Biter, lag and artillery, possible to fix?
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2026 1:12 pm
This is the response I received from the developer of the Rampant Fixed mod about the lag caused by artillery.Dimm2101
Incorrect. It's not the "compression to 1" that causes lag, but the "Vanilla" target search when taking damage and there's no suitable target nearby.
This is especially noticeable if you try to set a crowd of Biters on fire with a flamethrower, far from the base.
Or, for example, in the editor, set a tree on fire and place a bunch of biters nearby. There will be severe lag even without mods.
Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done. Target acquisition every time damage is a built-in mechanic in Factorio. The only way to combat this is to make it unprofitable to fire at Biters with artillery, so players avoid it. Which is what I am gradually doing - the use of artillery is associated with many risks.
I mainly play Space Exploration and seem to notice people talk a lot about how biters cause lag when fired on with glaves (solar beam of death)
Is there any way to fix this issue? Somehow make it so the game won't try to pathfind to the damage source beyond a specific distance?
Beware, I do not know how exactly Factorio works in this department.
So, this is why I'm asking here incase Devs or someone in the know can tell us if there could be the days of glorious cleansing that won't cause UPS to die.