Gypsy Treasures (Chindrabakadabra)

A mod pack for setting up a gaming environment I find enjoyable.

What it does

This sets the stage for a good game. There are a few tool like QoL mods in the list, but most are enhancements which increase my immersion into the game. Not that Factorio is easy to be distracted from already.

Required mods

My favorite part of the game is the trains, so the trains get the most 'help' from other mods.

The colors in the base game seem a bit muted to me, so I bump it up a notch or two. Even the fluid wagons get some color,

• Oil Based Paint (1.1)
• Vibrant Paint (2.0/2.1)
• Vibrant Trains (1.1)
• Vibrant Train Colors (2.0)
• Fluid Wagon Color Mask (1.1/2.0/2.1) (Sadly while these colors work on save and reload, they are not held in blueprints.)

The trains get their sound effects enhanced as well.

• Honk (1.1/2.0/2.1), because trains should sound off when they move. That's just what trains do.
• Louder Cargo Wagons (1.1/2.0/2.1) because hundreds of tons of steel rolling down the rails just is not quiet.
• Brake Squeal (1.1/2.0/2.1) so I can hear the trains slow down for signals and stop at the terminals. This also adds a small bit of sparks from metal on metal braking.

Then there's a few more tricks to be had.

• Train Trails (1.1/2.0) is positively entertaining. The glow worm effect as the roll around the map can be mesmerizing.
• Space Efficient Rail Signals (1.1)
• Space Efficient Rail Signals 2 (2.0) puts the signals where they should be, and makes it easier to use LHT rails and still have proper signals set up.
• Posted Signals (2.0/2.1) takes it to the next level and puts the signals on poles. Real old-school style.
• Railway Motor Car (1.1/2.0/2.1) is the perfect 'pocket train'. Especially for players like me who just cannot make the car and tank drive a good path. I kill more power poles than spawners. I used to use a regular locomotive, but this thing's just so cute I gotta have it.
• Manual Trains (1.1/2.0/2.1) At Temp Stops is the answer to a prayer. I'm always forgetting to take the train out of automatic after it reaches my temporary stop. 5 seconds later the bloody iron horse gallops for home, leaving be stranded in the hinterlands. No more, my fiendish beast!

Next up on the immersion list is some extra light effects

• Big Light (1.1/2.0) just makes the status lights on some machines bigger. Most notably for me is the rail signals.
• Bullet Tracers (1.1/2.0/2.1) is just the thing after watching too many war action movies. The tracer rounds look especially nice in the dark.
• Realistic Reactor Glow (1.1/2.0/2.1) changes the unreal green glow to a closer to reasonable blue-ish glow. Glow in the dark watches are not uranium and green is not a reactor's glow, if you were where you could even see anything. Though I do like the green glow when I have a belt full of nuclear fuel.
• Science Pack Glow (1.1)
• Science Pack Glow Reborn (2.0)
• Glowing Science (2.1), however, is just the thing to make science fun. It's like having the rainbow in lights on my screen.
• Disco Science (1.1)
• Disco Science Lite (2.0/2.1) because all those glowing science packs are surely going to make the labs sparkle when they get opened.
• Belt Glow (2.0/2.1) give the belts running lights. Those chevrons now have a purpose.

Just the nice things to have includes

• Shortwave Fix (1.1/2.0), reduce the planet spanning spam of wires with shortwave radio signals. Simple, small, and perfectly useful. In Factorio 2.0 this can reach all surfaces, including the platforms.
• Shortwave Fix Limited (2.0) does the same as the regular except limits it to one surface. Works the same, with channels which the new vanilla radar feature does not have, yet stays in the same range as the radar.
• Playtime+ (1.1/2.0) for a convenient, and movable, game time tracker.
• Milestones (1.1/2.0/2.1) to get notices of progress in a game, keep track of the progress on active goals, and record the whole lot into a file to compare with previous games. Maybe I'll get better some day.
• Better Victory Screen (1.1/2.0/2.1) give the important information about the game when I launch the rocket. I don't care how many biters I killed. It's their fault and I'm just doing what needs doing for the factory to grow. Production statistics, however, are what it's all about. The factory must grow. And, what's a factory do when it grows? It produces more. How much more? This mod tells me.

I don't just take random roll map seeds. I preview the map, maybe adjust the terrain to my liking with water and cliffs where I think they'll be good. There's two problems for me with the preview. One is the checkboard effect on ore patches. When the map is greener and has trees the coal can be nearly invisible to my ancient eyes. The other is that rocks are rocks, on the map, yet not all rocks are equal. Some have precious coal in them. The preview gives no hint about that. If I hadn't played one of the now missing demo scenarios I probably wouldnt' even know some rocks have coal.

• Solid Map Ore (1.1/2.0/2.1) removes the checkerboard effect and just makes each ore field a solid blob of color.
• Show Coal Rocks (1.1/2.0)
• Show Coal Rocks Update (2.1) does what you'd expect. It shows the coal rocks on the map, preview and in-gamee, with a yellow color instead of the medium tan of other rocks and cliffs.
• Thicker Power Wires (1.1/2.0) is just a minor thing, but it makes it so much easier for this dinosaur to see the power, and circuit, lines when building out my base.

I also have a few 'tool' type mods. They just make it easier, or faster, to figure out what I could without them anyway. Convenience. Of course, in the spirit of an automation game the automate what I would be doing manually.

• Mining Patch Planner (1.1/2.0/2.1) figures out a good coverage of an ore patch. It even places ghosts, if I have bots in the area to build it.
• P.U.M.P. (1.1)
• Oil Outpost Planner (2.0/2.1) is a nifty tool as well. Just the mining planner build for pumpjacks instead.
• Rate Calculator (1.1/2.0/2.1) saves me from either opening the on-screen calculator or opening a website. All my planning and thinking can be done within the game.

Optional mods

Mods I sometimes use, but not as often

• Todo List (1.1/2.0/2.1) is a to-do list in the game. I tried using it and I like it. I just don't seem to actually use it. Not to track what needs doing nor to mark something done, if I did track it. Optional reminds me it's there, but lets me keep it off until I want it.
• Zoom Out (1.1)
• Zooom (2.0)
• Extra Zoom (2.1) is great for placing big blueprints without having to be in map view and hoping you've got things lined up by looking at the colors on the screen. I use much fewer large prints now, so this remains an option rather than a dependency.

Conflicting mods

There are mods which clearly change the game and, for me, are design tools rather than part of playing an actual save game.

• Editor Extensions, the granddaddy of tools. The 'scenario' it provides is perfect for making blueprints.
• Change Map Setting, does what it says. I've not yet found a need for it when doing prints, but I'm sure I don't need it in a save game.
• Picker Anthem/Dollies/Pipe Tool/Tweaks, Picker Dollies is handy when designing circuits or blueprints, but I'm not so interested in having it in my 'game'.
• My own mod pack, Gypsy Laboratory which loads these as well, also qualifies.

Missing mods

As can be seen from the list above, several mods are missing the 2.1 usage. Some are, I think, going to be updated. Others are by folks who've not made a peep on the mod portal since the 2.0 update rounds. The ones I'm missing, some more than others, are:

• Vibrant Train Colors
• Train Trails
• Space Efficient Rail Signals
• Big Light
• Shortwave
• Playtime+
• Thicker Power Wires

All but one of these, Train Trails, are MIT licensed, so I may try my hand at updating someone else's work. I never liked it professionally, but this it for fun, so maybe. A month ago asher_sky said that Train Trails was going to be updated to 2.1, so all I have to do is wait for it.

Usage

Download the mod from the portal. Turning it on will automatically turn on the required mods and the name will remain red if any of the conflicting mods are not turned off. The mod itself does nothing and can even be turned off once the required mods have triggered on. Using it as a master switch and then turning it off allows for turning off, this time, one of the mods.

AI Usage

None

Contact

Ideas and suggestions can be handled on Discord https://discord.gg/Ud2Mg2akcC.