, especially since spawners not being fed its resource will go rogue and start spawning hostile biters.

[scarhoof]

Since the captured spawners/labs is also half Gleba, I wonder if allowing it to be used on Gleba with double the bioflux input would offer any gameplay rewards/opportunities for the player. Maybe if they aren’t constantly fed they rupture into mega biters with a short lifespan because they are now on a planet that they did not evolve on, but they are so hopped up on Gelba-juice that they go on a short-lived rampage to destroy your factory. This could be an interesting risk/reward.

[doktorstick]

How about moving biter nests? All nice lab designs has to be thrown away? Is it like neverending oil field? Or it's supposed to be captured in numbers?

Yes to oil field until: we have added a way to craft the captive biter spawners which you could then place anywhere on Nauvis you like, so you can still scale their production up conveniently. This technology is unlocked at the last planet so it won't get trivialized too early, and the captive spawners you make will have their own quirks...

[J_nas]

drugs, it's obviously drugs...





I'm so hyped for the expansion !

It is obviosly a hatch Control pill

[doktorstick]

Are there other uses for the eggs?

Another answer to your questions in the FFF.

Biter eggs can be immediately used for improvements to agriculture, crafting Productivity module 3, or because we felt like the Gleba unlocks aren't motivating us enough... A new laboratory