Making an Overhaul Mod for Factorio (Devlog 1)
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- Опубликовано: 28 июл 2024
- My Discord: / discord
Watch me on Twitch! / galdoc
My main Mathematics channel, The Taylor Series: / thetaylorseries
Update: Alpha is out! mods.factorio.com/mod/galdocs...
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This is my first devlog about me working on an Overhaul mod for Factorio. Come join me. It'll be interesting.
I a math, programming and maker ed teacher who also sometimes plays games, and now designs them in his brief hobby-time each day. This means my devlog should have a lot of information for people to glean if they want to get involved in modding too, so if you've always had a big idea, hopefully you'll get something out of this.
Making an overhaul mod is a HUGE ask, and now that I'm some ways in, I don't know what the future holds. I am now realizing just how much of an ask this is. Still, even knowing this for a future modder is useful.
Thank you to everyone who helped me so far. There's a LOT of you and I am deeply appreciative of the time and effort you spent in answering my numerous questions. :)
Software Links:
Advanced Renamer: www.advancedrenamer.com/
yEd: www.yworks.com/products/yed
Sprite Handler for Blender: blendermarket.com/products/sp...
Blender Material tutorial I found useful
Ryan King Art tutorial: • Procedural Rocky Lava ...
Timestamps
0:00 The Intro
2:27 The Idea
6:52 The Progress
21:48 The Ask
27:08 The Future
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Image credits:
cybermotorcycle.com/gallery/v... (engine schematic)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_... (cobalt blue image)
www.rit.edu/engineeringtechno... (Machine Shop image)
Music Credits:
Holizna (Breath, Busted AC Unit, Changes, Lost on the Freeway, Before the Super Nova, Everything in Orbit, Dance of the Dead, : www.youtube.com/@Holizna/videos
l'Outlander - Homeland: • l’Outlander - Homeland...
Kyu - Until we Meet Again: • Kyu - Until we meet ag...
Japan-by-uniq.mp3 : Japan by Uniq | / uniqofficial
Music promoted by www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Dawn by KV | / kvmusicprod
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
The three youtbers mentionedSpeedrunner:
Nefrums / @nefrums4510
Guy who likes mods that bring the Pain: Bold Viking / @boldviking
Guy who just likes pain: Dosh Doshington / @doshdoshington 
Игры
I'm a programmer and have always been interested in how overhaul mods are made. Massive, massive respect for this man!
Me as well, I am really interested in the process of starting making a mod, specifically which files I can edit/create.
@@kingwolf468 A good place to start is here : lua-api.factorio.com/latest/Data-Lifecycle.html :) That was one of the first documents I read, and it was HUGE in helping me understand what I could and couldn'tt do.
You'll have an easy time since mod files are in lua, the simplest syntax ever.
Your ask is basically what modding in Minecraft have done. You can have several mods all create a Steel Ingot for instance, but they all work for recipes that require a steel ingot, the recipe doesnt care where it came from, just as long as it satisfies the tag. So you can have steel_ingot tag or cobalt_ingot tag, and an item can inherit multiple tags. It is a huge life saver when playing modded Minecraft and I can see this working well here.
Every modding community needs an oreDict equivalent.
Rimworld is famous for its coal.
But doesn't vanilla Minecraft already have this property? Like beds being made from different kinds of wood and wool? The idea is certainly cool, the problem is whether the devs are willing to change such a base level feature for modders
@@cmentarnikPL yes, tags were implemented in vanilla 1.13+ and is now used by mods instead of the old oredict, but it has the same use: It allows you to accept multiple different items in a recipe, like different wood types for making sticks or as you said beds
@@cmentarnikPL That's more about transferring over properties of the inputs to the outputs. oreDict was about substituting inputs, e.g. having a recipe that makes glass from any kind of sand instead of having two recipes for the two vanilla sand types and not accepting any sands from other mods. A common issue when mixing mods is that every mod that adds e.g. cobalt needs to add its own cobalt ore, ingots and nuggets. When you have two mods with cobalt, you also get 2 kinds of ores etc. But unless the two mods know about each other and add compatibility recipes, those items would not be interchangeable. Instead, recipes are defined to take any item that has the correct oreDict tag, no matter what the actual item is or what mod it is from.
Glad to see somebody mentioning modded Minecraft for tags/oreDict.
Given Factorio itself is inspired by modded Minecraft, it is extremely likely that the devs already know the system and considered it, and ultimately decided not to implement it.
I can see at least a couple reasons why they (presumably) decided not to.
1 - Manual crafting: How would the search tree understand which base ingredient you want to use, over several layers?
2 - The game performance is a high key point. Recipes in assemblers have to be set manually, and that makes it so the inserters in front of it essentially become "filter". Adding tags makes it so that on top of checking the item type, it would have to also check the tags available if any matches. Probably not a big performance hurdle, but one nonetheless.
Thank you so much for CONSIDERING people with colorblindness and how you can alleviate some of the issues we encounter within your designs. Truly awesome.
Idea: Replace flamethrower turrets with fluidthrower turrets (with standard and incendiary variants) that use the tags of the fluids in them to determine how the projectile will work (eg glue and napalm will stick to biters and the ground, water and foam can extinguish fire, napalm and burning oil create fires, etc)
Lubricant could mess with pathing or make them slide or something
I feel like the fungible ingredient system just needs to be in the game. It makes way too much sense.
gosh that first rocket launch being a limp over the finish line is so so accurate
I LOVE THIS!!! Seriously, when people make devlogs they don't focus enough on design choices and actually being deliberate in what they do. So it's refreshing to see someone actually clarify their decisions like a good game designer or just any professional in any field should do.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of your devlogs!
this was sick and very well produced. glad i found it, you’re a gem!!
DoshDoshington's retrospective on space exploration was a very good criticism, and I think might be valuable for other mod developers. Having too may recipes that produce byproducts, recipes that put back out what you put in, and materials that have little use and are better spent as landfill can start to drag down a mod
It is main idea of many mods tho, making you suffer through byproducts. But yeah, I also hate to deal with byproducts
Yes! I agree that he had some very good points in his video. On the one hand, I agree that things shouldn't feel pointless, so I get why having all byproducts channel to either landfill or some sort of homogenous scrap processing feels icky. On the other hand ... the altnernatives (if we're assuming that byproducts arebeing added in the first place) is more granular byproducts, and that gets SUPER complicated fast. So ... yeah. THis is a *delicate* balancing act. Good observations.
@@katus1039 to me dealing with maybe 5 byproducts on hand can be fun as long as there's a use for the byproduct coming up very soon so you don't have it backing up the whole system. The data card byproducts make sense and I feel I would have fun with those.
I've been playing factorio .16 for a while from an old copy my brother had, and this is back when basic oil processing gave you Heavy and light oil before you could use them, and having to deal with those before you can use them was often more than I could chew lol
It's interesting how much people dislike waste management in Factorio. Most countries around the world have chosen to, for a long time, convert all of their waste into landfill. Burning waste is a fairly recent change and industrially biodegrading food waste, into usable products like fuels, is downright bleeding edge. It's all a huge headache in the real world as well, and humanity is doing horrifyingly bad at it. Pretty much the only thing we seem to handle decently well is waste water treatment, since that was crucial for making large cities viable.
This is what I'm looking for! A devlog about factorio modding. I'm a software developer myself and an 800hr factorio player (still noob), so watching this feels so fun!
I am going to go ahead and say if you've played Factorio for 800, you no longer have to think of yourself as a noob :)
I'm pretty excited to see how this mod pans out in future, sounds cool
Your idea for intermediary crafting actually sounds like the Modern Industrialization mod for Minecraft - which funnily enough was inspired by Factorio
Now im definitely following your journey on making this overhaul mod as it sounds and looks cool
Babe wake up, new high-quality Factorio channel just dropped
Thank you youtube algorithm for recommending this to me! I love this video!
Feels like Gregtech 6 for Factorio! Looking forward to it!
I'm currently working on my own suite of mods that will integrate with vanilla but also support a few of the popular overhauls currently.
I've seen you (or atleast your mods) mentioned in a few discords and I'm happy you've decided to make a small tutorial on your process.
Thank you!
You're welcome. :) Feel free to hop on my own little discord if the interest ever strikes
I would absolutely play that sort of mod, and the idea of fungible items seems like a great solution to that problem.
Now THIS is a truly unique devlog 👏👏👏 great work, I will follow this series with invested interest!
What an excellent, dunno how people trash on RUclips algorithm when it shows me bangers like this
When I'm thinking about all of the mods I've played, I'm sort of shocked that there hasn't been a large RTS overhaul mod (though maybe there is and I missed it.) I get strong broodwar vibes every time I play Factorio and that really inspires me. Your videos have encouraged me to look into making my own overhaul mod! It's difficult to find the time to code after doing it all day at work, but in the meantime, I can live vicariously through your work.
I can't wait to see what happens with your mod in the future!
I know how you feel. But, I encourage you to make your thoughts into things :)
An old post, but I think a lot of it has to do with just Factorio being focused in a different direction. It doesn't really do well as an RTS - the more of that stuff there is going on, the less actual building of the factory there is. The whole balance of the game is just to keep scaling up, and stuff like artillery obliterates any enemy regardless of how many of them there are. Just at a fundamental design level, it's a factory game much more than it is a combat game.
Thanks for sharing. I love to see the process and the way you're automating things. Great production value too!
Everything about this video is just perfect! The script is just so well written too!
Looking forward greatly to your next Devlog. Incredibly good video flow and explanations. Wish you the best
I just watched the intro of this video but I can already tell you that this video is amazingly done. Your voice is really fitting and the way you edited it is just perfect so already a big thumbs up for that
I DON'T EVEN PLAY FACTORIO, BUT YOUR MINDSET MAKES ME WANT TO!!!!!
This is amazing.
Your ethos is my ethos.
You have a good ethos. :) :)
as someone who enjoys playing mods. That efficiency goal you have as a stretch is basically what would sell me the mod.
This was immensely enjoyable to watch. Awesome job man, I do believe your mod could really take off. I wish you luck in creating it
Peak quality content (both mod idea and video). I'd love to see where this will go in the future. Please continue!
2:50 you got a sub for unleashing this disastrous horror on existence how dare you and thank you
Woah. Awesome concept and great execution thus far. And also awesome channel - I checked out a few other videos and this is awesome. Keep up the good work and take breaks as needed!
Very well-presented. Love your take, and really looking forward to seeing your progress!
This was so fascinating, I've had a lot of fun with Factorio over the years (though never launched a rocket lol), and recently have been working on my own game dev projects, I had never considered the overlap before, and my interest in logic and efficiency, great video!
Great work, love this dev log, your take on adding mods is very interesting and educational
This is awesome! I love hearing about it and your problem solving skills are A+. I hope to see more updates in the future :)
You are AMAZING. This is actually so awesome. As a novice programmer, I'm looking at this, and this is both grand and ambitious, and easy to understand!
Wish you all the good luck and maybe some reliable helping hands.
Immediately opened my mind. I've been making a mod over time since 1.0 released. This abstraction topic really helped me.
I'm looking forward to your mod progress
Absolutely loved this! This has to be one of the best devlogs i've seen on youtube!
This is really really cool. Very well done and cool insight into how the mods work.
this looks sick! i cant wait to see it finished, or atleast somewhat done
The video production on this is fantastic! Really enjoyed it
Amazing video, super looking forward to seeing how this develops and would 100% be interested in playing. Nice work man!
Loved this video. The editing, the clarity, and not 'talking down' to the viewer. Really, really looking forward to more of this.
Amazing work ! Thank you for sharing this with us, I'm very exited by this project and I can't wait to see what it becomes ;)
Keep it up !
This was very interesting and fun to watch! This sounds like the exact kind of mod I'd love to play! I hope to see more devlogs of this in the future!
I really enjoy the logic you're following. Thank you for a great video. Hope to see more great videos from you. Cheers!
Wonderful approach to the overhaul design. I'm 6 minutes in, and hopefully will learn something useful for making my own mod ideas into life! Yeah, I have a couple that have been sitting in the back of my head for years.
Wow.Just wow!
Thanks for taking the time to compile this. Sign me up!!
Also, nice to see the support your video is getting by the community is amazing! Keep it up!
I haven't played any overhaul mods in factorio, but i always liked realism/relastic stuff, and small compact designs, that can be tweaked to satisfy diffrent needs, instead of one big machine, so this mod idea seems exactly like the kind of stuff i would enjoy. Great stuff!
Your project is amazing! As a mechanical engineering undergrad, it's really cool to see more realistic intermediates, machines and material properties in the game, considering how well it already applies to concepts of production line management and process planning
As someone who finds recipe complexity to be one of the most appealing parts of a lot of mods, this mod conceptually sounds great to me. And I will definitely be following any development process you post.
Fantastic video! Great insight in the whole process and an amazing naration as well!
Very cool idea. Looking forward to see the finished product :D
I think this is going to be such an amazing journey, good luck!!
Thanks for the insane production quality!
This guy looked at Pyanodon and said "it's not enough."
There's a RUclipsr who did a playthrough of Pyanodons + Bob's / Angels + Momo Tweaks with some crazy multiplier and shared a timelapse of him building his base
it included moments like "And here I ragequit for X months"
I hope you don't give up on this, I am found your devblog interesting and I am liking the look of your mod
Thank you for making this video. Your production quality is tremendously high, and I particularly appreciate the choices you made regarding the depth of the content. I can’t wait to play (and perhaps help?) with your mod(s).
I really like how you walked through you actual workload, including steps others may glossover like the renaming. Even though others may skip it, things like that can be very valuable. I.e. I'll probably end up switching advanced renamer instead of my own script for some animation frames in my game :)
It is soooooooo useful. I will hold a special place in my heart for the person who shared it with me :)
This is so good! Instant subscribe. I've been looking into Factorio modding and this video has been super insightful :)
This video is amazing. Solid job! Love it!
Such high quality content from an obscure channel, this is sick
The youtube algorithm has blessed you, keep up the god work, hope you post more devlogs in the future
I can't decide what's more impressive - the video or the content! Nice work.
this sounds like a really cool mod idea, i am stoked to se how it goes
This is a gem, thanks YT algorithm. I really like realism in the way you present it and hopefully your mod will be finished soon after I beat K2+SE (eventually).
i dont know if you have ever played gregtech, but your idea is basically in the same school of thought that led from industrial craft 2's ingot and plate recipes into the screw plate bolt foil rod ect recipes that gregtech is either known or infamous for.
Super super exited for this!! I love the idea of smaller machines!
The idea and already present progress look amazing! I also totally agree with the flavour, I love to play with Angel and Bob mods because I love chemistry, metallurgy and all that stuff and since there is essentially no other game where this is present as a mechanic, it always made me super excited. And not to mention the availability of choice and player's always shifting relation towards the materials. Like for example, in the beginning it is essentially just a side product which you can grind up for rocks but later on you can use it as a catalyst for better refining of the original resource and all that stuff.. All of that combined made for an engaging mod combination. Though I still play vanilla, sometimes the simplicity is what I need the most.
You made my day. I really love Angel, because it allow me to take different way to reach the same product. If what you are working on come to completion. It will be amazing. Keep the great work going!!
I found this surprisingly interesting. I'm actually looking forward to the next log.
thats a really cool mod idea! good luck.
megamind, lphabrain
PEAKING
"puns are better than reaction videos"
Never have truer words been said
I had a very similar idea for the mod, im so glad you are doing it
I understand that making the art is fun and cool but I highly recommend postponing making the art and making sure you enjoy the gameplay you're setting up. As someone who's attempted game design it's defeating to spend so much time on something and then play it and realise you don't find it that fun
YES. This is exactly true. My plan is to make a few color-variations of the lathe (you can see the first iteration in my inventory for a few seconds if you look around @2:47, though I'm going to improve them) meant as stand-ins for the other minisemblers. I need to make something playtestable ASAP for that exact reason. :)
This was really fascinating, as a person who dabbles in game design myself (for me in the tabletop rpg space) it's always quite interesting to see how others approach the problems of ideation, mechanisation, and trying to create a unique product that still appeals to a decently wide audience. Design sits in this really cool space between engineering and creativity that I personally find appealing, which probably makes as to why it appeals to some Factorio players. This was also just extremely well put together and informative in its own right, so well done, I am definitely picking up yEd, was just the tool I was looking for in combination with google docs :)
Yes! That's it right there. :)
THANK YOU for making this!
I’ve thought about something like this for a long time, and I’m excited to see where it goes!
Love the idea and thematic behind it. As you mentioned in your conclusion, I do tend to agree that your target audience will be on the slim side, 100's on intermediary components and all that, but please don't let that demotivate you ! I'm sure said target audience will be able to hype it up and bring more people that would originally be ''scared'' of the sheer size of a mod like yours. Really fantastic Devlog model too, keep at it !
You are correct. :) My hope is to make sliders to let that slim audience (of which I'm a quantum superposition of both a memeber and not quite a member) really sink their teeth into something intricate, while also letting others have a less chewing-soda-cans experience. I don't know what I just did with my metaphors in that reply. I'm giong to drink more coffee.
But either way, I'm on board with what you're saying lol :)
Love the idea man, keep it up!
I'm only up to the start of part 3 in the video but it already has my head tilted going "huh" in a good way. I love the idea of breaking everything down to its core element like chemistry and just having a massive pool of resources to combine in different ways. This is going to be a fun watch. :-)
This mod looks truly fascinating and a peak behind the curtain, sign me up for this!
"Compatible with Space Exploration" I don't think anybody would be ready for that. SE is already a giant as is. I can't imagine it with even more.
And Krastorio 2. Moo hoo ha ha. :)
This looks awesome I want to play it so bad. Please keep the good work up.
I’m currently 319hours into my second Pyanodon play through (yes second lol) … to say I am excited to play your mod is a gross understatement! I really can’t wait looking forward to it!
first time watcher.
considering subscribing to not miss you out there with all the videos YT offers me.
any way, that's a *really* good video! i am less of a graphic guy myself, but i do get why it is so important.
although i know how to code and touched a few bits here and there, i've never tackled a project like this. overhauling the system is a nice idea, and i never knew how you would approach this, or why some of the commands syntax inside the game look that way. you didnt talk about it, but i did got my insights into it.
thanks!
thanks for the video and the tine and effort invested into it!
b.t.w.
you do not know how much i appreciate you for adding so many content creators there. the community wouldnt be the same without some of them, and i hate ot when someone takes inspiration from someone and says nothing a out it. thanks for every thing in this video!
p.s. for my future self reading my comment:
back to work, my lazy self! chop chop! you need to do stuff and not rewatch videos! 😤
this looks absolutely mindblowing
I'm not a programmer, but I have always though that if I could make a Factorio overhaul mod, it would be something similar to what you're doing. I'm excited to see where this project goes!
The "flavor of realism" you've got outlined and so far implemented is more innovative & comprehensive than most game developers can manage. Kudos. You've got clarity.
Sweet spot of gamification/ game design & realism. Very steal-worthy.
I can see some Factorio + this mod Gameplay Loops in a broader game; even an MMO.
__With the Seablock mods, PLUS This One, -> I can see a more complete Factorio and thus Most Steal-Worthy Gameplay Loop.__
I quite like the concept here. I've often felt that Factorio lacks visual and layout variety, and a mod like this turning it's assembler banks into many different kinds of machines would certainly be one way to address that.
Love this! It reminds me of Gregtech, an overhaul mod in Minecraft
goddammit, man, i gotta work and ya'll keep coming up with the best experience possible. please, i gotta work
great stuff looking forward to the next video.
Fantastic video and a really cool concept for the mod, I hope you get that engine change you're looking for and it doesn't cause too much of a performance drop.
I'm definitely keeping an eye on that. It shouldn't impact the UPS, but I'm going to have to be careful about how much room my sprite data takes up.
Interesting. As someone who played a few of the overhaul mods and being a sw developer I will follow your progress and try it out when there is something playable. Good luck!
I’ll definitely download this if it ever comes out.
That sounds brutal. Keep working on it as long as you are having fun.
This is the way. :)
your idea of fungible ingredients sounds very similar to modded Minecraft's "Ore Directory" where blocks and items can have optional "oreDict" tags, and recipes can simply specify an OreDict entry as ingredient instead of a specific item/block ID.
basically the game just goes through all items and blocks upon startup and if an item (for example a tin ingot from some mod) has a OreDict tag (in this case the standard name is "ingotTin") it's ID will be added to the list called "ingotTin".
so if you have multiple mods that add tin ingots, and they share the same oreDict entry, then they will be grouped together in the same list, and any recipe that asks for "ingotTin" will accept any item that matches one of the IDs in the specified list. this allows for easy creation of recipes that accept a range of different items without having to manually add each recipe (plus it scales automatically when you add new items).
i'm honestly very surprised that Factorio doesn't have such a system already built-in, considering that the game is inspired by Modded Minecraft and the Ore Directory ahs been around for a looooooong time by now. maybe that's something that should be suggested to be added to vanilla, as it's very useful for modding.
I will definitely be playing this the moment its out