⛏️ Dig, explore, loot, and survive in a vast underground world. Discover hidden treasures, special caverns, dangerous enemies, and depth-based progression from Easy to Nightmare. Experience reworked digging, balanced ore and oil progression, 8-level resource scaling, optional challenge modes, Train Interiors, research upgrades, and a balanced coin market. Enter the optional Dark Zones, where you have only 30 seconds to place lights before the darkness becomes dangerous.
Mods introducing new content into the game.
Version: 3.1.15
Date: 2026-08-21
Thirty-Minute Fortified Raid:
- Increased the shared Fortified Vault timer from 20 to 30 minutes.
- The existing duration migration updates active Vaults to a total of 30 minutes measured from their original first-entry tick; it does not restart the raid timer.
- Updated the outside Display Panel, mission information and all English/Russian Fortified entrance descriptions to state the new 30-minute duration.
Scope Safety:
- Unlimited cache openings, reward budgets, blacklist and progression filters, the 70x70 safe-zone rendering, the 10-tile enemy spawn buffer, all 120 groups and unrelated Cave systems remain unchanged.
Version: 3.1.14
Date: 2026-08-21
Unlimited Fortified Cache Openings:
- Removed both successful-opening limits from Fortified Vaults. Players no longer have a personal cache cap, and the raid no longer stops after a shared number of opened caches.
- Any player may keep hacking as many of the physically generated caches as time and combat permit. Personal and raid-wide opened counts remain as information only.
- The established Fortified reward blacklist, research and region gates, combined science ceiling, item quantity budgets, armor/equipment budgets and final-payout validation remain unchanged.
Twenty-Minute Raid:
- Increased the shared Fortified Vault timer from 15 to 20 minutes.
- Existing active records migrate to a 20-minute close time measured from their original first-entry tick; the migration is idempotent and does not restart the raid.
- Updated English and Russian entrance descriptions, mission information, Vault panel, entry message and cache-success message to remove every obsolete opening-limit claim.
Scope Safety:
- The 70x70 rendered safe zone, 10-tile defender spawn buffer, 120 full-size groups, 1,440 physical caches, 40,000 rocks, alarms, hack durations and unrelated Cave systems remain unchanged.
Version: 3.1.13
Date: 2026-08-21
Fortified Vault Safe-Zone Test:
- Expanded the newly generated lower-Vault combat-safe square from 50x50 to 70x70 while preserving the existing 700x700 floor, exact arrival pad and all 120 full-size stronghold groups.
- Added a further 10-tile static-enemy spawn buffer outside the visible boundary. Stronghold centres shift outward and unsafe defender targets are relocated rather than intentionally reducing defender totals.
- Added a thin green 70x70 owner-Force-only rendering outline and localized label. It is visual only: no wall, collision, enemy damage, enemy deletion, AI override or recurring area scan is introduced.
- Existing active Vault layouts are not rewritten. Generate a new Fortified Vault to test the expanded boundary and shifted initial defender placement.
Scope Safety:
- Cache rewards, blacklists, research and region gates, quantity budgets, rocks, hack limits, raid timer and unrelated Cave systems remain unchanged.
Version: 3.1.12
Date: 2026-08-21
Fortified Stronghold Density:
- Increased newly generated Fortified Vault strongholds from 30 to 120: 40 Standard, 40 Secure and 40 High-Security groups.
- Preserved the complete old group template instead of dividing it: cache counts and every Medium/Hard/Nightmare defender family scale fourfold with the four-times-larger 700x700 floor.
- New Vaults contain 720 Standard, 480 Secure and 240 High-Security caches. The 10-per-player and 20-per-Vault successful-open limits remain unchanged.
Dynamic Four-Category Rewards:
- Replaced the narrow fixed tier pools with runtime discovery from the Logistics, Production, Intermediate Products and Combat item groups. Recipe-backed items require their recipe to be researched; physical Market-only items without recipes, including The Cave MK/Toolbelt equipment, remain eligible.
- Selection balances the four groups before choosing individual items, so Intermediate Products cannot crowd the other categories out.
- Added deterministic per-stronghold diversity rerolls: adjacent caches cannot reuse an identical loadout when another eligible combination exists, and the preferred overlap ceiling is 50 percent.
- Expanded conservative quantity handling for portable equipment, turrets, combat robots, mines, artillery and dynamically discovered mod items while retaining every agreed per-Vault hard cap.
Reward Safety and Progression:
- The complete Fortified blacklist, whole Items > Space exclusion, combined 400 science-pack ceiling, one-armor/four-equipment ceilings and final-payout checks remain mandatory.
- Every recipe-backed candidate still requires an enabled Force recipe. Explicit item mapping plus technology-graph inference limits planetary recipes to the matching Cave coordinate region.
- Existing unopened caches are rebuilt deterministically through the dynamic catalog on configuration change. Existing active Vault geometry and defenders are not duplicated; spawn a new Vault to test all 120 groups.
Scope Safety:
- Lost Village, other cave types, recipes, technologies, enemies outside Fortified Vaults, Train systems, Shelter systems and unrelated gameplay remain unchanged.
Version: 3.1.11
Date: 2026-08-21
Fortified Vault Scale and Access:
- Expanded every newly generated Fortified Vault from 350x350 to 700x700 while preserving the exact 50x50 central combat-safe square and the small clear arrival pad.
- Increased natural Vault rocks from 10,000 to 40,000 to preserve the previous floor density across the four-times-larger area.
- Increased the successful cache limit from 6 to 10 per player and from 15 to 20 for the entire Vault. The existing first-completed, first-served behavior remains unchanged.
- Cache totals, 30 stronghold groups, group composition, raid timer, alarms and Medium/Hard/Nightmare defender counts remain unchanged.
Fortified Reward Safety:
- Added a Fortified-only hard blacklist for every requested science pack, endgame material, fuel, weapon, armor, equipment and building. The entire runtime Items > Space item group is also denied automatically, including items added to that group by other mods.
- Blacklisted items are rejected at pool selection, cache insertion, existing-cache migration and final payout. The items remain fully available everywhere outside Fortified Vault rewards.
- Rewards now require an actually enabled owner-Force recipe. Planet-discovery auto-research alone cannot leak locked recipes, and mapped planetary rewards are limited to their matching Cave coordinate region.
- Replaced repeated 18/24/30 picks and quantity multipliers with one deterministic bundle per selected item type. Jackpot bundles obey the same blacklist, research, region, tier and quantity rules.
Shared Reward Budgets:
- Added the agreed per-Vault hard ceilings for materials, circuits, belts, underground belts, splitters, robots, machines, ammunition, modules, armor and equipment across every cache and every player.
- Whitelisted science packs share one combined 400-pack ceiling per Vault. When several types compete for the remaining science budget, it is divided evenly and unused shares are redistributed.
- A Vault can award at most one armor item and four wearable equipment items in total. Armor, equipment, tier-3 modules, nuclear reactors and railgun ammunition are High-Security-only.
Existing Saves and Scope Safety:
- Existing active Vault records receive the new reward budgets and every still-unopened cache is deterministically rebuilt through the new filters on configuration change.
- Already generated 350x350 child surfaces keep their existing geometry until that short-lived raid closes; the next generated Vault uses 700x700 and 40,000 rocks.
- Lost Village, other cave types, recipes, technologies, enemies, Train systems, Shelter systems and unrelated gameplay remain unchanged.
Version: 3.1.10
Date: 2026-08-21
Independent Space Age Stack Size Settings:
- Added separate Startup stack-size settings for Calcite, Tungsten Ore, Fulgora Scrap, Yumako and Jellynut. Each defaults to 200 and can be configured up to 400, matching the existing raw-resource stack-size system.
- Fulgora Scrap uses its own dedicated setting and prototype. The existing The Cave Scrap setting continues to control only The Cave Scrap; the two Scrap branches are never combined or cross-controlled.
Scope Safety:
- Only the five named item prototype stack sizes are added. Spoilage, fuel values, consumption effects, recipes, mining, recycling and Scrap Sorting results, loot, markets, technology, power systems and all unrelated gameplay remain unchanged.
Version: 3.1.9
Date: 2026-08-20
Independent Shelter Battery Bridge:
- Replaced Shelter Defense's live hidden-accumulator bridge with the same independent scripted-battery and one-way electric-interface design proven by the Train Battery.
- Only the Shelter interior network can charge the Shelter Battery. Exterior generators, power stations and accumulators cannot charge it through the exterior output.
- Exterior generators now run first; Shelter Battery energy supplies only the remaining network shortage and does not charge player-built exterior accumulators.
- Removed the old hardcoded 10 GW discharge. Shelter charge and discharge now both follow the researched 50, 100, 150, 250, 400 or 600 MW limit.
- The exterior interface now holds only one 15-tick transfer window: 12.5, 25, 37.5, 62.5, 100 or 150 MJ by Shelter Battery level.
Existing-Save Migration and Scope Safety:
- Existing scripted Shelter Battery energy, research level and 25%-to-100% charging hysteresis are preserved.
- Pending energy in the old interior charger is recovered, while the mirrored old exterior output is settled without counting it twice.
- Only The Cave's legacy hidden Shelter battery entities are removed. Player accumulators, generators, poles, wiring, fluids, storage, waves and every unrelated system are unchanged.
- CAVETORIO and Train Interiors retain the unchanged 3.1.8 Train Battery implementation.
Version: 3.1.8
Date: 2026-08-20
Existing-Save Output Reserve Display Repair:
- Existing 3.1.6/3.1.7 electric interfaces now receive the researched-level 15-tick buffer size directly in place, fixing level 6 from 150 / 600 MJ to 150 / 150 MJ on already-running saves.
- This uses Factorio's writable electric_buffer_size property once per Train Battery record; the interface is not destroyed or recreated and the full battery migration is not rerun.
Electrical Scope Safety:
- Train Battery energy, exterior-generator-first tertiary priority, 0 W exterior input, 50-600 MW discharge limits, charge hysteresis, player accumulators, wiring and every unrelated system are unchanged.
Version: 3.1.7
Date: 2026-08-20
Train Battery Statistics Clarity Test:
- Renamed the hidden exterior bridge to "Train Battery Emergency Output Reserve", renamed the interior side to "Train Battery Interior Charger", and replaced both accumulator icons with the locomotive icon in electric-network statistics.
- The exterior reserve buffer now matches exactly one 15-tick transfer window: 12.5, 25, 37.5, 62.5, 100 or 150 MJ by Train Battery level. Level 6 therefore displays 150 / 150 MJ instead of the misleading 150 / 600 MJ.
- Added explicit English and Russian tooltip and Main Train information-panel text explaining that this is a script-owned 0.25-second transfer reserve, not a player-built accumulator.
Electrical Scope Safety:
- Exterior-generator-first tertiary priority, 0 W exterior input, 50-600 MW discharge limits, scripted battery energy, 25%-to-100% interior charging cycle and player accumulators are unchanged.
- Runtime bridge version and save migration logic are unchanged. New or recreated interfaces use the smaller display buffer; 3.1.8 applies the same capacity safely to interfaces already stored in a save.
Version: 3.1.6
Date: 2026-08-20
Exterior Power Priority Test:
- Exterior solar panels, steam engines and other ordinary generators now supply their network before the Train Battery output is used.
- The Train Battery output is now tertiary, input remains locked to 0 W, and stored train energy supplies only the exterior network shortage.
- Removed the 10 GW output ceiling. Train Battery discharge now follows research level at 50, 100, 150, 250, 400 or 600 MW.
- Existing 3.1.5 saves migrate from the single 10 GW output interface without losing the scripted Train Battery level or stored energy.
Scope Safety:
- Interior and exterior player accumulators remain ordinary independent network members and are not converted, deleted or merged into Train Battery storage.
- Train Battery charging, capacities, 25%-to-100% hysteresis, interior fixtures, exterior power range and unrelated gameplay systems are unchanged.
Version: 3.1.5
Date: 2026-08-20
Independent Train Battery Test:
- Replaced the Train Battery's live hidden accumulator bridge with separate one-way electric interfaces and script-owned battery energy.
- Only the interior Main Train power network can charge the Train Battery; exterior generators, power stations and accumulators can never charge it through the output connection.
- Exterior Train Battery output now uses normal secondary generation priority so it can operate alongside local exterior power instead of suppressing that network.
- Player-built accumulators remain ordinary members of their own interior or exterior network and are never merged into the Train Battery's capacity or saved energy.
Save Migration and Scope Safety:
- Existing Train Battery level, charge and upgrade progress are retained; pending legacy charger energy is recovered before conversion.
- Only old hidden accumulator entities owned by The Cave are removed. Player entities, recipes, technology and ordinary electric networks are not modified.
- Legacy hidden accumulator prototypes remain registered but electrically inert so 3.0.76 saves can load and migrate safely.
Version: 3.0.76
Date: 2026-08-18
Wave Damage Indicator Hotfix:
- Fixed damage numbers being suppressed for every registered Train Wave Defense attacker.
- Wave and Boss health bookkeeping no longer reports real unit damage as cancelled damage.
- Damage restoration for Wave attackers striking protected tunnel rocks and non-main rolling stock is unchanged.
- Built directly from 3.0.74; no settings, enemy movement, tunnel routing, Boss health, Train Interiors or unrelated gameplay behaviour was changed.
Version: 3.0.74
Date: 2026-08-18
Damage Indicator Activation Recovery:
- The integrated Damage Indicator master switch now follows Factorio's real Startup setting instead of a stale value copied into a save by the Main Lobby.
- Existing saves whose Lobby snapshot incorrectly kept the system disabled recover automatically after updating when Enable integrated Damage Indicator is enabled in Startup settings.
- Removed the duplicate master switch from the Main Lobby; the real Startup switch and every existing Per Player display option remain available in Mod Settings.
Scope Safety:
- Damage event routing, local flying-text rendering, player visibility preferences and server override settings are unchanged.
- Train systems, Wave Defense, enemy behavior, research, dependencies and every unrelated gameplay system are unchanged from 3.0.73.
Version: 3.0.73
Date: 2026-08-18
Circular Dependency Hotfix:
- Removed the reverse optional dependency on hanshino-cave-autodig because that companion mod already depends on The Cave.
- Prevents Factorio from detecting a circular dependency when both mods are enabled, while The Cave remains fully standalone.
- The six optional dependency removals introduced in 3.0.72 remain in effect.
Scope Safety:
- This hotfix changes only the mod metadata and changelog. All gameplay code and save behavior are identical to 3.0.72.
Version: 3.0.72
Date: 2026-08-18
Optional Mod Compatibility:
- Added hanshino-cave-autodig as an optional dependency; The Cave still loads normally when it is not installed.
- Removed the optional dependency declarations for big-wooden-pole, BiggerStacksPlus, multi-team-support, open-discord-bridge, RPG and shelter-k2.
Scope Safety:
- This update changes only the mod metadata and changelog. Gameplay code, Train systems, Wave Defense, enemy behavior, research and save handling are unchanged from 3.0.71.
Version: 3.0.71
Date: 2026-08-18
Fluid Wagon Research Lock Recovery:
- Train Interiors and CAVETORIO now disable the vanilla Fluid Wagon technology per Force and hide it from the research graph instead of leaving a 200-science technology whose intended recipe is blocked.
- Reapplies the Fluid Wagon recipe lock when this update loads, repairing existing Train-mode saves where the technology was already researched and the wagon had become craftable.
- Adds a research-completion safety check so an already queued or externally enabled Fluid Wagon technology cannot leave its recipe unlocked in a Train-mode save.
- Preserves completed research state and every existing or already crafted Fluid Wagon; no science, entity, inventory or contained fluid is removed.
Scenario and Scope Safety:
- Normal, Shelter Defense, Digging, Collapse and Advancing modes retain the ordinary Factorio Fluid Wagon technology and recipe behavior.
- The 3.0.70 Auto-Couple capacity guard remains unchanged. Train driving, carriage order and orientation, interiors, transfers, Train Shield, Wave Defense and all unrelated research are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.70
Date: 2026-08-18
Main Train Auto-Couple Capacity Guard:
- Checks the combined rolling-stock count against researched Main Train capacity before issuing any automatic connect command.
- A found locomotive remains fully driveable and may be parked beside the Main Train when capacity is full without entering the previous connect, rebuild, disconnect and retry loop.
- Filling the final available slot immediately blocks further automatic coupling; completing the next Main Train Expansion research or freeing an existing slot automatically permits the next eligible part.
- A separate train containing more parts than the available capacity is rejected as one unit instead of being partially accepted.
Live Save and Scope Safety:
- Existing over-capacity manual connections still use the established one-time capacity enforcement, but the detached part is no longer automatically reconnected on the next one-second assist scan.
- Locomotive driving, Train Pilot Lock, coupling range and alignment, carriage order and orientation, Train Interior rooms, transfers, Train Shield, research values and every unrelated system are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.69
Date: 2026-08-18
Native Military Target Diversion:
- Regular Train Wave Biters and Spitters now use Factorio's native nearest-enemy query within each unit's own prototype vision distance, so military targets are selected by the engine instead of a hardcoded entity-name list.
- Covers all Base and Space Age turret classes, deployed Defender, Distractor and Destroyer combat robots, and compatible modded entities marked as military targets by their prototypes.
- Spreads per-unit target checks over four deterministic buckets per second; tunnel digging units and Bosses never enter this diversion path.
- Units which have emerged into an open tunnel route may fight a nearby military target, then resume their saved route or the Main Locomotive order when that target is gone or outside vision.
Vanilla Land Mine Behavior:
- Land Mines keep Factorio's standard visibility and arming rules; no global enemy mine-vision setting and no custom Mine targeting rule is added.
Scope Safety:
- Built directly from 3.0.68; the recovered Wave queue deployment and proven scripted player engagement are unchanged, and an active player-group lock remains higher priority than local military diversion.
- Main Locomotive/Shelter orders remain uninterruptible outside the explicit native military-target check; Train systems, Wave balance, tunnel geometry and every unrelated system are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.68
Date: 2026-08-17
Emergency Train Wave Targeting Recovery:
- Reverted only the failed 3.0.65 Natural Combat experiment while keeping the complete 3.0.65 server feature set.
- Restored the proven 24-tile scripted player engagement used by 3.0.64 and earlier, so regular Biters and Spitters explicitly attack a nearby connected player or that player's vehicle.
- Restored uninterruptible tunnel-waypoint and Main Locomotive/Shelter commands when no player engagement is active.
- Removed the live-save migration that cleared player engagements and rewrote every active regular attacker with the failed by-enemy command.
- Existing saves recover automatically on their normal one-second Wave update; no New Game or Wave reset is required.
Train Wave Queue Recovery:
- Prevented an older committed atomic attack burst from remaining permanently blocked when a later pressure-braked Wave lowered the live active-enemy cap below that burst size.
- Rotates the queue cursor past a group waiting on a still-digging tunnel so other queued fronts can deploy or begin their own route without deleting, splitting or crediting any attacker as killed.
- A rotated queue group retries after one second instead of holding every later group behind the normal ten-second blocked-route retry.
Scope Safety:
- Built directly from 3.0.65; Train Interior layouts and transfers, caves, research, Wave balance, tunnel geometry and Boss targeting are unchanged.
- Turret and general structure targeting intentionally remains at the last proven pre-3.0.65 behavior for this emergency server recovery; no new targeting experiment is included.
Version: 3.0.65
Date: 2026-08-17
Train Wave Natural Combat:
- Restored Factorio's normal by-enemy combat distraction for regular Biters and Spitters while they follow tunnel waypoints and attack the Main Locomotive or Shelter.
- Regular attackers can now react naturally to nearby players, turrets and other hostile defensive targets instead of blindly continuing an uninterruptible A-to-B order.
- Removed the custom 24-tile player lock that redirected an entire Wave/sector group and repeatedly replaced the engine's own combat decisions.
Live Save Migration:
- Clears legacy scripted player locks and safely reissues each existing regular attacker's current tunnel waypoint or Main Locomotive destination with the new natural-combat behavior.
- Keeps active tunnel queues, Wave progress, attacker counts and existing targets intact during an update.
Scope Safety:
- Tunnel digging, route geometry, spawn timing, Wave balance, stuck recovery, Train Interiors and Shelter Defense targeting remain unchanged.
- Boss commands retain their existing uninterruptible behavior for this controlled test.
Version: 3.0.64
Date: 2026-08-17
Salvage Scrap Mining:
- Each completed mining cycle on Salvage Scrap now yields exactly 10 The Cave Scrap instead of one.
- One base mining result now supplies the complete 10-scrap input for one five-second Scrap Sorting operation.
- Salvage Scrap still matches Uranium Ore mining speed and Sulphuric Acid requirements; Uranium Ore itself is unchanged.
Scrap Sorting Balance:
- Removed Iron Stick, Copper Cable and Iron Gear Wheel from the Scrap Sorting pool.
- Every successful independent result roll now returns between 3 and 7 items; no remaining result returns a single item.
- Set Plastic Bar, Sulfur, Solid Fuel and Electronic Circuit to 30%; Battery to 20%; Water Barrel to 12%; Engine Unit to 10%; Crude Oil Barrel and Petroleum Gas Barrel to 9%; Light Oil Barrel to 8%; Heavy Oil Barrel and Advanced Circuit to 6%.
- Redistributed the removed common-output chance into advanced salvage: Lubricant Barrel and Electric Engine Unit 8%; Rocket Fuel 7%; Processing Unit 6.5%; Sulfuric Acid Barrel and Low Density Structure 6%; Flying Robot Frame 5.7%.
- Kept all result rolls independent, so one sorting operation can return several different product types.
Localization and Scope Safety:
- Updated the English and Russian Scrap descriptions to explain the ten-item mining yield and 3-7-item independent sorting rolls.
- Scrap Sorting still consumes 10 scrap in five seconds, remains assembling-machine-only, supports quality and rejects productivity.
- Uranium rewards, Uranium Ore output, cave generation, resource richness and every unrelated system remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.63
Date: 2026-08-17
Main Lobby Input Readiness:
- Replaced the prematurely interactive setup window with a clear non-interactive Loading Main Lobby panel while a fresh or joining player is still synchronizing or awaiting the Lobby-surface transfer.
- Shows the complete setup controls automatically after the player is connected, the transfer succeeds and the controller has settled for one game tick.
- Prevents players from mistaking visible but temporarily unusable controls for a frozen or crashed game, without adding any fixed multi-second delay.
- Keeps pending players on the Loading panel during display changes, Lobby rebuilds and configuration refreshes instead of recreating the setup controls too early.
Localization and Scope Safety:
- Added complete English and Russian Loading Main Lobby text.
- Background artwork, responsive window sizing, every Lobby option, permissions, countdown, game initialization, Train Wave hotfix and all gameplay systems remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.62
Date: 2026-08-17
Train Wave Tunnel Hotfix:
- Fixed round tunnel mouths being mistaken for completed routes after the first one-tile digging step.
- Tunnel faces now cross their already-carved mouth chamber before testing newly reached open cave terrain.
- Kept all Biters, Spitters and Bosses queued until the twelve-tile-wide tunnel has genuinely carved beyond its mouth and breached an open route.
Live Save Repair:
- Detects unmistakable mouth-only tunnels already marked open, returns their stranded attackers to the same tunnel queue without death credit or loot, and resumes digging from the existing chamber.
- Preserves the current Wave, timers, attacker counts, tunnel mouths and attack regions instead of resetting Wave Defense.
Scope Safety:
- Spawn distances, tunnel diameter, four-steps-per-second digging speed, Wave balance, Train Interiors, Shelter Defense and every unrelated system remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.61
Date: 2026-08-17
Train Interior Connector Heights:
- Set the central corridor width for Levels 0-6 to exactly 40, 60, 80, 100, 160, 220 and 280 tiles.
- Matched every corridor to its room height at the same level while retaining ten protected blue utility rows immediately above and below it.
- Updated all six Train Interior Expansion research descriptions and the English/Russian mode information to show the final corridor progression.
Scope Safety:
- Room dimensions, 96-tile wagon spacing, green areas, Storehouses, fluid tanks, Garden systems, portals, transfer routes, research costs, science packs and Shelter Defense remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.60
Date: 2026-08-17
Compact Train Interior Layout:
- Restored the fixed 96-tile wagon-room spacing: room centres now follow 0, 96, 192, 288 and the same progression for every additional wagon.
- Set Level 0 to 40x40, Level 1 to 60x60, Level 2 to 80x80, Level 3 to 92x100, Level 4 to 92x160, Level 5 to 92x220 and Level 6 to 92x280.
- Capped the horizontal room width at 92 tiles from Level 3 onward, preserving a four-tile connector gap between adjacent rooms at every later level.
- Kept the established connector-width progression at 20, 50, 80, 120, 160, 200 and 240 tiles with ten blue utility rows on each side.
Save Safety:
- Established live interiors are not forcibly compressed into the new coordinates, preventing an update from moving or deleting player-built entities; the compact layout applies to newly created Train Interior layouts.
Scope Safety:
- Green areas, Storehouses, fluid tanks, Garden systems, portals, transfer routes, research costs, science packs and Shelter Defense remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.59
Date: 2026-08-17
Main Locomotive Garden Portal:
- Moved only the 2x2 Main Locomotive portal exactly five tiles downward.
- Moved its active teleport bounds and portal artwork together so the displayed opening and teleport trigger remain aligned.
- Kept the lower Garden Floor portal, all Industrial Store Boxes, all fluid Pipes and every transfer route at their existing positions.
Scope Safety:
- Garden geometry, room geometry, wagon transfers, research, Shelter Defense and every unrelated system remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.58
Date: 2026-08-17
Locomotive Garden Pipe Rotation:
- Made all four fixed Garden transfer Pipes player-rotatable on both the Main Locomotive and Locomotive Garden floors.
- Preserved each Pipe's selected direction during periodic layout checks and Main Locomotive ownership changes; newly created Pipes still begin facing south.
Locomotive Garden Fluid Transfer:
- Replaced direct fluidbox assignment with Factorio's safe entity fluid API for both cross-floor routes.
- INPUT TO GARDEN now transfers fluid from the Main Locomotive down to the Garden, while OUTPUT FROM GARDEN transfers fluid back up.
- Returns any amount rejected by a full or incompatible destination to its source so no fluid is silently lost.
Scope Safety:
- Industrial Store Boxes, portals, room geometry, wagon transfers, research and Shelter Defense remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.57
Date: 2026-08-17
Locomotive Garden Item Store Boxes:
- Replaced the fixed Underground Belt item endpoints with Industrial Store Boxes on both the Main Locomotive and Locomotive Garden floors.
- The left pair is labelled INPUT TO GARDEN and transfers items from the Main Locomotive down into the Garden.
- The right pair is labelled OUTPUT FROM GARDEN and transfers items from the Garden back up into the Main Locomotive.
- Kept one clear tile between every Store Box and its neighbouring Underground Pipe while leaving all fluid routes unchanged.
- Transfers preserve item quality and metadata, stop safely when the destination is full and migrate items remaining on legacy linked Belts.
Two-by-Two Garden Portals:
- Reduced both the Main Locomotive portal and the lower Locomotive Garden portal from 4x4 to exactly 2x2 tiles without moving their centres.
- Reduced the portal artwork to the matching 2x2 display size and restricted automatic travel to each new 2x2 opening.
Scope Safety:
- The separate 4x4 grey landing pads, 36x36 Train Interior green areas, Storehouses, fluid tanks, room sizes, research and Shelter Defense remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.56
Date: 2026-08-17
Cargo Wagon Storehouse Placement:
- Moved the Export Industrial Storehouse eight tiles left and three tiles down to center offset (-14, +14).
- Moved the Import Industrial Storehouse eight tiles right and three tiles down to center offset (+14, +14).
Fluid Wagon Tank Placement:
- Moved the Export 5x5 tank seven tiles left and three tiles down to center offset (-14, +14).
- Moved the Import 5x5 tank seven tiles right and three tiles down to center offset (+13, +14).
Main Locomotive Transfer Ports:
- Moved every Import and Export Underground Belt and Underground Pipe endpoint eight tiles downward together.
- Preserved the one-tile spacing between each Belt/Pipe pair and kept every endpoint locked facing south.
Safe Migration and Scope:
- Existing Storehouses, tanks and Garden transfer endpoints are repositioned in place whenever possible, preserving their inventories, fluids and roles.
- The centered 36x36 green areas, room sizes, connector widths, Garden portal, research and Shelter Defense remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.55
Date: 2026-08-17
Unified Train Interior Green Area:
- Set the centered green area to exactly 36x36 tiles in Locomotive, Cargo Wagon, Fluid Wagon and Artillery Wagon rooms.
- Kept a two-tile non-green margin on every side of the 40x40 Level 0 room.
- Existing Train Interior rooms repaint safely during the update without deleting player-built entities.
Scope Safety:
- Storehouses, fluid tanks, locomotive water and Substation fixtures, Garden systems, room expansion sizes, connector widths, research and Shelter Defense remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.54
Date: 2026-08-17
Cargo Wagon Storehouse Alignment:
- Moved the left Export Industrial Storehouse one tile left and the right Import Industrial Storehouse one tile right.
- Existing final Storehouses are repositioned in place so inventories, quality and metadata remain intact.
Fluid Wagon Tank Alignment:
- Moved both fixed 5x5 transfer tanks one tile upward.
- Moved only the right Import tank one additional tile left; the left Export tank keeps its horizontal position.
- Existing final transfer tanks are repositioned in place so their fluids and transfer roles remain intact.
Scope Safety:
- Room sizes, green-bay sizes, connector widths, Garden fixtures, research, Shelter Defense and every unrelated system remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.53
Date: 2026-08-17
Fluid Wagon Transfer Bay:
- Expanded only the Fluid Wagon green transfer bay to 20x26 tiles: a 20x20 main block plus six additional lower rows, matching the Cargo Wagon bay.
- Replaced all four old 3x3 transfer tanks with exactly two fixed 5x5 tanks at the lower corners: left Export and right Import.
- Gave each dedicated Fluid Wagon transfer tank a fixed 70,000-fluid capacity without requiring the optional Extra Storage Tanks setting or research.
- Added a guarded role-preserving migration for compatible legacy fluids; a legacy layout containing incompatible fluids is retained intact instead of silently deleting fluid.
Main Locomotive and Garden Portal:
- Expanded only the persistent Main Locomotive green bay to 20x26 tiles; secondary locomotive interiors remain unchanged.
- Left exactly one empty tile between every fixed underground Belt and underground Pipe pair on both the Main Locomotive and Locomotive Garden sides.
- Pointed all eight paired Belt and Pipe endpoints south and locked their rotation so both sides keep the intended layout.
Train Interior Connectors:
- Set exact connector widths for Levels 0-6 to 20, 50, 80, 120, 160, 200 and 240 tiles.
- Retained exactly ten restricted blue utility rows above and ten below every room and connector.
Scope Safety:
- Preserved the 40x40 through 280x280 room progression, 284-tile wagon spacing, Cargo Wagon Storehouses, Garden portal, water and Substation systems, research costs and science packs.
- Shelter Defense is unchanged.
Version: 3.0.52
Date: 2026-08-17
Train Interior Expansion:
- Changed the unresearched Level 0 room to 40x40 tiles.
- Set the six research sizes to 80x80, 120x120, 160x160, 200x200, 240x240 and 280x280, adding forty tiles to both dimensions at every level.
- Increased the fixed centre-to-centre wagon-room spacing from 96 to 284 tiles: room centres now follow 0, 284, 568, 852 and the same progression for every additional registered wagon.
- Preserved exactly four connector tiles between adjacent rooms at the 280x280 maximum size.
Scope Safety:
- Research costs, science packs, the fixed central layouts, Cargo Storehouses, Fluid Wagon tanks, ten-row blue utility lanes, Garden systems and Shelter Defense remain unchanged.
- Established live interiors are not forcibly shifted to the new coordinates, preventing an update from moving or deleting player-built entities; the new spacing is used by newly created Train Interior layouts.
Version: 3.0.51
Date: 2026-08-16
Cargo Wagon Interior:
- Removed the twelve upper and twelve lower protected Steel Chests from Cargo Wagon rooms and replaced them with exactly two protected 6x6 Industrial Storehouses.
- Matched the Shelter Defense item layout: the left Storehouse is Export and the right Storehouse is Import, both fixed at the lower side of the room.
- Expanded only the Cargo Wagon green transfer bay to 20x26 tiles: a 20x20 main block plus six additional lower rows.
- Added no Shelter water, Substation or underground fluid ports to Cargo Wagon rooms; Locomotive, Fluid Wagon, Artillery Wagon and Garden layouts remain separate.
- Existing Cargo Wagon interiors migrate stored items from all twenty-four legacy transfer chests into the matching Storehouse before those protected chests are removed.
Train Interior Expansion:
- Changed the unresearched Level 0 room to 30x30 tiles.
- Set research sizes to Level 1 60x60, Level 2 80x80, Level 3 92x100, Level 4 92x160, Level 5 92x220 and Level 6 92x280.
- Increased the protected blue utility lane from four to ten full rows above and ten full rows below every room and connector while preserving its existing build restrictions.
Scope Safety:
- Existing room centres, rolling-stock identity, transfer direction, research costs, science packs and player-built entities remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.50
Date: 2026-08-16
Nuclear Cavern Progression:
- Added Nuclear Caverns to the normal repeatable Special Cavern pool in Medium depth while preserving their existing Hard and Nightmare discovery rules.
- Replaced the single full-stack cache with three separate processed-material chests for U-235, U-238 and Uranium Fuel Cells.
- Set Medium rewards to 5 U-235, 50 U-238 and 20 Uranium Fuel Cells; Hard rewards to 10, 75 and 35; and Nightmare rewards to 15, 100 and 40.
- Kept raw Uranium Ore exclusive to Uranium Salvage Caverns; Nuclear Caverns contain no Uranium Ore chests or ore patches.
Nuclear Cavern Defences:
- Medium rooms now defend their rewards with four enemy Laser Turrets, four Gun Turrets, two Worms and 8-10 mobile enemies.
- Hard rooms use six of each turret, four Worms and 14-18 mobile enemies; Nightmare rooms use eight of each turret, six Worms and 22-28 mobile enemies.
- Mobile totals remain deterministic per map seed and continue to honour the global difficulty scaling and caps; enemy tiers inherit the live main-cave evolution level.
Scope Safety:
- Existing generated caverns and every Uranium, Mineral, Village, Vault and Underground Belt system are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.49
Date: 2026-08-16
Resource Cave Availability Balance:
- Allowed Uranium, Iron, Copper and Coal entrances to keep being discovered while another expedition is running; operation locks now begin only on first entry.
- Limited each Force to one running Uranium expedition and, separately, one running Iron/Copper/Coal expedition, matching their independent transfer systems without creating a global resource bottleneck.
- Kept already-running legacy cave expeditions re-enterable and left every existing entrance, surface, timer and stored item untouched.
- Reduced same-resource entrance spacing from 300 to 192 tiles, reduced the Uranium anti-drought limit from twelve to eight eligible rooms, and changed Mineral discovery to 20% with a five-miss guarantee.
- Preserved the deterministic 5 Iron / 3 Copper / 2 Coal cycle; Underground Village and Fortified Underground Vault discovery are unchanged.
Extraction Cave Exterior Void:
- Converted every generated MapGen halo around new Uranium, Iron, Copper and Coal child surfaces to out-of-map before the start chamber is carved.
- Sealed event-less halo chunks created by later tunnel-frontier generation so distant green terrain cannot return as a cave expands.
- Added a one-time save-safe repair for unmistakable raw grass, sand, desert and water halo chunks around existing extraction caves without replacing carved dirt, portals, transfer hardware or player-built entities.
Version: 3.0.48
Date: 2026-08-16
Resource Cave Isolation:
- Limited new Uranium, Iron, Copper and Coal Cave discovery to one unfinished cave per Force and resource type.
- Preserved every existing cave in older saves, including duplicate active entrances, and kept them fully usable until they seal normally.
- Paused only the blocked resource type during room selection, preventing an active Uranium Cave from starving Mineral Caves, Underground Villages, Fortified Vaults or other special rooms.
- Made the Mineral resource deck skip active types and rotate safely when a blocked tail would otherwise prevent a free resource type from appearing.
Cave Evolution:
- Synchronized Uranium, Iron, Copper, Coal, Underground Village and Fortified Underground Vault child surfaces with the live enemy evolution of their parent surface.
- Updated custom cave ambushes, room defenders, expansion groups, Village attacks and Vault defenders to read that parent evolution directly.
Coin Market Quality of Life:
- The Coin spend/buy window now closes with Escape or E through Factorio's normal opened-GUI handling; its existing close button remains available.
Mixed Resource Distribution:
- Changed newly generated mixed patches to 35% Iron, 27% Copper, 25% Coal and 13% Stone.
New Cave Port Layout:
- New Iron, Copper, Coal, Uranium and Underground Village entrances now expose their upper item and fluid connections toward the bottom of the screen.
- Moved new upper output endpoints one tile farther from the cave mouth while leaving every existing save entrance at its original positions and rotations.
Scope Safety:
- Rebuilt this update directly from 3.0.46; Underground Belt behaviour and special-cave placement spacing are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.46
Date: 2026-08-16
Dynamic Game Mode Information Panel:
- Added a dedicated information panel directly between the Game Mode selector and Gameplay Modifiers in the Main Lobby.
- Selecting any of the seven scenarios immediately replaces the panel with its own purpose, rules, controls, progression, logistics and loss conditions before the setup is confirmed.
- Added detailed Train Interiors guidance for Ctrl+Enter travel, Cargo and Fluid Wagon transfer direction, Train Battery power, Locomotive Garden, expansion and Wave Defense.
- Added detailed Shelter Defense guidance for entry, fixed-core rules, item/fluid ports, battery power, interior and tunnel upgrades, destruction and soft reset.
- Added complete English and Russian guidance for Normal The Cave, Cave Collapses, Digging Mode, Train Interiors, Shelter Defense, CAVETORIO and Advancing Collapse.
- Kept every existing setting, shared Lobby permission, fixed-size background and countdown behaviour unchanged.
Version: 3.0.45
Date: 2026-08-16
Fixed-Size First-Frame Lobby Background:
- Replaced the temporary 1920x1080 startup-sized Lobby background with a fixed 5120x1440 cover canvas from the first rendered frame.
- Smaller 21:9 and standard displays now clip the already full-size canvas instead of showing a small image that expands after Factorio reports the real resolution.
- Display-resolution and UI-scale events no longer destroy, resize or recreate the background, eliminating the one-second small-to-large transition.
- Kept the setup window automatically centred and preserved every Lobby option, player lock and countdown behaviour.
Version: 3.0.44
Date: 2026-08-16
Immediate Main Lobby Display:
- Removed the intentional fresh-game display-resolution wait that could leave players on a black Lobby screen for four to five real-time seconds.
- The complete Lobby background and setup window now appear as soon as the player is available, including while an initial cross-surface teleport is being retried.
- Resolution and UI-scale changes now rebuild the existing Lobby interface immediately within the display-change event, without rendering an empty frame between layouts.
- Preserved the hidden, immobile Lobby character, responsive 32:9 and 21:9 sizing, all setup options and the confirmed-start countdown.
Version: 3.0.43
Date: 2026-08-16
Uranium Cave Fluid Transfer:
- Fixed sulphuric acid being drained from the surface Uranium Cave input while only a tiny fraction reached the connected pipe network inside the cave.
- Changed both cave import and export bridges to transfer through Factorio's connected-fluid API and account for the amount the destination actually accepts.
- Any fluid rejected by a full, blocked or temporarily restricted destination is now returned to its source instead of being voided.
- Preserved fluid type, temperature, transfer direction, port layout and the existing 5-tick synchronization interval.
Version: 3.0.42
Date: 2026-08-15
The Cave Main Menu:
- Replaced the vanilla rotating menu scene with the approved static THE CAVE underground artwork while this mod is active.
- Disabled all base-game and Space Age main-menu simulations so no Factorio demo can replace the custom background.
- Added the 80-second Stonebreaker menu loop, built from real CC0 pickaxe-on-stone recordings with no bass line, church bells or rain ambience.
- Removed every other menu music track from the active selection so only The Cave's custom loop plays on the main menu.
- Left gameplay, saves, scenario selection and runtime music unchanged.
Version: 3.0.41
Date: 2026-08-15
Complete Garden Exterior Void:
- Converted all generated terrain outside the active Locomotive Garden floor to out-of-map so the surrounding view is uniformly black with no distant green terrain.
- Added a one-time existing-save migration that scans only generated Garden chunks and preserves the complete active Garden layout, portal, landing pad, water, fixed infrastructure and player entities.
- Newly generated or chart-revealed Garden chunks are now converted immediately, preventing normal planetary terrain from reappearing at any zoom level.
- Kept the ongoing guard event-driven, records completed chunks so re-charting does no tile work, and versions the existing-save full-surface scan to avoid recurring UPS cost.
Version: 3.0.40
Date: 2026-08-15
Main-Locomotive-Only Substation:
- Limited the fixed Locomotive Power Substation to the one persistent Main Locomotive, matching the single Garden portal ownership rule.
- Newly found second, third and later locomotives no longer receive a fixed Substation, regardless of their facing direction or coupling end.
- Existing saves remove every obsolete mod-owned Substation from secondary locomotive rooms during migration without changing room tiles, player-built entities, inventories, wiring elsewhere in the train or the Main Locomotive fixtures.
- Preserved the Main Locomotive Substation, Train Battery charger, information panel, exterior power output and the separate fixed Substation inside the Locomotive Garden.
- Updated English and Russian power instructions so they no longer describe secondary locomotive Substations.
- Corrected English and Russian startup help so the Garden portal is described as automatic instead of requiring Enter.
Version: 3.0.39
Date: 2026-08-15
Automatic Main Locomotive Garden Portal:
- Replaced both 4x4 Yellow Concrete Garden squares with the approved industrial portal artwork, rendered at an exact four-tile footprint with no Enter prompt or portal hotkey.
- Walking onto the Main Locomotive portal now travels automatically to the Locomotive Garden; walking onto the Garden portal returns automatically to the Main Locomotive.
- Added a separate 4x4 grey landing pad above the portal on both floors. Every trip lands at the centre of the opposite landing pad, so arrival can never trigger an immediate return trip.
- Reserved both portal and landing footprints against construction and tile replacement while preserving the existing Garden item, fluid and power transfer fixtures.
Single Garden Ownership:
- Limited the Garden portal to the original persistent Main Locomotive. Every later same-facing or rear-facing locomotive keeps a normal flat locomotive floor and its standard Substation, with no second Garden portal.
- Existing secondary-locomotive Yellow Concrete portal tiles are repainted to their normal center-core floor during migration without moving or deleting player-built entities, items, wiring or room contents.
- Existing PRESS / ENTER world text is removed automatically. Garden research, transfer directions, train-room coordinates and the single persistent Garden surface remain unchanged.
Version: 3.0.38
Date: 2026-08-15
Train Interiors Multiplayer and Rolling-Stock Safety:
- New and returning multiplayer players now resolve the live Main Train when they join and spawn safely beside its current position instead of the original force spawn.
- Normalized Factorio's carriage-list direction against permanent room coordinates, so coupling one or several same-facing or rear-facing locomotives to either end adds only new rooms and never mirrors the established interior.
- Added a fail-safe layout lock that cancels any ambiguous rebuild before an existing room, transfer port, wiring network or player-built entity can be moved or touched.
- Room identity is now included in the connected-train signature by rolling-stock unit number; the original Main Locomotive and Train Battery ownership remain stable.
Empty Artillery Wagon Interior:
- Removed Cargo-style Input/Output chests and all item-transfer processing from Artillery Wagon interiors while preserving the normal exterior artillery inventory and firing behaviour.
- New Artillery Wagon rooms are completely flat and empty. Existing non-minable mod-owned Artillery transfer chests are removed during migration, with stored items safely spilled onto the interior floor first.
- Cargo Wagon and Fluid Wagon transfer systems are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.37
Date: 2026-08-15
Main Lobby Short Display Wait Test:
- Reduced the initial display-readiness safety fallback from five seconds to one second.
- The Lobby still reacts immediately when Factorio reports the final display resolution or UI scale before the one-second limit.
- Preserved the approved background artwork, full-size setup window, all options, countdown flow and gameplay behaviour unchanged.
Version: 3.0.36
Date: 2026-08-15
Main Lobby Initial Display Stabilization Test:
- Prevents the illustrated background and setup window from being created with Factorio's temporary startup resolution or UI scale.
- Waits for the player's first display-resolution or display-scale update to settle, then reveals the background and Lobby window together at their final dimensions.
- Adds a five-second safety fallback for clients that do not emit an initial display-change event, preventing an indefinite blank Lobby.
- Preserved the approved artwork, 1050-pixel setup window, all Lobby options, countdown flow and gameplay behaviour unchanged.
Version: 3.0.35
Date: 2026-08-15
Main Lobby Illustrated Background:
- Added the approved cinematic underground-cavern artwork as a full-screen Main Lobby background.
- Keeps the center dark and visually quiet behind the existing 1050-pixel setup window while concentrating cave walls, mineral veins, pipes, supports and industrial lighting around the outer edges.
- Scales the background to each player's current display resolution and rebuilds it automatically after resolution or display-scale changes.
- Removes the background together with the Lobby GUI when the game starts; no terrain, gameplay, settings or scenario behaviour was changed.
Version: 3.0.34
Date: 2026-08-14
GUI-Only Main Lobby Presentation:
- Removed the visible 49x49 refined-concrete Lobby platform and retained an all-black out-of-map background.
- Added only a hidden 3x3 dark holding pad beneath each player's centered Lobby window so Factorio can safely retain the character without exposing a visible play area.
- Hides the character, controller HUD, minimap, research/entity information and alerts while the Main Lobby is active.
- Locks walking input every tick and keeps each player anchored behind the Lobby panel, so W/A/S/D no longer moves the unseen character or camera.
- Restores the player's original HUD visibility, character visibility and running-speed modifier immediately after the confirmed game transfer succeeds.
- Preserved the seven scenarios, curated option list, large window, compact selectors, Cancel button and 30-second countdown unchanged.
Version: 3.0.33
Date: 2026-08-14
Main Lobby Option Curation:
- Removed every Squeak Through, Superheating and FuelGlow option from the Main Lobby list only.
- Preserved all excluded options, defaults and behaviour unchanged in Factorio's normal Mod Settings.
- Moved the 1x1, 2x2 and 6x6 Industrial Container capacity controls into the Main Lobby Technical Settings section.
- Made no gameplay, prototype, Mod Setting or runtime-balance changes; this update only changes Main Lobby visibility and grouping.
Version: 3.0.32
Date: 2026-08-14
Main Lobby Window Size Correction:
- Restored the Main Lobby window to its previous responsive 680-1050 logical-pixel width instead of shrinking the complete interface.
- Restored the original label, numeric-setting and range-description space so large minimum/maximum values remain readable on one line.
- Kept only dropdown and checkbox controls compact at a maximum width of 250 pixels; the Cancel / Change Settings countdown feature is unchanged.
- Restored the original table row spacing while retaining the compact 300-pixel Game Mode selector.
Version: 3.0.31
Date: 2026-08-14
Main Lobby Cancel Countdown and Compact Layout:
- Added a CANCEL / CHANGE SETTINGS button during the 30-second start countdown for the Lobby owner and server admins.
- Cancelling stops the countdown, clears the temporary confirmation lock and returns every player to the editable setup without losing any selected values.
- Reduced the maximum Lobby window width from 1050 to 840 logical pixels and capped option controls at 250 pixels instead of stretching every dropdown across the panel.
- Reduced table row spacing and limited the Game Mode selector to 300 pixels for a denser, cleaner setup screen.
Version: 3.0.30
Date: 2026-08-14
Direct-to-Lobby New Game Hotfix:
- Disabled Freeplay's crashed-ship sequence and intro before the Main Lobby takes control of a fresh New Game.
- New games now proceed directly into The Cave Main Lobby without briefly showing the vanilla crash-site cinematic or message first.
- Kept the existing post-confirmation crash-site guard as a harmless second safety check for scenario initialization and resets.
Version: 3.0.29
Date: 2026-08-14
Main Lobby Fresh-Player Transfer Hotfix:
- Fixed a non-recoverable on_player_created error when Factorio had not finished attaching the fresh player's character/controller before the first cross-surface Lobby teleport.
- A temporarily rejected Lobby teleport is now queued and retried safely on following ticks instead of stopping the game with a fatal error.
- The normal Cave runtime remains paused during retries, and the Lobby GUI and item cleanup run only after the player has actually reached the protected Lobby surface.
Version: 3.0.28
Date: 2026-08-14
Functional Seven-Scenario Main Lobby Test:
- Rebuilt the Lobby around seven exclusive Game Modes: Normal The Cave, Cave Collapses, Digging Mode, Train Interiors, Shelter Defense, CAVETORIO and Advancing Collapse.
- Selecting a Game Mode now writes one coherent confirmed runtime configuration instead of leaving contradictory Train, Shelter, CAVETORIO, collapse and digging switches active together.
- Split every remaining Startup option into Gameplay Modifiers, Features and Technical Settings sections.
- Deferred fresh-world Cave initialization until the Lobby countdown completes, so the confirmed Lobby values are active before terrain, objectives, trains, shelters, progression and players initialize.
- Added a runtime Startup-setting proxy for Lobby-confirmed values while preserving real Startup settings as the fallback for existing saves.
- Made Shelter and all scenario technology prototypes available before Lobby selection and moved the Advancing Collapse ribbon choice to runtime.
Version: 3.0.27
Date: 2026-08-14
Main Lobby Confirm and Start Game Test:
- Added a large CONFIRM & START GAME button for the first Lobby player and server admins.
- Confirmation locks the shared Lobby draft for all players and begins a synchronized 30-second countdown.
- Added a live countdown display for every connected player, including players who join or change display settings during the countdown.
- At zero, safely transfers every existing player to the correct force-owned main cave surface and initializes their normal player systems.
- Deletes the Main Lobby surface after all players have left so nobody can return to setup after the game begins.
- Restores normal player vulnerability and resumes every paused The Cave runtime system only after the transfer completes.
- Preserved the finite black Lobby boundary and all 66 Startup option draft controls from 3.0.26.
Version: 3.0.26
Date: 2026-08-14
Main Lobby Complete Startup Options Test:
- Replaced the Main Lobby placeholder with a large scrollable setup panel that automatically discovers and displays all 66 currently declared Startup settings owned by The Cave.
- Added dropdowns for fixed choices, checkboxes for boolean settings, validated numeric fields with visible minimum/maximum ranges, and text fields for free-form Startup values.
- Loaded every Lobby draft value from the active Startup setting chosen before New Game and stored all edits in one shared save-safe Lobby draft without attempting to rewrite Factorio's read-only Startup settings at runtime.
- Sorted the Lobby list by each setting's original Mod Settings order and reused every setting's English/Russian localized name and hover description.
- Allowed the first Lobby player and server admins to edit the shared draft while other multiplayer players receive a read-only view.
- Removed the periodic edge-position teleport that pushed players backward near the four Lobby boundaries; normal out-of-map collision now stops walking naturally while cross-surface escapes remain blocked.
- Added no Start Game button, map creation, final application, countdown or Soft Reset routing in this options-only stage.
Version: 3.0.25
Date: 2026-08-14
Main Lobby Full Black Boundary Fix:
- Changed the Main Lobby to a finite 96x96 surface so Factorio can no longer generate normal green terrain beyond the black Lobby boundary.
- Preserved the existing 49x49 refined-concrete Lobby platform, black out-of-map surround, permanent lighting, player holding behavior and placeholder notice.
- Added no setup options, mode choices, start button, countdown or Soft Reset changes in this focused correction.
Version: 3.0.24
Date: 2026-08-14
Main Lobby Foundation Test:
- Added a new isolated Main Lobby surface for fresh New Games.
- Freshly created players and players joining before game setup are moved directly into the Main Lobby instead of entering the main cave surface.
- Built the Lobby as a safe, permanently lit 49x49 refined-concrete platform surrounded by black out-of-map tiles with no enemies, resources or decorative generation.
- Paused ordinary The Cave tick systems while the Main Lobby is active and continuously prevents connected players from leaving the Lobby.
- Added only a non-interactive Main Lobby placeholder notice; no settings, mode choices, countdown, start button or Soft Reset changes are included in this test.
- Existing saves never activate the Main Lobby and retain all existing gameplay and player locations.
Version: 3.0.23
Date: 2026-08-13
Shelter Defense Default Setting:
- Changed the Shelter Defense Startup setting default from Enabled to Disabled.
- New installations and reset Mod Settings now keep Shelter Defense off unless the player explicitly enables it before starting a game.
- Updated the complete English and Russian hover descriptions to show the new Disabled default and activation requirement.
- Existing saves retain their stored Startup setting; Shelter gameplay, Train Interiors mutual exclusion and all Teleporter systems are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.22
Date: 2026-08-13
Teleporter Research Display and Top-Bar Layout Hotfix:
- Fixed all three Teleporter technologies showing an Unknown key title by assigning their existing English and Russian names explicitly instead of relying on Factorio's numbered-technology fallback.
- Removed the placeholder nothing-effect that displayed an unrelated red cross in the technology Effects area; runtime slot unlocks remain driven directly by completed force research.
- Restored Cave Information as the original direct 80x80 first button in the top GUI, returning it to its previous left-side position.
- Removed the temporary 160-pixel vertical top-bar column that stretched and enlarged the unrelated Wave / Next / Active panel.
- Placed the approved 80x80 Teleporter icon in the GUI row directly below Cave Information without changing Wave Defense layout or logic.
- Teleporter research costs, saved destinations, slot progression, circuit costs and cooldown are unchanged from 3.0.21.
Version: 3.0.21
Date: 2026-08-13
Teleporter Research, Preserved Slots and Final Top-Left Button:
- Added three force-wide Teleporter technologies using the approved transparent portal artwork for every research icon.
- Teleporter I uses Red and Green science and unlocks the system with two destination slots; Teleporter II adds Blue science and a third slot; Teleporter III adds Yellow science and the fourth slot.
- Set the base Medium cost to 400 of every listed Science Pack; the existing Research Difficulty option scales each stage to 100, 200, 400, 800, 1200 or 2400 packs per ingredient.
- Research upgrades only increase the usable slot limit. Existing destination names, coordinates, surfaces and visit history are never rebuilt, reset or deleted when the third or fourth slot is unlocked.
- Preserved destinations beyond the currently researched limit remain stored and visible, with only their Teleport action locked until the matching level is researched; Rename and Delete remain available.
- Kept the Teleporter button visible before research and added a clear research-required message when it is clicked while locked.
- Replaced the unrelated plus/reassign icon with the approved transparent portal icon and moved the 80x80 button directly below the 80x80 Cave Information button in a shared top-left column.
- Preserved the 200 Electronic Circuit save cost, 10 Advanced Circuit travel cost, shared two-minute cooldown, Back function and all existing Teleporter interface tools.
Version: 3.0.20
Date: 2026-08-13
Integrated Waypoint Teleporter:
- Integrated the complete Khalc Teleport interface directly into The Cave; the separate KhalcTeleport mod is no longer required and is marked incompatible to prevent duplicate buttons and runtime handlers.
- Preserved the Open Teleporter button, camera/minimap previews, search, sorting, renaming, deletion, surface filters and Back function.
- Limited every player to four saved destinations across all supported surfaces; existing excess destinations are preserved but new saves remain blocked until the count is below four.
- Fixed registration at 200 Electronic Circuits and every successful Teleport or Back trip at 10 Advanced Circuits.
- Added one persistent two-minute cooldown per player, shared by all destinations and Back, with a live countdown on every disabled teleport button.
- Failed or unavailable destinations consume no circuits and start no cooldown; deletion grants no refund.
- Added support for Nauvis, official planets, Space Platforms, MTS team Nauvis surfaces and Cavetorio Warp surfaces while excluding temporary mission/interior surfaces.
- Added complete English and Russian Teleporter interface text and retained Khalcifer's MIT attribution inside the package.
Version: 3.0.19
Date: 2026-08-13
Twelve-Tile Tunnels and Thirty-Two-Tile Spawn Chambers:
- Increased every regular and Boss Train Wave tunnel from eight tiles to twelve tiles wide.
- Doubled the round tunnel-mouth chamber from approximately sixteen tiles to an exact thirty-two-tile circular footprint.
- Expanded the deterministic attacker distribution radius from 6.25 tiles to 14 tiles so each burst uses the larger chamber instead of clustering near its centre.
- Existing saved tunnels progressively widen to twelve tiles and expand their permanent mouth chamber to the new thirty-two-tile size without resetting active Waves or queued attackers.
- Wave timing, enemy counts, movement speeds, route commands, attack distance and safe-zone size are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.18
Date: 2026-08-13
Wider Train Wave Tunnels and Spawn Chambers:
- Increased every regular and Boss Train Wave tunnel from six tiles to eight tiles wide so groups can form multiple moving lanes with fewer unit-to-unit stops.
- Replaced the narrow square deployment pocket with a round mouth chamber approximately sixteen tiles across at the outside start of every new tunnel.
- Distributed tunnel attackers across 128 deterministic positions inside the round chamber instead of repeatedly searching outward from one shared centre point.
- A temporarily full chamber now keeps remaining attackers safely queued for the next deployment pass rather than stacking or placing them beyond the chamber.
- Existing saved tunnels widen progressively in small route batches and receive the new round mouth chamber without resetting the Wave, queue or permanent tunnel identity.
- Wave timing, enemy counts, movement speeds, tunnel route targets, attack distance and safe-zone size are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.17
Date: 2026-08-13
Train Wave Tunnel Continuous Movement Test:
- Reworked tunnel waypoint handoff so every attacker receives its next route destination before Factorio completes the current movement command.
- Increased tunnel-route monitoring from once per second to four times per second while reusing the existing tunnel-controller update and preserving the current active-enemy cap.
- Replaced the one-tile cautious corner behaviour with six-step centreline lookahead and a small final command radius, keeping Biters moving continuously without letting them attack natural tunnel walls.
- Changed the 30-second command refresh into a target verification pass; valid Locomotive and player attack commands are retained instead of being restarted unnecessarily.
- Wave timing, enemy counts, tunnel width, spawn distance, attack targets and Biter prototype movement speeds are unchanged.
Version: 3.0.16
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Defense Startup Mode Selection:
- Added the Startup setting "Shelter Defense" with Enabled as its default value.
- Shelter Defense now starts only when it is enabled and Train Interiors is disabled; Train Interiors starts only when it is enabled and Shelter Defense is disabled.
- Enabling both settings starts neither system and prints a clear in-game conflict warning; disabling both keeps normal core The Cave gameplay.
- Updated prototype loading, Shelter and Train research chains, rolling-stock recipe locks, shortcuts, Wave Defense, runtime handlers and external Shelter suppression to follow the same mutual-exclusion rule.
- Added complete English and Russian setting names and hover descriptions, including defaults, controls, progression, restart requirements and compatibility behavior.
- Existing older saves remain protected by the Shelter new-game marker and never receive a newly injected Shelter in an occupied base.
Version: 3.0.15
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Main Floor and Utility Lane Size Correction:
- Corrected every Shelter size so 60×60 through 300×300 now describes the full main buildable floor, excluding the blue utility lane.
- Added the separate ten-tile blue Utility Lane outside all four sides, making the actual generated footprint 80×80 initially and 320×320 at the final research stage.
- Existing 3.0.14 Shelter test saves convert the former inward blue lane to normal floor and generate the replacement ten-tile lane outside the advertised room dimensions without moving the fixed center core or transfer fixtures.
- Updated English and Russian expansion descriptions and completion messages to distinguish main-floor size from the additional utility lane.
Version: 3.0.14
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Utility Lane and Safe Zone Label:
- Increased the restricted blue Shelter Utility Lane from four to ten tiles deep around all four sides of every interior expansion size.
- Existing Shelter test saves repaint their current room to the new ten-tile lane immediately, while future expansion stages replace the old border and build a new ten-tile border at the enlarged boundary.
- Changed the yellow 70-tile boundary label to "Shelter Wave Safe Zone" only while Shelter Wave mode is active.
- Preserved the original "Train Wave Safe Zone" label for Train Interiors games and added matching English and Russian Shelter text.
Version: 3.0.13
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Exterior Input Position Correction:
- Moved only the exterior Shelter INPUT Pipe-to-ground two tiles left from its 3.0.12 position.
- Kept the exterior OUTPUT and all four correctly aligned interior transfer ports unchanged.
- Existing Shelter test saves migrate the exterior INPUT in place while preserving its fluid contents, selected direction and transfer role.
Version: 3.0.12
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Transfer Port Alignment:
- Moved all four interior Pipe-to-ground transfer ports one tile toward their matching Industrial Storehouse, removing the empty tile between each port and the Storehouse edge.
- Moved only the exterior Shelter INPUT port one tile to the right while keeping the exterior OUTPUT port unchanged.
- Existing Shelter test saves migrate the six ports in place while preserving their fluid contents, selected directions and bidirectional cross-surface transfer roles.
Version: 3.0.11
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Bidirectional Fluid Bridge Hotfix:
- Fixed the exterior Shelter INPUT accepting fluid into its local pipe network without transferring that fluid to either interior INPUT connection.
- Fixed both interior OUTPUT connections failing to transfer their connected fluid networks to the exterior Shelter OUTPUT.
- Rebuilt both cross-surface directions around Factorio's connected-fluid API and the amount actually removed and accepted, rather than directly replacing one Pipe-to-ground fluidbox.
- A full destination or different fluid can no longer delete, duplicate or mix fluid; any unaccepted remainder is returned safely to its source network.
Version: 3.0.10
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Lower Transfer Bay and Rotatable Fluid Ports:
- Added a 20x6 green extension only beneath the fixed 20x20 Shelter core, producing a 20x26 managed green footprint without changing its top, left or right sides.
- Moved both protected Industrial Storehouses and all four interior Pipe-to-ground transfer ports exactly six tiles downward while preserving their relative layout and INPUT/OUTPUT roles.
- Made all four interior and both exterior Shelter fluid ports freely rotatable in all four directions so players can connect pipes from any approach.
- Preserved each fluid port's selected direction across normal layout checks and configuration changes instead of forcing it back to North.
- Existing 3.0.9 Shelter test saves migrate the two Storehouses and four interior ports to the lowered transfer bay while leaving the two exterior ports in place.
Version: 3.0.9
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Storehouse and Fluid Transfer Test:
- Expanded the fixed green Shelter core from 18x18 to 20x20 tiles while preserving the entry pad, water pools, Substation and all researched room dimensions.
- Replaced the six INPUT and six OUTPUT Steel Chests with one protected 6x6 Industrial Storehouse per direction. Existing Shelter test saves move their stored items into the matching replacement before removing the old chests.
- Added two protected INPUT fluid ports and two protected OUTPUT fluid ports inside the Shelter, positioned beside the matching Industrial Storehouses.
- Added one protected exterior INPUT pipe and one protected exterior OUTPUT pipe directly in front of the fixed Shelter.
- Added strict one-way cross-surface fluid transfer: exterior INPUT feeds both interior INPUT ports, while both interior OUTPUT ports feed the exterior OUTPUT port. Different fluids are never mixed.
- Added English and Russian names, descriptions and hover-only INPUT/OUTPUT labels for every new Shelter transfer port.
Version: 3.0.8
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Attack Distance Research Icon:
- Added a dedicated 256x256 Shelter Attack Distance technology icon showing the Cave Shelter pushing three enemy Biters outward beyond illuminated distance rings.
- Applied the same icon to all eight Shelter Attack Distance research stages, replacing the generic vanilla Military technology icon.
- Kept the locked progression unchanged: the unresearched attack distance starts at 10 chunks, and the eight stages move future attacks outward by two chunks each to 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 and 26 chunks.
- Terrain generation and conversion remain exactly two chunks beyond the current attack distance at every stage.
Version: 3.0.7
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Interior Expansion and Boundary Test:
- Rebuilt the Shelter interior progression around a 60x60 starting room and eight square expansion researches: 90x90, 120x120, 150x150, 180x180, 210x210, 240x240, 270x270 and 300x300.
- Updated the eight-stage science progression to Red; Red+Green; +Military; +Chemical; +Production; +Utility, with the complete six-pack set repeated for stages seven and eight. Costs scale from 100 to 1,000 at 30 seconds per unit and never use Space science.
- Extended the four-tile blue utility lane around all four room edges. Expansion converts the previous managed blue border to normal floor and builds a new connected blue border at the enlarged boundary.
- Applied the proven Train utility-lane restrictions to every Shelter edge: pipes, underground pipes, pumps, storage tanks and electric poles are allowed; invalid builds are refunded safely.
- Converted every generated Shelter-interior tile outside the current room to out-of-map and added chunk-generation enforcement so Nauvis, Fulgora, Aquilo or other planetary terrain can never appear around the room.
- Added the missing hover-only Shelter Battery Input label to the fixed interior Substation, matching the Main Train Substation behaviour without requiring a click.
- Existing Shelter-mode test saves migrate their current researched stage to the new square dimensions while preserving player-built entities and flooring that remain inside the newly unlocked square.
Version: 3.0.6
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Interface and Original Research Cleanup:
- Moved the Shelter Ctrl+Enter entry/exit prompt to the same safe above-quickbar position used by Train Interiors, preventing overlap with multi-row quickbars and shortcut bars.
- Replaced the fixed top-right Shelter hover GUI with a player-local grey world panel anchored directly above the selected Shelter; it updates in place and disappears immediately when selection changes.
- Hidden and disabled shelter-k2's original kr-shelter technology, recipe and item while Shelter Mode is active, while preserving The Cave's Interior Expansion, Battery Upgrade and Attack Distance research chains.
- Existing Shelter-mode test saves also force-disable the original kr-shelter recipe even if that external technology had already been researched.
Version: 3.0.5
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Entry Prompt GUI Hotfix:
- Fixed the Shelter proximity prompt crashing on tick because its child element used the reserved LuaGuiElement property name "text".
- Renamed the prompt label to a unique mod-prefixed GUI name and made the update path rebuild that child safely if a previous interrupted initialization left an incomplete frame.
- Audited the complete mod for GUI element names that collide with LuaGuiElement properties; no other reserved names remain.
Version: 3.0.4
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Runtime Require Hotfix:
- Fixed Shelter-mode initialization failing because Factorio forbids require() calls from on_init and other runtime event handlers.
- Loaded Train Wave Defense once while control modules are parsed and reused that reference for Shelter initialization, configuration changes, distance research, defeat pausing and tick updates.
- Audited all runtime Lua functions and removed every event-time require() introduced by Shelter Mode.
Version: 3.0.3
Date: 2026-08-12
Train Wave Lua Local-Limit Hotfix:
- Fixed Factorio stopping while requiring train_wave_defense.lua because the module exceeded Lua's 200-local-variable limit.
- Moved all six Shelter wave helpers onto the existing wave module namespace, restoring the main chunk's local-variable footprint to the proven 3.0.0 level without changing wave, tunnel or research behaviour.
Version: 3.0.2
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Technology Localization Hotfix:
- Fixed Shelter technology prototype loading by converting every numeric localization parameter to the string type required by Factorio.
- Applied the fix to Shelter Interior Expansion, Shelter Battery and Shelter Attack Distance names, descriptions and effect descriptions so the same schema error cannot repeat on the next technology.
Version: 3.0.1
Date: 2026-08-12
Shelter Mode Test Build:
- Added the Cave Shelter as the fixed objective for new games created with Train Interiors disabled; Train Interiors games retain their existing train-only system and never spawn a Shelter.
- Added one immovable, non-repairable 5,000 HP Shelter with 200 exterior inventory slots, enemy-force-only damage and a force respawn point ten tiles away.
- Added the persistent Shelter interior with a fixed 18x18 core, 4x4 entry pad, 12x4 upper water pool with a dry 6x4 substation island, and six INPUT plus six OUTPUT transfer chests.
- Added two-step Ctrl+Enter entry and exit confirmation, proximity prompt, hover-only integrity/battery information and INPUT/OUTPUT hover labels.
- Added six independent Shelter Interior Expansion researches and six independent Shelter Battery researches without changing any Train technology.
- Added the researched Shelter power bridge with 6,000-25,000 MJ capacities, 50-600 MW charging, 25%-100% charging hysteresis and a fixed 15x15 exterior POWER RANGE square.
- Added eight Shelter Attack Distance researches from 12 through 26 attack chunks, with generation/conversion always two chunks farther and no Space science requirement.
- Reused the stable two-hour Train Wave schedule against the fixed Shelter. Existing canonical tunnel routes extend outward to the newly researched mouth and connect to the old route; safe full-tunnel fallback remains available.
- Shelter destruction now shows a 30-second defeat countdown, performs the staged soft reset, keeps players in the protected lobby for a second 30-second countdown, then creates a new Shelter and begins a fresh expedition.
- Existing saves never receive a Shelter automatically. Only a new Shelter-mode game owns the activation marker required to create or rebuild it.
- Added English and Russian Shelter localization plus the shelter-k2 GPL-3.0 license and attribution notice for imported artwork and sounds.
Version: 3.0.0
Date: 2026-08-11
Stable Release:
- Promoted the fully tested 2.7.125 build to the official 3.0.0 stable release without changing its locked gameplay behaviour.
- Includes the completed Underground Village system, repeatable Villager trades and rewards, shared multiplayer timer, upper and lower item transfer, power bridge, entrance information, cleanup and single-active-Village protection.
- Includes the unified entrance layout for Underground Village, Iron, Copper, Coal, Uranium and Fortified Vault entrances, with powered indicator lamps, clear labels and correctly positioned countdowns.
- Includes automatic recovery and future prevention for Mineral Cave child surfaces that could previously appear as empty green Nauvis terrain after a temporary surface index was reused.
- Existing 2.7.x saves remain upgrade-compatible and receive all required migrations automatically when loaded with 3.0.0.
Version: 2.7.125
Date: 2026-08-11
Unified Underground Village Timer Layout:
- Fixed the active Underground Village countdown appearing inline beside the title and overlapping the powered indicator lamp because Factorio did not lay out the rich-text newline vertically.
- The Village now uses the exact Resource Cave entrance pattern: its purple title remains at the shared title position and an independent 1.10-scale countdown is centred directly beneath it at the same offset used by Iron, Copper, Coal and Uranium Caves.
- The timer remains green during normal operation, turns red for the final five minutes, updates once per second and reflects every Extra Time reward.
- Existing active Villages migrate immediately: the inline title is restored to plain text and the correctly positioned separate countdown is recreated automatically.
Version: 2.7.124
Date: 2026-08-11
Mineral Cave Surface Recovery:
- Fixed Iron, Copper and Coal Cave interiors occasionally opening as a vast empty green Nauvis surface after an earlier timed cave had been deleted.
- Deleted and cleared surfaces now remove their Cave chunk-conversion registry entries, preventing a reused Factorio surface index from inheriting stale generated-chunk state.
- Every newly created Mineral or Uranium child surface explicitly clears stale index entries before requesting chunks, closing the deletion-event timing window.
- Existing affected saves are detected safely by their missing frontier plus dense raw terrain and repaired in place on migration; the proper sealed Cave chamber and mineable frontier are rebuilt while fixed portal hardware and player-built entities are preserved.
Version: 2.7.123
Date: 2026-08-11
Visible Village Countdown Fix:
- Replaced the independent 2.7.122 upper countdown render, which could fail to appear over the oversized Underground Village entrance sprite, with a guaranteed second line on the already-visible Underground Village title.
- The active entrance now displays a bold green MM:SS countdown directly beneath its title and switches that line to red during the final five minutes.
- Prepared and suspended Villages display only the normal title, while active saves migrate immediately and obsolete invisible timer render objects are removed.
- Extra Time rewards, once-per-second updates and complete closure cleanup remain connected to the same shared operation deadline.
Version: 2.7.122
Date: 2026-08-11
Active Underground Village Countdown:
- Added a live world-space countdown above the active Underground Village entrance on the upper The Cave surface, matching the placement, scale and colour behavior used by the Resource Cave timers.
- The countdown appears immediately when the first player enters, updates once per second, reflects every Extra Time reward and turns red during the final five minutes.
- Only the single active Village for each force displays a countdown, making it clear which discovered entrance owns the running operation; prepared and suspended entrances remain untimed.
- Existing active Villages gain the upper countdown automatically on migration, while closing, expiring or suspending an operation removes it together with the rest of the entrance infrastructure.
Version: 2.7.121
Date: 2026-08-11
Complete Timed-Cave Cleanup:
- Uranium Cave, Iron Cave, Copper Cave and Coal Cave now remove their upper portal, fixed pole, powered lamp, display panel, linked item/fluid endpoints, titles and countdown renders when the shared timer expires.
- Their completed underground surfaces are now evacuated, deleted and removed from Remote View instead of remaining hidden in the save.
- Fortified Underground Vault now removes its portal, pole, indicator lamp, display panel, titles, timers and underground raid surface at closure.
- Fortified gateway enemy walls and any remaining encounter defenders are cleared from the recorded Vault square while player-built entities on the reclaimed floor are preserved.
Existing-Save Migration:
- Closed Uranium, Mineral and Fortified records left by earlier versions are fully cleaned on migration, including old SEALED captions, orphan infrastructure, child-surface indexes and obsolete record links.
- No permanent SEALED or collapsed world caption is created after any of these five timed locations closes, leaving the upper Cave floor immediately reusable for factory construction.
Version: 2.7.120
Date: 2026-08-11
Clean Underground Village Closure:
- Removed the permanent red or grey collapsed-passage caption after an Underground Village operation ends, leaving the reclaimed upper area completely clear for continued factory construction.
- Added a targeted save migration that destroys orphan "Collapsed Underground Village passage" and "Sealed Underground Village passage" render objects created by earlier versions without touching unrelated world labels.
- The entrance, fixed power infrastructure, indicator lamp and linked item-transfer ports continue to be removed exactly as before; operation failure messages and player evacuation/death behavior are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.119
Date: 2026-08-11
Unified Cave Entrance Layout:
- Standardized Underground Village, Uranium Cave, Iron Cave, Copper Cave, Coal Cave and Fortified Underground Vault entrances around the same fixed upper power-pole layout.
- Added a protected powered indicator lamp beside every upper pole, including save-migration repair for entrances discovered before this update. The lamp now visibly confirms that the upper grid is supplying the cross-surface power bridge.
- Replaced the floating ENTER labels with centered identity titles: Underground Village, Uranium Cave, Iron Cave, Copper Cave, Coal Cave and Fortified Underground Vault.
- Standardized transfer captions to green OUTPUT ↑ and blue INPUT ↓ above, with green INPUT ↑ and blue OUTPUT ↓ below.
Unified Underground Return Layout:
- Standardized the lower return title, pole, powered lamp and transfer-caption arrangement to match the Underground Village layout.
- Kept the Fortified Underground Vault transfer-free on both surfaces; it receives the title, pole and powered lamps but no linked belts, pipes or INPUT/OUTPUT captions.
- Existing saves rebuild obsolete portal labels and timer placement without resetting expedition timers, transfer contents or stored linked-belt directions.
Version: 2.7.118
Date: 2026-08-11
Varied Villager Requests:
- Rotates each new trade away from the two most recent internal request families, preventing repeated Miner offers from asking only for iron, copper, coal and stone throughout the operation.
- Expanded the available supply catalogue across basic materials, circuits, science, logistics, production machines, power infrastructure, fluid systems, combat equipment and researched Space Age hardware.
- Added substantial request floors and safe per-contract caps for plates, green/red/blue circuits, belts, inserters, assemblers, guns, ammunition, Gun Turrets, Laser Turrets, Radars, power equipment and Space Age machines.
- Miner-family trades now alternate between ore delivery and manufactured construction supplies instead of always generating another raw-resource contract.
- Existing unfinished offers remain intact after migration, but their request family is remembered so the following offer rotates to something different.
Fixed Random Extra Time:
- Replaced the escalating 10-30 minute Extra Time calculation with one independently random choice of exactly 5, 10 or 15 minutes on every offer.
- Existing unclaimed reward selections are rebuilt with the new 5/10/15-minute rule without resetting delivered items, trade progress or the shared Village deadline.
Version: 2.7.117
Date: 2026-08-11
One Active Underground Village:
- The first Underground Village entered now reserves the single active Village slot for that force; every other discovered entrance remains visible but refuses entry until the active operation closes.
- A blocked second entrance can no longer replace the active operation's shared timer, HUD, power bridge, item-transfer ports or Villager trade state.
- Closing or expiring the active Village releases the slot so any waiting discovered entrance can be entered afterward.
- Existing saves with multiple active Villages preserve the oldest operation, evacuate and suspend later duplicates without deleting their surfaces or trade state, and allow them to resume after the preserved operation closes.
- Prepared and suspended Village records no longer clear or overwrite the active Village HUD during periodic updates or configuration migration.
Minimal Transfer Labels:
- Shortened the upper transfer labels to OUTPUT ↑ and INPUT ↓.
- Shortened the lower transfer labels to INPUT ↑ and OUTPUT ↓, removing all repeated surface and Underground Village wording.
Version: 2.7.116
Date: 2026-08-11
Underground Village Identity:
- Renamed every player-visible Lost City reference to Underground Village and every visible Doctor, Soldier, Engineer, Electrician, Plumber, Gas Technician and Miner contact to Villager in English and Russian.
- Removed the visible operation level from the entrance label, discovery message and information panel while preserving internal level scaling and save-compatible prototype/script identifiers.
- Updated the HUD, dialogue, map tags, entrance ports, crates, operation messages and static information panel to use the new Village identity.
Meaningful Trade Requests:
- Added explicit minimum request quantities for every Villager supply item, so production-aware contracts can grow but can no longer ask for token amounts such as five low-density structures or eight laboratories.
- Existing unfinished 2.7.115 supply offers are raised to the new minimum without resetting their timer, trade number or already-completed contract.
- Retained the conservative 55-70% reward economy and per-item reward caps from 2.7.115: Villagers request substantial deliveries and return smaller useful packages.
Miner Delivery Fix:
- Miner-type internal offers now complete by delivering and consuming the requested ore in the Mission Supply Crate instead of silently ignoring the crate and counting only ore removed from one marked patch.
- The marked Village mining site remains available as an ore source, while the HUD now displays live crate delivery progress and existing ore already in the crate is accepted after migration.
Version: 2.7.115
Date: 2026-08-11
Lost City Reward Rebalance:
- Reversed the trade economy from 130-150% item returns to conservative rewards worth 55% of delivered value, rising by two percentage points per completed trade to a 70% ceiling.
- Replaced the generic four-stack reward limit with explicit gameplay caps for every Infrastructure, Combat and Advanced Technology reward item.
- Values locked and unresearched reward recipes through their full crafting chains, and assigns conservative prices to unknown modded chains instead of treating four full stacks as cheap filler.
- Migrates unclaimed 2.7.114 offers to the corrected valuation and reward packages without resetting the current request, timer or completed trade count.
Parent Cave Lost City HUD:
- Keeps the shared Lost City trade, status and remaining-time HUD visible on both the city surface and the parent Cave surface after players return upstairs for supplies.
- Extra Time updates the upstairs countdown immediately; the HUD is Force-aware in multiplayer and disappears when the operation seals or the player moves to an unrelated surface.
Version: 2.7.114
Date: 2026-08-11
Lost City Closure Fix:
- Fixed a non-recoverable on_tick error when the Lost City timer expired before an optional Reward Crate had been created.
- Made every optional Lost City entity-index cleanup nil-safe, including externally removed Reward Crates, so deadline failure can always kill remaining players and seal the city normally.
Version: 2.7.113
Date: 2026-08-11
Repeatable Lost City Trading:
- Replaced the one-contract ending with unlimited sequential trades from the same survivor contact until the shared operation timer expires.
- Item rewards unlock the next offer three seconds after the shared reward crate is emptied; unused mission supplies remain available for later offers.
- Prevented the exact same requested item set from appearing in consecutive trades, while gradually scaling trade quantities up to twice the first-offer level without exceeding item-specific fairness caps.
- Increased the item-reward multiplier by two percentage points per completed trade, from 130% up to a 150% ceiling.
Fourth Reward — Extra Time:
- Added Extra Time as a mutually exclusive fourth team reward on every trade, alongside Infrastructure, Combat and Advanced Technology.
- Extra Time adds a deterministic 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 minutes to the current shared deadline instead of resetting it; harder and later trades receive the larger time ranges.
- Time rewards have no total operation cap, so successful teams may keep a Lost City open for multiple hours by continuing to trade.
- Added live current-time and after-selection previews, shared first-click locking, repeat-trade HUD states and English/Russian messages.
Lost City Item Transfer:
- Added dedicated Blue-belt-speed linked Underground Belt endpoints for sending supplies down and returning ore, mined buildings and loot to the parent cave.
- Creates both upper endpoints atomically with the entrance and repairs both lower endpoints on first entry or save migration, with persistent player-selected rotations and clear INPUT/OUTPUT labels.
- Reconnects both cross-surface item routes periodically and returns items buffered inside the transfer endpoints beside the upper entrance when the operation seals.
Version: 2.7.112
Date: 2026-08-11
Lost City Entrance Readiness:
- The upper large electric pole and a detailed information Display Panel now appear atomically with every newly discovered Lost City entrance, before the shared timer can start.
- Existing open Lost City entrances repair missing upper poles and panels during save migration; the lower pole and entry lamp link to the prepared upper pole on first entry.
- The entrance panel explains power, darkness attacks, the shared contract, rewards, the unbounded Nauvis city and the absolute 30-minute deadline.
Contract and Reward Balance:
- Fixed empty Infrastructure and Combat reward frames by guaranteeing real fallback candidates when the current researched recipe set cannot populate a reward pool.
- Added visible actual and target credit values to all three reward packages in both the briefing and final team-choice windows.
- Added item-specific hard request limits: uranium magazines are capped at 80, laser turrets at 20, productivity module 2 at 10, reactors at 2, with appropriate limits for every other contract item.
- Protected raw-resource values and excluded recycling recipes from recursive valuation so recipe cycles cannot collapse contract and reward prices.
- Migrates unfinished older Lost City contracts to the corrected contract model while preserving the one-contact, one-contract structure.
Version: 2.7.111
Date: 2026-08-11
Mineral Q Entrance Infrastructure:
- Iron, Copper and Coal Q entrances now create both upper Underground Belt endpoints, the large electric pole and the information Display Panel immediately when discovered.
- First entry now creates only the lower cave side and links it to the already-visible upper infrastructure; it is no longer required to reveal the surface connections.
- Existing open Mineral Q entrances are repaired during save migration so their missing upper infrastructure appears without entering them first.
- Made entrance creation transactional: if any required upper component cannot be created, the incomplete entrance is rolled back and does not consume the deterministic resource deck.
Version: 2.7.110
Date: 2026-08-11
Lost City Contract Economy:
- Replaced three simultaneous contacts and three fixed missions with exactly one NPC and one Force-shared contract per Lost City operation.
- Replaced hand-written request quantities with production-aware amounts based on the Force's recent one-hour production rate, capped at two stacks per requested item.
- Added recipe-derived item valuation using raw-resource cost, crafting energy and a compounded transformation margin.
- Limited supply contracts to two to four researched advanced item types; cheap raw plates, copper cable and ordinary pipes are no longer fallback requests.
- Added three visible, value-matched reward choices: Infrastructure, Combat and Advanced Technology. The first team selection is final and creates the shared reward crate.
- Set reward purchasing power to 130% of delivered value, rising by 5% per completed Lost City up to 150%; operation time remains a deadline instead of the primary reward.
Building Loot Variety:
- Locked distinct loot types per mined building to 1-2 for small ruins, 2-4 for medium ruins and 4-7 for large ruins.
- Removed the old 20% rounding behaviour that discarded rare one-count loot while allowing pipes and underground pipes to dominate most buildings.
Version: 2.7.109
Date: 2026-08-10
Nauvis-only Lost City Surface:
- Replaced unrestricted custom-surface autoplace with a strict whitelist of Nauvis terrain, water, trees, rocks, resources, decoratives and enemy bases.
- Prevented Gleba, Vulcanus, Fulgora and Aquilo tiles, plants, resources, decoratives and enemies from appearing in Lost City, including when Space Age or Everything on Nauvis is enabled.
- Kept the Lost City surface infinite, naturally shaped and independently seeded without inheriting The Cave's altered multi-planet Nauvis map generation.
- Applies the Nauvis-only generator to future chunks of existing Lost City surfaces after a save upgrade; a fresh entrance gives a completely clean Nauvis-only test map.
Version: 2.7.108
Date: 2026-08-10
Organic Lost City Rebuild:
- Removed the repeated stone-path chessboard, fixed block centres and mandatory building in nearly every chunk.
- Restored natural terrain, water, trees, resources and decoratives, then scattered 8x8, 16x16 and 32x32 settlement layouts at deterministic jittered positions.
- Added broad dense and sparse districts, empty wilderness pockets, water rejection and an irregular compact entry clearing while keeping the city surface unbounded and lazy-generated.
Mineable Buildings:
- Assigned every Lost City house to the discovering player's Force so Factorio no longer rejects mining it as an enemy structure.
- Repairs ownership and mining flags on houses already present in an upgraded save as well as on newly generated houses.
- Kept intentional hostile entities such as biter spawners on the enemy Force and preserved the existing mining loot and ambush rules.
Version: 2.7.107
Date: 2026-08-10
Natural Lost City:
- Enabled Medium+ natural discovery from 10% of eligible ordinary empty rooms, with a per-Force/per-surface guarantee after ten misses.
- Enforced permanent 400-tile Lost City-to-Lost City spacing. Blocked and failed placements preserve the guarantee until an entrance is created.
- Rebuilt each operation as an unbounded chunk-generated city: explored chunks add streets, compact loot ruins and mineable abandoned buildings without pre-generating the map.
Shared Operation Rules:
- Changed the first-entry deadline from one hour to one shared 30-minute timer. Leaving, re-entering and later multiplayer entries never reset it.
- At 00:00 every player still below dies, respawns beside the sealed parent passage, and the child surface is deleted after evacuation completes.
- Added a direct upper-to-lower electric pole bridge and powered entry lamp, repaired periodically while the operation remains open.
- Made Lost City a forced Darkness Zone: after 30 seconds outside a powered Small Lamp or Lamp Post, player-centred biter attacks begin.
Mining and Spacing:
- Made all 92 Lost City building variants manually mineable and robot-deconstructable, scaled legacy loot to 48-slot containers and added bounded per-city mining ambushes.
- Increased Iron-to-Iron, Copper-to-Copper, Coal-to-Coal and Uranium-to-Uranium entrance spacing to 300 tiles while preserving cross-resource adjacency and existing pity/deck rules.
Version: 2.7.106
Date: 2026-08-09
Lost City Runtime Fix:
- Fixed the non-recoverable crash when entering a Lost City on Factorio 2.0: chart-tag text now uses the plain string required by LuaForce.add_chart_tag.
- Protected both NPC and Miner-site chart-tag creation so an optional map marker can never abort city entry or mission activation.
- Kept the fully localised English and Russian dialogue, HUD and mission messages unchanged; only compact map-tag labels use stable plain text.
Version: 2.7.105
Date: 2026-08-09
Standalone Lost City Assets:
- Bundled the permitted Old Abandoned Settlements building artwork, 92 renamed building variants and 112 settlement layouts directly inside The Cave.
- Removed the Old Abandoned Settlements and Abandoned Ruins dependencies, avoiding the AbandonedRuins_updated_fork 1.6.0 requirement for Factorio 2.1.
- Namespaced every imported building prototype for The Cave so a future compatible ruin mod cannot create prototype-name collisions.
- Limited imported buildings to scripted Lost City placement with compact inventories, no deconstruction, no blueprints and no normal-world spawning.
Attribution:
- Credited SacredAnarchy and included the original Independent Project Licence plus a third-party notice documenting the adapted assets and explicit art permission.
Compatibility:
- The Lost City test now runs on Factorio 2.0 using only The Cave; no separate settlement or ruin-framework mod is required.
Version: 2.7.104
Date: 2026-08-09
Experimental Lost City Prototype:
- Added a separate underground settlement surface assembled at runtime from unmodified Old Abandoned Settlements templates; no settlement artwork is copied into The Cave.
- Each force receives one active city at a time with three distinct procedural contacts selected from Doctor, Soldier, Engineer, Electrician, Plumber, Gas Technician and Miner.
- Supply missions choose technology-appropriate item requests, while Miner missions measure actual ore removed from a marked city worksite.
- All three tasks share a one-hour deadline; completion creates a combined role-based reward crate, and timeout evacuates the team before sealing the city.
- Mission progress, dialogue, map tags and cleanup are force-aware and compatible with multiplayer saves.
Controlled Player Test:
- Natural Lost City discovery remains disabled in this prototype. Administrators can create an entrance with /the-cave-lost-city-test and optionally force the first role.
- Requires Old Abandoned Settlements 1.0.5 or newer, including that mod's required Abandoned Ruins dependency.
Localisation:
- Added complete English and Russian Lost City entity, dialogue, mission, timer and command text.
Version: 2.7.103
Date: 2026-08-08
Mobile Train Attack Regions:
- A Main Train that travels beyond the active region's five-chunk radius starts a five-minute relocation timer without pausing Waves, tunnel deployment or living attackers.
- Returning inside the active region before relocation cancels the timer completely.
- After five minutes away, the next stopped Train position activates a new perimeter; a still-moving Train never creates attack regions along its route.
Saved Outposts:
- Every established region retains its own maximum of one permanent tunnel per direction. Returning later reuses that region's saved tunnels instead of carving another set.
- Only the active region deploys new attackers, while enemies already alive continue pursuing the Main Train.
Spawn Safety:
- An old tunnel mouth temporarily stops deployment while it lies inside the moving Main Train safe zone, preventing enemies from appearing directly beside the Train during travel.
Save Recovery:
- Existing 2.7.102 tunnel sets become the first saved attack region, inferred from their route endpoints even when the Train has already moved.
Version: 2.7.102
Date: 2026-08-08
Permanent Train Wave Tunnels:
- Each of the eight attack sectors now owns at most one canonical tunnel shared by every later Wave instead of carving a new route per Wave.
- Before a sector opens, blocked attempts first use the local Train-cache bypass and then retry from progressively different mouths across the same 45-degree sector.
- Once a tunnel opens it remains permanent across ordinary Waves, Boss breaks, command refreshes and Main Locomotive movement; stalled groups refresh commands without retiring its mouth.
Save Recovery:
- Existing saves select one open or digging route per direction as canonical; additional old routes receive no future Wave groups.
Abandoned Trains:
- Every newly generated hidden Train cache must be at least 18 chunks (576 tiles) from every previously generated hidden Train cache; the Main Locomotive is not part of this spacing check.
Version: 2.7.101
Date: 2026-08-08
Train Wave Route Recovery:
- Removed the full-route Train-cache rejection that could leave every attack front permanently searching with no Enemy Tunnel.
- Tunnels now react only when the digging face reaches an abandoned Train, taking a persistent two-leg left or right bypass before resuming toward the Main Locomotive.
- Repeated local obstructions widen and alternate the bypass; an unrecoverable route returns its exact queued population to a replacement tunnel.
Attack Distance:
- The Main Locomotive now generates and charts 22 chunks in every direction (a 45x45-chunk square).
- Tunnel mouths and all Train Wave attackers now deploy 640-672 tiles from the Main Locomotive, beginning at the twentieth chunk while retaining the existing four-tiles-per-second digging speed.
- The tunnel step allowance was raised for the longer route without changing its digging rate.
Save Recovery:
- Upgraded saves retire old straight tunnels and requeue active Biters, Spitters and Bosses without rewards so blocked populations can use the new bypass routes.
Version: 2.7.100
Date: 2026-08-08
Train Wave Cache Bypass:
- Tunnel mouths now pre-check the complete route to the Main Locomotive and reject angles that cross an abandoned or moved train cache.
- A digging tunnel that reaches a discovered train site is retired and rebuilt from a different outside mouth instead of opening on the cache rails.
Save Recovery:
- Attackers already trapped at a discovered train are removed without rewards and returned with exact Biter, Spitter and Boss counts to forced replacement tunnels.
Version: 2.7.99
Date: 2026-08-08
Train-Centred Chunk Generation:
- The Main Locomotive now generates and charts 15 chunks in every direction (a 31x31-chunk square), fully covering the 300-350-tile Train Wave deployment ring without player or Map Editor exploration.
- When the locomotive enters a new chunk, only the newly exposed outer strip is generated; the full square is not rebuilt every tick.
- Multi-Team Nauvis chunks use a two-pass Cave conversion check before any Wave spawn or tunnel update is allowed to continue.
Save Recovery:
- Attackers left on disconnected raw terrain by earlier versions are removed without rewards and returned at their exact Biter, Spitter and Boss counts to forced tunnel queues.
Version: 2.7.98
Date: 2026-08-08
Packaging:
- Reissued the off-screen Train Wave tunnel chunk-generation fix under a new mod version so Factorio recognises it as a distinct update.
- The complete 2.7.97 tunnel generation, charting, stalled-group recovery and eight-front behaviour is preserved unchanged.
Version: 2.7.97
Date: 2026-08-08
Train Wave Tunnel Generation:
- Explicitly generates and converts every map chunk touched by a tunnel mouth or forward digging slice before collision, structure and spawn-position checks run.
- Tunnel construction no longer depends on a player or Map Editor camera approaching the 300-350-tile deployment ring.
- Charts only each newly entered tunnel chunk once, making off-screen tunnel progress visible without revealing the surrounding cave map.
Performance and Compatibility:
- Generated and charted chunks are deduplicated per tunnel; existing generated chunks do not trigger another synchronous generation request.
- Existing saves and tunnels continue from their current positions without restarting Waves, queues or timers.
Version: 2.7.96
Date: 2026-08-07
Train Wave Tunnel Recovery:
- Added tunnel-level progress monitoring. An open tunnel whose attackers make no forward progress for 30 seconds is retired automatically.
- Stalled attackers are removed without kill credit, loot, coins or Boss completion, then their exact Biter, Spitter and Boss counts are returned to the Wave queue for a replacement tunnel.
- Existing saves with already-stalled tunnel groups are detected and recovered without restarting the Wave.
Eight-Front Tunnels:
- Eight-front Waves now reserve one independent tunnel for every compass sector instead of allowing some sectors to use ordinary open-ground spawning.
- Greatly reduced angular randomness and added same-Wave mouth separation so adjacent sector tunnels cannot start on top of each other.
- Fixed tunnel relocation and route-completion state so an obsolete waypoint command cannot overwrite a recovery command.
Performance and Compatibility:
- Stall checks reuse the existing ten-second safety pass and store only one progress snapshot per tunnel; no rock scan or per-tick map search was added.
Version: 2.7.95
Date: 2026-08-07
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a non-recoverable on_entity_damaged error caused by reading the unavailable LuaEntityPrototype.max_health key while cancelling Wave damage to tunnel rocks.
- Cancelled rock damage is now restored directly to the exact pre-hit health value with no prototype-health lookup.
- Updated the remaining Wave health lookups to Factorio 2.0's quality-aware prototype method, including Boss health bars.
Train Wave Tunnel Navigation:
- Moved cautious centreline targets farther beyond corners and enlarged their arrival tolerance so groups no longer orbit an overly close shared waypoint in diagonal tunnels.
- Rock protection and redirect commands remain event-driven and rate-limited, preserving server performance.
Version: 2.7.94
Date: 2026-08-07
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a startup error reporting too many local variables in scripts/train_wave_defense.lua after the tunnel-navigation update.
- Moved the new navigation constants and helper functions onto the existing Wave module table, preserving identical gameplay behaviour without consuming additional main-chunk local-variable slots.
Compatibility:
- Existing saves, live Waves, queues, tunnels and the complete 2.7.93 navigation behaviour are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.93
Date: 2026-08-07
Train Wave Tunnel Navigation:
- Prevented Train Wave attackers from damaging or widening the natural diggy-rock and diggy-rubble walls of their own open autonomous tunnels.
- Recorded the ordered centreline of every new autonomous tunnel and routed emerging regular attackers and Bosses through forward waypoints before releasing them toward the Main Locomotive.
- A unit that touches a diagonal tunnel wall now switches to close two-step centreline guidance instead of repeatedly attacking the rock or spinning at the corner.
Performance and Compatibility:
- Rock damage restoration is event-driven and exact. Route-command correction is rate-limited per attacker to twice per second, with no map-wide rock scan.
- Propagated ignored Train Wave damage through Train Interiors so cancelled rock and abandoned-wagon hits do not show misleading damage numbers or drain Train Shield health.
- Player-built walls and structures remain fully attackable. Existing Wave schedules, queues, enemies and tunnels are preserved.
Version: 2.7.92
Date: 2026-08-07
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the collapsed Train Wave Defense header showing the obsolete fixed /300 active-enemy limit.
- The normal, break and Boss compact headers now display the current Wave's real dynamic active-enemy limit.
Version: 2.7.91
Date: 2026-08-07
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Wave Defense tunnels stopping or repeatedly requeuing attackers when they reached discoverable locomotives and wagons.
- Wave attackers now ignore discoverable rolling stock and continue toward the Main Locomotive without attacking it.
- Replaced the fixed 300 active-enemy limit with a per-Wave limit of Wave total plus 10, capped at 1000 active enemies.
- Clarified the Wave panel by labelling enemies currently active on the map separately from queued enemies.
Version: 2.7.89
Date: 07. 08. 2026
Enemy Expansion Default:
- Changed Allow biter expansion to be enabled by default for new maps.
- Server admins can still disable or re-enable it live from Settings > Mod Settings > Map.
Existing Saves:
- Preserved each existing save's stored setting; servers currently set to Off must enable it once if expansion is wanted.
Version: 2.7.88
Date: 07. 08. 2026
Enemy Nest Rooms:
- Increased fixed Worm defences in newly discovered Enemy Nest Rooms to 2 on Easy, 3 on Medium, 4 on Hard and 5 on Nightmare.
- Preserved the fixed three-spawner layout: one Biter Spawner, one Spitter Spawner and one Armoured Biter Spawner.
Compatibility:
- Existing generated rooms and Factorio's natural enemy-expansion bases are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.87
Date: 07. 08. 2026
Vanilla Cave Enemy Expansion:
- Made the existing Allow biter expansion Map setting functional on opened main-Cave terrain without replacing Factorio's enemy expansion balance.
- Preserved Factorio 2.0's live Map settings for the 4-60 minute evolution-scaled cooldown, maximum expansion distance, 5-20 evolution-scaled settler size and player-building/enemy-base influence score.
- Reused Factorio's native build_enemy_base migration so real nearby enemies gather, walk to the selected open Cave location and sacrifice themselves to construct the normal random mix of Biter/Spitter spawners and evolution-eligible worms.
- Changed only Cave candidate eligibility: an already-open position can be selected even when out-of-map walls make its full 32x32 chunk fail Factorio's normal unbuildable-tile percentage check.
Compatibility and Safety:
- Left vanilla enemy expansion enabled and unchanged on ordinary Nauvis, planets and all non-Cave surfaces.
- A successful native Cave migration resets the Cave fallback cooldown, preventing the vanilla planner and Cave adapter from double-expanding.
- Expansion never digs rock, opens rooms, creates resources or teleports/spawns a finished nest directly. Existing saves begin a fresh official cooldown after updating or enabling the setting.
- Added deterministic multiplayer target selection, per-surface state for MTS/CAVETORIO Cave worlds and low-frequency five-second timer checks; full candidate scans run only when the official cooldown expires.
Version: 2.7.86
Date: 07. 08. 2026
Main Locomotive Status Box:
- Replaced the unbacked yellow Train Battery and Train Shield hover text with a dark-grey filled panel and a light-grey border anchored above the Main Locomotive.
- Preserved the existing live yellow status lines, Main Locomotive mouse-hover trigger and player-local multiplayer visibility.
- Limited the status panel to the persistent Main Locomotive so secondary locomotives never duplicate Main Train information.
- The panel follows the moving Main Locomotive and disappears with its text as soon as that player stops selecting it.
Compatibility:
- Left the separate nearby Train Interior Ctrl+Enter prompt completely unchanged.
- Battery capacity, charging, Shield health, self-repair and every Train gameplay system are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.85
Date: 07. 08. 2026
Train Wave Reward Settings:
- Added exact live Map settings for Coin and basic-resource drops from Small, Medium, Big, Behemoth and Boss Train Wave enemies.
- Removed separate reward Enable/Disable switches: zero disables a tier reward, while every positive value is the exact amount dropped on death.
- Kept Biter and Spitter rewards shared by tier and gave every current or legacy Train Wave Boss one dedicated Coin value and one dedicated resource value.
- Resource rewards select one random basic resource per death from Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Coal and Stone, then drop the exact configured amount even when it exceeds one item stack.
- Reward values are read at death time, so multiplayer admins can rebalance existing live enemies immediately from Settings > Mod Settings > Map without restarting the server or resetting a Wave.
Defaults and Compatibility:
- Preserved the 2.7.84 Coin economy by default: Small 2, Medium 3, Big 4, Behemoth 6 and Boss 6.
- Every Train Wave resource value defaults to 0, preserving the 2.7.84 Coin-only behaviour until an admin chooses a positive amount.
- Train Wave resource settings remain independent of the startup Ore Blood option. Natural and cavern enemy rewards are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.84
Date: 06. 08. 2026
Train Interior Fluid Import:
- Fixed exterior fluid becoming permanently stuck in a real Fluid Wagon after its two right-side Only Import tanks were filled and later drained.
- Reworked the transfer snapshot to reserve only fluid supplied by the two left-side Only Export tanks instead of treating all previously observed wagon fluid as already imported.
- Preserved one-way transfer roles and prevented interior export fluid from looping immediately back into the import tanks.
Existing Saves:
- Legacy fluid snapshots are invalidated automatically on the first sync. Existing Fluid Wagons, interior tanks and their fluids are preserved, and stalled exterior fluid can resume importing without rebuilding the Train Interior.
Version: 2.7.83
Date: 06. 08. 2026
Train Wave Abandoned-Wagon Safety:
- Excluded every abandoned Train-part cache pad and the protected area around all live rolling stock from regular attacker placement, group-anchor spreading, tunnel-mouth placement, tunnel deployment, emergency relocation and final entity creation.
- Added a chunk-indexed cache-site lookup so large Waves do not scan the complete world cache history for every attacker.
- Prevented an autonomous tunnel from treating an isolated abandoned-wagon island as a successful connection to the players' cave network. Such a route is retired and its full queued group receives another route.
- Existing Train Wave attackers already stranded on a registered abandoned-wagon pad are removed without death rewards and returned to the Wave queue with their type, Wave, direction and Boss state preserved.
- Rescued groups immediately retry deployment and fall back to a real six-wide autonomous tunnel when no valid normal route exists.
Existing Saves:
- The repair is automatic after updating. No Wave reset, Train reset or new map is required.
Version: 2.7.82
Date: 06. 08. 2026
Unified Train Wave Tunnels:
- Unified regular and Boss autonomous tunnels at one exact six-tile width.
- Increased tunnel progress to one forward tile every quarter-second, or four forward tiles per second.
- Moved every new tunnel mouth, queued group anchor, collision-adjusted spawn and safety relocation into the strict 300-350-tile radial ring around the moving Main Locomotive.
- Increased autonomous route capacity to 400 forward steps and the far-distance recovery boundary to 450 tiles.
- Exempted regular groups actively locked onto a living player from far-distance recovery. They keep chasing until the player dies, disconnects or leaves the exterior surface; Boss behaviour remains Train-only.
Extraction Q Preservation:
- Train Wave tunnelling now evaluates the existing deterministic Uranium Q and Iron/Copper/Coal Q discovery rules once per forward step.
- A selected Q opens as its real usable extraction entrance in a protected native room 32-44 tiles to one side of the main attack lane, connected by its own six-wide branch.
- The opposite side is tried when player structures, vehicles, an existing room or another protected entrance blocks the preferred chamber. No player asset is removed.
- Preserved Uranium priority, 150-tile Uranium spacing, 200-tile same-resource Mineral spacing, Mineral resource-deck order and failed-placement pity retries.
- Suppressed every non-extraction cavern result, combat room, treasure, threat and regional progression event from autonomous Train Wave tunnelling. Ordinary ore veins still materialise in the main passage.
Existing Saves:
- Existing live Waves, attackers, queues and valid tunnel progress are preserved. Active legacy tunnels become six-wide and quarter-second immediately; old mouths outside the new ring are retired safely and their queued groups receive a compliant route.
Version: 2.7.81
Date: 06. 08. 2026
Train Wave Spawn Ring:
- Kept the moving Main Locomotive no-spawn Safe Zone at 70 tiles in every square direction.
- Moved every new regular attacker and Boss into a strict 160-200-tile radial spawn ring around the current Main Locomotive.
- Revalidated every collision-adjusted position, group spawn anchor, tunnel deployment, stuck-unit relocation and final entity creation against the strict ring, so eight-tile group spreading cannot place an attacker inside 160 or beyond 200 tiles.
- Retired queued group anchors and tunnel mouths when Train movement leaves them outside the current ring. Queued attackers are preserved and receive a new compliant route.
Faster Wider Tunnels:
- Increased regular Train Wave tunnels from 3x3 to 4x4 and Boss tunnels from 4x4 to 6x6.
- Increased autonomous tunnel carving from one forward step every three seconds to one step every half-second.
- Split half-second tunnel processing from the one-second Wave scheduler, GUI, spawn, aggro and safety updates to avoid doubling unrelated runtime work.
- Generalised tunnel-square generation so every even width produces its exact requested dimensions.
Existing Saves:
- Existing live attackers are not teleported. All future spawns and safety relocations use the new ring immediately.
- Existing 3-wide and 4-wide active tunnel state upgrades safely to the new width profile. Old mouths outside the new ring are retired without consuming their queued attackers.
Version: 2.7.80
Date: 06. 08. 2026
Train Wave Group Aggro:
- Replaced the temporary per-player 16-attacker cap with full directional-group aggro. If one regular attacker detects a player within 24 tiles, every living regular attacker from that Wave and direction locks onto the same player.
- Removed the 40-tile chase leash, ten-second reacquisition cooldown and return-radius gate. An engaged group now follows its selected player without a distance limit until that player dies, disconnects or leaves the exterior surface.
- Kept large directional contingents together for aggro even when their deployment is internally divided into safe queue chunks. A 50-unit group sends all 50 living units; a 200-unit group sends all 200 living units as they deploy.
- Locked each engaged group to its first detected player. Other nearby players cannot steal that group while the original target remains valid.
- Surviving group members return to the Main Locomotive when their selected player is no longer valid. Groups from other Waves or attack directions remain independent.
Boss Behaviour:
- Train Wave Bosses now use a non-distractible direct attack command against the Main Locomotive. Players cannot redirect a Boss by approaching, shooting or crossing its path.
Existing Saves:
- Existing live Waves, queues, tunnels, timers and attackers are preserved. Temporary 2.7.79 per-unit leash data is retired lazily without scanning or recreating enemies.
Version: 2.7.79
Date: 06. 08. 2026
Train Wave Player Aggro:
- Nearby regular Train Wave attackers now notice player characters within 24 tiles and switch from the Main Locomotive to the closest exposed player.
- Limited player aggro to 16 attackers per player. Bosses and units still digging an autonomous tunnel remain committed to their existing Train objective.
- Added a 40-tile leash measured from each attacker's first-contact position, preventing players from kiting a Wave far away from the Train.
- Attackers immediately return to the Main Locomotive when their target dies, disconnects, enters another surface or crosses the leash boundary.
- Added a ten-second same-player reacquisition cooldown after a chase ends, preventing rapid target flicker at the leash boundary.
- A returning attacker cannot start another player chase until it reaches within 32 tiles of the Main Locomotive, preventing repeated cooldown resets from moving the Wave across the map.
Multiplayer and Existing Saves:
- Target selection is force-aware, surface-aware and nearest-first when several players stand together.
- The existing 30-second command refresh now preserves valid player targets instead of forcing every attacker back onto the Locomotive.
- Existing live Waves, timers, queues, tunnels and attackers are preserved; the new aggro behaviour starts immediately after updating.
Version: 2.7.78
Date: 06. 08. 2026
Train Wave Rewards:
- Removed Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Coal and Stone Ore Blood drops from every ordinary Train Wave Biter and Spitter and from every Train Wave Boss.
- Train Wave enemies are now Coin-only rewards: Small units give 2 Coins, Medium units 3, Big units 4, and Behemoth units 6.
- Every current or legacy Train Wave Boss gives exactly 6 Coins regardless of its compatibility prototype tier.
Compatibility:
- Natural and cavern Biters, Spitters and Armoured Biters keep their existing Coin and Ore Blood values.
- Brood Split children and script-cleared Train Wave attackers remain reward-suppressed, preventing duplicated Coins or Ore.
- The change is event-driven and applies immediately to existing saves without scanning living enemies or changing Wave scheduling.
Version: 2.7.77
Date: 06. 08. 2026
Train Interior Expansion:
- Compressed Train Interior Expansion from ten Research levels to six: 30x30, 60x60, 92x92, 92x152, 92x212 and 92x272.
- Set the six Research costs to 100 / 280 / 460 / 640 / 820 / 1000 at 30 seconds per unit, progressing through Red, Green, Military, Blue, Purple and Yellow Science without Space Science.
- Preserved Main Train Expansion as a separate seven-level chain; its final level now uses Train Interior Expansion 6 as its prerequisite.
Train Interior Connectors:
- Compressed connector floor widths to the matching six-level milestones: 15 / 39 / 63 / 71 / 79 / 87 tiles, retaining the seven-tile starter connector.
- Added four-tile Blue Refined Concrete utility lanes above and below every connector. The lanes move outward safely as Research widens the connector.
- Connector utility lanes use the existing room-lane rules: pipes, underground pipes, pumps, storage tanks and every electric-pole prototype are allowed; Offshore Pumps and unrelated buildings are rejected and refunded.
- Player placement, robot placement and blueprint ghosts use the same connector utility-lane whitelist, including Big Electric Poles, Substations and The Cave Big Wooden Poles.
Existing Saves:
- Existing Research 1-5 keeps the matching new level; old Research 6-10 maps to the new final Level 6 through the retained researched milestone.
- Existing rooms and connectors expand additively. Player-built entities, inventories and fluids are preserved; connector migration converts only managed Blue utility tiles and surrounding void while leaving other connector flooring untouched.
Version: 2.7.76
Date: 05. 08. 2026
Train Wave Kill Rewards:
- Connected every ordinary Train Wave Biter and Spitter to the existing Coin reward table using its equivalent vanilla size tier.
- Connected those attackers to Ore Blood so each eligible kill also drops one random Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Coal or Stone bundle using the equivalent vanilla tier amount.
- Added the same reward routing for current Behemoth-based Train Wave Bosses and legacy Big-Biter Bosses. Script-cleared attackers still grant no kill rewards.
Existing Saves:
- Reward routing applies immediately to every living and future Train Wave attacker after updating from 2.7.75.
Version: 2.7.75
Date: 05. 08. 2026
Unpredictable Train Wave Pressure:
- Replaced fixed 50-Wave populations with a hidden growth curve: Wave 1 starts at 20 normal attackers, Wave 50 anchors at 99, Wave 51 at 100, and every later 50-Wave bracket adds another 100 attackers.
- Added deterministic per-save normal, relief and surge variations between anchor Waves. Random relief can sharply reverse the apparent trend for up to two consecutive Waves, while surges can exceed the hidden baseline without crossing the bracket ceiling.
- Added smart pressure brakes that reduce non-anchor Waves when live attackers or the data queue are already heavily loaded. Severe pressure limits the new Wave to a small relief force; milestone anchors and Boss counts remain exact.
- Split very large directional forces into coherent atomic groups of at most 150 attackers so every queued group remains deployable under the separate 300-live-attacker safety cap.
Existing Saves:
- Preserved Waves already running under 2.7.74. The new population curve takes ownership at the next Wave boundary.
Version: 2.7.74
Date: 05. 08. 2026
Faster Train Wave Cadence:
- Set Waves 1-50 to one minute and added thirty seconds for every later 50-Wave bracket, continuing without an upper time ceiling. Wave population, attack fronts and randomized grouped releases are unchanged.
- Shortened the hidden Boss-Wave planning windows to 2/4/6/8 minutes for one through four sequential Bosses. Boss count and arrival timing remain hidden, and the clear post-Boss break remains fifteen minutes.
Existing Saves:
- Preserved any Wave already in progress when updating from 2.7.73. The faster cadence takes effect at the following Wave boundary.
Version: 2.7.73
Date: 05. 08. 2026
Table-Driven Train Waves:
- Replaced the old 300-enemy Wave-size ceiling with 50-Wave brackets: 10 enemies per direction and two fronts through Wave 50, then +5 enemies per direction and 4/6/8 fronts through Waves 100/150/200. Eight fronts remain active thereafter and group size continues increasing by five every 50 Waves.
- Set normal Wave intervals to 3/4/5/6/7/8/8/8/9/10 minutes through Wave 500 and locked later intervals to ten minutes. Connected-player count no longer changes the Wave population.
- Preserved the separate 300-live-attacker safety cap. Entire directional groups wait as queued data until capacity exists, while up to three directions can release together in randomized, non-periodic bursts.
Hidden Boss Waves:
- Kept Boss Waves every 100 Waves with one, two, three and then four sequential Bosses. Their count, sequence and timer are hidden from players.
- Added hidden 3/6/9/12-minute planning windows. Bosses arrive one at a time among ordinary attacks; a later Boss cannot appear while the previous Boss remains alive.
- The final Boss waits until every ordinary group in its Wave has left the spawn queue. Killing it removes every remaining Train Wave attacker and starts a completely clear 15-minute break.
Existing Saves:
- Preserved the live enemies, queue, tunnels and timer of a 2.7.72 Wave already in progress. The new scheduler takes ownership at the following Wave boundary.
Version: 2.7.72
Date: 04. 08. 2026
Train Wave Cadence:
- Reduced the normal interval between Wave starts from five minutes to three minutes, including the delay before Wave 1 after the two-hour preparation period.
- Preserved overlapping Waves: surviving attackers, queued units and active tunnels remain live when the next three-minute Wave begins.
Existing-Save Timer Migration:
- Preserved elapsed time inside an in-progress normal countdown instead of restarting it. Updating with four minutes remaining now leaves two minutes; a countdown already older than three minutes becomes immediately due.
- Left preparation timers, 30-minute milestone breaks, Wave numbers, live enemies, queues, tunnels, Boss rules, player scaling and the 300-attacker cap unchanged.
- Updated English and Russian Wave messages and tooltips to the new three-minute cadence.
Version: 2.7.71
Date: 04. 08. 2026
Inserter Configuration:
- Moved precise Drop Offset selection and its hotkeys from Inserter Configuration level 4 to level 1, including existing saves that already researched level 1.
- Updated English and Russian research descriptions while preserving all placed inserter vectors and the remaining position-unlock progression.
Cargo and Item Capacity:
- Increased every Cargo Wagon prototype, including Train Shield compatibility variants, from 40 to 80 inventory slots.
- Set Iron Plate, Copper Plate, Steel Plate and Stone Brick stack size to 200 without changing any other processed-item stack size.
Closed Extraction Surfaces:
- Hid sealed Uranium Cave and Fortified Vault child surfaces from Remote View for every Force without deleting their saved entities or records.
- Existing closed surfaces are reconciled on update, and newly created Forces inherit the same hidden state.
Train Wave Interface:
- Matched the collapsed Wave panel's minimum height to the 80-pixel The Cave Information button and enlarged its toggle button to 36 pixels.
- Vertically centred the Wave header while preserving expanded details, Wave state, timers and attacker logic.
Version: 2.7.70
Date: 04. 08. 2026
Demolisher Body Continuity:
- Added a 30-tick, player-local safety check for Demolishers whose head-to-tail body path approaches out-of-map cave terrain.
- Emergency body footprints now become the correct regional cave floor, allowing Factorio to recreate missing segment entities naturally without teleporting, cloning, replacing or changing the Demolisher AI.
- Added a collision-width-aware six-tile sealed frontier envelope around the body path. The Demolisher destroys this normal diggy-rock cover itself, preserving the existing resource and extraction-cave rules from 2.7.69.
- Emergency-opened void tiles preserve their deterministic resources and one extraction opportunity per distinct body node; ordinary, hostile, treasure, fortress and progression rooms remain suppressed.
- Limited the scan to occupied surfaces and Demolishers within 256 tiles of a connected player; full terrain repair runs only after a cheap void probe succeeds.
Train Interior Demolisher Protection:
- Demolisher damage is now ignored only for registered Main Train stock, Train Interior-linked wagons and unclaimed abandoned train parts.
- Managed rolling stock is restored through its existing shared Train Shield pool, while unclaimed parts restore only the ignored final hit. No invulnerability prototype flag is used.
- Damage from players, biters, ordinary explosions and every non-Demolisher source remains unchanged, and ordinary trains outside the Train Interiors registries receive no new protection.
Version: 2.7.69
Date: 04. 08. 2026
Demolisher Resource Preservation:
- Restricted the exception to cover entities whose immediate death cause is a Demolisher head, body segment, tail or Demolisher-owned attack prototype; robots, fire, explosions, vehicles and other enemies remain geometry-only.
- Demolisher movement now materializes the deterministic resource outcome on every destroyed cover tile, preserving Vulcanus calcite, tungsten, coal and sulphuric-acid geysers plus normal and Mobile Factory resources wherever their existing regional rules allow them.
- Suppressed generic resource, tunnel and room discovery announcements for Demolisher-carved tiles.
Extraction Cave Preservation:
- Demolisher digs now evaluate the same cavern trigger, room chance, Uranium-first selection, special-room priority and Medium+ eligibility as direct excavation, but suppress every ordinary, combat, hoard, treasure, fortress and planetary progression room.
- A selected Uranium, Iron, Copper or Coal extraction cave opens alone in a dry side chamber 32-44 tiles beyond the Demolisher body line. Both sides are tested, while player structures, old rooms, registered room footprints and live Demolishers block unsafe placement.
- Preserved the 150-tile Uranium-to-Uranium rule, same-resource-only 200-tile Mineral rule and exact per-Force 5 Iron / 3 Copper / 2 Coal deck. The deck is consumed only after successful entrance creation.
- Virtual eligible rooms advance the existing Uranium and Mineral anti-drought counters. Failed or unsafe extraction placement consumes no deck entry and guarantees a retry at the next legal location.
- Only the successfully created extraction cave's own discovery message, portal label and local map chart are shown.
Version: 2.7.68
Date: 03. 08. 2026
Guaranteed Abandoned Train Parts:
- Removed the old 8% per-new-chunk random gate and the Easy/Medium/Hard/Nightmare plus global find caps.
- Newly generated Nauvis cave chunks now place one abandoned train part whenever their centre is at least 200 tiles from every previous find, continuing without a maximum count in all four depth zones.
- Preserved the existing deterministic Cargo Wagon, Fluid Wagon, Locomotive and Artillery Wagon weights and the separate ten-part Main Train capacity ceiling.
Existing-Save and Generation Safety:
- Existing saves adopt the guarantee immediately; the first newly generated eligible chunk at least 200 tiles from earlier finds creates a part without resetting the world or Train Interiors.
- Changed abandoned 4x10 site preparation to operate only inside the already generated owner chunk, preventing guaranteed finds from recursively force-generating neighbouring chunks.
Version: 2.7.67
Date: 03. 08. 2026
Mineral Cave Discovery Recovery:
- Removed the Nauvis-only discovery gate. Eligible ordinary empty rooms can now become Mineral Caves in Nauvis, Fulgora, Gleba, Vulcanus and Aquilo regions from Medium depth onward.
- Preserved Uranium-first selection, special/combat-room priority, the 15% Mineral roll and the eight-opened-empty-room anti-drought guarantee.
- Changed Mineral anti-drought progress to advance on every successfully opened ordinary empty opportunity, including locations temporarily blocked by same-resource spacing; failed and overlapping room attempts remain free.
Same-Type-Only Spacing:
- Restricted the 200-tile Mineral exclusion to identical resources only: Iron-to-Iron, Copper-to-Copper and Coal-to-Coal.
- Removed all Mineral-to-Uranium and cross-Mineral exclusion radii. Different resources may appear beside one another without weakening Uranium's independent 150-tile Uranium-to-Uranium rule.
- Moved the advisory spacing decision to the final planned entrance centre so Space Age corridor anchoring cannot silently invalidate a selected entrance.
Resource Deck Safety:
- Added deterministic look-ahead inside the remaining per-Force resource deck. If the next repeated type is blocked, a legal Copper, Coal or Iron entry later in the same cycle can be used without changing the exact 5/3/2 totals.
- A resource is removed from the deck only after its entrance entity is created successfully. Spacing rejection and placement failure cannot consume or lose a cave type.
- The Mineral anti-drought guarantee now resets only after the entrance creator reports success; an entity-placement failure preserves the guarantee for the next legal room.
- When every remaining resource is locally blocked, the selected room safely returns to its normal regional progression layout and the Mineral guarantee waits for the next legal location.
Documentation and Testing:
- Updated English and Russian information/setting text, README and MINERAL_CAVE_TEST.txt for all-region discovery and same-type-only spacing.
Version: 2.7.66
Date: 03. 08. 2026
Mineral Cave Availability:
- Increased natural Mineral Cave conversion from 5% to 15% of eligible ordinary empty Medium+ Nauvis rooms.
- Reduced the natural Mineral-to-Mineral exclusion radius from 250 to 200 tiles while preserving the 150-tile Mineral-to-Uranium exclusion and Uranium-first selection.
- Added a per-Force, per-surface anti-drought counter. After eight successfully opened eligible misses, the next eligible room is guaranteed Mineral; failed, overlapping and ineligible attempts do not advance it.
- Preserved the deterministic five Iron / three Copper / two Coal resource deck and Uranium's existing weight, 150-tile spacing and twelve-room anti-drought guarantee.
Hoard Room Rewards:
- Preserved all original basic chest loot, 8-9 chest count, mobile defender budgets and room shapes.
- Added guaranteed room-wide module, belt, underground-belt, splitter and inserter bundles with gradual Easy-to-Nightmare quantities and prototype-gated Space Age items.
- Added processed Uranium and fresh Uranium Fuel Cells from Medium onward, plus a combined zone-scaled random reward of Laser and Flamethrower Turrets.
- Added Force-aware Science Pack rewards. Only packs unlocked for the discovering Force when the room opens can appear, ranging from 20-30 per pack in Easy to a hard maximum of 100 per pack in Nightmare.
Hoard Room Defences and Testing:
- Replaced the old random single-turret roll with fixed Gun/Laser/Worm tables: Easy 2/1/1, Medium 3/2/2, Hard 4/3/3 and Nightmare 6/4/4.
- Kept all existing mobile enemies; reward Laser/Flamethrower Turrets are normal items inside chests and are separate from enemy defenders.
- Added the administrator command /the-cave-hoard-test easy|medium|hard|nightmare for direct production-table testing.
- Updated English and Russian locale, README and both extraction/Hoard test guides.
Version: 2.7.65
Date: 03. 08. 2026
Extraction Cave Runtime Binding Fix:
- Replaced guessed package.loaded module keys with direct load-time API binding for Uranium and Mineral Cave spacing, child-surface resource materialization and inherited depth-zone lookup.
- Fixed Factorio runtime silently treating every natural Uranium and Mineral entrance-distance query as empty, which allowed new-game entrances to cluster despite the 2.7.64 distance constants.
- Added strict load-time API assertions so a missing extraction-cave binding now fails visibly instead of silently disabling cave rules.
Authoritative Entrance Spacing:
- Added a final 150-tile Uranium distance gate inside the entrance creator itself. Natural discovery and /the-cave-uranium-cave-test can no longer place a second Uranium entrance inside the exclusion radius.
- Added final natural Mineral guards for the 250-tile Mineral-to-Mineral radius and 150-tile Mineral-to-Uranium radius. The explicit three-entrance administrator Mineral layout test remains intentionally exempt for isolated feature testing.
- Existing clustered entrances are preserved; the corrected rule applies to every newly created natural entrance after updating.
Runtime Verification:
- Added /the-cave-uranium-spacing-test. It audits every registered Uranium entrance on the current upper surface, measures the closest pair and prints a localised PASS or FAIL result.
- Updated English and Russian locale, README and the extraction-cave test guide for the corrected runtime behavior.
Version: 2.7.64
Date: 03. 08. 2026
Extraction Cave Discovery Spacing:
- Reduced natural Iron, Copper and Coal Mineral Cave conversion from 50% to 5% of otherwise ordinary empty Medium+ Nauvis rooms.
- Added a 250-tile minimum distance between natural Mineral Cave entrances. The administrator all-entrances test intentionally bypasses this rule.
- Added a 150-tile minimum distance between natural Uranium Cave entrances, preventing the previous clusters of several Uranium caves only 40-50 tiles apart.
- Uranium selection always resolves before Mineral conversion. A Uranium roll rejected by its distance rule remains an ordinary room and can never be recycled into a Mineral Cave.
Uranium Availability Protection:
- Increased Uranium Cave room weight from 10 to 12 so the required Uranium route remains readily discoverable after spacing is applied.
- Added a per-Force, per-surface anti-drought counter. After twelve successfully opened Medium+ rooms without Uranium, the next eligible room outside the 150-tile radius is guaranteed to become a Uranium Cave.
- Mineral candidates within 150 tiles of an existing Uranium entrance are rejected, while Uranium generation is never rejected because of a nearby Mineral entrance.
Dormant Mineral Entrances:
- Natural and administrator-created Mineral entrances now remain compact until first activation. Their information panel, Blue Belt item endpoints, power pole and countdown are created only when a player is actually allowed to enter.
- Updating a 2.7.63 save preserves every already discovered entrance and active child cave. Unentered Mineral entrances shed their unused fixed transfer rig; active caves retain their timer, logistics and contents.
Testing and Guidance:
- Updated the English and Russian setting/information text plus MINERAL_CAVE_TEST.txt with the new probability, spacing, priority and anti-drought checks.
Version: 2.7.63
Date: 03. 08. 2026
Iron, Copper and Coal Mineral Caves:
- Added separate one-use Mineral Cave expeditions for Iron Ore, Copper Ore and Coal from Medium depth onward. They convert only otherwise ordinary empty Nauvis rooms and do not reduce Uranium Cave, special cavern, combat, treasure or Space Age progression-room odds.
- Added a deterministic per-Force ten-entrance cycle containing exactly five Iron, three Copper and two Coal caves. Coal cannot repeat consecutively and no resource can appear three times in a row.
- Each entrance owns one resource only. Medium veins contain 5,000-7,000 per tile, Hard veins 7,000-10,000 and Nightmare veins 10,000-16,000 across a broad deterministic double-noise field.
- Added a dry, pitch-black child cave with one safe arrival chamber, at most ten naturally generated large rooms and no distance cap for manual tunnels or newly exposed rich veins.
Timed Extraction and Logistics:
- The first successful entry starts one shared 30-minute timer. Each Force may run only one Mineral Cave at a time; other discovered entrances remain dormant until the active cave seals.
- Added fixed two-way item transfer at Blue Belt throughput plus a direct upper-to-lower power connection. Mineral Caves create no fluid ports and require no pipes or sulphuric acid.
- ENTER and EXIT remain usable through the final displayed second. At 00:00 players left below die, lower structures and items become permanently inaccessible, and the entrance seals forever.
Administrator Tests and Information:
- Added /the-cave-mineral-cave-test iron|copper|coal|all. The all option places all three test entrances together while preserving the one-active-cave-per-Force rule.
- Added /the-cave-mineral-room-test to open a connected ten-room rich test layout inside the current Mineral Cave, plus evacuation and direct-power diagnostics.
- Added English and Russian runtime text, settings descriptions, information cards, portal labels and a complete MINERAL_CAVE_TEST.txt checklist.
Version: 2.7.62
Date: 03. 08. 2026
Character Reach Upgrade:
- Removed character-item-pickup-distance from all ten Character Reach levels so pressing F retains vanilla pickup range and no longer drains items from a large area of nearby belts.
- Kept building, interaction, resource reach, item dropping, loot pickup, running speed and crafting speed progression unchanged.
- Added a save migration that recalculates researched technology effects only for Forces that already researched a Character Reach level, removing the accumulated legacy pickup bonus without resetting research progress.
- Updated the English and Russian technology and information descriptions to state that manual F-key pickup range is unchanged.
Train Interiors Research Cleanup:
- Hidden and disabled the now-empty vanilla Fluid Wagon technology while Train Interiors is enabled, preventing players from paying 200 science for a blocked recipe.
- Railway research remains available for rails, signals and train stops. Artillery research remains available for its turret, ammunition and non-wagon effects while the Artillery Wagon recipe stays blocked.
- Normal vanilla Fluid Wagon technology remains unchanged when Train Interiors is disabled.
Version: 2.7.61
Date: 03. 08. 2026
Uranium Cave Final Countdown:
- Kept both ENTER and EXIT available throughout the final five-minute collapse warning, including the last displayed second.
- Entry now closes only when the shared Uranium Cave timer actually reaches 00:00; players still inside at that deadline retain the existing death, item-loss and permanent-seal consequences.
- Existing saves already inside the five-minute warning adopt the new entry rule immediately without recreating the Uranium Cave or restarting its timer.
Localisation and Guidance:
- Updated the Uranium Cave information panel and the English and Russian five-minute warnings to explain that two-way travel remains available until 00:00.
Version: 2.7.60
Date: 02. 08. 2026
Main Train Exterior Power Range:
- Increased the intended Main Locomotive exterior power hookup from 6 tiles to an exact square extending 10 tiles north, south, east and west from the locomotive centre.
- Added a thin, unfilled yellow POWER RANGE outline attached to the Main Locomotive. The outline follows the train smoothly, remains visible outside Alt mode and is shown only to that locomotive's Force after Train Battery installation.
- Exterior electric poles connect to the Train Battery only while their entity position is inside the visible square, including all four corners. Poles outside the square are disconnected automatically.
Factorio 2.x Wire Fix:
- Replaced removed LuaEntity neighbour/connect methods with the supported LuaWireConnector copper API.
- Set the hidden output pole's real prototype wire reach to 10 tiles, disabled automatic copper connections and kept its direct supply area at zero.
- Updating an existing save recreates the hidden output pole once, removing every stretched legacy wire that could keep poles powered 50-60 or more tiles away after the train moved.
- Existing Train Battery energy, research, interior builds, wagon transfer systems and unrelated electric poles are preserved.
Version: 2.7.59
Date: 02. 08. 2026
Moving Train Wave Safe Zone:
- Added a square no-spawn zone extending exactly 70 tiles north, south, east and west from each Force's current Main Locomotive. Train Wave Biters, Spitters and Bosses cannot be created or safety-relocated inside this square.
- The zone is intentionally not an invulnerability barrier: attackers spawned outside may cross the boundary and attack the train, players and defences normally. Existing enemies are not deleted when the moving square reaches them.
- Added a thin, unfilled yellow outline and localised SAFE ZONE label. Both are attached directly to the Main Locomotive, follow it smoothly, remain visible outside Alt mode and are shown only to that locomotive's Force.
Safe Tunnel Deployment:
- Normal 96-128-tile spawn candidates are rechecked after collision-safe placement and rejected if the final position falls inside the square.
- Emergency tunnel mouths now begin 104-120 tiles from the current Main Locomotive and retain a permanent outside deployment point. The tunnel may carve across the visible boundary, but queued enemies still emerge from the outside mouth.
- Tunnel completion no longer depends on reaching an arbitrary 16-tile distance. It continues until it reaches already-open terrain or a Force structure; an invalid or exhausted route is retired and its unchanged queue searches for another safe mouth.
- If train movement carries the new 70-tile square over an old tunnel mouth, that mouth is retired before another unit can spawn there. Queued units are preserved and rerouted instead of being deleted or released inside the zone.
Save and Scope Safety:
- Updating from 2.7.58 preserves the Wave number, countdown, break timing, active attackers and typed queue. Legacy tunnel queues automatically seek a compliant outside mouth without restarting Wave progression.
- The new square, spawn exclusion, visuals and tunnel rules remain owned only by normal Train Interiors Wave Defense. CAVETORIO and Advancing Collapse explicitly skip this scheduler; natural enemies and unrelated Cave systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.58
Date: 02. 08. 2026
Stable Train Wave Progression:
- Wave 1 now starts with 20 base attackers. The deterministic base schedule adds either two or three per Wave and reaches exactly 300 at Wave 100; Wave 100 and later remain at the 300 base cap.
- Each connected Force player still adds exactly one attacker before the hard 300 total cap. Bosses replace ordinary attackers inside that total and never exceed the cap.
- Normal attack fronts now scale by Wave progression instead of raw population: Waves 1-49 use one hidden front, 50-99 use four, 100-199 use six and Wave 200 onward uses all eight.
Boss Schedule:
- Removed every 20/40-Wave Boss rule and all earlier 50-Wave Boss milestones. Bosses now appear only at exact 100-Wave milestones.
- Wave 100 has one Boss from one direction, Wave 200 has two from opposite directions, Wave 300 has three separated directions, and Wave 400 plus every later 100-Wave milestone has four Bosses from the four cardinal directions.
- Boss health, evolution level, two-times visual scale, slower movement, safer collision box and world health bars are unchanged.
Milestone Breaks and HUD:
- Every 50th Wave starts a fixed 30-minute break before the next Wave. Surviving enemies, active tunnels and queued deployment continue; clearing enemies is never required and cannot pause progression.
- Added explicit expanded and collapsed break headers, the exact next-Wave timer, and break warnings at 10, 5 and 1 minute remaining.
- Normal Waves remain five minutes apart, preparation remains two hours plus the final five-minute Wave-1 countdown, and every timer still pauses without connected Force players or a valid Main Locomotive.
Save and Scope Safety:
- Updating from 2.7.57 preserves live enemies, queues, autonomous tunnels, Wave number and elapsed milestone timing. A legacy five-minute timer already running after Wave 50/100/etc. is converted to the same elapsed point of its 30-minute break.
- The autonomous three-second tunnel, narrow Landfill route and stuck-enemy recovery systems are unchanged.
- The complete system remains exclusive to normal Train Interiors Wave Defense. CAVETORIO, Advancing Collapse, Cave digging and every unrelated mode remain unchanged.
Version: 2.7.57
Date: 02. 08. 2026
Autonomous Train Wave Tunnels:
- Removed the tunnel-leader dependency from Train Wave Defense. A tunnel now advances under its own controller and cannot stall because a Biter, Spitter or Boss died.
- All attackers assigned to a sealed front remain in the typed spawn queue while its route is being carved; no vulnerable unit is spawned merely to drive terrain progress.
- Each autonomous tunnel advances exactly one forward slice every three seconds. Normal routes retain their three-tile width and Boss routes retain their four-tile width.
- The first accumulated spawn batch can deploy immediately in the same one-second force update as a breach, then the existing controlled 4-6-unit/three-second batching continues.
Save and Terrain Safety:
- Updating from 2.7.56 preserves the Wave number, countdown, active attackers, typed queue and every still-registered partial tunnel. A former tunnel leader may wait safely at the old mouth and is released normally when the autonomous route opens.
- Autonomous routes retain the existing Landfill water crossing, Force-structure stop, resource preservation, no-reward digging and maximum-route safeguards.
- Test Clear/Reset still removes active tunnels. Tunnels pause without connected players or a valid Main Locomotive and remain exclusive to normal Train Interiors Wave Defense surfaces.
Balance Compatibility:
- This maintenance build does not apply the separately discussed Wave-size or 40-Wave Boss interval redesign; the 2.7.56 Wave schedule remains unchanged for isolated tunnel testing.
Version: 2.7.56
Date: 02. 08. 2026
Train Wave Water Route Recovery:
- Train Wave attackers and Bosses that are stranded by water now build a narrow Landfill crossing toward the current Main Locomotive instead of remaining harmless on an island.
- Normal attackers use a three-tile-wide crossing and enlarged Bosses use four tiles. The route scan is limited to 48 tiles and requires a reachable dry bank, so it never fills an entire lake.
- Enemy emergency tunnels also replace only water inside their current three/four-tile corridor slice with Landfill; water outside the route remains unchanged.
- Bridge placement is batched and never removes colliding entities or decoratives. If the selected water cells touch Force-owned structures, rails, trains or pumps, no partial bridge is placed and the existing staged recovery continues.
- Fixed nearby attackers being permanently exempt from water-block detection. A nearby stationary Wave unit now checks for a blocked water crossing before retaining the normal close-range exemption.
Compatibility:
- Water bridging remains exclusive to Train Wave Defense on normal Train Interiors cave surfaces. CAVETORIO, Advancing Collapse, Cave digging, player Landfill and every unrelated mode remain unchanged.
Version: 2.7.55
Date: 02. 08. 2026
Train Wave Emergency Tunnelling:
- Added a controlled tunnelling fallback only for Train Wave Defense on the normal Train Interiors cave surface. CAVETORIO, Advancing Collapse, Cave digging and every unrelated mode remain unchanged.
- Each attack front still tries the normal hidden 96-128-tile spawn ring first. A sealed front creates a small fallback pocket 64-80 tiles from the Main Locomotive only after repeated normal-placement failures.
- One registered Wave attacker becomes the tunnel leader for that front, attacks the rock face and advances toward the Main Locomotive while the rest of that typed group remains in the existing queue.
- Normal fronts open a controlled three-tile-wide corridor; Boss fronts use four tiles so the enlarged Boss collision box cannot jam the breach.
- Tunnelling stops before Force-owned rails, walls, trains or factory entities. From that point the Wave uses normal Factorio attack commands, so player structures are fought rather than deleted by terrain code.
Resource and Progression Safety:
- Tunnel carving removes only cave cover and never deletes existing resources or player structures.
- A deterministic resource hidden under a newly opened tunnel tile is materialised and remains available for later mining.
- Enemy tunnelling grants no rock items and cannot roll cavern rooms, treasure, direct-dig ambushes, threats, depth credit or other player-dig outcomes.
- Tunnel carving bypasses Collapse reward rolls and updates the cave frontier in controlled batches instead of letting every attacker excavate independently.
HUD and Recovery:
- Added a dedicated HUD line showing active enemy tunnels and the exact number of queued attackers still waiting behind rock.
- Added one hidden-direction warning when a Wave begins tunnelling and one breach warning when its first tunnel reaches the defended area.
- Active tunnel leaders are exempt from ordinary stuck relocation while digging; after a breach they return to the existing command refresh, relocation and unrecoverable-unit cleanup rules.
- Updating from 2.7.54 preserves the current Wave number, countdown, live attackers and typed queue while initialising the new tunnel state.
Version: 2.7.54
Date: 02. 08. 2026
Train Wave Defense Timing:
- Rebuilt the Train-Interiors-only Wave Defense around a two-hour connected-play preparation period followed by a final five-minute countdown to Wave 1.
- New waves begin every five minutes even when previous attackers survive; surviving waves stack instead of pausing the schedule or being deleted.
- Wave timers and queued spawning pause without connected force players or a valid Main Locomotive.
Wave Size and Composition:
- Wave 1 starts at five base enemies, each later wave adds one base enemy and every connected force player adds exactly one enemy, including the first player.
- The exact formula is min(300, Wave Number + 4 + Online Players); each wave and the total live Train Wave population are capped at 300.
- Each wave locks an exact 70% Biter / 30% Spitter composition at launch. Enemies above the live cap remain in a typed queue and deploy in controlled batches of 4-6 every three seconds as capacity opens.
- Normal enemy tiers and Boss level now follow the enemy force evolution on the Main Locomotive surface.
Attack Directions:
- Waves with 5-39 attackers use one hidden front, 40-79 use four fronts, 80-149 use six fronts and 150-300 use all eight fronts.
- Spawn positions are recalculated for every batch in a hidden 96-128-tile ring around the Main Locomotive's current position; no wave uses the original map spawn or an old train location.
- Single-front waves avoid their two most recently used directions when another valid direction is available.
Boss Waves:
- Standard Boss Waves occur every 20 waves. Special milestones use one Boss at Wave 100, two from opposite fronts at Wave 150, three fronts at Wave 200 and four cardinal fronts at Wave 250 and later 50-wave milestones.
- Bosses replace ordinary attackers inside the announced wave total and live cap.
- Bosses use a two-times-scale Behemoth visual, 65% movement speed, 80% attack speed and evolution-driven 3x-8x health while retaining a corridor-safe 1.35x collision box.
- Added a world health bar above every Boss. It follows the entity, updates from actual health, changes from green toward red and is removed with the Boss.
HUD and Warnings:
- Replaced the single-line HUD with a collapsible multi-line panel showing current and next Wave, countdown, base and player scaling, exact incoming composition, active composition, typed spawn queue, attack-front count, next Boss Wave and live Boss health percentages.
- Added preparation warnings at 60, 30, 10, 5 and 1 minute; normal Wave warnings at 1 minute and 10 seconds; and Boss warnings at 2 minutes, 1 minute and 10 seconds.
- Players joining mid-session receive the current Wave, next timer and active-enemy status immediately. Attack directions remain hidden during normal play.
Safety and Testing:
- Added staged stuck-unit recovery: reissue the attack command, relocate around the current Main Locomotive, then remove only the unrecoverable unit after repeated failures. This also applies to Bosses.
- Attackers separated by more than 256 tiles or by a surface change are relocated around the Main Locomotive instead of walking from an obsolete position.
- Expanded the admin command with status, preview, exact Wave launch, simulated player count, clear and reset modes. Test launches use a 10-second countdown and report hidden directions only to the administering player.
- Updating from the earlier 2.7.53 Wave test resets only Wave Defense state to the new two-hour preparation period; Train Interiors, train contents and all unrelated systems are preserved.
Compatibility:
- Scheduled attackers retain private prototype names and remain isolated from Brood Split and direct-dig spawning.
- Cave digging, Cave Torio, Advancing Collapse, Darkness Infestation, missions and every non-Train-Interior system are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.53
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Train Wave Defense:
- Added a Train-Interiors-only defense cycle with a two-hour connected-play preparation timer and 20-minute cooldowns between cleared waves.
- Added a permanent top HUD showing the preparation/cooldown timer, wave number, next Boss Wave and live remaining-enemy count.
- Waves attack the registered Main Locomotive from a hidden random direction on its current exterior surface, spawning in controlled batches of 4-6 instead of one large burst.
- Wave size scales with connected players, wave number and The Cave global difficulty while using a separate hard cap.
- Regular waves use a 70% Biter / 30% Spitter mix and unlock higher vanilla enemy tiers by wave and evolution.
Boss Waves:
- Every fifth wave is a labelled Boss Wave with one slower, tougher Biter boss replacing one ordinary attacker.
- Boss health begins at 3x, gains 0.5x per Boss level up to an 8x cap, movement speed is 65% and attack speed is 80%.
Safety and Compatibility:
- Wave timers pause without connected players or a valid Main Locomotive; mid-save installs start a fresh two-hour preparation period.
- Attackers are isolated from Brood Split and direct-dig spawning, never appear inside Train Interior or mission surfaces, and are removed after a 10-minute stuck-wave safety timeout.
- Added the admin-only /the-cave-train-wave-test command for immediate normal-wave, Boss-Wave, status and timer-reset testing.
- Cave digging, Cave Torio, Advancing Collapse, Darkness Infestation, missions and all non-Train-Interior wave systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.52
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Direct Dig Enemies:
- Replaced rare 12-18-unit direct-dig ambush bursts with exactly one Biter or Spitter after a deterministic number of eligible player digs.
- Dig intervals now follow The Cave Difficulty: Easy 6-9, Medium 4-7, Hard 3-6 and Nightmare 2-5 eligible digs per enemy.
- Preserved the existing evolution, depth and global-difficulty enemy-tier selection and the 70% Biter / 30% Spitter split.
- Reduced the nearby mobile-enemy safety cap from 24 to 6 within 80 tiles and now count all enemy units, including regional enemies and Brood Split children.
Safety:
- Interval state is stored independently per Force and Surface and is deterministic across Save/Load and Multiplayer.
- Safe-zone digs, robot/explosion/Demolisher destruction and digs that open a room do not advance the interval.
- A blocked or failed spawn finishes its interval and starts a fresh one; no deferred enemy debt can create a later catch-up attack.
- Retained the old direct-dig chance and pack-size settings as hidden save-compatibility placeholders; they no longer affect direct digging.
Compatibility:
- Enemy Brood Split code, combat rooms, nests, worms, cavern enemies, regional ecosystems, Coin rewards and Ore Blood are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.51
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Train Power Interface:
- Removed the permanently visible labels above Main and secondary Locomotive Power Substations.
- Selecting a Locomotive Power Substation now shows its two-line role and wiring guidance only to that player; moving the cursor away removes it.
- Disabled always-visible text on the Main Train Battery Display Panel. Factorio now reveals the panel's complete battery-system information only while the panel is selected.
Compatibility:
- Train Battery charging, visible copper wiring, Substation coverage, Garden power delivery and Display Panel contents are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.50
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Locomotive Garden:
- Removed the permanently visible INPUT TO GARDEN and OUTPUT FROM GARDEN world labels.
- Selecting either fixed Garden Underground Belt-style endpoint or Pipe-to-ground now shows its INPUT TO GARDEN or OUTPUT FROM GARDEN label only to that player, matching the existing wagon Import/Export chest behavior.
- Increased the red two-line PRESS / ENTER portal prompt scale from 0.7 to 1.0 while keeping both lines centered inside each 4 by 4 Yellow Concrete portal.
Compatibility:
- Transfer positions, rotation, item/fluid direction, the 12 by 4 pond, Substation island and power bridge are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.49
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Locomotive Garden:
- Moved the right OUTPUT Pipe-to-ground exactly one tile toward its Underground Belt-style endpoint on both the Main Locomotive and Garden surfaces, removing the empty tile between them.
- Added a small red two-line PRESS / ENTER prompt centered inside both 4 by 4 Yellow Concrete Garden portals.
- The upper and lower prompts use the existing Enter-only Garden travel control; no automatic teleport was added.
Compatibility:
- Rotatable transfer endpoints, the 12 by 4 Garden pond, 2 by 2 Substation island and Main Locomotive power bridge are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.48
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Locomotive Garden:
- Made the fixed Underground Belt-style and Pipe-to-ground transfer endpoints rotatable in all four directions, matching Uranium Cave behavior.
- Player-selected transfer endpoint directions are preserved by Garden infrastructure repair and migration.
- Moved the left INPUT Underground Belt exactly one tile farther from the 4 by 4 Yellow Concrete portal on both the Main Locomotive and Garden surfaces.
- Lowered the INPUT TO GARDEN and OUTPUT FROM GARDEN labels so they sit close to their transfer endpoints.
Compatibility:
- The 12 by 4 Garden pond, 2 by 2 Substation island, one-way item/fluid routes and Main Locomotive power bridge are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.47
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed train_interiors.lua failing during startup with "too many local variables (limit is 200)".
Technical:
- Moved the new Garden transfer and power helpers off the main Lua chunk local stack without changing their behavior.
Compatibility:
- The 12 by 4 Garden pond, left INPUT ports, right OUTPUT ports, 2 by 2 Substation island and Main Locomotive power bridge are unchanged from 2.7.46.
Version: 2.7.46
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Locomotive Garden:
- Changed the Garden pond box to 12 by 4 tiles, matching the Main Locomotive pond dimensions.
- Added a centered 2 by 2 dry island inside the Garden pond with one fixed Locomotive Power Substation.
- Added fixed Underground Belt-style and Pipe-to-ground transfer ports beside both 4 by 4 yellow Garden portals.
- The left-side Belt and Pipe are one-way INPUT routes from the Main Locomotive into the Garden.
- The right-side Belt and Pipe are one-way OUTPUT routes from the Garden back into the Main Locomotive.
Power:
- Directly connected the fixed Garden Substation to the existing Main Locomotive Substation across the two surfaces.
- The same visible Main Locomotive grid now powers the train interior, charges the Train Battery and supplies the Locomotive Garden.
Save Migration:
- Existing Garden rooms repaint to the 12 by 4 pond and create the new protected transfer and power fixtures automatically.
- Existing player entities on newly required water or island tiles are preserved instead of being deleted.
Compatibility:
- The existing 12 by 4 Main Locomotive pond, 6 by 4 upper island, Display Panel and Train Battery capacity are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.45
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the Main Locomotive information Display Panel blinking and interrupting reading several times per second.
- The panel now uses its correct half-tile grid position instead of being repeatedly detected as misplaced after Factorio snapped it to the entity grid.
Performance:
- Display Panel text, icon and visibility settings are now applied only when the panel is created or migrated instead of every 15 ticks.
- The fixed locomotive Substation is no longer teleported to the same position every 15 ticks.
Compatibility:
- The 12 by 4 pond, 6 by 4 island, Train Battery behavior, Substation coverage and visible-wiring rules are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.44
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Train Interiors:
- Expanded every locomotive pond from 8 by 4 to 12 by 4 tiles.
- Expanded the centered dry island from 2 by 2 to 6 by 4 tiles, leaving two equal 3 by 4 water sections with 24 water tiles in total.
- Moved the Main Locomotive information display beside the Substation on the fixed center island, keeping it out of the general factory floor.
Save Migration:
- Existing scripted information displays move from their previous corner position to the new center island.
- New water tiles remain dry wherever an existing entity occupies them, and supporting water beneath an existing Offshore Pump is preserved.
Compatibility:
- Train Battery behavior, 36 by 36 Substation coverage, 36-tile wire reach and visible-wiring rules are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.43
Date: 01. 08. 2026
Train Interiors:
- Replaced the invisible train-wide interior power bus with one visible Locomotive Power Substation in every locomotive room.
- Locomotive Power Substations supply a 36 by 36 tile area and have a 36 tile wire reach.
- Expanded every locomotive pond to 8 by 4 tiles and added a centered 2 by 2 dry island for its fixed Substation.
- Only the original Main Locomotive Substation feeds the hidden Train Battery charger. Other locomotive Substations provide local distribution and must be visibly wired back to the Main Substation to charge the Train Battery.
- Added a permanent label above every locomotive Substation and an information display in the Main Locomotive room explaining the complete power flow.
Bugfixes:
- Placing an electric pole inside an arbitrary wagon no longer connects to an invisible relay or receives unexplained power.
Save Migration:
- Removes legacy hidden interior taps, relay poles and input chargers while preserving stored Train Battery energy.
- Existing player-built entities, inventories, transfer ports, train rooms, exterior battery output and research progress are preserved.
- The two new side columns of existing locomotive ponds remain dry wherever an existing entity occupies the required space.
Compatibility:
- Vanilla and third-party Substation prototypes are unchanged; the 36-tile settings apply only to the fixed locomotive Substation.
Performance:
- Fixture creation and legacy cleanup run during room creation or save migration and add no new per-tick scans.
Version: 2.7.42
Date: 31. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the long apparent freeze when Train Interior Expansion completed, especially during upgrades such as Level 2 to Level 3.
Performance:
- The current connector width and its research level are now resolved once per train-surface map-void pass instead of once per scanned tile and per inter-wagon connector.
- Removed millions of redundant technology-table checks from the synchronous research-completion path without adding an on_tick scan or delayed background work.
Safety:
- Connector dimensions, the four-tiles-per-side progression and existing-save migration are unchanged.
- Existing connector tiles, player-built entities, train rooms, transfer ports, inventories and shared surfaces are not cleared or rebuilt by this fix.
Version: 2.7.41
Date: 31. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Replaced the truncated Armoured Biter attack mask sprite sheet that caused Factorio to stop during mod loading with a "bad adaptive filter value" PNG error.
Compatibility:
- Armoured Biter prototypes, animations, balance, save data and all unrelated systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.40
Date: 31. 07. 2026
Train Interiors:
- Train Interior Expansion now widens every inter-wagon connector by four tiles above and four tiles below per research level.
- Connector width progresses from 7 tiles at Level 0 to 15, 23, 31, 39, 47, 55, 63, 71, 79 and 87 tiles through Levels 1-10.
Save Migration:
- Existing saves derive the required connector width from their force's already researched Train Interior Expansion level. For example, an existing Level 3 train is extended directly to 31 tiles when the save loads.
Safety:
- Existing connector tiles, player flooring and player-built entities are never cleared or rebuilt. Migration and later research upgrades convert only previously void tiles above and below the current connector into new floor.
- Brand-new rolling-stock connections receive their connector once; established train rooms, transfer ports, machines, inventories and shared surfaces remain untouched.
Version: 2.7.39
Date: 30. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added optional Alien Biomes support for The Cave's fully script-generated Nauvis terrain.
- When Alien Biomes is installed and support is enabled, new natural cave floor uses broad deterministic mineral, vegetation, volcanic and frozen biome regions with local texture variation.
Compatibility:
- Added a Startup Mod Setting dropdown named Alien Biomes Support, enabled by default and inert when Alien Biomes is not installed.
- Existing terrain, player-placed flooring, Space Age regions, Uranium Caves and Train Interiors are never re-tiled.
- Alien Biomes tile and vegetation-disable startup choices are respected; missing or disabled biome families fall back safely to another available Alien Biomes family.
- Without Alien Biomes, The Cave's original deterministic floor generation is unchanged.
Multiplayer:
- All biome family, colour and texture choices are derived only from the map seed and tile coordinates, preserving deterministic multiplayer, MTS clone and soft-reset behaviour.
Performance:
- Terrain selection runs only when The Cave creates or reveals a natural floor tile. No periodic scan or on_tick handler was added.
Version: 2.7.38
Date: 30. 07. 2026
Changes:
- Every Ctrl + R press now adds up to 10 compatible magazines to each friendly standard Gun Turret in the exact 20x20 area.
- Repeated presses keep adding ammunition (10, 20, 30 and beyond) until a turret is full or the player runs out of compatible magazines.
- Initial manual placement still loads only up to 10 magazines. Fair distribution, multiplayer ownership and all other feature boundaries are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.37
Date: 30. 07. 2026
Features:
- Manually placing a standard Gun Turret now immediately transfers up to 10 compatible magazines from the placing player's main inventory into that turret.
- Pressing Ctrl + R reloads every friendly standard Gun Turret in an exact 20x20 square centred on the player, topping each turret up to 10 magazines.
Multiplayer:
- Reloading is player-inventory and force aware. It never draws ammunition from another player, chest, logistic network or force.
- Limited ammunition is distributed one magazine per turret per pass so every empty turret can become operational before any turret receives its full allocation.
Compatibility:
- Existing ammunition is never removed or replaced. A partially loaded turret is topped up only with the same item and quality.
- Ctrl + R retains its existing Inserter Configuration action while the cursor is over an Inserter; otherwise it performs the 20x20 Gun Turret reload.
- Automatic placement loading is not triggered for robot-built or script-built entities. Fuel consumers, vehicles, Artillery, Flamethrower and Laser Turrets and all unrelated systems are unchanged.
- Standalone Fill4Me is marked incompatible to prevent duplicate automatic loading.
Performance:
- The feature uses only player-build and custom-input events. It adds no periodic scan and no on_tick handler.
Version: 2.7.36
Date: 30. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Replaced the corrupted west-facing Superheater sprite that caused Factorio to stop during mod loading with a "bad adaptive filter value" PNG error.
Compatibility:
- Superheater prototypes, recipes, technologies, balance, save migration names and all unrelated systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.35
Date: 30. 07. 2026
Features:
- The Main Train defeat countdown now starts a staged in-save restart instead of stopping at Factorio's Game Over screen.
- After the existing 30-second warning, every player is moved to a protected temporary lobby while The Cave rebuilds a fresh Nauvis cave, player-force research, inventories, starter packages and Main Train.
- The replacement cave receives a new deterministic map seed, and connected or disconnected existing players are returned automatically to their force spawn.
Safety:
- The restart deletes only surfaces owned by The Cave: Train Interiors, Warp caves, Uranium Caves and Fortified Vaults. Nauvis and MTS team Nauvis surfaces are cleared in place so their stable surface identities remain valid.
- Separate Space Age planets and private surfaces owned by other mods, including Factorissimo and Mobile Factory interiors, are deliberately not deleted.
- Ordinary The Cave tick systems pause for the entire rebuild. Every destructive phase is checkpointed in saved storage, so a normal save/load or dedicated-server restart can resume at the next exact stage.
- If any stage raises an error, the safety interlock stops all later destructive stages, logs the exact failed stage and keeps players in the protected lobby instead of continuing with a partially initialized run.
Multiplayer:
- Players who join or reconnect during the restart are held in the protected lobby and are included in the final return pass.
- Players who disconnect during the restart do not create an Offline Player Body; their already-cleared character is returned with the rest of the expedition.
- Force friendship and cease-fire relationships are captured before research reset and restored afterward.
Compatibility:
- Standalone Train Interiors and CAVETORIO use the same restart path. The existing loss screen remains only as a last-resort fallback if the restart coordinator is unavailable before any map mutation begins.
- Added the admin-only `/the-cave-reset-status` diagnostic command. It reports `idle`, the active checkpoint, or the exact safety-stop error without changing the save.
Version: 2.7.34
Date: 30. 07. 2026
Features:
- Destroying the final registered Main Train locomotive now starts one visible 30-second Game Over countdown for every connected player.
- The countdown updates once per second in a centred top-screen warning and announces the 20, 10 and final 5 seconds in chat.
Bugfixes:
- Main Train defeat detection now works with standalone Train Interiors and no longer incorrectly requires CAVETORIO to be enabled.
- The destroyed rolling-stock unit is evaluated before Train Interiors removes its registration, preventing the final locomotive or final train part from disappearing before the defeat check.
Compatibility:
- Destroying an ordinary wagon alone does not end the run while a registered Main Train locomotive remains alive.
- Duplicate death events cannot start duplicate countdowns, and the countdown state survives normal save/load and dedicated-server restarts.
- At zero Factorio receives one standard loss state. Reloading a clean starter save remains the responsibility of the external server host.
Version: 2.7.33
Date: 29. 07. 2026
Features:
- Multiplayer players are now kicked after five minutes of Factorio-reported inactivity.
- Every manual disconnect and AFK kick starts a separate five-minute return grace period. Rejoining during that period cancels inventory recovery.
Bugfixes:
- With Train Interiors enabled, an offline player's permanent recovery body is now created near the live Main Train at the end of the grace period instead of at the Main Train's original Nauvis spawn.
- The recovery destination is resolved only when the five-minute offline grace period expires, so train movement and surface changes during that time are followed.
Compatibility:
- With Train Interiors disabled, offline recovery continues to use the force's normal spawn point on the main Cave surface.
- Recovery remains force-aware, deterministic and transactional; armor grids, blueprints, quality, durability, tags, guns, ammunition, trash slots and cursor stacks retain their metadata.
Version: 2.7.32
Date: 29. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Ordinary Inserters no longer wait indefinitely for their researched hand capacity to become completely full before moving.
- An Inserter with capacity 5 now immediately moves the available 1-5 items instead of requiring all 5.
Compatibility:
- Belt stacking remains available to every eligible Inserter up to the researched capacity of 20.
- The dedicated Stack Inserter retains its official wait-for-full-hand behaviour.
- Belt Capacity research, hand-capacity progression, Loaders, Mining Drills, existing player stack-size overrides and all unrelated systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.31
Date: 29. 07. 2026
Features:
- Every Gleba Progression Room now contains five guaranteed specimens of each missing wild Gleba plant: Slipstack, Funneltrunk, Hairy Clubnub, Teflilly, Lickmaw, Stingfrond, Boompuff, Sunnycomb and Cuttlepop.
- The 45 wild plants are arranged around the room perimeter on their matching native Gleba terrain, leaving the existing Yumako, Jellystem, Stromatolite, Egg Raft, water and farming plots unchanged.
Balance:
- Wild Gleba plants now provide their official direct Spoilage, Wood and Stone yields inside the cave, giving the player a natural local source of early Spoilage without adding free items or changing any vanilla recipe.
Compatibility:
- Existing recorded Gleba Progression Rooms are upgraded once when their original Yumako/Jellynut farming layout can be identified safely.
- Existing player buildings are never removed; occupied planting locations are skipped and nearby non-colliding positions are used where possible.
- Other Gleba rooms, random regional vegetation, normal planetary travel and all non-Gleba systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.30
Date: 29. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed existing Everything on Nauvis saves remaining unable to unlock Recycling after a Fulgoran Vault Ruin had already been mined before the Fulgora Planet Discovery prerequisite was completed.
- Existing forces with a recorded Fulgoran Vault Ruin mining count now receive the missed official Recycling technology and its Scrap Recycling recipe during the update.
- If an old save cannot prove the earlier mining event but had already generated its guaranteed Vault Ruin, the next Fulgora Ruins Room provides one recovery Vault so the official mining trigger can be completed normally.
Guidance:
- Added a force-wide instruction when a guaranteed Fulgoran Vault Ruin is generated, explaining that mining it unlocks Recycling and allows Scrap processing.
Compatibility:
- Recovery is force-aware, multiplayer-safe and applies only while Space Age progression is integrated into The Cave.
- New games retain the original official Fulgora progression: Planet Discovery first, then mine the real fulgoran-ruin-vault entity to unlock Recycling.
- Everything on Nauvis disabled, normal planet travel, Space Science, Fulgora resources, lightning, surface conditions and all unrelated systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.29
Date: 29. 07. 2026
Features:
- Everything on Nauvis now completes the official Vulcanus, Gleba, Fulgora and Aquilo Planet Discovery technologies at game start for every playable force.
- Space Science is now a normal 100-unit laboratory research using Metallurgic, Agricultural, Chemical and Electromagnetic Science Packs.
- The official Space Science recipe can now run on the shared cave surface while keeping its original ingredients, crafting time, five-pack output and productivity support.
Compatibility:
- The Planet Discovery sync also covers forces created later by multiplayer and team mods, and is applied to existing saves during configuration changes.
- Only the official gravity-zero condition is removed from Space Science; all unrelated recipe, entity and modded surface conditions are preserved.
- The official Space Platform prerequisite and Asteroid Collector build trigger are removed only from Space Science. Rocket Silos, Space Platforms, asteroid machinery, planets and normal interplanetary travel remain available.
- When Everything on Nauvis is disabled, normal Space Age discoveries, Space Science progression and surface restrictions remain unchanged.
Balance:
- Space Science keeps the official recipe of 2 Iron Plates, 1 Carbon and 1 Ice for 5 packs. Carbon remains obtained through the official Vulcanus Tungsten Carbide path, and Ice remains available from Aquilo lithium icebergs.
- The 100-unit Space Science research follows The Cave's selected Research Level Difficulty multiplier.
Version: 2.7.28
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Shield research reversing a locomotive that had turned around naturally on the rail network.
- Train Shield upgrades no longer destroy, recreate or reconnect any locomotive, cargo wagon, fluid wagon or artillery wagon.
- Removed physical rolling-stock replacement from research completion, mod configuration changes, existing-train registration and newly registered train parts.
Compatibility:
- Existing hidden Train Shield rolling-stock variants remain supported in old saves but are never swapped at runtime.
- Train Shield health remains one shared 5,000-35,000 HP pool per connected train, with the existing research levels and self-repair rates unchanged.
- Train direction, unit numbers, carriage order, couplings, schedules, speed, fuel, cargo, fluids and Train Interior records remain untouched by Shield upgrades.
Version: 2.7.27
Date: 28. 07. 2026
GUI:
- Added a second entry-prompt line explaining that Ctrl + Enter also exits the train, so players see both controls before entering.
- Reduced the prompt width from 420 to 380 logical pixels and moved it 20 logical pixels lower while retaining a safe gap above the quickbar.
Version: 2.7.26
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Replaced the incorrectly displayed Train Interior control tag with the clear text "Press Ctrl + Enter to enter the train."
- Updated the second-step confirmation text to use the same Ctrl + Enter wording.
GUI:
- Reduced the entry prompt width and font size, tightened its padding, and moved it 120 logical pixels higher so it no longer covers the bottom quickbar.
Version: 2.7.25
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Interiors failing to load with "too many local variables (limit is 200)" after the proximity entry prompt was added.
Compatibility:
- The entry prompt now stores its state and helpers on the existing Train Interiors module table, keeping the main Lua chunk at Factorio's 200-local limit without changing prompt behaviour.
Version: 2.7.24
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added Train Interior Expansion 8-10. Width remains fixed at the collision-safe 92-tile limit while each new level adds 30 tiles above and 30 tiles below, reaching 92x152, 92x212 and 92x272.
- The four-tile blue utility lanes now follow the new outer top and bottom edges. Previous lane tiles become normal interior floor, and utility build restrictions apply only to the relocated lanes.
- Added a separate large per-player Train Interior entry prompt when standing near an enterable Main Train part. It displays the player's actual Enter Train Interior key and changes to an explicit second-press confirmation.
Balance:
- Train Battery Upgrade costs are now 200 / 500 / 800 / 1200 / 1600 / 2000.
- Train Interior Expansion 1-10 costs are now 200 / 500 / 800 / 1100 / 1400 / 1700 / 2000 / 2500 / 3000 / 4000. Space Science is removed from Level 7 and begins at Level 8.
- Main Train Expansion costs are now 500 / 1000 / 1500 / 2000 / 2500 / 3000 / 3500, with Space Science removed.
- Train Shield Upgrade costs now rise evenly from 200 to 2000 in 200-unit steps, with Space Science removed.
- Locomotive Garden research costs are unchanged.
Compatibility:
- Existing train interiors retain their player-built entities while researched room boundaries and utility lanes are repainted.
- Horizontal room width remains capped at 92 tiles, preserving the four-tile separation between adjacent 96-tile wagon slots.
- The entry prompt is a dedicated screen GUI, never a chat message or part of the selected-wagon battery information, and is removed when the player moves away or enters the train.
Version: 2.7.23
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Features:
- Integrated FuelGlow into The Cave as an optional Startup feature, enabled by default.
- Burner entities and reactors now use tuned fuel-dependent glow colours for vanilla fuels.
- Added automatic glow-colour generation for compatible fuels created by other mods while preserving colours those mods already define.
- Added configurable peak energy, floor energy and colour-curve Startup settings.
- Added separate Startup controls for the tuned vanilla palette and the subtle orange electric-furnace working light.
Compatibility:
- The integrated settings use The Cave-prefixed prototype names and cannot collide with the standalone FuelGlow settings.
- When the standalone FuelGlow mod is installed, The Cave automatically skips its integrated copy so colours and electric-furnace lighting are not applied twice.
- FuelGlow is data-stage only: no runtime script, on_tick handler, save data, migration or gameplay-balance value was added.
- Works with base Factorio and Space Age and safely supports fuels using every Factorio 2.x ItemPrototype type.
Licensing:
- Added a dedicated FuelGlow attribution notice. The integrated implementation and The Cave remain under GNU GPLv3.
Version: 2.7.22
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added an independently implemented Minimal Wire feature that rebuilds nearby player-pole copper connections as a deterministic minimum spanning tree after poles are built, removed or replaced.
- Added Startup Enable/Disable plus Runtime Global radius, maximum-pole and operations-per-tick settings. Defaults are enabled, 42 tiles, 30 poles and 10 operations per tick.
Bugfixes:
- The Cave Big Wooden Pole, Small Electric Pole, Medium Electric Pole and one-tile Medium Pole MK variants now share one native fast-replace group.
- A Medium Electric Pole can replace a wooden pole directly instead of requiring the wooden pole to be mined first.
- Red and green circuit-wire connections are snapshotted before pole replacement and restored independently after the replacement. Minimal Wire only edits the copper connector.
Compatibility:
- Internal unminable Cave power bridges, vault poles and enemy power poles are excluded from Minimal Wire and retain their script-owned topology.
- Copper-wire work is delayed and rate-limited; no map-wide or per-tick pole scan is used.
- No external code, graphics or assets were copied.
Version: 2.7.21
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Increased the integrated Lamp Post's electricity usage from 3 kW to 20 kW, matching its five-Small-Lamp recipe with a 5 kW efficiency discount.
Compatibility:
- Lamp Post recipe, research, light, protection radius, graphics and all other gameplay systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.19
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed every Wind Turbine research level incorrectly reaching the final 2 MW output ceiling.
- Runtime power is now converted from Watts to Factorio's internal Joules-per-tick values: Wind Turbine 1 produces 1 MW, Wind Turbine 2 produces 1.5 MW and Wind Turbine 3 produces 2 MW.
- The live energy buffer now follows the researched output, preventing lower research levels from briefly discharging stored energy at the final 2 MW ceiling.
Compatibility:
- Existing placed Wind Turbines are corrected automatically when this version loads. The entity, original Easy Wind Turbine graphic, recipe and research costs are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.18
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the placed Wind Turbine incorrectly displaying Factorio's accumulator-style Electric Energy Interface graphic.
- The Wind Turbine entity is now defined independently instead of cloning the base Electric Energy Interface, so no inherited picture can override the original Easy Wind Turbine animation.
Compatibility:
- Item, entity and research graphics all use the original Easy Wind Turbine Tier 1 assets.
- Power output, research costs, recipe, automatic upgrades and already-placed turbines are unchanged.
Version: 2.7.17
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added one integrated Wind Turbine to The Cave using the original Tier 1 Easy Wind Turbine graphics.
- Wind Turbine 1 unlocks after Steel Processing for 100 Automation science packs and provides 1 MW.
- Wind Turbine 2 costs 100 Automation and 100 Logistic science packs and raises the same turbines to 1.5 MW.
- Wind Turbine 3 costs 100 Automation, 100 Logistic and 100 Chemical science packs and raises the same turbines to the final 2 MW maximum.
Balance:
- The single Wind Turbine recipe requires 20 Iron Gear Wheels, 20 Steel Plates, 20 Electronic Circuits and 20 Copper Plates.
- The turbine uses a 3x3 physical footprint and has no tiers beyond 2 MW.
Compatibility:
- Research upgrades every already-placed and future turbine belonging to that Force without replacing the entity, changing its unit number or disturbing its electric connection.
- Uses Factorio's official ElectricEnergyInterface power_production property. There is no steam, fluid box, fuel, hidden generator, companion entity, periodic refill or on_tick scan.
- Existing turbines are synchronised on configuration changes, research reversal and Force merges. Player, robot, script, ghost revival, cloning and Space Platform build paths are covered.
Licensing:
- Reused three Easy Wind Turbine graphical assets by Unfunf22 under GNU GPLv3 and added a dedicated attribution notice.
Version: 2.7.16
Date: 28. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Nearby Ammo Count now displays the actual number of loaded magazines. Ten magazines display 10 instead of 100, fifty display 50 instead of 500, and one displays 1 instead of the number of rounds contained inside it.
- Empty ammo turrets now remain visible as a red 0 in ALT mode.
Changes:
- Increased the ammo-count text scale from 1.125 to 1.35 for clearer readability. The existing position above the turret is unchanged.
- Removed the misleading shot-count option; the Runtime Per User setting now offers Magazine Count or Disabled.
Compatibility:
- Existing players whose saved setting still contains the former Shot Count value are treated as enabled and receive the corrected magazine count immediately.
- No turret prototype, range upgrade, ammunition, damage, entity, power source or render position was changed.
Version: 2.7.15
Date: 27. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added a per-player ALT-mode ammo count above friendly ammo turrets within 100 tiles. Players can display remaining shots, display loaded magazines or disable the feature from Runtime Per User settings.
- Shot mode preserves a loaded magazine at zero remaining rounds as a red 0, matching the requested Nearby Ammo Count behaviour.
Compatibility:
- Detection uses Factorio's official ammo-turret type and turret-ammo inventory, so the base Gun Turret, all five researched The Cave range variants and compatible ammo turrets are handled without hard-coded variant names.
- Labels are temporary and visible only to the relevant player. The feature creates no entities, power sources, electric networks, persistent render objects or prototype replacements, and does not change turret range, damage or ammunition.
- Added English and Russian setting text. No external code or graphics were copied.
Version: 2.7.14
Date: 26. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Enemy Brood Split silently creating no smaller enemy after a vanilla Biter or Spitter died.
- Removed the redundant building-style placement check that could reject a valid runtime unit position after the collision-free spawn search had already succeeded.
- Brood units now use The Cave's proven enemy-spawn path: find a nearby collision-free tile, create exactly one smaller unit there and preserve the dead unit's Force.
Compatibility:
- Reward suppression, Save/Load and Multiplayer tracking, event-driven cleanup, the vanilla-only tier chain and all exclusions from 2.7.13 are unchanged.
- No unrelated gameplay system, enemy-generation rule, Mod Setting, prototype or graphic was changed.
Version: 2.7.13
Date: 26. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added the first limited Enemy Brood Split test for vanilla enemies. A killed Behemoth Biter releases one Big Biter, a Big Biter releases one Medium Biter, and a Medium Biter releases one Small Biter; the same one-unit chain applies to vanilla Spitters.
- Small Biters and Small Spitters release nothing. Worms, Spawners, Demolishers, Armoured Biters and every non-vanilla enemy remain unchanged.
Compatibility:
- Released units keep the killed unit's Force and spawn only at a nearby collision-free position, never by forced placement inside rock, water, blocked terrain or out-of-map.
- Released units are tracked persistently across Save/Load and Multiplayer and never repeat Coin or Ore Blood rewards. Destroyed-unit records are removed through event-driven cleanup with no periodic scan.
- No enemy-generation rules, Mod Settings, prototypes, graphics or unrelated gameplay systems were changed.
Version: 2.7.12
Date: 26. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Mobile Factory and Control Room surfaces are now fully exempt from The Cave's repeated lighting enforcement. Permanent Night and Pitch Black no longer fight Mobile Factory's own interior lighting or cause rapid day/night flickering.
- Existing saves restore the neutral surface properties previously overwritten by The Cave, including Always Day, minimum brightness, visual brightness weights, clouds and solar output.
- Darkness Infestation now treats Mobile Factory and Control Room surfaces as safe interiors. Its warning, 30-second grace timer, threat growth and enemy waves are suspended and cleared while a player is inside.
Compatibility:
- The lighting and Darkness Infestation exemptions activate automatically only while Mobile Factory Space Age is installed. Dimensional Ore and Dimensional Fluid integration is unchanged.
Version: 2.7.11
Date: 25. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Train Interiors now keep every established locomotive and wagon room at its existing interior coordinates when new rolling stock is coupled to the front or rear of the train. Player-built power stations, machines, belts and other structures no longer appear to jump into the next carriage after the carriage list is re-indexed.
- Added a persistent interior-layout anchor and made shared-surface selection prefer the established train interior, preventing a newly coupled locomotive from taking ownership of the layout during a tied surface selection.
Version: 2.7.10
Date: 25. 07. 2026
Bugfixes:
- Advancing Collapse now begins directly on the visible southern electric guard line at Y=64 when the two-hour countdown reaches zero, instead of silently erasing the hidden Y=130-to-Y=64 strip for roughly twenty minutes first.
- Existing 2.7.9 saves with an active collapse line still south of the electric boundary migrate directly to Y=64. Saves whose collapse has already advanced north of the boundary are never moved backwards.
Version: 2.7.9
Date: 25. 07. 2026
Features:
- After the two-hour countdown ends, its top-centre panel now becomes a live two-line zone display. Current Zone follows each player's own position, while Highest Zone Reached is shared by the force, persists in the save and never decreases.
Changes:
- Advancing Collapse Fortified Underground Vaults now use zone-number progression instead of raw map distance. Zones 1-9 use Medium enemies, zones 10-19 use Big enemies and zone 20 onward permits the Nightmare/Behemoth tier.
- Added a substantially lighter Advancing Collapse-only lower-Vault combat layout. The original full Fortified Vault balance remains unchanged outside Advancing Collapse.
- Advancing Collapse Vulcanus zones 1-19 now contain no Demolishers. Zones 20-29 introduce limited Small Demolishers, zones 30-39 gradually mix in Medium, zones 40-49 use Medium and zone 50 onward introduces limited Big Demolishers.
Bugfixes:
- Removed the hard-coded Behemoth defenders from early Fortified Vault entrances and matched upper defenders to the Vault's effective zone tier.
- Existing Advancing Collapse saves now remove forbidden early Demolishers and downgrade/trim already generated Fortified Vault defenders during configuration migration.
Version: 2.7.8
Date: 24. 07. 2026
Changes:
- Southern biter and spitter guards are now always active and visibly patrol inside the Danger Zone. Nearby guards attack only players who cross the electric line, return to patrol after retreat and remain hard-leashed inside the southern strip.
- Unsafe Advancing Collapse respawns now move to a walkable, non-water position at least 40 tiles north of the current collapse line. Safe fallbacks are remembered separately for each force and main Cave surface; interiors remain exempt.
- Renamed the Startup setting label from "Advancing Collapse: Enable / Disable" to "Advancing Collapse" in English and Russian because the dropdown already shows Enable and Disable.
- Planet-family zones are now always separated by one or two Nauvis recovery zones. When several planet families are researched, consecutive special selections avoid repeating the previous family where possible.
- Advancing Collapse Gleba enemies now scale from the current zone number instead of raw distance from the origin. Zones 1-5 allow up to 12 live Small Pentapods and no Big Pentapods; zones 6-10 allow 18 total and at most one Big; zones 11-20 allow 24 total and at most two Big; later zones allow 30 total and at most three Big.
Bugfixes:
- Added the same per-zone Pentapod limits to autonomous Egg Raft spawns and removes excess legacy test enemies on configuration migration, preventing an early Gleba zone from filling with hundreds of Big Stompers or Big Strafers.
Version: 2.7.7
Date: 24. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added a Mountain Fortress-style southern starting boundary to Advancing Collapse maps: a bright triple electric-beam line at Y 64, a visible guarded enemy strip behind it and permanent out-of-map terrain from Y 120 southward.
- Added dormant, indestructible biter and spitter guard ranks. They activate only against players who cross the electric line, return to dormancy when no trespasser remains and are hard-leashed so they can never chase into the northern factory.
- Added inactive indestructible nests and safely recessed worm turrets to make the forbidden southern area unmistakable without generating enemies, expansions or autonomous attack waves.
- Added repeated world warning text along the electric boundary plus a local alarm and warning when a player enters the southern guard strip.
Compatibility:
- The southern boundary is part of Advancing Collapse only and remains independent from Mobile Factory, trains, RPG, wave defence and every optional mod.
- Existing Advancing Collapse test saves receive the boundary only when its southern footprint contains no player or team entities; occupied areas are left untouched.
Version: 2.7.6
Date: 24. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added the new-game-only Advancing Collapse Startup mode, disabled by default and independent from trains, Mobile Factory and every other optional mod.
- Added a top-centre two-hour connected-gameplay countdown. It updates once per second, changes colour during the final 30/10/1 minutes, survives save/load, synchronises for joining players and disappears permanently at zero.
- Added a destructive northbound collapse line that starts at Y 130, permanently removes terrain and all left-behind entities, and uses Mountain Fortress' 510-tile ribbon, 620-tile line cap, multiplayer amount/speed scaling and 900-tile catch-up rule.
- Added 704-tile northbound zones backed by a deterministic 132-slot weighted pool. Nauvis zone styles are available from the start.
- With Space Age active, Vulcanus, Gleba, Fulgora and Aquilo zone families unlock only after their matching planet-discovery research. The newly unlocked family is guaranteed for the next unassigned slot; already assigned zones never change.
- Added English and Russian Startup descriptions, countdown/warning text, zone-unlock messages and first-join rules.
Compatibility:
- Advancing Collapse works with The Cave alone. Optional factories, vehicles, Train Interiors and Mobile Factory can be used as player strategies but are not referenced by the collapse controller.
- Existing saves are never converted into Advancing Collapse maps; the mode initialises only with a new game.
Licensing:
- Added a GPLv3 notice for the Mountain Fortress constants and collapse behaviour used as the design reference.
Version: 2.7.5
Date: 23. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added automatic Mobile Factory resource compatibility that activates only while Mobile Factory Space Age is installed and active; no extra Mod Setting is required.
- Added a separate deterministic Dimensional Ore tendril beside The Cave's mixed-vein pattern; it reveals tile by tile, never joins the mixed resource pool and skips occupied resource tiles.
- Added one deterministic Dimensional Fluid companion exactly 10 tiles from every discovered Crude Oil well, with the paired well's amount and a resource-free 3x3 pumpjack footprint.
- Added existing-save migration for already discovered Crude Oil wells and persistent reservations that prevent duplicate companion wells.
Changes:
- Added an optional Mobile Factory Space Age dependency so The Cave's final autoplace cleanup runs after Mobile Factory prototypes are available.
- When Mobile Factory Space Age is absent or inactive, The Cave creates no Mobile Factory resources.
- Bumped the package to 2.7.5 so Factorio cannot reuse or conflict with an earlier 2.7.4 test ZIP.
Version: 2.7.3
Date: 23. 07. 2026
Changes:
- Removed the automatically placed support-wall lattice from the starter chamber when Cave Collapses are enabled.
- Removed the configuration-change path that could add starter support walls to existing saves; player-built walls and reactors still provide normal ceiling support.
- Kept the 2,000 Stone Walls granted to each player when Cave Collapses are enabled.
Version: 2.7.2
Date: 21. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added a simple Cave Collapses Startup dropdown with only Enable and Disable; Disable remains the default, while Enable restores the original 2.5-second, full-density collapse behaviour.
- Disable prevents terrain and cavern cave-ins, clears legacy pending warnings and hides the complete Support Struts research chain.
- Enabled games now build a collision-safe support-wall lattice across the starter chamber and give every player 2,000 Stone Walls before the optional Starter Pack.
- Expanded Support Struts from 6 to 10 levels, with +1 support tile per level for a final 14-tile wall/reactor reach.
- Rebalanced Support Struts costs from 100 through 1,000 science, starting with Automation science and ending with Automation, Logistic, Military, Chemical, Production and Utility science; Space science is no longer required.
- Added the Cave Collapses switch to Server Info and Current Settings.
- Added an enabled/disabled collapse warning as the first line in Server Info's Important section.
- Updated English and Russian descriptions for the single collapse switch and starter support rules.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed placing belts, splitters or underground belts crashing when the optional Turbo Loader prototype is unavailable, including games without Space Age.
- Fixed the 3 kW Lamp Post failing Darkness Infestation's hard-coded greater-than-50-joule power test even at full supply; any non-zero lamp power now protects during brownouts, while zero power still starts the 30-second grace period.
- Purged orphaned legacy collapse warning triangles from existing saves even when their old rendering IDs were already lost, without removing the real boxed collapse countdown.
- Restored Iron Ore, Copper Ore and Coal digging rewards when players mine collapse-created rubble; both Solid Rock and rubble now use the same four-resource cave economy alongside Stone.
Changes:
- Bumped the complete package and internal mod version to 2.7.2 so Factorio cannot reuse a stale 2.7.1 test copy with the removed Relaxed and Classic choices.
- Removed all normal-play ALT-mode stress triangles. Players now see only the exact 2×2 boxed countdown after a collapse is genuinely scheduled, and can place support there before live re-checking decides whether it falls.
- Restricted the /diggy-stress diagnostic overlay to admins so normal players cannot reveal hidden ceiling stress in advance.
Version: 2.7.0
Date: 21. 07. 2026
Changes:
- Added each online player's name as a separate visible line in the Caves table.
- Added each online player's current personal inventory coin count beside their name.
- Reorganised Current Settings into Enabled, Disabled, Modes, Chest and Container Capacities, Resource Stack Sizes, Superheating Values, Numeric Values, Other Values and Legacy groups.
- Added explicit English and Russian names for generated Superheating fuel-value settings, fixing their Unknown key labels in Current Settings.
- Rebuilt Server Info with structured Welcome, Current Server Settings, Unique Features, Important and Map Info sections.
- Added the exact five-minute Offline Player Body warning to Server Info when the feature is enabled, with a disabled status otherwise.
- Rebuilt Caves inside a properly padded inner panel, moved Refresh Caves away from the border and added full-width framed Cave rows matching the reference layout.
- Reduced the main window's excessive empty area and corrected column widths so tab content remains inside the outer frame.
- Increased the top The Cave information button from 40x40 to 80x80.
Version: 2.6.34
Date: 20. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added a persistent 40x40 The Cave button to the top GUI for every player.
- Added the complete The Cave Information and Controls window with Server Info, Mod Info, Current Settings, Controls and Caves tabs.
- Added eleven organised Mod Info categories covering exploration, resources, Space Age regions, missions, combat, Train Interiors, CAVETORIO, research, machines, quality-of-life and multiplayer systems.
- Added a read-only Current Settings browser for every The Cave Startup, map and per-player setting active in the save.
- Added a live force/team-aware Caves table with Cave, Score, Power, Threat, Technology and Industry columns.
- Added manual Caves refresh and English/Russian localisation for the complete information GUI.
Version: 2.6.33
Date: 20. 07. 2026
Features:
- Added a read-only first-join introduction window that explains the core digging loop, Darkness Infestation safety and the current Everything on Nauvis mode.
- Added conditional CAVETORIO survival rules when that Startup mode is active.
- The introduction reads current Startup settings but never changes them; I Understand only closes the window.
- Existing saves display the introduction once after updating, while new players see it on their first join.
- Added English and Russian localisation for the complete introduction.
Version: 2.6.32
Date: 19. 07. 2026
Changes:
- Removed the former 200x200 distance cap from Uranium Salvage Cavern resource generation.
- Mixed Uranium Ore and The Cave Scrap tendrils now continue deterministically on newly opened tiles at any cave distance.
- Kept the same thin tendril width, approximately 50/50 resource mix, Sulphuric Acid requirement and 30-minute mission timer.
- Existing active test caves migrate to unbounded MapGen dimensions and rebuild exposed generated tiles from the same tendril field.
Version: 2.6.31
Date: 19. 07. 2026
Changes:
- Renamed the upper mission Display Panel heading from "Uranium Cave Information" to "Uranium Salvage Cavern Information" so it matches the mixed uranium-and-scrap expedition design.
Version: 2.6.30
Date: 19. 07. 2026
Changes:
- Added a Startup setting for The Cave Scrap stack size alongside Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Coal, Stone and Uranium Ore.
- The Cave Scrap stack size can be configured from 50 to 400, with a default of 200.
- The setting changes only the mined Scrap item stack size and does not alter Scrap Sorting outputs, probabilities or recipes.
Version: 2.6.29
Date: 19. 07. 2026
Changes:
- Replaced Uranium Salvage Cavern room-centred ore blobs with the same continuous simplex-tendril vein logic used by the main cave mixed resources.
- Uranium and The Cave Scrap now reveal tile-by-tile as tunnels and cavern rooms are opened, with an approximately 50/50 deterministic mix.
- Existing 2.6.28 test caves migrate by removing compact salvage blobs and rebuilding only already-exposed tiles from the new continuous vein field.
Version: 2.6.28
Date: 2026-07-19
Fixes:
- Fixed The Cave Scrap prototype loading by removing uranium ore's inherited `stages_effect` overlay (the correct plural Factorio prototype field).
- The Scrap Resource one-variation sprite sheet now loads without the stage-effect variation mismatch.
Version: 2.6.26
Date: 2026-07-19
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the English locale load error caused by a duplicate [recipe-name] section.
Version: 2.6.25
Date: 2026-07-19
Uranium Cave Salvage:
- Removed the fixed 20,000/40,000/60,000 uranium budgets. The shared 30-minute stability timer is now the only normal mission deadline.
- Every opened lower cavern now creates one long mixed salvage vein with approximately 50% Uranium Ore and 50% The Cave Scrap.
- Both Uranium Ore and The Cave Scrap use the same mining speed and require Sulphuric Acid, allowing the same Electric Mining Drills to extract the mixed vein.
- Existing Uranium Cave resource tiles are migrated to an approximately 50/50 uranium/scrap mix when updating a save.
Scrap Sorting:
- Added the namespaced The Cave Scrap item and Scrap Sorting recipe using MIT-licensed Scrap Resource artwork by RedRafe.
- Scrap Sorting consumes 10 scrap in 5 seconds and is selectable in Assembling Machine 1, 2 and 3, but is completely hidden from hand crafting.
- Added 22 weighted Base Game outputs, including circuits, batteries, engines, robot frames, LDS, fuels and seven filled barrel types; no Space Age-only product is used.
- Quality Modules work naturally in Space Age when the recipe is run in a module-capable assembling machine.
Compatibility:
- No Recycler, Quality or Space Age dependency was added. The same system loads in Base Game and Space Age.
- The original Scrap Resource autoplace and furnace-recycling systems are not integrated.
Licensing:
- Included RedRafe's MIT license and a dedicated Scrap Resource attribution notice.
Version: 2.6.24
Date: 2026-07-19
Changes:
- Fixed the 3×4 storage tank orientation so it now forces the pipe side to face downward/forward for easy visibility and pipe connection.
- Replaced the 3×4 storage tank item and technology icon with the newly approved tall vertical tank icon.
Version: 2.6.23
Date: 2026-07-19
Features:
- Integrated four optional Extra Storage Tanks: 1×1, 2×2, 3×4 and 5×5, using dedicated item and technology icons.
- Added a fixed research sequence: 1×1 -> 2×2 -> vanilla Fluid Handling / 3×3 -> 3×4 -> 5×5.
- Added Even Distribution 2.0.2 to The Cave's optional dependency list without integrating or requiring its code.
Balance:
- Fixed capacities are 2,000, 8,000, 40,000 and 70,000 fluid; no player-configurable capacity settings exist.
- Fixed recipes are 8 Iron; 10 Iron + 2 Steel; 30 Iron + 10 Steel; and 40 Iron + 20 Steel respectively.
- Research costs are 20 red; 40 red/green; 150 red/green/blue; and 300 red/green/blue/purple/yellow science packs.
- The two small tanks unlock only their own recipes. Vanilla Fluid Handling remains the gate before Oil Processing and the original 3×3 tank remains unchanged in capacity and recipe.
Compatibility:
- Added an Enable/Disable Startup dropdown, default Enable, with complete English and Russian localisation.
- Existing forces that already researched Fluid Handling automatically receive the earlier 1×1 and 2×2 researches during migration.
- Prevents simultaneous loading of the standalone Zithorian Extra Storage Tanks port to avoid duplicate or conflicting prototypes.
Licensing:
- Entity graphics and prototype architecture adapted from Zithorian and ZarSasha under the MIT License; attribution and license files are included.
Version: 2.6.22
Date: 2026-07-19
Enemy Nest Rooms:
- Every newly generated Enemy Nest Room now contains exactly one Biter Spawner, one Spitter Spawner and one Armoured Biter Spawner, with no chance roll and no vanilla fallback.
- Nest Rooms reserve a circular radius-12 footprint so all three dedicated nests have reliable placement space.
- Removed the manually spawned Biter/Spitter defender pack from Enemy Nest Rooms; all three nests now populate and replenish naturally through Factorio's native spawner system.
- Removed the extra Gleba raft from Enemy Nest Rooms so their nest composition remains exactly the guaranteed three-nest set.
Balance:
- Armoured nests use the same native owned-unit cap, nearby-friend stop threshold, spawn radius and spawn cooldown as vanilla Biter nests.
- Armoured nests now participate in the finite Nest Coin Value system, including selection display, depletion and per-spawn coin allocation.
- Small, Medium, Big and Behemoth Armoured Biters now carry the same coin and Ore Blood rewards as equivalent vanilla Biters; Leviathans carry 10 coins and 160-320 Ore Blood resources.
Multiplayer:
- Uses native deterministic spawner events and the existing reward handlers; no new on-tick scan or manual population controller was added.
Version: 2.6.21
Date: 2026-07-19
Balancing:
- Every newly generated Nest Cavern now attempts to replace exactly one of its existing vanilla nests with an Armoured Biter nest.
- Removed the additional 10%/20%/35%/50% zone roll, which made natural Armoured nests unnecessarily rare after all cavern and room rolls were combined.
Safety:
- The total nest count remains unchanged and the larger nest still falls back to the original vanilla nest if it cannot fit safely.
- Previously generated rooms are not scanned or modified, avoiding save-load spikes and unexpected world changes in multiplayer.
Version: 2.6.20
Date: 2026-07-19
Features:
- Added five Armoured Biter (Snapper) tiers and their dedicated nest with original artwork and animations.
- Armoured nests can replace at most one existing nest in a suitable Nest Cavern, using deterministic zone chances: Easy 10%, Medium 20%, Hard 35%, Nightmare 50%.
Multiplayer:
- Uses only native Factorio unit AI, no runtime events or on-tick processing.
- Armoured nests inherit the vanilla nest-owned-unit limits and never increase a room's static nest count.
- Placement falls back to the original vanilla nest whenever the larger Armoured nest cannot fit safely.
Balance:
- Armoured units and nests intentionally award no coins and no Ore Blood.
- Disabled the source mod's map autoplace, moisture logic and standalone settings; all placement is controlled by The Cave's deterministic room generator.
Licensing:
- Armoured Biters 2.0.2 by CybranM is used and adapted under CC BY-NC 4.0; attribution and license files are included.
Version: 2.6.19
Date: 2026-07-19
Balancing:
- Reduced the Character Reach Upgrade running-speed progression so Level 10 now raises the unmodified base running speed from 0.15 to exactly 0.40 instead of 0.75.
- Kept all other research bonuses unchanged: +20 distance and 10.0 hand-crafting speed at Level 10.
Version: 2.6.18
Date: 2026-07-19
Features:
- Expanded the ten-level Character Reach Upgrade chain from six to eight simultaneous native character bonuses.
- Every level still adds +2 tiles to all six distance abilities and now also adds +40% running speed and +90% hand-crafting speed.
- At Level 10, the chain provides +20 distance, raises the unmodified base running speed from 0.15 to 0.75, and raises base hand-crafting speed from 1.0 to 10.0.
- Replaced the duplicated Toolbelt artwork with a dedicated transparent 256x256 Character Reach Upgrade technology icon.
Compatibility:
- Uses only Factorio's native force-level technology modifiers; bonuses are multiplayer-safe and naturally combine with equipment, terrain, technologies and other mods.
- Added dedicated English and Russian localisation without changing existing locale keys.
Version: 2.6.17
Date: 2026-07-19
Features:
- Added a ten-level Character Reach Upgrade research chain using Factorio's six native character-distance technology effects.
- Every level adds +2 tiles to build distance, interaction reach, resource reach, item-drop distance, item-pickup distance and loot-pickup distance; Level 10 reaches +20 tiles total.
- Research progresses through red, green, military, chemical, production and utility science, with costs increasing from 50 to a maximum of 500 packs.
Safety:
- Uses only native force-level technology modifiers; no character prototype replacement, runtime polling, per-player state or save migration is required.
- Existing saves, multiplayer forces and other The Cave features remain unchanged until the new research is completed.
Version: 2.6.7
Date: 2026-07-17
Bugfixes:
- Fixed researched Underground Belt stacks refusing normal left-click and right-click transfers into chests and other open inventories.
- Underground Belt Reach now keeps the official transferable yellow/red/blue/Turbo item in the cursor whenever an inventory-style GUI is open, including half-stack right-click movement.
- Closing the GUI restores the force's researched long-distance placement item on the next tick, so extended underground placement and the native per-level Upgrade Planner chains remain unchanged.
Safety:
- No inventory conversion, item deletion, refund or hidden-item insertion is performed during GUI transfers; Factorio handles the official item stack with normal vanilla inventory rules.
- Existing maps and research levels require no reset. Damage Indicator, Offline Player Body and Nauvis resource fixes remain unchanged.
Version: 2.6.6
Date: 2026-07-17
Bugfixes:
- Rebuilt Underground Belt Reach as seven independent native Upgrade Planner rows instead of the failed hidden-entity area-selection workaround.
- Every researched reach level now has a complete yellow -> red -> blue -> Turbo upgrade chain, preserving the current reach level while the belt tier is upgraded.
- Research completion and save upgrades synchronise existing underground belts to the force's current reach level in bounded batches.
Compatibility:
- Uses Factorio's native order_upgrade/apply_upgrade path so paired underground endpoints and transported items remain under engine control during reach-level conversion.
- Blueprints are normalised to official portable underground-belt names; visible crafting items, ghosts and robot requests remain the official yellow, red, blue and Turbo items.
- Removing or disabling the feature converts internal reach variants back to their official belt prototypes during configuration migration.
Scope:
- Removed the unsuccessful electric-pole fast-replacement experiment from 2.6.5; pole behaviour returns to the 2.6.4 implementation while a separate verified design is investigated.
- Damage Indicator, Offline Player Body and Nauvis stray-resource fixes remain unchanged.
Version: 2.6.5
Date: 2026-07-16
Bugfixes:
- Restored Upgrade Planner support for researched Underground Belt Reach variants. Default and configured planners now treat hidden reach entities as their official yellow, red, blue or Turbo underground-belt tier, while internal variant names remain hidden from normal item selection and blueprints.
- Restored Upgrade Planner reverse/downgrade selection and Shift-selection cancellation for researched Underground Belt Reach variants.
- Added blueprint normalisation for Underground Belt Reach so copied entities always use official portable prototype names.
- Preserved legally reachable copper, red and green wire connections when manually fast-replacing Small and Medium Electric Poles at the same position in either direction.
Safety:
- Electric-pole wire restoration uses the engine's quality-aware wire-reach check and never forces an out-of-range connection.
- Fast-replacement snapshots store only primitive identifiers and coordinates, never LuaObjects, for deterministic multiplayer-safe save state.
- Damage Indicator multiplayer changes, Offline Player Body and the Nauvis stray planetary-resource fix remain unchanged from 2.6.4.
Version: 2.6.4
Date: 2026-07-16
Multiplayer Safety:
- Replaced the integrated Damage Indicator's shared storage/render-object pipeline with LuaPlayer local flying text, which is visible only to the intended player and is not saved into deterministic map state.
- Removed projectile script-trigger marker injection and all shared hit grouping, animation, render-object and per-viewer indicator state from combat processing.
- Per-player enable, radius, visibility, minimum damage, lifetime, speed, number formatting, text template, killing-blow marker and damage colours remain supported by the local renderer.
Migration:
- Clears legacy Damage Indicator storage and destroys any surviving legacy render objects when upgrading a save.
Compatibility:
- Keeps the existing startup switch, settings names, commands and remote interface names so server settings and dependent mods continue loading.
- Offline Player Body and the Nauvis stray planetary-resource fix remain unchanged from 2.6.3.
Version: 2.6.3
Date: 2026-07-16
Fixes:
- Removed Space Age resource prototypes from Nauvis engine entity autoplace, fixing isolated one-tile Scrap deposits with extreme vanilla richness near the starting cave.
- Reasserted the script-only entity map-generation policy in final fixes and on existing LuaSurface map-gen settings so both new maps and upgraded multiplayer saves remain protected.
- Added raw-chunk resource cleanup before The Cave builds a newly generated cave chunk, preventing engine-autoplaced resources from surviving the terrain conversion.
Migration:
- Existing stray Scrap, Calcite, Tungsten Ore, Sulfuric Acid Geysers, Lithium Brine and Fluorine Vents are removed only inside the central Nauvis region. Legitimate scripted planetary-region resources at and beyond the 1000-tile boundary are preserved.
Safety:
- Offline Player Body fixes from 2.6.2 and all resource, Vault, cave-generation and balance systems remain otherwise unchanged.
Version: 2.6.2
Date: 2026-07-16
Fixes:
- Rebuilt Offline Player Body disconnect tracking after live multiplayer testing showed that version 2.6.1 could remain silent and never produce a recovery body.
- Registered both the official pre-leave and post-leave events, with duplicate-safe scheduling, so either disconnect path starts the same five-minute timer.
- Added a periodic offline-player reconciliation pass that restores missing timers and also handles players who were already offline when the mod/save was updated.
- Switched disconnected main-inventory access to LuaPlayer.get_main_inventory(), while retaining direct access for armor, guns, ammunition and trash inventories.
- Expanded deterministic spawn placement from a small fixed set to a 48-tile search around force spawn and now creates the corpse with the player's force, preventing a crowded spawn from silently blocking creation.
Diagnostics:
- Retry and partial-transfer warnings shown to connected administrators now include the internal failure reason.
Safety:
- Preserved the non-expiring corpse, original-stack swap transfer, rollback protection, reconnect cancellation, exact five-minute delay and English/Russian localisation.
Version: 2.6.1
Date: 2026-07-15
Features:
- Added the optional Offline Player Body multiplayer recovery system, enabled by default through a Startup Enable/Disable dropdown.
- A disconnected player who remains offline for five minutes now has every occupied personal item stack moved into a permanent lootable character corpse at that force's normal spawn point on the main Cave surface.
- Rejoining before the five-minute deadline cancels the pending transfer without changing the player's inventory.
Safety:
- Uses the official pre-leave event and direct character-corpse creation with an exact inventory size.
- Moves original LuaItemStack objects slot by slot with swap_stack, preserving armor equipment grids, blueprints, quality, durability, ammunition, tags and other stack-specific data instead of rebuilding items from name/count tables.
- Includes transaction-style rollback and delayed retry handling so a failed body creation does not intentionally delete or duplicate inventory stacks.
- Offline bodies never expire and are immune to removal by entity placement or The Cave's temporary-corpse cleaner.
Localisation:
- Added complete English and Russian setting names, descriptions, messages and Enable/Disable values.
Version: 2.6.0
Date: 2026-07-15
Changes:
- Promoted the tested 2.5.93 build to the stable 2.6.0 release.
- Includes the independent per-cache Fortified Vault reward generation and sealed-entrance label cleanup from 2.5.93, with no additional gameplay or balance changes.
Version: 2.5.93
Date: 2026-07-15
Fixes:
- Reworked Fortified Vault cache rewards around a unique deterministic seed for every individual cache, combining Vault identity, cache index, tier, final position and unit identity.
- Split normal item selection, reward quantities, jackpot chance, jackpot selection and jackpot quantities into independent deterministic streams so same-colour caches no longer repeatedly produce near-identical reward packages.
- Preserved the larger 2.5.92 reward-pick volume while concentrating each cache around a varied subset of its tier pool; Spidertron remains excluded with exactly zero reward chance.
- Removed the yellow ENTER render label as soon as a Vault seals, leaving only the red SEALED label.
- Added save migration cleanup so already-sealed Vault entrances are repaired automatically when updating to this version.
Version: 2.5.92
Date: 2026-07-15
Balance:
- Tripled all Fortified lower-vault combat populations, including static enemies, nests, Worms, Gun Turrets, Laser Turrets and cache-alarm reinforcements.
- Tripled hidden cache populations to 180 Standard, 120 Secure and 60 High-Security caches in every Vault.
- Tripled normal and jackpot reward selections per cache and expanded cache inventory capacity to preserve the larger rewards.
- Increased destroyable Vault rocks from 4,000 to 10,000 in every difficulty.
Changes:
- Reduced the combat-safe landing zone to an exact 50x50 central square.
- Rocks may now appear throughout the combat-safe zone; only a small arrival pad around the exit, power pole and lamp remains clear so players cannot spawn trapped inside rocks.
- Pre-placed enemies, turrets, nests, Worms and caches remain excluded from the 50x50 combat-safe square.
Version: 2.5.91
Date: 2026-07-15
Changes:
- Removed the leftover default-terrain square ring around new circular Fortified lower Vaults; every tile outside the intended circle is now out-of-map.
- Standardized the exploration environment across Medium, Hard, and Nightmare: 350x350 floor, identical 141x141 safe landing zone, identical cache distribution and identical stronghold layout.
- Set every difficulty to generate up to 4,000 dense, one-tile, destroyable stone rocks outside the safe landing zone.
- Kept combat as the difficulty progression: Medium uses Medium enemies, Hard uses Big enemies, and Nightmare uses Behemoth enemies, with increasing Laser Turret, Gun Turret, spawner, worm and mobile-unit counts.
- Fortified lower Vault surfaces now enter Darkness Zone immediately: the warning appears on entry, the normal 5x5-chunk safe exemption is ignored, and the existing 30-second unlit grace timer starts at once unless a valid powered lamp protects the player.
Version: 2.5.90
Date: 2026-07-15
Balance:
- Standardized all Fortified Underground Vault floors to 350x350 in Medium, Hard, and Nightmare.
- Restored the completely clear central landing zone to 141x141 tiles (70 tiles in every direction from the lower entrance).
- Increased Laser Turrets, Gun Turrets, mobile enemies, spawners, worms, and stronghold clusters at every difficulty tier.
- Greatly increased destroyable rock populations to 280/400/520 and fixed rock generation so one failed placement no longer stops the remaining decoration pass.
- Kept all combat, rocks, caches, and structures outside the protected landing zone.
Version: 2.5.89
Date: 2026-07-15
Changes:
- Removed the Fortified Underground Vault one-entry-per-player restriction; players may now enter, leave and re-enter the same active vault freely until the 15-minute timer expires.
- Reworked the lower vault presentation to feel less boxed-in: replaced the hard square wall feel with a rounded playable boundary and a more open layout.
- Switched the lower-vault floor from uniform refined concrete to a more natural stony floor mix.
- Added scattered destroyable rock formations and small rock clusters for more natural underground decoration.
- Preserved the clear 101x101 central landing zone, existing loot limits, discovery chances and timer behaviour.
Version: 2.5.88
Date: 2026-07-15
Balance:
- Reduced Fortified Underground Vault floor sizes to 250x250 in Medium, 300x300 in Hard, and 350x350 in Nightmare.
- Reduced the completely clear central landing zone from 141x141 to 101x101 tiles (50 tiles in each direction from the lower entrance).
- Kept cache counts, defenders, loot quality, discovery chances, timer, and loot limits unchanged.
Version: 2.5.87
Date: 2026-07-15
Features:
- Expanded Fortified Underground Vault floors to 400x400 in Medium, 500x500 in Hard, and 600x600 in Nightmare.
- Added a completely clear 141x141 central landing zone; only the exit, cross-surface power pole and powered entrance lamp remain inside it.
- Replaced the dense full-map wall grid with separated stronghold compounds to create route choices and protect performance on the much larger surfaces.
- Increased lower-vault cache populations to 60/90/120 and substantially increased enemy, turret, spawner and worm populations by tier.
- Strengthened all hidden cache rewards, increased reward picks, and added secret deterministic jackpot outcomes without revealing contents before unlocking.
Balance:
- Doubled natural Fortified Vault discovery chances to 10% in Medium, 15% in Hard, and 20% in Nightmare.
- Reduced upper Fortified wall boxes to 20x20, 22x22 and 24x24 with tier-scaled light gateway defences.
- Kept the shared 15-minute timer, six-cache personal limit and fifteen-cache raid limit unchanged.
- Removed Spidertron from every normal reward and jackpot path; its Fortified Vault reward chance is exactly zero.
Version: 2.5.86
Date: 2026-07-14
Changes:
- Increased natural Fortified Research Vault discovery chance to 5% in Medium, 7.5% in Hard, and 10% in Nightmare.
- Reduced the post-vault minimum separation from 10 completed rooms to 6 and the spatial separation from 256 tiles to 160 tiles.
- Kept anti-back-to-back protection so Fortified Vaults remain special without becoming practically impossible to find.
Version: 2.5.85
Date: 2026-07-14
Changes:
- Enlarged each Fortified Underground Vault to roughly three times its previous floor area.
- Increased static defenders and cache alarm reinforcements by one difficulty step.
- Kept the 15-minute timer, cache counts, and personal/shared loot limits unchanged.
Version: 2.5.83
Date: 2026-07-14
Features:
- Rebuilt the Fortified Research Vault as a timed underground treasure raid.
- Removed the six central upper reward chests and replaced them with a fixed ENTER portal, information display, powered entrance lamp and cross-surface electric link.
- Added finite pitch-black underground vault surfaces with an indestructible room grid, scattered Standard/Secure/High-Security caches, enemy laser and gun turrets, Biters, Spitters, Worms and nests.
- The first successful entry starts one shared 15-minute timer; each player may enter a specific vault only once and claim at most six caches, while the raid has a shared maximum of fifteen claimed caches.
- Cache access now takes 8/12/18 seconds by security tier, requires the player to remain nearby, and triggers additional enemy alarm defenders.
- At 00:00 both entrances seal permanently, players left below die, and their corpse/items remain trapped on the vault surface.
Balance:
- Reduced the upper Fortified footprints from 40/45/50 to 32/36/40 tiles for Medium/Hard/Nightmare.
- Reduced the upper defence so it acts as a short gateway battle; the main fight and all meaningful loot are now underground.
- Medium lower gun turrets use piercing ammunition, while Hard and Nightmare use uranium ammunition.
Power and compatibility:
- Added fixed non-targetable upper and lower power poles connected with the same scripted cross-surface copper-wire method used by Uranium Caves.
- Power supplied to the upper pole powers the fixed lower entrance lamp; without upper power the lower arrival area remains dark.
- Added complete English and Russian localisation plus an admin test command: /the-cave-fortified-vault-test [medium|hard|nightmare].
Version: 2.5.81
Date: 2026-07-14
Features:
- Added a separate Startup setting named Starter Pack with Disabled, Small, Medium, Large and Lazy packages; Medium is the default.
- Each new player receives the selected package once, independently from the existing Faster Start armour and robot kit.
- Packages scale progressively across production machines, early power, materials, logistics, storage, defence, modules and utility items.
- Added Offshore Pumps, Stone Furnaces, Small Lamps, Electric Mining Drills, Assembling Machine 2 and Assembling Machine 3 to the balanced package tiers.
Compatibility:
- Recycler and Quality Module are granted only while the Space Age mod is active and their item prototypes exist.
- Missing optional item prototypes are skipped safely, and established players in existing saves are not granted a retroactive package.
- Rejoining, dying or respawning never duplicates the package; future newly created multiplayer players still receive it once.
Version: 2.5.80
Date: 2026-07-13
Progression:
- Added one guaranteed starter crude-oil well target 80-100 tiles from the initial Nauvis spawn.
- The target direction is deterministic and randomly chosen from north, south, east or west for each map seed.
- The well remains hidden behind unexplored cave rock and materializes only when a player digs within 6 tiles, so it does not reveal itself through the map or darkness.
- Starter oil uses the same normal 500%-1000% yield range as other Cave oil wells.
Compatibility:
- Existing saves receive the hidden target only when no crude-oil well already exists within 120 tiles of spawn.
- The regular oil-field grid, regional resources, enemies, Cave Market, Uranium Caves and all other gameplay systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.79
Date: 2026-07-13
Market UI:
- Renamed the Cave Market category "Space Age" to "Other".
- Moved the 200 Wood for 40 Coins deal from Power / Electric Network into Other, beside Tree Seed and the other miscellaneous progression items.
Compatibility:
- Tree Seed remains available only when its Space Age item prototype exists; Wood remains available in both normal Factorio and Space Age.
- Prices, quantities and all other market offers are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.78
Date: 2026-07-13
Economy:
- Added Tree Seed to The Cave Market: 1 Tree Seed costs 20 Coins when the Space Age item is available.
- Added Wood to The Cave Market: each deal gives 200 Wood for 40 Coins.
Compatibility:
- Tree Seed is hidden automatically when its item prototype is not loaded; Wood remains available in normal Factorio and Space Age.
- Digging rewards, tree generation, enemies, Uranium Caves and all other gameplay systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.77
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Restored the character's built-in Factorio flashlight inside Uranium Caves instead of forcing it off.
- Uranium Cave darkness remains pitch black, but each player now has the normal forward-facing character light while exploring.
- Saves and restores each player's previous flashlight preference when entering and leaving the cave.
- Flashlight state is also restored safely after cave closure, forced respawn, surface evacuation or record removal.
Compatibility:
- Existing players already inside a Uranium Cave are migrated immediately and have their flashlight enabled.
- Uranium Cave darkness, timer, power/fluid/item transfer, uranium generation and all other gameplay systems are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.76
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Restored normal cave-rock digging rewards in Vulcanus, Gleba, Fulgora and Aquilo regions when Everything on Nauvis is enabled.
- Mined diggy rocks now keep their built-in Stone result and again grant the normal Iron Ore, Copper Ore or Coal bonus outside the central Nauvis region.
Compatibility:
- Region-specific Space Age resources and generation remain unchanged; this only removes the rule that suppressed ordinary digging rewards outside Nauvis.
- Uranium Cave rewards, regional enemies, Coin economy, Space Age recipes, vehicle grids and train interiors are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.75
Date: 2026-07-13
Balance (regional enemy ecosystems):
- Kept vanilla Biter/Spitter ambushes and Biter/Spitter Spawner rooms active in Nauvis, Vulcanus, Gleba, Fulgora, Aquilo and Uranium Caves.
- Split nearby-unit safety caps so Pentapods no longer block Biter/Spitter ambushes, and Biter/Spitter packs no longer block Pentapod generation.
- Rebalanced Gleba around all three Pentapod families: Wrigglers are common swarm units, Strafers are medium-frequency ranged units, and Stompers are rarer heavy threats.
- Increased natural Gleba Egg Raft availability and added a weighted small/large native Egg Raft to Gleba Enemy Nest rooms while retaining vanilla Biter/Spitter nests for Coin generation.
- Moved Vulcanus Demolisher generation into large Vulcanus progression rooms, where their collision footprint can fit reliably; narrow three-tile tunnels no longer waste impossible Demolisher placement rolls.
- Added distance-scaled small/medium/big Demolisher guardians with a 220-tile separation rule and deterministic fallback when a larger tier cannot fit.
- Native regions use two vanilla spawners per Enemy Nest room and reduced vanilla mobile budgets, while regions without native enemies retain the full three-spawner 2.5.74 test balance.
- Combat-room cooldowns are now tracked independently per planetary region: one safe room normally, two safe rooms in Gleba and Vulcanus.
Compatibility:
- Existing enemy health, damage, evolution, Coin values, Space Age recipes, Uranium Cave, vehicle grids and train interiors are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.74
Date: 2026-07-13
Balance (multiplayer test):
- Increased direct-dig ambush chance from 1.5% to 4.5%, while retaining the 30-rock cooldown and nearby-unit safety cap.
- Raised the direct-dig ambush size test multiplier from 1x to 3x; existing difficulty-based mobile-enemy caps remain active.
- Doubled Enemy Nest room selection weight from 30 to 60 and reduced the mandatory safe-room gap after combat rooms from three rooms to one.
- Increased every generated Enemy Nest room from one Biter/Spitter Spawner to three mixed Spawners.
- Increased mobile Biter/Spitter defenders in Nest and Infested rooms by approximately 50%.
Economy:
- More generated vanilla Nauvis Spawners means more independent finite Nest Coin Value pools, restoring exploration-based Coin availability without changing Coin values per nest or enemy.
Compatibility:
- Existing saves still using the previous shipped defaults are automatically rebased to 4.5% ambush chance and 3x ambush size. Custom non-default values remain untouched.
- No enemy health, damage, evolution, coin values, Uranium Cave, Space Age recipe, vehicle-grid or train-interior logic was changed.
Version: 2.5.73
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Completed Everything on Nauvis surface-condition compatibility for Fulgora and Aquilo progression recipes.
- Removed the Fulgora magnetic-field restriction from Electromagnetic Plant and Recycler, in addition to the three already-supported Fulgora recipes.
- Removed the Aquilo pressure restriction from Cryogenic Plant, Fusion Reactor, Fusion Generator and Quantum Processor, while retaining the existing Cryogenic Science Pack support.
Compatibility:
- These changes apply only when Space Age is active and Everything on Nauvis is enabled.
- Normal planet-travel mode keeps all vanilla surface restrictions unchanged.
- Vulcanus and Gleba compatibility, Tank/Spidertron grid preservation, Uranium Cave systems and train interiors remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.72
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Fixed researched Tank and Spidertron equipment grids being emptied after mining the vehicle into inventory and placing it again.
- Added hidden matching item-with-entity-data prototypes for every upgraded Tank and Spidertron grid level, allowing Factorio to preserve the complete expanded grid natively.
- Equipment names, positions, quality, stored energy and shield state now survive pickup and replacement without being converted through the smaller vanilla vehicle item grid.
Compatibility:
- Existing placed upgraded Tanks and Spidertrons begin returning the correct internal data-preserving item as soon as this version loads.
- The internal items keep the normal Tank/Spidertron name and icon and remain hidden from crafting and Factoriopedia lists.
- Armor upgrades, Uranium Cave systems, train interiors and all unrelated gameplay remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.71
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Fixed the English and Russian five-minute Uranium Cave collapse-warning locale entries being split across invalid physical lines.
- Factorio can now load the mod normally.
Compatibility:
- No timer, transfer, uranium, cave-closing or gameplay logic changed from 2.5.70.
Version: 2.5.70
Date: 2026-07-13
Features:
- Added a shared 30-minute Uranium Cave stability timer that starts on the first successful player entry.
- Added synchronized MM:SS countdown displays below the fixed large electric poles on both the upper surface and inside the Uranium Cave.
- At 05:00 remaining, new entry is blocked and one evacuation warning is issued; EXIT remains usable until closure.
- The cave now seals at whichever deadline occurs first: the 30-minute stability limit, or five minutes after all uranium is depleted.
Safety:
- Players still inside at 00:00 die and are respawned on the parent surface; equipment and builds left below are permanently inaccessible.
- Timer state persists in the save and therefore survives save/load and dedicated-server restarts. Offline server time does not count down.
Compatibility:
- Existing 2.5.69 test caves begin at 30:00 on their next successful entry. If a player is already inside during migration, the timer begins immediately.
- Repeated countdown chat alarms were removed because both surfaces now show the live timer; only the final five-minute evacuation warning remains.
Version: 2.5.69
Date: 2026-07-13
Features:
- Added an upper-surface Uranium Cave information Display Panel beside the fixed big electric pole on Nauvis.
- The panel uses the radioactivity signal icon and permanently shows an information block explaining ENTER, EXIT, INPUT, OUTPUT, cave danger, uranium extraction, cave exhaustion and the need to leave before closure.
Compatibility:
- Existing 2.5.68 Uranium Caves automatically create or refresh the new info panel on configuration change or the next transfer-layout rebuild.
- The panel is not wired to anything, is not minable, and does not change the existing transfer, power, uranium, darkness or cave-size systems.
Version: 2.5.68
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Corrected the upper Nauvis layout after 2.5.67 moved the wrong side.
- Restored the upper INPUT linked underground belt and pipe-to-ground to their original positions.
- Moved the upper OUTPUT linked underground belt and pipe-to-ground exactly one tile to the left.
- Recentered the upper INPUT and OUTPUT labels for the corrected endpoint positions.
Compatibility:
- Existing 2.5.67 test caves migrate once while preserving every player-selected belt and pipe direction.
- Rotation persistence, lower Uranium Cave layout, ENTER/EXIT labels, 200x200 boundary, uranium, power and transfer logic remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.67
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Player-selected rotations for all Uranium Cave linked underground belts and pipe-to-ground transfer ports are now persisted in mod storage.
- Entering or leaving a Uranium Cave no longer teleports fixed transfer ports during ordinary validation, preventing their direction from returning to the default orientation.
- Linked-belt reconnect and damaged-port rebuild paths now capture and restore the player-selected direction.
- Save/load and server restart keep the stored transfer-port directions.
Changes:
- On the upper Nauvis surface, the INPUT linked underground belt and INPUT pipe-to-ground were both moved exactly one tile left.
- The upper INPUT label was recentered over the shifted endpoints.
Compatibility:
- Existing 2.5.66 test caves migrate the upper INPUT pair once while preserving their current rotations.
- The lower 2.5.66 layout, short INPUT/OUTPUT labels, ENTER/EXIT labels, 200x200 boundary, uranium, darkness, power and transfer behaviour remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.66
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Corrected the lower Uranium Cave INPUT-side endpoints after the previous test placement was wrong.
- The lower INPUT underground belt now sits two tiles left of the cave exit centre.
- The lower INPUT underground pipe now also sits two tiles left of its previous side, matching the requested left-shifted layout.
- The lower INPUT render label is recentered to match the new left-shifted endpoints.
Compatibility:
- Existing 2.5.65 test caves automatically reposition both lower INPUT endpoints and refresh the label on load via the new transfer layout version.
- POWER LINK removal, short INPUT/OUTPUT labels, ENTER/EXIT labels, the 200x200 boundary, uranium rewards, darkness, power and transfer logic remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.64
Date: 2026-07-13
Changes:
- Removed the unused pre-release lower-cave compatibility layer completely. Uranium Cave is now the only lower-cave system and naming path.
- Renamed the runtime module, prototypes, startup setting, storage registry, portal entities, locale namespace and graphics directory to Uranium Cave identifiers.
- Removed the obsolete legacy test-command alias and old unsuffixed exit prototype.
Compatibility:
- This is a pre-release cleanup and intentionally does not migrate obsolete experimental test saves.
- The finite boundary remains applied to Uranium Cave: exactly 200x200 total tiles with a four-tile permanent boundary ring and a 192x192 diggable interior.
- Uranium amounts, darkness, power, lamp, transfer systems and digging rewards remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.63
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Restored ordinary hand-mined rock rewards inside Uranium Cave surfaces.
- Mining a lower-cave diggy rock now keeps its normal stone result and also grants the same iron ore, copper ore or coal bonus used by Nauvis cave digging.
- Lower-cave reward scaling now inherits Medium/Hard/Nightmare from the upper entrance instead of incorrectly treating the centred (0,0) lower surface as Easy.
Compatibility:
- Uranium vein totals, uranium placement, Ore Is Blood exclusions, the 200x200 boundary, power, lamp and transfer systems remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.62
Date: 2026-07-13
Features:
- Rebuilt every newly created Uranium Cave as a true finite 200x200-tile child surface.
- New lower caves now use their own neutral centre at coordinates (0,0), fully independent of the upper entrance coordinates and regional terrain.
- Replaced the former circular radius check with an exact square boundary: 200x200 total tiles with a four-tile permanent no-dig rock ring on every side.
Safety:
- Added bounds checks to normal carving, safe scripted carving and uranium-vein placement so no room, fallback tile or ore patch can open beyond the permanent inner limit.
- Existing opened test caves are sealed to the same 200x200 square around their current lower arrival point without moving the station or deleting in-bounds builds.
Compatibility:
- Power transfer, lower lamp position, item/fluid transfer, darkness, ten-room cap and Medium/Hard/Nightmare uranium totals remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.61
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Fixed Uranium Cave travel failing with transfer-failed after the lower arrival lamp was moved beside the Big Electric Pole.
- The lamp-site cleanup now explicitly preserves the lower Big Electric Pole instead of deleting it through the overlapping cleanup area.
Compatibility:
- The lamp remains exactly one tile to the right of the lower Big Electric Pole, matching the requested two-tile-left adjustment from 2.5.59.
- Broken 2.5.60 test caves with no completed lower transfer group can rebuild the group on the next travel attempt.
- Resource Level geometry, direct cross-surface power transfer, uranium generation and all other systems remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.60
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Moved the fixed lower Uranium Cave arrival lamp exactly two tiles left from its 2.5.59 position, placing it one tile to the right of the lower Big Electric Pole.
Compatibility:
- Existing Uranium Caves automatically reposition their fixed lower lamp during the normal 120-tick power-link repair check.
- Resource Level geometry, direct cross-surface power transfer, uranium generation and all other systems remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.59
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Made The Cave Resource Level the sole controller of normal ore-vein geometry for both Mixed Resources and classic iron/copper/coal/stone patches.
- Removed the hidden distance-based 1.0x-3.5x vein-width multiplier that could make Resource Level 2 grow to the effective size of Level 7 in distant cave zones.
Balance:
- Easy/Medium/Hard/Nightmare depth zones still control ore amount per tile through their existing richness ranges; they no longer change the physical width of a vein.
- Preserved all eight existing Resource Level choices and kept Level 2 as the default.
Compatibility:
- Existing ore entities are not resized or deleted. The corrected geometry applies only to newly uncovered resource tiles.
- Uranium Cave generation, surface-uranium removal, the 2.5.58 direct power bridge and all other systems remain unchanged.
Version: 2.5.58
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Replaced the Uranium Cave accumulator-copy bridge with a real scripted copper-wire connection between the fixed upper and lower Big Electric Poles.
- The direct cross-surface link now uses Factorio's wire connector API with distance/surface reach checking disabled, matching the proven Subsurface tunnel-link method.
- Removed active hidden Uranium Cave connector poles, input buffers and output buffers; their prototypes remain only for safe migration from 2.5.56/2.5.57 test saves.
- Existing test caves automatically delete their legacy hidden bridge entities and reconnect the two visible poles.
- Moved the fixed lower arrival lamp exactly one tile to the right.
Performance:
- Removed per-tick energy copying. The bridge now relies on Factorio's native electric network and only verifies/repairs the scripted copper connection every 120 ticks.
Testing:
- Updated /the-cave-uranium-power-test to report whether the direct pole-to-pole link is CONNECTED or DISCONNECTED, together with the upper/lower network IDs and lamp status.
Version: 2.5.57
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Removed the 2.5.56 hidden connector poles from the active Uranium Cave power bridge. They could form isolated electric subnetworks and leave the hidden input/output buffers disconnected from the visible Big Electric Poles.
- Placed each hidden power buffer directly under its visible Big Electric Pole, matching the proven Train Interiors bridge layout.
- Changed the upper bridge charger from tertiary accumulator priority to secondary-input so lower-cave power does not depend only on surplus accumulator charging.
- Forced the fixed lower lamp into always-on mode whenever the bridge is active.
Testing:
- Added /the-cave-uranium-power-test to print upper/lower electric network IDs and stored bridge energy if another runtime issue is observed.
Compatibility:
- Existing 2.5.56 test caves automatically remove the legacy connector poles and rebuild only their hidden power entities; stable 2.5.53 remains unchanged.
Version: 2.5.56
Date: 2026-07-13
Fixes:
- Rebuilt the Uranium Cave electric bridge with explicit hidden connector poles and tertiary accumulator charging so power connected to the upper Big Electric Pole reaches the lower network reliably.
- Added a fixed powered lamp beside the lower Big Electric Pole to illuminate only the arrival and logistics area while the rest of the cave remains pitch black.
- Replaced unreachable coordinate-hidden uranium plans with guaranteed room-based veins. Each newly opened Uranium Cave room now reveals one deterministic vein until the zone total is fully placed.
- Preserved the exact Medium/Hard/Nightmare totals of 20,000/40,000/60,000 uranium and continued excluding every other natural resource.
Compatibility:
- Existing 2.5.55 test caves are migrated. If they already contain opened rooms but no visible uranium, one accessible vein is created in an existing open area and the remaining uranium is assigned to future rooms.
- Built as a separate experimental test update; stable 2.5.53 remains unchanged.
Version: 2.5.55
Date: 2026-07-13
Features:
- Replaced the experimental Uranium Cave test with finite Uranium Caves discovered from Medium depth onward.
- Converted the former Sanctuary room into a dry Uranium Cave entrance room and placed the cave mouth at its centre.
- Added lazy independent Uranium Cave surfaces with a ten-room cap, a hard 100-tile boundary and permanent end-wall rocks.
- Added fixed Blue Belt-speed item transfer pairs, one-way fluid transfer pairs and an automatic upper-to-lower electric power bridge.
- Added clear floating Input, Output and Power Link labels around the upper and lower transfer stations.
- Added pitch-black cave interiors with player flashlights disabled so powered lamps are required.
Balance:
- Uranium Caves do not generate in Easy. Medium, Hard and Nightmare caves contain exactly 20,000, 40,000 and 60,000 uranium ore respectively.
- Uranium is split deterministically across several veins; no iron, copper, coal, stone, water or other natural resources generate inside.
- Newly opened upper-cave terrain no longer generates raw uranium ore. Existing uranium patches in old saves remain untouched.
- Enemy tiers inside each Uranium Cave inherit the Medium, Hard or Nightmare zone of the entrance.
Gameplay:
- When the final uranium is depleted, new entry is blocked and players receive a five-minute evacuation warning.
- After five minutes, players still inside die and everything left in the sealed cave becomes permanently inaccessible.
- Exhausted entrances remain visible but permanently unusable.
- Added /the-cave-uranium-cave-test and /the-cave-uranium-cave-exhaust-test administrator commands for focused testing.
Compatibility:
- Built from stable 2.5.53 as a separate experimental branch; stable 2.5.53 remains unchanged.
- Existing 2.5.54 Phase 1 test caves are migrated to the finite dry uranium-only design where possible.
Version: 2.5.53
Date: 2026-07-12
Balance:
- Rebalanced direct-dig ambush zone baselines to Easy 4-6, Medium 8-12, Hard 12-16 and Nightmare 16-20 mobile enemies.
- The Cave Difficulty now scales mobile Biter/Spitter counts separately from depth-zone selection, with Medium remaining the baseline.
- Added hard global-difficulty caps for all direct-dig ambushes and ordinary combat-room mobile defenders: Easy 10, Medium 18, Hard 28 and Nightmare 35.
- Applied the same bounded difficulty scaling to Nest, Infested, Treasure, Nuclear, Boss and Hoard room mobile defenders; Fortified Research Vault defenders remain independent and unchanged.
Performance:
- Preserved the 1.5% ambush chance, 30-rock cooldown, nearby-unit blocker, three-room combat cooldown, static Nest/Worm counts and removed nest-death brood waves.
- Difficulty can no longer multiply a single encounter beyond its selected CPU-safe cap.
Compatibility:
- Existing saves remain compatible. New values apply only to future direct ambushes and newly generated combat rooms.
Version: 2.5.52
Date: 2026-07-12
Balance:
- Doubled all mobile-enemy counts from the 2.5.51 test balance without changing encounter frequency.
- Direct rock ambushes are now Easy 4-6, Medium 4-8, Hard 8-12 and Nightmare 12-16 mobile enemies.
- Doubled fixed mobile defender budgets for Nest, Infested, Treasure, Nuclear, Boss and Hoard rooms. Nightmare Boss Rooms now cap at 32 mobile enemies.
Performance:
- Kept the 1.5% direct-ambush chance, 30-rock cooldown, 24-unit nearby ambush blocker, three-room combat cooldown, fixed room budgets and removed nest-death brood waves.
- Static Nest/Worm counts and Fortified Research Vault defenders remain unchanged.
Compatibility:
- Existing saves remain compatible. The stronger counts apply only to future direct ambushes and newly generated combat rooms.
Version: 2.5.51
Date: 2026-07-12
Balance:
- Rebuilt direct rock ambushes around small fixed packs: Easy 2-3, Medium 2-4, Hard 4-6 and Nightmare 6-8 mobile enemies.
- Reduced the default direct-ambush chance from 10% to 1.5% and added a 30 directly-mined-rock cooldown after every successful ambush.
- Added a hard nearby safety cap: a direct dig cannot create another ambush when 24 enemy units already exist within 80 tiles.
- Replaced multiplicative combat-room scaling with fixed CPU-safe mobile-enemy budgets. Normal rooms now top out at 16 mobile enemies in Nightmare.
- Reduced Nest, Infested, Treasure, Nuclear, Boss and Hoard room defenders while preserving stronger enemy tiers at deeper difficulty levels.
- Added a three-room exploration cooldown after every combat room so battle rooms cannot appear back-to-back.
Bugfixes:
- Direct digging no longer creates nests or worms; those structures now belong only to explicitly generated combat rooms.
- Mining a rock that successfully opens a cavern room no longer also triggers a separate direct-dig ambush.
- Removed the nest-death brood effect that could release another 50-150 enemies from every destroyed nest.
- Suppressed per-tile planetary enemy and nest rolls while cavern rooms are being carved, so room threat budgets are the sole source of room combat.
- Added a local Gleba natural-creature cap along ordinary tunnels to prevent repeated tile rolls from building CPU-heavy crowds.
Compatibility:
- Fortified Research Vault defender layouts remain unchanged and retain their independent rarity and spacing rules.
- Existing saves remain compatible. Enemies already spawned in explored areas are not deleted automatically; the new limits apply to future digs and newly generated rooms.
- Old shipped runtime defaults for ambush chance, nest chance and pack size are automatically rebased to the new safe defaults; custom non-default values are preserved where possible.
Version: 2.5.50
Date: 2026-07-12
Features:
- Added Aquilo Progression Rooms in Everything on Nauvis mode. Every normal Aquilo Empty Room now contains a guaranteed Big Lithium Iceberg, small Lithium Brine/Fluorine/Crude Oil starter wells, and a compact pumpable Ammoniacal Ocean basin.
- Added permanent room-footprint registration for Fulgora, Gleba, Vulcanus and Aquilo so newly generated rooms cannot overlap earlier rooms.
- Added 1-3 clean corridor segments before Space Age-region rooms. Each corridor is 4 tiles wide and 10-20 tiles long.
Balance:
- Reduced Vulcanus Progression Room Calcite, Coal and Tungsten starter deposits to about 500 total units each so they only start research and do not replace normal regional veins.
Bugfixes:
- Room candidates now validate their full generated footprint plus a 12-tile safety buffer before carving or spawning contents.
- Added existing-save protection by detecting substantial already-open room terrain and player structures before a new room is created.
- Removed Aquilo's exact pressure-300 condition from Cryogenic Science Pack only while Everything on Nauvis is enabled.
- Removed Fulgora's exact magnetic-field-99 condition from Electromagnetic Science Pack, Lightning Rod and Lightning Collector only while Everything on Nauvis is enabled.
Compatibility:
- Normal interplanetary travel mode remains unchanged; official planet pressure, magnetic-field and freezing behaviour is preserved when Everything on Nauvis is disabled.
- No scripted Aquilo freezing, temperature scanning or heating simulation was added.
- Existing saves remain compatible. Historical rooms are protected by terrain validation, while permanent footprint registration begins with newly generated rooms.
Version: 2.5.49
Date: 2026-07-12
Bugfixes:
- Changed all non-player cave-cover destruction to geometry-only tunnel carving.
- Demolishers now remove only the cave rocks directly in their movement path and can no longer trigger procedural tunnels or cavern rooms.
- Demolisher, robot, explosion, fire, enemy, vehicle, turret and scripted destruction can no longer generate Enemy Nest Rooms, Horde Rooms, special rooms, resources, treasure, threats, dig enemies or room-discovery messages.
- Cavern and room generation is now explicitly restricted to a player directly mining a diggy-rock.
- Non-player destruction no longer receives dig-volume/depth progression credit or automatically charts the surrounding cave.
Compatibility:
- Direct player mining keeps the full existing cave-generation, room-content and hostile-ambush behaviour.
- Demolisher tunnels still maintain the cave frontier and structural/collapse state without spawning new content.
- Existing saves remain compatible; no migration is required.
Version: 2.5.48
Date: 2026-07-12
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the non-recoverable Vulcanus digging crash caused by the invalid big-volcanic-rock-hot prototype name.
- Removed both nonexistent hot volcanic-rock entity names and now use only the official big-volcanic-rock and huge-volcanic-rock prototypes.
- Hardened nearby Vulcanus natural-feature checks so missing or changed optional prototypes are filtered before LuaSurface.find_entities_filtered is called.
Compatibility:
- All Vulcanus Progression Room, pressure-4000, Demolisher ambush-suppression and normal-tree behaviour from 2.5.47 are preserved.
- Existing saves remain compatible; no migration is required.
Version: 2.5.47
Date: 2026-07-12
Features:
- Converted every normal Empty Room in the Vulcanus region into a guaranteed Vulcanus Progression Room.
- Added official Vulcanus Big/Huge Volcanic Rocks, Calcite, Coal, Tungsten Ore, a Sulfuric Acid Geyser, a pumpable Lava pool and native Ashland Lichen Trees to each newly generated Vulcanus Progression Room.
- Added native Vulcanus volcanic rocks and Ashland Lichen Trees as occasional natural features in newly carved non-progression rooms.
Bugfixes:
- Removed the exact Vulcanus pressure-4000 restriction from the seven official Vulcanus production recipes when Everything on Nauvis is enabled.
- Hostile dig ambushes now run only when a player directly mines a cave rock. Demolishers, robots, explosions, fire, enemies, vehicles, turrets and scripted destruction still open the cave but no longer spawn biters, spitters or nests.
- Removed trees from the cave-digging frontier. New frontier cover is always rock; trees now behave as ordinary harvestable trees and never open terrain or trigger dig enemies.
Compatibility:
- Normal planet-travel mode keeps all official surface-pressure restrictions unchanged.
- Existing legacy diggy-tree entities remain harvestable ordinary trees but no longer count as cave cover or supports.
- Nauvis, Gleba, Fulgora and Aquilo room progression behaviour is unchanged.
- Existing saves remain compatible; Vulcanus Progression Rooms apply to newly generated Vulcanus Empty Rooms.
Version: 2.5.46
Date: 2026-07-12
Bugfixes:
- Converted every normal Empty Room in the Gleba region into a guaranteed Gleba Progression Room.
- Added reliable Iron Stromatolite, Copper Stromatolite, Yumako Tree, Jellystem, marsh, water and an official small Egg Raft to each newly generated Gleba Progression Room.
- Corrected the official small Egg Raft prototype name to gleba-spawner-small so Pentapod Egg sources can spawn correctly.
- Removed the exact Gleba pressure-2000 restriction from the eleven official Gleba production recipes when Everything on Nauvis is enabled, allowing Biochambers, Pentapod Egg replication, soils, bacteria processing and Agricultural Science Packs on the shared cave surface.
Compatibility:
- Normal planet-travel mode keeps all official surface-pressure restrictions unchanged.
- Nauvis, Vulcanus, Fulgora and Aquilo room behaviour is unchanged.
- The Spidertron equipment-grid, Train Interior infestation and Fulgora Ruins fixes from 2.5.42-2.5.45 are preserved.
- Existing saves remain compatible; Gleba Progression Rooms apply to newly generated Gleba Empty Rooms.
Version: 2.5.45
Date: 2026-07-12
Bugfixes:
- Rebuilt Fulgora Ruins Rooms as real ruined districts using vanilla Fulgora paving, wall, conduit and machinery tiles.
- Added multiple real Fulgoran ruin entities to every newly generated Fulgora Ruins Room instead of a single silent placement attempt.
- Guaranteed a real Fulgoran Vault Ruin in the first newly generated Ruins Room for each force and surface so Recycling research cannot remain progression-locked.
- Fulgora Ruins Rooms are now large enough for the Vault and surrounding small, medium and large ruins.
- Discovery text is shown only after at least one actual ruin entity was successfully created.
Compatibility:
- The Spidertron equipment-grid fix and Train Interior infestation exemption from 2.5.42-2.5.43 are preserved.
- Nauvis, Vulcanus, Gleba, Aquilo and all non-Fulgora Empty Rooms remain unchanged.
- Existing saves remain compatible; the rebuilt layout applies to newly generated Fulgora Ruins Rooms.
Version: 2.5.44
Date: 2026-07-12
Bugfixes:
- Reworked Fulgora ruin generation so every normal Empty Room in the Fulgora region becomes a dedicated Fulgora Ruins Room.
- Fulgora Ruins Rooms are enlarged and fully carved before a small Fulgoran ruin is placed, preventing the old single-tile placement failures.
- Suppressed per-tile resources, environmental objects, enemies and ore veins while carving these rooms so the ruin always has a clear placement area.
Compatibility:
- Empty Rooms on Nauvis, Vulcanus, Gleba, Aquilo and all other non-Fulgora regions are unchanged.
- Existing saves remain compatible; the new room behaviour applies to newly generated Fulgora cavern rooms.
Version: 2.5.43
Date: 2026-07-12
Bugfixes:
- Exempted all The Cave Train Interior surfaces from Darkness Infestation.
- Entering any Train Interior now resets and suspends the 30-second darkness timer and prevents infestation enemies from spawning there, regardless of where the exterior train is parked.
Compatibility:
- Outside-cave behaviour, the 5x5-chunk safe zone, Small Lamp and Lamp Post ranges, warning time, and enemy balance are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.42
Date: 2026-07-12
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the Equipment Grid research crash when an active Tank or Spidertron contained ordinary cargo items.
- Stopped vehicle inventory snapshots from reading tool-only durability or ammo-only properties from incompatible items.
- Preserved item and equipment quality while replacing upgraded vehicle entities.
- Added a fail-safe so equipment or cargo is spilled safely instead of being silently deleted if restoration is blocked by another mod.
Version: 2.5.41
Date: 2026-07-11
Bugfixes:
- Added the integrated Lamp Post to Darkness Infestation protection checks.
- A powered, circuit-enabled Lamp Post now protects players within 30 tiles.
Compatibility:
- The vanilla Small Lamp keeps its existing 12-tile protection range.
- No lamp graphics, recipes, power use, electrical networks, or save data were changed.
Version: 2.5.40
Date: 2026-07-11
Multiplayer Bugfixes:
- Reworked the integrated Damage Indicator to prevent server/client state divergence during combat.
- Replaced all Damage Indicator math.random calls with deterministic event-derived visual offsets.
- Removed display resolution, display scale and player zoom from shared indicator creation decisions.
- Moved shared grouping, limits, font, viewport and server-override controls to synchronized Map settings.
- Rebuilds active indicators when a shared Damage Indicator setting changes.
Notes:
- Existing per-player visibility, colour, scale, text and animation preferences remain available.
- Active indicators are safely cleared during the version migration; gameplay entities and save progress are untouched.
Version: 2.5.39
Date: 2026-07-11
Changes:
- Replaced the Mod List description with the approved concise overview for normal Factorio, Space Age, Everything on Nauvis, and configurable scenarios.
Version: 2.5.38
Date: 2026-07-11
Changes:
- Replaced the long Mod List description with a short gameplay overview.
- Added the compact Everything On Nauvis direction guide to the description.
Bugfixes:
- Corrected the English and Russian direction guides to match the actual cave regions: left/west is Vulcanus and right/east is Fulgora.
Version: 2.5.37
Date: 2026-07-11
Changes:
- Increased the original vanilla Small Electric Pole wire reach to 9 tiles.
- Increased its electrical supply area to 7x7 tiles.
Compatibility:
- Modified the existing small-electric-pole prototype directly; no replacement entity, item, recipe or graphics were added.
- Existing poles, ghosts, blueprints and save files keep using the original vanilla prototype name.
Version: 2.5.36
Date: 2026-07-11
Features:
- Integrated Superheating 1.1.2 as an optional Startup feature.
- Added solid-fuel and liquid-fuel boilers and superheaters for 165°C and 465°C steam production.
- Preserved the original two-stage mode and optional single-stage compatibility mode.
- Added configurable crude oil, heavy oil, light oil and petroleum gas fuel values.
- Converted all integrated Startup checkboxes to explicit Enable/Disable dropdowns.
- Added complete English and Russian localisation.
Compatibility:
- Preserved original entity, item, recipe and technology prototype names for save migration.
- Added an incompatibility dependency for the standalone Superheating mod to prevent duplicate prototypes.
- Existing liquid-fuel values from other mods are respected unless the override option is explicitly enabled.
Version: 2.5.35
Date: 2026-07-11
Features:
- Integrated Chemical Rocket and Incendiary Rocket ammunition behind a Startup Enable/Disable setting.
- Both recipes unlock with Explosive Rocketry.
- Added complete English and Russian localisation.
Compatibility:
- Added an incompatibility dependency for the standalone chemical-rocket mod to prevent duplicate prototypes.
- Removed the original mod's unrelated forced Flamethrower Ammo unlock to avoid changing vanilla progression.
Version: 2.5.34
Date: 2026-07-11
Faster Start:
- Added two standard Personal Battery equipment modules to the starter armour.
- The batteries are installed fully charged and fill the four grid slots left open after Night Vision was removed.
Version: 2.5.33
Date: 2026-07-11
Changes:
- Rebalanced the integrated Faster Start kit.
- Increased the compact reactor output from 110 kW to 250 kW.
- Removed Night Vision from the starter armour to preserve The Cave darkness progression.
- Increased the exoskeleton movement bonus from 15% to 30%.
- Increased the self-powered construction robot grant from 10 to 50 per player.
Version: 2.5.32
Date: 2026-07-11
Features:
- Integrated FasterStart 2.0.3 as an optional Startup feature.
- Added compact modular armour with reactor, night vision, personal roboport and light exoskeleton.
- Added 10 self-powered, highly durable construction robots for each player, delivered once.
- Added English and Russian localisation and multiplayer-safe player-index tracking.
Compatibility:
- The standalone FasterStart mod is marked incompatible to prevent duplicate prototypes.
- The Cave keeps ownership of crash-site and intro behaviour; FasterStart's duplicate settings were not imported.
Version: 2.5.31
Date: 2026-07-10
Features:
- Integrated Electric Furnaces 2.5.2 into The Cave as optional startup features.
- Added electric stone and steel furnaces, Electric Furnace 2 and 3, and an electric boiler.
- Added explicit Enable/Disable dropdowns for every integrated feature and the distinct-icon option.
- Added English and Russian localisation and upgrade-planner support.
Compatibility:
- Marked the standalone Electric Furnaces mod as incompatible to prevent duplicate prototypes.
Version: 2.5.30
Date: 2026-07-10
Bugfixes:
- Fixed duplicate locale section errors in the integrated Lamp Post English and Russian localisation files.
- Fixed duplicate locale section errors in the integrated Lamp Post Startup setting localisation files.
Version: 2.5.29
Date: 10. 07. 2026
Features:
- Integrated the Lamp Post as an optional The Cave feature with an Enable/Disable startup setting.
- Added the wide-area lamp entity, item, recipe, technology, upgrade path, graphics, and English/Russian localisation.
Compatibility:
- Added an incompatibility guard for the standalone lamp-post mod to prevent duplicate prototypes.
Version: 2.5.28
Date: 2026-07-09
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Turret Range Upgrade variants losing prototype-specific damage research bonuses while retaining only their ammo-category bonus.
- Gun Turret and Flamethrower Turret range variants now receive the same final turret-attack modifier as their original turret prototype.
- The fix is generic and also covers Laser, Rocket, Tesla and Railgun turret variants whenever loaded technologies or other mods use turret-specific attack modifiers.
- Existing multiplayer saves are repaired automatically during configuration change; no research reset or new save is required.
- Damage modifiers are re-synchronised after every completed or reversed research, while range variants are still upgraded or downgraded only by The Cave's five Turret Range technologies.
Version: 2.5.27
Date: 2026-07-09
Regional resource-vein test:
- Added a central 1000-tile Nauvis boundary guard inside the core ore-vein materializer, preventing Caverns and automatic carving from leaking Nauvis iron, copper, coal, stone, uranium or crude oil into Space Age regions.
- Closed the old diagonal boundary gaps: every coordinate at or beyond the 1000-tile radius now belongs to Gleba, Aquilo, Vulcanus or Fulgora by dominant direction.
- Replaced the old random regional resource patches with deterministic simplex tendrils using the same depth-widening and Resource Patch Size rules as Nauvis veins.
- Fulgora now generates Scrap veins only; Oil Ocean remains a separate liquid-tile resource.
- Vulcanus now generates Coal, Calcite and Tungsten Ore veins plus spaced Sulfuric Acid Geyser chains; Lava remains separate terrain.
- Gleba now generates Stone veins plus Iron and Copper Stromatolite bands, while its Yumako, Jellynut and wildlife systems remain unchanged.
- Aquilo now generates spaced Crude Oil, Lithium Brine and Fluorine Vent chains, rare mineable Lithium Iceberg bands, and cave water pockets become Ammoniacal Ocean instead of normal water.
- Manual digging and automatically carved Caverns now use the same regional resource profiles.
- Disabled all generic wall-mining resource rewards outside the central Nauvis region, including the rock prototype's built-in Stone result.
Save safety:
- Existing explored resource entities are not deleted or rewritten. The corrected rules apply only as new cave tiles and rooms are opened.
- The separate experimental Fulgora ruins/Fulgorite placement system is unchanged in this focused resource test.
Version: 2.5.26
Date: 2026-07-09
Fulgora environment completion test:
- Added the real Space Age mineable Fulgoran ruin prototypes to newly opened Fulgora cave terrain: small, medium, stonehenge, big, huge, colossal and rare vault ruins.
- Added natural Fulgorite clusters, providing the vanilla mineable stone and Holmium ore drops without creating a normal Holmium resource patch.
- Added rare natural Fulgoran ruin lightning attractors with their vanilla 20-tile protection range and zero power-generation efficiency.
- Added occasional mineable Big Fulgora Rocks for the missing natural stone scenery.
- Updated the custom yellow lightning-danger warning so natural Fulgoran ruin attractors remove the warning while the player is inside their protection range.
Generation and compatibility:
- All placement is deterministic from map seed and tile coordinates for multiplayer and dedicated-server safety.
- Large ruins use spacing and region-boundary checks so they do not cluster or spill into Nauvis, Gleba, Vulcanus or Aquilo.
- Existing explored terrain is not retroactively filled; the new objects appear when fresh Fulgora cave tiles are opened.
- Requires Space Age and Everything on Nauvis. No new graphics or custom item prototypes were added.
Version: 2.5.25
Date: 2026-07-08
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the custom Fulgora lightning-danger warning remaining visible while the player was inside a protected Lightning Rod or Lightning Collector area.
Changes:
- The yellow warning now appears only inside The Cave's Fulgora region when the player is outside all nearby Lightning Rod and Lightning Collector protection ranges.
- Entering a protected area removes the warning within half a second; leaving the protected area restores it within half a second.
- Protection range follows vanilla Space Age values: 15 tiles for Lightning Rods and 25 tiles for Lightning Collectors, including the normal quality-based range increases up to legendary quality.
- Lightning generation, strike frequency, damage and attraction behaviour are unchanged from 2.5.24.
Version: 2.5.24
Date: 2026-07-08
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the yellow lightning-danger warning icon following the player outside The Cave's Fulgora region on the shared Nauvis surface.
Changes:
- Replaced the planet-wide engine warning sprite on Nauvis with a region-aware runtime warning marker.
- The vanilla lightning warning icon is now shown only while a connected player is physically inside the Fulgora region and is removed within half a second after leaving for Nauvis, Gleba, Vulcanus or Aquilo.
- Lightning generation, strike targeting, damage and attraction behaviour are unchanged from 2.5.23.
Version: 2.5.23
Date: 2026-07-08
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Fulgora-region lightning never appearing because scripted lightning requires a lightning generator on the Nauvis planet surface.
Changes:
- Added Fulgora's vanilla lightning target rules to Nauvis with automatic global strikes disabled, so only The Cave's runtime Fulgora-region storm can create lightning.
- Reduced the test strike radius so lightning is easier to see near the player while remaining inside the Fulgora region.
Version: 2.5.22
Date: 2026-07-08
Fulgora lightning test:
- Added runtime lightning to the Fulgora region created by Everything on Nauvis.
- Lightning is generated only near connected players who are physically inside The Cave's Fulgora wedge.
- Added a 12-tile safety margin from the Fulgora region boundary so lightning targeting cannot spill into Nauvis, Vulcanus, Gleba or Aquilo regions.
- Nearby multiplayer players share one storm cell to prevent excessive duplicate strikes and unnecessary runtime load.
- Preserved normal lightning attraction behaviour for rods, collectors and player structures through LuaSurface.execute_lightning.
- Protected The Cave's mineable frontier rocks and trees from direct random strike placement.
Compatibility:
- Requires Space Age and Everything on Nauvis to be enabled; otherwise the lightning handler remains inactive.
- Built as a focused test revision of The Cave 2.5.21. No settings, graphics or unrelated gameplay systems were changed.
Version: 2.5.21
Date: 2026-07-08
Stable Fortified Research Vault release:
- Finalized the Fortified Research Vault for normal multiplayer and dedicated-server play.
- Natural vault chance is now 1% in Medium, 2% in Hard and 3% in Nightmare cavern rooms.
- Added a cooldown requiring at least 10 other successfully opened cavern rooms before another vault may appear on the same surface.
- Added a minimum 256-tile centre-to-centre separation between vaults so they cannot cluster in one exploration area.
- Preserved the final 40x40 Medium, 45x45 Hard and 50x50 Nightmare footprints, six central randomized reward caches, 12 randomized enemy Laser Turrets and 8 randomized enemy Gun Turrets.
- Preserved Hard defenders at 8 Behemoth Biters and 8 Behemoth Spitters, and Nightmare defenders at 10 Behemoth Biters, 10 Behemoth Spitters and 6 Behemoth Worms.
Release cleanup:
- Removed the temporary admin fortress-spawn test command and its test-only localization.
- Removed experimental/test wording from the mod description and finalized the feature as a rare adventure encounter.
Compatibility:
- Save-compatible with 2.5.20 and earlier 2.5.x saves. Existing vaults remain unchanged; the rarity controls apply to newly generated cavern rooms.
Version: 2.5.20
Date: 2026-07-08
Fortified Research Vault size test:
- Increased the exact outer wall footprint to 40x40 tiles in Medium, 45x45 tiles in Hard and 50x50 tiles in Nightmare.
- Increased the carved square around each vault so every enlarged wall, entrance and randomized defender remains clear of solid cave terrain.
- Preserved the six central reward caches, 12 randomized enemy Laser Turrets, 8 randomized enemy Gun Turrets and all existing tier-specific creature counts and reward pools.
Compatibility:
- Built as a focused fortress-size revision of The Cave 2.5.19. Enemy balance and loot balance are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.19
Date: 2026-07-08
Fortified Research Vault balance test:
- Increased Hard vault defenders to 8 Behemoth Biters and 8 Behemoth Spitters.
- Increased Nightmare vault defenders to 10 Behemoth Biters, 10 Behemoth Spitters and 6 Behemoth Worms.
- Medium remains unchanged with turret-only defence.
Compatibility:
- Built as a focused enemy-count revision of The Cave 2.5.18. Fortress size, randomized turret placement and reward pools are unchanged.
Version: 2.5.18
Date: 2026-07-08
Fortified Research Vault test revision:
- Enlarged every fortress by three tiles on all four sides, increasing both width and height by six tiles.
- Replaced the fixed corner formation with deterministic random placement for 12 enemy Laser Turrets and 8 enemy Gun Turrets.
- Turrets now change position in every newly generated fortress while retaining spacing, clear entrances and balanced four-quadrant coverage.
- Medium remains turret-only. Hard adds 3 Behemoth Biters and 3 Behemoth Spitters. Nightmare adds 4 Behemoth Biters, 4 Behemoth Spitters and 2 Behemoth Worms.
- Fortress worms are combat defenders only and do not trigger the cavern collapse countdown after death.
Rewards:
- Replaced the small fixed loot lists with six deterministic random themed reward pools covering belts, inserters, power, production, fluids, storage, defence, fuel, uranium, science, modules and equipment.
- The same item cannot appear in two different fortress caches.
- Hard selects more and stronger rewards than Medium; Nightmare selects the largest and most valuable reward set.
- Nightmare has controlled rare chances for Power Armor MK2, Personal Laser Defense, reactor equipment or a Nuclear Reactor item. Spidertron is explicitly excluded.
Safety:
- The room still creates no electric network, heat network or power-producing entity.
- All random placement and loot selection remains seed- and coordinate-based for multiplayer determinism.
Compatibility:
- Built as a focused test revision of The Cave 2.5.17, ultimately based on stable 2.5.14.
Version: 2.5.17
Date: 2026-07-08
Fortified Research Vault test revision:
- Moved all six reward caches into a touching 2x3 block at the exact centre of the fortress.
- Replaced the duplicated upper/lower loot sets with six distinct reward sets for each depth tier.
- Added a room-level duplicate guard so the same item cannot be inserted into more than one fortress cache.
- Rebuilt the defence layout around the four corners: each corner now has one enemy Laser Turret and two enemy Gun Turrets.
- Every Medium, Hard and Nightmare vault now has four Laser Turrets and eight Gun Turrets in the same clear corner formation.
Safety:
- The room still creates no reactor, electric network, heat network or power-producing entity.
Compatibility:
- Built as a focused test revision of The Cave 2.5.16, based on stable 2.5.14.
Version: 2.5.16
Date: 2026-07-08
Fortified Research Vault test revision:
- Removed the decorative nuclear reactor and all four surrounding heat pipes from the vault.
- Increased reward caches from three to six, arranged as three mirrored caches above and three below the centre line.
- Medium vault defence now has two Laser Turrets and two Gun Turrets along the upper side, plus two Laser Turrets and two Gun Turrets along the lower side.
- Hard and Nightmare defence scaling remains unchanged.
Safety:
- The room creates no reactor, power-producing entity, heat network or electric network.
Compatibility:
- Built as a focused test revision of The Cave 2.5.15, which was based directly on stable 2.5.14.
Version: 2.5.15
Date: 2026-07-08
Experimental cavern:
- Added the Fortified Research Vault as a new Medium, Hard and Nightmare Special Cavern.
- The vault uses a fixed square fortress layout with four entrances, enemy walls, gun turrets, dedicated void-powered enemy Laser Turrets and a non-operable reactor-style power core.
- Added three controlled reward caches for science packs/resources, module tiers and armour/equipment, scaling by depth zone.
- The room is built entirely from The Cave's existing systems and vanilla entities; FortressRuins remains reference-only and is not a dependency.
Test support:
- Added the admin command /the-cave-test-fortress [medium|hard|nightmare] to create a nearby vault for direct testing.
- Natural discovery remains enabled through the Special Cavern system, with elevated test-build weighting so the room is easier to encounter.
Safety:
- The fortress does not create an electric pole network and cannot reconnect the former free-power exploit.
- No new graphics or external mod dependencies were added.
Localization:
- Added complete English and Russian names, command help and test messages.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from the stable The Cave 2.5.14 package supplied by Behrooz. Existing stable ZIP remains unchanged.
Version: 2.5.14
Date: 2026-07-08
GUI:
- Removed the large unused grey areas surrounding the Pickup and Drop grids.
- Pickup and Drop sections now size themselves directly to their button grids instead of stretching across wide table columns.
- The Drop Offset frame now remains only as wide as its 3x3 grid instead of filling the entire window.
- Wrapped the instruction text to the compact grid width so the label no longer forces the whole relative GUI to become excessively wide.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from The Cave 2.5.13. Inserter behaviour, research progression, save data and unrelated systems were not changed.
Version: 2.5.13
Date: 2026-07-08
Bugfixes:
- Fixed The Cave failing during prototype loading because Inserter Configuration technology names passed a numeric localisation parameter instead of the required string value.
- Inserter Configuration technologies 1-4 now load correctly while preserving the same English and Russian displayed names.
Compatibility:
- Hotfix built directly from the 2.5.12 Inserter Configuration test build. No runtime behaviour, research costs, GUI layout or unrelated systems were changed.
Version: 2.5.12
Date: 2026-07-08
Rework:
- Replaced the former integrated Inserter Configuration 1.1.2 runtime implementation with a new independent The Cave implementation.
- Rebuilt the interface as separate Pickup and Drop grids with a dedicated Drop Offset grid, clear research locks and per-inserter sizing.
- The configuration GUI is now created only while an eligible inserter or inserter ghost is open and is destroyed when that GUI closes.
Reliability:
- Opening the GUI no longer changes, sanitises or resets any placed inserter.
- Research completion or reversal now only changes which future selections are available; existing inserters are never rewritten.
- Removed the full-surface migration scan and all automatic modification of existing inserters.
- Copy/Paste no longer forces the destination inserter to adopt the source direction.
- Rotation, Copy/Paste and GUI refresh handlers now redraw only currently open matching inserters.
- Added direct support for inserter ghosts and common tile-edge slim inserters.
- Pickup/Drop swaps preserve distinct positions, and moving the drop tile rotates its within-tile offset to the new direction.
Prototype safety:
- Inserter Configuration now changes only allow_custom_vectors.
- Removed the old global doubling of inserter extension speed.
- Removed the old forced chases_belt_items behaviour.
- Inserter energy use, speed, capacity and normal prototype behaviour are otherwise untouched.
Save compatibility:
- Preserved the Startup setting, four technology prototype names and all existing custom-input names so research and key bindings carry forward.
- Existing configured inserter and ghost pickup/drop positions are preserved without migration.
- Legacy GUI sprite aliases remain for one migration cycle so persisted 2.5.11 windows load safely before cleanup.
- Disabled mode continues to remove all stale Configuration windows and registers no Inserter Configuration runtime events or prototype changes.
Localization:
- Added complete English and Russian GUI, technology description, technology effect and tooltip localization for the rebuilt system.
Testing:
- Parsed all 82 Lua files successfully as Lua 5.2 and verified the package contains no old sanitise/reset, forced-direction, doubled-speed or forced belt-chasing code paths.
- In-game Factorio and multiplayer server testing is still required before promoting this test build to stable.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from The Cave 2.5.11. Train Interiors, enemies, resources, market, belt capacity and unrelated systems were not changed.
Version: 2.5.11
Date: 2026-07-08
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a non-recoverable error during the 2.5.10 enemy Laser Turret save migration.
- Replaced invalid runtime access to LuaEntityPrototype.max_health with the supported LuaEntity.max_health property when preserving turret health percentage.
Save migration:
- The 2.5.10 hidden-power cleanup and enemy Laser Turret replacement now complete correctly when loading existing saves.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from The Cave 2.5.10. No enemy balance, Inserter Configuration, Train Interiors, resources, market or unrelated systems were changed.
Version: 2.5.10
Date: 2026-07-08
Bugfixes:
- Fixed enemy cavern Laser Turrets leaving hidden power sources and poles behind after destruction.
- Fixed nearby player electric poles connecting to the hidden enemy network and receiving effectively free power.
Changes:
- Replaced the external hidden power network with a dedicated enemy Laser Turret that uses an internal void energy source.
- Enemy Laser Turrets retain the vanilla appearance and combat behaviour but can no longer create, join or supply an electric network.
- Removed the recurring 10-tick laser charging and network reconnection maintenance; gun-turret ammunition maintenance remains unchanged.
Save migration:
- Existing tracked enemy Laser Turrets are replaced in place while preserving position, direction, force, quality and health percentage.
- All legacy the-cave-enemy-laser-power and the-cave-enemy-laser-power-pole entities are removed from every surface, including orphaned helpers left by already-destroyed turrets.
- Legacy helper prototypes remain temporarily available with zero power output so older saves load safely before cleanup runs.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from The Cave 2.5.9.
- Inserter Configuration, Train Interiors, resources, market, research progression and unrelated systems were not changed.
Version: 2.5.9
Date: 2026-07-08
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the Inserter Configurable Startup setting not fully disabling the feature in existing saves.
- When set to Disabled, any persisted custom Configuration panel is now destroyed for every player during configuration migration.
- Added defensive cleanup for newly created players and GUI opening while the feature is disabled, preventing a stale panel from returning.
Disabled behaviour:
- Inserter Configuration technologies, custom inputs, runtime behaviour and inserter prototype modifications remain absent while Disabled.
- Factorio's normal inserter/entity and editor windows remain unchanged; only The Cave's custom Configuration panel is removed.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from The Cave 2.5.8.
- No Pickup, Drop, Drop Offset, research progression, Train Interiors, CAVETORIO or unrelated systems were changed.
Version: 2.5.8
Date: 2026-07-08
Graphics:
- Normal Factorio Stack Inserter now uses the distinct Space Age-style arm, platform and item icon instead of sharing the green Bulk Inserter appearance.
- Stack Inserter research now uses the Space Age-style Stack Inserter technology icon.
- Transport Belt Capacity levels 1-18 now use the Space Age-style Transport Belt Capacity technology icon with Factorio's normal automatic level numbering.
Normal-mode recipe:
- Changed Stack Inserter to require exactly 1 Bulk Inserter and 3 Processing Units.
- Removed Low Density Structures from the normal-mode recipe.
Compatibility:
- The Space Age-enabled path remains untouched and continues to use the official Space Age prototypes and recipe.
- Research costs, science packs, 18-level progression, final capacity 20 and all unrelated The Cave systems remain unchanged from 2.5.7.
Attribution:
- Added the required MIT notice for the standalone Stack Inserter source used for the normal-mode graphics subset.
Version: 2.5.7
Date: 2026-07-08
Features:
- Added real expansion-engine belt stacking to normal Factorio when the Space Age mod is disabled.
- Added a normal-mode Stack Inserter fallback using the base Bulk Inserter graphics, sounds and entity architecture; no new graphics are required.
- The same Stack Inserter -> Transport Belt Capacity 1-18 progression now runs in both normal Factorio and Space Age mode.
- Stack Inserter remains the capacity-2 research at 1000 units; Capacity 1-18 remain 1100-2000 units and finish at belt/inserter capacity 20.
- All 18 levels continue to use Automation, Logistic, Chemical, Production and Utility science only.
Normal-mode recipe:
- Stack Inserter requires 1 Bulk Inserter, 5 Processing Units and 5 Low Density Structures.
Fixes:
- Removed the unreachable legacy six-level Cave Belt Compression implementation that returned before creating any technologies in normal Factorio.
Requirements:
- The Cave now enables Factorio's Space Travel feature flag so the real belt-stack engine is available when Space Age is installed but its mod is disabled.
- This build therefore requires ownership of the Space Age expansion, while the Space Age mod itself remains optional and may stay disabled for a normal Factorio game.
Localization:
- Added complete English and Russian names/descriptions for the normal-mode Stack Inserter and updated the Early Stack Size setting text.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from The Cave 2.5.6. No Train Interiors, CAVETORIO, underground reach, turret range, resource, enemy, market or unrelated runtime systems were changed.
Version: 2.5.6
Date: 2026-07-07
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Bulk Inserter and Stack Inserter remaining at hand capacity 16 through Transport Belt Capacity levels 15-17 and then jumping directly to 20 at level 18.
- Bulk and Stack Inserters now increase smoothly with the final four research levels: 17 at level 15, 18 at level 16, 19 at level 17 and 20 at level 18.
- Existing placed Bulk and Stack Inserters with the exact legacy 12/16 automatic override are released at level 15 so they follow the researched force capacity without being mined and rebuilt.
Unchanged:
- Burner, standard, Long-handed and Fast Inserter progression remains 3 at level 1, then +1 per level through 20 at level 18.
- Loader and belt stack progression, research costs, science packs, prototypes outside this feature, Train Interiors and CAVETORIO remain unchanged.
Compatibility:
- Built directly on the tested 2.5.5 package.
- Existing researched technology effects are recalculated by Factorio when the mod prototype changes, while deliberate non-legacy per-entity stack overrides remain untouched.
Version: 2.5.5
Date: 2026-07-07
Changes:
- Changed Burner, standard, Long-handed and Fast Inserter hand capacity from a single level-18 jump to smooth progression across Transport Belt Capacity levels 2-18.
- Regular inserters now remain at 3 on Capacity 1, then increase by exactly +1 per level: 4 on Capacity 2 through 20 on Capacity 18.
- Loader, Bulk Inserter, Stack Inserter and belt-stack behaviour remain unchanged from 2.5.4.
Save compatibility:
- Existing forces at Capacity 1 or higher are reconciled to the correct minimum regular-inserter bonus without resetting unrelated technology effects.
- Any larger inserter bonus supplied by another mod is preserved.
- Clears only the exact legacy regular-inserter override value of 3 once progression has begun; deliberate custom overrides are preserved.
- Retains the final-level repair for legacy Bulk and Stack Inserter limits of 12 and 16.
Localization:
- Updated English and Russian descriptions to explain the progressive regular-inserter capacity increase.
Compatibility:
- Built directly on the tested 2.5.4 package.
- No unrelated items, recipes, entities, technologies, settings, Train Interiors or CAVETORIO systems were changed.
Version: 2.5.4
Date: 2026-07-07
Bugfixes:
- Loaders and 1x1 Loaders now support the full researched Transport Belt Capacity progression up to stack size 20 instead of remaining capped at 4.
- Existing placed loaders update automatically after the mod reloads; they do not need to be mined and rebuilt.
- Existing vanilla inserters that retained the old automatic stack-size override (3, 12 or 16) are reset once when Transport Belt Capacity 18 is already complete or finishes, so they immediately use the researched capacity of 20.
Safety:
- Loader support is a prototype cap change only and follows Factorio's existing force-wide belt stack bonus at every research level.
- The one-time inserter repair touches only Burner, standard, Long-handed, Fast, Bulk and Stack Inserters, and only exact legacy override values; custom player-set limits are preserved.
- No loader or inserter entity is replaced, so positions, directions, filters, circuit settings, blueprints and ghosts remain unchanged.
Compatibility:
- Built directly on the tested 2.5.3 package.
- No unrelated technologies, recipes, items, Train Interiors or CAVETORIO content were changed.
Version: 2.5.3
Date: 2026-07-07
Changes:
- Transport Belt Capacity 18 now synchronises all standard inserter hand capacities with the final belt stack capacity of 20.
- Burner, standard, Long-handed and Fast Inserters receive the final +17 regular inserter capacity bonus at Level 18, reaching 20 from their existing maximum of 3.
- Bulk and Stack Inserters now share the same built-in hand bonus and receive a final +4 bulk capacity bonus at Level 18, so both finish at exactly 20.
- The final-level bonuses are attached only to the newly added Level 18, avoiding a technology-effect migration for existing server saves.
Localization:
- Added clear English and Russian final-level descriptions explaining that belt and inserter capacities both reach 20.
Compatibility:
- Built directly on the tested 2.5.2 belt-capacity package.
- No unrelated items, recipes, entities, technologies, settings, runtime scripts, storage, Train Interiors or CAVETORIO content were changed.
Version: 2.5.2
Date: 2026-07-07
Changes:
- Extended the optional Space Age Transport Belt Capacity chain from 4 levels to 18 levels.
- Stack Inserter remains the capacity-2 step at 1000 research units.
- Transport Belt Capacity 1 starts at 1100 units and Capacity 18 ends at 2000 units.
- Every capacity research adds exactly +1, reaching a final maximum belt stack size of 20.
- Stack Inserter and all 18 capacity levels use Automation, Logistic, Chemical, Production and Utility science only; Military, Space and planet science packs are excluded.
Localization:
- Added clear English and Russian names and descriptions showing each level's final belt stack capacity.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from the supplied stable 2.4.18 server package.
- No unrelated item, recipe, entity, technology, setting, runtime, storage, Train Interiors or CAVETORIO content was changed.
Version: 2.4.18
Date: 2026-07-07
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a non-recoverable Underground Belt Reach crash when dragging a transport belt and the game automatically placed an underground belt.
- Replaced invalid runtime access to LuaEntityPrototype.max_health with the supported LuaEntity.max_health path in Underground Belt Reach.
- Applied the same max-health safety correction to Underground Pipe Reach, Turret Range hidden-variant replacement and Train Shield physical-health synchronisation to prevent equivalent future crashes.
- Removed the unsafe LuaEntityPrototype.max_health fallback from Auto Inventory Repair; the supported quality-aware get_max_health API remains in use.
- Added a defensive final-stage visibility correction for Iron Ore and Copper Ore so they stay in the vanilla raw-resource subgroup and remain selectable as manual splitter filters.
Compatibility:
- Built directly from stable 2.4.16 as a focused hotfix.
- The separate 2.4.17 research-tree test changes are intentionally not included.
- No entity, item, recipe, technology, setting or storage names were changed.
- Existing saves and blueprints remain compatible.
Version: 2.4.16
Date: 2026-07-07
Features:
- Integrated a configurable Squeak Through feature directly into The Cave; no companion mod is required.
- Added one master Enable/Disable Startup dropdown plus controls for chests, circuits, drills, machines, pipes, solar power, steam power, trees, turrets, and miscellaneous entities.
- Added type/name blacklists and optional type/name player-collision removal lists.
Settings and UI:
- All Squeak Through options are ordered together at the bottom of The Cave's Startup settings and use a clear "Squeak Through —" prefix so the existing core settings remain readable.
- All on/off options use Enable/Disable dropdowns rather than checkboxes.
- Added complete English and Russian setting names, descriptions, and dropdown values.
Safety and Performance:
- Uses data-stage collision-box and collision-mask changes only; there is no control.lua event, on_tick processing, entity conversion, or save scanning.
- Blueprint, Q/pipette, ghosts, robots, recipes, items, and existing entity identities are not changed.
- Master Disable performs no collision changes and keeps normal Factorio collision behaviour after restart.
- The integrated implementation automatically skips itself if a standalone Squeak Through edition is detected, avoiding double modification.
Notes:
- Built directly on the supplied stable The Cave 2.4.15 package.
Version: 2.4.15
Date: 2026-07-07
Features:
- Added optional 7-level Underground Pipe Reach research using the same proven cursor-variant architecture as Underground Belt Reach.
- Level 0 keeps Factorio's native Pipe to Ground reach of 10 tiles. Each research level adds +5 tiles, reaching 45 tiles at Level 7.
- Research costs progress from 200 to 1000 units and end with all seven base-compatible science packs, including Space Science.
Safety and Compatibility:
- The official pipe-to-ground prototype and its Level 0 distance are not modified.
- Existing placed vanilla pipes are not upgraded or moved when research completes.
- Q/Smart Pipette, mining, blueprints, ghosts and construction robots continue to use the normal Pipe to Ground item.
- Newly created blueprints and blueprint-book records are normalised to the official pipe-to-ground prototype name, so hidden reach variants do not leak into blueprint data.
- Player, robot and script-built endpoints are clamped to the current force's completed research level.
- Clearing the cursor with Q, disconnecting, dying or changing force restores the official item without loss or duplication.
- Disabling the Startup setting hides/disables all seven technologies, forces new placement back to vanilla Level 0, and normalises previously placed research variants to the official Pipe to Ground while preserving contained fluid where possible.
Settings:
- Added Startup dropdown: Underground Pipe Reach Research — Enable / Disable. Default: Enable.
Localization:
- Added complete English and Russian technology, effect and setting text.
Version: 2.4.14
Date: 2026-07-07
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Underground Belt Reach technologies displaying an Unknown key title in the research screen.
- Added the required base localization key because Factorio ignores a trailing -<number> in technology prototype names when resolving localization.
- Added explicit localized technology names and descriptions for all seven research levels.
Localization:
- Added the base Underground Belt Reach name, description, and effect text in English, Russian, German, Polish, and Simplified Chinese.
Safety:
- No Underground Belt Reach gameplay values, research costs, prerequisites, placement ranges, prototype distances, blueprint handling, or runtime logic were changed.
- Built from the 2.4.9 package that was created directly from the supplied stable 2.4.8 release.
Version: 2.4.9
Date: 2026-07-07
Features:
- Added optional 7-level Underground Belt Reach research for yellow, red, blue, and Space Age Turbo underground belts.
- Research bonuses are +2, +2, +1, +1, +1, +1, +1 tiles, for a final total of +9 tiles.
Changes:
- Level 0 keeps Factorio's native ranges and native green placement guides: yellow 4, red 6, blue 8, Turbo 10.
- Each researched level uses a separate hidden cursor item and underground-belt entity prototype with the real matching max distance.
- The hidden item exists only while held for placement; inventories, mining, smart pipette, blueprints, ghosts, and construction robots continue to use the original official belt item.
- Existing connected underground belts are not moved automatically; newly placed or re-placed endpoints use the current research level.
Fixes:
- Avoided the incorrect implementation that extended every official underground belt to the final +9 range at game start.
- The green placement guide and actual connection distance now come from the same level-specific prototype.
- Added safe cursor restoration for Q/clear cursor, disconnect, death, force changes, research changes, and full inventories without duplicating or losing belts.
- Blueprint and robot-built variants are clamped to the building force's completed research level.
Version: 2.4.8
Date: 2026-07-06
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a Darkness Infestation crash when an enemy spawned on one surface but the player's character was on another surface.
- Darkness checks now consistently use the physical character's surface and position instead of the player's current camera or Remote View surface.
- Fixed surface tracking, safe-zone checks, lamp searches, enemy evolution/distance selection, spawn positions, and attack targets using mixed surface contexts.
Compatibility:
- Factorissimo and compatible factory-floor interiors remain fully exempt from Darkness Infestation.
- Multiplayer players can use Remote View or move between Nauvis and interior surfaces without redirecting another player's Darkness wave.
Safety:
- Attack commands now verify that the spawned enemy and target character are on the same surface.
- Invalid third-party cross-surface command states are safely rejected and the uncommanded enemy is removed instead of crashing the game.
Notes:
- No Darkness timing, lamp range, safe-zone size, enemy scaling, or gameplay balance values were changed.
- Built directly on the tested 2.4.7 package.
Version: 2.4.7
Date: 2026-07-06
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Resource Eraser reporting that no resources were found even when ore was inside the selected area.
- Rebuilt the selection tool with Factorio 2.x select/alt_select data instead of relying on inherited selection settings.
- Resource detection now queries the selected surface and bounding box directly for every entity of type resource.
Safety:
- The existing 10,000-resource limit, access modes, localization, and permanent-delete behavior are unchanged.
Notes:
- Built directly on the 2.4.6 package, which itself was based on the supplied 2.4.5 stable release.
Version: 2.4.6
Date: 2026-07-06
Features:
- Added the optional Resource Eraser requested by player feedback.
- Added a Startup dropdown with Disabled, Admins Only, and All Players access modes.
- The shortcut provides a hidden cursor-only selection tool that permanently removes all selected resource entities.
- The first test version includes iron, copper, coal, stone, uranium, crude oil, Space Age resources, and resources added by other mods.
Safety and Performance:
- Disabled by default; Admins Only is recommended for multiplayer servers.
- Selections containing more than 10,000 resources are rejected before anything is deleted.
- Shift-selection is reserved and performs no action.
- Uses the existing selected-area event dispatcher so Resource Eraser and Filter Mining Drills do not overwrite each other's event handlers.
Localization:
- Added complete English and Russian names, descriptions, setting values, access warnings, limit messages, and deletion results.
Notes:
- Built directly from the 2.4.5 stable package supplied by the author.
- Resource generation is unchanged; the tool only removes resources already present on the map.
Version: 2.4.5
Date: 2026-07-06
Compatibility Test:
- Exempted all detected Factorissimo factory-floor surfaces from The Cave's Underground Lighting Mode enforcement.
- Permanent Night and Pitch Black no longer overwrite Factorissimo's own daytime and brightness values inside factory buildings.
- Factorissimo Interior Lighting can now control and illuminate factory interiors normally.
- The Darkness Infestation exemption from 2.4.4 remains unchanged: no warning, lamp scan, grace timer, or Darkness enemy spawning inside factory interiors.
Technical:
- Uses Factorissimo's official is_factorissimo_surface remote API when available.
- Includes conservative factory-floor surface-name fallbacks for compatible Factorissimo forks.
- Detection results are cached per surface to avoid repeated remote calls during the one-second lighting update.
Notes:
- Experimental compatibility build for in-game testing; all other The Cave systems are unchanged from 2.4.4.
Version: 2.4.4
Date: 2026-07-06
Compatibility Test:
- Made all detected Factorissimo factory interiors fully exempt from Darkness Infestation.
- Interior Lighting research is no longer checked or required.
- While inside a Factorissimo interior, the warning, 30-second grace timer, 12-tile lamp scan, threat growth, and Darkness enemy spawning are all disabled.
- Darkness Infestation resumes normally after the player leaves the factory interior.
Technical:
- Uses Factorissimo's runtime interface when available.
- Includes direct factory-floor surface-name detection for Behrooz Factorissimo and compatible Factorissimo forks.
Notes:
- Experimental compatibility build for in-game testing; all other The Cave systems are unchanged from 2.4.2.
Version: 2.4.3
Date: 2026-07-06
Compatibility Test:
- Added Factorissimo 3 Interior Lighting support to Darkness Infestation.
- When a player is inside a detected Factorissimo factory interior and their force has researched factory-interior-upgrade-lights, Darkness threat is reset.
- Protected Factorissimo interiors no longer show the Darkness warning or spawn Darkness enemies.
- Manual powered lamps continue to work normally in interiors without the research.
- Tenebris and Maraxsis permablack factory-floor exceptions remain unprotected, matching Factorissimo's own lighting behavior.
Technical:
- Uses Factorissimo's official factorissimo remote interface and find_surrounding_factory API when available.
- Includes conservative surface-name fallbacks for compatible older forks that use the same Interior Lighting technology.
Notes:
- Experimental compatibility build for in-game testing; all other The Cave systems are unchanged from 2.4.2.
Version: 2.4.2
Date: 2026-07-06
Compatibility:
- Removed the hard incompatibilities with Inserter Config (Inserter_Config) and Side Inserters.
- Bob's Adjustable Inserters, Inserter Config, and Side Inserters can now load alongside The Cave.
- These external inserter-control systems remain behaviorally incompatible with The Cave's integrated Inserter Configuration when both systems are enabled.
- Players using any of these mods must set Inserter Configurable to Disable in Startup settings before loading the save.
Localization:
- Expanded the English and Russian Inserter Configurable warning to name Bob's Adjustable Inserters, Inserter Config, and Side Inserters explicitly.
Documentation:
- Updated the README compatibility guidance and current stable version.
Notes:
- No Inserter Configuration research, GUI, hotkey, pickup/drop, migration, or gameplay logic was changed.
- Stable compatibility/documentation update.
Version: 2.4.1
Date: 2026-07-06
Compatibility:
- Removed the hard incompatibility with Bob's Adjustable Inserters (bobinserters), allowing both mods to load together.
- Bob's Adjustable Inserters remains behaviorally incompatible with The Cave's integrated Inserter Configuration when both systems are enabled.
- Players using Bob's Adjustable Inserters or a similar inserter-control mod must set Inserter Configurable to Disable in Startup settings.
- The hard incompatibilities with standalone Inserter_Config and Side Inserters remain unchanged.
Localization:
- Added a clear compatibility warning to the English and Russian Inserter Configurable setting descriptions.
Notes:
- No Inserter Configuration research, GUI, hotkey, pickup/drop, or gameplay logic was changed.
- Stable compatibility/documentation update.
Version: 2.4.0
Date: 2026-07-05
Localization:
- Added complete Russian (ru) localization for The Cave.
- Fixed cavern, tunnel, depth, oil, uranium, classic ore, mixed-resource, and missing-ore announcements that were still hard-coded in English at runtime.
- Translated gameplay entities, technologies, controls, Cavetorio messages, Startup/Map/Per-player settings, the integrated Damage Indicator, Darkness Infestation warnings, and Inserter Configuration.
Settings:
- Changed Darkness Infestation to Enable by default for new maps and saves that have not previously stored this Startup setting.
- The Startup option remains an explicit Enable / Disable dropdown.
Behavior:
- The warning grace period remains 30 seconds.
- Players can avoid darkness attacks by returning to the safe zone, entering a vehicle, or staying within 12 tiles of a powered vanilla small lamp.
Compatibility:
- Existing saves that already stored Darkness Infestation as Disable normally keep their saved Startup setting until the server owner or player changes it and restarts Factorio.
- No enemy balance, lamp behavior, recipes, electric networks, circuit behavior, Inserter Configuration, or Turret Range logic was changed.
Notes:
- Stable server-ready release.
Version: 2.3.40
Date: 2026-07-05
Stable Release:
- Promoted the player-centred Darkness Infestation system to the stable server-ready branch.
- This release is rebuilt from stable 2.3.32 and consolidates the tested fixes from development builds 2.3.37 through 2.3.39.
Features:
- Added the optional Darkness Infestation Startup setting with an Enable / Disable dropdown; default is Disable.
- The 5x5 chunks centred on each force spawn are safe.
- Outside the safe zone, a powered vanilla small lamp within 12 tiles resets that player's darkness threat.
- After 30 seconds without a valid lamp, cave enemies appear near the player and attack directly.
- Driving temporarily resets the darkness threat, following the tested Cave Miner-style player-centred behavior.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a non-recoverable on_built_entity crash in the integrated Inserter Configuration event chain.
- Added LuaEntity validity guards before shared build handlers inspect an entity.
- Fixed Factorio's Q smart-pipette action for researched hidden Turret Range variants.
- Hidden turret variants now map back to their normal turret items for pipette, blueprints, and ghost revival.
Compatibility:
- Darkness Infestation does not modify lamp prototypes, visual lighting, recipes, electric networks, or circuit behavior.
- The existing cave enemy difficulty and evolution systems still determine which biter and spitter tiers appear.
- Inserter Configuration research balance and Turret Range behavior are otherwise unchanged.
Notes:
- Hidden darkness Point A / Point B spawning and lamp-range research are not included.
- Recommended stable package for multiplayer and server use.
Version: 2.3.32
Date: 2026-07-05
Changes:
- Replaced the Inserter Configuration research icon with the new selected 3x3 directional-grid icon.
- Renamed the Startup option to Inserter Configurable.
- Replaced the checkbox with an explicit Enable / Disable dropdown.
- Inserter Configurable is enabled by default.
Behavior:
- Disable turns off the integrated Inserter Configuration prototypes, research chain, GUI controls, and hotkeys.
Notes:
- No Inserter Configuration research balance, pickup/drop unlock order, or Drop Offset behavior was changed.
Version: 2.3.31
Date: 2026-07-05
Balance:
- Reduced the Burner turbine generator maximum power output from 2 MW to 200 kW.
Notes:
- No recipe, fuel efficiency, pollution, or Inserter Configuration behavior was changed.
Version: 2.3.30
Date: 2026-07-04
Features:
- Added four Inserter Configuration research levels instead of granting the complete grid from the start.
- The eight tiles directly around an inserter are available from the start, while every inserter also keeps its original vanilla pickup/drop positions.
- Level 1 unlocks two-tile straight positions, allowing standard inserters to gain long reach.
- Level 2 unlocks the four outer diagonal positions.
- Level 3 unlocks the complete grid, including off-axis positions such as (1,2) and (2,1).
- Level 4 unlocks precise 3x3 drop-offset configuration.
Balance:
- A standard yellow inserter can no longer become long-reach from the start.
- Research costs progress from 150 logistic science to 600 utility-science units and are affected by The Cave Research Level Difficulty setting.
Fixes:
- GUI buttons, hotkeys, copy/paste, blueprints, newly built inserters, and old save configurations now obey the same research locks.
- Updating from the unrestricted build resets only inserter positions that the force has not researched yet.
Notes:
- Built from the clean stable 2.3.25-based Inserter Configuration integration; no Codex-edited source was used.
Version: 2.3.29
Date: 2026-07-04
Changes:
- Enabled the complete pickup/drop position grid for every inserter from the start.
- All straight, diagonal, and off-axis positions in the 5x5 grid are now selectable.
- Removed the obsolete Allow 45-degree inserters runtime setting; full-grid positioning is always active.
Fixes:
- Copy/paste range validation and distance-adjust hotkeys now use the same full-grid range as the GUI.
- Existing saves no longer depend on a disabled runtime setting to access diagonal positions.
Notes:
- Built from the clean The Cave 2.3.26 integration, originally based directly on stable 2.3.25.
- No research requirement is used in this server-ready build.
Version: 2.3.26
Date: 2026-07-04
Features:
- Integrated Inserter Configuration 1.1.2 by Dr_Pepper into The Cave.
- Added the original pickup/drop position GUI, drop-offset GUI, and original hotkeys.
- Added the original 90-degree and optional 45-degree inserter positioning behavior.
- Added the original startup option for chasing moving belt items.
Compatibility:
- Declared incompatibility with the standalone Inserter_Config, Side Inserters, and bobinserters mods to prevent duplicate inserter-control systems.
Notes:
- Built directly from the stable The Cave 2.3.25 source.
- No research system was added; behavior matches Inserter Configuration 1.1.2.
- Existing The Cave systems and balance settings are otherwise unchanged.
Version: 2.3.25
Date: 2026-07-04
Changes:
- Moved the burner assembling machine, burner lab, and burner turbine generator out of The Cave Market.
- These three machines are now craftable from the start of the game.
Balance:
- Burner assembling machine recipe: 8 iron plates, 3 iron gear wheels, 4 stone bricks.
- Burner lab recipe: 10 iron gear wheels, 10 copper plates, 5 stone bricks.
- Burner turbine generator recipe: 1 stone furnace, 12 iron plates, 8 iron gear wheels, 10 copper cables.
Notes:
- No technology unlock is required in this test build.
Version: 2.3.24
Date: 2026-07-04
Features:
- Added market-only burner assembling machine, burner lab, and burner turbine generator.
- Burner assembling machine appears under Production / Assemblers.
- Burner lab appears under Production / Science.
- Burner turbine generator appears under Power / Thermal Power.
Balance:
- Market prices are 40, 60, and 120 coins respectively.
Notes:
- No recipes or technologies are added for these machines.
- Prototype behavior and art are adapted from AAI Industry by Earendel for this test build.
Version: 2.3.23
Date: 2026-07-04
Balance:
- The Cave Big Wooden Pole now provides a 4x4 supply area.
- Wire distance remains 24 tiles.
Version: 2.3.22
Date: 2026-07-04
Bugfixes:
- Hid the original Big Wooden Pole recipe when the separate big-wooden-pole mod is also enabled.
- The Cave Big Wooden Pole remains craftable from the start.
Notes:
- This prevents duplicate crafting recipes while keeping The Cave's integrated pole as the visible option.
Version: 2.3.21
Date: 2026-07-04
Features:
- Added The Cave Big Wooden Pole, adapted from Big Wooden Pole by Klonan.
- It is craftable from the start with 2 wood and 4 copper cable.
- It keeps the original 24-tile wire distance, 0 supply area, 80 health, stack size 50, and 20MJ fuel value.
Notes:
- The new pole is not added to The Cave Market.
Version: 2.3.20
Date: 2026-07-04
Changes:
- Maintenance cleanup only; gameplay balance and feature behavior are unchanged.
- Removed a redundant on_player_left_game registration in control.lua.
- Leave-game cleanup remains handled by the later combined handler for Train Interiors, CAVETORIO, Auto Inventory Repair, and the integrated Damage Indicator.
- Updated package metadata and README text to match the current cleanup test build.
Version: 2.3.19
Date: 2026-07-03
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Turret Range Upgrade losing turret Target Priority settings.
- The upgrade now explicitly saves and restores LuaEntity priority_targets using get_priority_target / set_priority_target.
- The turret ignore_unprioritised_targets setting is also preserved.
Notes:
- This fix affects future range upgrades. If a save already lost target priorities after an earlier test, those old target lists must be set again once.
Version: 2.3.18
Date: 2026-07-03
Bugfixes:
- Turret Range Upgrade now uses Factorio's built-in upgrade path first when switching turrets to range-upgraded variants.
- This is intended to preserve turret settings such as target priority behavior when existing turrets are upgraded.
- Added a fallback copy for turret control behavior if direct replacement is required.
Notes:
- Range behavior is unchanged from 2.3.17.
- Artillery Turret remains excluded.
Version: 2.3.17
Date: 2026-07-03
Features:
- Added Turret Range Upgrade research levels 1-5.
- Each level adds +3 range to supported turrets for the researching force.
- Normal/base affected turrets: Gun Turret, Laser Turret, Flamethrower Turret.
- Space Age affected turrets when present: Rocket Turret, Tesla Turret, Railgun Turret.
- Added a new 256x256 Turret Range technology icon.
Balance:
- Research costs: 300 / 450 / 600 / 800 / 1000.
- Science packs:
- Level 1: Red + Green + Black.
- Level 2: Red + Green + Black + Blue.
- Level 3: Red + Green + Black + Blue + Purple.
- Level 4: Red + Green + Black + Blue + Purple + Yellow.
- Level 5: Red + Green + Black + Blue + Purple + Yellow + White.
Notes:
- Artillery Turret is intentionally excluded because it has its own separate range research.
Version: 2.3.16
Date: 2026-07-03
Changes:
- Added Pentapod Egg to the Market under Space Age for 1000 coins.
Notes:
- Pentapod Egg is only shown when its Space Age item prototype exists.
- No recipes, technologies, loot, balance systems, or other market sections were changed.
Version: 2.3.15
Date: 2026-07-03
Changes:
- Added Rocket Turret to the Market under Military / Turrets for 500 coins.
- Added Biochamber to the Market under Space Age for 500 coins.
Notes:
- These items are only shown when their Space Age item prototypes exist.
- No recipes, technologies, loot, balance systems, or other market sections were changed.
Version: 2.3.14
Date: 2026-07-03
Changes:
- Updated beacon module compatibility only.
- Vanilla Beacon and The Cave Beacon MK1-MK5 now allow Speed, Efficiency, and Productivity module effects.
- When Space Age / Quality modules are present, those same beacons also allow Quality module effects.
Notes:
- No recipes, technologies, market prices, loot, modules, furnaces, assemblers, miners, labs, or other machines were changed.
Version: 2.3.13
Date: 2026-07-03
Changes:
- Improved the Everything On Nauvis Startup Mod Setting tooltip.
- Added a readable ON/OFF explanation and direction guide for planet content:
North/Up = Aquilo, South/Down = Gleba, East/Right = Vulcanus, West/Left = Fulgora.
Version: 2.3.12
Date: 2026-07-03
Bugfixes:
- Moved Auto Inventory Repair to Startup Mod Settings so it appears next to the other The Cave options.
- Auto Inventory Repair can now be set to Enable or Disable before starting/loading the save.
Version: 2.3.11
Date: 2026-07-03
Features:
- Added Auto Inventory Repair, enabled by default in Runtime Global Mod Settings.
- Damaged placeable items inside player inventories are automatically repaired over time when repair packs are available.
- Repair packs are consumed normally; the repaired item stays inside the player's inventory.
Credits:
- Inventory repair logic adapted from Inventory Repair by calcwizard (MIT License).
Version: 2.3.10
Date: 2026-07-02
Bugfixes:
- Restored the original Startup Mod Setting names for Train Interiors and CAVETORIO.
- Moved the control help text into the setting descriptions instead of replacing the setting names.
Version: 2.3.9
Date: 2026-07-02
Changes:
- Shortened the Startup Mod Settings help text so it stays readable in Factorio's settings list.
- Kept the essential controls documented: Ctrl+Enter for train interiors, Enter on the 4x4 Yellow Concrete portal for Locomotive Garden.
Version: 2.3.8
Date: 2026-07-02
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the broken English locale settings file from 2.3.7 that caused "Missing value" while loading mods.
- Kept the Train Interiors and Cavetorio control instructions as valid single-line locale values.
Version: 2.3.7
Date: 2026-07-01
Changes:
- Added clearer Startup Mod Settings help text for Train Interiors and Cavetorio.
- Documented Ctrl+Enter for entering/exiting train interiors.
- Documented Enter on the 4x4 Yellow Concrete portal for entering/leaving the Locomotive Garden.
Version: 2.3.6
Date: 2026-07-01
Bugfixes:
- Fixed player death when Locomotive Garden research repainted the Garden Room by moving players to the safe Yellow Concrete portal before tile changes.
- Removed the oversized buildable Stage 0 Garden Room floor from previous test builds.
Changes:
- Stage 0 Garden Room now contains only the green core box, the water patch, and the 4x4 Yellow Concrete return portal.
- Moved the Garden Room water two tiles down so it overlaps into the green core like the train-side layout.
- Garden research stages still add and expand the Gleba/Yumako/Jellynut soil areas progressively.
Version: 2.3.5
Date: 2026-07-01
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the data.lua syntax error introduced in 2.3.4 by the Garden portal Enter hotkey registration.
Version: 2.3.4
Date: 2026-07-01
Bugfixes:
- Added a dedicated plain Enter Garden portal hotkey so Garden entry/exit no longer requires Ctrl+Enter.
- Made the Garden entry and exit portals 4x4 Yellow Concrete no-build zones.
- Restored the Garden portal tiles if players or robots try to replace the portal floor tiles.
Changes:
- Garden Room now exists from the start as an empty/base room with water and a Yellow Concrete return portal.
- Locomotive Garden research stages now add/expand the Gleba soil areas progressively instead of unlocking the room itself.
- Moved the locomotive Garden entrance marker two tiles lower.
Version: 2.3.3
Date: 2026-07-01
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Locomotive Garden technology disappearing from the tech tree.
- Moved Locomotive Garden Stage 1 from Landfill to the Planet Discovery: Gleba branch when available.
- Fixed Locomotive Garden portal visibility by using a strong hazard-tile fallback instead of green fallback.
- Fixed Garden portal unlock logic so researched Garden stages can show the locomotive entry marker even when CAVETORIO startup gating would otherwise hide it.
Changes:
- Locomotive Garden entry marker is now a visible 4x4 zone directly below the locomotive center pad.
Version: 2.3.1
Date: 2026-07-01
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Locomotive Garden technologies not appearing because the prototype gate was too strict.
Changes:
- Locomotive Garden technologies now appear when Train Interiors and Agricultural Science are available.
Version: 2.3.0
Date: 2026-07-01
Changes:
- Version bump for Locomotive Garden test build.
Version: 2.2.74
Date: 2026-07-01
Changes:
- Added the CAVETORIO / Train Interiors Locomotive Garden technology branch under Landfill when Space Age Gleba prototypes are available.
- Added a custom Locomotive Garden technology icon.
- Added a separate three-stage Garden Room with a fixed green center core, internal water, and expanding Yumako/Jellynut soil sides.
- Added 4x4 no-build Garden portal pads for entering from the locomotive interior and returning from the Garden Room with the Train Interior hotkey.
Version: 2.2.73
Date: 2026-07-01
Changes:
- Reworked the CAVETORIO startup setting tooltip into a clearer multi-line warning.
- Added Everything on Nauvis to the required settings list for the full Train Warp / Warp Outpost system.
- Added a compatibility note recommending that other options remain at their default values unless intentionally changed.
Version: 2.2.72
Date: 2026-07-01
Changes:
- Moved the CAVETORIO / Train Interiors requirement to the beginning of the CAVETORIO startup setting tooltip.
- Added a clear warning that CAVETORIO requires Train Interiors to be enabled.
Version: 2.2.71
Date: 2026-07-01
Changes:
- Updated the CAVETORIO startup Mod Setting information text.
- Removed the word "Experimental" from the CAVETORIO setting tooltip.
- Added a clear note that CAVETORIO requires Train Interiors to be enabled and that both settings are designed to work together.
Version: 2.2.70
Date: 2026-07-01
Changes:
- Changed the default startup Mod Settings for Train Interiors to disabled.
- Changed the default startup Mod Settings for CAVETORIO to disabled.
- Existing saves keep their selected startup settings; new saves/mod setups now start with both experimental systems off unless the player enables them.
Version: 2.2.69
Date: 2026-07-01
Bugfixes:
- Fixed 2.2.68 over-gating standalone Train Interiors research when CAVETORIO was disabled.
- Train Battery, Train Shield, Train Interior Expansion, and Main Train Expansion now appear whenever Train Interiors is enabled, even if CAVETORIO is disabled.
- Warp Outpost, Warp Time, and Safety Ring research remain tied to CAVETORIO only.
Version: 2.2.68
Date: 2026-07-01
Bugfixes:
- Hid all experimental Train/CAVETORIO technology chains when either CAVETORIO or Train Interiors is disabled in startup Mod Settings.
- Train Battery, Train Interior Expansion, Main Train Expansion, Train Shield, Safety Ring, and Warp Outpost research now only appear when both systems are enabled.
Version: 2.2.67
Date: 2026-07-01
Bugfixes:
- Moved Cave Info and Main Train Info expanded panels from the top GUI to screen GUI so Factorio no longer stretches them across the full screen width.
- Cleans up old full-width top-bar info panels from previous versions and rebuilds them as compact floating panels.
- Reduced the Train outside view camera default size and zoomed it in slightly to avoid oversized black empty camera space.
Version: 2.2.66
Date: 2026-07-01
Changes:
- Made the Cave Info and Main Train Info HUD panels compact so they no longer stretch across the whole top GUI with a large empty area.
- Reduced and clamped the Train outside view/minimap size to avoid oversized black empty camera panels.
Version: 2.2.65
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Shield upgrades leaving the normal locomotive tooltip at 5,000/5,000 HP.
- Train Shield rolling stock now uses hidden level variants so the vanilla health tooltip matches the researched shield level: 5,000, 8,000, 11,000, up to 35,000 HP.
- Added a migration path for existing trains so interiors, contents, schedule, and shield pool records are preserved while the physical train part is upgraded.
Version: 2.2.64
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Main Train defeat detection when the last registered Main Train locomotive is destroyed.
- Added a small pre-cleanup defeat guard so destroyed Main Train parts are checked before Train Interior records are removed.
- Kept Train transfer, Train Interior, relink, battery, shield, and wagon registration logic unchanged.
Version: 2.2.63
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Linked Safety Ring upgrades into the Cavetorio research progression so players cannot bypass attack waves while advancing major train/outpost systems.
- Train Interior Expansion tiers now require the matching Safety Ring Upgrade tier.
- Main Train Expansion tiers now require the matching Train Interior Expansion tier.
- Warp Outpost Expansion tiers now require the matching Safety Ring Upgrade tier; Warp Outpost Time tiers now require the matching Warp Outpost Expansion tier.
- Train Battery Upgrade tiers now require the matching Safety Ring Upgrade tier.
- Train Shield Upgrade tiers now require Train Battery progression, with the late shield chain gated through Safety Ring 7.
Version: 2.2.62
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Fixed mod load error caused by an overlong Safety Ring technology localised description.
- Shortened Safety Ring Upgrade descriptions to stay within Factorio localised string limits.
Version: 2.2.61
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Updated Safety Ring progression to Level 0 = 10 tiles and Upgrade 1-7 = 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 tiles.
- Changed all active Safety Ring attack cooldowns to 1 minute.
- Added wave progress clearing: when 75% of a wave is killed, the next cooldown starts; remaining enemies are not deleted.
- Added Boss Waves every 10th wave, attacking from all four corners.
- Added Rest Waves every 50th wave: no attack spawns and the attack system pauses for 5 minutes.
- Improved the top HUD with a dark thick bar, real buttons, larger white text, and clearer Attack Wave / Next Attack states.
Version: 2.2.60
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Rebalanced Safety Ring size progression to start much smaller: Level 0 is now 5 tiles.
- Safety Ring Upgrade 1-7 now expands to 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 40 / 50 tiles.
- Kept the existing Safety Ring attack wave/cooldown system unchanged.
Version: 2.2.59
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Added top HUD Safety Ring attack information showing the current Attack Wave number.
- Added a live Next Attack countdown so players can see when the next Safety Ring wave will begin.
- Safety Ring waves now print their wave number when an attack starts.
Version: 2.2.58
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Added Safety Ring Upgrade 1-7 research using vanilla science packs up to Space Science.
- Safety Ring starts at 30 tiles with no scripted attacks, then upgrades to 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 / 125 / 140 / 150 tiles.
- Added scripted Point A to Point B enemy waves after Safety Ring Upgrade 1, with no pollution system and no enemy deletion inside the ring.
- Added Safety Ring research icon and a debug command /the-cave-safety-ring-wave for admin testing.
Version: 2.2.57
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Replaced the old 50-tile enemy safe zone with a 40-tile one-time clear ring around the Warp Outpost.
- Removed periodic and post-dig enemy deletion so attacking biters/spitters are no longer erased when entering the defense area.
- Cave rocks now start after the 40-tile clear ring; water, resources, rocks, trees, cliffs, enemies, and nests are cleared only when the landing/expansion area is prepared.
Version: 2.2.56
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Updated Train Interior Expansion Level 0 / starter size from 18x18 to 20x20.
- Kept upgraded Train Interior sizes at 28 / 38 / 50 / 60 / 72 / 82 / 92.
- Bumped Train Interior layout version so existing test interiors repaint/rebuild with the new starter size.
Version: 2.2.55
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Updated Train Interior Expansion sizes to 18 / 28 / 38 / 50 / 60 / 72 / 82 / 92, with max size 92x92.
- Bumped Train Interior layout version so existing test interiors repaint/rebuild with the new even-sized layout.
Version: 2.2.54
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Updated Train Interior Expansion sizes to 18 / 28 / 39 / 50 / 61 / 72 / 83 / 93, with max size 93x93.
Version: 2.2.53
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Changed Train Interior visual tiles: fixed center core now uses green concrete and restricted top/bottom utility lanes now use blue concrete.
Version: 2.2.52
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Train Interior Expansion sizes now start at 18x18 and progress to 90x90.
- Updated Train Interior Expansion research costs to 1000 / 2000 / 3500 / 5000 / 7000 / 8500 / 10000.
- Updated Train Battery Upgrade research costs to 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 3000 / 4000 / 5000.
- Updated Warp Outpost Expansion research costs to 1000 / 2000 / 3500 / 5000 / 7000 / 8500 / 10000.
- Simplified the warp completion message to only show "Warp complete."
Version: 2.2.51
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Experimental CAVETORIO: added a 5-tile clear empty ring around the Warp Outpost before the cave-rock border starts.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: the clear ring removes water, lava, ore/resource patches, crude oil, trees, cliffs, rocks, decoratives, and enemy entities only in that 5-tile ring.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: the 50-tile safe zone remains enemy-only; resources and terrain outside the 5-tile clear ring are not changed.
Version: 2.2.50
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Made the CAVETORIO 50-tile enemy-only safe zone react immediately after digging near the Warp Outpost instead of waiting for the periodic cleanup.
- Added a short post-dig recheck window so delayed enemy spawns near the Outpost are removed before they can establish inside the safe zone.
- Re-applied enemy-only safe-zone cleanup after chunk generation near the active Warp Outpost.
Version: 2.2.49
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Experimental CAVETORIO: fixed a startup crash caused by checking optional demolisher entity names when those prototypes are not loaded.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: enemy safe-zone cleanup now scans existing entities in the buffer and removes only enemy entities, without touching terrain, water, ore, oil, rocks, or cave layout.
Version: 2.2.48
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Experimental CAVETORIO: added a 50-tile enemy-only safety buffer around the Warp Outpost.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: removes biters, spitters, enemy nests, worms, and other enemy entities inside the safety buffer on Warp #1, after each warp, after Outpost Expansion updates, and periodically while playing.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: the safety buffer does not remove water, ore, oil, rocks, cave walls, trees, terrain, tiles, or decoratives.
Version: 2.2.47
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Experimental CAVETORIO: fixed Warp #1 starter footprint leaking the old 40x20 train pad outside the Level 0 Outpost.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: starter train pad now respects the 25x25 Warp Outpost on the first map.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: normalizes the first Outpost again after the starter train is created, so Warp #1 matches later square Outpost landings.
Version: 2.2.46
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Experimental CAVETORIO: changed Level 0 Warp Outpost size to a square 25x25 footprint.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: Warp #1 now uses the same square Outpost landing style as later warps instead of the legacy starter cave shape.
- Experimental CAVETORIO: removed the physical market entity; the coin portal remains the market access point.
Version: 2.2.45
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- CAVETORIO experimental: rewired Outpost power/circuit connections using Factorio 2 LuaWireConnector API after warp.
- CAVETORIO experimental: removed the unused Drive train button from the train outside-view/minimap GUI.
- CAVETORIO experimental: fixed profile generation so Digging Mode disables Resource Level instead of showing both.
Changes:
- CAVETORIO experimental: added Research Difficulty to Cave Info and new cave profile messages.
Version: 2.2.44
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Cavetorio: preserved Main Train registration through warp so train parts are not double-counted after moving to a new cave.
- Cavetorio: relinked moved rolling stock to their existing train interiors instead of creating fresh empty interiors after warp.
- Cavetorio: restored power pole copper/circuit wire links when both endpoints are inside the Warp Outpost.
Changes:
- Cavetorio: added a Freeplay-style intro message explaining the Warp Outpost, Main Train, player lost punishment, Manual Warp voting, and core research goals.
Version: 2.2.43
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Experimental Cavetorio HUD: added separate Cave Info and Main Train Info buttons.
- Cave Info now opens a compact profile panel instead of keeping every profile line permanently in the top bar.
- Main Train Info shows train part counts, Outpost size, Warp Time, and Train Battery summary.
Version: 2.2.42
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Improved the experimental CAVETORIO HUD profile panel so each profile value is displayed on its own separate line.
- Renamed the HUD resource line to "Resource Level" and removed hyphen-style values like level-4 from display output.
Version: 2.2.41
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Cavetorio: the permanent profile HUD now displays profile fields vertically under the Manual Warp button for easier reading.
- Cavetorio: profile values now use clean display names such as "Level 4" and "Digging 1" instead of hyphenated internal IDs like "level-4".
Version: 2.2.40
Date: 2026-06-30
Experimental:
- Cavetorio: Warp Outpost Expansion research now immediately repaints and expands the blue Outpost footprint on the current map.
- Cavetorio: the Outpost HUD now keeps the current cave profile visible permanently under the Manual Warp button.
- Cavetorio: enemies inside the Outpost no longer transfer to the next map; enemy threats are generated by the new cave instead.
- Cavetorio: Warp Outpost Time now uses a distinct timer/clock technology icon instead of sharing the Expansion icon.
Bugfixes:
- Cavetorio: completed Warp Outpost Time research now immediately refreshes the current cycle timer and HUD.
Version: 2.2.39
Date: 2026-06-30
Changes:
- Experimental Cavetorio warp landing now creates a real cave-style landing instead of a normal open surface.
- Warp destination footprint and a large surrounding buffer are cleared to out-of-map void before the Outpost is restored.
- Outpost is sealed with diggy rocks on floor tiles so mining the border continues the normal cave tunnel/frontier behavior.
- Warp surfaces are now treated as cave surfaces by the world generator, so generated chunks become cave void instead of regular terrain.
Version: 2.2.38
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Fixed an experimental Cavetorio crash caused by the New Cave Profile message exceeding Factorio's localised string parameter limit.
Changes:
- Added a startup Mod Setting: CAVETORIO, with Enable/Disable options for the experimental Train Warp / Warp Outpost system.
Version: 2.2.37
Date: 2026-06-30
Experimental:
- Added the first Cavetorio / Warp Outpost prototype for testing.
- Added top HUD with Manual Warp button, Warp number, current Zone, timer countdown, cycle time, cooldown and vote/countdown status.
- Added experimental Auto Warp / Manual Warp logic with multiplayer majority voting, manual countdown, safety cooldown and 5-minute warning messages.
- Added fresh cave surface generation per warp, clean landing footprint, Outpost tile/entity transfer, rock-sealed landing ring, player lost punishment, and delayed previous-surface cleanup messaging.
- Added runtime cave profile rolls for Zone, Region, Lighting, Digging Mode, Resource Level, Cave Difficulty, Ore Protection, Ore Missing, Ore Blood and Mixed Resources display/testing.
- Added Nightmare unlock milestone at Warp #60 with +10 tile Nightmare depth scaling per later warp.
- Added Warp Outpost Expansion and Warp Outpost Time research chains, both using only base Factorio sciences up to Space Science.
- Added admin test command /the-cave-warp-now to force an immediate warp and /the-cave-warp-profile to print the current profile.
Version: 2.2.36
Date: 2026-06-30
Balance:
- Increased Coal Liquefaction research cost from 200 to 800 science packs.
- Keeps the Purple Science / vanilla-style unlock path while making the reduced science requirements feel properly earned in The Cave.
Version: 2.2.35
Date: 2026-06-30
Balance:
- Restored Coal Liquefaction to the vanilla/base progression path for The Cave.
- Coal Liquefaction now uses Automation, Logistic, Chemical and Production science packs with a 200 pack cost and 30 second research time.
- Removed Space Age planet science requirements from Coal Liquefaction so it unlocks at Purple Science instead of requiring Vulcanus/metallurgic progression.
- This helps reduce the plastic grind when crude oil is scarce but coal is abundant.
Version: 2.2.34
Date: 2026-06-30
Bugfixes:
- Train Interiors: unclaimed abandoned train parts now show only the blocked-entry message and no longer show the normal Ctrl+Enter confirmation prompt before rejecting entry.
- Keeps accepted Main Train parts and normal registered interiors using the existing two-step Ctrl+Enter confirmation.
Version: 2.2.33
Date: 2026-06-29
Features:
- Added Main Train Expansion research levels 1-7.
- Main Train capacity now starts at 3 train parts and can be upgraded to 10 total train parts.
- Each Main Train Expansion level adds +1 accepted train part and uses expensive base-game science progression from 1000 red science to 7000 full white science.
- Added the custom Main Train Expansion technology icon.
- Updated abandoned train part discovery quotas: Easy 10, Medium 20, Hard 20, Nightmare 20, for up to 70 world finds.
- Updated abandoned train part type weights to Cargo 45%, Fluid 25%, Locomotive 25%, Artillery 5%.
- Reduced abandoned train part site spacing to 150 tiles to support the higher zone quotas.
Balance:
- Abandoned train parts no longer receive interiors by default.
- Unclaimed train parts cannot be entered with the Train Interior hotkey.
- Train parts only become registered interior rooms after they are connected to the Main Train and the current Main Train capacity allows them.
- If the Main Train is full, extra connected train parts are left unclaimed and receive no interior.
Version: 2.2.32
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a Lua compile error in Train Interiors caused by too many top-level local variables after adding abandoned train part zone limits.
- Kept the abandoned train part quotas and starter train platform behavior unchanged from 2.2.31.
Version: 2.2.31
Date: 2026-06-29
Features:
- Added zone-limited abandoned train part discovery sites.
- Easy now spawns 0 abandoned train parts; Medium has up to 3, Hard up to 7, and Nightmare up to 10, with a global maximum of 20.
- Each abandoned train part site is a compact 4x10 footprint with exactly three straight rails and one train part.
- Possible finds now include cargo wagons, fluid wagons, locomotives, and rare artillery wagons.
- Abandoned train parts must be far apart so discoveries feel rare and valuable.
- Starter Train now spawns on a 40x20 blue refined concrete platform.
Version: 2.2.30
Date: 2026-06-29
Changes:
- Adjusted top only-export fluid wagon tank rotation by one additional step without moving it.
Version: 2.2.29
Date: 2026-06-29
Changes:
- Train interiors: forced fluid wagon tank layout refresh and ensured the top Only Export tank uses exactly one rotation step while keeping its position unchanged.
Version: 2.2.28
Date: 2026-06-29
Features:
- Added 10 Toolbelt Upgrade technologies using only base/vanilla science packs, ending at Space Science.
- Each Toolbelt Upgrade adds +10 character inventory slots, for +100 total after all ten upgrades.
- Reuses the base Toolbelt technology icon when available; no new icon asset is required.
Version: 2.2.27
Date: 2026-06-29
Train Interiors:
- Adjusted fluid wagon transfer tank alignment inside the fixed 18x18 hazard core.
- Top Only Export tank now keeps its position and rotates once.
- Top Only Import tank now rotates once and moves one tile left.
- Bottom Only Export tank now moves one tile up.
- Bottom Only Import tank now moves one tile up and one tile left.
- Locomotive water and cargo/artillery wagon chest layout were left unchanged.
Version: 2.2.26
Date: 2026-06-29
Train Interiors:
- Adjusted cargo/artillery wagon Only Import chest alignment inside the fixed 18x18 hazard core.
- Moved the top Only Import chest row 4 tiles left from the previous test layout.
- Moved the bottom Only Import chest row 2 tiles left from the previous test layout.
- Locomotive water and fluid wagon tank layout were left unchanged.
Version: 2.2.25
Date: 2026-06-29
Changes:
- Adjusted the top import cargo/artillery interior chest row: moved it one tile down and two tiles right.
- Left water placement and fluid wagon tank placement unchanged.
Version: 2.2.24
Date: 2026-06-29
Train Interiors:
- Adjusted cargo/artillery wagon transfer chest alignment inside the fixed 18x18 hazard core.
- Only Import chest groups now move one tile up and one tile right.
- The bottom Only Export chest group now moves one tile up.
- Locomotive water and fluid wagon tank layout were left unchanged.
Version: 2.2.23
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a crash when entering train interiors caused by the fixed locomotive water layout referencing an undefined center variable.
Version: 2.2.22
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Aligned cargo/artillery wagon transfer chests to the fixed 18x18 hazard-core corners while preserving left-side Only Export and right-side Only Import roles.
- Aligned fluid wagon transfer tanks to the fixed 18x18 hazard-core corners while preserving left-side Only Export and right-side Only Import roles.
- Moved locomotive interior water to a fixed top-middle position inside the 18x18 hazard core so it no longer shifts with room expansion.
- Reordered the configuration migration pass so existing transfer contents are preserved before layout entities are recreated.
Version: 2.2.21
Date: 2026-06-29
Features:
- Added Train Interior Expansion research with 7 levels using only base/vanilla science packs from Automation through Space Science.
- Marked Space Age/space travel as optional in info.json so normal Factorio players are not blocked by this feature chain.
- Train interiors now grow as a square around a fixed 18x18 hazard-concrete center core.
- Starting interiors are 30x30 tiles; each expansion upgrade adds 4 tiles to every side, ending at 86x86.
- Cargo and artillery wagon transfer chests now stay in the fixed center core, preserving left-side Only Export and right-side Only Import behavior.
- Fluid wagon transfer tanks now stay in the fixed center core, preserving left-side Only Export and right-side Only Import behavior.
- Outside-to-inside Ctrl+Enter entry now lands on the center 4x4 pad; inside-to-outside exit behavior remains unchanged.
- Added a 256x256 Train Interior Expansion technology icon.
Changes:
- Top and bottom train utility lanes remain exactly 4 tiles each and keep their pipe/pump/tank/pole-only rule.
- The center 4x4 entry pad is protected from player/robot builds so the entry landing area stays clear.
Version: 2.2.20
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Shield physical health bars showing red/low while the shared shield pool was full.
- Physical rolling-stock health now mirrors the shared shield percentage, so a full shield appears full/green.
- Renamed the Train Shield label line from "Linked Cars" to "Linked Train".
Version: 2.2.19
Date: 2026-06-29
Features:
- Converted Train Shield from per-wagon HP into one shared Train Shield health pool per connected train.
- Extra wagons now increase train length/risk, but do not multiply max shield HP.
- Damage to any locomotive/wagon is subtracted from the shared train shield pool.
- Self-repair now restores the shared train shield pool instead of repairing each wagon separately.
Changes:
- Train Shield label now shows shared Train Shield HP, self-repair rate, repair mode, and linked car count.
- Existing 2.2.18 saves migrate by deriving the shared pool from the previous train health ratio.
Fixes:
- Prevented newly attached wagons from granting free extra Train Shield max HP.
Version: 2.2.18
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Added a save-recovery pass that re-syncs all physically connected rolling stock back into one shared train interior surface.
- Fixed Ctrl+Enter entering only the selected wagon/locomotive interior when older Shield test saves had fragmented wagon records.
- Reworked train interior rebuilding to avoid clearing whole interior surfaces during train sync, protecting player-built machines.
- Moved the Ctrl+Enter entry landing point to a separate 3x3 pad above the top Hazard Concrete/utility lane, directly attached to the wagon.
Version: 2.2.17
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Reworked Train Shield so research no longer swaps/recreates rolling stock during upgrades.
- Fixed Train Shield upgrades splitting the physical train and fragmenting the shared interior.
- Added Train Shield health/self-repair status to the locomotive hover label.
- Changed interior entry teleport to a 3x3 safe entry zone above the selected wagon instead of the room center.
Version: 2.2.16
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Shield upgrades rebuilding train interiors when research completed.
- Train Shield variant swaps now preserve existing interior rooms and player-built entities; only rolling stock health/prototype state is updated.
Version: 2.2.15
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a startup load error caused by too many local variables after adding Train Shield.
- Refactored Train Shield helper functions without changing the Train Shield gameplay design.
Version: 2.2.14
Date: 2026-06-29
Features:
- Added Train Shield Upgrade research with 10 levels.
- Cave rolling stock now starts at 5,000 HP and upgrades to 35,000 HP by Level 10.
- Each Train Shield level also increases train self-repair speed by 5 HP/sec, up to 50 HP/sec.
- Train Shield applies per rolling stock entity: locomotive, cargo wagon, fluid wagon, artillery wagon, and found/merged train parts.
- Repair packs are disabled for Cave train rolling stock; damaged train parts slowly self-repair instead.
- Added a 256x256 Train Shield technology icon.
Version: 2.2.13
Date: 2026-06-29
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a startup load error in train_interiors.lua caused by exceeding Factorio/Lua's 200 local variable limit after the multiplayer train safety lock additions.
- Kept the multiplayer train safety lock / admin bypass behavior unchanged.
Version: 2.2.12
Date: 2026-06-28
Features:
- Added Multiplayer Train Safety Lock for locomotive driving.
- Admin players can always drive locomotives without a vote.
- Non-admin players in multiplayer must receive a majority vote before driving the train.
- Added temporary pilot approval that expires after five minutes or when the player leaves the locomotive.
- Added Yes/No vote buttons for connected players on the same force.
Version: 2.2.11
Date: 2026-06-28
Changes:
- Added Found Train Coupling Assist for abandoned rolling stock found in caves.
- Nearby compatible rolling stock now attempts vanilla connect_rolling_stock on both coupler ends.
- When coupling succeeds, the train interior, shared battery, and power bus are rebuilt for the newly connected train.
Fixes:
- Found locomotives/wagons that were aligned on the same rail could remain as separate trains with red couplers.
Version: 2.2.10
Date: 2026-06-28
Bugfixes:
- Changed Train Battery hidden interior poles to wire-only taps with zero supply area.
- Fixed player-built entities being powered/loaded by the invisible train bus just because they were placed on the wagon floor.
- The shared Train Battery bus now only joins visible player electric pole networks, while keeping all wagons linked into one train-wide charging system.
Version: 2.2.9
Date: 2026-06-28
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Battery hidden charger drawing power while the scripted battery was already full.
- The interior charger is now removed while charging is paused/full, so empty train interiors no longer show constant MW demand.
- Charging still resumes automatically when the scripted Train Battery drops to the recharge threshold.
Version: 2.2.8
Date: 2026-06-28
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Battery startup crash caused by an invalid hidden electric pole wire distance above Factorio's hard 64-tile limit.
- Kept the shared train power bus behavior by using hidden relay poles between wagon rooms instead of an illegal long wire reach.
Version: 2.2.7
Date: 2026-06-28
Changes:
- Reworked Train Battery charging to use one shared train-wide interior power bus.
- All wagon rooms now link into the same hidden power network, including newly added wagons.
- Removed the old per-wagon charge-speed split so one powered wagon can use the full research-level charge cap.
- Charging Speed label now reflects the real total train-wide charging speed.
Version: 2.2.6
Date: 2026-06-28
Changes:
- Added a live Train Battery charging speed line to the locomotive status label.
- The label now shows current measured charging speed against the current research-level charge cap.
Version: 2.2.5
Date: 2026-06-28
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Train Battery charge rate scaling. Level 5/6 chargers now use the intended total charge targets instead of staying around the old low per-room limits.
- Runtime now selects hidden charger prototypes based on both battery level and number of train rooms, so total charge draw stays close to the intended level cap.
- Updated hidden charger prototypes to match the intended charge targets: 50 / 100 / 150 / 250 / 400 / 600 MW by level.
Version: 2.2.4
Date: 2026-06-28
Changes:
- Increased Train Battery charging speed by research level so higher-level batteries can use much stronger interior power setups.
- Level-specific hidden chargers now replace the old fixed low-rate charger when saves are loaded.
- Changed locomotive Train Battery status text to a yellow/gold color for better visibility.
- Tightened the starter train placement pad to about 4x24 tiles.
Version: 2.2.3
Date: 2026-06-28
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the locomotive Train Battery status label so each status line renders as a separate, clean line instead of overlapping on one line.
Version: 2.2.2
Date: 2026-06-28
Bug Fixes:
- Reduced hidden Train Battery charger draw so small train interior power grids no longer show a huge artificial 200+ MW demand.
- Interior Train Battery chargers now have a modest per-room input rate while the outside battery output remains capacity-based.
Version: 2.2.1
Date: 2026-06-28
UI Fixes:
- Fixed the locomotive Train Battery status label so each status field renders on its own line in-game.
- The Not Installed warning now appears as a stacked multi-line label instead of one long line.
Version: 2.2.0
Date: 2026-06-28
Major Features:
- Added the finished Train Interiors power progression package.
- Added Train Battery research upgrades with a dedicated 256px technology icon.
- Starter trains now begin with no installed train battery and no power export.
- Train Battery Upgrade 1 unlocks Level 1 storage at 6000 MJ.
- Later Train Battery upgrades increase capacity to 8000 / 12000 / 16000 / 20000 / 25000 MJ.
- Train Battery research costs are fast-cycle progression upgrades using red, green, blue, purple and yellow science tiers.
Train Battery:
- The train battery is capacity-based: outside power drains stored MJ instead of using a small fixed MW cap.
- Interior power generation charges the hidden train battery through invisible room chargers.
- Outside electric poles can draw from the train battery only when placed very close to the locomotive.
- The outside hookup range is now about 6 tiles near the locomotive.
- Charging uses a 25% / 100% hysteresis loop: it starts charging at 25% and stops at 100% to reduce constant load on the interior grid.
Train Interiors:
- Selecting the locomotive now shows a clear multi-line Train Battery status label.
- Before research, the locomotive label explains that the battery is not installed and power export is disabled.
- Cargo wagon transfer chests and fluid wagon tanks show simple Only Import / Only Export labels when selected.
- Train interior map view now works and the surrounding void remains clean instead of showing green terrain.
- Offshore pumps can be placed beside the locomotive interior water again, while utility-lane restrictions remain intact.
Balancing:
- Reduced the starter train placement area from 17x57 tiles to about 4x24 tiles.
- Kept Train Battery upgrades quick to research so progression is controlled by science cost instead of long research timers.
Notes:
- This is a cleaned release changelog that combines the Train Interiors experimental work into one stable 2.2 entry.
- Existing train interior room layouts, cargo transfer, fluid transfer and saved interior builds are preserved.
Version: 2.6.9
Date: 2026-07-19
Bugfixes:
- Fixed mod loading failing with a duplicate entity-name locale property tree key.
- Moved the new industrial-container English and Russian localisation into dedicated locale files with one definition for each locale section.
Scope:
- Industrial container prototypes, recipes, technologies, graphics, capacities and vanilla-chest isolation are unchanged from 2.6.8.
Version: 2.6.8
Date: 2026-07-19
Features:
- Added 21 new industrial containers in 1x1, 2x2 and 6x6 sizes: standard, filtered, passive provider, active provider, storage, requester and buffer variants.
- Added separate Industrial Containers and Logistic Containers technologies with Factorio 2.0 recipes and circuit-network support.
- Preserved the original 48, 200 and 1000-slot capacities and the original recipe progression from Exotic Industries: Containers.
Compatibility:
- The new containers use The Cave-owned prototype names and size-specific fast-replacement groups.
- Vanilla Factorio chests, recipes and technology unlocks are not replaced or modified.
Credits:
- Container design and artwork adapted from Exotic Industries: Containers by PreLeyZero with permission.
Version: 2.6.16
Date: 2026-07-19
Production Status Indicators:
- Added fixed-colour native status indicators to assembling machines, furnaces, rocket silos and mining drills.
- Green indicates working, yellow indicates full output, orange indicates low power, and red indicates stopped, blocked, unpowered, idle, missing input or exhausted resources.
- Uses a clearly visible standard-size 64-pixel indicator at 0.15 scale with glow enabled.
Mod Settings:
- Added one Startup Enable/Disable dropdown, enabled by default. Colours, size, glow and supported entity types are intentionally fixed.
Performance:
- Uses Factorio's prototype working visualisations and status tinting with no control.lua, on_tick polling, runtime entity scanning or saved state.
Compatibility:
- Appends to existing machine graphics instead of replacing them and safely skips prototypes without a usable graphics set or bounding box.
- Added complete English and Russian localisation.
Version: 2.6.15
Date: 2026-07-19
Localisation:
- Renamed the middle Industrial Container capacity setting from Medium to 2x2 for consistent 1x1, 2x2 and 6x6 labels.
Scope:
- Capacity ranges, defaults, prototypes and vanilla-chest isolation are unchanged.
Version: 2.6.14
Date: 2026-07-19
Mod Settings:
- Added startup capacity settings for the 1x1, medium 2x2 and 6x6 Industrial Container families.
- 1x1 capacity can be configured from 48 to 80 slots, defaulting to 48.
- Medium capacity can be configured from 200 to 800 slots, defaulting to 200.
- 6x6 capacity can be configured from 1000 to 3000 slots, defaulting to 1000.
Coverage:
- Each selected capacity applies consistently to the standard, filtered and all logistic variants in that size family.
Compatibility:
- The settings modify only The Cave-owned industrial container prototypes; vanilla Wooden, Iron, Steel and Logistic Chests remain unchanged.
Version: 2.6.13
Date: 2026-07-19
Graphics:
- Corrected the Turbo Loader entity sprites and inventory icon from purple to Turbo Belt green.
- Preserved the original sprite dimensions, frame layout, transparency, shading and prototype names.
Scope:
- Loader speeds, recipes, technologies, Upgrade Planner progression and researched belt-stack capacity up to 20 remain unchanged.
Version: 2.6.12
Date: 2026-07-19
Crash Fix:
- Restored Industrial Loader belt_length to 0.5, preventing Factorio 2.0.77 TransportLine::checkConsistency from receiving a zero-length connector range.
- Fixes the engine crash reporting connector.range.start < connector.range.end for the-cave-loader.
Validation:
- Added a locked prototype invariant requiring every Industrial Loader belt_length to be strictly greater than zero.
- Re-ran Base, Space Age Turbo, snapping, flag, property, localisation and archive validation.
Scope:
- Loader speeds, recipes, technologies, graphics, Upgrade Planner chain and researched belt-stack capacity up to 20 remain unchanged.
Version: 2.6.11
Date: 2026-07-19
Bugfixes:
- Removed the obsolete Factorio 1.1 entity flag fast-replaceable-no-build-while-moving from all Industrial Loaders.
- Industrial Loaders now use only the Factorio 2.0-supported placeable-neutral and player-creation flags.
Validation:
- Added a locked porting rule: legacy prototype flags and properties must be checked against the current Factorio 2.0 prototype API before integration.
- Re-audited the Industrial Loader prototype against the Factorio 2.0 Loader1x1Prototype, LoaderPrototype and EntityPrototypeFlags definitions.
Scope:
- Loader recipes, graphics, speeds, upgrade chain, snapping and belt-stack support are unchanged from 2.6.10.
Version: 2.6.10
Date: 2026-07-19
Features:
- Added independent standard, Fast and Express 1x1 Industrial Loaders matching yellow, red and blue transport-belt speeds.
- Added a conditional Turbo Loader using the Neo Loader artwork when Space Age Turbo Belts are available.
- Added dedicated Loader research and native Upgrade Planner progression without replacing or modifying vanilla belts or loaders.
- Added automatic orientation for manual, robot, blueprint, script-raised and revived construction.
Belt Stacking:
- Every Industrial Loader follows the force's researched belt-stack size and supports The Cave's full capacity progression up to 20 items per belt stack.
- Existing Industrial Loaders update through prototype research state without per-entity stack overrides.
Localisation:
- Added complete English and Russian names and descriptions in dedicated locale files.
Credits:
- Loader design, artwork and source architecture adapted from Exotic Industries: Loaders by PreLeyZero with permission under GPLv3-or-later.