Thanks for the feedback and the caveat that it’s in alpha/experimental. People usually assume that the mod is near finished, but really large sections of the mod are in a placeholder state waiting for that section to be overhauled. Fortunately most of the things you dislike are placeholder content. I’ll try to summarise some of the current roadmap. Most of the real “exploration” content will be added quite late (0.8 or later), because it needs to fit around the activities and capabilities of the player at various points in the game and I want those to be better defined first. Exploration is also content-heavy over systems-heavy, so it is something I can get contributors to help with but the other systems need to be more solid first. For example the ruins, things keep breaking when the mod changes so I really want to have the other systems stable before adding more exploration content. Exploration is also mixed in with some things that will happen with a robot faction. The mod already has a lot of PvP features (like meteor defence shooting enemy delivery cannon projectiles, umbrella vs energy beaming, etc) and the robot faction is intended to give you a way to fight with (or make peace with) an enemy with similar inter-surface capabilities and weapons. In 0.6 the biggest limitation is the temporary planets system. Currently all planets are one planet type that has a random climate and random resources, there’s nothing really “designed” about their experience beyond processing 1 resource. Version 0.7 has a lot of different planet types and each one will have more intentional gameplay. That’s not just environmental challenges and unique terrain, but also a decided set of available resources that can be used together for a local factory. Where 0.6 has 1 main resource with a linear process + some random (often useless) secondary resources; 0.7 will have a primary resource and some guaranteed secondary ones that are not just used for processing the main resource but also to make local science. (And yes, that literally does include lakes of sulfuric acid for specific planets). Some planet types will have a dedicated building (sometimes replacing a space building) which can only be built there, like a magmaworks, vitamelange arboretum, or an oceanic tower, which will also be needed for the associated science. 0.7 doesn’t have any science tiers (1-4), every science pack is named (asteroid, stellar, radiation, genetic, neural, etc), and half of them require a small base somewhere specific such as an asteroid belt or planet type. This means that roughly 40% of the current space science packs are moving to the ground so when you go to an iridium planet it’s not just a mining base, you’re also doing one of the material science packs there. This general tech structure is already in place, but the exact recipes are still in flux and something I will be trying to get more community feedback on later. There are also things like more toys from bio sciences, jump clones, reasons to go to other star systems, less grind, etc. but that’s a list too long…
Ok, this gets me really exited for the future of the mod. I played 0.5 with a bunch of friends and looking at the changes of 0.6 we didn't really feel like we needed to play it again. Reading your planned changes for 0.7 though, definitely gets me super exited to play again. This already is imho the BEST mod in existence for the BEST game in existence so thank you so much for your work
Love the mod so far. It drags in places but its already the best overhaul mod for factorio. I hope you have the opportunity to get more people helping with the mod, since I worry there's a decade of development left if you do it all on your own! Cheers.
A lot of you wanted my thoughts on the mod as a whole, so here they are. I really did enjoy my time playing it and it's only because it has so much potential yet uncovered or yet unfinished that I got so passionate about it. Space Exploration remains a great mod and I eagerly await what's the come, even if it does mean I might need to revisit it at some point. Please don't blacklist me Earendel.
Interestingly enough I kind of disliked the Nav mode due to how it was implemented. Basically if you pinged a location you always got dropped in to it, which was not great if you literally just wanted to know locations on a map, rather then what exactly was there. Also I or anyone else never did find a way to reliably quickly exit Nav mode in a single key stroke. Which could make it sometimes a bit more involved to get out of it. Now in many cases this doesn't matter that much, but in for instance high stakes military operations it turned out a bit of a drag and at times a little dangerous. But I guess in the end you can kind of put it under what the review said, it's a very interesting feature with fantastic abilities to it, but it's got some rough edges that get in the way of smooth playing at times.
@@Gh3ttoboy You'd think so, you'd think so. But if you say pressed M before that, because you really needed to know where the ping was as an actual location, then you could be in for a several key press exit scenario. And you'd best not mistake when you're actually out, because else there is a chance for more looping if you say you wanted to use map view for something after nav.
Same, and with the jetpack too. I think I'm just going to keep the jetpack installed for all future overhaul mod runs. Tightly packing my buildings and pipes together is part of the fun for me, so removing getting stuck as a punishment for playing that way ironically raises the challenge cap.
As someone with the inability to form my own opinions I shall take everything in this video as gospel and shall constantly spread it to others about what you say as objective fact. Thank you for enlightenment.
my favorite example of this is, i once said i enjoy Click even though it has really shitty adam sandler humor, and someone just linked a big joel video essay on why click sucks and that was their entire response
the sphere organizer was truly something of beauty. I don't know if that's what the devs intend or you are just a genius but I'm too dumb to figure that out. thanks for playing through so I could see what the endgame looks like.
you could do it without circuit conditions using just buffer chests, but that would require about double the number of spheres to make work, maybe more.
I can definitely agree with the Nauvis point - I really messed up early game in terms of biter management and was actually forced off the planet and never bothered coming back. In essence, I had to figure a way to salvage the game while hiding in orbit. Eventually I chose Calidus' asteroid belt for my entire base, which very quickly fixed the lack of logistical problems. Because I had to deal with things like limited oil from methane, I had to actually take time to plan my moves because there wasn't any fallback (short of reverting to a much older save). Also, I played with an air filtration mod which could inefficiently convert pollution to light oil/water, and light oil to coal. This was actually quite fun to test because factories would sometimes rely on properly recapturing pollution and dealing with byproducts. Definitely shook things up from the standard "resources in, resources out" style of planetary factories.
I'm amazed it's possible. I got into a similar situation 300 hours in. And looking at all the other planets seems impossible to exist in because of too many lacking resources.
"Late game space exploration is like getting stuck in traffic" agreed 100%. I'm about 250 hours in, on a group playthrough that's been going on for over a year and a half. there's been a ton of incredible moments in the mod - going to orbit for the first time, designing your own spaceship, arcospheres, and so on. but now we're at the phase where we're just waiting around for the research to slowly tick by since so much naqium is required. it's been a great ride, but yeah this video really captures all the frustrations we've felt over those 250 hours
Almost the same problem here, except our group save is stuck in the "OK now get to tier four of every science part". It feels like this big pile of recipe after recipe that doesn't really give you anything except a science chip, increasing the load on the bot network (because I do not want to deal with the huge amount of speciality one-off items that would need to be belted to three other random facilities in different chains), and in general just taking A long time
I mean, if the mod developers are looking for feedback from someone, you should be towards the top of that list, you cataloged your whole experience through the whole run step by step, they can just compare that to the experience they were expecting to give people and see where they failed and succeeded, on top of you having played other mods and factorio for so long, big ups to your opinion
The idea of having cargo rockets come after space ships really resonated with me. For me messing around with space ship designs was the highlight of SE.
The idea of starting with a broken ship, and repairing it to go to space is such a great starter goal. That would totally encourage exploration as well
Oh my god that last suggestion, yes! I tried doing an SE run a while back and eventually abandoned it because it took so long to *actually* start doing meaningful exploration of space; by the time I'd unlocked the ability to make rockets I was so bored that I just didn't want to continue. Starting with a dinged up ship, even if it's the rustiest bucket known to man and god, would've been so much better (imo) because it gives you the concrete 'early' goal of "get my ship fixed" (and also has you actively interacting with the cool bits of the mod a lot earlier) Vs the very vague goal of "get to space". Anyway, just my 2 cents that was sparked by that comment, I loved the series!
Same, I finally just started to make rocket parts, but then I realized what I was actually getting into and I got unmotivated. I definitely agree that you should have the ability to get to space way earlier on so you will be motivated to complete the mod
It also adds a secondary moment of "hand feeding" everything as you run around to various planets to put it all together. Then you can finally unlock the automated shipping rockets/cannons, giving the player a second moment of that automation rush.
I'm currently a little over 100 hours into my second SE playthrough (my first one being abandoned around 80 hours), and while I'm not as far in as you are, you've echoed a lot of my feelings thus far. I... *admire* Space Exploration more than I love it. It fills a desire that AngelBob couldn't, which is the hunger to see massive eight-lane belts fill up once you turn a factory on. AngelBob had too many little things to build, which led me to gravitate to a cell structure that, while sort of cool, just didn't hit that Big Dispatch Serotonin urge. I love the scope. I love the planning process of figuring out what I'm going to need on a new planet, carefully assembling all my materials, making sure everything on Nauvis is working without supervision, setting off, and swearing as I learn I forgot something basic. There's a lot to love, but to bring it back to AngelBob - in AB one of my greatest challenges was figuring out how to utilise or at least divert byproducts. In SE it's disappointingly straightforward. But the real issue to is the abundance of - well, I'm not sure what term to use exactly, but let's say "single-use intermediaries" There are so many recipe chains that consist of "combine input A with B to make C, which can only be used to make D, which can only be used to make E, which can..." It's not a problem at first, but after you've made your tenth production chain that is just shepherding one unique resource through half a dozen stages until it produces its one unique output, it really does start to feel like busy work. I should add that I'm still enjoying my playthrough, and have no intention to stop. This is partially because I have debilitating brain parasites, but this is a Factorio video so I expect I'm in good company. But while I haven't gotten as far as you have, the overridding theme of a lack of interconnectedness absolutely rings true, and I do hope this is addressed in the future. Still, if it isn't, and in the eventuality that the SE devs see this, I want first and foremost to express my absolute admiration for this mod. I have niggles, and I know that it is the nature of a creative to overly focus on those, but even so this is a truly spectacular construction you have created, and for whatever reservations I may feel I have absolutely nothing but admiration for you. This mod could never see another update ever again, and I would still delight in it.
I felt rather bad about this comment sounding so much more negative than I felt, so for context the moment I hit 'reply' I immediately alt-tabbed back to redesigning my SE cryonite processing array. Whatever critiques I may have of this mod, it is a gorgeous creation and a genuine achievement, and it is absolutely worth your time. If you love Factorio, you absolutely owe it to yourself to explore this mod and come to your own conclusions - if they're anything like mine, you'll find a wanderlust and a delight at the diversity of challenges that Space Exploration has to offer.
Almost the same problem here, our group save is stuck in the "OK now get to tier four of every science part". It feels like this big pile of recipe after recipe that doesn't really give you anything except a science chip, increasing the load on the bot network (because I do not want to deal with the huge amount of speciality one-off items that would need to be belted to three other random facilities in different chains), and in general just taking A long time
That radical idea of starting off with a the asteroid spaceship sounds just crazy enough for me to agree with it, I think it'd also give the mod a nomadic feel since you start off in deep space rather than on an actual planet
That idea about having the initial crashed ship being one you can repair and fly to other planets sounds amazing. Having a goal staring in your face the whole time, begging you to repair it, would be a big motivator to get through the early game.
Aww sweet! Glad to have a fun cap off on this excellent series. Thanks again for all your hard work on this series, it's been very appreciated, and I hope you make a lot more content, whether it's more Factorio or more indie games like Towerclimb.
I would LOVE more indie games. For some reason Dosh gives me this weird nostalgia feeling for games ive never played or even experienced and makes me fall in love with them
I bought Factorio a long time ago, before I started a family too early and had to sell my gaming PC to take care of them, and I never beat vanilla Factorio even once before I had to stop. But, Dosh, I gotta say, your content makes me want to play games again. I don't know if that's a goal you have as a content creator, but I feel like it's incredibly special that what you do is actively making me want to have fun again. Thank you, sincerely.
Yes! As a game-designer and a more middle-ground player sitting somewhere in between purely efficient/logical designs and more aesthetically pleasing design (or in general more "fun" ways to play) I would love to see space exploration also 'explore' the fun parts and cool looking parts a little more. As much as a finished production line is something very cool in itself, making it look amazing is also an achievement and I wish it would also reward a little for that too.
replacing the vanilla spaceship with a modded one you can actually use sounds incredibly good, as well as specialised enviroments like lakes of sulfuric acid you mentioned (which one could take a lot further, lakes of methane, which the mod also has, are already a thing on titan irl and being able to draw gasses or liquids from the atmosphere also lets you be able to create planets with atmospheres full of sulfuric acid like venus, which would also create varrying levels of hazardous enviroments, making for even more unique planets)
I'm mid-way through the midgame with SE + K2, and I got started before your first video in this series. I like the challenge and all the cool stuff, but honestly it just sucks to actually play. I got unlucky with resources, and have had to spend the last 56 hours or so using core mining as my sole source of materials, as my begining mines have all run dry, and better weapons to clear the behemoths another 56 hours away. Just slowly, ever so slowly, building up a cargo rocket to eventually get to space, so that I can slowly, slowly do research so I can eventually unlock something fun. Bots being space science as well has just kinda pushed my enjoyment into the negitives, as I'm having to manage all the annoying rescipes without any of the bandaids to make it easier, or at least more palatable. It took toys away and locked them beyond an immense time investment.
@@ivanlagayacrus1891 In otherwords, the part of bots you need to deal with all the annoying funky outputs that don't do much besides be annoying that SE is obsessed with
@@wyrdean_9649 yeah im currently clearing nauvis of biters im 65% done with it since i used railworld settings so biters wont build more bases but ofcourse i have 1 mod that helps me out with that which kinda made allot of stuff obsolete the True Nukes Mod and it has an addon called Warhead Mod
SE is just tedium and un-fun busy work packaged together as one product. Stuff like Krastorio/IE2/Etc. at least makes and attempt to be enjoyable along the journey. Earendel is opposed to that utterly.
@@wyrdean_9649 you dont have to deal with the funky outputs until after you're in space tho, it just means your first 300 or so space science can be tricky
This play through made me extremely interested in a Anno 1800 play through from Dosh. I know it goes kinda into a different genre but the logistics challenges in a full free-build session of that game of island to island shipping in early game, continent to continent shipping in mid game and obscene productivity optimisations with "waste" products in late game was what I was reminded of constantly while watching space exploration.
The "my tone of voice makes me sound five times more negitive than i actually feel". Very relatable and a great point i feel would be easy to miss about myself if i were in your shoes
13:24 That was the first time I heard the hint of what I presume to have been your laugh and although you were already likeable it made me enjoy this series even more. Literally best possible finish. What a fun ride it was. Ok bye.
I really like the details you give in your criticism, you could just say vaguely "it's cool but meh sometimes, too much landfill". Sulfuric Acid lakes planet is an amazing idea, it could be a late game planet to shortcut a bit late game builds. Still complex to do late game factories, but easier to reach mid products. I appreciate the effort to offer solutions or ways to improve the gameplay. This video is a necessity for the mod to grow better. Thank you to have taken time to make it
Dyson Sphere Program does something similar to this. They have rare resources scattered throughout the Galaxy and Acid Lakes are a feature. They have other rare resources too which if you can find, you can get access to much simpler and efficient recipes with them (one such material is used to make the final tier of your production buildings). It's not required to beat the game by any stretch, but the more efficient recipes is a great incentive to seek them out. Works pretty nicely in the late game, when you're in full swing with your interplanetary logistics and are probably starting to seriously commit to your first actual Dyson Spheres.
It's funny that many of these ideas ended up making their way into the planned Factorio DLC, created with the help of the original mod author who was hired by the Factorio devs. I think this video has some pretty big importance. Thank you for putting it as its own separate video where it's easy to references, instead of tacking the conclusion onto part 4 of the other series.
Stargate puzzle felt like CBT for me, going from planet to planet taking a screenshot of the symbols, 10 dimensional anchors and powering the gate with 100GW and don't get me started on the pentakis dodecahedron puzzle.
You are the most underrated gaming youtuber. Your level of content, the skill you put into the game, the self-suffering you do, makes you worthy of millions of subs. I hope you will reach that soon!
Personally, in admittedly only having played part of it (got to space and got some partial version of your temporary space base up), I'd like to see a much heavier shift towards the mass drivers (and I'd also like them to not need a capsule simply because I'm lazy and supplying/manufacturing them is not an interesting challenge- it's something you'd just have to do every time you want to use one) and the cargo rockets I'd actually like to just have removed. Incentivizing asteroid/space mining more would be nice as well. I did really enjoy the dV requirements on the cargo rockets. Another thing: all the byproducts to me are just a waste of my time- make the recipe itself more interesting (as you mentioned, why not use all the inputs/size of the space buildings and have us route a bunch of items into one recipe?) rather than giving me a chance that it spits out some garbage I have to sort out. Of course, as you yourself said, that's just my opinion and what I'd do to bring it closer to my ideal which is most likely not what the mod author's ideal is (though I may hope it to be so). It's an impressive mod with a lot of very cool things that I find to be bogged down by a few uninteresting nuisance mechanics.
I agree about the mass drivers. If you've ever played Mindustry, mass drivers are a ton of fun to screw around with and are central to managing resources late game.
Or make the byproducts optional. If you could toggle machines to only produce their core product but work 20% slower (for example) that would encourage players to build more elaborate processing systems for the most scarce/important resources, but let them skip it (and hopefully stop it feeling like busy work) for less important things.
@@wintermute5974 yeah the byproducts like stone and scrap and such are annoying i just have a void chest mod installed to void them ofcourse i use basic circuit networks to void it after a certain point that way i still have a supply of stone if i need it for something
You are crazy! But amazing. This is what real community is. General shared fun with room to grow. Being able to enjoy yourself while also noticing flaws and providing down to earth real feedback. I am now a proud supporter of your highest teir and honesty I would give you more money if I could just to help you make more content for thousands of people to enjoy. Thanks again!
This is interesting to rewatch after following the expansion devlogs. Sounds like Space Age will be implementing a lot of features which resemble what you've suggested here.
Thanks for the very impressive base tour (the backdrop to the video) And thanks for this whole trilogy, amazing story. Just makes me less confident that I'll myself finish this anytime soon.. :)
Pretty succinct summary, nothing I would outright disagree with, I'd love to use a stand-alone satellite view mod if Earendel were to extract it, for other modpacks, just because it's such a nice QoL thing for just changing some combinators on the other side of the map. Where I don't exactly disagree but have a different opinion than you is on the complexity side. While it's not as "technically complex" as A+B, Nullius, IR2 etc., its focus, to me, is more on the big base and logistics aspect for people that don't want to or don't feel ready for the complexity other overhaul mods bring to the table. The combination with K2 adds a little complexity in trade for vastly "stronger" late game buildings and stuff like faster belts, inserters and undergrounds, it also rejiggers the tech tree in some spots. My personal main issue with the mod is that the extra-terrestrial (or is that extra-nauvisial?) production only goes so far where it's feasible (read: dense enough) to mass-transport stuff over to Nauvis for further processing. The author already did a lot for that in 0.6, where local processing is now actually required, as opposed to 0.5 where you'd just shoot everything raw to Nauvis. Over all I've quite enjoyed my 2 playthroughs of the mod (once stand-alone and once with K2 mixed it), which sort of gave me enough confidence in my logistics- and circuit-fu to attempt a pY run I'm also quite enjoying so far.
This whole thing inspired me to try and beat SE sort of spoilerlessly, and I'm loving it. Have to hold your vids off until I win so its a speedrun too Thank you for consistent banger Factorio videos!!
I agree whole heartedly with the idea of using spaceships earlier. Building the ships was always a fantastic element. And there is no reason you can't build a cargo ship. Really doubling down on custom build spaceships would be a love letter to the mods very intention and play style.
I played space exploration a while ago. as a simple casual player, I never even got into space. tried a few times, but after the burner stage, I just could not stand to play anymore. that or i get distracted by something else before blue science. but watching the series, it was interesting, but nothing exciting. until the first time seeing the spaceships (not cargo rockets) being built and given orders... that was wonderful. my mind buzzes with ideas for the spaceships, and I want more spaceships. if the mod ever goes in the direction of spaceships, I would be endless pleased.
I really enjoyed watching you play Space Exploration, at times it looked like an awful lot of fun. I love the way you make your bases look, they're so aesthetically pleasing! I'd love to one day find a couple friends that would want to try and tackle this monster with me!
I tryed to takle it solo for around 150 hours now and i have to say i feel just like you. Figguring everything out by yourself is really hard. Do you have discord by chance? I would love to try it again together with another mind🙂
I recently took up space exploration as my first overhaul mod after seeing your first 2 videos about it around the same time I launched my first rocket in vanilla and it’s been a great time. It does a good job at keeping things the right amount of simple but engaging I find. But then again I only recently took my first step into space recently and don’t even have space science automated yet
Thankks for sharing thazt playthrough with us. I could definitely not comapre with your level of skills & patience over this and gave up soon aftter reaching space. Should've read the Caveats more seriously. Very important sidenote : thank you very much for captioning the entier series. I know it's a very large effort to add, and the fact that you still did tells a lot about the great youtuber you seem to be =). Thanks
The rationnal thinking, the interesting challenges, the deep voice, the nerdy attitude while still being mature, everything in your channel makes me want to watch your videos over and over. Thank you very much for the content and the hard work you put into your videos, and I agree with everything you said about Space Exploration because I was annoyed by the same things during my last playthrough (especially about not being able to turn resources into another lacking resource on particular planets).
"In Space Exploration fun is optional and very inefficient" -Dosh. Absolutely true. "Fun" seems to be a 4 letter word in the greater factorio community, and I think a lot of people miss that when playing this particular mod. I fully agree with "radical opinion". I'd love for the mod to lean into its unique features, specifically finding abandoned tech, and an alternate start with your crashed ship (instead of it being hidden at the spoiler location) or similar would be a big help. Thanks for the retrospective! I agree with about half of it, personally finding SE to generally be not just peak factorio but peak factory builder. It drags in places, but adds so many features that I can excuse most of it. I hope to see the mod complete its daunting roadmap someday, though I expect Earendel would need a team of people to do that in any timeframe
I just wanna say, I really enjoy your factorio content, I used to watch Nilaus but his is a completely different style. I think ive watched some of your videos twice by now. Would love to see more, there are a few other game overhaul mods you could do if youre bored of base factorio, like Nullius, or there was a new one on the reddit a while ago, Sosciencity, that I've been meaning to start. Eagerly awaiting the next video!
I was sad when the previous video didn't have more overall thoughts so I'm really glad you did this one. You give thoughtful, nuanced feedback on different things and I find opinions of interesting people to be interesting. I know you're just some dude playing games and making videos but you're observations about things and how you deliver ideas is very enjoyable. Also they are kind and self aware. Thank you for the amazing content you make. Currently I'm not able to afford Patreon but #someday you're on the top of that list. I feel terrible asking for / making a suggestion for a video when I don't pay you but I thought a combination of rampant and Krastorio 2 could be interesting because you talked about not needing the new weapons and other things from Krastorio 2. Rampant would change that and maybe force interesting interactions if you had a certain goal of x science per minute. I'm sure you've thought of that already but if not I'd love to see it and maybe you'd enjoy being forced to use more of K2s tools. Realistically, I enjoy your personality you have in your videos and honestly will watch anything you make. Keep up the great work so long as you're enjoying it! Enjoy your holidays if you celebrate any!
I am the only person in my friend group that plays factorio and your trilogy was so well done I hope you know there are many people that appreciate all the hours it took you to make it and wish you all the luck in the future
i love the idea of getting stuck in traffic being described as "not the kind of torture that would titilate anyone". you inject a lot of character into the dialogue of your videos that has real personality without beating you over the head with it. hour-long scripted videos aren't quick to make, but you don't cut corners on that, makes a good vibe. good series, lookin forward to whatever will come next
I would absolutely love to see you play nullius, I think it's the most fun I've ever had in factorio. If not, Warptorio2 has been the most transformative mod in terms of gameplay for me, you have to refigure your entire concept of factorio to play that mod.
> scavenging advanced items giving utility and giving you something to look forward to that's actually possible in the vanilla campaign! although almost everyone completely misses it. in the final mission where you are asked to connect 2 outposts by train if you explore up north there's an abandoned base with a lot of goodies but especially the electrical smelters are really cool at that stage of the game.
I really like the clarification that your tone makes you sound more negative than you feel; this can often be difficult for me to pick up on, and the explicit clarification helps a lot with both understanding and enjoying the video. The clarification that it's their mod and they can do whatever they want with it is also really nice to see, and helps with the tone thing as well. Oh, and the clarification that it's in alpha as well! The captions are also really nice! Overall a really good video and felt like a good constructive criticism. Absolutely very respectable.
Honestly I ended up installing a flare stack mod to deal with the excess byproducts, it really felt like a problem with no elegant solution so it's a problem I removed. Aside from that for the love of god increase the stack size for iridium products, lots of stack sizes in this mod really railroad your logistics (not literally because I had to ditch trains on my iridium planet as they could not carry enough). I feel like a lot of people drop it because it is billed as space exploration but it's really logistics exploration , and if you feel that logistical problem solving is where your heart is (which is was for me so I loved it) then you love it, if you just want to play with the cool toys then you tend to hate the walls. I also wish it had a bit more of a payoff for passing through all the tiers of science and mastering the problems, it should be less afraid of introducing overpowered items or logistic solutions once you've solved them the hard way. These logistical problems feel so intense the game should make you feel like a god for completing them. The arcosphere storage is a good start, but still feels like it's holding back.
As someone who is about halfway through the mod right now, I'm definitely feeling some of the same toward the various space sciences. I think my favorite of them was actually impact shielding, which generates ungodly amounts of scrap, which was where I finally thought "alright, I need to have a way of dealing with this, a proper recycling facility". Which was good! It was a new and unique challenge that got me to build something that I had been punting on before that point. Similarly, the feedback loops of biosludge and life science were actually a different and unique challenge. Mostly I wish that the rest of the sciences had challenges like that, and if there are going to be different "tiers" of science, they should offer some new wrinkle to puzzle out rather than attaching inputs and outputs together like I've done dozens of times before. I also generally agree with you on wanting the planets to be more "singular", though I think my approach to them has been a bit different, because I resist shipping anything in and still haven't set up automated cargo rockets. Mostly I've been using the delivery cannons and chests. I guess I'm not sure about the math, but have been only sending finished goods off-planet, which maybe is helping with my enjoyment. I'm now at the point where I'm starting to set up automated spaceships to bring in resources, so maybe that will change my mind. And yes, I haven't really felt the need to explore after setting up the required ~4 planets, which I think might mean that I end up tapping out. Setting up production chains on colonized planets is awesome and IMO the peak fun of this mod, but the only thing I have in the future is naquium and possibly some output expansion on existing planets. It would be cool if I was happy to find planets with unique features, but so far, I haven't seen much in the way of that, just cool ruins.
I loved this playthrough, it kept me fueled to fight through space exploration until i got too tangled in the logistics of rockets. i hope you try seablock! i would love watching you build a rocket out of water and ocean sludge! thank you for the effort that you (and your AI helpers) put in to this! (and any editor/editors) gonna rewatchthe whole thing at work tomorrow probably
Hey Dosh, took a while to finish your SE videos (cause I forgot the last one, ngl) but your format is amazing, I also learned a lot from your other videos and they are inspiring to make your own runs doing crazy stuff too. I’m would love to see a video in this format on Sea Block, if you’re interested in the mod. The challenges seems different enough and I think you would like the ride. Anyway love you vids, keep bringing!
One core strength of this mod is that the broken ship you find is the default ship from FTL, it's an underrated feature that so far I haven't seen anyone pick up on in lets plays.
This was super insightful, and I think this mod is going to push me to undust my copy of Factorio from steam and try anew. There is just nothing new when doing a vanilla run, besides being able to do it more quickly and efficiently. This mod sounds like a real and long-term challenge.
I find that you build pretty bases. Even if you might think yourself that you do fabricobble. Im puzzled and fascinated at the same time how much you manage to improvise and do spagetti and it still works and you get away with it. I cant do that. So you just must have a special artist like natural skill in that. I would go crazy trying to be like that. Also I really like and enjoy the random artpieces you put in. They always give me that little playful giggle. And then there is the attention to detail, when you just put in some decorative concrete. I would never go so far. I would feel like not wanting to loose 100h extra to that. Also Im happy that you made theese videos. I quited the mod 2 times. I had like ~5 planets going both times. And now, seeing what kind of "torture" would have come later, Im happy and glad I quited. While I really enjoyed the planet specific things, the space science thematic broke it for me 2 times. But your space rail application was so ... pretty.
Great series and great reflection on the mod. I didn't get nearly as far as you, but I also felt like making the science packs was a bit too tedious and repetitive after the first couple are figured out. My completely unearned thoughts about how some of the issues you point to might be improved: - Make automatic space travel more difficult/slow to move large quantities of items so that players are encouraged to build more elaborate bases that supply more material locally. On the other hand keep player space travel the same (or maybe even make it faster/easier) so that ferrying more supplies to new places for a larger initial setup doesn't become punishingly tedious and so people aren't discouraged from engaging with the space exploration part. - Decentralize research. Make it so that data is produced on planets and then transmitted via a special building to your central space base, where it only goes through one or two final processes to be turned into the finished science packs. Transmitting data would be easier than moving physical material, so making as much of it on site as possible would be more appealing and again encourage more complex and independent bases. - Because research is decentralized you don't need to transport nearly as many raw materials to your central base, which should ideally balance out the increased cost of transporting goods. - Ideally you would make each research process more distinctive by introducing challenges that are specific to the environments you're encouraged to conduct them in. - Things you can find while exploring become a lot less exciting late game. Short of incorporating more stuff you find in ruins into science pack production I think making it possible to find top level modules in the most dangerous ruins would be a nice inclusion, since they're so incredibly expensive right until the end. - And my final and completely unresonable idea is that it would be extremely cool if the supercomputers functioned in a more modular way, sort of like inverse reactors. Give them adjacency bonuses at the cost of higher energy and coolant consumption, and make them easier to cool on very cold planets. Anyway, looking forward to whatever you put out next.
i don't play factorio but i had a idea for solving the identy /complexity problem of crafting chain and planet in real life most thing such as chloride ore carbon , are not stocked nor processes in pure/abondant form , but in easy to manage adapatble one . here go the mechanic : -you have "tier 0" material pure simple easy , then Tier 1 those are ressource that are but one change away from being tier 0 , and tier 2 who are complex material that can be treated a multiple of way (mainly merged with Tier 1 or other tier 2 like arcospshere to change both) . -everything else exist in a limbo state of either being a manufactured item or a one of the tier material . -the more you advance into weird planet the more exotic the material become , what may have been a efficient build path on some planet need to change on a other , with the same ressource and goal but diferent procecees creating differnet "waste" - that create a mini game of choice :do you want the more adapted solution but less efficient , or the heavily optimised interplanet one that in the end cost more . -it also introduce the concept behind arcosphere (of swapable recipe) earlier which i think is cool . -for it to work most tier 1 should be a interchangable , only when more specefic recipe and condition arrise you need to adapt and fully use it. also the dev speak about a enemy faction , maybe if you send too much cargo you make "space pollution" or noise and that attract the great filter to kill you , making interplanery cosntruc risky but insanly rewarding if pull off effectivly negating all waste
The guy who made space exploration apparently plans to add a robot faction that builds bases & expands thru space & you can "make peace" or fight them; I think a bunch of new factions slotted in like that would be good. And to introduce a diplomacy system (with trading, alliances, etc) They would all obviously interact with each other in different ways (if motives & goals etc could all be added into the races thru a streamlined mod system it would keep everything neat but allow for the desired complexity) With Christmas coming along I usually get a hankering for a rimworld overlord Santa slave factory playthrough & that got me thinking about the logistics of delivering gifts & items in factorio- with extra races potentially coming in the factorio world delivering & trading stuff is now a possibility.. and it could even cater for a Christmas event where "gifts" are produced & delivered.. A new type of Inserter could be made (an elf) it could use a new fuel bar (Christmas themed food?) that could only be refilled at a dining room (a modified factory?) maybe they could function similar to logistics bots so they'd go back & forth from their work station to an eating area? (A work station; uhh, y'know where ya place your Inserter? The elf is an inserter that can move to it's dining room or wherever else it might have to go) maybe it'd need the aai programmable vehicle mod or something? Yeah, anyway, and the different races could.. well, hopefully be very diverse.. like, even implementing "robot" as a species and then making lots of different types of robot species (all with different motives & goals, yeah) Robots (as a species) could even have their own special concordant faction (uhh, the United robot nations kinda thing) and they could all decide to work together for various robotkind goals (like uniting against the player, or some other faction species, or imposing sanctions on another non-robot group &/or other robot-racism) Diplomacy (giving rise to trading etc) also opens up ship construction for other races, so there's more content to add but he was kinda doing it anyway with the addition of the robot race... Bleh, so there's just oodles of potential in all this.. I would also like to eventually see something like a giant blob creature or plant (introduced via meteor impact) but it develops by growing a pseudo-base (think giant tentacles things that grow off towards various resources- implemented like the railway track system- and you can even see the resources getting sucked back to the central hub by a modified drawing of the "train" inside) The tentacle would need to grow it's main pseudo traintrack -and- generate modified inserters & crates to feed it-- and be able to "regenerate" if it gets destroyed/damaged There was a concept video of a machine with snake-like grabby arms catching little incoming asteroids-- in essence another great framework for developing a huge enemy that lives in water & grabs nearby things.... giant monsters like that could essentially live off indigenous biters or other added wildlife? ..the giant grabby water monster could also lay eggs & infest new water sources.. it would be great if male & female variants could emerge from the water to locate mates & other behaviour like that.. Alright I better leave it at that for now, me base isn't going to build itself.. I didn't install the auto base-building mod 🤭👋
I'm doing a K2Se 5x run now and with the science multiplier it is worthwhile to set up processing on source planets. The thing that annoys worst though is being forced to build temporary builds in space that you know from the start are throwaway. Space rails should be available right away... in 0 5 you only had to build 2 smallish builds to unlock space rails. In 0.6 you have to do 4 or 5 space techs to unlock space rails so you've got an substantial build to rip up and start over if you want to build around rails.
honestly space exploration is my favourite factorio mod ever. despite how I have never actually beaten it (I'm an idiot who's factory fails at the mere prospect of reaching the final tiers of science) I still greatly enjoy the grind of space exploration. There are a multitude of problems with space exploration, many of which you address within this video, however I still feel that it is close to vanilla with just enough deviation to make it unique but not a complete overhaul of what it is to play factorio. Chains of 10, 15, 20 different recipes to get a final result. (while it may falter at proper implementation of longer crafting trees) I feel it is an extension of what vanilla's core concepts are just ever so slightly better or worse in places. things like self sufficient outposts which in vanilla would be an oil patch or a new iron source connected by trains, and in space exploration its quite similar, with self sufficient colonies connected by a series of cargo rockets and delivery cannons. I just love space exploration and I beg you that you at least give it a go if you have not. just make sure you have a good understanding of the game first (and logic circuits)
Those bases might be some of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen in this game. That said, very interesting to hear your thoughts on Space Exploration; I personally didn't like some of the progression changes it made, but I suspect part of that might have to do with me being relatively a Factorio newbie. I probably jumped into trying Space Exploration way earlier than I should've, and there's a fair chance that wound up significantly affecting my impression of the mod.
