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[Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 12:41 pm
by orzotv
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 1:17 pm
by Blackence
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =41&t=2695
and this:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =41&t=3492
However I don't agree with ssilk on that matter, this is a bug. Even though it is expected behaviour because the devs haven't come up with a nice method to prevent this from happening or for the player to cope with the situation, it's still wrong/unwanted behaviour. Therefore it is a bug.
Not every bug manifests itself by crashing the game, making items disappear or rendering ugly graphics […]. If a software doesn't work the way the user would expect it to work, and everyone agrees that the user rightfully expects it to work differently, there is a bug. It may not be a code bug, it could very well be the software design or software specification or assumed software requirements that need fixing. That's my definition of a bug.
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 2:03 pm
by orzotv
I just his the restart button since it doesn't matter when your new, I feel that (at least the first time your playing) there should be a message that says "Don't like this spawn? Press ESC and click restart". Solves the problem for 99% of users.
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:24 pm
by Blackence
Yep, that's the best you can do until devs add boats/swimming or find a way to fix the map generator. Though from my current understanding of the map generator, it's difficult (impossible?) to tell wheter or not the starting area is on an island because the island could be VERY BIG, so "scanning" the area would take a long time if you want to be sure the island is at least of size x*y.
Maybe by adding some logic for when a chunk is generated, if that chunk results in the player being on an island, just force some of the water tiles to be land, so there is a way from the current player position to the opposite side of the new chunk. Might look ugly.

Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 5:04 pm
by OBAMA MCLAMA
Ssilk is silly in his post saying its not a bug, but needs fixed.
Its a unintended result of a map generation, its a bug.
But the devs know about this and its really hard for the devs to fix this. Easy solution would be a boat.
Another solution but wont fix all of it, is make it so the water doesnt spawn x tiles from the starting position. And lakes (big bodies of water) dont spawn within x tiles of the spawn either.
It will help, but wont fix it all.
-written from my phone
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:30 am
by ssilk
It's an issue. It's not a bug by definition.
A bug: you cannot play, the game dies, something odd happens. Here the case: Yes. But you haven't just begun to play.
It's a border-case, cause all you need is to restart game.
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 7:37 pm
by robinde67
ssilk, two of those are true for this particular case. It is unplayable: you can't go anywhere and odds are high there are no resources on the patch of land you spawn on, that is reason enough to classify it as a bug. And it does strike most users as odd behavior when you spawn on a tiny island.
To be fair though, It is so early in the game (first seconds if it's really small), that it isn't really a problem. If it happens, it's a quick fix to simply restart and generate a new map. That is a temporary solution until the dev team get around to fix it permanently.
It is a bug, but I fail to see any reason to put it high on the priority list, considering the game is just in Alpha. This kind of bug is something you'd give priority late Beta or prior to release, not in Alpha.
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:51 pm
by ssilk
Well, at least the main reason why I think this isn't fixed yet is: Who knows, how this shoud be resolved?
I mention this, cause I had this cool idea, due to
Kovarex paragliding dreams:
The player doesn't start on land, but he starts by paragliding. The player can look around for some seconds and steer the paraglider into a useful direction. First he drives quite fast, cause of the thin air, then slower and slower. The map zooms in as he lowers his height.
I think this should last about 30 seconds. Enough time to see, if this map is useful and to find a nice landing place.
How cool would this be as game starter instead of suddenly appearing on an island?
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:54 pm
by micomico
ssilk wrote:The player doesn't start on land, but he starts by paragliding. The player can look around for some seconds and steer the paraglider into a useful direction. First he drives quite fast, cause of the thin air, then slower and slower. The map zooms in as he lowers his height.
That sounds like an ingenious solution for this "problem".
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:55 pm
by kovarex
That is interesting idea indeed.
Re: [Spawn] Started on an island, can't go anywhere.
Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 4:09 pm
by JLBShecky
The paragliding solution really does sound rather intresting, and not only does it beat spawning on a 2x2 island, but it first the game's theme, giving credence to the the whole you are landing on a foreign planet, as instead of the player joining the game after they are on the planet your get a bit of the setup of landing on the planet.
Short of starting out the player with a boat that degrades health over time at the start of the game or something that lets players fill in water I don't see any other viable options. Even with the paragliding solutions there are still possible seeds that when the player starts the ocean is just so large that that can't find a viable landing spot, so I might recommenced that if a player was over water then they would either not descend at all or they would descend slower compared to when they are over land.