The upcoming expansion to the already incredible factory-building title Factorio is shaping up to be one of my most highly anticipated releases of this year. With over 1,000 hours—rookie numbers to some—in the resource management meets base builder, the promise of new content to explore is alone enough to excite me. But every Friday, developer Wube Software has been showcasing a new feature, system, or element that will be present in Factorio: Space Age. And today, they revealed our first new threat in the expansion: te?rrifying Pentapod creatures.

In the base game for Factorio, the alien planet on which we build our factory is inhabited by a unique creature: biters. These alien creatures are the primary threat throughout Factorio, soaking up the pollution your factories spit out which causes them to grow in size, health, and damage. They eventually evolve into another type as well called spitters, which allow them to shoot projectile acid at you. Aside from those two mobile creatures, they are also immobile worms that are immobile but more resistant to damage and also shoot acid projectiles at you which can b?e tedious.

The new creatures featured by Wube in today's Factorio Friday Facts are Pentapod's, almost starfish-looking creatures with five limbs. The lowest tier of Pentapod is the Wriggler, a creature that isn't too threatening alone, but when grouped up with many others can be quite overwhelming. The next step are are Strafers, rather fragile creatures but with the ability to launch Wriggler's at you as if they are hominig missile. On impact, the Wriggler will not only hit you but begin to attack you as well. They kind of remind me of Brood Lord's from StarCraft, which I know is an odd comparison but hey,?? this is an odd creature.

Finally, we have the gargantuan beast highlighted in the featured image for this article, the Stomper. The massive creature is super tanky and tough, which a short-range spit attack. However, its primary attack is to stomp on you with its colossal feet, dealing splash damage. Upon defeating a Stomper, its core she??ll will crack open releasing a bunch of Wriggler's that will then attack you. You know, kind of like those videos ??where someone squishes a spider only for a ton of baby ones to swarm out. Pretty terrifying stuff all around.

Perhaps most interesting about the reveal is that all of these creatures seem to be exclusive to the planet Gleba, one of four new planets coming in Factorio: Space Age. Not only are the creatures themselves unique, but ?the environment lead??s to some interesting ways for combating them. For example, pollution on Gleba works differently. The environment of the planet is already in CO2, so direct pollution itself isn't what attracts the new enemy. Instead, a fungi that you need to grow in order to progress and build new things on Gleba have an aroma that attracts the Pentapods, causing them to attack and evolve much like the Biters. Also, in terms of the terrain, it's usually a solid strategy to use cliffside as a sort of wall when defending against Biters. But the Strafers and Stompers can both scale cliffs, making it a lost cause.

The Pentapods and the unique challenges and even opportunities they present in Factorio: Space Age is very fascinating when you consider that this is just one of the four new planets in the expansion. Who knows what other challenges or creatures we will face on the other three planets. Factorio: Space Age looks like it's going to have a ton of content for an expansion, and I simpl??y can't wait to explore everything new it has to offer when it releases on October 21, 2024.

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Developer Wube Software revealed today that its upcoming Factorio: Space Age expansion release date is officially October 21, 2024. The team feels like ?the date gives enough time after summer vacation to polish the game for release while also leaving some time for hotfixes before the Christmas holiday. The price for the first expansion for the popular factory builder was also announced as $35, the same price as the base game.

This means the first-ever expansion for the popular automation base-building game will be released about four years after Factorio has reached its Version 1.0. Even though the expansion is bringing a ton of new features and content, it also marks the release of Factorio 2.0, a free upgrade for all owners of the base game. Version 2.0 adds smarter worker robots, new rails,?? a remote view, improvemen??ts to train controls and the circuit network, a new fluid system, and more.

As for the expansion itself, Factorio: Space Age picks up right where the base game left off, after players have launched a rocket into space. Using these rockets, players will explore new worlds each with their own unique challenge and playstyles, discovering new resources and technologies. Using a new feature called Space Platforms, players can build defenses, catch and mine asteroids, and set up cargo holds to shut?tle resources between the planets.

Three new planets—Vulcanus, Fu?lgora, and Gleba?—have already been revealed, each with its own unique features. Vulcanus for example requires players to harness lava to produce molten iron and copper used to extract and refine a new resource called Tungsten using massive mining drills and foundries. On Fulgora, however, nightly lightning storms require players to create safe havens while also harnessing the power to reclaim the technology of a long-forgotten civilization on the planet. A fourth new planet as well as new enemies and defenses are also coming in the expansion but have not been detailed just yet.

Factorio: Space Age is set to release for PC on Steam on October 21, 2024.

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Over the last week, Factorio developer Wube Software has revealed two big updates coming to the way rails work in the upcoming Factorio: Space Age expansion. According to the posts, new rails will double the number of directions that a rail track can be placed in Factorio. And, with the newest update, rail ramps and supports can create elevated rail systems as well. It may seem like a small change, but it actually really shakes things up for Factorio. Here's a more in-depth look at the changes.

Elevated rails will allow for two layers of rail systems

Once a player utilizes a rail ramp to elevate the rail tracks, supports can fu??rther extend the higher-elevation rail. There's only one layer of elevation, so it's not like you can just keep increasing how high the rail can go. Even still, this will allow you to create essentially a highway of rail systems. Also, you can literally have a rail system that operates above the level of your factory.

For the first time ever, this will also allow railways to extend across bodies of water. In the existing version of Factorio, you have to create Landfills and fill in the water. Then, players can lay rails across the land. But, in Factorio: Space Age, a special patch is drawn under the terrain. This patch is visible only where ramps or supports touch the water. Another quality-of-life change is that when using the Rail Plann??er, you can snap-connect rail?s together. This includes connecting rails on the ground with those on elevated levels.

These changes altogether will make creating efficient factories even easier in Factorio: Space Age. According to Wu??be Software, the research to unlock the rails is on the starter planet.

The expansion is shaping up to add quite a few new systems and features that will not only add content but change the way things work in Factorio. I'm excited to spend hundreds of hours? ??perfecting my factory again.

Factorio: Space Age will does not have a release da?te, but Wube Software is aiming for a late 2024 on PC.

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Wube Software has revealed another change coming to Factorio: Space Age in their latest Friday Facts #376 blog post with a rework to the Research and Technology system. With the introduction of new planets to explore and build on, new and unique resources are also available to mine. The new system could create some interesting problems in terms of requiring research to discover and operate?? on a planet, while in turn requiring research science packs to be made from resources from said planet.

The sol??ution Wube Software is opting for is trigger technologies. That is, technologies tha?t unlock via a certain event trigger, rather than science packs. Examples include mining an entity, crafting a specific item, or launching a rocket with a certain item. With this new system, landing on a planet allows you to discover and make use of its new resources naturally. And, along the way, you'll trigger unlock additional technologies to make use of on the new planet.

In the example provided by Wube Software, the Steam Power technology may now require you to craft 50 Iron Pla??tes to unlock it.

A few more research-related changes

Factorio currently enables the use of a research queue once you launch your first rocket. However, when you start a new game and generate your map you have to decide to enable the queue or not. If you choose not to, you can only ever enable the queue via console commands. In Factorio: Space Age the queue will now always be active. Furthermore, you will no longer have ?to launch a rocket to unlock it.

Infinite technologies are a big feature of Factorio, allowing you to constantly optimize and increase the efficiency of your factory in many ways. Mining productivity is a great infinite technology but doesn't give much player choice at the end game. Wube Software is looking to increase the amount of production-based infinite technologies with the addition of productivity research. Each level of this infinite technology will increas??e the ??built-in productivity of certain recipes.

These are all great changes to Factorio, and will surely make Factorio: Space Age even more fun. It's great to see Wube Software add content with the expansion but also rework existing systems to make them b?etter.

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In its latest Friday Facts blog post, Factorio developer Wube Software highlighted a major new feature coming to the Space Age expansion: Quality. In Factorio: Space Age, every Item, Entity, and Equipment will now have five p??ossible qualities. The qualities use familiar names: Normal, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Lege??ndary. Each successive quality after Normal increases the bonus you get from the higher tier quality. Uncommon will grant a 30% bonus, Rare a 60% bonus, Epic a 90% bonus, and Legendary a 150% bonus.

The intended goal of adding Quality to Factorio is to balance Horizontal versus Vertical growth in the core gameplay. In the current version, players have the? challenge of building more mining outposts and production facilities—which is the Horizontal growth. But, also, have to consider improving the efficiency o?f existing facilities with better machines, smelters, modules, and more, which is the Vertical growth. The newly added Quality to all Items, Entities, and Equipment will add another balancing act to both facets of gameplay.

Alongside the bonus, higher-quality Entities will also have more health and unique bonuses based on their type. For example, higher-quality electric poles will have a larger supply area and wire reach. Inserters will move faster with higher qualities. Turrets and guns will have an increased range, and ammo will deal more damage. For energy production like solar panels, h??igher quality panels will produce more energy.

[caption id="attachment_403151" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Wube Software[/caption]

Not all qualities are created equally

Wube Software quickly decided that simply adding a ton of higher-tier recipes to higher qualities was not adding much to the gameplay of Factorio: Space Age. S??o, instead, they decided to create a new type of module: Quality modules. The new quality modules have a special effect which increases the probability of getting higher quality results when crafting in a machine.

At the start, a basic quality module 1 adds a 1% chance to increase the quality of items crafted from the machine it's put in. But once you inse??rt more modules and increase the quality of the machine and t??he modules, the chance increases further.

With the new focus on Quality, a lot of useless common items could be made in the process of trying to get the qualities you want. So a new machine is also coming: the Recycler. With this new machine, you can break down the items you no longer want and get something back.? By default, you will get 25% of your original ingredients back. Therefore, in typical Factorio fashion, you can create a loop of attempting to create higher-quality items while automatically breaking down and reusing the parts from lesser-quality outputs.

Honestly, I think this is a great new feature. The only worry I could think of, it appears Wube Software did too, hence the addition of the Recycler. This is only the second blog post about Factorio: Space Age and I'm already excited for the expansion. This feature alone already adds a ton of content to Factorio which is a good move.

Factorio: Space Age does not yet have a rel??ease date, but Wube Software is aiming for a?? 2024 release.

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Grab your space suits, because Factorio is heading to space. Developer Wube Software revealed in a blog post today that the first expansion for the popular factory-building game would be Space Age.

According to Factorio found kovarex, Factorio: Space Age will continue the player's journey after launching rockets into space at the end of the base game. Players will discover new worlds with their own unique cha?llenges and exploit their resources. I??n doing so, new technological advances will be found. Furthermore, players will be able to manage their own fleet of interplanetary space platforms.

It's been three years since Factorio officially released, and over seven years since its Early Access release.

The popular factory building simulation title has over 133,849 ?total Steam Reviews with a 96% Positive rating.

[caption id="attachment_359125" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Wube Software[/caption]

A familiar direction for Factorio: Space Age

Hardcore Factorio fans will find the Space Age expansion pretty familiar. One of the most popular Factorio mods is the Space Exploration mod. As you might exp??ect, this mod also takes you to space. In fact, the original creator of that mod, Earendel, is now part of the ??Wube Software team and is working on the Space Age expansion.

According to Earendel, despite the comparisons, the expansion will have plenty of reason for those who have and haven't played the mod to give it a try. Earendel believes Space Exploration is more targeted at challenge-seekers, while Space Age targets all Factorio players. While all the challenges of the Space Exploration mod can take 150-100 hours or even more to figure out, Space Age is a more streamlined and fast-paced experience betwe?en ??60-100 hours.

As a big Factorio fan, I'm happy to see any content being released. I have just over 650 hours played so far—which are casual numbers to some—and would love to put in more. I've played the Space Exploration mod so obviously the overlap is concerning. But as an actual expansion, Factorio: Space Age can do more feature-wise than a mod can. Don't get me wrong, the Space Exploration mod is fantastic at what it does. But, some of the more clunky things such as piloting ships can be more streamlined in Factorio: Space Age.

While there is no solid release date for Factorio: Space Age, kovarex explains that their current release window is about one year ?from now. However, players interested in the expansion can look forward to weekly posts detailing ??its development progress.

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