Feedback 0.9

[Zourin]

Greens?

Blues are MONSTERS now.

• Steel Plate - A small reprieve, this hasn't changed
• Smart Inserters - Requires a chain of Inserter-Fast Inserter-Smart Inserter still, with chips and such along every step. Still pretty big
• Advanced Electronic Circuits - Now require a full oil industry facility in order to produce the new plastic requirements, as well as the logistics routing
• Batteries - Even more complex setup than the new circuits, requiring three chained chem labs (Gas -> Sulfur->Sulfuric Acid->Batteries)

Blues now require a sizable amount of petroleum gas now for the plastics and batteries, and that' means no blue bottles until you get an oil industry and the logistics plan to route the goods.

In addition to still requiring rocketry (instead of Advanced Electronics and Oil Processing 1), that's a lot of tech you gotta fill out between green and blue. Greens are easy. Running pipe, not so much.

[TGS]

I'm actually loving the 0.9 changes. However I must confess, I've now encountered multiple save breaking bugs that mean I think I'm gonna put 0.9 on the shelf for now until those bugs get worked out. I've had three 10-15 hour saves break to where I can no longer load them. Very frustrating.

[kovarex]

I'm actually loving the 0.9 changes. However I must confess, I've now encountered multiple save breaking bugs that mean I think I'm gonna put 0.9 on the shelf for now until those bugs get worked out. I've had three 10-15 hour saves break to where I can no longer load them. Very frustrating.

I understand that and I'm sorry for the trouble. The good thing is, that those saves should be loadable in 0.9.1

[TGS]

I'm actually loving the 0.9 changes. However I must confess, I've now encountered multiple save breaking bugs that mean I think I'm gonna put 0.9 on the shelf for now until those bugs get worked out. I've had three 10-15 hour saves break to where I can no longer load them. Very frustrating.

I understand that and I'm sorry for the trouble. The good thing is, that those saves should be loadable in 0.9.1

Ah, I was hoping that would be the case. Won't go deleting any of them then hehe. But really, you guys did do a really good job. I hope you don't nerf the solid fuel too much either, despite the fact that you can get tons of it lol. It's really quite nice to have. I do think giving each of the oil components (including light oil) a use beyond strictly fuel should be done though. Or the amounts should be altered so that it takes a significant amount to create solid fuels. Far more with light oil if an alternative use isn't provided for it.

Also consolidation on the oil techs would be good, or dramatically lower the science pack cost. Wouldn't be such an issue having to research them if they were like 25/25 red/green packs each. Also, please at least consider lowering the smelting cost of steel to 4xplates.

[Phantasm]

With so much pipes everywhere... It would be nice to have a special + pipe that would let liquid flow straight in both directions without connecting them together. In many cases that can be done with underground pipe, but say if you want multiple chemical plans in a row, it will need a lot of pipes.

[Cerus]

I'm loving almost everything in 0.9, especially the added complexity from the intermediate components, and I'm having quite a bit of fun integrating the new oil resource into my designs.

One thing that comes to mind that I have an issue with is the chemical plant. I dislike how many different things are done in this structure, I think I'd prefer a new assembler that had an optional liquid input for the construction functions.

The only other thing I can think of is pipe management, seems like fluid flow has some weird rules, I'd really like to see this system behave more realistically.

[Calico]

So, finally it's done. My first freeplay is finished and i'd like to thank the Devs again for releasing 0.9.0 a bit early. It was a very interesting playthrough, with lots of learning and re-learning.
Most of this thread is kinda focused on the things that could be better (and there are quite a few of them) so i'd like to use this post for beeing thankful for those things that are already a lot better then 0.8.8:

Blueprints

Never was building Solar Farms, Battery Banks and Perimeter Defense easier. Seperating Logistic and Construction Bots was a great Idea, allowing for a lot more base building without making the logi bots even more powerful!

Radar, reduced power usage

I always liked to keep an eye on my surroundings, trying to get rid of biter spawners before they are actually a threat to my Base and Outposts. I'm very thankful for the decrease in power usage, allowing me to set up over half a dozen perimeter outposts without having to build a overly huge Solar Farm.

Linking intelligent Inserters to the Logistic Network

A small but brilliant change, allowing for so much more flexibility and less waste of ressources due to overproduction. I'm still exploring all the possibilities this has opened up.

Bug Fixes

looking at the patch notes and the already resolved bugs section i'm astonished how much has been done already. Great work!


Obviously there are quite a few other things around to be thankful for, but these are my favorites for 0.9.0. Tyvm Devs!

[Sedado77]

This Idea I think you will like:
A sort of "Tap" or "Faucet" for the liquids goods, a sort of insertor but for the pipes. then, this will give the liquid products to the asembly machines or chem lab, so you don't need to have fixed point of entry and exit of the liquid products.
I don't know if I am explainig myself, but for me what bothers the most of the new OIL mechanics it he fact that the entry and exit points are fixed, and that i have to put underground pipes for joining 2 pipes with the same contentswhen the chem plants are next to each other, making a mess of my fact.

If i could put a tap that unloads the chem plants, and make it be like the smart inserter (you have to put 1 faucet for each load or unload of liquid, not 1 for many prods) , so you could have only 1 pipe with, lets say, crude oil, and with (again, lets say) 4 faucets, each 4 or 5 blocks apart, you could have them like

A.M. A.M. A.M. A.M. Assembly or Chem plants.
____||______||____||_____||___ Faucets
______________________________ 000 PIPE (000=big storage tank)

Againt, the AM or Chem Plants woud have no premarked exit points, so you could put the exit faucet anywhere you want (You can have then Long Sleve Faucets, underground faucets and all that in research) and make it a little mor organized

I hope you like the idea and can implement it (i think this wouldn't be hard... this will be coded as if it was filling an oil tank and unloading it in the A.M.)
It would make our lifes so much easier, specially for people with OCD like me... I NEED SIMETRY IN MY FACTORY AND IN MY LIFE!!!

Keep the updates coming. You have a GREAT GAME!!!!
Thanks for the support and for not making us feel like no one hears us, Kovarex!!!
You people are great and I think the community grows and stenghtens because of this

[sparr]

Does the oil industry make the game more interesting / fun or do you think it is actually change for the worse?

Blue science and robots are more annoying to get to now, but overall I think it's a great change. An intermediate science level between green and blue would resolve this.

Do you think the new intermediate products are well balanced or is there too many / too little of them / what would you change?

Maybe too many. Definitely trending towards too many.

Is there something that really annoys you regarding the oil industry?

I am annoyed that pipes are omnidirectional. It makes placing a single meandering pipe a little easier than a conveyor, but it means different pipes cannot be adjacent to each other.

[syneris]

I like the faucet idea, though the term valve is more fitting. Using liquid versions of inserters would be much better than fixed input/outputs. Maybe even have multiple tier or even allow the player to adjust how much liquid can pass. There could also be an electronic version that can connect with the circuit/logistic network.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve

Also, How many refineries are people running? I have two doing advanced processing with full oil supplies and I still can't produce enough petroleum for two plastics and one sulfur plant feeding just one sulfuric acid plant. Light oil is being turned to solid fuel for 80 boilers (64 engines) and around 40 steel furnaces. Heavy is made into lubricant via pump, while any potential excess is discarded in a steam engine.

[Sedado77]

I like the faucet idea, though the term valve is more fitting. Using liquid versions of inserters would be much better than fixed input/outputs. Maybe even have multiple tier or even allow the player to adjust how much liquid can pass. There could also be an electronic version that can connect with the circuit/logistic network.

Yup, but I didn't want to enter in the Half-Life 3 debate

[elkar]

Well, I bought factorio just recently was kinda decided after the demo to try it out and the fact that devs are CZECH won me over, but with 0.9. problem is it's kinda unstable for me crashing to desktop every few mins with no obvious pattern. I'm on win7 64bit. I havent found that anyone would encounter this, so I guess there is a problem on my side but playing 0.8.8 is not that motivating when i know how much more features are in 0.9 :/

Edit: so ive noticed that many of my problems with 0.9 are being solved in 0.9.1. So is there any idea when this fox patch should arrive?

[ssilk]

They plan for tomorrow.

[elkar]

They plan for tomorrow.

Awesome news! Cant wait to get my hands on 0.9.

[Hogweed]

Oil industry is fun, but the recipies and their producion methods need some tweaking.

Please consider moving all the recipies that need solid intermediate products like iron plates etc to assemblers instead of chemical plants. Such things like batteries, engines (as mentioned before), the processing units, maybe explosives (without water). Liquid ingredients for these things like acid, should be bottled up automatically and not be treated as a liquid for pipelines.

This would reduce the current pipeline-heavy design, which I consider al little but "too much fat pipes"

Second point regarding the lockup of the refinery when one ingredient isn't used. Would recommend a sort of building that burns up the excess material of the specific pipeline system when the storage is 100% full, and ONLY then. It surves no other purposes and generates no energy or other things. Or as mentioned before let us convert light oil/heavy oil/petroleum gas into each other with a lossy convertion rate.

I think that is a good idea, most times the oil processing area is a jungle of pipes. One thing that might really help is to make an underground pipe that can go much further, thus eliminating all those pipe bumps that occur all over the place which block all attempts to keep adding.
This would also be great when you have to drag oil or water from a distance and not have to keep setting up the pipe to grounds every few feet. I thought 3 - 4 times the current length would allow everyone to bring a pipe right through the oil processing area and keep things much neater, as well as not having to constantly lay pipe for longer distances.

His point about the refinery lockup is valid. It happens where I am off doing many things only to return to the refinery and find it was shut off nothing was being produced. I would hate the idea of just burning it off, since oil can be very precious. I like the solid fuel and use that a lot (it makes great fuel for the boilers when coal in that area starts to run short), but if there was some kind of alert system, a sound or a red light flashing on the refinery, at least to let us know the refinery stopped would be great.

Either way the game is coming along super great! Thanks for such an original, fun and challenging game! This game does incorporate many features from games that I have come to like, and they are being brought together in a manner that makes it, well...... more intellectual then most other games, and still both absorbing and fun!

[BurnHard]

Well oil is crackable now (wasn't that time i wrote that), so that point of lockup is well handled now i think.

I now think a little bit different regarding chem plants. Pipes are OK and we could even get more pipe-buildings, as long we get some chance later to build them without automatic interconnections and gat the "most part underground-solution" where the pipes are walkable.

[Hogweed]

Well oil is crackable now (wasn't that time i wrote that), so that point of lockup is well handled now i think.

I now think a little bit different regarding chem plants. Pipes are OK and we could even get more pipe-buildings, as long we get some chance later to build them without automatic interconnections and gat the "most part underground-solution" where the pipes are walkable.

Absolutely! My whole refinery area, actually 2 of them, is very hard to pass through. I keep getting caught on the pipes and zigzagging so much to get around. The problem is all the different needs of each chem lab requires pipes from different sources. Aside from the 3 fuels, there is water too. I still think that a longer underground pipe is the best way to resolve this issue, since it would leave a lot of room to be able to not only run through there much quicker, but would make setting up all the Chem labs required much more manageable and much less frustrating.

Having the pipes walkable is good, but i also think that visually it would just look more appealing. If the Devs are trying to simulate the cluttered and busy look of a real refinery, they should add overhead pipes!! Since that is what refinery's do, but they also use a lot of underground pipes, and they only come up from the ground where they are needed (mostly anyway!)

I would really love to see this in the next release, since the tangled mess of pipes is really my only true frustration in the game. Just allow a longer reach would really be a game saver for me!!

[AnarCon]

i must admit i was a bit overwhelmed by the oil buisniss early on, got the hang of it now tho, but i find it strange there is hardly if any uses for the two other types of outcome from early refinery other than dump it in storage tanks for later when u can crack it down to petrolium. would be nice to have some use without too much research before the heave research there is to get adv oil processing. i did notice someone mention in forums here u can dump em into steam engine but that was unintended. frankly i miss the diesel engine or some kind of fosil fuel engine so theres some option to get rid of the the early stages surpluses

[ssilk]

U can make solid fuel out of it and fire it in the burners to generate powert or into furnace.
U can create storage tanks and wait until you have developed oil processing.

And this is a quite old thread.