[MOD 0.12.x] Marathon 1.0.3

[Afforess]

Type: Mod
Name: Marathon
Description: For the players who approve of the fact that Rome wasn't built in a day.
License: MIT License
Version: 1.0.3
Release: 2016-04-14
Tested-With-Factorio-Version: 0.12.30
Category: Gameplay
Tags: Game Balance
Download-Url: https://github.com/Afforess/Marathon/re ... _1.0.3.zip
Website: https://github.com/Afforess/Marathon

License

MIT License
Copyright (c) 2014, Benoit Girard

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

Description

Do you find factorio too quick to complete and would like a challenge that requires you to scale a bigger factory, spend more effort on research, plan investments more carefully and require the use the train feeding bases? Do you like the feel of the base game as-is? This is the mod for you!

This mod is designed to increase the length and difficulty of the game without changing the recipes. It makes the following major changes:
* Power generation is more costly and fuel yield are halved.
* Science costs drastically increased.
* Most costs are increased, particularly electronics circuits.
* Electronics circuits changes cause the cost of automation (assembly machines, non burner inserter, electric drills) to be very costly. The player has to weight investments early on.
* Biter evolution is unchanged. Since the game is significantly slowed down this means that you'll like need to use gun turrent against spitters and you'll face biter evolution with less research completed making biters harder.
* Copper outputs significantly more plates per ore (5 to 1 right now) and copper costs are significantly increases. This will cause significant copper bandwidth issues.
* Various build times are increased.

Expect the following:
* The game to take roughly 10 times as long.
* Burner stage (turrets) can't be skipped.
* Getting your first research (lab, power) will over an hour.
* Higher tier research are very costly.
* Be forced to use trains.

Version history

1.0.3 - Afforess
Changes:
- BUGFIX: Copper plates required to create science pack 1 increased from 30 to 40 (was increased previously, then the change was lost)
- BUGFIX: (Bob's Mods) Verify recipe ingredients exist before updating bob's mod recipes

1.0.2 - Afforess
Changes:
- BALANCE: (Bob's Mods) Cobalt Oxide from Copper recipe now requires 2x stone, 2x coal, 2x hydrogen, 37.5 time, and produces 50x copper plate (previously was 1, 1, 1, 25, and 10 respectively)

1.0.1 - Afforess
Changes:
- BUGFIX: (Bob's Mods) Verify carbon exists before balancing fuel value
- BUGFIX: (Bob's Mods) Verify liquid-fuel-canister exists before balancing fuel value

1.0.0 - Afforess, contributions from Wulfson (bobathon)
Changes:
- New recipes to support compatibility with bob's mods and vanilla factorio.
- No changes for vanilla balance.

0.5.4 - Afforess, contributions from KeepOnDigging
Changes:
- BALANCE: Stone brick requires 5 stone to smelt (2 previously)
- BALANCE: Piercing Bullet Magazine requires 25 copper plate to smelt (5 previously)
- BALANCE: Rocket requires 10 iron plate to smelt (2 previously)
- BALANCE: Shotgun shell requires 10 copper plate, 10 iron plate to smelt (2 each, previously)
- BALANCE: Piercing shotgun shell requires 10 copper plate to smelt (2 previously)
- BALANCE: Basic transport belt requires 2 iron plate (1 previously)
- BALANCE: Basic inserter requires 2 iron plate (1 previously)
- BALANCE: Burner inserter requires 2 iron plate, 2 iron gear wheel (1 each previously)
- BALANCE: Pistol requires 25 copper plate, 25 iron plate (5 each, previously)
- BALANCE: Submachine gun requires 25 iron gear wheel, 25 copper plate, 25 iron plate (10, 5, 10 each previously, respectively)
- BALANCE: Basic Bullet Magazine requires 5 iron plates (2 previously)
- BALANCE: Basic armor requires 100 iron plates (40 previously)
- BALANCE: Radar requires 25 iron plates (10 previously)
- BALANCE: Small lamp requires 2 iron plates (1 previously)
- BALANCE: Pipe-to-ground requires 10 iron plates (5 previously)
- BALANCE: Gun turret requires 50 iron gear wheels, 50 copper plates, 50 iron plates (10, 10, 20 each previously, respectively)
- BALANCE: Sulfuric acid requires 2 iron plates (1 previously)
- BALANCE: Sulfur recipe returns 1 sulfur as a result instead of 2 previously
- BALANCE: Lubricant requires 2 heavy oil (1 previously)
- BALANCE: Long inserter requires 5 iron plate (1 previously)
- BALANCE: Straight rail requires 2 stone, 2 iron stick (1 each, previously)
- BALANCE: Curved rail requires 8 stone, 8 iron stick, (4 each, previously)
- BALANCE: Iron chest requires 20 iron plate (8 previously)
- BALANCE: Shotgun requires 25 iron plate, 10 iron gear wheels, 50 copper plate (15, 5, 10 each previously, respectively)
- BALANCE: Combat shotgun requires 10 iron gear wheels, 50 copper plate (5, 10 each previously, respectively)
- BALANCE: Advanced circuit requires 2 plastic (1 previously)
- BALANCE: Big electric pole requires 25 copper plate (5 previously)
- BALANCE: Substation requires 25 copper plate (5 previously)
- BALANCE: Medium electric pole requires 10 copper plate (2 previously)
- BALANCE: Low Density Structure requires 25 copper plate, 10 plastic (5 each, previously)
- BALANCE: Solid fuel provides 10MJ of power, down from 25MJ previously

0.5.3 - Afforess

Changes:
- BALANCE: Copper plate smelting time reduced by 10% over previous value (7MJ -> 6.33MJ)
- BALANCE: Copper plates required to create science pack 1 increased from 30 to 40
- UPDATE: Factorio 0.12 supported.

===========
0.5.2 - Afforess

Changes:
- BUGFIX: Pipe now stacks to 100, so it can serve as an input to assembling-machine for steam engines

Plans and Future Development

There are no plans for future features or changes to the mod. I will still release bugfixes will occur as bugs are found and updates will occur as new Factorio releases break this mod.

Otherwise, consider the 'Marathon' mod 100% feature complete and done. The mod is stable, bug-free, and finished.

[bgirard]

Thanks for keeping this up to date!

[Afforess]

Thanks for keeping this up to date!

No Problem! I wanted to keep the Marathon dream alive.

[Ohz]

I just want to say that I cannot play Factorio without the Marathon Mod anymore. It is so cool, so rough, so real hardcore in my opinion. I play and replay with differents map settings since 6 months.
It forces you to build a whole burning factory before to move to electricity, I apreciate this.

Thanks a lot.

[Afforess]

I just want to say that I cannot play Factorio without the Marathon Mod anymore. It is so cool, so rough, so real hardcore in my opinion. I play and replay with differents map settings since 6 months.
It forces you to build a whole burning factory before to move to electricity, I apreciate this.

Thanks a lot.

Absolutely, neither can I. I highly recommend RSO + Marathon for the ultimate difficulty.

[aka13]

What are the suggested recourse settings for this mod? Do you recommend using resource overhaul?

[Afforess]

What are the suggested recourse settings for this mod? Do you recommend using resource overhaul?

I use RSO because I like difficult games, and want to be forced to use trains. Marathon works fine alone, or in combination with most other mods. I have a few other mods I use for fun, and have never had any conflicts.

If you do hit a conflict, let me know, and I will see if I can patch / workaround it.

[aka13]

Yes, indeed, I am 60h + in a game with RSO and Marathon, and I must say that this is brilliant.

1 Suggestion though - since vanilla medium and big electric poles use plates instead of wires most of the time they are easier and faster to craft then the small ones. I think it deserves some sort of a rebalance.

[imajor]

Hi Guys,

I want to start a new game with Marathon and RSO, and I don't want to waste several hours before I would realize that the mod is not active at all. So I downloaded 0.5.3 for the 0.12.3 version of the game, and in the mods menu I can see the Marathon mod there, I enabled it, but when I start a new game, I don't see any change. The costs of research (at least a few which I checked) is the same as in the vanilla game. Aren't those supposed to be higher? Or the construction cost for the facilities? They seems to be the same as without Marathon. Any help would be appreciated.

[aka13]

Hi Guys,

I want to start a new game with Marathon and RSO, and I don't want to waste several hours before I would realize that the mod is not active at all. So I downloaded 0.5.3 for the 0.12.3 version of the game, and in the mods menu I can see the Marathon mod there, I enabled it, but when I start a new game, I don't see any change. The costs of research (at least a few which I checked) is the same as in the vanilla game. Aren't those supposed to be higher? Or the construction cost for the facilities? They seems to be the same as without Marathon. Any help would be appreciated.

Take a look at circuits and other things. Wires, for example, cost 10 copper plates. A normal assembler costs 400 iron and 1300 copper. It adds up very quickly. With marathon 0.5.3 I have a production of 6k copper plates a minute, and barely made it to blue science packs with 90h.

[imajor]

Thanks a lot. Now I realized what confused me, after toggling the mod on and off, I need to restart factorio, it is not enough to quit to main menu and start a new game.

[Afforess]

Yes, indeed, I am 60h + in a game with RSO and Marathon, and I must say that this is brilliant.

1 Suggestion though - since vanilla medium and big electric poles use plates instead of wires most of the time they are easier and faster to craft then the small ones. I think it deserves some sort of a rebalance.

Thanks for the suggestion. There are a few other areas I know need a second pass at balance (laser turrets costs are a bit low compared to the new 0.12 costs in vanilla as well). I will add this to my list to review.

[aka13]

Yes, indeed, I am 60h + in a game with RSO and Marathon, and I must say that this is brilliant.

1 Suggestion though - since vanilla medium and big electric poles use plates instead of wires most of the time they are easier and faster to craft then the small ones. I think it deserves some sort of a rebalance.

Thanks for the suggestion. There are a few other areas I know need a second pass at balance (laser turrets costs are a bit low compared to the new 0.12 costs in vanilla as well). I will add this to my list to review.

Red circuits are definately needing an increase in plastic consumption. maybe 50 plastic instead of 5, or maybe even more, but definately more then 5. I have never had problems with oil production this release.

[Afforess]

Yes, indeed, I am 60h + in a game with RSO and Marathon, and I must say that this is brilliant.

1 Suggestion though - since vanilla medium and big electric poles use plates instead of wires most of the time they are easier and faster to craft then the small ones. I think it deserves some sort of a rebalance.

Thanks for the suggestion. There are a few other areas I know need a second pass at balance (laser turrets costs are a bit low compared to the new 0.12 costs in vanilla as well). I will add this to my list to review.

Red circuits are definately needing an increase in plastic consumption. maybe 50 plastic instead of 5, or maybe even more, but definately more then 5. I have never had problems with oil production this release.

50? I just checked the vanilla stats for the red circuit, and it says '2'. Marathon is designed to be a 5x-slower gameplay than vanilla, so 10 is probably the right amount.

However, I do think I know why you don't have trouble with oil. Oil is a time-based extraction process, and Marathon, being much slower, means it is easier to pump oil, as the 5x slowdown in production effectively is a 5x increase in time to extract oil. I will have to look into whether it is possible to slow down the rate of oil extraction. Does oil have a mining hardness? Maybe that can be used.

[Ackos]

More copper
More iron
More Miners
More green circuits
More factories
More coal
More Power
More green circuits!
More turrets
More bullets
more bullets!!!
More more more
research? Who the hell has time for research!


I have an RSO map, with nests fairly close. It was a race to get turrets before the biters arrived in force (I have lost a couple maps because the biters arrived to soon). I won this time. I have pretty constant biter attacks on 3 sides, significant time and resources are going into base defense. This is fun.

Key mods:
RSO
Bobs Enemy's
Biter Evolution
No crafting challenge

[Ohz]

Do all of you play Marathon + RSO in normal mode? I find it too slow, annoying to walk back and forth everywhere, I prefer to play in sandbox mode, without a character. You just fly around and build your factory and defend it.

The bad thing though is you can magically drop grenades over alien bases, and explore the map super fast without any vehicules :/

[Ackos]

yes Ohz, normal mode for me. I like a slower game. Had some very agressive biter settings, so was anything but boring.

[Afforess]

Do all of you play Marathon + RSO in normal mode? I find it too slow, annoying to walk back and forth everywhere, I prefer to play in sandbox mode, without a character. You just fly around and build your factory and defend it.

The bad thing though is you can magically drop grenades over alien bases, and explore the map super fast without any vehicules :/

I play Marathon + RSO in normal mode. The once concession I make to speed is that I use a mod that lets me control the game speed. (It's not the Time Button's mod, but similar... I can't remember the exact name, I need to check). Adjusting speed to 10x for a little bit after you got an initial setup and need to accumulate some supplies helps. I don't usually need to change the speed much though.

Concrete helps a lot.

[KeepOnBuilding]

I have forked Afforess' version of Marathon and made a few tweaks:

- balanced all the other recipes which use iron and copper plates (including power poles)
- balanced sulfur, sulfuric acid and plastic production. On my last play-through I needed only 2 sulfur, 2 sulfuric and 4 plastic plants… not this time.
- balanced stone.

And when I say "balanced", I mean whacked with a nerf hammer.

https://github.com/KeepOnDigging/FactorioMod-Marathon

I'm thinking solid fuel also needs to be hammered. What do you think about:
10 petroleum gas to 1 solid field (vanilla is 2)
5 light oil to 1 solid fuel (vanilla is 1)
5 heavy oil to 1 solid fuel (vanilla is 2)

Have fun, and
KeepOnBuilding!

p.s. my Github also has an updated SpeedButtons mod. It is like TimeButtons but without the bling.

[Afforess]

I have forked Afforess' version of Marathon and made a few tweaks:

- balanced all the other recipes which use iron and copper plates (including power poles)
- balanced sulfur, sulfuric acid and plastic production. On my last play-through I needed only 2 sulfur, 2 sulfuric and 4 plastic plants… not this time.
- balanced stone.

And when I say "balanced", I mean whacked with a nerf hammer.

https://github.com/KeepOnDigging/FactorioMod-Marathon

Changes look good. If you want, you can make a PR on Github with those 2 commits and I will merge them in and build a new release. I think the only thing I think has been missed was laser turrets (0.12x changed the laser turret recipe, right now, Marathon is balancing based on 0.11x recipes costs). I've been meaning to devote some time to this mod, but it seems you covered that for me.

I'm thinking solid fuel also needs to be hammered. What do you think about:
10 petroleum gas to 1 solid field (vanilla is 2)
5 light oil to 1 solid fuel (vanilla is 1)
5 heavy oil to 1 solid fuel (vanilla is 2)

I honestly am not 100% sure here, I never use solid fuel for anything. I know that Marathon cuts fuel output from standard fuels (coal/wood) by 50%, so maybe we use that as a guideline? Increasing the ingredients required by 2x should have the same effect. So:

5 Petrol to 1 Solid Fuel
2.5 Light Oil to 1 Solid Fuel
5 Heavy Oil to 1 Solid Fuel

Thoughts?