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PC|MAC Factorio

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PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby icycalm » 04 Feb 2022 16:13

Ciaróg, Robomoo, ysignal and Agentx have been playing a Factorio game for a while, I think they are on their fourth or fifth session, and they are long ones. They’ve been streaming all of it too I think. And I want to ask how advanced are you, and what have you figured out about mods and balance? Is your game near the middle or end? Would you be interested in starting over, perhaps with a different mod setup now that you know the modding scene better, and with one or more players added to the team and the game running on our server?

If you’re happy with your current game, no worries, go ahead and finish it. We’re all far from done with Factorio obviously—especially after today’s news [ > ]—so we’ll be playing it again in a few months for sure. But if you have second thoughts about your playthrough and wouldn’t mind a restart, I’d like to join, and possibly more people would.

If you’re nearing the end of your run, we could just install Satisfactory on our server and play that after. It runs on Windows fine: https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Dedicated_servers

6GB minimum, 8GB RAM is recommended for larger saves or to host more than 4 players.


We have 128 lol.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby Q-veta » 04 Feb 2022 16:52

I'm interested in playing as well whenever it happens.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby ysignal » 04 Feb 2022 23:25

I'm up for starting again if the others are. I think we set the difficulty too low, as we've mostly been cruising when it comes to bug attacks. We did hit a major problem last session, but that's because we were complacent and let all of our copper supplies run out. I think we're still pretty far from finishing the Space Exploration mod. We've sent a satellite into space, but we're yet to launch ourselves into space, and once we've done that we still need to colonise a bunch of other planets.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby Robomoo » 05 Feb 2022 00:27

I'd like to try starting again with this mod on max difficulty. It would force us to actually strategise and plan out our build in the long-term instead of just building stuff as we need it and waltzing through the game.

However it might ruin some of the fun for new players and those who haven't played in a while to have the four of us speeding through everything.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby icycalm » 05 Feb 2022 00:59

Yeah, two groups might make more sense. I can play with Q-veta, and we'll probably get more to join us, but even if we don't, I am still fine with two.

If we did make two groups, that would set us up nicely for a PVP match somewhere down the line.

So let's see if anyone is interested in joining me and Q.

dan can probably get two games running on our server, and the server can definitely handle multiple of them.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby icycalm » 05 Feb 2022 03:06

Here’s an idea: We run 2-3 groups now, trying to “finish” the game and learn everything. Then when the expansion hits we all join forces for a huge game with max difficulty on our server with all the new stuff. We take a month off our other games and just play that.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby Ciaróg » 06 Feb 2022 13:16

I am on the fence over starting our run again on a higher difficulty. It is definitely too easy compared to our vanilla deathworld run but that doesn't bother me enough to feel like we have to start over. If you guys want to I will but I don't really feel strongly one way or the other.

I suspect the space exploration mod we have been playing is one of the best mods based on the feature list but since I have only played it and vanilla I can't say for sure. Agentx has tried quite a few mods but said during our last session that we aren't quite far enough into our space exploration run to compare it other mods.

I definitely want to play the expansion when it releases and the bigger the group the better.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby Agentx » 06 Feb 2022 14:04

We went with the Space Exploration pre-set for difficulty, which I believe is supposed to factor in the much longer scope of the game to completion, and the changes to modules the mod has. Aside from a few notable mistakes it has been very manageable with aggressive use of Efficiency Modules. The biter buffs to HP and movement speed has made direct offensives more difficult, but really that ended up falling on our Military production and Copper complacencies more. I'm reluctant to mess with the evolution factor too much as I don't know anything about Space Exploration once we start getting off world or the staggering of damage upgrades as we progress the tech tree, but maybe it'd be fun to add a mod to the current game that adds to the enemies generated from then on, something like Armoured Biters. I'll do a little testing later to see if that works.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby icycalm » 06 Feb 2022 14:42

You can also go to the Factorio forum and ask people for tips on setting the difficulty to achieve what you want. Ask them how it ramps up for Space Exploration etc. You can even seek out the mod creator who would probably be flattered by the attention and be able to explain everything. It seems negligent to start a huge game without knowing these things, especially if you only plan on playing one run. My strategy, on the other hand, of always starting at max difficulty and then tone it down if I am getting hopelessly creamed, would have worked well here I think. Keep also in mind that the more players you have the easier the game gets, so it’s quite possible that a previously impossible difficulty might become doable with a couple more players.

That said, you aren’t getting more players for this run since Q and I are starting another game, so you might as well play on for a while. If you keep steamrolling stuff and you decide to start over at a higher difficulty, then Q and I could join you, and maybe more people too. We could run the PA wars every other week for a few weeks, alternating with a giant Factorio game. We MIGHT get a bunch more players for the big Factorio game as a result.

And one way to ease the skill discrepancy issue is to give the rookies a headstart of say one session before the advanced players join. We’ll have figured out enough by then to not be completely useless.

So basically think of it as an alternate Cosmic War event, to spice up our PA schedule.

We’ll wait for you to get further in your run and decide what you want to do. If you’re happy to keep going, we’ll be just as happy to start our own game.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby icycalm » 02 Jul 2022 20:38

Have you guys seen this?

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/space-exploration

Scroll to the bottom. There is even a roadmap.

Earendel wrote:Coming soon:
Space Elevator.
Space capsule hop system.
Spaceship improvements.
More equipment.
More turrets.
Larger item and fluid containers.
Balance updates.
Hostile robot faction.


Why aren't we playing this lol?

In many ways, it's what I'd want from PA2. Obviously it's not PA2, but we should play it BEFORE the Factorio expansion hits, because it will likely be incompatible with the expansion.

I am thinking of pausing PA wars for a while and just loading Factorio on the server and playing every Saturday at the same time that we play the PA war. It's said to be a 100-hour game, and we'll probably play much more if we ramp up the difficulty and end up dying a lot.

I am thinking this is a good time to do this, as we just played a very cool PA war earlier today, with one of the funnest finales of all time to boot, so we can pause the wars on a high note.

Alternatively, we can just alternate between Factorio and PA every week. That should keep both games feeling fresh for us. Probably the best plan would be to play just Factorio for the next 2-3 weeks, since we haven't played it in years as a big group, and I for one have missed it, and then after that we can ease into an alternating schedule.

Let me know what people think. I was blown away by that page I linked at the top, it looks like Factorio 2, and I want to jump into it asap. Whoever hasn't seen it needs to take a close look. I will update the game thread at some point with all that info. Insane work. It might be the greatest mod of all time. In fact I struggle to imagine how the official expansion can match let alone top it.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby ChevRage » 02 Jul 2022 22:28

Looks awesome! Problem for me is that I'm not going to be available from next weekend for a whole month. And yeah, it's looking like I'll be missing the very beginnings of West Marches too. Hopefully it's ok for me to join in after the first few sessions.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby ysignal » 04 Jul 2022 13:34

There's a new unstable version out on the Discord that adds space elevators:

https://spaceexploration.miraheze.org/wiki/Updating_to_Space_Exploration_v0.6.x#Menu_simulations

It's not fully backwards compatible, so if you start on the current release that's on the mod portal you'd have to rebuild some of your stuff if you wanted to upgrade later.

I asked about setting the difficulty on the Discord, and most people said we should keep the default settings, but a few people seemed to think that with four players it would be okay to make the enemies tougher. Some of the planets have way more biters than the starting world and all planets share the same evolution factor, so by the time you arrive the biters might already be highly evolved. After hearing that, I'm less inclined toward resetting our game, as it seems like we'll hit bigger challenges as we explore more planets. Also, from what Agentx told me it sounds like we can add Armored Biters for later planets.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby ysignal » 04 Jul 2022 13:58

Having said all that, I'd love to play Factorio with more people, and we haven't played our save in a while. So I'm interested in joining in on this.
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Re: PC|MAC Factorio

Unread postby icycalm » 04 Jul 2022 19:02

I've addressed some of your concerns here and explained at length how I intend to approach the game: https://www.patreon.com/posts/68649278

I am not too bothered about the precise settings I will use because I am perfectly happy to experiment with settings and restart several times over the course of the next few months until I have a good grasp of everything and can pick the optional setup for my needs. Generally, though, I tend to play at max settings on my first attempt at a new game (which the Space Exploration mod effectively is), and then tone those down only if deemed absolutely necessary in successive attempts. That said, I understand that Factorio settings are hardcore, so in this case I might try something more conservative to start with. It probably won't be defaults though.

I am fine with playing alone or with 100 players, and anything in between. And people can also join in the middle of a playthrough, and I suspect this will be easier in the Space Exploration mod with all the different planets where I am guessing you'll have to repeatedly build up from scratch. I'll make a Factorio channel in the Cosmic War Discord category to keep people updated with how the running "campaign" is going.
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