Pre-Planning Phase option

[zOldBulldog]

Different people have different ways of thinking:
-- Some are methodical planners that like to fully plan before they act ( Factorio's gameplay must attract these in disproportionate numbers).
-- Others are "seat of the pants" planners that derive great satisfaction from figuring out what and how to do it under pressure, as they go along.
-- Yet others just want to "do" without worrying about planning.

The game today is very difficult for the first group, and even more while still inexperienced. Sure, we can set the game to peaceful and tweak the settings, but eventually we'll want to gradually migrate towards "playing on Normal settings".

As I play my first month, it dawned on me... it sure would be nice if I could plan and lay down my base blueprints before I even start. Being a software developer myself I realized a few things:
-- There could be a stage before starting the match during which we can place blueprints and nothing more.
-- To satisfy everyone - from purist to tinkerer - it would have to have a few options:
---- Ability to see or not see unexplored terrain.
---- Ability to see or not see unexplored ore/stone/oil deposits.
---- Ability to see or not see unexplored enemies.
-- Using it should disable some achievements, and could even have some of its own achievements like "I planned it all" that you'd earn if you only place structures (other than mining, belts and associated mining components).
-- Of course, once planning is complete... the match starts with all of those blueprints and labels on the map.
-- And most importantly, it might not be terribly difficult to implement as most of what is needed for such a thing already exists.

Clear skies and blue waters,
zOldBulldog

[dog80]

Most players that place big blueprints actually dont know how much time/ressources are required to build these and if so much of the specific production is required at the moment.

edit: as i see it the fun in the game is the process of building a base, not having a perfect base

[Hedning1390]

If a person is not experienced enough to survive on normal settings I wouldn't think they were experienced enough to preplan everything, as that is many times harder.

Blueprints are kept across all games too, so once you've built something that works in your first game you can save it for future games.

I know some people think evolution will put them under time pressure, but it really doesn't. There's hardly any evolution unless you destroy their bases. Basic gun turrets with basic ammo tears through the level 1 biters. You can take your time in this game if you want, without risking getting overrun, even on normal settings.

[bobucles]

Pre planning doesn't work unless you already have a very deep understanding of the game. It's not something that can help inexperienced players at all. If you want to test a factory design, go out and build it. If it works, blueprint it. If it doesn't work, tear it down and try again.

[zOldBulldog]

As I mentioned, different people like different things. Some (especially technically inclined people) are planners.

[zOldBulldog]

Pre planning doesn't work unless you already have a very deep understanding of the game. It's not something that can help inexperienced players at all. If you want to test a factory design, go out and build it. If it works, blueprint it. If it doesn't work, tear it down and try again.

Pre-planning helps more with overall layouts than with a single factory design.

Like where to put the bus, where to put your smelters, where to put the stuff that feeds your green circuit factory, where to leave clear space for rail so that it can supply resources when your initial deposits run out (my latest map was so resource poor near spawn that I had to make extremely looooong raw ore belts even before building green circuits or the red/green science factory - pre-planning would have been a godsend).

[dragontamer5788]

What's wrong with Sandbox mode in the base game?

* Step 1: Start a map. Save the game.
* Step 2: Copy the "Map Exchange String"
* Step 3: Restart the map with the same "Map Exchange String" in Sandbox mode
* Step 4: Plan out your base in Sandbox mode
* Step 5: Blueprint the base
* Step 6: Import blueprints into the original game.

[zOldBulldog]

What's wrong with Sandbox mode in the base game?

* Step 1: Start a map. Save the game.
* Step 2: Copy the "Map Exchange String"
* Step 3: Restart the map with the same "Map Exchange String" in Sandbox mode
* Step 4: Plan out your base in Sandbox mode
* Step 5: Blueprint the base
* Step 6: Import blueprints into the original game.

Cool feature! This will definitely do the trick!!! I will totally use it.

Too the naysayers... See? I knew it would be easy to implement and there is no need to be stuck in other people's gameplay style. The feature already exists (even if not immediately obvious) and there is room for different people playing in the style they like.

[zOldBulldog]

@dragontamer

Thinking more about it I think there are two problems with this approach (both very easy to address):

1) Isn’t there a limit on the maximum zoom out? If so we might not be able to see/blueprint the whole base. Very minor issue, since we can make several max-size blueprints and merge them.

2) When you hold a blueprint and zoom, the map and blueprint don’t zoom in sync, throwing your position off. I would even call this a minor design flaw or bug. This would make merging or positioning these huge blueprints difficult, since you would normally use some tiny detail object to line them up or position them (like the water pump of the steam electric pump).

Do you have any ideas on how to deal with the two issues?

In any case, I will try this when I get some free time. Thanks.