Computer Core 2 — experimental 0.2.1 alpha playtest

BREAKING ALPHA UPDATE. Back up your saves. Prefer a fresh world or a separate upgraded-save copy. Never downgrade a migrated save. Graphical/client and multiplayer acceptance remain unverified.

A terminal-only Lua computer for Factorio 2.0.77 or newer, with a pinned Recrafted BIOS, shell and both editors inside a durable, source-only guest VM. The existing Computer Core artwork and physical hardware are retained. This is not full CraftOS or CC:Tweaked compatibility.

0.2.1 responsiveness hotfix

Removed the fallback key button row. The text/paste capture field remains; use keyboard navigation and Ctrl+M for the editor menu.
Fixed full-window redraw amplification on writes/line clears and recursive full-palette restoration. Unchanged GUI sweeps are skipped.
Per-computer execution and collection quanta increased from 256 to 1024; aggregate tick caps remain 4096.
The same basic-editor typing fixture improved from 1233 scheduler ticks to 40 (about 31 times fewer ticks). This is headless scheduler evidence, not measured graphical latency; larger edits and busy-computer workloads can still lag.

After updating from 0.2.0, save your files and reboot each computer once. Already-running guests retain their old compiled OS modules until reboot. Upgrading does not automatically discard editor drafts; Reboot does discard unsaved buffers.

What changed in 0.2.0

Replaces the 0.1.x native workbench, file browser, editor and named-handler execution with one Lua-owned terminal OS.
Durable guest execution, local files, terminal colors/windows, events and simulation timers; save/reload resumes supported suspended guest state.
Terminal-only GUI with focused text/paste capture, cell clicks, keyboard navigation, cursor blink and lifecycle controls.
Preserves old files and recoverable editor drafts; retires callbacks without converting programs or automatically running legacy startup source.
Fixes current-disk snapshot/clone readback and multiline editor/middle-shell paste handling.

No guest world, circuit, wireless, speaker, waypoint, peripheral or HTTP programming APIs. Physical ports/speakers remaining in the world do not imply guest API support. Legacy callback programs and old workbench instructions are not compatible with this OS.

Getting started

Research Personal Computer, then Computer. Supply power to a physical computer, stay within ten tiles and Ctrl+left-click its body. Ctrl+G opens the private personal computer after research with a character.

Click the capture field beneath the grid. Accepted text/paste sends immediately; press Enter to submit. Navigation uses keyboard shortcuts; the fallback key button row is removed.

Run edit /hello.lua.
Enter print("Hello").
Ctrl+M opens the editor menu; type s to save, then open the menu again and type e to exit.
Run /hello.lua from the shell.

Closing the GUI preserves the OS. Reboot discards unsaved guest editor buffers, not saved files. Shutdown stops dispatch until reboot. Power loss pauses guest execution; overdue timers become due after power returns. Physical viewers share one input stream, so simultaneous typing interleaves.

Migration and known limits

Legacy startup source is retained inertly under /legacy-startup*; ROM-path collisions and recovered drafts use /legacy-recovery. Original data remains archived if quotas prevent a recovery copy. Blueprint/clone startup source also stays inertly relocated in this alpha. Do not downgrade a migrated save; restore an untouched backup with its older mod version instead.

Physical key-release/held state and mouse drag are not captured; key/cell taps have synthetic releases. Shortcut interception, focus, hold/repeat, graphical fonts and multiplayer joining remain client-unverified. Printable ASCII is rendered; unsupported bytes show fallback glyphs without changing stored file bytes. Foreground palette RGB updates render, but GUI background colors use the fixed default palette. Large grids repaint gradually. Boot/editor responsiveness, production tick latency and complete memory envelopes are provisional.

Verification and documentation

The exact 0.2.1 ZIP passed Factorio 2.0.77 packaged base and expansion headless checks: 358 initial and 490 cumulative after separate-process reload per variant, all six local processes clean. Hosted push/PR CI passed. Tests include actual upstream shell/editor workflows and selected live lifecycle/migration fixtures with real engine entities. These are not native client rendering/input, full previous-version upgrade or multiplayer acceptance.

All actual client UI testing remains assigned to the playtester. Report exact mod/engine versions, other mods, resolution/UI scale, terminal settings and reproduction steps.

Guides and checklists are repository-only, not bundled in the ZIP:

MIT. Original Computer Core by Relik77 and contributors; modernization by SirEdvin. Pinned Phobos/Recrafted source, original licenses and patch provenance are included in the archive. No new uncleared Minecraft artwork is redistributed.