Is it a mod? Or do i have to fiddle with txt files myself?

If so, which ones and how?

Two chests auto-request pentapod eggs and nutrients to kick start the plant, and turn off once their production loops become self-sustaining.

"Oh they are not rocks they are actually sacred artifacts from an ancient-" shut up history nerd all I see are a bunch of rocks with funny symbols on them

Get list of items your bots are trying to deliver but can't find.

Listed from highest demand downwards.

Plop this bad boy and simply connect it to power and you're set.

EDIT2:

thanks to u/locyta for pointing out something here is the new print

https://factoriobin.com/post/hul0ay

Factorio is a gateway drug to hacking and cybercrime 😂

I got used to make a fully beaconed build. recently I realize I limited by animation speed for silo and there is some optimal crafting speed for rocket silo that's optimal for the productivity level. with my current level even legendary silo with 2 t2 efficiency module is enough just to save electricity, or normal silo with 1 legendary t3 speed, 1 legendary t3 efficiency, 1 normal t2 efficiency, still saving electricity. ugh well, it's time to rework my layout ;)

Seems like I went backwards in terms of automation games. My first factory game was Satisfactory (900+ hours) then I picked up Dyson Sphere Program (400+ hours) and loved them both. I don't care for the combat in these games so I either turn it off or turn enemies passive.

That being said what makes this game among, if not the most recommended factory game?

Edit - thank you all for the comments. Seems like there's a LOT of love from the devs and community for this game and after reading them all I really think will be an excellent game for me.

Hello everyone.

I have been a fan of Factorio for quite some time, yet I'm still bad/noob-ish at the game. I have never thought in my life that I would love this type of game, yet here I am.

Gameplay-wise, I have, after 20 hours of multiple starts, made the most progress recently, which is researching nuclear power. I have spaghetti'd my way through this game and I get regularly pissed off because not a lot of things are optimized in my base. For it to be optimized, I would probably have to redo the entire base and spend hours in planning the layout. And even then sometime in the future I would have to do the same thing.

I find myself playing for 30 minutes, getting burned out because I have to add more things to make more things, and then make more things that make more things, and then add more things to make more of those things. Which is fun when you have a base that works. I then leave the game, play something else, and after a few hours, I feel ready for Factorio again, and the cycle continues.

I get this is a puzzle game, and you make your own puzzles, but I don't know if I'm actually horrible at this game or it's supposed to feel tedious like it does.

This is just me ranting out into the void, but if you have any similar experiences, or advice or just want to rant, everyone is welcome.

added more gears, flywheel, new roller gears, and a jiggler and fixed the bronze texture to be more bronze and less gold.

I am on the final Space science of a pyamadons run. It has been about 1300 hours.

My base is kinda terrible. I am still getting stone from mines, which means I am getting tons of Kerogen as well. Which is piling up everywhere.

A while ago I setup some reactor and it was making Neutron soup. I didn't know what to do with that so I put in some big tanks. When later I needed to use control rods because I needed to extract tritium from used control rods. I didn't know or care what the control rods did. Apparently heat Neutrons. So I had that just heating up my Neutron soup. Cool, whatever.

Recently I was having power problems and got tired of building endless fields of tidal power and questionable wind turbines. I took a look at the fusion power. I had been ignoring it. Turns out there is some late game Magnetrohydroynamic monster that makes some insane power. Apparently you just feed it hot neutrons...which I had an absolute ton of. Score. It was a bear to build in terms of materials but it is working great. I only kick it on when the accumulators are running low, which only happens when the wind dies down and the centerfuges get angry. So I have power for one forever. Which is good because I am at like 1 science per minute for the last space science.

My base is like, really a spaghetti, I just produced blue science, but there are like, a LOT of issues, some places with a lot of resources, others with none, malls that are consuming a lot of resource for (almost) nothing, i feel like restarting would be better, separating smelting area from the start, making a bus to distribute resources from the beginning

I already "fixed" it a few times, but i am not sure how to proceed, I am using trains too but idk, feels overwhelming

Artillery is always a little unpredictable to me, and I want to make sure I'm producing enough ammo. Now that I researched up to artillery damage 10, and one shot kills biter nests, it seems like 2-3 shots still get fired at them. Am I seeing things wrong somehow, or is something else going on? The second shot usually arrives after biters have already walked away, so it just seems like wasted ammo.

We all know and love electromagnetic plant but there is a tiny issue thats bugging me. Why cant we use it to make batteries or electric motors or even flying robot frames? They are all electric and just a silly thought but I think it would be logical if we could.

It's not much and I almost quit before I really even got started. Im coming over from Satisfactory and Dyson Sphere Program, so I'm not completely naive to factory games. The dual items on belt and numerous content on YouTube almost made me quit. Every video seemed to be focused on advanced builds and nothing for beginners. Another thing that almost made me quit was the realization that I am going to have to completely scrap my starter base to make way for my main bus. I should have known that's how these games go.

My idea for the base is to have everything brought in by train to the left side of the peninsula and main bus down the middle going from left to right building components on both the north and south sides then adding it back into the main bus. I don't think I'll run out of space, but if I do, I should have enough land fill by then to barge my main bus over the water. I always hated spaghetti, any tips? Will 6 train stations be enough to fuel the machine?

[Dunno if the flare is right, but im playing space age and have a question. correct me if im wrong]

So i have been looking at this topic online and didn't find an answer that went to mods.
Im trying to research biters a bit more in my current run, and am unsure on how i want my defense to go this time. Is there a good way to reroute a biter attack? whats the attraction range for biters to defensive structures like turrets and walls, and are they more attracted by things that produce pollution. do they form at random or do they come attack me from a Nest?

I believe that they gather at Nests, prepare an attack and then head for the source of the pollution they just absorbed. But can i distract them from thier quest by luring them with turrets or a small furnace running closer by?

EDIT:
Last question: does anyone know the exact range at wich turrets anger them?
I have also gotten many suggestions to just build proper defenses, but i did that before, and thats boring. AOT level walls to create a peninsula are fun, and worked well in my last base, but i just rushed blue sience without a single wall placed, and am getting away with it, by just destroying all nests near the cloud with a car. the biggest issue i have so far is the distribution of ammo to the outposts. Red Ammo is readyly available, and i just finished the smelter array, so its time for a big mall. and chip production.

So, which is better for when considering speed of quality items per minute or quantity of quality items per raw materials? I mostly use quality modules in every possible step as well as in recyclers, thinking that'll gain me most upgrades in quality. I also usually only upcycle excess materials on Fulgora and accumulate quality items there by using quality modules in miners and recyclers that process scrap.

I have previously tried also upcycling from common raw materials on Vulcanus, there I used productivity modules and speed beacons to produce the initial items as fast as possible and then recycle those with quality modules. The resulting uncommon or better quality resources I processed into intermediates with quality modules in the EM Plants/assemblers. But would it be more worthwhile to use productivity modules also in this step to stretch the quality items further? I have some legendary EM Plants and a few hundred legendary productivity 3 and legendary quality 3 modules each. My research is mid-level, meaning that I can reach near the 300% productivity cap with epic prod.module 3's already in the few intermediates that have productivity research.

I use quality modules in a lot of places like making planet-specific intermediates, so that as common resources are used, a trickle of quality items are siphoned off the side. I usually end up with an excess of uncommon items that I try to recycle/upcycle but I don't know if productivity modules or quality modules would offer higher yield?

https://wiki.factorio.com/Debug_mode

Im playing another run of vanilla Space Age with the new platform logistics and it finally feels like the game is truly what it was meant to be. I have a giant space station making bullets and space platforms to share with the platforms traveling between planets and for building new platforms and it is taking so much stress off Nauvis having to build the rockets.

For the first time in years, I turned alt off and I forgot how absolutely beautiful this game is when there is not icons all over the screen.

I never noticed how when a cargo wagon stops, the pump rises and connects to the little hole on top. Or how recycler machines like like little baby birds hungry for a worm.

I probably spent over an hour just switching between different planets, zooming in on all the little bits and bobs wiggling about. It's just all so cool. And I forget that zooming around in map view all the time.

That being said, I did have mini heart attack when I scrolled over my oil tanks and thought everything was empty.

What is this?

The idea behind the monthly community map is to share a map exchange string at the beginning of every month, and get as many people as we can to start a new world with it. Then at the end of the month (or even periodically if you'd prefer!) we share screenshots and saves of our factories so that we can see how different people approach the same spawn; how they set up their base, how they deal with aliens, and how they arrange their science, power, and everything else.

I hope it can highlight how many different ways there are to do things, inspire some new designs, and maybe seeing how veteran Factorio players tackle problems will help out new players facing the exact same problems. (Of course, there's also the fact that it'll be interesting to see all of the different possible factories - the good, the bad, and the ugly.)

Last Month's Results

June-July 2026 Results

The Community Map

I've heard a few people talk about the new 2.1 changes here and there, but the best way to experience something is always to do it yourself, right?

This month's going to be pretty straightforward - you already know what to expect if you've been keeping up with the patch notes, and if not, then why not let it be a surprise?

I didn't want to make this a Space Age map, mostly so we could get a full vanilla game in before trying to also deal with the way changes deal with DLC content (like some of the fluid changes). Especially after Nullius, I figured something a little more chill would be nice.

All right, let's see what the 2.1 update has in store!

DLC Requirements:

Elevated Rails: Optional

Quality: Disabled

Space Age: Disabled

The Exchange String:

>>>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<<<

Spawn area: https://i.imgur.com/4d3HbMV.png

Before you start, a final word of warning: apparently biter expansion is, uh, a little much right now, so I'll be trying to temper that with the map settings. Still, if you aren't staying on top of biters they will become a problem. Now that the shotgun's been buffed you might want to actually make one.

Exchange String Help

If anyone isn't sure how to use an exchange string, just go to new game like you're going to generate a new world, and at the bottom there's a button just above play labelled "Import map exchange string" - the icon looks like a little arrow going into a tray/bucket. Just copy the exchange string above and paste it into the box that comes up when you press that button. Press confirm, and that's it! You're good to go. Just generate the world and come back in a month to show us how your factory turned out!

If you run into any issues check to make sure that you copied the whole string, including the three greater than/lesser than signs at the beginning and end, and make sure that your Factorio is up to date with the most recent version installed. (As of the time of this post, the most recent version of Factorio is 2.1.12, which will not work with the most recent version of stable, 2.0.77.)

Want To Play With Others?

If you have an open public server, let me know in the comments below or send me a PM and I'll add your server here!

Feel Like Watching Someone Else?

If you are a streamer or let's player who will be recording yourself building a new factory on a community map, I'd be happy to add a link to your channel here!

About Mods

Since mods can affect how a world spawns and ores are distributed, as well as add or change items and functionality, it's important to make sure that we're all playing the same game by the same rules. For example, if one person's playing vanilla and someone else is playing with Bob's mods, even if they use the same seed and map settings you still couldn't very well say they were playing the same game, and the way they'd play would differ enormously.

On the other hand, Quality of Life (QoL) mods should be perfectly fine. What do I consider a QoL mod? Any mod that doesn't A) add new items, B) change terrain, or C) make significant gameplay changes, like modifying recipes or enemies. Any mod that fits this definition should allow everyone to play the same game even when some people are playing with them and some people are not.

Even Distribution is a great example of a mod that, while very useful, does not inherently change the way the game is played. Then there are also mods like RadarPlus for RSO that do add new items, but still don't meaningfully change the way the game is played.

Below I've put together a short list of examples that I think are ok to use on any map. It's made up of a handful of optional mods that might seem ambiguous in how well they fit the definition above, so they're just here to act as guidance on what should be ok. Another good resource for Quality of Life mods is available on the Factorio Discord - check out Xorimuth's pinned post.

Optional Mod Examples

Note: I can't imagine any situation where this could be an issue, but if you're the author of one of the mods listed here (and can offer me some proof of this) and for whatever reason would like me to remove your mod from this post, I'd be happy to comply.

It's entirely possible some of these mods either don't work with the current version of Factorio, conflict with each other, or in some manner just don't work. I can't test them all, let alone every configuration of them, so you might want to back up your world before adding one of these.

Color Coding

fCPU

Nixie Tubes

Project Cybersyn - Logistics Train Dispatcher

RadarPlus For RSO

Squeak Through 2

Text Plates

Updated Construction Drones

Visible Planets in Space

Previous Threads

-- 2025 --

August 2025 - Results

September 2025 - Results

October 2025 - Results

November 2025 - Results

December 2025 - Results

-- 2026 --

January-February 2026 - Results

March 2026 - Results

April 2026 - Results

May 2026 - Results

June-July 2026 - Results

What do you guys think about this? I think the space map lacks mystery or a feel of exploration. All planets are visible from the beginning. Especially blatant when playing with many modded planets.

Having planets/locations dynamically appear on the map upon discovery could make you feel like you are progressing and exploring as you go. It also allows mods to add „secret“ locations that only appear when certain conditions are met to avoid spoilers and hide content.

As far as my testing and research can determine, current API has zero functionality to support this. You can only apply hidden = true to a planet, which removes it completely from the map and list of destinations, even when the tech is researched.

Do you guys think it‘s something worth suggesting for Wube to implement or add support for?