Work in progress: Version 0.1.0 is an early release. Features and compatibility may change.

AI disclosure: AI tools were used to assist with the development and documentation of this mod.

The first eligible structure of each type built by a force becomes its historical First. It receives a permanent identity that can survive mining and rebuilding, so important factory structures can be remembered throughout a save.

Features

• One historical First per eligible structure type and force. There is no succession: destroying or losing a First does not promote a replacement.
• Identity follows the authentic item when mined by a player or construction robot, transported, and placed again. Space platform mining and placement are supported too.
• Blueprints and copied builds create ordinary structures; they do not duplicate a First's identity.
• A small Alt-mode marker and selection panel show a First's name, origin, age, and number of placements.
• Damage and critical-health alerts are sent to the artifact's own force.
• EN and PL interface text, with settings for exclusions, alerts, markers, and the information panel.

How identity works

FOHN records the first completed build for each eligible entity prototype in each force. Quality does not create a separate title. The mod preserves the original item name, stack size, recipes, quality, and damage; ordinary items remain stackable.

An artifact cannot be used to build in another force. The attempted build is rolled back and the item is returned to inventory or cargo, or dropped nearby if there is no space.

Existing saves and limitations

FOHN must be present from the beginning of a map to know the history of structures already available there. On an existing save, prototypes with unknown history are marked history_unknown and do not receive a First. New prototypes and forces may establish their own histories after monitoring begins.

In Factorio 2.0, recycling or other unexpected destruction of an artifact's carrier ends its record as lost/unknown. The mod does not guess that recycling was the cause, and products do not inherit the artifact's identity.

Discovery supports eligible static structures with an unambiguous item-to-entity relationship and a single mining result. Vehicles, rails and tiles, equipment, items containing additional inventory/entity data, and custom multi-result build/mining cycles are outside the supported scope. Compatibility with every mod is not guaranteed; unsupported prototypes are excluded with a diagnostic reason.

Saving a game after fully uninstalling FOHN removes its engine storage. Reinstalling afterward cannot recover that history; restore a backup made before uninstalling to keep the old records.

Settings

• Exclude prototype names or entity types at startup.
• Set the force-wide damage-alert cooldown (default: 10 game seconds).
• Set the critical-health threshold (default: 25%).
• Toggle the Alt marker and information panel per player.

Compatibility

Factorio 2.0; verified on 2.0.77. Quality and Space Age are optional integrations. Interface and messages are available in English and Polish.

Inspiration

The idea for First of His Name was inspired by this r/Factoriohno post about losing a long-serving inserter. Thanks to the original poster for sparking the idea.