Dabrias Multiplyer Ramup – FAQ
General Questions
Q: What does this mod do in one sentence?
A: It multiplies the science pack cost of every technology by a factor that increases the deeper you are in the tech tree, rather than applying the same multiplier to everything.
Q: Why would I want that?
A: It makes the game progressively harder as you advance, so early technologies stay affordable while late‑game mega‑techs require a significant investment. This creates a smoother difficulty curve and encourages more base expansion and planning.
Q: Is this mod compatible with Space Age?
A: Yes. The mod detects Space Age automatically and works with all its technologies (including the new planets and the solar system edge). If you have Space Age installed, the final technology auto‑detects solar-system-edge unless you manually override it.
Q: Is this mod compatible with other mods that add new technologies?
A: Yes. Any technology added by other mods will be included in the depth calculation and scaled accordingly. The mod does not depend on specific technology names (except the optional final‑tech setting).
Q: Does this mod change recipe costs, mining speed, or research time?
A: No. It only changes the number of science packs required per technology. It does not affect:
- Recipe ingredients or outputs
- Mining drill speeds
- Fuel values
- Power generation
- Pollution
- Research time per unit
If you want those, consider pairing it with mods like ScaledRecipes – they are fully compatible.
Settings
Q: What does “Initial Multiplier” do?
A: It sets the multiplier for technologies at depth 0 (root technologies with no prerequisites, like Automation). Default is 1.0, meaning no increase at the very start.
Q: What does “Final Multiplier” do?
A: It sets the multiplier for the technology that defines the end of the curve (the deepest tech you care about). Default is 50.0. All technologies between depth 0 and the final depth get a multiplier between these two values.
Q: What should I set the Final Technology to?
A: Leave it blank (default) to let the mod automatically use the technology with the greatest depth in your current mod set.
If you want a specific technology to be the endpoint (e.g., "rocket-silo" or "solar-system-edge"), type its exact internal name. In Factorio, internal names are case‑sensitive and use dashes (e.g., "solar-system-edge", not "Solar System Edge").
If you type an incorrect name, the mod will warn and fall back to auto‑detection for known default names, or error for truly custom names.
Q: What does “Skip Initial Trigger Techs” do?
A: Trigger technologies are those that have no research cost (unit is missing) – they only unlock recipes or features. When enabled (default), these techs are assigned depth -1 and do not affect the multiplier curve. This prevents the curve from “shifting” to the right because of cheap prerequisite techs.
Example: if Electronics is a trigger tech with no cost, it won’t increase the depth of its children, so their multiplier stays lower.
Q: What does “Go Beyond Final Multiplier” do?
A: If disabled (default), no technology can cost more than the Final Multiplier – even if it is deeper than the specified Final Technology or the global maximum depth.
If enabled, technologies deeper than the endpoint will continue to grow exponentially beyond the Final Multiplier (e.g., if you have a mod that adds techs after the rocket silo, their costs could become extremely high).
Technical / Gameplay
Q: How is depth calculated?
A: Depth is the length of the longest prerequisite chain leading to that technology.
- Technologies with no prerequisites have depth 0.
- A tech that requires Automation (depth 0) has depth 1.
- If it also requires another tech with depth 2, its depth becomes 3 (the maximum of all prerequisites + 1).
The calculation is recursive and handles complex dependency graphs correctly.
Q: What about infinite technologies (like mining productivity)?
A: Infinite technologies have a count_formula (e.g., "1000*L"). The mod injects the depth‑based multiplier directly into that formula, so every level scales appropriately. The starting level is extracted from the technology name (e.g., "mining-productivity-4" starts at level 4).
Q: How are normal technologies (with fixed cost) handled?
A: Their unit.count is multiplied by the calculated multiplier and then rounded up to the nearest integer using math.ceil(). This ensures you never need a fraction of a science pack.
Q: Will this make the game too hard / too easy?
A: That depends on your settings. With defaults (initial=1, final=50), the cost of the rocket silo becomes 50× its normal cost – quite challenging. You can lower the final multiplier (e.g., 10) for a gentler curve, or raise it if you want a brutal endgame. The initial multiplier can also be increased to make early game more expensive.
Q: Can I change the settings mid‑game?
A: Yes, but only through startup settings. They take effect after you restart Factorio (or reload the save). Changing them mid‑game will apply the new multipliers to all technologies immediately upon reload – no need to restart the entire playthrough, but you must reload the game.
Q: Will existing research progress be lost when I change settings?
A: No. Research progress (the number of packs already consumed) is tracked separately. When you change the multiplier, the remaining cost for the current technology is recalculated. However, if you increase the cost significantly, the research will take more packs to finish.
Compatibility & Conflicts
Q: Does this mod work with ScaledRecipes?
A: Yes, absolutely. The two mods modify different fields:
- Dabrias Multiplyer Ramup changes unit.count / count_formula (science pack cost).
- ScaledRecipes changes unit.time (research speed), plus recipes, mining, power, etc.
They can be used together without conflicts.
Q: Does it work with Space Exploration, Krastorio 2, or other overhaul mods?
A: It will scale all technologies from those mods automatically, because depth calculation works on any technology. However, the balance may be unexpected – we recommend testing with moderate multipliers first. The mod does not contain hard‑coded exceptions for specific mods, so all techs are treated equally.
Q: Are there any known mods that break?
A: Not that we know of. The mod only reads and modifies technology prototypes, which is a very safe operation. If a mod uses a custom unit structure (very rare), the mod will skip it gracefully.
Q: Does this mod affect trigger technologies that have a cost (e.g., some modded trigger techs with a unit)?
A: If a technology has a unit field, it is not treated as a trigger tech, even if it also has effects. The skipInitialTriggerTechs setting only applies to technologies that lack a unit entirely.
Q: My final technology setting doesn't work – it says the tech doesn't exist.
A: Make sure you use the exact internal name. You can find it by enabling the debug option show-technology-names in the F4 debug menu, or by looking at the technology's tooltip in the game (the internal name is often shown in parentheses).
If you used one of the common names ("rocket-silo", "solar-system-edge") and it still fails, the mod will fall back to auto‑detection rather than crashing.
Troubleshooting
Q: The mod crashes on load with an error about a missing technology.
A: This usually happens if you manually set a finalTechnology that doesn't exist. Either:
- Leave it blank (auto‑detect)
- Use one of the known default names
- Type the correct internal name.
If the error persists, check your mod list for typos or outdated mods that change technology names.
Q: The multipliers seem too high/low – how do I adjust them?
A: All multipliers are configurable via the startup settings. Remember that the curve is exponential – small changes to finalMultiplier can have large effects at the end. Use the settings to fine‑tune.
Q: I see warnings in the log about a missing final technology – is that bad?
A: No, it's informational. It means the mod tried to use a default name that wasn't found and fell back to auto‑detection. Your game will work fine.
Q: The mod doesn't seem to do anything – all costs are still the same.
A: Check that you have the mod enabled and that initialMultiplier and finalMultiplier are not both 1.0. Also, if you are very early in the tech tree and initialMultiplier is 1.0, you won't see any change until you reach deeper technologies. Try researching a deeper tech (like Advanced Electronics) to see the effect.
Q: Can I disable the mod without breaking my save?
A: Yes, but all technologies will revert to their original costs. Any partially researched techs may have their progress adjusted to the new cost. It is safe to disable, but we recommend saving first.
Credits & Support
- Original mod concept by kuviboy (Technology Cost Ramp Up Fixed)
- Rewritten for Factorio 2.0 / Space Age by the Dabrias Multiplyer Ramup team
- For bug reports or suggestions, please use the mod portal discussion page or the Factorio forums.
Happy researching! 🧪🔬