[MOD 1.1] Natural Evolution - All things Alien!

[TheSAguy]

Losing battle....

So I've been playing a new game for about a month now. About 20 hours of playing. I think I've lost.
I'm playing on pretty hard settings with Bobs.

Mod List

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base
advanced-logistics-system
Bio_Farm
bobassembly
bobconfig
bobelectronics
bobenemies
boblibrary
boblogistics
bobmining
bobmodules
bobores
bobplates
bobpower
bobtech
bobwarfare
EvoGUI
ExtraChests
FactorioMaps
FARL
InterfaceChest
Landfill
Natural_Evolution_Buildings
Natural_Evolution_Enemies
Natural_Evolution_Expansion
rso-mod
Swarm
upgrade-planner
WaiTex
Warehousing

Settings

Base

How do I upload/host the entire Map?

I can't really expand. The biters are just too strong. I don't have gold, so can't get to the next circuit level.
Evolution factor is at 75% and still rising. I have switched over to Solar and electric furnaces, but because I can't build Pollution Modules, I can't lower it.
I have 6 Terraforming Stations, but still going up.

I've researched all Combat tech to level 4. Have 2 assembly machines building ammo full time.

The Alien Control Stations actually worked best for me to expand. But still a losing battle. I think adding in the Mod Swarm really made it a little more difficult that usual.
I'm still on the starting resources with RSO. Guess it's a good thing, since I could not expand.

EDIT: I am not complaining here, I'd rather play 3 games where I lose than have a easy game with no challenge.
This give me a challenge, how do I play better to win!

So what am I going to do before the next game...
Add a Pollution Scrubber. - DONE in Bio Farm mod. Just need to check balancing.
Add an Artillery that can just shoot spawners... WIP

Like to hear some feedback on how you guys are doing...

[Supercheese]

Yeah, Swarm really makes the enemy attacks... well, swarms!

I'm also interested in making an artillery mod, I'll see if I can think up some code to target spawners.

[orzelek]

Did you modify RSO config somehow?
It seems it's been to generous

[TheSAguy]

Did you modify RSO config somehow?
It seems it's been to generous

I did not change anything... It was generated with V1.5.1 initially before I upgraded to 1.5.5 and 1.5.6 now.
I was surprised at how high it was myself.

[orzelek]

Did you modify RSO config somehow?
It seems it's been to generous

I did not change anything... It was generated with V1.5.1 initially before I upgraded to 1.5.5 and 1.5.6 now.
I was surprised at how high it was myself.

I might need to fix this "bug". Since I'm usually playing with adjusted science tweaker (and now with Marathon+bob's) I have hard time figuring out whats the "good" starting ore amount.

[OvermindDL1]

So... I noticed that I have a *very* long reach, so I grepped:

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$ grep -R reach_distance *
Natural_Evolution_Buildings_5.2.0/data-updates.lua:     data.raw.player.player.reach_distance = 100
Natural_Evolution_Enemies_5.2.0/data-updates.lua:       data.raw.player.player.reach_distance = 100
Natural_Evolution_Expansion_5.2.0/data-updates.lua:     data.raw.player.player.reach_distance = 100

So... any reason the reach distance is being set in all of the 3 mods data-updates.lua to 100 instead of the usual 10?
The build distance also appears to be fairly spectacular at 120 instead of the normal 12 that you set as well.

[anubis]

Losing battle....

My experience is practically same as you, although my biter settings are set to maximum in all three options with spawns a bit increased. The game is practically almost unwinnable using Bob's Mods + RSO + Swarm. I had been in your situation and had to reduce evolution factor to zero to be able to get more than basic resources. Even then, they were so spread out, I had to tower creep for 6-7 real-life hours to reach them.

I made the mistake of not cleaning the area well enough and not acquiring gems. Now large biters are hitting the walls and laser turrets can barely stop them. I have Power Armor MK2 with Energy Shield MK3+s but I still cannot kill a hive at all. I tried poison-shelling with Tank MK3, managed to kill 10-15 spawners before I ran out of artifacts to produce more.

Now I'm at a point where I need to get gems and alien artifacts to progress, but I need gems and alien artifacts to do so.

I hope the latest version you posted with lower resistances will help a bit. Because only flamethrower and rifle with anti-alien ammo "works" while fighting, and they simply don't kill fast enough. Unless I do a berserk charge with 100+ basic laser towers, I don't see how I can win. Even then, poison and acid spitters are a big problem.

I guess one has to start pushing as soon as the game starts or it is basically unwinnable (or tedious).

Edit: Switched to normal difficulty now, can put up a fight. You might want to reduce resistances even more since nothing works against enemies on hard mode.

[orzelek]

Did you try with mix of laser and sniper turrets?

I think they should work well agains bigger enemies but didn't have occasion to check. You do need resources for ammo so it might be a closed cycle.

[OvermindDL1]

Losing battle....

My experience is practically same as you, although my biter settings are set to maximum in all three options with spawns a bit increased. The game is practically almost unwinnable using Bob's Mods + RSO + Swarm. I had been in your situation and had to reduce evolution factor to zero to be able to get more than basic resources. Even then, they were so spread out, I had to tower creep for 6-7 real-life hours to reach them.

I made the mistake of not cleaning the area well enough and not acquiring gems. Now large biters are hitting the walls and laser turrets can barely stop them. I have Power Armor MK2 with Energy Shield MK3+s but I still cannot kill a hive at all. I tried poison-shelling with Tank MK3, managed to kill 10-15 spawners before I ran out of artifacts to produce more.

Now I'm at a point where I need to get gems and alien artifacts to progress, but I need gems and alien artifacts to do so.

I hope the latest version you posted with lower resistances will help a bit. Because only flamethrower and rifle with anti-alien ammo "works" while fighting, and they simply don't kill fast enough. Unless I do a berserk charge with 100+ basic laser towers, I don't see how I can win. Even then, poison and acid spitters are a big problem.

I guess one has to start pushing as soon as the game starts or it is basically unwinnable (or tedious).

Edit: Switched to normal difficulty now, can put up a fight. You might want to reduce resistances even more since nothing works against enemies on hard mode.

You are producing too much pollution. With the amount of standard reduction on expansion and terraforming stations the pollution you put out per tick (not the spreading pollution, but the 'raw' value you are putting out) determines the overall max evolution level, and putting out too much makes it hit near 100% pretty easily. On my last game I figured that out by reading through the factorio lua code so tested it by shutting down everything pollution producing except for minimal power to run terraforming stations and the evolution started dropping like a rock. I ended up finding a good balance. This was with Bobs Mods, Swarm, and a few other things (including ones that makes the AI more aggressive, great mix with this mod).

[TheSAguy]

V5.2.1 All Modules:

Removed Long Reach tweak, sorry was used during testing. Made it optional in Config.
Tweaked Worm Launcher
Made is so that if a friendly spawner was killed, it would not add to Evolution factor.
Slightly increased base damage of Bio Ammo.

[alexander_q]

We've just completed a game using only Natural Evolution Expansion and thoroughly enjoyed the playthrough. Unfortunately we had quite a lot of frame drops due to pathfinding, which seemed to bug out on coasts, especially after we built the rocket silo. Can anything be done about this?

[Supercheese]

We've just completed a game using only Natural Evolution Expansion and thoroughly enjoyed the playthrough. Unfortunately we had quite a lot of frame drops due to pathfinding, which seemed to bug out on coasts, especially after we built the rocket silo. Can anything be done about this?

You can set

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NE.HarderEndGame = false

in the config file.

[Wendigo]

I don't know if this has already been answered but for some reason the building materials isn't showing up in any of the crafting menus yet seems to appear in the logistic systems/requester. Any idea what the issue may be? Love the mod by the way!

[Qloshae]

I don't know if this has already been answered but for some reason the building materials isn't showing up in any of the crafting menus yet seems to appear in the logistic systems/requester. Any idea what the issue may be? Love the mod by the way!

Also had issues finding it. Then I looked in the code.

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--- Alien Understanding 1
    {
		type = "technology",
		name = "AlienUnderstanding",
		icon_size = 128,
		icon = "__Natural_Evolution_Buildings__/graphics/technology/AlienUnderstanding.png",
		effects =
		{
			{
				type = 'unlock-recipe', 
				recipe='Building_Materials'
			}
		},
		prerequisites = {"advanced-electronics"},
		unit =
		{
		  count = 50,
		  ingredients =
		  {
			{"science-pack-1", 2},
			{"science-pack-2", 1}
		  },
		  time = 50
		},
		order = "a-h-a",
	},

If you already researched alien understanding, do this command

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/c game.local_player.force.technologies['AlienUnderstanding'].researched=false

Research it again. Solved.

[TheSAguy]

We've just completed a game using only Natural Evolution Expansion and thoroughly enjoyed the playthrough. Unfortunately we had quite a lot of frame drops due to pathfinding, which seemed to bug out on coasts, especially after we built the rocket silo. Can anything be done about this?

You can set

Code: Select all

NE.HarderEndGame = false

in the config file.

As Supercheese says, this should help, since you won't have the waves of biter attached.
Note that this is not a Mod bug, but game limitation.

You could also use less water on maps. It's the maze maps that causes the biters to have problems. I myself love maze maps...

I don't know if this has already been answered but for some reason the building materials isn't showing up in any of the crafting menus yet seems to appear in the logistic systems/requester. Any idea what the issue may be? Love the mod by the way!

What Modules are you playing with?

[TheSAguy]

V5.2.2 up.
Mostly updates to accommodate Bob's new Enemies 12.7. - You should get it if you're playing with Bob's Enemies.

[OvermindDL1]

Latest version has a bug where it tries to do 'something' with a player while a player is dead. Did not capture the error message (sorry... >.>), but it had an invalid attempt accessing variable 'character' at the very least, while a player was dead. Probably missing an isvalid check somewhere.

[TheSAguy]

Latest version has a bug where it tries to do 'something' with a player while a player is dead. Did not capture the error message (sorry... >.>), but it had an invalid attempt accessing variable 'character' at the very least, while a player was dead. Probably missing an isvalid check somewhere.

Is this in Multi player?
Do you know what module?
Thanks

[OvermindDL1]

Latest version has a bug where it tries to do 'something' with a player while a player is dead. Did not capture the error message (sorry... >.>), but it had an invalid attempt accessing variable 'character' at the very least, while a player was dead. Probably missing an isvalid check somewhere.

Is this in Multi player?
Do you know what module?
Thanks

Multiplayer yes, sadly I do not know, it did not log anything in Factorio's log (those errors really should be).

It caused the server to go down, but brought it right back up with latest save and continued on, it has not duplicated yet in a couple other deaths by people... I told them to take a screenshot should it happen again though.

[TheSAguy]

Losing battle....

So what am I going to do before the next game...
Add a Pollution Scrubber. - DONE in Bio Farm mod. Just need to check balancing.
Add an Artillery that can just shoot spawners...

Okay, part two is not up. I've created a Turret that will only target Spawners. This should help with expansion to those far off resources.
You can find it here: Hive Buster