Space Age Support Current State
All planets are now supported. Since this is still a bit of a work in progress, I am not changing the default setting to be enabled yet, so it is an "opt in" kind of thing.
Starting in V2.1.13, you can enable secondary spawns for all other planets in the in game settings menu. The current default settings do NOT provide you with your own landing sites on the new planets, you must specifically enable those before you land on the new planets.
Currently, you should be able to use the mod as normal to start on Nauvis. With the default settings, it shouldn't interfere with space platforms and other planets. If you don't enable secondary spawns, when you travel to other planets, the experience will be like vanilla multiplayer where everyone gets dropped at 0,0. I can't guarantee it is bug free, so please report bugs on discord or GitHub please. Thanks!
What is this mod good for?
Glad you asked. If you like playing Factorio with other people, but don't want to always start in the center of the map with everyone else, this is the mod for you! Perfect for rail world enthusiasts, or just players who like progressing at their own pace while still playing alongside others.
How do I start a game with this mod?
Easy! Just launch the freeplay scenario. There is no required scenario anymore!
(This used to be a scenario only, going forward I will be primarily supporting it as a mod.)
Overview:
Any player who joins the game can do the following:
- Create their own new spawn area, somewhere in uncharted territory.
- Join another existing spawn, if the other player allows the request.
- Start a new team (aka force) to be able to progress through the tech tree on their own.
- Join the main team. If others also join the main team, they can work together to progress while each having their own spawn area.
Customized spawn areas have the following features:
- Always guaranteed to be safe. Even if you're joining 50 hours into a game, or starting 1000 chunks out into the wild.
- Enemies around spawn areas are scaled down, regardless of global evolution, this ensures a safe area around every new spawn location.
- A configurable set of resources (via mod settings).
- A configurable size and shape.
Other important bonus features:
- Shared chat and vision. Players on different teams still can easily chat and view each other, and are automatically friendly (PvP not supported).
- Spawn areas that are abandoned immediately get cleaned up (deleted from the map) if a player leaves within 15 minutes of starting (configurable). This helps avoid clutter around the map and keeps the save file size down.
- Offline protection. If there are no players from your spawn online, any enemy attacks targeting your base will be disabled.
- Regrowth & World Eater are the names of the features I added to help trim down on unused map areas. If a player explores a large area of the map, after about 1 hour, any chunks with no activity (no radar/vision/buildings placed/etc.) will be deleted to help keep the save file size down. The map can be still be re-explored and will generate as if it was new again.
- Simple and UPS efficient electric and item sharing using native Factorio features. Each spawn has an indestructible linked chest and linked power pole (if settings are enabled) that allows players to share electric networks and items.
- Buddy spawns (allows two players to spawn right next to each other).
- A coin shop (one of the tabs in the custom GUI) that allows players to purchase items. Coins may be provided at the start by changing the starting items configuration or they may be gathered in game by killing enemies.
- All these features mentioned are configurable and can be disabled, enabled or tweaked.
Known Issues (Space Age):
- I have no way to detect when cargo pods are dropped from space platforms so they end up at the map center. Once you are on the surface, at your custom spawn location, you can use the /oarc-wheres-my-cargo-pod command in the console to retrieve any of your teams cargo pods. They will be teleported to your location. This is a temporary workaround until I find a better way to more natively support them.
- There is no API yet for demolishers and territories on Vulcanus. This means I have to crudely just kill demolishers near to your spawn to keep it safe. Again, this is a temporary measure. The way it works is that if a demolisher moves too close to your spawn, I just destroy it immediately and you get the territory for free. This may result in some starting areas being significantly larger than normal. You will also be surrounded by medium and big demolishers instead of small ones the further you spawn from the map center. I have no way yet to downgrade them.
- Forces only get 1 landing pad per surface. This isn't a technical issue, this is how the base game was intended to be played. However, if you allow players to all spawn on the same force in separate locations (aka Main Force), then they will run into the issue of having to share a single landing pad. To work around this, you can try a mod such as "All the Landing Pads".
Planned Content:
- Continued support and improvements for the new planets. It should now be possible to play through with separate spawns and landing sites for all players on all planets, however, as the native game's API improves, I'll be updating the mod to make sure I take advantage of whatever the official devs provide for us.
- I may add other supporting features that I used to have in my original scenario if I get the chance.
Take a look at the pictures in the gallery to get an idea of what is possible. Most settings can be tweaked once you're in game and are available in the mod settings menu as well as in my slightly nicer custom GUI.
If you need additional customization of the spawn areas (resource types for example), please look at the included scenario template in the mod folder. Reach out to me if you have any questions.
Good luck and please report issues here or on my GitHub page.
Not compatible with RSO or Space Ex or any other mod that significantly changes resources/map generation/enemies/surfaces. But if you want to help me test it out, I'll help support you!