Friday Facts #431 - Gleba & Captivity

[Bi0nicM4n]

*sees the flying machine inject itself into a spawner*
"...Are we the baddies?"

Gotta say, the spawner capture mechanic looks disturbing (in a good way). It's as if our engineer originates from Stroggos from Quake 2

[wizcreations]

I keep seeing beacons placed adjacent to each other. What happened to the beacon nerf that required them to be spaced out?

[CyberCider]

I keep seeing beacons placed adjacent to each other. What happened to the beacon nerf that required them to be spaced out?

There was no “nerf”, it was a rework. It made spread out beacons much better, and denser beacons stayed nearly the same

[CyberCider]

The whole new bitter nest capturing and egg mechanics look very nice. However I do kinda dislike the productivity module 3 requiring the eggs. To me it doesn't seem rewarding but kinda punishing (and maybe a little scummy) because it just feels like... rather than making the Gleba stuff better, the already existing stuff is made more difficult. Also, I now see Gleba as a bit forced (instead of motivating) with the 2 best tier 3 modules (productivity and rarity) being locked behind it. I think it could be improved by:
-the eggs used for making tier 3 efficiency (or speed) modules rather than productivity (thought i doubt it would be as desired, and there might already be recipe changes to them)
-the productivity modules having 2 recipes: one very cheap requiring eggs and the other being expensive but without eggs (this would solve runs without enemies)
-adding a 4th tier that requires eggs and having the 3rd tier be without eggs (depending on the productivity gain with rarity it would likely be overkill, maybe even capping the 300 productivity limit)
That's my input about the latest FFF.

From the beginning of the announcements, we’ve known that some existing techs would be moved to the new planets, and T3 modules were mentioned as one of them. This isn’t a new decision. Also, the modules are spread evenly across the planets: Productivity on Gleba, speed on Vulcanus (technically unconfirmed but it’s a safe assumption) and quality on Fulgora.
Efficiency… Well we don’t really know the deal with that one. Maybe it’s the only one that isn’t moved, maybe it has some strange reason to be on the final planet. Who knows.

[Molay]

Jesus, one week of lifted embargo. I'm gonna have to unsub a whole lot channels for a week it seems lol

The changes to Gleba look phenomenal. Seriously considering going there first now. The bonus, double science, sounds like it will definitely be a worthwhile thing that can compete with the vulcanus and fulgora production bonuses. I also didn't realize stackers come from Gleba, those alone sound like a good reason to go there first, as stacking sounds like an invaluable mechanic for scrap sorting and is bound to be quite useful on Vulcanus as well (saves space, makes high output buildings more manageable).

I think Gleba has a lot going for it now!

[someone1337]

looks like we are back to organ harvesting of the native populations. XD

[Myriapode]

Looking forward to isolating my biter production area from the main base, with inward-facing turrets, just in case!

Do not forget the outer-outwards facing ones, too !
With just the space inside both to walk and run machines... working around the nucleus... Making this factory some kind of Factorio bacteria !
Bactorio™ !!!

[benmachine]

If we're going to have eggs that expire into biters, I wonder if this could become the normal way that biters are spawned, so your average biter nest is filled with eggs on the path to maturation, the spawners spitting out a handful of new ones to replace each that hatch... then if you can't get the firepower to take down the whole base, at least you can destroy a bunch of eggs and slow them down a bunch. Maybe this would be too powerful though: the ability of a base to immediately spawn new biters might be the only way they can remain threatening while you're taking them down. (Possibly you could buff spawners and worms to compensate, but maybe that's going too far down the rabbit hole...)

[Thornkiddnaper]

The whole new bitter nest capturing and egg mechanics look very nice. However I do kinda dislike the productivity module 3 requiring the eggs. To me it doesn't seem rewarding but kinda punishing (and maybe a little scummy) because it just feels like... rather than making the Gleba stuff better, the already existing stuff is made more difficult. Also, I now see Gleba as a bit forced (instead of motivating) with the 2 best tier 3 modules (productivity and rarity) being locked behind it. I think it could be improved by:
-the eggs used for making tier 3 efficiency (or speed) modules rather than productivity (thought i doubt it would be as desired, and there might already be recipe changes to them)
-the productivity modules having 2 recipes: one very cheap requiring eggs and the other being expensive but without eggs (this would solve runs without enemies)
-adding a 4th tier that requires eggs and having the 3rd tier be without eggs (depending on the productivity gain with rarity it would likely be overkill, maybe even capping the 300 productivity limit)
That's my input about the latest FFF.

From the beginning of the announcements, we’ve known that some existing techs would be moved to the new planets, and T3 modules were mentioned as one of them. This isn’t a new decision. Also, the modules are spread evenly across the planets: Productivity on Gleba, speed on Vulcanus (technically unconfirmed but it’s a safe assumption) and quality on Fulgora.
Efficiency… Well we don’t really know the deal with that one. Maybe it’s the only one that isn’t moved, maybe it has some strange reason to be on the final planet. Who knows.

Oh I thought that quality tier 3 was on Gleba that is a mistake on my part (i got it mixed up). It all makes much more sense now, thanks!

[GamerGuru]

In case the gleba unlocks are still not rewarding enouth, I would suggest adding more chemical processing recipes to the biochemical plant and allowing in on other planets to craft rocket rocket fuil, water from ice, oil products on nauvis etc.

[vark111]

From the beginning of the announcements, we’ve known that some existing techs would be moved to the new planets, and T3 modules were mentioned as one of them. This isn’t a new decision. Also, the modules are spread evenly across the planets: Productivity on Gleba, speed on Vulcanus (technically unconfirmed but it’s a safe assumption) and quality on Fulgora.
Efficiency… Well we don’t really know the deal with that one. Maybe it’s the only one that isn’t moved, maybe it has some strange reason to be on the final planet. Who knows.

My completely-out-of-thin-air guess: Efficiency modules stay on Nauvis because Nauvis is the only planet where pollution agitates the natives, and efficiency modules are the quickest way to deal with pollution.

[vark111]

Whether we finally broke the imbalance of Vulcanus and Fulgora being clearly superior to Gleba, we will see

I don't think you've accomplished the goal here. You've certainly moved the needle, I just don't think enough. Thing is, the super-lab isn't useful in the early-mid game when you're hitting the first 3 planets. Most bases in those early stages are what? 60 SPM? 100 SPM? Super lab vs regular lab in those scales is pointless, you're talking less than 20 labs, regular or otherwise. There's also precious little need for T3 modules at this point in the factory's life.

Now, end game? 10kSPM? Yeah, the super lab and T3 prod modules have clear benefits in that factory. But you aren't getting to that scale until well after hitting all the planets.

[CyberCider]

Whether we finally broke the imbalance of Vulcanus and Fulgora being clearly superior to Gleba, we will see

I don't think you've accomplished the goal here. You've certainly moved the needle, I just don't think enough. Thing is, the super-lab isn't useful in the early-mid game when you're hitting the first 3 planets. Most bases in those early stages are what? 60 SPM? 100 SPM? Super lab vs regular lab in those scales is pointless, you're talking less than 20 labs, regular or otherwise. There's also precious little need for T3 modules at this point in the factory's life.

Now, end game? 10kSPM? Yeah, the super lab and T3 prod modules have clear benefits in that factory. But you aren't getting to that scale until well after hitting all the planets.

The super lab serves the same core purpose as the foundry and EM plant: It lets you make more stuff out of less resources. Simple as that.

[FutureSpec]

Interesting choice to be making such big changes so late in the process. Doesn't the expansion release in a little over two weeks?

Is this the trade-off you get from having a couple years of secretive development and no player input during that time?

But obviously it was a needed change -- people were quite meh on Gleba (mechanically speaking -- the art/music are phenomenal)

[Tooster]

I love it!

The bacteria bit in this FFF ignited an spark of imagination in my head which led to the idea of a new gleba-specific production loop which could hugely beenfit gleba in my opinion and tightly integrate it with the rest of the planets. That idea being... drum roll please...

Growing bacteria strains!

The sketch of the idea goes like this:

- different strains of bacteria produce different amounts of substances. One strain could be superior in producing iron, the other one could produce iron and copper equally while a rare strain could extract and produce uranium from a planet's scarce resources. This would allow getting substances normally not occurring on the planet, for example uranium or sulfuric acid.
- Each strain of bacteria would have it's unique genome which influences it's properties. Just like in genetic algorithms.
- Bacteria would multiply and randomly mutate in biochambers.
- Bacteria strains could be crossed to randomly produce new offspring which shares certain genes of their parents.
- Different strains require different nutrients in different amounts to stay alive.
- Without appropriate nutrients and conditions the bacteria die. Any halts in the factory and nutrient/electricity production lead to the the strain dying, which leads to the loss of progress. It requires players to think of making factory adapt to changing strains and constantly nurturing them. Think of it like a manifestation of a reward for "days without incident" streak.
- bacteria strains could be transported in criochambers to other planets to produce materials which don't normally occur or are very hard to obtain elsewhere. The criochamber tech would be unlocked on the last planet (iirc that the last planet is the cold/frozen one).

[Ghulmeister]

I love you guys, i love this game.
my vacation is set for the games release, though i am sadly losing the weekend where i will just be sitting at home and staring at the clock for 48 hours(or even more since release will probably be around noon in europe?)

anyways the wait for 2.0 will soon be over, and then the wait for 2.1 etc. will begin

[Koub]

The ores extracted from the bacteria gameplay mechanic reminds me of the ore production in seablock, basically extracted from water (and after a dozen transformations).

[gacekssj4]

One thing that comes into mind is H production as fuel.
Other thing is that ores from bacteria create much less pollution.
On the other hand, bacteria cultivation could decrease pollution as it could eat CO2.
And you would need to put tanks in high pollution to boost their work

[bobucles]

I'm not quite sure why bacteria have to replace copper and iron recipes, do they really have to? The organic recipes would make sense for replacing oil recipes. Biology always has new strange chemistry to exploit, and living things can be used to produce fuel in an exploitable way. Terrestrial plants might be less than 1% efficient in the sun, but that's no excuse for alien worlds to slack around. There's also nanotubes, a carbon based product that can be justified as an organic product. It's a high tech material suitable for high tech recipes, and might even skip a few lesser steps.

[CyberCider]

I love it!

The bacteria bit in this FFF ignited an spark of imagination in my head which led to the idea of a new gleba-specific production loop which could hugely beenfit gleba in my opinion and tightly integrate it with the rest of the planets. That idea being... drum roll please...

Growing bacteria strains!

The sketch of the idea goes like this:

- different strains of bacteria produce different amounts of substances. One strain could be superior in producing iron, the other one could produce iron and copper equally while a rare strain could extract and produce uranium from a planet's scarce resources. This would allow getting substances normally not occurring on the planet, for example uranium or sulfuric acid.
- Each strain of bacteria would have it's unique genome which influences it's properties. Just like in genetic algorithms.
- Bacteria would multiply and randomly mutate in biochambers.
- Bacteria strains could be crossed to randomly produce new offspring which shares certain genes of their parents.
- Different strains require different nutrients in different amounts to stay alive.
- Without appropriate nutrients and conditions the bacteria die. Any halts in the factory and nutrient/electricity production lead to the the strain dying, which leads to the loss of progress. It requires players to think of making factory adapt to changing strains and constantly nurturing them. Think of it like a manifestation of a reward for "days without incident" streak.
- bacteria strains could be transported in criochambers to other planets to produce materials which don't normally occur or are very hard to obtain elsewhere. The criochamber tech would be unlocked on the last planet (iirc that the last planet is the cold/frozen one).

Wow this would be a killer mod