Allow us put more landing pads. With high distance from each

[erkki772]

I know that now you can put only one pad for balancing reasons so you can't make large "chest row". So what about having ability to build more pads with huge distance? Something like 2-5 chunks distance from each. This way you can't spam them much AND would make access to even more train logistic. Building 500 - 2000 belt distance would be waste of belts but not waste of trains. More pads would improve even more logistics what we have

Possible problem: Quick sending cargo down. Where it would go? You could make "main" landing pad or have priority like train station.

We could automate space even more. Or use them as very expensive logistic bot to send stuff multiple km away via space.

[Tinyboss]

This is interesting! I got really excited about the idea of setting up a remote outpost and getting iron and carbon drops from orbit, before I was reminded about the one landing pad per surface rule. My dream would be resurrected if this suggestion was accepted!

I think it also addresses the dev's objection which was that it makes it too easy to drop everything exactly where we need it. Surely there is some required distance at which that becomes no longer an issue.

For quick drops, there could be a dropdown at the bottom of the hub inventory panel, like the quality one, where we select the target. It would retain the last setting for each planet until we change it again, so no additional clicks are required.

[Nemoricus]

I was thinking that a research that let you increase the landing pad limit would be nice. Perhaps one for each planet? So if you did Vulcanus and Fulgora you could have two extra landing pads per world.

[Niizuki]

I was thinking that a research that let you increase the landing pad limit would be nice. Perhaps one for each planet? So if you did Vulcanus and Fulgora you could have two extra landing pads per world.

This is absolutely great idea, I would not lock it behind a limited number, but maybe that second and more landing pads have a timer for a reuse. Also yes, lock them after a research, and the timer would start really high, but would be reduced by research.

[vark111]

I would rather see them add this as a Prometheum science tech. People are complaining there's not enough end game content that requires prometheum, well, this is a perfect example. Let us have an infinite (or not) research that requires prometheum science to increase the number of landing pads per surface.

By the time I'm farming prometheum, the dev's concern of "it makes the game too easy" is moot. I'm farming prometheum. Of course the game is easy at this point. Prometheum farmers aren't concerned with making things easy. They are concerned with making things scale. Adding multiple landing pads will do just that.

[Ingvar]

For multiplayer purpose, it would be really nice to have multiple landing pads.
It would also be a lot more realistic. What is the logical idea behind only having one pad? Most other stuff in Factorio has a pretty natural reason for it, but not this.

I wish at minimum it was a setting which was changeable.
Doing X, Y and Z with only one pad could always be an achievement.
Researching to have more than one would be great.

We have researched everything, and I also have this feeling about "what's next". We accomplished that with a small spaghetti base on Nauvis and mini-bases on the other planets, in a month of playing.

[SpiderDeity]

If space platforms had to travel to a specific cargo landing pad, like a different orbit on the planet, it would solve most of the problems I think the devs were trying to avoid.

[Aricitic]

They could also go halfway to the Space Exploration (mod) route and make us *build* the landing rockets for any but the first landing pad. They could be relatively inexpensive, but note "free" like the ones dropped to the first landing pad are.

Additionally, they could add functionality to the cargo bays to specify the landing pad per bay as opposed to the central one.

[nctdev]

This is a great idea. Logistics for unrequested items could be solved simply by adding landing pad priority, like train stations. For requested items straight up values or division in edge cases.

[KillingTimeItself]

I think realistically you could manage both the balance aspect and multi-pad support. Though i agree with the end game sentiment, locking it behind research seems like a good game balance solution here. It would be really nice to have dedicated landing pads for certain things. Especially for inter planetary item transit (extremely remote outposts for example)

[computeraddict]

It would also be a lot more realistic. What is the logical idea behind only having one pad? Most other stuff in Factorio has a pretty natural reason for it, but not this.

Gameplay. Just look at how (some) people build Space Exploration bases.

[MrSmoothieHuman]

the technology effect for multiple pads is already in the API, so you could easily add a mod that puts them behind promethium science!
making them not placable by range would be a bit harder though, and would require some runtime scripting to get to work..

[Ingvar]

the technology effect for multiple pads is already in the API, so you could easily add a mod that puts them behind promethium science!
making them not placable by range would be a bit harder though, and would require some runtime scripting to get to work..

Using a mod disables universal achievements, which is really a bummer. I can see many mods should lead to this, but many such as the one you suggest wouldn't have to do that.

I wish the devs would allow this as a game option/setting which didn't cause the loss of achievement earnings.

I only play the game with my kids as a family, and for us being stuck with one landing pad is very damaging to the enjoyment. And I don't want to loose the achievement goals.

[Rseding91]

The reason landing pads are limited to 1 is not to prevent "one big chest". It's 2 reasons:

1. So "rocket logistics" is not a thing - you can't send something up in a rocket and request it at another landing pad - effectively transporting items from A to B through rocket launches.

2. To make a central part of your factory - everything revolves around the landing pad because it's where all of the planet related items come into the factory.

[Nemoricus]

For me, the main thing the one pad per planet limit accomplished was to disincentivize me from dealing with bulk interplanetary logistics at all. I don't like the idea of using bots for primary logistics and I'm not a circuit expert, so that already pretty sharply limited what I would be able to do with the limited perimeter of a landing pad anyway. Any items I want to use in bulk would need to need to get one of a limited number of lanes, and while landing pads have a large perimeter, some of that perimeter needs to be used for cargo bay extensions so that it can handle shipments.

Second, a mistake with placement or design becomes very hard to address. If I find myself painting myself into a corner with how the layout is progressing, unlike any other build in the game I can't leave the working parts of it in place while I build a better version elsewhere, because I can't place a new landing pad without deconstructing the old one.

Also, dealing with any inventory that the landing pad held becomes a headache, since I need to make sure that I don't get a ton of redundant items shipped down to the new landing pad. I'm sure that part of this could be addressed with circuitry, but see the bit about not being a circuit expert.

In the end, on three of the five planets I used landing pads exclusively for infrastructure import, which is fairly low volume and not particularly amenable to being handled by belts and inserters in the first place. So for Gleba, Vulcanus, and Fulgora, the landing pad could hardly have been called a central feature.

Nauvis received science pack imports, but since the landing pad was positioned next to the labs, the logistics were pretty simple. It also handled bioflux, but that's just one more thing and I never needed it in particularly high volume, though a large part of that was due to having issues with biter nests.

Aquilo is the only one where it ended up being reasonably central to the operations, but it's also the same kind of situation that the labs were in. There's only a limited number of things being handled, and the landing pad was adjacent to those operations.

[Ingvar]

The reason landing pads are limited to 1 is not to prevent "one big chest". It's 2 reasons:

1. So "rocket logistics" is not a thing - you can't send something up in a rocket and request it at another landing pad - effectively transporting items from A to B through rocket launches.

2. To make a central part of your factory - everything revolves around the landing pad because it's where all of the planet related items come into the factory.

I can see that, but wish it was an option instead of a forced "only way", and again, doing it with a mod will disable all achievements, which is not an option.