New Fuel Source and Weapons Targeting System

[Zodsmar]

Hello forums and Factorio staff,

As I have been playing factorio, which is amazing by the way thank you, I came across some idea's I feel should be implemented into the game. Some of these idea's I have because of another game I have been playing ever since pre alpha and that would be minecraft. I remember when minecraft first came out and how interesting it was. I haven't been able to find a game as good for a few years now. Then I found factorio! So I feel like I should help out this community from the start!

My first idea I had was for you guys to add another fuel source. Right now I feel like coal and wood are good but there needs to be something that can be more automated and more epic. My idea for this was oil. I feel like you should implement a way for people to get into the oceans and lakes via boat or something along those lines and be able to set up oil rigs to get oil. Oil could then be piped under the water into a new boiler that can produce steam faster than coal and also more efficiently!

My second idea I had was maybe an alternative to shooting enemies. Right now I feel like getting enemies with you gun is kinda just bullet spraying. My idea is to maybe implement a sniper rifle of sorts that lets you lock on to targets from a much farther distance. The way you would lock on is by selecting the gun and hitting enter. This would allow you to basically right click anywhere with a set range and that is where your target marker goes. Once you shoot the bullet goes there. This could make for some interesting gun mechanics. This idea doesn't only have to be for snipers, it would also work with rocket launchers and anything along the lines of that. Personally I would like to see an improvement in targeting system.

For now these are the idea's I have came up with. I will be updating this post overtime with anymore idea's I come up with and as of right now I am SO EXCITED ABOUT 0.8 release from all of the Friday Facts I have read man oh man I can't wait. If any of the developers are reading this post I would like to just say thank you for making the awesome game and I want to see where this will be in a year from now and even farther. From everything I have seen from you guys and all the changes made every week I just cannot wait. Every friday I am so excited to get home just to read your posts!

Thank you,

Zodsmar

[ficolas]

About the targeting system, I think that sniping from a long distance would make killing way too easy because biters dont track you from a long distance.
However, they could track you when you shoot them, so the sniping would only be a few first hits, wich may be nice also, but in my personal opinion sniping doesnt really fit in the game as it is now.
And I dont know if you know that if you horver on an entity (biter, tree, w/e) and press C, it the character will shoot that entity, and if you put the cursor arround an enemy, the player will try to shoot the nearest enemy arround the cursor.
But if I guess you mean locking so when it moves the charackter still aims at it, but I think that would be quite slow compared to the fast combat system factorio haves.

And about the oil, it has been sugested tons of times, and the first time I think it was in developement proposals (so "suggested" by the devs), and yeah, it would be pwetty cool :3

[Dysoch]

Oil, to my knowledge, is coming in 0.9. Really looking forwardto it.

About the sniper. Sure its great, but overpowered. I have one in my mod, and you can destroy entire bases with it without ever being spotted. So what ficolas said is needed. They track you after you fire a few shot. The first fews hots they have no idea where you are, and then they pinpoint your location and attack. That would be awesome.

[Balinor]

I'd be more inclined to go with artillery and just carpet bomb the entire area. I don't want to go shooting things when I can just effectively nuke the buggers

[Dysoch]

I'd be more inclined to go with artillery and just carpet bomb the entire area. I don't want to go shooting things when I can just effectively nuke the buggers

I have had the same idea that we need artillery. Thats why i started working on it 2 weeks ago. Its far from finished, and not ready to be implemented in my next version. A few things are working, but the main interface for targetting is still not working. (To target, you work with an handheld, like the pda from f-mod, and select an area in the vicinity, or map. But it is not working correctly, so i need more time)

[ficolas]

I worked on a missile system some time ago, like a month or more, but I stopped because of a bug with the ghost controller. (or maybe I was doing something wrong)
How it worked was that you place a missil and then click on it with the pda, then you entered ghost controller, and a image of a green target (not sure how to explain that in english) appeared, then you go with the ghost controller to the enemy base... And boom

I might try again to see if I can finish it...

[Dysoch]

I worked on a missile system some time ago, like a month or more, but I stopped because of a bug with the ghost controller. (or maybe I was doing something wrong)
How it worked was that you place a missil and then click on it with the pda, then you entered ghost controller, and a image of a green target (not sure how to explain that in english) appeared, then you go with the ghost controller to the enemy base... And boom

I might try again to see if I can finish it...

Mine idea works the same, but a little different.

You place the artillery, load it up with a missile.
You use a targetting computer (pda of sorts) to click on location and it fires once.

But i have had the problem with the targetting system. It never fires at the right coordinates or it gives an lua error
I have put it on hold till i release next version.