Friday Facts #417 - Space Age development

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-417

[luckymike11]

Yeeeaaaa!!!

"Since things are getting stable and I'm starting to be pretty happy with the state of the game now, we are ready to give a specific date of the Space Age release...
Which we will tell you next week "

Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

Take my money

[Hares]

Earendel's drafts were always over the top when it comes to gameplay complexity, so we usually started by simplifying it to half of its original size, and then half again soon after... but it is way easier to shave off from a prototype, leaving the best bits, rather then creating things from scratch.

Please tell us about these!

[Earendel]

The first gameplay draft was made in less than 2 weeks and was a vertical slice for the entire expansion. It was sort of a blue-sky concepting stage where I could try a lot of different things to see what sticks.

To make things more difficult though, there was a lot of initial reluctance to have alternate recipes for things (because recyclers had already been added to reprocess items for quality). This meant that the first version couldn’t have many shortcut recipes and that resulted in the need for a lot of the basic resources to still be on most planets (even if the source is a little different), but then you’d still need most of the same processing chain as Nauvis in addition to the planet-specific ones. Fortunately that stance has been relaxed for a lot of things.

Also, some of the things that were cut from the first version made it back in eventually, like resources from lava.

[SnowZyDe]

We know the exact date, but what year will we say in the middle of 2026

[BlacKcuD]

This is probably the only game which I would preorder without any doubts.

[husnikadam]

Space Age launch party when?

[Justderpingalong]

That intersection is just... glorious, GLORIOUS spaghetti.

Also... in that picture... I'm seeing... 12 science packs?
red green grey blue purple yellow (all base)
white orange lime pink purple black (2 from base, the other 4 from the new planets..?)

[GregoriusT]

Since things are getting stable and I'm starting to be pretty happy with the state of the game now, we are ready to give a specific date of the Space Age release...
Which we will tell you next week

So, the Wiki says August 2024, one of the Moderators said October 2024, i wonder what next weeks FFF is gonna say.

I also love how "finishing the expansion" doesn't mean "reaches all the techs of the Game" to the Devs, no it means a 1 million SPM Megabase!

[againey]

Also... in that picture... I'm seeing... 12 science packs?

Ooh, good eyes spotting that tiny detail! Although my brain interprets it as 11, with the bottom-right spot just being empty space showing the dark gray shaded area of the lab.

[GregoriusT]

Also... in that picture... I'm seeing... 12 science packs?

Ooh, good eyes spotting that tiny detail! Although my brain interprets it as 11, with the bottom-right spot just being empty space showing the dark gray shaded area of the lab.

that empty slot MIGHT be for Spoilers, but yeah it could be a 12th sci pack. There even is an inserter for removing something from the Labs, so it very likely is Spoilers.

[Stalinlover22]

Can´t wait to the next week!

[Justderpingalong]

Also... in that picture... I'm seeing... 12 science packs?

Ooh, good eyes spotting that tiny detail! Although my brain interprets it as 11, with the bottom-right spot just being empty space showing the dark gray shaded area of the lab.

that empty slot MIGHT be for Spoilers, but yeah it could be a 12th sci pack. There even is an inserter for removing something from the Labs, so it very likely is Spoilers.

Spoilers? Or spoilage.

Eitherway I'm fairly convinced it is 12 science packs. If you look at the top left lab, it doesn't have red science but that doesn't leave a shaded entry, it's just not there. What's more curious is that the other packs haven't shifted: All of them are in the same place still. And if it WAS 11 packs, wouldn't the bottom row by half-offset like below?
X-X-X-X-X-X
-X-X-X-X-X
Each new planet brings 1 more science pack to the table, and the last one... maybe it's deep space science? I dunno.

[Terrahertz]

That was a very interesting peek behind the curtains, with some very impressive screenshots

I wonder what next weeks topic might be, as it is getting bundled up with the release date.

[SHADOW13]

I am hoping all those big Earendel's concepts will make into mods, some people don't mind playing 300+ hours

[GregoriusT]

Also... in that picture... I'm seeing... 12 science packs?

Ooh, good eyes spotting that tiny detail! Although my brain interprets it as 11, with the bottom-right spot just being empty space showing the dark gray shaded area of the lab.

that empty slot MIGHT be for Spoilers, but yeah it could be a 12th sci pack. There even is an inserter for removing something from the Labs, so it very likely is Spoilers.

Spoilers? Or spoilage.

Eitherway I'm fairly convinced it is 12 science packs. If you look at the top left lab, it doesn't have red science but that doesn't leave a shaded entry, it's just not there. What's more curious is that the other packs haven't shifted: All of them are in the same place still. And if it WAS 11 packs, wouldn't the bottom row by half-offset like below?
X-X-X-X-X-X
-X-X-X-X-X
Each new planet brings 1 more science pack to the table, and the last one... maybe it's deep space science? I dunno.

waaaait is there even a shaded spot where the bottom right slot is?! That might be some coincidental dark spot on the lab texture!

I think the Science Packs will have dedicated spots in the Alt Overlay as opposed to how it works right now.

Also yes I ended up calling Spoilage "Spoilers", because that is funnier. XD

[Brathahn]

takemymoney.jpg (86.91 KiB) Viewed 11665 times

[Panzerknacker]

Cool stuff, always like to read what Kovarex got to say. Seeing that huge production output looks cool. I can understand now where the decision to remove fluid simulation from the game is coming from. I still doubt tho if it is the right tradeoff. To me this huge production output, aka 'massing' is mostly just more of the same thing. So I ask first, is it really absolutely impossible to obtain this level of production output with the old fluid system and adjusted builds, and if not, second, is it really worth it looking at the fun factor of designing builds (amongst other reasons) to have this higher output capacity compared to having an actual (semi) simulated fluid system?

Then 3rd, the UPS question. This is a pretty hardcore game, targeting the PC. We will have faster hardware coming out every year. Arent we over-optimizing by removing a core gameplay/simulation mechanic in favor of getting more of the same binary item production per second per megaherz, especially considering Quality is an optional mechanic? How big can you reasonably build on current hardware while leaving the fluid mechanics in the game?

Really concerned about this still, especially now that we will be doing more with fluids than ever with the molten metals and stuff it feels like we're loosing a large part of the systems designing gameplay.

[Gergely]

That intersection is so complex, I can't help but wonder why is it devoid of any trains.

[Terrahertz]

That intersection is so complex, I can't help but wonder why is it devoid of any trains.

Pathfinding took one look at this and concluded: NOPE!