Forces should be able to optionally share chart with non-friendly forces

[bits-orio]

Hello,

I have posted about this a few times and never been able to break through.

With Factorio development nearing the end, I will make another desperate plea. Unlike last time I asked, now I have some decent experience of multi force modding.

First some background.
I am the author of MTS (Multi-Team Support): https://mods.factorio.com/mod/multi-team-support (give it a try with 2 other players, first with vanilla)

And I have been running a public server hosting weekly multi-force runs for modded MTS past few months.

If you have heard of OARC mod, then consider MTS to be a very modern version of it. OARC is less efficient, because it doesn't utilize Factorio's very core functionality of surface level optimization. MTS embraces separate surfaces for every force, and hence easily able to host 10 to 15 decent teams playing in parallel on the same server. MTS really highlights how well optimized Factorio is.

There is a reason why MTS is among the only mods that provide such experiences. Because it doesn't make sense for multiple teams to be playing on the same server in parallel if there is no functionality to see each other's bases. Currently in Factorio, a team can't optionally share charting with another team (on different surfaces) if they aren't friends.
Teams don't want to be friends with each other, but want to be able to spectate each other.
The one core problem that lies at the root of MTS is that I have to jump hoops to provide functionality that allows one team to be able to spectate another team. They way I provide this functionality is that when someone wants to spectate another team, I temporarily move them to a Spectator force, which I make friends with everyone. While this solution works, there are a few downsides using this hack. Lot of mechanical coding work is required, which isn't easy unless relying on AI coding tools, which I do. But my thought process is that it should be much easier for modders to be able to provide such a simple functionality. If Factorio allows a way in API to allow one team to be spectate another team (without being friends), then that will unlock a whole new category of modded games.

I would be very grateful if factorio devs give another serious thought on this topic.

[UpsideDownEye]

+1