Friday Facts #262 - Hello my name is: Compilatron

[Engimage]

Please tell me the robot assistant is only in the tutorial campaign, or has an option to disable it. I do not want a Factorio version of Clippit/Clippy/whatever the name of that awful waste of space and attention is.

Yes it will be Campaign/Tutorial only

Imo this robot guy could serve a purpose of early game blueprinting. It could just move slowly and place all entities it can reach around it, directly from player’s inventory. And when idle it would just follow player. Maybe it should be flying untargettable to prevent pathing and combat issues. This reminds me of Fallout servant hovering robots. It makes sense you get one such entity when crashlanding a space ship. Also it makes sense that it holds all those blueprints and performs “hand crafting” for a player

[H8UL]

Honestly the potential for a mascot/companion is quite large for a smaller game like factorio. And i know that the devs are creative and surprisingly cunning and I'm all for anything they decide, but i would like to see more of the little guy. And definitely need to 3D print him. Ill start working on a model next week at work.

What I think your trying to say is we need a Blorg Compilatron body pillow

[Bokkie]

Jesus Christ, not another annoying critter to tell me what to do! I absolutely detest the helper bot in Fortresscraft, and is the main reason why I do not play that game. Now you say you want to bring that stupid thing into Factorio???KHBN Y!E*(&YIUASHDJKXCNJAYHD(*&"£

Agreed but not that harsh. I just say I don't like it, it makes the game look childish in my opinion.

[Artman40]

I kind of agree that that Compilatron takes away some of the mood of the game about being stranded alone.

Is it possible to alter Compilatron so that it doesn't feel like Compilatron is your companion? Something that makes you not get attached to it?

[Albert]

Jesus Christ, not another annoying critter to tell me what to do! I absolutely detest the helper bot in Fortresscraft, and is the main reason why I do not play that game. Now you say you want to bring that stupid thing into Factorio???KHBN Y!E*(&YIUASHDJKXCNJAYHD(*&"£

Agreed but not that harsh. I just say I don't like it, it makes the game look childish in my opinion.

Compilatron (sorry about the name : P ) is an entity designed for new comers to learn how to play the game in the NPE. That's all.
It's a great resource for us (devs) to communicate some concepts and mechanics to somebody not used to Factorio. And it's great for modders.
Factorio is still the same, just better for non pro players. If you're not a beginner and never play the new NPE, you probably won't see this lovely robot ever in your life.

Unless we change our mind. : )

[TheRaph]

Please change your mind.

As far I can see, there are different meanings about this cute sidekick.

I don't know what's the new story is about. But if the crash landed space ship is already in, I like to mention a idea for compilatron in non-campaign game:

Please add an option for "ship wreck".
If this option is enabled, every new created map will have a emergency pod near player spawn and a shipwreck some km away.
This emergency pod could be mined by pick (or hand?) for getting some iron plates, copper wires and some green circuits.
The Shipwreck could be located by radar (receiving signals from direction x) - therefore a radar may have a GUI.
The Shipwreck could have an inventory with some rocket parts, other nice stuff and Compilatron.

For this, Compilatron should have some nice features like combat abilities or remote control (you may be somewhere else and manage your base remotely like in current release: Have some radar, blueprint and bots and manage you're base in worldview - but wit this bot you may have a controlled unit with it's own inventory and which can move things around).

So by this way you could copy the lore from campaign in to main game. And players who like could try to reveal tho position of ship wreck and loot that cute little helper.

Player who don't like sidekicks could leave that option alone.

[dewiniaid]

A red factory?

It'd take getting used to, but I wonder if this is a step in unifying the colors of various tiers of things.

Right now: Tier 1 belts are yellow, tier 2 are red, tier 3 are blue... but tier 1 assemblers are grey, tier 2 are blue, tier 3 are yellow.

[Albert]

A red factory?

It'd take getting used to, but I wonder if this is a step in unifying the colors of various tiers of things.

Right now: Tier 1 belts are yellow, tier 2 are red, tier 3 are blue... but tier 1 assemblers are grey, tier 2 are blue, tier 3 are yellow.

No.
This red assembling machine is just a placeholder for some NPE surprises.

[steinio]

I love the new companion - so cute.
But the name should get some rework.

[Bergzwerg]

oh boy looks like ill never leave the NPE modes anymore <3
i also really like the idea of having him in freeplay as an additional player entity that might wander off a chunk or two at times?

[abregado]

My main worry is that it will take away from the lonely castaway feeling of the game. And it's only a worry, a point of concern. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it, just that you should consider this change by applying a few different lenses to how you view the game and possibly adjusting accordingly.

I agree this is one of the setbacks. However, seeing as in the Campaign you will find some pre-built structures, this feeling is already compromised. Freeplay is of course, unaffected.

Another way the Compilatron helps us keep the immersion intact is as a plot agent. Currently campaign plot events just 'happen' when objectives are completed, or when characters internal monologue decides the next move. Now we can have Compilatron act as a driving force to the campaign, it gives the objectives to the player, interacts with entities during cutscenes, and overall makes things less awkward than they are now.

These changes sound entirely negative to me. Why is the Engineer taking orders from a rolling monitor instead of their own initiative and goals supposed to be a good thing? Why is the Engineer receiving instruction from a robot better than them just either already knowing these things or inventing them as they go along? You're taking something that currently exists outside of the game world and so is clearly teaching the player what's going on, and turning it into something that exists inside the game world and is also apparently teaching the player character, which is a significant change in basically all of what little characterization the player character currently gets, from that of a rugged Space MacGyver, and into someone who is just following the YouTube tutorial on surviving super-tech, like the Survivor from Subnautica.

The engineer is certainly not taking orders from the bot. In fact the tutorial is designed so that if you never need help, Compilatron does not even react to you. During playtesting we had veteran players complete the New Player Experience without receiving any help at all. This is a big part of why Compilatron will not be in Freeplay.

Yes it will be Campaign/Tutorial only

I vote you put it in freeplay mode and give it some sort of personal logistics capabilities for convenience, if only to spite all the people randomly getting up in arms about a tutorial/campaign mode having some sort of guide to actually guide you through it. (I am actually serious about the logistics thing though. Even if it requires researching some techs it could be useful.)

Compilatron will never be a character to DO things for the player. The idea of a plot agent is that it can be a reason why something changed in the game world that is without using the verb "bite".

[abregado]

oh boy looks like ill never leave the NPE modes anymore <3
i also really like the idea of having him in freeplay as an additional player entity that might wander off a chunk or two at times?

Well, the NPE *may* also feature some sort of limited freeplay (for demo users) so you might not have to leave if you dont want. You can live with Compilatron for as many hours as you wish.

[bobucles]

When will the new robot assistant get giant spider legs and a death ray? Asking for asethetics of course.

[TheVeteraNoob]

For goodness sakes I don't care what you do. Just don't let that bot get in the way of placing things/walking.

[Darloth]

So have you fixed the bug yet where it uses the wrong parts of biter AI and destroys the player's base, by "accident" or otherwise?

(If so, did you save any gifs? ^_^)

[GuiltyBystander]

I hope we can see the robot's chat bubbles reused for player chat bubbles. When doing large multiplayer games, it's hard to keep track of the chatlog and remember who is working near you and know which chat is meant for you vs someone across the map.

[Philip017]

hey a red assembler, i was hoping they would unify the colors of the separate tiers, but since it's just a place holder in the tutorial....

i always call things by the wrong colors, because i think yellow belts, yellow inserters and white assemblers are a bit weird, if it was a yellow assembler to match the color tiers of the rest of the line i think that makes more sense.
next red belts, blue inserters and blue assembly machine? perhaps the odd one out here is the belt color.
then green inserters, yellow assemblers and blue belts, a real mix and mash of colors for that tier.
still after 4k+ hours i still manage to have plenty of fun, even if no one understands me when i call out the wrong color entity.

[Tesse11ation]

also i noticed the red assembler... tier 4 assemblers?

I highly doubt that. If you look at the context of the screenshot, it wouldn't make sense for such a high tier assembler to be there. My guess was more along the lines of, "Oh, they're color coding the Tier 1 assembler now."

Speaking of color coding... It would be nice to have a little bit of consistency. I should think, for instance, that green would be the color used for medium biters and spitters, blue for large, and red for behemoth. To me, red is more of an "Oh shit, you're going to die now" color than green. Also, red > yellow > blue would likewise be a better color progression for belts, fast belts, and express belts. But however we color the belts based on tier, the assemblers AND inserters should definitely match.

[ili]

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just kidding .
Can be good for noobs, but try not to damage the "self discovery" aspect to much.

[ManaUser]

Well, the NPE *may* also feature some sort of limited freeplay (for demo users) so you might not have to leave if you dont want. You can live with Compilatron for as many hours as you wish.

I just wanna say, I think adding a taste of Freeplay to the demo would be a great move. I came pretty close to not buying the game because although I enjoyed building stuff and solving problems, I really didn't care for the campaign format very much. I knew freeplay existed of course, but without getting a chance to sample it, it still took a small leap of faith.