Friday Facts #439 - Factorio and Space Age on Nintendo Switch 2™

[GregoriusT]

I admit I'm a bit disappointed about the information that 2.1 is coming some time next year. There are one or two things I'm not satisfied with in Space Age, where I'm struggling with a proper and satisfying implementation. I'm not alone with that if I see the forum posts since SA release. As far as I'm concerned, it's primarily the space platform scheduling with information+item handling between platform and planet, and it's the quality mechanic in general (super boring/tedious).

My current approach is to have a bloody mess with platform scheduling and item handling, and to ignore quality. I would just like to know if there is something upcoming with these 2 things, whatever it is doesn't matter, or if not. So I can either continue to ignore quality and continue to refine that bloody mess, or if I should freeze my current attempts, not waste any more time with fruitless building attempts, and wait for something different and hopefully improved.

(About quality: other games introduce grind to extend playing time. Quality is what I consider Factorio's grind mechanic. It's as uninteresting and boring as grind. Just wasting your time for the same result except higher numbers. The grind is not the huge number of items used up, it's the time you sink into building a factory to produce quality items. The first 3 production lines for the first 3 items are fun to develop, the rest becomes grind because it's the same all over again. The game just throws this mechanic at you without any direction: "deal with it". Sorry for the rant, but for some reason I'm really upset about this.)

Apart from the "item is imported from specifc planet" issue, which would much better suited for "this named logistics imports from this planet", I am not sure if space platforms have a scheduling issue?

As for Quality, i use it as a time saver mostly, yes time SAVER, as i can just blindly upgrade the entire factory to higher quality and suddenly a lot of issues that would need to rebuild the entire thing, are solved in an instant and without much effort.

The fixes Wube announced for Quality as far as i remember were related to asteroid crushing no longer accepting quality modules due to it being absurdly overpowered.

[Tertius]

Apart from the "item is imported from specifc planet" issue, which would much better suited for "this named logistics imports from this planet", I am not sure if space platforms have a scheduling issue?

From a planet, I cannot tell a platform to stay or to leave via circuits. This is useful to say: "the requested item isn't currently available and will not be. Leave with what you have and don't wait for it, no matter how urgent you want that item."

From a platform, I cannot tell (neither manually nor via circuit) where to drop trashed items. They're always dropped to the next stop.

On a platform, I cannot request a varying amount of an item. I want a minimum and a maximum. The request is satisfied if at least the minimum has arrived. But if the planet has more items available and there is a maximum defined, it should send the platform more than than the minimum, up to the maximum. But of there are no more items available, the request should be considered satisfied if at least the minimum has been satisfied. This way you can send all items up, no matter how much there are. This is for science packs: Just get them all and leave with whatever you got.

Scenario: a platform requests 1000 items, the planet has only 500, and the platform has a waiting condition to leave if it has 500 items. While the 500 items are on their way, the planet crafts more items, so another rocket can be filled. And it will be filled and launched, since there are not yet 1000 items on the platform or on their way. The platform sticks in orbit although the waiting condition is true (l500 items reached), because the planet prepares and sends the next batch. If the planet is able to produce the next batch within the time a rocket needs to fly from the silo to the platform, the platform will wait until the whole request is very slowly satisfied.

On a platform, it's not possible to dynamically set requests from circuits or trash items from circuits.

On a platform, it's not possible to set the next destination with a wildcard. If I send the "Nauvis" circuit signal via interrupt trigger, it cannot be used with a wildcard to set the destination.

On a platform, it's not possible to keep a minimum amount of some item and not drop it for a request. For example calcite: I want to keep one stack for the thrusters and make any amount beyond available for the planet.

Extending the previous: on a platform, an alternate minimum/maximum usage: allow to drop to minimum amount, request the maximum amount.

On a platform, I cannot determine how much of an item the planet requests, and I'm not able to allow or deny a request with circuits.

[GregoriusT]

lots of valid points

Yeah a lot of these things are not possible or a real hassle, but i do want to mention some workarounds:

You can read Rocket Silos down on the Planet from a Space Platform, so inserting Items into a Rocket Silo CAN serve as a token to signal departure.

You can prevent items from dropping (at all) by requesting them for each and every planet the ship flies by at. The Ship wont ever drop anything it requests from the planet it flies over.

[Gordfact47]

It would make for a nice present if the timing is good.

[YadanHubclan]

As for me, I’m happy with the implementation of Factorio’s quality system.
What I like less, however, is the consequence of this implementation: bases remain small, and exploration becomes almost non-existent.
Once legendary mining drills are produced in large quantities, ore fields become virtually inexhaustible.

Of course, it’s far too late to change that now, but I would have liked to see at least two distinct phases on a planet — first, setting up an autonomous base (including discovering new buildings like the forge, recycler, etc.), and then, in a second stage, having to go out and explore in order to produce science packs.

It would be interesting to have a mod where all five biomes are on the same planet, but you’d have to explore very far to find them.

[aka13]

I love that everyone has his own ups and downs with the SA, and a lot of the opinions are diametrally opposite
I dislike in turn the inability to consume "overqualified" items, but love the new miners. The worst part of old 1k+h saves was the constant, unsatiable expansion for new orefields.

I also think that in turn spoilage is the worst mechanic

sekrit

And Gleba is the worst planet

dontlook

And Vulc is the best

[GregoriusT]

What I like less, however, is the consequence of this implementation: bases remain small, and exploration becomes almost non-existent.
Once legendary mining drills are produced in large quantities, ore fields become virtually inexhaustible.

I would blame the Planets for bases remaining small, because Quality basically exists in response to the lag that having 5 or more bases is causing, as wube talked about in this very FFF about the Switch 2.

Since Mining Productivity already made Ore Patches inexhaustible even before the DLC, I would not blame the Quality induced Resource Drain Modifier.

That and Vulcanus/Gleba/Space basically have infinite Iron, Copper and other Stuff.

Do note, I loved outposting when there only was Nauvis to worry about.

It would be interesting to have a mod where all five biomes are on the same planet, but you’d have to explore very far to find them.

Naufulglebunusilo

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/naufulglebunusilo

[YadanHubclan]

Thank for the mods, it looks a bit messy to my taste.
I honestly hope they don't make too many changes in 2.1. even the asteroids mining is ok in my book - you still have to build huge space platforms to make it worth it, and multiply them. It's a sandbox game and if you find a good way to do something, then more power to you. If they want to make it "less easy", then they should also kill Fusion reactor because they make generating electricity trivial.

[GregoriusT]

If they want to make it "less easy", then they should also kill Fusion reactor because they make generating electricity trivial.

I love how people always jump to removing features, that they dont even need to interact with if they dont want to, that are absolutely necessary for Megabases, as if it was actually feasible for wube to just outright remove perfectly fine and working content without major backlash, and then justify it with "it's a sandbox", even though they themselves dont consider it a sandbox at all whatsoever, and want everyone else to be forced into a hard mode by the devs, as if Achievements are not already the thing that is specifically existing for accomplishing that exact goal.

Anyways, cant wait for the semi-announced new Platinum Achievement, where you do a 100 percent achievements run in one save file on Death-World⁽ᶜᶦᵗᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ⁿᵉᵉᵈᵉᵈ⁾ without any difficulty reduction options allowed. Not because I could do it, but because I know there will be Speedrunners doing it, even if a lot of them complained about it ruining 100 percent runs.