Allow Biolabs on every planet *except* Gleba

[HeliGungir]

TL;DR:

Allow Biolabs on every planet except Gleba

• If desired, this could be gated behind promethium science

Why?

1. This maintains only 1 landing pad per planet as a logistic puzzle, and to keep GUIs simple FFF-417
2. This maintains "it's cool to have a single location with lots of activity"
3. This maintains "shipping spoilable Ag Science to another planet should be rewarded" 129833
4. When megabasing, players now have up to 4 Landing Pads (one on each planet) to ram science packs through, alleviating the throughput issues we currently face trying to ram everything through a single landing pad on Nauvis 130388
5. This encourages producing the 6 basic science packs on each planet, which is more interesting than only producing them on Nauvis
6. Nauvis is still relevant as the only source of biter eggs and uranium, and Bioflux still has to be shipped to Nauvis
7. If desired, the ability to place Biolabs on planets other than Nauvis could be gated behind promethium science
8. Any lore excuse can be made. Maybe Biolabs are allergic to the spores on Gleba

[crimsonarmy]

I somehow went from being against this to being pro it from reading the why section.

[eugenekay]

Any lore excuse can be made. Maybe Biolabs are allergic to the spores on Gleba

I think that this bit of Lore is the ONLY reason worth considering, and explains perfectly why Biolabs must stay only on Nauvis: they are based on Biter Biology! The crafting recipe's major ingredient is Biter Eggs, which means the Lab is performing ethically questionable animal testing. Vulcanus' pressure is too high to support non-Demolisher life; Fulgora's soil is poisoned with Heavy Oil from a long-dead industrial civilization; and Aquilo's Ammonia atmosphere is as unbreathable as the vacuum of a Space Platform.

This idea seems like a good candidate for a fork of an existing mod, so that folks can try it out and see what the resulting factories actually look like.

[crimsonarmy]

Any lore excuse can be made. Maybe Biolabs are allergic to the spores on Gleba

I think that this bit of Lore is the ONLY reason worth considering, and explains perfectly why Biolabs must stay only on Nauvis: they are based on Biter Biology! The crafting recipe's major ingredient is Biter Eggs, which means the Lab is performing ethically questionable animal testing. Vulcanus' pressure is too high to support non-Demolisher life; Fulgora's soil is poisoned with Heavy Oil from a long-dead industrial civilization; and Aquilo's Ammonia atmosphere is as unbreathable as the vacuum of a Space Platform.

This idea seems like a good candidate for a fork of an existing mod, so that folks can try it out and see what the resulting factories actually look like.

There is the issue of biters survive everywhere.

[eugenekay]

There is the issue of biters survive everywhere.

Survive? Biter Eggs spoil into a "Big Biter" with reduced health; not into a Spawner. Bacterium may "survive" in space, but they are not happy about it, and definitely not reproducing or usable for Scientific Research.

[coffee-factorio]

[*]Any lore excuse can be made. Maybe Biolabs are allergic to the spores on Gleba

I mean, you are putting a semi-insect biological computer on a planet that is largely insect eating fungus. It isn't that they are allergic. It's that they smell like dinner.

[HeliGungir]

There is the issue of biters survive everywhere.

Survive? Biter Eggs spoil into a "Big Biter" with reduced health; not into a Spawner. Bacterium may "survive" in space, but they are not happy about it, and definitely not reproducing or usable for Scientific Research.

I am a strong believer in gameplay > lore, especially for a game like Factorio. There's always some excuse you can make to handwaive gameplay decisions. Or you can choose to never address them at all, like how EM plants and Foundries can only be crafted on their respective planets for... no lore-based reason at all!

We could say Biolabs aren't biter nests, they're a biomachine - a synthetic pseudo-lifeform that can withstand temperature and pressure extremes, but unfortunately, the spores on Gleba attack their cellular structure. And if it was Wube saying this, instead of me, nobody would bat an eye.

[mmmPI]

Maybe it's not known but the UPS impact on bot unloading the landing pad is almost nothing compared to the cost of space platform going for promethium mining, so this suggestion will only have minimal impact on UPS.

My opinion is that this incentivize players to make all their labs in Vulcanus and not on every planets.

There's a mod that allow biolabs in space an other planets, already btw : https://mods.factorio.com/mod/biolabs-in-space

It was linked in a previous topic that contain similar suggestion : 123940

It also contain the lore reference that was mentionned in the FFF as for why this is the case :

The Biolab can be used only on Nauvis as the organism inside would die on other planets, but in turn it only consumes half the amount of science packs for any given research.

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

[crimsonarmy]

My opinion is that this incentivize players to make all their labs in Vulcanus and not on every planets.

I do see what you are saying (and kind of agree), but each planet has it's benefits for having your labs on it (other than Aquilo): Vulcanus has the ability to easily make a lot of science, Fulgora is in close proximity to Aquilo, and Navius is centrally located and is your home planet (so many people will use it by default).

[Hurkyl]

My opinion is that this incentivize players to make all their labs in Vulcanus and not on every planets.

I do see what you are saying (and kind of agree), but each planet has it's benefits for having your labs on it (other than Aquilo): Vulcanus has the ability to easily make a lot of science, Fulgora is in close proximity to Aquilo, and Navius is centrally located and is your home planet (so many people will use it by default).

As an aside, Nauvis is not centrally located: that honor belongs to Gleba, which has a space route to all four of the other planets.

[quineotio]

Allow Biolabs on every planet

Too many arbitrary restrictions in Space Age. Let me choose.

[CyberCider]

My opinion is that this incentivize players to make all their labs in Vulcanus and not on every planets.

Agreed. Biolabs being Nauvis only is the only thing preventing the terrible design and balance of Vulcanus from “infecting” the entire rest of the game. And just barely, it still greatly affects quality and the early/mid game. It’s too late to change the entire planet, so its impact on the rest of the game’s quality shouldn’t be allowed to get more severe in any other ways.

[Kyralessa]

Agreed. Biolabs being Nauvis only is the only thing preventing the terrible design and balance of Vulcanus from “infecting” the entire rest of the game. And just barely, it still greatly affects quality and the early/mid game. It’s too late to change the entire planet, so its impact on the rest of the game’s quality shouldn’t be allowed to get more severe in any other ways.

Huh, a lot of assertions being made there.