[0.11.22+] Natural Evolution v3.0.1 - All things Alien! (OLD)

[TheSAguy]

I'm no longer maintaining this version, please see the new version here.



The main goal of this MOD is to try and make the enemies harder, so one has a little more challenging game experience!

This mod tries to manage the following areas of the game:
- Evolution rate
- Enemy spawners
- Enemy units
- Enemy expansion
- Give you some help in the form of two new buildings

It’s compatible with Dytech War and Bob’s enemies and will detect if you’re using those mods and make alteration to the units they add to the game also.

- Evolution rate: - Can be turned on or off in the config.lua file
Time Evolution Factor reduced by 25% - From 0.000008 to 0.000006 – Gives you a more time.
Destroying Enemy Spawners Factor reduced by 80% - From 0.005 to 0.001 – You are going to have to kill a lot more enemy nests/spawners to get to new resources.
Pollution Evolution Factor doubled - From 0.00003 to 0.00006 – You are penalized for polluting this beautiful alien world! Recycle!

- Enemy spawners: - Can be turned on or off in the config.lua file
Spawners have a lot more health and more units around them. (Very close to the default Dytech settings)

- Enemy units: - Can be turned on or off in the config.lua file
It takes less pollution for enemies to start attacking you.

- Enemy expansion: - Can be turned on or off in the config.lua file
Expansion now comes in phases that gets more aggressiveness the higher the evolution factor is.

- New Buildings:
You now have the ability to build two new buildings:
Terraforming Station – A radar-like building that slightly reduces the evolution each time a scan is completed. Each consecutive Terraforming Station is 10% less effective than the one before. This will prevent it from being overpowered.
Alien Control Station – A radar-like building that has a small chance of converting enemy units to your side each time a scan is completed.

-----------------

I'm hoping that this will create a more challenging game. Keep an eye on the evolution factor, it's almost like a clock counting down and when it reaches 100%....
This should give you more time to cover a large map, kill a lot of bugs and find those resources that are further away from your base, but polluting will cause the bugs to grow! It is now more important to manage your pollution.

Please give me feedback!



Install:
Just put the zip folder in your mod's folder, no need to unzip.

Recommendation:
I highly recommend you also use Display Evolution Factor module using ThunderGUI: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =14&t=8939
Just download the latest ThunderGUI version and put that and TGEvolutionDisplay_0.0.1.zip in the Mods folder.

TGEvolutionDisplay_0.0.1.zip

Evo Display

(4.64 KiB) Downloaded 487 times

RSO – Better resource spawns
DyTech-War & Bob’s Enemies – adds more variety to the enemies.

Update Log:
V3.0.1 – Balancing Update
V3.0.0 – Integrated Albatrosv13’s Alien Temple/Deevolution and FreeER’s Mind Control mods. Tweaked some of the mod’s other values. I’ve also attached an excel spreadsheet with my mod value changes if anyone’s interested.
V2.5.0 – Major update. I've learned a little more and you now have a control file. Now the mod enhances Spawners and Enemy Units also.
V2.0.1 – Lowered the decrease in Evolution factor, once an expansion is triggered. I found in my game where I was at an evolution factor in the high eighties that it was actually going down and getting very hard to get the evo in the nineties.
V2.0.0 – Integrated AlyxDeLunar’ Dynamic Expansion mod
v1.0.1 - Updated to Factorio 11.4 (Just naming convention updated.)
v1.0.0 - Initial Release

Credits:
L0771 - For his help given to me to start this MOD.
AlyxDeLunar - For his MOD Dynamic Expansion that I’ve used in my MOD.
Albatrosv13 - For his MOD Alien Temple that I’ve used in my MOD
FreeER - For his MOD Mind Control that I’ve used in my MOD
ThaPear, SpeedyBrain & Semvoz - Coding help!
Enjoy.
Please give me feedback!

[OBAMA MCLAMA]

I like the idea of removing the time evolution. If your pollution never reaches nor do you ever interact with any biters, they shouldn't evolve.

the time evolution should be based off the research and regarding to what you are doing. If you are attacking small biters with piercing rounds, then they should evolve a little bit faster.


Like the mod though ^^

[devious]

The pollution evolution modifier is global though, correct?

Would there be a way to have the pollution only effect pockets it touches or the surrounding area?

**
I think you have a typo in your post also. The mod changes the spawn kill evolution factor to 0.001 not 0.000004

".destroy_factor = 0.001"
".pollution_factor = 0.00006"
.time_factor = 0.000004

[TheSAguy]

The pollution evolution modifier is global though, correct?

Would there be a way to have the pollution only effect pockets it touches or the surrounding area?

**
I think you have a typo in your post also. The mod changes the spawn kill evolution factor to 0.001 not 0.000004

".destroy_factor = 0.001"
".pollution_factor = 0.00006"
.time_factor = 0.000004

Thanks devious, corrected my post. Mod was correct per the values above.

[TheSAguy]

Updated to Version 2.
I’ve integrated AlyxDeLunar’s Dynamic Expansion mod into mine with my own tweaks. All credit goes to him!

[Airat9000]

Updated to Version 2.
I’ve integrated AlyxDeLunar’s Dynamic Expansion mod into mine with my own tweaks. All credit goes to him!

old game work?

[TheSAguy]

Update 2.5 is up!

I've learned a little more code and have not included managing the Spawners & Units.
I've also started a Config.lua file that can be used to manage some of the changes.

Biters should be much harder now!! Be warned.

Feedback please.

Updated to Version 2.
I’ve integrated AlyxDeLunar’s Dynamic Expansion mod into mine with my own tweaks. All credit goes to him!

old game work?

No, but I have Alyx's okay to use his work.

[Buggi]

Once the evolution factor reaches 1.0 shouldn't it stay there? Evolution isn't a process that stops.

In my games, no pollution ever reaches nests. Is pollution calculated on just the amount of pollution you generate or just when it reaches a nest?

I am currently using dynamic expansion, but I don't like that it lowers the evolution. Once the enemy is evolved it should stay evolved.

One reason is once you are able to make destroyer drones (or the higher tiers with Dytech) small/medium/big biters/spitters are really not a problem, especially with the high-end laser turrets you can build with Dytech.

Could you make the evolution factors configurable? That way I can tweak those settings without using ingame lua commands to test some ideas. I'd like to see the time factor as you have it, but destroying spawners raised considerably. Pity there's no factor to set when killing the enemy units.

Once you have efficiency modules and solar power, pollution is minimal.

[TheSAguy]

Thanks for the feedback Buggi!

Once the evolution factor reaches 1.0 shouldn't it stay there? Evolution isn't a process that stops.
I am currently using dynamic expansion, but I don't like that it lowers the evolution. Once the enemy is evolved it should stay evolved.

This should be the case. From version 2.5 I've removed the De-evolution factor added by Dynamic Exp.
I want the game to progressively get more difficult and the player not get any breaks

In my games, no pollution ever reaches nests. Is pollution calculated on just the amount of pollution you generate or just when it reaches a nest?

I'm not the best at explaining this, but pollution spreads from where it gets generated and does slowly get absorbed by distance, trees and water for the most part. But it will eventually reach nests and get's absorbed by nests that causes them to evolve. In game it raises the evolution factor.
Here is the Wiki info:
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... =Pollution

In my mod I've doubled the evolution factor of pollution, since I feel like you've invading this beautiful pristine planet and destroying it with your pollution...

One reason is once you are able to make destroyer drones (or the higher tiers with Dytech) small/medium/big biters/spitters are really not a problem, especially with the high-end laser turrets you can build with Dytech.

True, so that's why I play with RSO to make resources mare scarce and force a longer game where you have to go out and find more resources.
My mod tries to increase the difficulty of bitters as the evolution factor goes up.
Make sure you add Bob's Enemies. It's a standalone mod and adds some new biters/spitters that are pretty nasty at high evolution factors.

Could you make the evolution factors configurable? That way I can tweak those settings without using ingame lua commands to test some ideas. I'd like to see the time factor as you have it, but destroying spawners raised considerably.

Easily done. If you open my Data.lua file you'll find it easily. I've listed my settings and what the default's are.

Pity there's no factor to set when killing the enemy units.

There are literally thousands of biters you kill during a long game. It would a little out of hand.

Once you have efficiency modules and solar power, pollution is minimal.

True, but now you're forced to do so or face some nasty bitters.


As always feedback and balancing suggestions is very welcome.

[Nafen]

I would like this more if it added the evolution reduction in Dynamic Expansion as I see that number/percentage as more of an 'aggression meter'. At the start of a game you aren't really a threat and so the biters send forth their 'grunts' to try and attack you, as you pollute the world and destroy the biters' nests they send their stronger and stronger soldiers to try and deal with you. But if you stop being aggressive with them, or cut down on the pollution, they can slowly sort of calm down and carry on with whatever else it is that they do on the planet, other than making players bases go bwaap bwaap

[TheSAguy]

Updated to version 3!

Integrated Albatrosv13’s Alien Temple/Deevolution and FreeER’s Mind Control mods. Tweaked some of the mod’s other values.
I’ve also attached an excel spreadsheet with my mod value changes if anyone’s interested.

I'm definitely going to need feedback on the balancing of the two new buildings.
Enjoy!

[TheSAguy]

Update to 3.0.1

Just a balancing update.
Te game has a built in slowdown of the evolution factor. So the higher the evolution factor is, the less affect the Pollution, Time and Killing bases factors have on the Evolution factor.

Code: Select all

The percentages are applied on the base of (1 - current_evolution_factor). So for instance destroying the enemy spawner in the beginning of the game results in increase of evolution factor by 0.005 (half a percent) while doing this when the evolution factor is 0.5 the increase is only 0.0025 (quarter a percent).

As a result, I'm applying this same slowdown to the Terraforming Station building. The higher the evolution factor, the less effective it will become. Else it will be totally overpowering at the late stages of the game.

[gixbit]

Does using this permanently change the aliens on a map? Or can one just remove this without having permanently changed aliens?

[TheSAguy]

You should be safe to remove.

[jackthesmack]

I'm getting an error when starting up in 0.12.25

Mod Natural_Evolution_Enemies dependency ? SupremeWarfare >=1.0.5 not matching pattern "[?] ModName [ModVersion specifier]".

Edit: You can fix this by going into \mods\Natural_Evolution_Enemies_5.0.5\info.json and adding a space between SupremeWarfare >= and 1.0.5

So the file should look like this:

Code: Select all

{
  "name": "Natural_Evolution_Enemies",
  "version": "5.0.5",
  "title": "Natural_Evolution_Enemies",
  "author": "TheSAguy",
  "contact": "vvwmisc@hotmail.com",
  "homepage": "https://forums.factorio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=13562&p",
  "description": "All things Alien! Adds new Enemies and updates to Biter/Spitters Spawners",
  "dependencies": ["base >= 0.12.11", "? bobenemies >= 0.12.5", "? MAIN-DyTech-War >= 1.1.0", "? SupremeWarfare >= 1.0.5"]
}

[Endlesstyme]

Getting an error when I start a map.
__Natural-Evolution__/control.lua:8: attempt to index global 'game' (a nil value)

[orzelek]

Getting an error when I start a map.
__Natural-Evolution__/control.lua:8: attempt to index global 'game' (a nil value)

Please goto current thread for the mod in 0.12 section: viewtopic.php?f=94&t=13562