Friday Facts #187 - Space science & 0.15 graphics

[Machine Medic]

Playing around with 0.15, and liking the changes so far.

However, one thing that needs to be added to the to-do list is the addition of a few -*new*- unique alarm sounds for the programmable speaker. Being able to play sounds with the circuit network is a HUGE step in the right direction, but being stuck having to re-use alarms that are already reserved for existing functions (structure damage, etc) isn't going to work.

Having a few basic bells and whistles (literally) to chose from would go a long way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aebn9SS2tpU

For bonus points, add some Factorio-stylized retrofuturistic alarm sounds: https://youtu.be/jz4kXFI_VtE?t=60

For super brownie points, add a selection of basic voiced words and numbers that we can trigger via circuit signals. "LOW - POWER - AREA - THREE" or "DANGER - TRAIN - INCOMING". Organizing them into categories by nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. would probably work well.

You get the idea.

Kudos, and keep up the good work.

[AcolyteOfRocket]

Enjoying 0.15 quite nicely, but I do have one niggle.

The start points of the various science beakers are not easy to find. When, say, I decide I want to do purple science its quite a hunt to find the actual tech I need to research to unlock the ability to make that science beaker.

Any chance you could update the icons in the tech tree to include the coloured beakers that a particular tech unlocks ?

I am thinking putting it prominently in one corner, which would make tracking down each beakers tech prerequisite a lot easier.

Cheers.

[achman741]

So two things.

What is the specs on the machine running the linked imgur album factory? o.o

And can we get that factory released to the public? I really want to see will/xterm/mojo do a factory fixit on the factory

This would be awesome! Will have to ask them about getting a copy of the save for a Refactorizing episode once 0.15 is out.

I can publish it when 0.15 is available

Hey did that save ever get published?

[orzelek]

Enjoying 0.15 quite nicely, but I do have one niggle.

The start points of the various science beakers are not easy to find. When, say, I decide I want to do purple science its quite a hunt to find the actual tech I need to research to unlock the ability to make that science beaker.

Any chance you could update the icons in the tech tree to include the coloured beakers that a particular tech unlocks ?

I am thinking putting it prominently in one corner, which would make tracking down each beakers tech prerequisite a lot easier.

Cheers.

You put the name of the science pack into search box and tech will show up nicely.

[AcolyteOfRocket]

Enjoying 0.15 quite nicely, but I do have one niggle.

The start points of the various science beakers are not easy to find. When, say, I decide I want to do purple science its quite a hunt to find the actual tech I need to research to unlock the ability to make that science beaker.

Any chance you could update the icons in the tech tree to include the coloured beakers that a particular tech unlocks ?

I am thinking putting it prominently in one corner, which would make tracking down each beakers tech prerequisite a lot easier.

Cheers.

You put the name of the science pack into search box and tech will show up nicely.

I thought that I had tried that, and got nothing.

Thx, I'll keep an eye out.

[stm]

Sounds amazing!
just one thing missing:
Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet?

By the way: Is the uranium miner supposed to be a different entity from normal miners, or why aren't there any pipe connectors shown in the non Uranium screenshots?
Stm

[kinnom]

Sounds amazing!
just one thing missing:
Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet?

By the way: Is the uranium miner supposed to be a different entity from normal miners, or why aren't there any pipe connectors shown in the non Uranium screenshots?
Stm

It's been out for over a day.

[ledow]

The normal miner changes to a uranium miner if you put it on top of uranium, otherwise it doesn't.

[Zettelkasten]

At the beginning of this year, I discovered this FFF series but knew nothing about Factorio, but I found it quite interesting and continued reading. After a few dozen entries I wanted to try the game myself and played through the demo missions. After that, I had a better understanding of what the game actually was about and was even more excited to continue reading, so I read a few FFF every once in a while for the last couple of months. Of course I had very few idea of everything addressed in the blogs, but still they all were quite interesting to read. Also it was quite fun to see time progress, and I must say: I am very impressed that you managed to write a FFF each and every week. We'll done!
So thanks for your efforts, you definitely taught me a lot, even though I don't even own Factorio. I'm sure I'll get to one day and laugh about all the things I know from reading FFFs. Keep them going, I'll look forward to them each and every week!

[vanatteveldt]

At the beginning of this year, I discovered this FFF series but knew nothing about Factorio, but I found it quite interesting and continued reading. After a few dozen entries I wanted to try the game myself and played through the demo missions. After that, I had a better understanding of what the game actually was about and was even more excited to continue reading, so I read a few FFF every once in a while for the last couple of months. Of course I had very few idea of everything addressed in the blogs, but still they all were quite interesting to read. Also it was quite fun to see time progress, and I must say: I am very impressed that you managed to write a FFF each and every week. We'll done!
So thanks for your efforts, you definitely taught me a lot, even though I don't even own Factorio. I'm sure I'll get to one day and laugh about all the things I know from reading FFFs. Keep them going, I'll look forward to them each and every week!

Is the purchase price your reason for not owning the game? Because quite a few members stated that they would like to give more money to the devs, so someone might be willing to gift you the game...

[shikashi18]

This is all good so far but I am curious, has the loading and unloading pumps for the liquid wagons been implemented and if so how do they work? Also I would appreciate more tip tutorials on other things such as the circuit network and so on.

[doppelEben]

At the beginning of this year, I discovered this FFF series but knew nothing about Factorio, but I found it quite interesting and continued reading. After a few dozen entries I wanted to try the game myself and played through the demo missions. After that, I had a better understanding of what the game actually was about and was even more excited to continue reading, so I read a few FFF every once in a while for the last couple of months. Of course I had very few idea of everything addressed in the blogs, but still they all were quite interesting to read. Also it was quite fun to see time progress, and I must say: I am very impressed that you managed to write a FFF each and every week. We'll done!
So thanks for your efforts, you definitely taught me a lot, even though I don't even own Factorio. I'm sure I'll get to one day and laugh about all the things I know from reading FFFs. Keep them going, I'll look forward to them each and every week!

Wow.. that disciplin not to buy the game... I couldnt resist when I saw the game the first few times. And aswell, all days I cant play because I'm not at home; I just chill on YT/twitch/reddit/forums to read about it and the process and stuff. And as vanatteveldt stated - feel free to ask here in the forum for the game. There are more than enough members which would gift the game just to spend more game to the devs. I for example just gifted it to an online-friend just for the heck of it. Never player together so far (which we will change in 0.15 but thats another story ). But from my point of view, even with my limited ressources, it was a no-brainer to buy the game a second time

(and RIP english I guess. early in the morning for me xD )

[torham]

Wow.. that disciplin not to buy the game...

Yeah, I hear you. I bought the game after playing the demo for 5 minutes.


PS: I LOVE the new night vision. It is perfectly usable and non intrusive. Thank you devs for listening to the feedback!

[orzelek]

Wow.. that disciplin not to buy the game...

Yeah, I hear you. I bought the game after playing the demo for 5 minutes.


PS: I LOVE the new night vision. It is perfectly usable and non intrusive. Thank you devs for listening to the feedback!

New night vision is so nice that it could enable itself slightly earlier

[torham]

I had an idea while researching the portable fusion reactor. It seems that it doesn't really belong to any energy tech. It just stands on itself. we can't make big fusion reactors for the factory. How about renaming it portable RTG, and folding it into the nuclear power. It would still work the same, but maybe we would need to process and refine some RTG fuel from uranium in order to craft it. It would be more thematically appropriate.

And while we are at it, RTG generators for cars, tanks and locomotives. maybe different amounts, so say 50 RTGs could power a train indefinitely.

[malecord]

I had an idea while researching the portable fusion reactor. It seems that it doesn't really belong to any energy tech. It just stands on itself. we can't make big fusion reactors for the factory. How about renaming it portable RTG, and folding it into the nuclear power. It would still work the same, but maybe we would need to process and refine some RTG fuel from uranium in order to craft it. It would be more thematically appropriate.

And while we are at it, RTG generators for cars, tanks and locomotives. maybe different amounts, so say 50 RTGs could power a train indefinitely.

Yeah I always though that the fusion reactor was to convenient creating power out of nothing.

Now that we have nuclear power I think we're ready to make it work like a sort of super long duration battery that every once in a while gets depleted and needs to be recharged using nuclear fuel.

[Damaskox]

I am playing the 0.15.5 at the moment. I am as far as about to research Oil Industry soon.

There are two things so far I dislike:

1. The item icons in the minimap are too big in size. (Can they be resized by the player?)
2. I liked the fact that you needed to research the first armor. Call me a Sci-lover, but that's how I feel =P

(I might update this post, if I find more stuff)

[Alice3173]

1. The item icons in the minimap are too big in size. (Can they be resized by the player?)

Personally I feel that they're too small on the minimap. I can barely make out the icons unless I open the map screen. I agree on giving the players an option to resize them though. That'd be useful.

[quyxkh]

I have to say, I think you could still solve a lot of complaints about the rocket's uselessness with two words:

"Tutorial complete."

[idanest101]

Well I played the new version of the game 0.15.5, and I'm very impressed from the new graphics you had improved and from the GUI.
I didn't find any problems or bugs with the gameplay.
I still want to see new inventory GUI of these resources : Coal, iron, copper and stone, but overall good job on the process and graphics.