During the past week I started to figure out a compilation of mods that offers maximal realism. This work is based on Factorio 0.17.79. I would stay my taste for this approach developed before and beyond this round of play of Factorio. During Feb~Mar 2018 I did a similar survey on all Minecraft mods, and have preferences in environmental, geological and real progressive industrial perspectives. I tried to load 200+ mods back then, got minimal FPS and tons of crashes, but some ideas really stood out. I won't say that I'm making things masochist; just in pursuit of more factors that have to be taken in consideration, i.e. factors that are "real". Must say that Factorio gets the upper hand because it offers a framework that gets rid of a 3*3 craft table and updates the whole map every tick. There's a game called ECO which also stimulates the whole planet, updates everything every tick, and is multiplayer-based. ECO focusing on "real work time", ecology, governmental economy and adopts first-person view, so that my computer has very low FPS and I cannot play it. It runs 24h as MP game and work takes real hours, and feels tedious to me. I would say Factorio is more suitable a framework to simulate and combine much ideas embodied in these two games. I just did and am still doing a thorough examination of Portal's mods and propose less popular mods in praise of their importance and great work towards a more "real" experience. Meanwhile I'm watching out for previous discussions on similar topics in the Forum.
I'm still doing doing this work and will update later in this post, below are partial and incomplete lists and descriptions.
My main focus is MP game. Thanks to all the modders, and inspirations from discussions in this topic and elsewhere. I do all the researches below and come up with my perspectives myself though, with hundreds of keyword searches done on the Portal. Also, this is based on 0.17.79, and some less known mods here haven't been updated to 0.18. I don't want to let them go though, and I may contact with the modders to facilitate updates. Finally, the less known or say not mainstream mods have some designs that make things very difficult
(e.g. Food Industries still require automation research bottle to initiate the first tech research, "composting", while Amator Phasma's Coal and Steam makes automation research bottle hours away; Food Industries require distilled water so that drinking water production can be done, or you'll need to run further in to the wild to find pure water resource, but that is still further away; but maybe this awkward situation is desirable due to its close mimic to a real world scenario and I can argue so. But it'd be strange that the wreck doesn't have some plastic (films) in it, and you know with plastic film and a can, you can distill water easily everywhere, so at least some basic pure water production for survival should be deviced). These mods ambitious yet not among the most downloaded ones haven't had their remote parts fit together very well, which I hope we players and modders who love to explore the frontiers of gaming will try to improve and make more cohesive.
One good question already discussed is: how much do we want to simulate the more "primitive" technologies, since the gamer is someone crashed from a spaceship?
Here are also Xander's mod on "primitive" things but haven't checked out
I've also heard about Primitive Age. My researches are confined to 0.17 mods but I think there were some discontinued mods doing primitive things. I heard about Stone Age, maybe part of these.
(My basis of "world view"
1. Space Exploration
2. Nauvis Day + Global Warming (Nauvis Day by Reika has code errors now and is incompatible with Angel's PetroChem. I adopt several other mods by Reika; Reika does several separate good mods)
3. Food Industries 2.0 (this is not receiving updates due to modder's lack of time)
4. Other mods that complicate processing and tech trees, especially ones that mainly focus on "pre-game" parts, e.g. Amator Phasma's Coal and Steam)
Incomplete list of mods
The "big" ones
- Space Exploration as the basis of this world view. This will stay true before Wube releases Factorio 1.x (where they may add space contents). Other "big" ones must be compatible to this series to be adopted by me.
- Bob's, Angel's, Py, AAI, Amator Phasma's, MadClown01's, which complicates resources and overall processing; Bio Industries as well
Amator Phasma's Coal and Steam is a must. It extends the "pre-game" part, on which topic I'll do more research
Units
In the air, you have Aircraft and Aircraft Realism. In water, you have the definitive Cargo Ships, and CanalBuilder accompanying it (which seems to be the only realistic and non-"cheating" mod that works with new water tiles)
Small tweaks
Rocket Silo Construction;
On enemies: Bob's, Rampant, ...
Rubber Belts by Reika
Resources
Reika's GeoThermal
Environment
Of course, Air Filtering Advanced. Also Weather Station. Yet:
- Nauvis Day, for its emphasis on pollution and its consequences on trees;
- Global Warming, for its calculation on the impact that pollution does to sea level and deforestation (and addition of desert area)
Nature simulation
Must say that haven't found the ideal ones I want? -
- Fish and Wildlife, for its work on good natural update (trees, fish, pollution, soil) which adds an array of features. Yet broken on server as of now
? Noxys Tress. Will test.
(the Tree Growth series by Graveeater: consumes too much CPU usage, won't use)
"Defects"
There are some mods that make some percentage of metal products defective and I'd like to add them soon. Like Dirty Mining (?)
Food and food-related survival system
- Food Industry 2 (beta). This is a greatly done mod, but at 0.17, which simulates the Minecraft experience. The modder is away for a few months.
In this mod you'll need to eat and drink all the time. Pure water are like oil patches, but you need to run there to refill your bottles. Also, water run out after hundreds/thousands of drinks, and you need to use the distillery to produce pure water later on. This is heavily complicated by Amator Phasma's designs for early game, but in an interesting way. Here's really the "survival" element: if you don't play well, you'll die because of lack of food/water/patience very soon.
-
Widgets: General
FNEI: recipes.
Clock by Bob.
Enhanced Map Colors.
Squeak Through.
Widgets: Specific, related to my taste (to be added)
- To play with environment in mind, it's a must to have Pollution Control
- EvoGUI for biters' evolution
My suggestions on how to develop these mods
Well, what I say in this post is just my personal wishes. More to be added here.
1. I would like to have Food Industries balanced. There needs to be a way to get pure water to drink.
2. I'm waiting for a 0.17 release of Nauvis Day which doesn't crash when I have Angel's mods.
Reference discussions:
"Future idea - Pre Industrial Realism." at
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=70915&p=430764
"We need farm mods!" at
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=60436&p=363080 (just idea, from 2018, by thereaverofdarkness)