Autonomous Expeditions – Explore & Patrol

Send cars, tanks and Spidertrons out to explore on their own, or patrol your rail network with autonomous trains. Vehicles use their normal weapons and real ammunition without a player aboard, then return for supplies.

Land expeditions and groups

Research autonomous land or Spidertron expeditions, open a parked vehicle and start exploring. Drive solo, create a group or join an existing group. A leader is selected automatically; groups share exploration goals and return together when a member needs supplies. Mixed groups can combine cars, tanks and Spidertrons.

Spidertrons plan land waypoints around broad water obstacles and skip unreachable exploration goals. Cars and tanks use pathfinding and native vehicle movement. Boarding a vehicle stops its expedition; manual Spidertron commands take priority.

Powered supply bases

Build a supply base and connect it to electricity. Assigned vehicles return to refuel, rearm, repair and recharge equipment batteries. Empty cars and tanks can take their starting fuel directly from a stocked, powered base in range.

Six reserved inventory compartments keep fuel, magazines, rockets, tank shells, flamethrower ammunition and repair packs separate. A full rocket compartment cannot consume the space reserved for other supplies. Choose item variants in the base window; inserters and compatible logistics can use the native filtered inventory. The base has 96 slots at normal quality, with more capacity at higher quality.

Hover over a base to see its current service radius. Nearby bases are preselected in the vehicle interface. An optional map setting lets expeditions select another surviving base if their original base is destroyed.

Research progression

Three independent finite research chains improve your fleet:

Normal bases consume real supplies, repair pack durability and grid energy. Electricity use rises with actual item transfer, repairs and charging. Higher service research also increases the base's electrical input limit and buffer.

A separate Creative Supply Base, available through the editor for sandbox play, provides unlimited supplies and free servicing.

Rail patrols

Research autonomous rail patrols, prepare a train and a uniquely named supply station, then configure its patrol in the locomotive window. Trains visit reachable parts of their connected rail network and return for fuel and artillery ammunition. Native signals, reservations and train movement remain in control. Stopping a patrol restores the previous schedule.

Compatibility

• Factorio 2.0 and 2.1. Minimum versions: 2.0.77 and 2.1.23. Install release 0.6.1 for Factorio 2.0 or 0.6.2 for Factorio 2.1; the Mod Portal selects the matching package.
• Space Age is optional. Tested with real surfaces on Nauvis, Vulcanus, Fulgora, Gleba and Aquilo, including supply and save/load checks. Vehicles still need traversable routes and suitable planetary infrastructure, including heating where required.
• More Artillery is optional, including its Assault Artillery Wagon for mobile firepower.
• Tested together with Manifold, Resource Compressor and SlowSoundtrack. Manifold 0.11.8 (2.0) and 0.12.4 (2.1) can deliver fuel; use native inserters for ammunition and repair packs. Decompress compressed supplies before use.
• English and German interface.
• Original Blender-rendered supply base graphics and thumbnail.

Getting started

1. Research the relevant expedition technology.
2. Place a supply base, connect power and stock its reserved compartments.
3. Place an empty car or tank within the base's service radius, or prepare a Spidertron.
4. Open the vehicle, select the base and start exploration. Enable group exploration in map mod settings if desired.

For trains, use a normal train stop and inserters as the supply station.

Practical limits

Expeditions do not build roads, bridges or rails, and cannot cross arbitrary oceans or disconnected islands. Blocked return routes or stuck vehicles may require manual recovery. Vanilla vehicle physics, ammunition effects and hazards still apply. New fleet limits apply to new registrations; existing expeditions and stored supplies are preserved when upgrading.

Report bugs or suggestions in the Discussion tab, including the mod version and relevant mod combination.