Factorio Forums

If one click on admin's profile memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2533
Then look under
Rank:Factorio Staff

You'll see this little image of Alien Artifact...
It was in (much) earlier version of the game (which I also played and liked).

But inside game, I never could see what's really inside thouse "purple balls".

But now I suddenly realized that it's an elven head there or something like that: I wonder if that really have some story behind the scenes... How the factorio could look like if that idea happen to develop differently...

It was a placeholder graphic taken from a different game:

That's wild, it may be the case that it is an elve head, contained in the alien artifact, like a trapped biter's soul

Loewchen wrote: Wed Nov 05, 2025 6:13 pm It was a placeholder graphic taken from a different game: https://imgur.com/Qupc2cL

The link seems to be broken...

thelordodin wrote: Wed Nov 05, 2025 6:28 pm The link seems to be broken...

may be on your end, the picture look like this :

The fusion generator has an even weirder history:

That's the kind of fun practice endangered by AI. Who would think about using a coffee machine picture as a fusion reactor nowadays x)
Made me think of how sound fx in movie are very often sliced or smashed vegetables sound.

mmmPI wrote: Wed Nov 05, 2025 6:38 pm

thelordodin wrote: Wed Nov 05, 2025 6:28 pm The link seems to be broken...

may be on your end, the picture look like this : Qupc2cL.png

So, Akuji the Demon accidently created biters, huh?

thelordodin wrote: Thu Nov 06, 2025 3:41 am So, Akuji the Demon accidently created biters, huh?

For confirmation i think we would need words of the wizard that witnessed the spell back then , from my research, watching a speedrun of the game and reading the description on the internet archive, it would appear that Akuji is a revengeful demon, controlled by the player, that tries to quite literally steal the princess, and defeat the hero that previously sent him to jail and deprive him from his powers. Such powers being hidden in the different levels of the game under the form of a glowing orb, and out of the several sprite required for the glowing effect, is the pink circular alien artifact. It thus appears to me quite likely that the orb represent somewhat a face, or a shape that would mimick Akuji's face as it is comon in platformers to have a power-up that look like the character or part of it.

From there it's quite possible to imagine the biters are so angry at pollution all the time, and trying to constantly take revenge because they have a bit of demon's soul in them