Factorio - a factory building game - now with Space Age expansion

[anvi]

I can see there is a lot more stuff to come, each mission unlocks way more stuff. I am just losing motivation to micromanage so much stuff. Maybe I just don't like this mission.

 

[Ironmonk]

The older (and still active) factorio thread is at the space, sims and city builders section:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/factorio-a-factory-building-game.80397/

 

[anvi]

Thanks! I'll use that.

 

[anvi]

Anyone played this game and Rimworld a lot that could compare the 2?

 

[Blaine]

Yes. They're absolutely nothing alike and no remotely useful conclusions can be drawn from a comparison of the two, aside from the fact that both are richly detailed, complex, and engrossing.

I will say, however, that if you have to choose between one or the other, you should probably choose Factorio.

 

[Juggie]

Anyone played any mods worth recommending? I'm looking for something that adds some complexity. My interest in the game dropped after solving most logistic challenges.

I still love the idea of the game but once you master most of the systems it becomes bit of a chore.

 

[Blaine]

Anyone played any mods worth recommending? I'm looking for something that adds some complexity. My interest in the game dropped after solving most logistic challenges.

I still love the idea of the game but once you master most of the systems it becomes bit of a chore.

Wants greater complexity, can't manage to find Factorio mods... the irony is palpable.

I haven't played in a year and it took me about one minute to find these again. Bob's are the gold standard, last I checked. https://forums.factorio.com/viewforum.php?f=51

Good fucking luck if you go down this rabbit hole. Make sure to have your mom post a screenshot of your casket for us after your brain explodes.

 

[Juggie]

Wants greater complexity, can't manage to find Factorio mods... the irony is palpable.

I haven't played in a year and it took me about one minute to find these again. Bob's are the gold standard, last I checked. https://forums.factorio.com/viewforum.php?f=51

Was asking for recommendations based on experience not directions to the mods subforum but thanks. Saw several mods in the mods subforum (Bob's among others) and wasn't sure which ones are worth playing or if they even work with the current build. Trying them all out myself seemed too time consuming compared to asking here.

Good fucking luck if you go down this rabbit hole. Make sure to have your mom post a screenshot of your casket for us after your brain explodes.

Will do.

 

[Blaine]

Was asking for recommendations based on experience not directions to the mods subforum but thanks. Saw several mods in the mods subforum (Bob's among others) and wasn't sure which ones are worth playing or if they even work with the current build. Trying them all out myself seemed too time consuming compared to asking here.

Simmer down, I'm just yanking your chain. If you want to add more logistical headaches to Factorio, then you've got my

Anyway, the real logistical challenge is to achieve sub-1 FPS by launching 10+ missiles per minute. That's a little too frisky for my tastes.

 

[Destroid]

Wants greater complexity, can't manage to find Factorio mods... the irony is palpable.

I haven't played in a year and it took me about one minute to find these again. Bob's are the gold standard, last I checked. https://forums.factorio.com/viewforum.php?f=51

Was asking for recommendations based on experience not directions to the mods subforum but thanks. Saw several mods in the mods subforum (Bob's among others) and wasn't sure which ones are worth playing or if they even work with the current build. Trying them all out myself seemed too time consuming compared to asking here.

Good fucking luck if you go down this rabbit hole. Make sure to have your mom post a screenshot of your casket for us after your brain explodes.

Will do.

I highly recommend Resource Spawner Overhaul (almost obligatory honestly) and Marathon, especially for multiplayer.

 

[Norfleet]

What does Resource Spawner Overhaul do, other than remove nearly all the resources and fill the map in angry biters?

 

[Lazing Dirk]

What does Resource Spawner Overhaul do, other than remove nearly all the resources and fill the map in angry biters?

Regardless of RSO, you may need to with the fiddle with the resource settings and/or regen the map a few times to get a good starting position. If there's still too many/not enough of a particular thing, change the settings again.

RSO itself changes the resource distribution so that the further from your starting point you travel, the richer the resource spots get. The idea is to have enough locally to get a decent base going, but then once you've got the tech, you can go further afield to start collecting from richer places and really start expanding. E.g. a starting patch of copper might have 250 per square, but 20 screens over it's up to 1500 per square. The longer you go, the hungrier your base will get, so without RSO you'll end up spending all of your time setting up mining outposts on patches of resources that are just as good/bad as the ones in your starting area. With RSO you can concentrate on expanding your base instead of expanding your mines.

I think there's other minor changes, but that's the main thing.

 

[Blaine]

Yeah, with RSO there's actually a reason to move someplace else other than one house over, and with two or more players it's not quite as tedious kiting biters and clearing out their tremendously huge nests. I shamelessly use the semi-exploit of placing small structures down at regular intervals to prevent more biter nests from spawning in the vicinity of my base, although later on I like to place walled defensive turret platforms instead of, say, small power poles.

The best part is that you can just get bots to rip up the old base and cover it in solar panels and accumulators. Vacating a base means a bunch of "free" (minus opportunity cost) power. Solar is clean, so as long as most of the pollution has cleared out of an area and/or you've cleared the vicinity of nests, you don't have to defend your arrays.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

I shamelessly use the semi-exploit of placing small structures down at regular intervals to prevent more biter nests from spawning in the vicinity of my base

Victory poles were changed in 0.13, and now placing a single structure has almost no effect on spawn restrictions. Furthermore, biters will happily walk right up to your base and set up camp if you don't stop them.

https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=27249

Get those turrets up ASAP or get royally bummed.

 

[Norfleet]

Yeah, with RSO there's actually a reason to move someplace else other than one house over, and with two or more players it's not quite as tedious kiting biters and clearing out their tremendously huge nests. I shamelessly use the semi-exploit of placing small structures down at regular intervals to prevent more biter nests from spawning in the vicinity of my base, although later on I like to place walled defensive turret platforms instead of, say, small power poles.

Ah, I see: You're playing the old version of the game, because Victory Poles haven't been a thing for ages and the "resources grow fatter the further away you move from your starting point" thing was integrated into Vanilla already. When comparing resource spawns with RSO to spawns without, the current version just means you get less stuff and more biters.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

Ah, I see: You're playing the old version of the game, because Victory Poles haven't been a thing for ages and the "resources grow fatter the further away you move from your starting point" thing was integrated into Vanilla already. When comparing resource spawns with RSO to spawns without, the current version just means you get less stuff and more biters.

Oh cool, I hadn't played for a little while. If there's one thing Factorio really excels at, it's incorporating good ideas from mods. Seems almost all the best features were mods at some point. If vanilla now has increasing deposits by default, I'm not sure what RSO really brings to the table. Apparently it makes the biter spawns a bit more sensible or something (i.e. light at the start and denser the further you go), and something about multiple starting points for multiplayer.

 

[Blaine]

Ah, I see: You're playing the old version of the game, because Victory Poles haven't been a thing for ages and the "resources grow fatter the further away you move from your starting point" thing was integrated into Vanilla already. When comparing resource spawns with RSO to spawns without, the current version just means you get less stuff and more biters.

I haven't played at all since 0.13. I was WAITING FOR 0.15 SO THAT MY FRIEND AND I COULD START PLAYING ON A FRESH UPDATE, BUT I GUESS WE'LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT A LITTLE BIT LONGER

 

[anvi]

I am up to about 25 hours now, I just completed the campaign. The last mission bored me a bit but I am glad to complete it all and it taught me the basics of the game. Now I am started on sandbox mode! It gave me new motivation to play. It is crazy how addictive the game is, you intend to just play for a couple of hours and then pass out 3 days later with a long white beard. I hope the sandbox mode can hold my interest. Usually in games like this I get bored once I am built up to a certain level because I start wondering what's the point.

 

[Blaine]

I am up to about 25 hours now, I just completed the campaign. The last mission bored me a bit but I am glad to complete it all and it taught me the basics of the game. Now I am started on sandbox mode! It gave me new motivation to play. It is crazy how addictive the game is, you intend to just play for a couple of hours and then pass out 3 days later with a long white beard. I hope the sandbox mode can hold my interest. Usually in games like this I get bored once I am built up to a certain level because I start wondering what's the point.

There's a campaign?

Spoiler

 

[anvi]

Holy crap I played it 10 hours today... So addicted. The free play mode is way more fun. I built a huge base then got attacked because of pollution and then I noticed there were hundreds of enemy camps all over the map and I was basically surrounded. So I spent a few hours clearing out all the camps. Do the enemies keep attacking or do they mostly just stay put? I have only been attacked a couple of times and I think it was only because of some kind of pollution landmarks. I can kill a whole enemy base camp but there are so many of them, I don't want to go killing them all, and I don't want to just ignore them if they are waiting to do a huge attack sometime?

 

[Juggie]

Holy crap I played it 10 hours today... So addicted. The free play mode is way more fun. I built a huge base then got attacked because of pollution and then I noticed there were hundreds of enemy camps all over the map and I was basically surrounded. So I spent a few hours clearing out all the camps. Do the enemies keep attacking or do they mostly just stay put? I have only been attacked a couple of times and I think it was only because of some kind of pollution landmarks. I can kill a whole enemy base camp but there are so many of them, I don't want to go killing them all, and I don't want to just ignore them if they are waiting to do a huge attack sometime?

I don't know the exact details of the mechanics but biter attacks are based on pollution and proximity. You can see pollution spread on your map (the red overlay). If pollution spread reaches one of their camps it will eventually trigger them and send all mobile units to attack your base. The maximum number of units that spawn in an area seems to be tied to nearby spawns so don't worry about huge waves (at least not in the beginning).

Thier spawns also expand to unoccupied areas so clearing them out without taking up the space only has temporary effect.

Destroying them is usually pretty easy unless you fall behind with military research because they also evolve over time (start spawning stronger units).

 

[Blaine]

Holy crap I played it 10 hours today... So addicted. The free play mode is way more fun. I built a huge base then got attacked because of pollution and then I noticed there were hundreds of enemy camps all over the map and I was basically surrounded. So I spent a few hours clearing out all the camps. Do the enemies keep attacking or do they mostly just stay put? I have only been attacked a couple of times and I think it was only because of some kind of pollution landmarks. I can kill a whole enemy base camp but there are so many of them, I don't want to go killing them all, and I don't want to just ignore them if they are waiting to do a huge attack sometime?

Yeah, the "campaign" are just some very minor extras. The sandbox is the actual game. I considered explaining this to you, but why bother when you were going to find out anyway?

Biters (or shitters, as I like to call them) attack your installations based on the reddish-purple pollution clouds your machinery produces. Shitter nests absorb pollution in much the same way beehives absorb pesticides, and each hive has an "irate-o-meter" that fills up slowly when exposed to light pollution, but more quickly when exposed to heavier pollution. Also, when you're producing a lot of pollution, not only is it heavier but it also tends to drift further afield and reach more distant shitter nests, although it dissipates with distance regardless.

When a nest's irate-o-meter fills up due to your environmental pollution, the shitters will organize a raiding party to pay a visit to the offending pollution source. I call these raiding parties "shitter litters." When they reach the approximate source of the pollution, they will attempt to destroy everything between you and them, and then will try their best to eat you. If you aren't around, they'll just try to trash your stuff until they either destroy it all or are killed.

Multiple raiding parties attacking the same/and or multiple locations simultaneously or concurrently are very possible. Each nest has its own irate-o-meter.

As for clearing out shitter nests: When you kill shitters and especially when you destroy shitter nests, their evolution-o-meter begins to climb very slowly. As they evolve, bigger, tougher, heavier-hitting shitters begin to appear around nests. When the evolution-o-meter hits 1.0, you'd better hope you're ready.

It's good to clear out some quantity of shitter nests around your pollution-producing installations, because they can't organize raids if they don't exist. You've got to balance this, however. Especially now that "Victory Poles" no longer work (don't worry about it; they don't work anymore, anyway), it's probably best to keep the immediate vicinity of your pollution sources clear, and deal with occasional raids from more outlying shitter nests.

Final note: As I recall, shitters will never, ever stop chasing you if provoked. If you drive by a bunch of shitter nests five miles away from your base in a vehicle (provoking some quantity of shitters in so doing), reach your base, park, have a coffee, and go about your merry business, eventually they will all show up to ask why you didn't stop to give them a ride.

 

[anvi]

Thanks guys! I focused so far on major research but since getting attacked I now have a big solar power plant and batteries instead of just making more coal things. I also have lasers and rocket launchers so can defend now. But I guess I am gonna have to go clearing more enemies while I grow.

I think from now on I am just going to make huge solar farms to keep the pollution under control.

I am wondering how long I will find the motivation to play, usually with these games I lose motivation really fast but this game definitely has a big sprinkling of crack.

 

[Blaine]

Don't worry, factories produce pollution too, especially the most advanced version.

There are modules that reduce pollution, though, and I actually used those quite a bit on my oil complexes just to keep the pollution halfway under control. More speed is good for bottlenecks, more productivity is good sprinkled around certain points, but quite a few of the oil machines benefit very little if at all from speed or productivity and can just be loaded with anti-pollution mods.

The actual refineries are also a great place for pollution reduction, since you're going to run out soon enough anyway. Once they're depleted, that's when you load them up with speed mods to eke out the infinite droplets as quickly as possible.

 

[Norfleet]

There are modules that reduce pollution, though, and I actually used those quite a bit on my oil complexes just to keep the pollution halfway under control. More speed is good for bottlenecks, more productivity is good sprinkled around certain points, but quite a few of the oil machines benefit very little if at all from speed or productivity and can just be loaded with anti-pollution mods.

Given how high up the tech tree modules that reduce pollution are, there's no way you'll have them in any quantity unless you're already generating a Chinese-level Smog Cloud, though. In which case you say fuck it and lay out some lazor cannons backed by flammenwerfers.