Hey there, long time fan of this mod. I seem to have hit an odd problem. Whistle factories near my base/at the beginning of my game spawn as normal, but after a certain point (not sure if distance, time played, or some other factor), all factories will no longer spawn. I know they try, because all the express loaders still spawn, but none of the actual factories are there. I don't really see anything in my factorio-current log to indicate a problem. Some screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/t52BTqG

Let me know if you need any other information like mod lists etc.

I've seen the loader only spawning before and have fixed all the issues I've found. The only issue (I believe) that I have left is if another mod destroys my big factory, but without calling the destroy event. That would explain why the loaders don't get destroyed and also why they aren't spawning.

So it sounds like a bad mod interaction. Probably a mod that does something on chuck_load, so a resource generating mod or alien biomes or the ruins mod, something that activates every time new land is unlocked. Either that or something catching the on_built event and destroying everything that fits a criteria my big factories happen to fill?

So NO factories spawn now... but they used to? Any idea what changed? Specifically did you add another mod later?

My guess is a bad mod interaction as well - the only "big" mods I can think would interfere would be rampant, alien biomes, or space exploration (a new mod for me). So this has been one map/game, version locked on 0.17.66 via steam. No mods were changed/added/removed/updated during the game. That's the tricky part to me - nothing that I'm aware of has changed - and as a programmer change is something I'd try to be aware of!

Initially I would think it's not alien biomes, as it seems that biomes, in general, have had some spawns and some factory disappearances in each biome. I could see it being biomes if certain biomes had spawns and others did not, but it seems a fairly even distribution in those areas.

This is my mod list, I'm generally keeping it to "vanilla + qol" with the recent acquisition of space expansion/aai. I don't think there's much super crazy here, or overhaul like with the exception of space expansion and its required mods, which I've never used before.

30.984 Checksum of aai-industry: 1239965026
30.984 Checksum of aai-signal-transmission: 3335335418
30.984 Checksum of aai-signals: 2261738169
30.984 Checksum of aai-vehicles-chaingunner: 1784905760
30.984 Checksum of aai-vehicles-flame-tank: 1204028101
30.984 Checksum of aai-vehicles-laser-tank: 2959302605
30.984 Checksum of aai-vehicles-warden: 3121478813
30.984 Checksum of aai-zones: 764660141
30.984 Checksum of Advanced_Radar: 3518670224
30.984 Checksum of alien-biomes-hr-terrain: 2010945986
30.984 Checksum of Armor_pockets: 2238090784
30.984 Checksum of auto-research: 2958201390
30.984 Checksum of AutoDeconstruct: 2582707891
30.984 Checksum of bullet-trails: 3671570151
30.984 Checksum of cheaper_landfill: 2049989089
30.984 Checksum of DeathNotice: 335930257
30.984 Checksum of DiscoScience: 976323401
30.984 Checksum of DoubleFurnace: 1204716225
30.984 Checksum of ElectricTrain: 139130243
30.984 Checksum of FasterStart: 3040441678
30.984 Checksum of Fill4Me: 3404646308
30.984 Checksum of grappling-gun: 3754798104
30.984 Checksum of LSlib: 0
30.984 Checksum of Nuclear_Artillery: 613056033
30.984 Checksum of OpteraLib: 2463839464
30.984 Checksum of PlannerCore: 0
30.984 Checksum of Power Armor MK3: 4144768451
30.984 Checksum of qol_research: 3650033342
30.984 Checksum of replicating-belts: 2738724941
30.984 Checksum of robot_attrition: 4231589252
30.984 Checksum of space-exploration-graphics: 0
30.984 Checksum of SpaceMod: 3787441445
30.984 Checksum of specialized-oil-processing: 2049402329
30.984 Checksum of Squeak Through: 3677677690
30.984 Checksum of stdlib: 68667574
30.984 Checksum of themightygugi_alwaysday: 2560996361
30.984 Checksum of Turret_Range_Buff: 286452583
30.984 Checksum of walls-block-spitters: 2719996897
30.984 Checksum of Warehousing: 1077001093
30.984 Checksum of WaterWell: 4254977431
30.984 Checksum of aai-programmable-structures: 4071669958
30.984 Checksum of alien-biomes: 2878017637
30.984 Checksum of Orbital Ion Cannon: 2353690525
30.984 Checksum of OutpostPlanner: 1664633010
30.984 Checksum of Reinforced-Walls: 1586317742
30.984 Checksum of StorageTank2: 3685718469
30.984 Checksum of aai-programmable-vehicles: 3246729437
30.984 Checksum of Rampant: 4160344977
30.984 Checksum of space-exploration: 3810241182
30.984 Checksum of miniloader: 329218582
30.984 Checksum of space-exploration-postprocess: 2210159577
30.984 Checksum of WhistleStopFactories: 3860047069

Oooh - potentially advanced radar? It's an older mod I think I updated a while ago to work with.17 but it hasn't been officially updated. It seems to fit with when these issues started to occur - I was placing advanced radars as I moved the walls & gun border to new resources. If that may be the cause let me know, love to hear your opinion.

Hmm scratch that - I don't see any chunk_load in the advanced radar mod anywhere.