Inserters are now smarter Twinsen A few days ago I was investigating a rather minor bug report related to "Rotational Asymmetry in Belt/Inserter interactions" (aka Inserter was not behaving identically when rotated). This was a classic case of floating point equality comparison. The Inserter would move it's arm and then it would pick up the item if the current arm orientation is equal to the desired arm orientation. Because of some chain of calculations related to rotation, some precision was lost and the equality check would fail for 1 tick, delaying the item pickup for 1 tick in some Inserter rotations. So I fixed that by finishing the inserter movement if it's close enough. Now the inserters should be a tiny bit faster in some rotations, plus all rotations should again be symmetrical and identical. While analyzing the code and Inserter behavior for that bug, I also noticed that inserters with stack bonus would do nothing for 1 tick after picking up an item from a belt. I changed it so inserters will start moving to a new target immediately after they pick up something. This also sped up the Stack Inserter by a tiny bit. Both the speedups were enough to fix another bug that was often regarded by the other devs as "not a bug": A Stack Inserter was not fast enough to pick up all the items placed on a belt by another Stack Inserter. Furthermore, because of different timings, the amount of items a Stack Inserter would pick up would depend on how far that Stack Inserter was from the item source: We released the change on Thursday. Something strange was quickly discovered after release... From Nefrums speedrun stream. As someone from Twitch chat noted "Inserters are so fast now, they even don't care about the side of belt". Remember that I fixed the rotation problem by finishing the Inserter movement if it's close enough. Well, what ended up happening was what now the Inserter would stop 0.0001 degrees short of perfectly vertical. That was of course closer to the other belt lane so the item would be dropped there. Previously it was always dropped perfectly vertical, and the lane decision algorithm would choose the right lane. The fix was easy and it's probably released by the time you are reading this. So with everything fixed, inserters are now more consistent, predictable and intuitive, things that I think are important for a precise game like Factorio. Some situation might end up being slightly slower or will consume a bit more electricity, but generally inserters are now faster.
Offshore pump redesign V453000, Albert As one of the last entities which do not have high resolution graphics, the time has come for the offshore pump. The offshore pump is practically a 1-tile entity, but they must have a 1 tile gap between each other. It is also the only entity placed on a water tile at the moment. When we changed the way how terrain to water transitions work, we moved the offshore pump to be placed on the water tile. This can result in the pump drawing over terrain in ugly ways. With the redesign, we took the oppourtunity to move the offshore back onto land, and additionally the pump checks a 2x3 tile water area in order to be buildable. The new placement rules only applies to newly built pumps. Offshore pumps on existing maps will keep functioning, they’ll just be shifted out from the shore. There is no blue colour for water integration at the tip of the offshore pump, so the offshore pump will look correct even with unexpected water types (not a big problem in vanilla). The water integration is split to an underwater layer which does not show when the pump gets landfilled over. In the basic concept, the offshore pump is another type of a pump, so it should be similar to the other pump entity Albert made a few years ago, including the animation and visible fluid in it. The obvious difference is the connection to water. However we felt that is not different enough and needs more visual balance, so we added a pair of supportive legs. We are planning to release the new offshore pump graphics with the next release, likely next week.
Launch party cancelled Jitka The COVID pandemic around the globe is making it really hard to plan any event these days, and we were pretty optimistic just a few weeks back. However the situation here is now changing for the worse it seems. The number of positively tested cases of COVID here in Czech has been increasing in relatively high numbers every day for the past two weeks, and the restrictions are again taking place. In Prague, face masks are required to be worn again where more than 100 people gather indoors, no events over 500 people are permitted as of last week, etc. The current uncertainty together with the fact that at least half of the invited guests will not be able to attend the party (including some members of our own team), have led us into making a tough decision: we have decided to cancel the Factorio 1.0 release party we were intending to throw on 4th September 2020. For those of you who already purchased a ticket(s) - the full ticket price will be refunded. We hope there will be another opportunity to meet you all in the foreseeable future, but for now, please accept our apologies for any inconveniences caused. This wasn't an easy decision for us to make, but we believe it is the right one.
0.13 release is getting close. The programming guys are trying to finish the features so we can start internal playtesting and bugfixing next week. The art guys are working hard on the new trains graphics. In the meantime, here's some more information about the circuit network.
Hello, another week has passed here, with part of the team still out in Taiwan. They should be back next week, with some news of their great adventure.
Hello, welcome once again to the world of facts.
Hello, we've already shown the space platform processing cycle in FFF-380. Let's talk a little bit more about the machine which makes it all possible - the asteroid collector.
Hello, Several FFFs ago we have shown you what a Space platform can look like (FFF-373), today we would like to explain how they work in a bit more detail.
Hello, I'm sure you're familiar with the good old Nuclear reactor. It's a fission reactor that makes a lot of power in conjunction with its steam turbines. The nuclear energy system is unlocked on Nauvis, and in the context of Space Age, that makes it an early-to-mid game unlock. For the planet Nauvis, nuclear power is great for the whole game. Water is endless, and uranium is plentiful. For space platforms it's not ideal because it takes a lot of water and a fair amount of space. Solar panels are so good in space, especially near the sun, that it's harder to justify a reactor on a small platform. If you're mainly going around Fulgora then nuclear becomes more competitive because Fulgora has more ice from asteroids and less solar energy. Later, when you head to the 4th new planet, nuclear becomes a much better option because the solar power is so low and ice is more abundant. At that point, you've had nuclear as an option for all the 5 planets (although you probably don't use it on all of them), and a few space routes, so it's time to unlock a new and exciting energy system.
Hello, Welcome back to Vulcanus. It's been a while. You place your new prototype big mining drills, the pinnacle of resource extraction technology, on the closest tungsten deposit to your fledging Vulcanus factory. A few power poles later and they are happily mining away providing a new consistent source of valuable tungsten. A rail ramp and station just about fit in the area too, but without any rail supports in your inventory that line isn't going anywhere soon. Transport belt will have to do for now. As you're returning to the main factory, placing transport belt to connect this new resource to your base, you feel a trembling from the ground. Big mining drills make a lot of vibrations, but this is on a whole other level. Something else must be going on. You head back towards the mining site. Across a river of lava you see a truly gargantuan creature snake its way around a volcano. This formidable beast most closely resembles a centipede or millipede but is larger than a train. As it moves forwards the ground at its face is broken apart leaving a trail of torn up rock and patchy lava. Trees, rocks, even cliffs are torn apart by its passage. Ash is flung into the air making an abrasive cloud that blankets its body and lingers long after it has moved on. The creature roars and speeds up. As it does so it starts shaking the ground harder. Rhythmic vibrations agitate a wide area around it kicking up a huge cloud of ash and destabilising the terrain. Also available on YouTube in 4k. The creature cruises over the lava river and demolishes your machines without even slowing. Your precious new mining drills that seemed so large and powerful just moments ago look like puny toys in the face of such an unfathomable beast. The Demolisher continues its path of destruction down the line of transport belt toward your base, but before getting there it slows to a crawl and turns back into the volcanic wastelands. This attack won't go unanswered. It's time for a fight. You pursue the Demolisher, an easy task given its thick glowing trail. Lava on either side of you forces you to cross through the trail to pursue the creature. The torn up terrain is hot, but there are enough cool rock sections to step across it. As you do, the lingering ash cloud around it obscures your vision and the abrasive particles interfere with your exoskeleton equipment. You catch sight of the body again, this time up close. The thickly armoured plates of each segment seem to give it good protection from heat, and probably many of your weapons. It hasn't reacted to you yet, perhaps it has not seen you, or perhaps it does not care. You move towards the Demolishers head and it still ignores you. The face appears to be a clear weak spot. It has no eyes and the skin still seems adapted for the heat, but the armour is much thinner around the jaws. Bracing yourself for a reaction, you shine your lasers at it's face, but nothing. It continues to patrol some path, as though you were nothing but a speck of dust on the wind. A rocket to the face would surely provoke it, but before testing that theory, you place a line of land mines to secure your retreat. There's an immediate reaction from the creature. It speeds up and turns towards you. Once again, rhythmic vibrations shake the terrain and generate a steadily expanding cloud of ash. The cloud quickly encompasses you. Obscured vision and snagged exoskeleton joints will limit your speed. You fire your submachine gun at the creature. Your piercing rounds cut into the Demolisher and do some damage, but by the time you reload a new magazine all the damage you dealt has healed back. You try again for a few moments inflicting some damage, but again, it seems to heal faster than you can deal damage. Vibrations coming from the creature seem to focus and amplify around you destabilising the ground even more. The crust is thin at the best of times and this isn't helping. A fissure starts to open up under your feet. You manage to dodge to the side as a volcanic eruption explodes in the area you stood a moment ago. Rock fragments, lava, and hot gases shred the area. You avoided the main blast, but just being close to the edge was enough to weaken your shields. New fissures start to open up around you. These are easier to dodge now that you know to look for the fissure signs in the ground. Standing far enough from the eruption is completely safe but you'll need to stay on your toes. The Demolisher ploughs through the line of land mines and does not slow as it does so. They do more significant damage, but to your horror the damage is gone in seconds. That was your escape plan, it's time to get moving. You try some more weapons as you move away, even throwing a few spare defender capsules into the mix. They're all somewhat effective but the damage doesn't stick. You'll need to deal damage much faster but you weren't prepared for that. While distracted you fail to dodge a new volcanic eruption. The fissure erupts directly beneath, shattering your shield and blanketing you in fire. The power armor stops you from getting too singed but another hit like that would be certain death. For now, this is not a fight you can win. You switch all your focus to dodging the eruptions and moving away. A few seconds after you stop firing the Demolisher slows down and turns back. That's two wins for the Demolisher, but you'll live another day.
