Timetorio


Small overhaul designed around spoilage.

Overhaul
3 months ago
2.0
71
Factorio: Space Age Icon Space Age Mod
Logistics Manufacturing Power

g Review - Praise & Criticism

3 months ago

This is a very interesting overhaul. The lack of attention is surprising to me, it does some very unique things!

I like some things, and dislike a lot of things too.

The general dynamic is very interesting; intermediates and buildings are based on high amounts of this fickle "magic flux" item, which vanishes after only a minute. I love the choice to have it disappear, rather than turn into some kind of spoilage. That design choice makes it unique from Gleba, and also makes it much more fun than Gleba. When things actually do spoil into another item, they spoil into an EXISTING USEFUL ITEM. Very clever, I like that a lot.

There seems to be this idea of trivializing logistics. Fast transport belts cheap and available, assembling machines and inserters cost no power... but some of the design choices highly conflict with that? Yes, none of it costs power and it's very easy to obtain, but the inserter speed is prohibitively slow. Underground belts take a new assembly line that's more complicated than the previous one. Both of these things, I do not find very fun to work around. It is not very interesting to me to have to surround an assembler with 9 inserters to get enough throughput.

On that note, it feels kind of arbitrary to me which things require electricity and which things don't? Such a tiny amount of mining drills is needed that the power draw is effectively negligible, it's more about the logistics and infrastructure of having a power plant in the first place. I'd then suggest removing power draw completely, but that's getting rid of an entire large gameplay mechanic that has potential for interesting interactions.

The only notable interaction the power grid with other things has is with the very very VERY clunky power poles that the mod provides. It's not hard to power things with them, but it IS very tedious. The short wire length combined with the 4x4 pole size means that there's only a 1 tile gap between power poles at best, and the underground belts aren't even long enough to cross a 4x4 building. Oh, and the 4x4 pole size doesn't match the 2x2 sprite size, which makes it even more tedious to actually place them correctly. I like the idea of turning power poles into a logistical challenge but I do not think this is the best way to do it. Though, I can't think of a way to do it myself that doesn't just remove the puzzle, so you've definitely done better than I can.

That sure was a lot of criticism just then, so I feel obligated to remind you that I did actually like the mod a lot. When it comes to things I'd change, I'd make fast inserters the default or at least easily unlockable. The same goes for underground belts, though I think it's okay if they stay short.

3 months ago

Hey, thanks for the criticism.

"There seems to be this idea of trivializing logistics. Fast transport belts cheap and available, assembling machines and inserters cost no power..."
Yes, the idea is to skip the "burner" step.

"Yes, none of it costs power and it's very easy to obtain, but the inserter speed is prohibitively slow."
I did want inserter throughput to be a concern, but I realize that I have probably gone overboard. I will remedy it by making the long inserters faster :)

"On that note, it feels kind of arbitrary to me which things require electricity and which things don't? Such a tiny amount of mining drills is needed that the power draw is effectively negligible, it's more about the logistics and infrastructure of having a power plant in the first place. I'd then suggest removing power draw completely, but that's getting rid of an entire large gameplay mechanic that has potential for interesting interactions."
Yes, it is completely arbitrary and based on what I think might be a fun challenge. The idea is that basic logistics are free, while more powerful logistics need very annoying infrastructure.

"That sure was a lot of criticism just then, so I feel obligated to remind you that I did actually like the mod a lot."
No problem, thanks for taking your time to write this :)
"When it comes to things I'd change, I'd make fast inserters the default or at least easily unlockable."
Done.
"The same goes for underground belts, though I think it's okay if they stay short."
Oh don't worry, I got plans for undergroundier belts ;)

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