Coming back after a few year Hiatus, Differences between .16 and 2.0?

[ChairDancer89]

Coming back after a few year Hiatus, what are major differences between .16 and 2.0? I finished my .16 game a few years ago and took a break. I come back to play Space Exploration as I originally intended only to see there's a new DLC and 2.0 of the base game. When .18 came out it broke my recipes, so I reverted back to .16 and finished the game there. I know there are a ton of differences between .16 and 2.0, but what am I going to miss out on really? Better game engine? Different recipes? All new items,buildings etc? Reading about Space Age doesn't excite me as much as I hoped it would because it seems it's very scripted and locked in, but I may give it a chance later. I really enjoyed my .16 build and wanted to add the Space Exploration mod to it, which I likely will, and then gravitate to the new 2.0 and maybe Space Age.

[Koub]

Your best bet would be to download the last 1.1 stable, and get the Space Exploration mod then. Nothing to buy.
The 2.0 is the equivalent of the 0.16, but like Windows 11 is the equivalent to Windows 95. Unfortunately, Space exploration hasn't been made compatible with it - and I don't know if it will one day, so you won't be able to benefit from all the QoL that's been added when going from 1.1 to 2.0.

[ChairDancer89]

What are the QOL updates id be missing for 1.1 to 2.0? I can read through all the changelogs for each version but just a general sense also would be helpful. I know all my recipes are gonna break which is fine because I plan on starting over again. Ill just have to get used to the different progression/requirements of needing oil faster or something like that. I know they changed the rendering engines and other things as well. But what are some overall game play changes in general from 1.1 to 2.0?

[BlueTemplar]

From 0.16 to 0.17-0.18-1.0-1.1-2.0 you might have noticed a lot of graphical updates, fluid touching prevention, spitters and worms now shooting acid (which also lingers on ground) rather than homing missiles, lasers being beams, the easier first oil processing, changes to ingredients for some of the sciences, changed tech tree (even for v1.1), bots (IIRC ?) and laser turrets moved to blue science...

Otherwise there are just so many changes it's hard to list them all, your best bet is to read all the FFFs in order (maybe avoiding the ones from the last year to avoid spoilers) :
starting somewhere around here I guess ?

P.S.: IIRC Space Exploration has never been compatible with 0.16, so 0.17 would be the minimum required version, and you might not be able to run the latest Space Exploration version either ?

[BraveCaperCat]

What are the QOL updates id be missing for 1.1 to 2.0? I can read through all the changelogs for each version but just a general sense also would be helpful. I know all my recipes are gonna break which is fine because I plan on starting over again. Ill just have to get used to the different progression/requirements of needing oil faster or something like that. I know they changed the rendering engines and other things as well. But what are some overall game play changes in general from 1.1 to 2.0?

Space Age

Instead of 1 planet, you now have 5 planets, plus the solar system edge and the shattered planet which don't have associated surfaces to build on.
If you didn't know already, the planet you start on is called Nauvis, the others are called Vulcanus, Gleba, Fulgora and Aquilo.
To get to Aquilo, you need to first reach the other 3 new planets, overcome their challenges and craft their unique science packs.
On Vulcanus, you need to use lava and calcite to make various metals, such as iron, copper and steel.
On Gleba, you need to filter out all the spoilage from your belts, and try to get resources to their destination before they spoil.
On Fulgora, you need to protect yourself and your factory from the lightning, while recycling the scraps left by an ancient civilization.
On Aquilo, you need to import everything and more to keep your factory from freezing up, when the only resources are an ammonia ocean, occasional crude oil, lithium brine and flourine gas nodes and a VERY small amount of solar power.

Here are the relevant FFFs first describing each (new) planet:
Vulcanus, Gleba, Fulgora, Aquilo.
Note that the following FFF for each of the planets contains additional information for each of them. The only exceptions are the FFF describing the new Nauvis terrain generation and Aquilo.

Also note that none of the FFFs describe the shattered planet or the solar system edge.

On top of that, there's Quality, Elevated Rails, and so much more. Maybe if you had kept yourself in the FFF loop, you'd be able to know as much about Factorio: Space Age as I do. (I only reached the new content a few days ago in my non-editor game)

[BlueTemplar]

Those aren't 2.0 changes, those are Space Age changes.
(Also, careful with spoilers.)

[BraveCaperCat]

Those aren't 2.0 changes, those are Space Age changes.
(Also, careful with spoilers.)

I spoiler'd the post for you! I hope you like it.
Also, why are the links showing through the spoiler?

[BlueTemplar]

Thanks !

Basic spoilers tags are a bit wonky, for anything more complicated than plain text, use

Code: Select all

[spoiler="bla"][/spoiler]

instead.

[Daid]

What are the QOL updates id be missing for 1.1 to 2.0? I can read through all the changelogs for each version but just a general sense also would be helpful. I know all my recipes are gonna break which is fine because I plan on starting over again. Ill just have to get used to the different progression/requirements of needing oil faster or something like that. I know they changed the rendering engines and other things as well. But what are some overall game play changes in general from 1.1 to 2.0?

Without Space Age, the general gameplay should be mostly the same. But a few things will feel more streamlined. Like being able to do a lot more from the map screen. Like, you can manage your whole factory with bots from the map screen. No longer you need to walk around to grab some random stuck item from an inserter, or set recipes.

One thing that people love to hate is that you now need to collect certain items before certain researches unlock. So you need to mine some uranium before you can research nuclear power. Or mine oil before you can do refinery research. I personally like it, it makes the start of the game more streamlined, but highly optimized players hate that they cannot build a part of their factory before they setup mining for it.

Fluids work quite different. And, I personally find it a welcome chance. As it's much more predictable what happens with fluids.

But, most changes are minor, like rails placement being slightly different. And bots being slightly less stupid on long distance travel, less cliffs on nauvis.

[BlueTemplar]

OtoH, you can probably also read the FFFs about 2.0/SA in addition to the previous ones, as Wube has been careful to warn you about the biggest Space Age spoilers at the beginning of the FFFs :
The first one.

[RiscaYin]

Why would anyone care that 2.0 is different from 0.16, sure maybe I started around 0.16 but still who the fuck cares what changed for you, we all have enough to deal with caring about anything you say? Hmm, I wonder how bad the devs will hate me now Look 0.16 is even before 1 and if you are comparing anything before 1 then you are not making fair comparisons, I mean I hate that every dev release breaks all the mods, why must they always do that? I mean people make great mods but after a couple of years I can see how they might move on and to expect them to come back and support someone else's game seems like a lot to ask. I'm glad we have mods do not get me wrong, but losing squeak through sucks. Losing long reach, something I did not even realize I used as much as I obviously do also sucks, I could go on for a LOT of mods since I use like over 100 and so many break, I'm glad it is easy to check if they have been fixed and just update and restart the game is great, thanks devs.

I do have a dev question, you had a feature in the game "IME keyboard (Asian language) bug". This bug should have had a test designed in your build machine the tested it so how did something you made verified break in a new release? I am losing faith in a company I liked a lot.

[BlueTemplar]

0.16 was already more stable and fully featured than a lot of other games (yes, the graphics weren't top tier yet, but is that really why you play Factorio first and foremost ?), so the '1.0' is kind of arbitrary anyway. (Wube themselves said that 1.1 was actually what they wanted for 1.0 )

Sometimes fixing the mods yourself is the easiest way.

Sometimes the mods aren't needed as much in the new version : for instance I feel that Squeak Through is a lot less needed now that underground pipes / the character collision had something done to them that you don't get stuck on them every time they form an L.

And there seems to be a brand new mod trying to replace Squeak Through ?

[BraveCaperCat]

Look 0.16 is even before 1 and if you are comparing anything before 1 then you are not making fair comparisons

0.18 is practically 1.0 (modding-wise). Most mods which worked in 0.17 will work in 1.0. As for 1.1 I can't say, and for 2.0: Almost every mod had to update to work with 2.0.

[BlueTemplar]

Yet again, don't be so focused on 'minor' vs 'major' : 0.17 had a LOT of breaking changes, and then some more between 0.17.0 (experimental) and the stable 0.17.

Like, look at the reaction of the author of the most popular modpack :
viewtopic.php?p=384173#p384173
(And this is only for a single FFF worth of changes, albeit a big one !)
(And he was lucky to have Factorio source code access, so could prepare some of (other) changes !)

Meanwhile, IIRC for 0.18 to 1.0 to 1.1, the mod would typically work anyway : and you didn't even have to go in the files to update the version of the game the mod was for !

[bombcar]

You can review a "QoL changes" YouTube video for the biggest ones, but that will really be between 1.1 and 2.0.

So far the main thing I've noticed is some slightly different ordering for researches, different recipes in some cases, and the ability to blueprint loaded turrets (this is the biggest one, it makes turret walking much easier once you have the bots).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx7x4cPJr4E for example.

The other REAL BIG difference if you play Space Age (not just 2.0) is that you really CAN'T not automate.

[ChairDancer89]

I appreciate all the responses. I don't really do big deal mods myself. The ones I had previously was a wood harvester, lightorio, uncraft and advanced solar panels/capacitors. I really like the nitty gritty feel of having to manage everything down to individual items as it makes it feel more immersive for me at least. If I were stuck on a planet that is id be fighting with the tiny details such as an ammo pack breaking an assembler because I dropped it on the wrong belt, to large scale issues where a nest spawns next to my rails and attacks my rail cars. I think ill stick with 1 or 1.1 as it seems ill get the graphical engine updates and just adapt to the recipe and research changes, without any major overhauls that would make it seem like the game is playing itself for me instead of the legitimate joy for me at least of micromanaging a misplaced piece of ore. Thanks!

[Tertius]

What, you came back after many years, probably because of the release of 2.0, and you intend to stay at 1? That's something I don't understand. There is a new game out! Play it! Play 2.0!

The game is the same in spirit in every way ever since, but inner workings and balancing has been continuously extended and adjusted. Because of that nobody is able to really tell what has been all the differences in detail.

Just take the game as new game and start with a fresh mind. Forget all mods you might have used (their functionality or alternative approaches might have been integrated in the vanilla game), forget all blueprints you might still have (one simply does things differently than with pre-1 versions). Approach the game as a new player would do: start from scratch and discover everything from scratch. And do this with 2.0, since there have been A LOT of QoL changes in 2.0 that makes dealing with the game much easier and less tedious.

It's not that the game plays itself now, you need to explicitly automate manual tasks as much as before. It's just the train schedules can be made more general and universal, there are train groups, there is a global rename feature, you can define global groups of logistics settings and don't need to painstakingly enter the same item sets piece for piece again, for example the requests of a logistics chest or the settings in a constant combinator. You're able to differ between the red and green wire in combinators. You can use multiple conditions in a decider combinator. You can build elevated rails to avoid train congestion at intersections.

[BraveCaperCat]

Note: SE is many times more complicated than SA, but SE has much more content. SA still has more QoL features though.

[BlueTemplar]

Elevated rails are part of the Space Age expansion if not of the space-age 'official mod'.

To be fair, if they want to take the long way to 2.0/SA, then going from 0.16 to 1.1 might even be a bigger change than going from 1.1 to 2.0 (in gameplay, if not quite QoL). And 2.0 is more balanced to be played with SA than without.
EDIT : Oh, also, 1.1 is going to have a bigger variety of mods than 2.0 for a while... (even probably including those you can easily update to 2.0 yourself)

One warning though : forget about converting a potential future already built rail-based factory from 1.1 to 2.0, that's just going to be a ton of headaches because the rail layouts changed.

[mako00]

Space Exploration changes a bunch of early game recipes anyway, and it is generally recommended that you start a fresh game with it.