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Friday Facts #332 - More sounds Map color tweaks
In the sound design department we have been hard at work to bring you a better gaming experience with the help of some new and improved sound effects. It struck me that the whole sound track used to have a lo-fi, almost 'dirty' feel, by which I mean the sounds were unclear, had a low resolution and possibly used recordings made with the wrong microphone positioning. So with Val's help we have set about improving some of these sounds. For example, there are new sounds for all the transport belts, they don't sound very different but they are smoother sounding and less annoying. https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/img/blog/fff-332-belts.mp4 Similar to the transport belts, we also have sounds for the combat robots that are designed to harmonise with one another. Val made a bunch of synth tones for these and I chose the three sounds that make a pleasing harmony when you add them together. https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/img/blog/fff-332-combat-robots.mp4 However in my haste to get these sounds in the Tuesday release, I missed that the fast and the express belts had an annoying high pitched whine in there. So I have EQ'd off the high frequencies and now they work better. The main reasons for having sound design in a game is not just to increase realism and immersion but also for player feedback and to increase the fun factor. Sometimes these things are hard to get right, especially in a game like this where there are so many sound producing entities so close to one another, often with very busy animations. You expect to hear a busy sound, but when you play them all together... it can be a mess. Add to this the innumerable ways sounds can be combined, well you get the idea. I have described this game as a sound designer's dream... and also nightmare. So try and bear with us while we get the balance right. We are also trying to do all this without a modern sound engine, which brings me to my next point. Tech wise, Rseding has been busy updating the sound code. For example we now have the listener position on the centre of the screen by default, which makes more sense to me and helps when you are in the map mode. Zoom level and attenuations have also been increased. Innumerable other small fixes to sound levels have been made and hopefully the game is starting to sound the way we want.
In the 0.18.2 release this week we changed the map colors for a few entities from the default blue:
These changes should especially help tell give some character to power setups, and big assembling blocks with beacons. We're happy with the way it is looking, and with more time we might decide on some more tweaks.
Quite a lot of great things to share this week :).
Last Saturday, KatherineOfSky and Caledorn hosted a MP server with the goal to set a new record of over 500 players. The server was funded by the community through a GoFundMe.
They were successful, and managed to have at one point 521 players online. This is actually quite a surprise to us, especially since it was with the fresh 0.18.1 version of the game. You can watch the full stream of the MMO event here.
Nefrums set a new speedrun record this week playing 0.18. He is getting close to a sub 2-hour run, just 5 minutes to optimize! [previewyoutube=JA9ccg5tIlY;full][/previewyoutube]
Reddit user minibetrayal created a Turing machine using Train network logic gates, comprising of 4,800 Locomotives, 6,172 Train stops, 56,030 Rail signals, and over 1,300km (800 miles) of Rail. https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/img/blog/fff-332-rail.mp4 If you would like to know more, there are details in the Reddit thread. As always, let us know what you think on our forum.
[ 2020-01-31 14:12:29 CET ] [ Original post ]
Read this post on our website. Hello, We released 0.18.2 and 0.18.3 this week. In terms of major releases, this one has very few bugs, so we haven't had a lot of pressure to crank out the releases at lightning speed.
New Sounds (Ian)
In the sound design department we have been hard at work to bring you a better gaming experience with the help of some new and improved sound effects. It struck me that the whole sound track used to have a lo-fi, almost 'dirty' feel, by which I mean the sounds were unclear, had a low resolution and possibly used recordings made with the wrong microphone positioning. So with Val's help we have set about improving some of these sounds. For example, there are new sounds for all the transport belts, they don't sound very different but they are smoother sounding and less annoying. https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/img/blog/fff-332-belts.mp4 Similar to the transport belts, we also have sounds for the combat robots that are designed to harmonise with one another. Val made a bunch of synth tones for these and I chose the three sounds that make a pleasing harmony when you add them together. https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/img/blog/fff-332-combat-robots.mp4 However in my haste to get these sounds in the Tuesday release, I missed that the fast and the express belts had an annoying high pitched whine in there. So I have EQ'd off the high frequencies and now they work better. The main reasons for having sound design in a game is not just to increase realism and immersion but also for player feedback and to increase the fun factor. Sometimes these things are hard to get right, especially in a game like this where there are so many sound producing entities so close to one another, often with very busy animations. You expect to hear a busy sound, but when you play them all together... it can be a mess. Add to this the innumerable ways sounds can be combined, well you get the idea. I have described this game as a sound designer's dream... and also nightmare. So try and bear with us while we get the balance right. We are also trying to do all this without a modern sound engine, which brings me to my next point. Tech wise, Rseding has been busy updating the sound code. For example we now have the listener position on the centre of the screen by default, which makes more sense to me and helps when you are in the map mode. Zoom level and attenuations have also been increased. Innumerable other small fixes to sound levels have been made and hopefully the game is starting to sound the way we want.
Updated map colors (Klonan)
In the 0.18.2 release this week we changed the map colors for a few entities from the default blue:
- Heat Pipes
- Pipes and Underground pipes
- Pumps
- Storage tanks
- Beacons
- Steam engines and Turbines
- Roboports
These changes should especially help tell give some character to power setups, and big assembling blocks with beacons. We're happy with the way it is looking, and with more time we might decide on some more tweaks.
Community spotlight (Klonan, V453000)
Quite a lot of great things to share this week :).
KoS 500 player MP server
Last Saturday, KatherineOfSky and Caledorn hosted a MP server with the goal to set a new record of over 500 players. The server was funded by the community through a GoFundMe.
They were successful, and managed to have at one point 521 players online. This is actually quite a surprise to us, especially since it was with the fresh 0.18.1 version of the game. You can watch the full stream of the MMO event here.
New 0.18 Any% speedrun record
Nefrums set a new speedrun record this week playing 0.18. He is getting close to a sub 2-hour run, just 5 minutes to optimize! [previewyoutube=JA9ccg5tIlY;full][/previewyoutube]
The Biggest and most Useless Rail Network Ever...
Reddit user minibetrayal created a Turing machine using Train network logic gates, comprising of 4,800 Locomotives, 6,172 Train stops, 56,030 Rail signals, and over 1,300km (800 miles) of Rail. https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/img/blog/fff-332-rail.mp4 If you would like to know more, there are details in the Reddit thread. As always, let us know what you think on our forum.
[ 2020-01-31 14:12:29 CET ] [ Original post ]
Factorio
Wube Software LTD.
Developer
Wube Software LTD.
Publisher
2020-08-14
Release
Game News Posts:
506
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Overwhelmingly Positive
(164072 reviews)
The Game includes VR Support
Public Linux Depots:
- Factorio Linux64 [306.86 M]
- Factorio Linux32 [300.1 M]
Available DLCs:
- Factorio: Space Age
Factorio is a game in which you build and maintain factories. You will be mining resources, researching technologies, building infrastructure, automating production and fighting enemies. In the beginning you will find yourself chopping trees, mining ores and crafting mechanical arms and transport belts by hand, but in short time you can become an industrial powerhouse, with huge solar fields, oil refining and cracking, manufacture and deployment of construction and logistic robots, all for your resource needs. However this heavy exploitation of the planet's resources does not sit nicely with the locals, so you will have to be prepared to defend yourself and your machine empire.
Join forces with other players in cooperative Multiplayer, create huge factories, collaborate and delegate tasks between you and your friends. Add mods to increase your enjoyment, from small tweak and helper mods to complete game overhauls, Factorio's ground-up Modding support has allowed content creators from around the world to design interesting and innovative features. While the core gameplay is in the form of the freeplay scenario, there are a range of interesting challenges in the form of the Scenario pack, available as free DLC. If you don't find any maps or scenarios you enjoy, you can create your own with the in-game Map Editor, place down entities, enemies, and terrain in any way you like, and even add your own custom script to make for interesting gameplay.
Discount Disclaimer: We don't have any plans to take part in a sale or to reduce the price for the foreseeable future.
Join forces with other players in cooperative Multiplayer, create huge factories, collaborate and delegate tasks between you and your friends. Add mods to increase your enjoyment, from small tweak and helper mods to complete game overhauls, Factorio's ground-up Modding support has allowed content creators from around the world to design interesting and innovative features. While the core gameplay is in the form of the freeplay scenario, there are a range of interesting challenges in the form of the Scenario pack, available as free DLC. If you don't find any maps or scenarios you enjoy, you can create your own with the in-game Map Editor, place down entities, enemies, and terrain in any way you like, and even add your own custom script to make for interesting gameplay.
Discount Disclaimer: We don't have any plans to take part in a sale or to reduce the price for the foreseeable future.
What people say about Factorio
- No other game in the history of gaming handles the logistics side of management simulator so perfectly. - Reddit
- I see conveyor belts when I close my eyes. I may have been binging Factorio lately. - Notch, Mojang
- Factorio is a super duper awesome game where we use conveyor belts to shoot aliens. - Zisteau, Youtube
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Linux (tarball installation)
- Processor: Dual core 3Ghz+Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 core. DirectX 10.1 capable GPU with 512 MB VRAM - GeForce GTX 260. Radeon HD 4850 or Intel HD Graphics 5500
- Storage: 3 GB available space
- OS: Linux (tarball installation)
- Processor: Quad core 3GHz+Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 4.3 core. DirectX 11 capable GPU with 2 GB VRAM - GeForce GTX 750 Ti. Radeon R7 360
- Storage: 3 GB available space
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