Factorio Forums

This is for some artist (or more likely, team of them).

I love virtually almost everything about Factorio. Gameplay is great, audio too. But graphics, they really get me. They're most generic stuff that you could possibly came up with. And the look of the game is very dated because of it (this style would be considered bad even in the 90s). I mean, if gameplay wouldn't be so much fun, I'd never launch the game again and probably would gouge my eyes off as well.

So I'd like someone to come with a mod that overhauls graphic side of things so the world of Factorio looks more fun. I'm not talking of just moving the saturation slider in GIMP, that wouldn't work by itself, really, I'm talking about redrawing everything or almost everything.

Some screenshots to take an inspiration from:

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/fan ... 0617171924
http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/Skyborn/ss-006.jpg
http://www.dailyemerald.com/wp-content/ ... ndfall.jpg

One way to do it is to add black outline to graphics and use more solid colors - no idea how to do that in graphics package, but this sort of effect would probably look surprisingly good in factorio: http://forums.wz2100.net/download/file. ... 5650c6a64c

That being said, devs are currently working on hi-res graphics, see bottom of this news page: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-155

It's not about the resolution, it's more of a case of an uninspired art direction.

//edit: And while the outline thing may look good, it's not what I'm looking for. Please see the linked pictures from the OP to see what kind of stuff I would like to see in such mod - while some of these are 3D it's the general art feel that I'm looking for. Frankly, if not for the graphics, Factorio would be a perfect game for me, because of that bleak look, it's only 9.5/10.

darkhog wrote:So I'd like someone to come with a mod that overhauls graphic side of things so the world of Factorio looks more fun. I'm not talking of just moving the saturation slider in GIMP, that wouldn't work by itself, really, I'm talking about redrawing everything or almost everything.

Yeah, we'd all like someone to come over and do a boatload of work.
The current artwork in factorio took is a result of around 6 humans*years. Humans on salary. As much novelty as any of graphic overhauls suggested here would bring it's really unlikely to happen.

Minecraft texture packs are a thing, so why not Factorio?

Minecraft texture packs are sets of squares with different patterns mostly converted from real life images, aren't they?

Adil wrote:Minecraft texture packs are sets of squares with different patterns mostly converted from real life images, aren't they?

So are terrain tilesets. And not only squares. There are also item icons which have their Factorio equivalent as well. I'd argue making a Factorio graphics pack would be even easier as you don't have to 3D model stuff, which you'd have to in Minecraft if you'd want e.g. replace pig model, you just change a sprite which is easier to do.

The difference between Minecraft and Factorio is that Minecraft doesn't have any visually complex things in it.

Most of the work of making a Minecraft texture pack is hobbling together some simple material textures like grass, soil, wood, sand etc., the most complex textures being mobs which are often left as they are (not that reskinning them would be an issue). The game also runs ultra lowres textures by default.

Factorio has a crapton of entities, most of them are animated, and have a reasonable resolution (which is about to increase). It's not such a wonder that far less people (none apart from the schematic/blueprint project?) decide to reskin the whole game in their free time.

I've dabbled with both, and Factorio is definitely harder to reskin than Minecraft.

/also Factorio artstyle is hardly generic, it takes a lot from Starcraft, but is still quite amazing on its own... Your opinion is objectively wrong, sir.

darkhog wrote:This is for some artist (or more likely, team of them).

I love virtually almost everything about Factorio. Gameplay is great, audio too. But graphics, they really get me. They're most generic stuff that you could possibly came up with. And the look of the game is very dated because of it (this style would be considered bad even in the 90s). I mean, if gameplay wouldn't be so much fun, I'd never launch the game again and probably would gouge my eyes off as well.

Factorio does have some art problems like any game. But many cues in your post make me suspect you haven't given it a chance.

First, the word generic is just wrong. If Factorio is generic then what are the other generic games that it looks like? OK, OpenTTD, a bit. But Factorio's presentation is much, much more sophisticated. I think I have a sense of what you meant when you said generic -- but "generic" is just the wrong word.

Factorio is -- I'm not joking, if you are wondering -- a nearly unparalleled example of artistic discipline and restraint in a video game. Your gamecube screen-shot suggests you have missed this entirely. There are plenty of colorful games that look like the Willy Wonka factory -- Factorio has decided to do something different. Something less -- well, generic.

The colors are washed out, because the artists carefully washed them out. The machines are rusty and corroded and stylized because, after the assets were rendered from 3d models, someone sat there and carefully applied rust and corrosion and make sure stuff didn't look too much like a shiny apple-red Mario-butt.

In short, you're simply wrong, if you think it looks depressing because it is generic or slapdash. It looks depressing by design.

This ain't No Man's Sky: in this game, you have crash landed on a desolate shit-hole of a planet with:

• No intelligent life
• No lush tropical forests
• No mysterious luminous underground caverns
• No flighty antelope-koala-lemurs
• No mysterious story-telling monoliths.

Nothing, in short, but trees and rocks, and desert... and bugs -- not bees or fireflies, mind you, but murderous, gargantuan, insectoid creatures that make ants look pretty smart.

So, I for one, tend to look at it from the perspective of the storyline: you are going to die a very lonely and bored individual here. Settling down to a hermetic existence in this place is a non-option: you must go home or die trying.

In it's own austere and restrained way, the art is quite beautiful, and shows many signs of meticulous, disciplined curation. When you've played for your first 1000 hours, come back to this thread, and let us know if you still feel the same way about it -- I can pretty-much promise you, you won't.

I'm sure you didn't mean to offend anybody but just to suggest that reskinning the game could be a fun project. The means are provided to do that if you wish -- by all means go for it! Just bear in mind than many of us like the way the game looks now, and the people that made that art are probably reading your post.

I know *why* creators did it this way, that's why this is a MOD idea and not me suggesting Factorio to have such thing by default. But thank you for your input. Also, if I would be able to actually draw and not making MS Paint-quality (since I'm actually using other art program) doodles, then I'd would do it myself and not asking some people to do this now, wouldn't I?