Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Achievements shouldn't be disabled when using the official map generation presets, such as Rail World or Ribbon World, as long as they aren't modified, even if they would normally break the rules for certain achievements.
Alternatively (and preferably), modify these presets and the rules for achievements to allow these presets (and some modifications of them) to still work for those achievements.

Why (Am I Making This Suggestion)?

Currently (as of version 2.0.45) with default Rail World settings, you get the following message when you press Play on world creation. Ribbon World gets a similar message (with a slightly different reason). As this preset is a vanilla preset, it seems weird that it would not be designed in a way that would allow for all achievements to be obtainable on a playthrough. It makes it seem like Rail World and Ribbon World presets are not potential "correct" ways to play the game as intended, even though it is encouraged by the option being one of the official presets.

What?

The message in the image above specifically calls out the "easier enemy expansion settings" as being the reason for blocking the achievements. This setting makes sense for Rail World, but understandably makes the game a lot easier if you could disable Enemy Expansion.
Ribbon World has a similar issue with the Starting Area Size setting disabling some achievements, despite it being a more challenging preset due to the space constraints.
Two ideas come to mind. A simple but less fun one, and a more complicated but healthier (IMO) one:

1. The simple idea is to have achievements not be disabled on the map presets as long as they aren't modified (and the game points out when presets are modified by visually changing the name of the preset to include [modified], e.g. "Rail world [modified]" would be in the drop down box if a player adjusted any settings on the Rail World preset. This does limit the ability for a player to make the game harder on this preset, though, so while this might be easier to implement, it feels like the lesser option.

2. My more complex (but IMO better and healthier) idea is to couple the Enemy Expansion settings to the Resource settings, and to couple the Starting Area Size setting to the Map Width/Height settings:

• Enemy Expansion can be disabled* without disabling certain achievements as long as Resource Frequency is no higher than 33%, Resource Size is no higher than 300%, and Resource Richness is no higher than 100%, for Nauvis (and Gleba**, if Space Age is enabled).
• Starting Area Size can be increased up to 300% max. without disabling certain achievements as long as one of either Map Width or Height is no higher than 128***

*Potentially it could be worth changing Rail World in particular to not entirely disable Enemy Expansion, but to make it slower, at shorter (max.) or longer (min.) distances, and in smaller sizes, and have those values be the limit on how much easier the Enemy Expansion settings can be (but only if the Resource settings are limited like above). This would mean that biter expansion is still a problem to deal with but less intense while dealing with much more strained resource limitations. Alternatively you could make the limits on Resource settings even stricter, in regards to Resource Size.
**As it stands, Gleba's resource values don't get affected at all by the Rail World preset. This will likely need to be changed, for this, as well. (As it stands currently, Non-Nauvis Resources don't get affected by presets that modify Nauvis' Resource settings. I intend to make another suggestion or bug report regarding that, but it's still worth noting here).
***Potential for the Map Width/Height options to allow for larger numbers if both values are limited, though that may need to be based on a calculated total area. Leaving it at just 128 max. for at least one of the values is still a good enough of a fix for this issue.

Why (Do I Propose the Above Changes)?

Specifically for the second idea (as the first idea is pretty straightforward), I think additional difficulty options that twist the rules in one way to make the game harder while making other aspects of the game easier, with additional freedom to make the game even harder if a player chooses, while still remaining within "intended" ideas for different playstyles - and allowing for multiple intended playstyles to be "approved" of by the game allowing for the difficulty-related achievements - will provide more ways to enjoy the game as vanilla (with or without dlc) without feeling as restricted if you want to go after the achievements, while still keeping within what a balanced experience would be.

Final Ramblings

(These aren't really needed in relation to the idea but they're food for thought).

Mournfall wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2026 4:50 am **As it stands, Gleba's resource values don't get affected at all by the Rail World preset. This will likely need to be changed, for this, as well. (As it stands currently, Non-Nauvis Resources don't get affected by presets that modify Nauvis' Resource settings. I intend to make another suggestion or bug report regarding that, but it's still worth noting here).

I made a bug report here 134487 though as it turns out it's something that was declared not a bug (pre-2.1) in 116391. If this suggestion does get looked at, it may be worth considering making Map Generator Presets actually apply to Space Age planets. Perhaps I should have put it more as a suggestion instead of a bug report.

55134

I do like your suggestion.

Oh this is my previous comment on the topic that I was trying to find: viewtopic.php?p=669276#p669276

I'd love a full look-over of game presets tbh. Let us select world type settings for the whole save as well as each planet (so regular, deathworld, marathon (to planet specific sciences), and train base) and have achievements work in this saves That's one of the low priority things I'd love to see.