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
The Community Map
Do you like boats? Ever wished Factorio had more aquatic options available? Well are you in luck! Ever since November I've wanted to run a map loosely built around Cargo Ships, and this time I'm finally doing it!
I collected quite a few mods (most pulled straight from the Dredgepack by Kubius - which you just might find sitting in the mod sync) to build a pretty interesting map for this month.
If you've never played with AAI mods before don't let them intimidate you; while they offer a lot of features there's no need to become a master in them. You can just make the fun mortar boat and remote control it around.
DLC Requirements:
Elevated Rails: Optional
Quality: Optional
Space Age: Disabled
Mod Requirements:
Dependencies:
Protocol's Extended Runtime Event Library
Optional Mods:
The Exchange String:
>>>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<<<
Mod sync: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HOQirf0Ga4Hu0h-N3fI6PiCS6XUyRU65
I had to fight the map gen a little on this one, but I think I mostly arrived at where I wanted to be: Small, scattered resource patches, a mostly disconnected mainland surrounded by water, and enough biters to keep you from feeling too comfortable at the beginning. (I'd recommend trying to secure those easy chokepoints before the biters start expanding.) As always, I'm interested to hear what you guys think about this one, and if you have any suggestions for future months leave 'em down below!
With that said, one thing you might not have noticed is that I did include Diesel Engine Cargo Ships. The best sources of oil are, very intentionally, out at sea. But you will need a little bit of oil production set up to fuel your first tanker. Just figured I'd give you a head's up!
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 2.0.76.)
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.
Project Cybersyn - Logistics Train Dispatcher
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