Factorio Forums

Shaska wrote:Sounds nifty, but while the game is all about automating stuff, if you start to make basic things such as factory construction automated, the game will start going from constructing factories to waiting for the game to construct factories for you.
I think it would work better as just a command chair for your defences, especially if you plan on making enemies more advanced.
I'd love to be able to set up complex factories to churn out an army, then jumping into a chair and commanding it around, but if everything can just be done from a chair defended by 8 automatic turrets, it'd lose a lot of its charm I think

Basically this... but it's a natural step in the "automation evolution" that seems to be missing from the game. I always felt like the Omega point for a game like Factorio would be the constantly expanding factory that runs by itself (a la Nifty Maniac's Grey Goo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF--1XdcOeM), and the fact that this is currently impossible without mods seems a shame.

Being able to do tasks such as order yet another mining station from the "throne room", and then automatically set up the connections to the rail network, would be pretty awesome indeed. On the other hand that awesomeness would only be available to hardcore players in the lategame with a true Megabase already set up. Perhaps that content would be motivation to actually reach that stage of the game though.

The radar view has made this game incredibly suitable for some real RTS elements (like controllable units to defend or attack). Especially the fact that radar view has to be ESTABLISHED and MAINTAINED while costing some relevant energy (especially early) makes this particularly unique compared to other RTS games - in nearly every "traditional" RTS you get top-down view of your base for free. In Factorio you not only have fog of war but also a complete lack of vision if not installed - but you also have a physical appearance in the world.

I really feel like now is the time to give Factorio a combat overhaul with some (limited) RTS elements.

In Factorio 0.15 the Unit Remote Controller from the AAI Programmable Vehicles mod can be used to select and issue orders to vehicles from the map view. The vehicles also scan the area around them so you can see what they're doing / attacking. Unit-following-unit mechanics have been added recently, and soon I will be adding the ability to do waypoints and paths just using the remote control.

This topic is too old and no longer relevant, so I'm locking it.