Hide Planet Techs Until Rocket Launch

Hides all planet discovery technologies (and all technologies that depend on them) until you launch your first rocket from Nauvis.

This mod is designed for players using Space Age and large planet modpacks who want to avoid early-game spoilers. Instead of seeing the entire future technology tree from the beginning, new branches of technologies are revealed as the player reaches space and discovers new worlds.

The goal is to make exploration feel more rewarding: discover new planets, unlock new technology branches, and naturally reveal the next stages of progression.

Important

⚠️ For the best experience, install this mod before starting a new game.

The mod can also be added to existing saves. Hidden technologies will be detected and updated automatically, including technologies introduced later by newly installed planet mods.

Installing it from the beginning is still recommended to preserve the intended sense of discovery throughout the entire playthrough.

If the mod is disabled before launching your first rocket, hidden technologies may fail to unlock correctly and could remain permanently unavailable.

Features

• Automatically detects planet discovery technologies using the game's built-in unlock-space-location mechanism.

• Supports modded planets automatically without requiring per-mod configuration.

• Recursively hides all technologies that depend on hidden technologies, keeping the entire planet-related technology branch hidden.

• Supports two progression modes:

Classic Mode

• All hidden planet technologies are revealed after the first rocket launch from Nauvis.

Progressive Planet Unlocking (Experimental)

• Enabled by default.
• The first rocket launch only reveals planet discovery technologies.
• Technologies related to each planet remain hidden until the player actually lands on that planet.
• After landing on a planet, its technology branch becomes available.
• Technologies requiring multiple planets are revealed only after all required planets have been visited.
• Can be enabled or disabled at any time through the in-game mod settings.

This mode is still being actively tested and improved, especially with large planet modpacks.

• Detects and hides planet technologies added later to existing saves, including technologies introduced by newly installed planet mods.

• Supports both new games and existing saves. Hidden technologies are applied retroactively whenever possible.

• Fully open source under the MIT license — feel free to use any part of the code in your own mods.

Design Philosophy

This mod does not hide the entire technology tree.

Only planet-related technologies and their dependent branches are hidden, while the core Factorio progression remains visible.

This allows players to plan their factory while keeping Space Age exploration and new planet discoveries meaningful.

Admin Commands

These commands are mainly intended for testing, debugging, and compatibility checks.

/hide-planet-techs-reveal-now

Immediately reveals all hidden planet technologies without requiring a rocket launch.

Useful for testing or recovering a save if needed.

/show-hidden-techs

Displays a list of hidden technologies.

Internal technology names are printed in chat.

/show-visible-techs

Displays a list of currently visible technologies.

Technology Lists

After using the following in-game admin commands:

• /show-hidden-techs

• Displays a list of hidden technologies.

• Internal technology names are printed in chat.

• /show-visible-techs

• Displays a list of currently visible technologies.

The mod creates technology list files containing internal names and localized names at:

%appdata%\Factorio\script-output\hide-planet-techs\

Files:

• hidden-techs.txt

• Contains all currently hidden technologies.

• visible-techs.txt

• Contains all currently visible technologies.

These files can also be used for manual configuration.

If a technology was hidden by mistake or was not detected correctly, you can use its internal name from these files to manually hide or reveal it through the mod startup settings.

Steam Achievements

⚠️ This mod disables Steam achievements.

Unfortunately, this is a limitation of Factorio itself.

Any gameplay-affecting mod disables Steam achievements, so there is no way to implement this functionality while keeping Steam achievements enabled.

Compatibility Status

The mod has been tested with popular Space Age planet and overhaul mods.

The compatibility list will continue to expand as more planet and space-related mods are tested.

Recommended Testing Setup

The primary development and compatibility target is:

Krastorio 2: Spaced Out + all recommended planet mods

This setup provides a large Space Age progression with multiple planets while keeping a gameplay style close to the original Factorio experience.

All recommended planets are tested and supported.

Localization

The mod has been translated into:

• English
• Russian
• German
• Czech
• Ukrainian
• Slovak
• Simplified Chinese
• Kazakh

Translations were created with AI assistance and manually reviewed where possible.

Credits

This mod was created with the assistance of AI tools:

• Code development: Kimi and Claude AI assistants.
• Translation assistance: AI-assisted translations with manual review where possible.

Special thanks to the Factorio modding community for testing and feedback.

For questions, bug reports, or compatibility issues:

Discord: blackbeirin