Not Completely Flat Terrain

[bigyihsuan]

I was watching quite a few Factorio let's plays today, and I noticed that all of the terrain was completely flat. If there was more hilly terrain, I think that the difficulty can be increased from a change in map generation settings, for example a setting called "Hilliness" or similar.

You can see things above or below you, but they'll be grayed out the farther vertically it is from the character.

[Tinyboss]

Unless there is an actual third dimension, with belts crossing one another etcetera, then I don't see how adding elevation really changes anything. How do you envision the game being different once this is added? Are the differences interesting, or just tedious?

[bigyihsuan]

Perhaps the transport belts don't work on slopes. The items on the transport belts might only be sitting on the transport belt, and you need to use underground belts or some high-friction belt to get it up there.

[ssilk]

They plan to have a second level, like e. g. in Starcraft.

Hills are not possible, cause you won't see them correctly, you are looking directly down, it's a 2D game.

[bigyihsuan]

But it is possible for you to see them with shadows on the sloped side to indicate that it's a slope of some kind.