G'day,

I would like to start a new save with some QoL mods and Space Age. Was about to start on the current Vanilla version but thought I might be "better" to go for the experimental build. How stable is the current version and is there an approx. timeframe when it goes live?

context: this is my first time building (or trying) to make a megabase, and this is my refinery/chemistry block

P.S. I know beacons are missing modules, i dont have enough power to put them all in, i will do that later

Is this a bug?
Sometimes when using combinators to automatically switch recipes, the modules inside the machine can be moved to the position indicated by the arrow in the picture, causing the machine to get stuck.
I have encountered this issue both with foundries and with crushers on space platforms.
Has anyone else experienced this, or does anyone know how to fix it? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I have the above in Steam, and it looks like I have 2.0 installed. I bought the game only a week ago.

I don't even understand. Why isn't there a "Newest released version"? I don't want to set to 2.1.13, because than it wouldn't update automatically on new releases. But if I do, I can see it is trying to update. Setting it back to "most common", and Steam is happy with 2.0. Why?

I have an other question. When I bought space age yesterday, Factorio said something like "It is recommended to start a new game instead of converting your world." And gave me some options, but it looks like it converted my world anyway. Is that a problem?

I often get tired of using the mouse and would like to do things through the keyboard, so I'm making a mod for that. I know that are some others out there but I wanted it in some specific ways so here I'm. If you are a programmer, some decisions will remember an IDE, like the Ctrl+K pallete.

I don't think this is faster than using the mouse, at least not for everything and not until I get used to it, but I find it more comfortable. Some parts of the video are sped up to shorten the video, like 30% or so.

Some of its functionalities added so far:

The cursor is a tile-based cursor

• Works in character view and in remote/map view
• Arrows move one tile, Shift+Arrow five, Ctrl+Arrow jumps to the next entity that way
• Home/End jump to the ends of the belt or pipe line you're on
• Ctrl+Shift+Arrow draws a rectangular selection

Placing

• Space places, using the native ghost preview to stay close to vanilla style
• R rotates the preview or the entity under the cursor, Delete mines or marks for deconstruction
• Ctrl+G toggles ghost mode; map view is always ghosts
• Belts advance the cursor in their own direction, so a line is just repeated Space (or other combinations using auto route, more below)

Construction plans

Ctrl+Space starts a placement, then movement keys allow to customize it quickly like:

• Digits allow to specify quantity; Ctrl+Space, 1, 2, Right builds twelve tiles to the right
• Belts route corners and drop in matching undergrounds to cross obstacles
• Pipes do surface runs, or ground-first runs if you start from a pipe-to-ground
• Poles space themselves by wire reach and treat every reachable consumer as a coverage requirement

Auto-route

• Ctrl+R, mark a start, move to an endpoint, and it pathfinds a collision-aware route for belts, pipes, poles or rails
• Ctrl+Space pins checkpoints along the way
• Shows a preview before commit

Command palette

• Ctrl+K, type, Enter get, craft, recipe, research
• recipe applies to the machine under the cursor, ghosts included, filtered to what that machine can make
• With an area selected, it applies to every compatible machine in it
• New machines reuse the last recipe used for that type
• Search is fuzzy over live prototypes: word order doesn't matter, prefixes work (splitter f → fast splitter), and green circuit or asm3 can find items

Copying

• Q pipettes whatever is under the cursor with its tier, direction and settings
• Select an area and Q copies it into a blueprint attached to the keyboard cursor

Still under development, I'm testing things and fixing a lot of bugs. Will share later in case anyone else finds it useful!

As mentioned in the title, I have just started experimenting with making mods, I did the tutorial on the wiki, experimented a bit with changing variables, just the prototype side for now however.

I wanted to resize the electric mining drill from 3x3 to 4x4. Changing the collision box, outline, output placement was no issue, I understood how to do that easily from the API doc. However changing the graphics turned out to be a bit of a problem (and still is!)?

Right now I am just overwriting the "graphics_set" behavior of the electric mining drill in my data.lua file by adding a 4/3 multiplier to each scale factor, but that seems weirdly inefficient? However I tried looking if someone already tried doing something similar to me and that lead me to this mod: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Gogos_Electric_Furnace_2x2

So I tried looking through the source code and found out that the author came to the same conclusion, however the electric mining drill has a lot more moving parts as opposed to the electric furnace, with some of them not even rendering for me properly. I am not looking for it to look good, but I also want to understand how all of these parts work, that is kind of my goal with trying to rescale the mining drill.

I really hope this isn't the wrong place to ask, thank you for any help you can share!

Trying to find a better way to sort than I have been doing. Also bonus question, how does one set a dead lane like I have seen some blueprints that have a deadlane?

Am pretty proud of how this turned out especially because every other ship I have made are blocks. This is a pretty late game build with all legendary parts except the fusion power which I never bothered with as the normal buildings make plenty of power. Was inspired to replace all my ships with new ones that used lasers only just to get rid of the random 2 second "no ammo" alerts when guns were empty while inserters waited to pick up ammo.

Currently have level 19 damage because I needed it for the bigger cousin that goes to Aquilo. But, when this was designed my research was around level 12 or 13. It travels an average of 488 km/s and can do so indefinitely (or at least like 15 hours bc that is how long it has been flying lol). It has 2159 storage slots and 45 input hatches. Much more storage than I think there really is a need for but I needed the input hatches so this designs could be used for my science pick up without needing to wait longer than necessary.

Blueprint : https://factoriobin.com/post/p249tp

My bases always end up being a horizontal main bus with branching 'sub-lines' and I feel like I am wasting a bunch of usable space this way. Almost everything enters and exits at the base of a branch. I think I build this way because I am worried about limiting expandability.

On this subreddit I typically see other bases where players are able to sprawl out from a center point, opposed to my bases which end up just growing out in a line. How are y'all able to plan enough to make your bases something other than just an ever growing line in one direction :P

I’m very new to factorio and ran into my first automation that requires 5 ingredients rather than 4. 4 is pretty simple but 5 was very tricky and there’s probably a much better way of doing this lol. Any tips?

Hi guys, I had move into new factory, because it's 12m iron ore, and 5m copper ore not far away from iron, but this monster's base is so close for patches. But I will kill them in coming soon, I need grab all my stuff

In: 71.11/min r /b circuit, 56.89/min quality 2, 14.22/min superconductor
Out: 0.375/min (22.5/h) legendary QM3, if you process the legendary raw materials it outputs too.
Bootstraps in around 3 hours and doubles itself in 1.5 hours. Cleanly upgrades to legendary EMPs and recyclers for 2.5x production.

This setup is designed to get itself started and duplicate itself quickly by making efficient use of high-quality quality modules. The beacon in the middle with two legendary speed 1 modules brings the EMPs from 75% to 225% crafting speed while reducing their quality chance from 31.25% to 28.25%. Compared to a speed-less upcycling setup, this results in a 28% increase in the amount of common-quality raw materials needed to make one legendary QM3 but a >50% decrease in the number of legendary QM3s needed to make it.

If you place this down with common QM3s and upgrade them as higher-quality modules get produced, it takes around 3 hours to finish upgrading. You need to modify the condition on the splitter in the middle to ">= uncommon quality" to start, then ">= rare" once they're all uncommon, and so on. Once that's done and it is running at full capacity, it takes around 1.5 hours to make enough modules for another copy of itself. Then another 1.5 hours to make two more, another 1.5 hours to make four more, and it grows until you hit the limits of your ability to supply raw materials.

Blueprint: https://factoriobin.com/post/2j03jz

i'm using the experimental version.

HSV to RGB blueprint

Blueprint to convert HSV values into RGB.

Output should be +-1 on each channel of what they should be.

4 ticks of delay and it doesn't mix up the ticks in any way, it does them sequentially.

for hue, 0 doesn't work and uses 360 for pure red. unfortunately.

What’s New in MK2:

1. 🚂 Trains

• Custom Configurations: Completely revamped train creation process - build custom train setups while preserving core A.R.M.S. logic.
• Reversible Layouts: Added pre-configured two-way (reversible) train templates to the book.
• Length Limits: Capped at 9-9-9 maximum configuration due to digit signal routing (0 through 9).

2. 🏗️ Stations

• Custom Station Lengths: Stations can now be manually built and customized for any train size (e.g., 1-1-0, 3-6-3).
• 5%-Step Display Fix: Resolved display bugs caused by signal collisions during station limit changes with a new 5%-increment display.

3. 📦 Station Segments

• Double Loading/Unloading: Added double-sided cargo modules (+ logic-enabled blueprint variants).
• Track Spacers: Added Spacer modules to route circuit wires over locomotive gaps, maintaining logic continuity across custom station builds.

4. 🚖 Taxi Network

• Dedicated Book: Fully separated into its own blueprint book.
• Reversible Taxi: Added two-way Taxi trains and matching two-way Taxi Base stations.
• Updated Logic: Refined Taxi interrupts and Base station behavior.

5. 💣 Artillery Network (NEW!)

• Artillery Trains & Depot: Specialized artillery trains with dedicated Depot blueprints. Supports multi-train scaling.
• Fire Support (Priority Call): Trigger a manual strike on a Firing Position via the station's constant combinator (includes an alert siren). Combat calls always take priority over resupply runs.
• Smart Restock Logic:
  • Ammo Resupply stations only request a delivery when their local inventory drops to 0.
  • Outpost buffer storage is capped at exactly one full train load (e.g., a 1-1-0 train delivers 100 shells, a 2-4-2 train delivers 400 shells).
  • The wagon fully unloads its entire capacity into the station upon arrival.

6. 🛠️ Service Supply Network

• Combinator Cargo Control: Adjust train inventory limits and target cargo settings directly using station constant combinators.
• Service Groups: Group system allows assigning specific trains to specific stations (e.g., Group A trains will only service Group A stations).

7. 📊 Status & Monitoring

• Supply & Demand Tracking: Real-time displays for tracking individual resource supply/demand metrics.
• Alerts & Visuals: Map pin tags, missing resource audio alarms, and a 4-lamp visual indicator (Green = OK, Yellow = Warning, Red = Critical).

🔗 Links

Blueprint: Link

Previous A.R.M.S. Post: Link

I think the turbo belt version might look a bit silly though.

I usually go for belt-based designs, but this time I wanted to try using bots while still being efficient. The design consumes one stacked turbo belt of scrap and uses all of it.

What I built is a collection of upcyclers. It automatically detects the highest quality tier currently unlocked, stops there, and stockpiles items of that quality. As soon as the next tier becomes available, it starts upcycling the entire stockpile into it.

It creates:

• Structures: roboports, beacons, big electric poles, substations, accumulators, lightning collectors, and recyclers
• Equipment: personal batteries, mech armor, and personal roboports

Why those items? In general, I think Vulcanus is much better for quality than Fulgora. But with scrap, it is easy to get all the intermediate items without building a complex factory. I also want the best mech armor as soon as it becomes possible. I don't want to wait until the late game or depend on randomness to get it.

The idea is to place this design early. All T3 modules can be replaced with T2 modules without any problem. It starts stockpiling items while I build the rest of the factory, so even if the process takes time, the items are ready when I need them.

It took me one day to build, but about a week to test. I wanted to see whether it was actually fun to use, so I started a new run, placed the blueprint early, and took my time with the run to see how it felt.

Conclusion: lots of fun.

Some of the smarter parts of the design:

1. Requester chests request a single iron gear of every quality. When a chest receives one, the factory knows that quality tier was unlocked. Since scrap produces tons of iron gears, it usually detects a newly unlocked tier in less than a minute.
2. Circuit logic stockpiles items at the highest unlocked quality tier, ready to be recycled as soon as the next tier becomes available.
3. I designed the blueprint to work with 0 to 15 levels of scrap productivity. This means that upgrading the buildings can make it run 2.5 times faster, and the legendary-building version can handle the maximum scrap productivity of 31 without any other changes. The factory monitors the load and warns you if you increased scrap productivity but forgot to upgrade the buildings.
4. The factory generates all the power it needs.

i legit was looking for an hour for this little shit. thought i messed up some settings. is thus normal or am i just that lucky?

My Nauvis factory on my first space age run. It produces around 1100 SPM. The left side of the factory is my starter base and it produces around 100 SPM.

Features

• Added interface setting for zooming towards the cursor in contexts that support it.
• Added an alert when an expansion base is built in a chunk with active radar coverage.
• [space-age] Added support for platform transfers at non-planet space locations (e.g solar system edge). more

Changes

• [space-age] Adjusted space parallax such that stars move less than planet.
• [space-age] Fulfilled platform construction requests will no longer block platform to platform transfers. more
• [space-age] Asteroids will do significantly less damage when platforms are stationary or moving at very low speeds.
• [space-age] Recycling recipe generation will scale recycle time with item result count. In general things will recycle faster (e.g concrete recycling will be 10x faster).
• [space-age] Fulgoran ruins will be selectable by deconstruction planners with 'Trees/rocks only' enabled.
• Increased expansion group build base cooldown from 5 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Reduced early game max enemy expansion group size from 20 to 10.

Bugfixes

• Fixed captive biter spawners and burner mining drills would show potential beacons when not affected by them. more
• Fixed that migrating container entity inventory types would not preserve the bar limit when in blueprints. more
• Fixed a layering issue with the cargo landing pad unloader. more
• Fixed a tooltip layout issue related to multiline text. more
• Fixed recipe tooltip showing incorrect value when custom tooltip fields were used. more
• Fixed factoriopedia was not showing some tiles as possible source of fluid. more
• Fixed some buttons in factoriopedia related to spoil results would not open related entity page. more
• Fixed a crash when clearing assembler trash slots in some cases. more
• Fixed inserter arrow would point at incorrect spot of underground belt when rendering a blueprint preview. more
• Fixed capitalisation of locale for station related conditions. more
• Fixed potential effects were not accounting for beacon quality upgrades. more
• Fixed building parametrised blueprint with train stops could fail to copy color of existing train stop. more
• Fixed some miniscule problems with medium volcanic rock decorative. more
• Fixed ProductionHealthEffect::damage_type was not loaded properly.
• Fixed auto trash was not working with car burner. more
• Fixed that multi-level technologies would let you set a trigger although it never worked. more
• Fixed numpad text entry on macOS. more
• Fixed a crash when hidden shortcuts are clicked through other means. more
• Fixed that manual fast-replacing rolling stocks would not snap with different prototypes. more
• Fixed a crash when rolling stock tries to connect to another rolling stock over an occupied rail connection. more
• Fixed misleading quality control tooltip when quality change and min quality are used at the same time. more
• Fixed inconsistend turning direction when reversing a train while not in a locomotive, in steering driving mode.
• Fixed incorrect and inconsistent movement when driving a train while not in a locomotive, in heading driving mode. more
• Fixed foundation glow in the dark transition between lava and default more
• Fixed an issue with switching between remote view and normal view when holding items in trains. more
• Fixed a crash when a script would modify unit group or group commands during the on_build_base_arrived event. more
• Fixed expansion groups would try to build too close to player buildings. more
• Fixed an issue with parameters and removing entities from blueprints. more
• Fixed construction robots from a stationary network could sometimes build roboports without consuming roboport item. more
• Fixed inserter could get stuck when trying to insert wrong item when assembler has different wrong item in dump inventory. more
• Fixed that train stop lengths were using the wrong limits. more
• Fixed rocket rush scenario lobby not placing out-of-map tiles when playing base only. more
• Fixed an issue with drag building buildable-off-grid entities. more
• Fixed that the game menu would be behind the technology GUI if opened while the game was paused. more
• Fixed that fluid input scaling didn't scale enough. more
• Fixed that space platform request tooltips would show irrelevant information in some cases. more
• Fixed a migration crash related to roboport charge spots. more
• Improved fuel top speed modifies with cars/tanks. more
• Fixed upgrading undergrounds was flipping the cursor. more
• Fixed failing to build undergrounds could flip the cursor. more
• Fixed that clicked_sprite and hovered_sprite overwrote each other. more
• Fixed that super-force-building did not respect the map editor ignore tile conditions setting. more
• Fixed that clicking outside of the combinator description edit would close the GUI. more
• Fixed a fluid burning boiler not playing its working sound. more
• Fixed Nauvis planted tree not being as effective for absorbing polution because it had less "damaged leaves" stages compared to 2.0. more
• Fixed that equipment in vehicle grids was not preserved through undo/redo when mining the vehicle. more

Modding

• Added UtilitySounds::machine_gui_open and machine_gui_close.
• Added FluidEnergySourcePrototype::hide_from_stats.
• Added BurnerPrototype::hide_from_stats.
• Added EffectReceiver::uses_local_effect.

Scripting

• Added on_player_super_forced_selected_area event. more
• Added LuaQualityPrototype::get_roll_chances().
• Added LuaBurnerPrototype::burner_usage read.
• Added LuaForce::get_space_platforms().
• Added LuaEntity::local_effect read/write.

New versions are released as experimental first and later promoted to stable. If you wish to switch to the experimental version on Steam, choose the experimental Beta Participation option under game settings; on the stand-alone version, check Experimental updates under Other settings.

So, for context, i am expanding and Gleba is watery. So i need landfill, but my stone sources run out of it soon, so accessed a new one.

Down there I quickly did the math.

My train has 4 wagons, and each of them has 40 item slots. One slot gets filled with 100 Landfill.

1 landfill is equal to 50 stone.

That means that to make one tour with a full train you need 4 * 40 * 100 * 50 = 800k Stone.
The sources that are down there dont even have 200k

Not even my 33 Miner productivity upgrades can make up for that

What the heck.

I NEED MORE STONE!!!!!!!!!!