Factorio Forums

A galactic market

Can only be added when multiplayer is done. You create an galactic market and then can trade with all players who play factorio. (Without starting multiplayer match)

You set up a trade. Lets say 10 iron plates. It gets stored on the server, and players who have access to internet can see it, and give something in return. The next time you play on that world, you get a notification that you order has been furfilled.

Seems like a nice feature

A good idea, would need more end game materials to make it worth it.

I don't like it much as a multiplayer option. Maybe in Single Player have a "merchant" to whoom sell stuff and buy another stuff, but it woud have to be MORE EXPENSIVE to buy than to build... AND you have to have it reserched (the item you wanna buy)...

in multiplayer it will be good if the players will have different biomes with different resources(advanced, not basic) then player will be in trading with each other for successfull being.

This idea is awesome, unfortunately it doesn't really work within the context of the game. The game mechanics simply don't lend themselves to this sort of feature. There are what, six core resources. Everyone needs them in every game to progress. Everything is ultimately produced from these resources. The only real way to create a market demand would be to not have enough supply yourself. Then you'd have to consider what are you going to trade for the resource you don't have? I'm not saying that the game cannot be pushed towards a state where this sort of feature IS useful. But as it stands right now, it just isn't. If the multiplayer isn't strictly Co-Op and there is the capacity to have multiple 'teams' who aren't necessarily working together I could see a local market system being useful. But not so much at the base resource level. And again the main issue with this is that with how few things of 'importance' there are in the game. The most valuable things will be the science packs in most cases for everyone. So everyone will be trying to trade for the same things.

Sad part is that this game is built solely to progress to a singular 'end-point'. With the only difference being how you get there. Everyone will progress using the exact same resources because the 'required' resources are the same no matter how you build your factory. Now if you wish to create market conditions you really need more diversity in the various 'levels' of progression. Be it through different methods for constructing things. Or different items that serve the same purpose that aren't simply upgrades to each other. Or 'rare' things that some people find that others don't that can be traded for. Nothing like this really exists in the game at this point sadly.

Right now, the game doesn't have any late game resources that would be really rare (maybe also biome specific), as well as only used for optional researches/items.

Better version of existing things, like a MK4 assembling machine, a production chain using uranium to heat water more efficiently, better towers/walls, long range weapons only efficient on spawners, weapons that can kill big bitters quickly, or other of such things that are not required to advance, but give an edge in a specific way in the late game.

Those thing could really add to the late game, making each map a bit special thanks to those resources.

Right now, the game is quite solid for the early and mid game, but the late game is really lacking, with mostly only slight boost to existing stuff, while you are forced to make extensive use of oil and hunt many bitter bases, without appropriate tools.


A galactic market in purely single player could be nice (check f-mod for a try in this), but it would really shine as a way to exchange resources between players, without requiring to play on the same server.
Sure, some would abuse it by cheating, but there is not much to gain in doing so anyway.

Umm, Factorio isn't Farmville...

It would be easily exploitable to push new game sessions with items...

The story at the moment is that we are stranded on a planet and are struggling to escape.. not trying to become a galactic trader

Stranded, but with the ability to make missile launchers, and to exterminate all the inhabitants, and to prepare for the landing of a ship that we can suppose is big.

Is it really stretching it to believe that we could make small space-capable ships in order to trade with that ship, and through it, with other planets?

Sure, it needs to be fairly end game, with big costs for the research, the ship, and the fuel, but I don't understand the "farmville" argument, maybe because I don't play games that have no gameplay.

The aim is not to make a system to ease the early/mid game, but to have more things opening up as we reach high tech levels.
Having more end game things, that are not necessarily required to "win" would make it much more enjoyable to reach that stage for me, and if it can include small interactions with other players, without ruining the experience, then I don't see why not.

I think the farmville argument aimed at the point that you needed to find friends from outside to progress ingame.

I see that in Factorio V2. Not yet.

Although i also envisioned some trading "events", i don't think that player trade is that useful in the current game setup (and it would take a big amount of work to make it happen). Like others mentioned, we need all of the ressources anyway.

Some small scale trade options would be nice for co-op play.

"He buddy, do you have some steel surplus? I wanna build a rail network to that large iron field up north, but it would take some time to get the steel for the tracks."

"Sure, i'll put a 500 stell into the car and drive by your base in a few mins."

With "Fight revisited" 0.12 we might have some rare "mods" to trade for Tanks, Power Armor etc. Until then trade on any scale isn't really useful.

Hmmm... I don't think it would fit in my vision of Factorio. Trading with other player? No, thank you. Trading with biters on the other hand could be interesting, but biters aren't smart enough for trade at the moment. Bu why should we even trade? We can already get every thing that we want in the game.

I believe that the whole point of the "other players" is not to have a friend list, but to have a centralized place where all the trades are stored.

To me, it seems more like a try to integrate a market where prices would fluctuate, but it could also be flooded by people being able to mass produce high end products, so I don't know if it would be viable.

In a perfect world, it could become as stable as the market in EVE, but I don't know about any other game that successfully pulled this one off, and with mods to complicate the matter...

But on the paper, it sounds to be a good idea, and if well implemented, it could complement the base game quite well.

Again, let's see how f-mod does with its system, once it finds a balance, and we'll know if it makes for a good gameplay option or not.