Factorio News

• Blueprints and copy paste of entities with upgrade order are created based on the upgrade order instead of the current entity. more
  
• Enabled upgrading entities marked for upgrade, in which case, the upgrade target is used as the source entity for the upgrade planner filters.
  
• The announcement of player death now contains GPS tag with the location.
  

• Increased the tank braking power from 400kw to 800kw. Before this change, the tank acceleration (600kw) was actually even greater than the braking force.
  

• Fixed incorrect color lookup table interpolation for ambient light around noon.
  
• Fixed that built electric pole from map view was also opened with the same click with alternative key binding. more
  
• Fixed that laser and fluid turret bonus, wasn't shown properly in the toooltip. This bonus is not used in vanilla which uses ammo category bonus. more
  
• Fixed that part of the flamethrower turret and flamethrower ammo turret description, which describes the properties of the flame bound to it stargets didn't show the bonus damage from upgrades. more
  
• Fixed that mod install could cause removal of blueprint entities if it didn't remove the entity, but just made it not acceptable to be used in blueprint. more
  
• Fixed that the confirm load game dialog with 2 green arrow buttons had tooltips with (E) to confirm, while the E to confirm doesn't work here as it would be ambiguous. more
  
• Fixed crash related to using smart ghost belt building with a mod that specifies belt without related underground belt. more
  
• Fixed that renaming Spidertron didn't trigger on_entity_renamed. more
  
• Fixed that disabling side menu guis through script would sometimes leave an empty frame. more
  
• Fixed that crafting machines wouldn't wake up when the speed effect was changed in some situations. more
  
• Fixed that focus-search didn't in some GUIs work while in the map editor. more
  
• Fixed that chat icon selector didn't remember the last opened tab when used outside the game.
  
• Fixed that pressing Escape with the chat icon selector opened in a dialog outside the game closed the whole dialog instead of closing just the selector window.
  
• Fixed that pressing Control + F to search in the chat icon selector that is opened on top of a non-game window that already had search activated the bottom window search.
  
• Fixed that enabled train stops would cause schedule records for trains on different surfaces to be rendered as available. more
  
• Fixed rare crash when using Map editor -> Convert save. more
  
• Fixed electric pole connection consistency issue related to fast replace of modded entities. more
  
• Fixed that building by moving ignored the position where the player built the last entity. more
  
• Fixed a crash that could happen when viewing the tooltip for certain types of ammo. more
  
• Fixed that ammo tooltips sometimes wouldn't show damage info. more
  

• Added mod dependency modifier "~", which marks the mod as required, but doesn't affect mod loading order, so these kind of dependencies can be circular.
  
• Prototype/EntityWithHealth::healing_per_tick is now also used by trees, so their automatic healing is no longer hardcoded. more
  
• Loaders are now able to take or insert more than 1 item per transport line per tick. more
  

• Tweaked search in the install mods GUI, so the search order prioritizes the results more naturally.
  
• Unified the search button in the mod settings GUI.
  
• Improved some descriptions in Map Generator GUI. more
  

If there was ever a game that needed mods, it'd be Factorio. Factorio mods, much like user-generated content for games like Kerbal Space Program, allow the players to fill in the small gaps and quality of life changes on behalf of the dev team, so that they can concentrate on the bigger picture.

It's not ideal, but it works, and communities like these are great at coming up with fixes and ideas the rest of the dedicated playerbase can get behind. Factorio is another early access darling as well - first appearing on the scene in 2016. The players have had half a decade now to figure out what they want, and what's needed to elevate the economic management sim to the next level.

We've compiled a short list of excellent Factorio mods that we think might be of interest to veteran or even returning players. We've cherry picked some enhancement mods, some helper mods, and a couple of overhauls that provide a new fresh experience. If you haven't had any experience with modding Factorio before, we've got a help section at the bottom of the article. Enjoy!

Read the rest of the story...

RELATED LINKS:

Industrial strategy games still aren't dealing with climate change

Factorio is getting an expansion

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

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.