Factorio News

In Stanisław Lem's classic sci-fi short story collection, The Cyberiad, there is a section called The Seven Sallies of Trurl and Klapaucius, two hyper-advanced robots who are so advanced they can conjure anything from technology. One of my favorite stories involves Trurl searching for a civilisation that has achieved the highest possible level of development (HPLD). To find such a civilisation, it decides it needs to find a 'wonder' or something that exists outside of rational explanation. In the end Trurl finds a cube-shaped star being orbited by a cube-shaped planet with the letters "HPLD" carved into it.

The planet's inhabitants are all laying around doing nothing. Trurl wants to know why, so it builds a computer to simulate the entire universe, and after millions of attempts it gets an answer: they simply have nothing left to achieve.

When I play city-building games, and especially the recent variety of factory simulators like Factorio, Satisfactory, and Dyson Sphere Program, I often think of Trurl's simulation. Each game has its own sort of end goal representing the highest possible level of development - a rocket, a space elevator, a Dyson sphere - but they all leave me feeling a little uneasy about their laser focus on efficiency above all else.

Read the rest of the story...

RELATED LINKS:

Factorio is getting an expansion

Factorio finally gets a full Steam launch, after four years of early access

Factorio will leave early access ahead of schedule due to Cyberpunk 2077

• Fixed that all entity GUIs in the map editor entity-editor and spectator controller were invisible.
  
• Fixed Train overview GUI not updating the list remark. more
  
• Fixed typos in Construction robot tip. more
  
• Fixed a crash when quitting while using the linked-container entity type with power armor in it.
  
• Fixed that sounds could sometimes be heard when they shouldn't. more
  
• Fixed regenerating tile variations during save migration would not break up old large tiles and would only reset their variations to 0.
  
• Fixed "probability" property of size variants in the tile definition was ignored when "weights" property was left out.
  
• Fixed searching mod settings tab would leave tabs disabled. more
  
• Fixed a crash of transport line migration in some cases of mod removal. more
  
• Fixed that train stop gui could indicate more trains than there are when trains are removed or merged while gui is opened. more
  
• Fixed a conflict between setting the players cursor through script and holding blueprint library blueprints. more
  
• Fixed that building entity with multiple items to place would take unrelated items from inventory. more
  

• Added CustomInputPrototype::include_selected_prototype when true the event will include selected_prototype = {base_type=, derived_type=, name=} when applicable.
  

• Added LuaCustomInputPrototype::enabled_while_spectating, enabled_while_in_cutscene, include_selected_prototype, and item_to_spawn read.
  

• Added shortcut info tooltips to all of the relevant confirm buttons and close buttons.
  
• Lowered priority of surface changing shortcut in editor to not be in the way if Control + is used for something. more
  
• Changed personal logistic requests for ammo so they don't get delivered to the spidertron you're driving. more
  

• Improved performance when building blueprints in multiplayer. more
  

• Fixed Artillery wagon and turret showing wrong tooltip title in deconstruction planner. more
  
• Fixed control setting buttons wouldn't have a tooltip when they started without a set value. more
  
• Possible fix for multiplayer server crashing when a client tries to connect. more
  
• Fixed a crash in multiplayer when upgrading or deconstructing. more
  
• Removed and tweaked some hidden locale to hopefully make 100% possible. more
  
• Added explicit values to the circuit network range specification in the tips and tricks. more
  
• Fixed that the copy and paste tips and tricks simulation wasn't working properly. more
  
• Fixed that LuaFlowStatistics::get_flow_count didn't work correctly. more
  
• Fixed that instant blueprint building in the map editor didn't work with undo. more
  
• Fixed missing status for wall controlling gate by circuit network. more
  
• Fixed a crash when saving when using LuaItemStack::create_grid() on stacks with a count > 1. more
  
• Fixed that enter to confirm a logistic request count didn't work. more
  
• Fixed pole dragging corner case. more
  
• Fixed padding in the sync mods with save window when scroll is activated.
  
• Fixed invalid "Can't reach" message when using ghost cursor to build rails in the latency state.
  
• Fixed wrong status of rail signal next to rail with wrong direction.
  
• Fixed that manual rotation of entity with rotation upgrade order didn't clear that order. more
  
• Fixed in calculation of required modules when combining real and requested modules during blueprint creation. more
  
• Fixed that blueprint containing only entities placeable off grid was built off grid even with snap to grid specified. more
  
• Fixed crash caused by scrolling blueprint book in a blueprint shelf that is not yet synchronised. more
  
• Fixed that tips & tricks simulation sounds were continuing to play when switched to a tutorial. more
  
• Fixed that player could get stuck by entities created in the tutorials. more
  
• Fixed some unnecessary error sounds in a special cases when building power poles. more
  
• Fixed that exiting high speed moving train could result in a player being stuck. more
  
• Fixed mod dependency tooltips in some cases. more
  
• Fixed that the upper 1/3 part of the color picker button in the train stop gui didn't work. more
  
• Fixed walls would not be buildable on valid positions in some cases. more
  
• Fixed crash related to modded underground pipe ghosts with multiple connections with different lengths. more
  
• Fixed that it was sometimes possible for an entity to attack an entity on a different surface. more
  
• Fixed inaccurate range indicator in spidertron. more
  
• Fixed that some sounds that were audible when viewing a certain part of the map in map view wouldn't stop when closing the map view. more
  
• Changed defines.flow_precision_index.one_second to five_seconds since that's what it actually is.
  
• Fixed crash related to loading that trigger migration to remove invalid upgrades.
  
• Fixed that confirming the low value in logistic request didn't update the value. more
  

• Added move_stuck_players bool parameter (false by default) to the create_entity method.
  

• Added hotkey (default O) to toggle the train overview GUI.
  

• Fixed that gates would open for spidertron. more
  
• Fixed tank weapon cooldown rendering. more
  
• Fixed that changing the force of a player or spidertron would lose logistic requests. more
  
• Fixed that deleting the last scenario didn't correctly clear name, description and preview in the new game gui. more
  
• Fixed that it wasn't possible to manually merge trains in chests. more
  
• Fixed a crash when rendering rich text tooltips in some cases. more
  
• Fixed the Trains/Train stop GUI showing trains on other surfaces. more
  
• Fixed player dying in a scenario inside simulation widget would end currently running scenario. more
  
• Fixed that create_entities_from_blueprint_string didn't insert train fuel. more
  
• Fixed that building blueprints in the game next to uncharted areas didn't work as expected. more
  
• Fixed biters and groups in Wave defense overloading the pathfinder. more
  
• Building gets interrupted when moving between map and game view. more
  
• Fixed building error message spam when building transport belts over obstacle. more
  
• Fixed that undoing deconstruction of building with modules created extra module request. more
  
• Fixed inconsistency related to building out of reach and moving. more
  
• Fixed that the selected map generator preset was not correctly saved when generating a map for multiplayer or map editor. more
  
• Fixed that the map generator GUI would only save it's state when pressing Next/Play. more
  
• Fixed that dropping single items into machines using modules didn't clear the module requests. more
  
• Fixed that the stations list wasn't sorted using natural sort order. more
  
• Fixed the blueprint import with odd odd grid offsets. more
  
• Fixed that the game didn't show name of the item in the request slot tooltip when it is disabled for being already set. more
  
• Fixed that the undo button tooltip didn't update when clicked. more
  
• Fixed bad tooltip indentation when instruction can't fit one line. more
  
• Fixed overbuilding underground pipe ghosts with real pipes underground pipes. more
  
• Fixed inconsistency in direction selection when being a client in a multiplayer game. more
  
• Fixed that overbuilding pole out of reach didn't consider the pole to be part of the drag buliding logic. more
  
• Fixed that the "Continue" button wouldn't remember whether the last game was single-player or multi-player when non-blocking saving was enabled. more
  
• Fixed rare electric network migration error related to loading save without all the related mods. more
  
• Fixed crash related to using belt traversing in latency state. more
  
• Fixed crash triggered by desync while entities are marked for upgrade in latency state.
  
• Fixed non precise belt traversing behviour in latency state.
  
• Fixed a desync related to upgrading entities in the latency state.
  
• Fixed upgrading unpair underground belt by smart ghost building.
  

• Added on_research_reversed.
  

Wube Software have written up their plans for the future of Factorio and it sounds exciting, with it confirmed that they're looking to work on a big expansion.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/02/factorio-to-get-a-big-expansion-pack-now-the-full-game-is-done-developer-jobs-going