Adjustable Quality

General Questions

What does this mod do?

This mod allows you to customize nearly every aspect of Factorio's quality system, including:

Quality level values and progression probabilities
Module effects (quality and speed modules)
Quality multipliers for various machine types
Science pack drain rates
Equipment bonuses per quality level

Is this mod compatible with quality expansion mods?

Yes! This mod has built-in compatibility with:

Additional-Qualities (adds Mythic, Relic, Masterwork, Eternal, and Transcendent tiers)
Quality-Plus-Plus (adds Mythical, Masterwork, Wondrous, and Artifactual tiers)

Can I unlink quality from speed modules?

Yes! Enable the unlink_quality_from_speed setting. When enabled:

Speed modules will have their quality penalty set to 0
Quality modules will have their speed penalty set to 0

This allows you to use speed modules without quality effects and vice versa.

Quality Level Settings

How do "next_probability" settings work?

These control the chance of upgrading beyond the next quality tier when using quality modules. By default, you gain 10% chance to move up one more tier from the previous. If you are crafting normal quality items with 80% chance, you could have 8% chance to gain a rare item, 0.8% chance for epic, 0.08% chance for Legendary. These settings are per tier, so you can set up uncommon to get 100% passthrough chance by cranking it to 1. Or inversely, making higher quality tiers less likely to proc by reducing it below 0.1 on the tiers below.

Scaling and Balance

What's the recommended resource drain or energy reduction for custom quality levels?

For balanced scaling with more than 5 quality levels, use this formula:

drain_multiplier = 0.835 / maximum_quality_level

Adjust the value of 0.835 in the calculation to represent the highest gained reduction. 0.99 is the maximum reduction possible.

Examples:

Default 5 levels: 1 / (5+1) = 0.167 (16.7% per level)
Alternative default: 0.835 / 5 = 0.167 (16.7% per level)
5 max levels: 0.99 / 5 = 0.198 (19.8% per level)
9 max levels: 0.835 / 9 = 0.928 (9.28% per level)
9 max levels: 0.99 / 9 = 0.11 (11% per level)
10 max levels: 0.835 / 10 = 0.0835 (8.35% per level)
10 max levels: 0.99 / 10 = 0.099 (9.9% per level)

This ensures that the highest quality level approaches but never exceeds 99% drain reduction.

What's the difference between "scaling from quality level" and "scaling from quality multiplier"?

Quality Level Scaling (most bonuses):

Bonus = setting_value * quality_level
Linear scaling: each tier adds the same absolute value
Example: If beacon_module_slots_bonus = 1, then Epic (level 3) adds 3 slots

Quality Multiplier Scaling (for speed/capacity bonuses):

Uses default_multiplier as a base: 1 + (multiplier * level)
Then applies to specific bonuses: setting * default_multiplier
Two-stage multiplication for more dramatic scaling
Used for: crafting speed, research speed, inventory size, fluid capacity, inserter speed, charging energy

Example:

default_multiplier setting: 0.3
crafting_machine_speed_multiplier setting: 1.0
Quality level: 3 (Epic)

default_multiplier = 1 + (0.3 * 3) = 1.9
crafting_machine_speed_multiplier = 1.0 * 1.9 = 1.9x speed

Which settings have minimum/maximum limits?

The following settings are clamped:

Reduction multipliers (clamped between 0.01 and 1):
beacon_power_usage_multiplier
mining_drill_resource_drain_multiplier
crafting_machine_energy_usage_multiplier
Range multiplier (clamped between 1 and 3):
range_multiplier
Beacon supply area (clamped between 0 and 64):
beacon_supply_area_distance_bonus

Machine-Specific Settings

What does "quality_affects_module_slots" do?

When enabled for a machine type, quality levels will add module slots based on the configured bonus. For example:

Setting beacon_module_slots_bonus = 1
A Legendary beacon (level 5) would gain 5 additional module slots

Available for: Labs, Beacons, Mining Drills, Assembling Machines, Furnaces

What's "distribution_effectivity_bonus_per_quality_level" for beacons?

This controls how much more effective beacons become at distributing module effects to nearby machines per quality level. Higher values mean better beacon efficiency at higher qualities, allowing for more beacons to affect a machine at less diminishing returns.

How do asteroid collector settings work? (Space Age only)

Asteroid collectors have unique quality scaling options:

arm_inventory_size_quality_increase: Inventory size per quality level within the arms.
inventory_size_quality_increase_collector: Main storage per quality level of the collector
energy_usage_quality_scaling: Energy consumption scaling
arm_count_quality_scaling: Number of collection arms
arm_speed_quality_scaling: How fast arms move
arm_angular_speed_cap_quality_scaling: Maximum rotation speed

Advanced Configuration

How do I configure custom quality names?

Each quality tier has a _level_name setting where you can enter custom text. This will appear in-game for that quality tier.

What's "maximum_quality_jump"?

This setting (found in utility constants) controls how many quality tiers an item can skip when upgrading. For example:

Value of 1: Can only upgrade one tier at a time (Normal → Uncommon)
Value of 2: Can skip one tier (Normal → Rare)
Higher values: Can make larger jumps in quality
Defaults to 255: This means we can only realistically reduce this from the default.

Troubleshooting

My settings aren't taking effect

Settings are applied during the data loading phase. Make sure to:

Confirm your settings and the game will reload to apply them.
You must make the modifications before loading a game.
When changing settings mid playthrough, ensure you make a backup copy of your save.

Energy/resource drain is too high with many quality levels

Recalculate your drain multipliers using the formula: desired_max_drain_percent / max_quality_level

Quality bonuses seem too weak or too strong

Remember that bonuses are multiplicative with quality level. Adjust the base setting values rather than trying to compensate with level adjustments.

Best Practices

Recommended starting configuration for expanded quality tiers

If using 10 quality tiers instead of 5:

Adjust science pack drain to something between 8.35% to 11% per level
Consider decreasing maximum_quality_jump to 4 or 5

Balancing quality modules

When modifying quality module bonuses, consider:

Keep the progression logical (Tier 1 < Tier 2 < Tier 3)
If unlinking quality from speed, only adjustment points for quality modules is applied since speed modules are set to 0 quality.
The effect of the modules is increased drastically from gaining quality.

Performance considerations

Extreme values (like 100+ module slots or massive area bonuses) may impact game performance. Test incrementally and monitor UPS (updates per second) in-game.