Synch Game Version

[Septimus ii]

In the same way as you can synch mods with a multiplayer server or a save game, it would be useful if you could synch gamer version number. Currently I don't think the server shows up at all if you're on a different version.

[valneq]

Currently there are only two different versions for Factorio: The current stable (0.17.74) and the current experimental (0.17.78).
There is technically speaking still the last version of 0.16, which is 0.16.51.

You want to be able to see servers running both versions of 0.17 from your 0.17 version, or do you also want to see the old 0.16?
How about 0.15? Are these still around?

I think one of the problems with downgrading from a new version to an old one is that the game is (currently?) not designed to handle that (… and probably never will be …). When you try to downgrade (via steam for example), you will run into all kinds of problems. I recently had my local achievements reset because of going from 0.17.78 to 0.17.74. Steam achievements are still there, though. So no big deal for me. But this shows explicitly that jumping between versions is tricky.

I think adding proper support for this kind of switching both back and forth will be really challenging for the devs. Backwards compatibility is a big thing on its own, but how exactly do you properly implement forward compatibility?

[Septimus ii]

I would like someone on any version (including eg 0.17.77 and hasn't downloaded the update yet) to be able to see any server from any version, but at least 0.17.74 and 0.17.78 and be able to synch to it.