Making an Overhaul Mod for Factorio (Devlog 1)

[@kingcrimson1631]

I'm a programmer and have always been interested in how overhaul mods are made. Massive, massive respect for this man!

[@kingwolf468]

Me as well, I am really interested in the process of starting making a mod, specifically which files I can edit/create.

[@galdocstutorials]

@@kingwolf468 A good place to start is here : lua-api.factorio.com/latest/Data-Lifecycle.html :) That was one of the first documents I read, and it was HUGE in helping me understand what I could and couldn'tt do.

[@tomsterbg8130]

You'll have an easy time since mod files are in lua, the simplest syntax ever.

[@HiImKyle]

Your ask is basically what modding in Minecraft have done. You can have several mods all create a Steel Ingot for instance, but they all work for recipes that require a steel ingot, the recipe doesnt care where it came from, just as long as it satisfies the tag. So you can have steel_ingot tag or cobalt_ingot tag, and an item can inherit multiple tags. It is a huge life saver when playing modded Minecraft and I can see this working well here.

[@Jaydee-wd7wr]

Every modding community needs an oreDict equivalent. Rimworld is famous for its coal.

[@cmentarnikPL]

But doesn't vanilla Minecraft already have this property? Like beds being made from different kinds of wood and wool? The idea is certainly cool, the problem is whether the devs are willing to change such a base level feature for modders

[@commander3494]

@@cmentarnikPL yes, tags were implemented in vanilla 1.13+ and is now used by mods instead of the old oredict, but it has the same use: It allows you to accept multiple different items in a recipe, like different wood types for making sticks or as you said beds

[@HenryLoenwind]

@@cmentarnikPL That's more about transferring over properties of the inputs to the outputs. oreDict was about substituting inputs, e.g. having a recipe that makes glass from any kind of sand instead of having two recipes for the two vanilla sand types and not accepting any sands from other mods. A common issue when mixing mods is that every mod that adds e.g. cobalt needs to add its own cobalt ore, ingots and nuggets. When you have two mods with cobalt, you also get 2 kinds of ores etc. But unless the two mods know about each other and add compatibility recipes, those items would not be interchangeable. Instead, recipes are defined to take any item that has the correct oreDict tag, no matter what the actual item is or what mod it is from.

[@TheOrange3Juice]

Glad to see somebody mentioning modded Minecraft for tags/oreDict. Given Factorio itself is inspired by modded Minecraft, it is extremely likely that the devs already know the system and considered it, and ultimately decided not to implement it. I can see at least a couple reasons why they (presumably) decided not to. 1 - Manual crafting: How would the search tree understand which base ingredient you want to use, over several layers? 2 - The game performance is a high key point. Recipes in assemblers have to be set manually, and that makes it so the inserters in front of it essentially become "filter". Adding tags makes it so that on top of checking the item type, it would have to also check the tags available if any matches. Probably not a big performance hurdle, but one nonetheless.

[@SilentForestNight]

Thank you so much for CONSIDERING people with colorblindness and how you can alleviate some of the issues we encounter within your designs. Truly awesome.

[@bingusbongus9807]

gosh that first rocket launch being a limp over the finish line is so so accurate

[@ferretwithacathat292]

Idea: Replace flamethrower turrets with fluidthrower turrets (with standard and incendiary variants) that use the tags of the fluids in them to determine how the projectile will work (eg glue and napalm will stick to biters and the ground, water and foam can extinguish fire, napalm and burning oil create fires, etc)

[@AqueousOrca3148]

Lubricant could mess with pathing or make them slide or something

[@marshmellominiapple]

I feel like the fungible ingredient system just needs to be in the game. It makes way too much sense.

[@hokome42]

I LOVE THIS!!! Seriously, when people make devlogs they don't focus enough on design choices and actually being deliberate in what they do. So it's refreshing to see someone actually clarify their decisions like a good game designer or just any professional in any field should do. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your devlogs!

[@cksoup]

this was sick and very well produced. glad i found it, you’re a gem!!

[@ianlehman8342]

DoshDoshington's retrospective on space exploration was a very good criticism, and I think might be valuable for other mod developers. Having too may recipes that produce byproducts, recipes that put back out what you put in, and materials that have little use and are better spent as landfill can start to drag down a mod

[@katus1039]

It is main idea of many mods tho, making you suffer through byproducts. But yeah, I also hate to deal with byproducts

[@galdocstutorials]

Yes! I agree that he had some very good points in his video. On the one hand, I agree that things shouldn't feel pointless, so I get why having all byproducts channel to either landfill or some sort of homogenous scrap processing feels icky. On the other hand ... the altnernatives (if we're assuming that byproducts arebeing added in the first place) is more granular byproducts, and that gets SUPER complicated fast. So ... yeah. THis is a *delicate* balancing act. Good observations.

[@ianlehman8342]

@@katus1039 to me dealing with maybe 5 byproducts on hand can be fun as long as there's a use for the byproduct coming up very soon so you don't have it backing up the whole system. The data card byproducts make sense and I feel I would have fun with those. I've been playing factorio .16 for a while from an old copy my brother had, and this is back when basic oil processing gave you Heavy and light oil before you could use them, and having to deal with those before you can use them was often more than I could chew lol

[@mrwalter1049]

It's interesting how much people dislike waste management in Factorio. Most countries around the world have chosen to, for a long time, convert all of their waste into landfill. Burning waste is a fairly recent change and industrially biodegrading food waste, into usable products like fuels, is downright bleeding edge. It's all a huge headache in the real world as well, and humanity is doing horrifyingly bad at it. Pretty much the only thing we seem to handle decently well is waste water treatment, since that was crucial for making large cities viable.

[@ShadowKestrel]

I'm pretty excited to see how this mod pans out in future, sounds cool

[@carmaxote]

Feels like Gregtech 6 for Factorio! Looking forward to it!

[@Melchrio]

Now im definitely following your journey on making this overhaul mod as it sounds and looks cool

[@detaaditya6237]

This is what I'm looking for! A devlog about factorio modding. I'm a software developer myself and an 800hr factorio player (still noob), so watching this feels so fun!

[@galdocstutorials]

I am going to go ahead and say if you've played Factorio for 800, you no longer have to think of yourself as a noob :)

[@eyesore8555]

Thank you youtube algorithm for recommending this to me! I love this video!

[@GreenTea7792]

When I'm thinking about all of the mods I've played, I'm sort of shocked that there hasn't been a large RTS overhaul mod (though maybe there is and I missed it.) I get strong broodwar vibes every time I play Factorio and that really inspires me. Your videos have encouraged me to look into making my own overhaul mod! It's difficult to find the time to code after doing it all day at work, but in the meantime, I can live vicariously through your work. I can't wait to see what happens with your mod in the future!

[@galdocstutorials]

I know how you feel. But, I encourage you to make your thoughts into things :)

[@strategicsage7694]

An old post, but I think a lot of it has to do with just Factorio being focused in a different direction. It doesn't really do well as an RTS - the more of that stuff there is going on, the less actual building of the factory there is. The whole balance of the game is just to keep scaling up, and stuff like artillery obliterates any enemy regardless of how many of them there are. Just at a fundamental design level, it's a factory game much more than it is a combat game.

[@chrisburns9603]

I would absolutely play that sort of mod, and the idea of fungible items seems like a great solution to that problem.

[@mchsprod]

Now THIS is a truly unique devlog 👏👏👏 great work, I will follow this series with invested interest!

[@caspermoon6052]

I'm currently working on my own suite of mods that will integrate with vanilla but also support a few of the popular overhauls currently. I've seen you (or atleast your mods) mentioned in a few discords and I'm happy you've decided to make a small tutorial on your process. Thank you!

[@galdocstutorials]

You're welcome. :) Feel free to hop on my own little discord if the interest ever strikes

[@Waligug]

What an excellent, dunno how people trash on KZbin algorithm when it shows me bangers like this

[@tasty8186]

Your idea for intermediary crafting actually sounds like the Modern Industrialization mod for Minecraft - which funnily enough was inspired by Factorio

[@paluffel1624]

I just watched the intro of this video but I can already tell you that this video is amazingly done. Your voice is really fitting and the way you edited it is just perfect so already a big thumbs up for that

[@mr.smoothiehuman]

this looks sick! i cant wait to see it finished, or atleast somewhat done

[@tiileaf]

I really like how you walked through you actual workload, including steps others may glossover like the renaming. Even though others may skip it, things like that can be very valuable. I.e. I'll probably end up switching advanced renamer instead of my own script for some animation frames in my game :)

[@galdocstutorials]

It is soooooooo useful. I will hold a special place in my heart for the person who shared it with me :)

[@AstaZora]

Immediately opened my mind. I've been making a mod over time since 1.0 released. This abstraction topic really helped me. I'm looking forward to your mod progress

[@WhoCarrot]

Thanks for sharing. I love to see the process and the way you're automating things. Great production value too!

[@Supershadow301]

A friend mentioned your channel and devlogs, and this looks super interesting! Definitely putting this on for background noise when I'm building my latest base. Can't wait to try out the mod whenever you release it! The whole "interchangeable materials" aspect would make factory design possibilities quite interesting. You could make a bootstrap base with unoptimized materials, then gradually replace them when you get access to a steady source of better suited materials. One thing I'd like to mention, that people probably already did mention: your minissemblers idea reminds me a lot of IR3's small assemblers, compact 1x1 machines that can only craft single item recipes (i.e. one input item, one output item). They're a god send for that kind of mod that have a ton of intermediary products, which are just "crafted" variants of basic materials. They're definitely an improvement for subfactory designs compared to having to spam regular 3x3 assembly machines in a long chain of simple crafts everytime... (then there's also the barreling machines that do this for barrels/fuel canisters, but I digress)

[@christianstonecipher1547]

As someone who finds recipe complexity to be one of the most appealing parts of a lot of mods, this mod conceptually sounds great to me. And I will definitely be following any development process you post.

[@lukavranes2492]

This was immensely enjoyable to watch. Awesome job man, I do believe your mod could really take off. I wish you luck in creating it

[@Timesignmaid]

You are AMAZING. This is actually so awesome. As a novice programmer, I'm looking at this, and this is both grand and ambitious, and easy to understand! Wish you all the good luck and maybe some reliable helping hands.

[@kylewhite5695]

I’ll definitely download this if it ever comes out.

[@MagdyCreations]

Everything about this video is just perfect! The script is just so well written too!

[@O5MO]

I haven't played any overhaul mods in factorio, but i always liked realism/relastic stuff, and small compact designs, that can be tweaked to satisfy diffrent needs, instead of one big machine, so this mod idea seems exactly like the kind of stuff i would enjoy. Great stuff!

[@radladdy3892]

This was so fascinating, I've had a lot of fun with Factorio over the years (though never launched a rocket lol), and recently have been working on my own game dev projects, I had never considered the overlap before, and my interest in logic and efficiency, great video!

[@OC-1024]

This is a gem, thanks YT algorithm. I really like realism in the way you present it and hopefully your mod will be finished soon after I beat K2+SE (eventually).

[@awemowe2830]

I DON'T EVEN PLAY FACTORIO, BUT YOUR MINDSET MAKES ME WANT TO!!!!! This is amazing. Your ethos is my ethos.

[@galdocstutorials]

You have a good ethos. :) :)

[@actuallydaneel]

Looking forward greatly to your next Devlog. Incredibly good video flow and explanations. Wish you the best

[@austinisawesome2066]

Looks super cool, I can’t wait to play it for a few hours then realize that it’s really complicated and come back to it two years later and finally beat it

[@galdocstutorials]

I have done EXACTLY THIS. And it's usually HARDER by the time I come back after 2 years too, but for whatever reason I'm more willing to push through.

[@nonridiculousadjective6597]

The idea and already present progress look amazing! I also totally agree with the flavour, I love to play with Angel and Bob mods because I love chemistry, metallurgy and all that stuff and since there is essentially no other game where this is present as a mechanic, it always made me super excited. And not to mention the availability of choice and player's always shifting relation towards the materials. Like for example, in the beginning it is essentially just a side product which you can grind up for rocks but later on you can use it as a catalyst for better refining of the original resource and all that stuff.. All of that combined made for an engaging mod combination. Though I still play vanilla, sometimes the simplicity is what I need the most.

[@iamtimsson]

2:50 you got a sub for unleashing this disastrous horror on existence how dare you and thank you

[@josephvictory9536]

as someone who enjoys playing mods. That efficiency goal you have as a stretch is basically what would sell me the mod.

[@dominikkwidzinski4427]

The youtube algorithm has blessed you, keep up the god work, hope you post more devlogs in the future

[@niciusb]

Love this! It reminds me of Gregtech, an overhaul mod in Minecraft

[@hmmm_pizza]

Your project is amazing! As a mechanical engineering undergrad, it's really cool to see more realistic intermediates, machines and material properties in the game, considering how well it already applies to concepts of production line management and process planning

[@v84l42]

thats a really cool mod idea! good luck.

[@GeorgiosB]

I really enjoy the logic you're following. Thank you for a great video. Hope to see more great videos from you. Cheers!

[@JTCF]

Wonderful approach to the overhaul design. I'm 6 minutes in, and hopefully will learn something useful for making my own mod ideas into life! Yeah, I have a couple that have been sitting in the back of my head for years.

[@xXSolidStrikeXx]

Very cool idea. Looking forward to see the finished product :D

[@alex_7547]

I'm not a programmer, but I have always though that if I could make a Factorio overhaul mod, it would be something similar to what you're doing. I'm excited to see where this project goes!

[@Xylos144]

I appreciated the retro encabulator reference.

[@Andrew123Shi]

Babe wake up, new high-quality Factorio channel just dropped

[@oblivion_2852]

I understand that making the art is fun and cool but I highly recommend postponing making the art and making sure you enjoy the gameplay you're setting up. As someone who's attempted game design it's defeating to spend so much time on something and then play it and realise you don't find it that fun

[@galdocstutorials]

YES. This is exactly true. My plan is to make a few color-variations of the lathe (you can see the first iteration in my inventory for a few seconds if you look around @2:47, though I'm going to improve them) meant as stand-ins for the other minisemblers. I need to make something playtestable ASAP for that exact reason. :)

[@ryanbailey1209]

Amazing video, super looking forward to seeing how this develops and would 100% be interested in playing. Nice work man!

[@JackAllpikeMusic]

Loved this video. The editing, the clarity, and not 'talking down' to the viewer. Really, really looking forward to more of this.

[@chakra6666]

I can't decide what's more impressive - the video or the content! Nice work.

[@Trupen]

This guy looked at Pyanodon and said "it's not enough."

[@galdocstutorials]

There's a KZbinr who did a playthrough of Pyanodons + Bob's / Angels + Momo Tweaks with some crazy multiplier and shared a timelapse of him building his base it included moments like "And here I ragequit for X months"

[@cryoshakespeare4465]

This was really fascinating, as a person who dabbles in game design myself (for me in the tabletop rpg space) it's always quite interesting to see how others approach the problems of ideation, mechanisation, and trying to create a unique product that still appeals to a decently wide audience. Design sits in this really cool space between engineering and creativity that I personally find appealing, which probably makes as to why it appeals to some Factorio players. This was also just extremely well put together and informative in its own right, so well done, I am definitely picking up yEd, was just the tool I was looking for in combination with google docs :)

[@galdocstutorials]

Yes! That's it right there. :)

[@_Shio]

I found this surprisingly interesting. I'm actually looking forward to the next log.

[@GigasGMX]

People reinventing the concept of verisimilitude always makes my day. Great video, just couldn’t resist the dunk

[@codesymphony]

this is the most structured devlog vid I've ever seen

[@Zhack2000]

Peak quality content (both mod idea and video). I'd love to see where this will go in the future. Please continue!

[@bouchmuad26]

You made my day. I really love Angel, because it allow me to take different way to reach the same product. If what you are working on come to completion. It will be amazing. Keep the great work going!!

[@simonsonne4741]

this sounds like a really cool mod idea, i am stoked to se how it goes

[@Eagleeye1192]

I hope you don't give up on this, I am found your devblog interesting and I am liking the look of your mod

[@alexcharbonneau4963]

Love the idea and thematic behind it. As you mentioned in your conclusion, I do tend to agree that your target audience will be on the slim side, 100's on intermediary components and all that, but please don't let that demotivate you ! I'm sure said target audience will be able to hype it up and bring more people that would originally be ''scared'' of the sheer size of a mod like yours. Really fantastic Devlog model too, keep at it !

[@galdocstutorials]

You are correct. :) My hope is to make sliders to let that slim audience (of which I'm a quantum superposition of both a memeber and not quite a member) really sink their teeth into something intricate, while also letting others have a less chewing-soda-cans experience. I don't know what I just did with my metaphors in that reply. I'm giong to drink more coffee. But either way, I'm on board with what you're saying lol :)

[@lukasalbert417]

this looks absolutely mindblowing

[@hoveringgoat8061]

This is really really cool. Very well done and cool insight into how the mods work.

[@supplychainoperationsresearch]

goddammit, man, i gotta work and ya'll keep coming up with the best experience possible. please, i gotta work

[@sanderbos4243]

Thanks for the insane production quality!

[@elijahmorishita6411]

Great work, love this dev log, your take on adding mods is very interesting and educational

[@aspenfoxshay2772]

This mod looks truly fascinating and a peak behind the curtain, sign me up for this!

[@Orangaria]

Such high quality content from an obscure channel, this is sick

[@the48thronin97]

I’ve thought about something like this for a long time, and I’m excited to see where it goes!

[@toddneuschatz5531]

Very well-presented. Love your take, and really looking forward to seeing your progress!

[@Orblets]

The video production on this is fantastic! Really enjoyed it

[@overdramaticpan]

Woah. Awesome concept and great execution thus far. And also awesome channel - I checked out a few other videos and this is awesome. Keep up the good work and take breaks as needed!

[@LorielStarkWinterfell]

really neat idea! I think this is going to be my next factorio mod use. Extra points for your avatar icon choice! (one of my all time favorite games) :D

[@_CitricBase]

This is awesome! I love hearing about it and your problem solving skills are A+. I hope to see more updates in the future :)

[@alanbarnett328]

This looks awesome! I imagine it'd make some of the harder/more involved mods truly hell on earth (in a good way), but this sounds like a really good complexity increase from normal vanilla assembling. I'd definitely play it!

[@galdocstutorials]

^^Hell on Nauvis heehee. Yeah, that is the thing I'm aiming for -- enjoyable complexity add, not homework complexity add. That's gonna be the hard bit, I think.

[@sherpamcderpa1961]

This video is amazing. Solid job! Love it!

[@roffel2933]

This blows my mind. Great editing skills, greate Blender skills and greate programming skills. Cant wait to play your mod. 🫡

[@Drakuba]

neat as machinist i like your approach, keep it up

[@AntonVoyt]

Cool stuff. I'll look out for the release

[@Danger_N00dle]

Something I've always wanted to see in a factorio mod is the idea that you can mine any tiles It will simply output something different The idea being the ore patch are underground. You'd be able to extract a small amount of ore from practically every form of soil or stone and the richness depends on the biome and tech you have unlocked You'd have to deal with a crap ton of Soil and stone that you won't really need normally But I figured maybe there would be ways to deal with it

[@galdocstutorials]

You should be able to do that :)

[@anotherone8473]

if you are talking about realism, then in reality most places don't have ores i don't think, as far as i know they are mostly grouped up together in what people call ore depositories and where we construct mines.

[@Danger_N00dle]

@@anotherone8473 Technically speaking you can find various ore in almost every rock and soil however the amount is often too low to justify the effort.

[@anotherone8473]

@@Danger_N00dle fair enough.

[@galdocstutorials]

@@anotherone8473 Realism flavor, not reality :) heehee.

[@Max-jq3qz]

Amazing work ! Thank you for sharing this with us, I'm very exited by this project and I can't wait to see what it becomes ;) Keep it up !

[@zatx8227]

I had a very similar idea for the mod, im so glad you are doing it

[@benediktkraas8576]

Super super exited for this!! I love the idea of smaller machines!

[@0krana333]

Idk how this video made its way to my recomendations but i love it

[@IDE_Busmaster]

Fantastic video! Great insight in the whole process and an amazing naration as well!

[@davekachel]

this sounds amazing. I hope it will get finished

[@boat378]

I'm only up to the start of part 3 in the video but it already has my head tilted going "huh" in a good way. I love the idea of breaking everything down to its core element like chemistry and just having a massive pool of resources to combine in different ways. This is going to be a fun watch. :-)

[@j1t176]

THANK YOU for introducing me to yEd, I've been searching for the perfect graph/flowchart tool for months now and this looks like it's the one for me!

[@galdocstutorials]

It's awesome. :)

[@kiraangle2823]

i dont know if you have ever played gregtech, but your idea is basically in the same school of thought that led from industrial craft 2's ingot and plate recipes into the screw plate bolt foil rod ect recipes that gregtech is either known or infamous for.

[@jBun12]

I will definitely be playing this the moment its out

[@viktorhusiev6150]

Oh my god. This is basically The Factorio of my dreams! I already like it!

[@nb5826]

Interesting. As someone who played a few of the overhaul mods and being a sw developer I will follow your progress and try it out when there is something playable. Good luck!

[@DeganH]

This is so good! Instant subscribe. I've been looking into Factorio modding and this video has been super insightful :)

[@knightsolaire6342]

This was very interesting and fun to watch! This sounds like the exact kind of mod I'd love to play! I hope to see more devlogs of this in the future!

[@RTlnx]

Krastorio and Space Exploration with a ton of extra new intermediates. I never knew Factorio could be even more awesome. I really hope this mod will see the light of day. Even if not, thanks for the awesome work you put in already.

[@QBAlchemist]

I love the sound of this property-based intermediates system. It makes a lot of sense, and I think the underlying mechanics required in-code to make it work would be hugely beneficial to Factorio just by itself. Unfortunately, I can almost guarantee that if I got my hands on your mod I would end up in decision paralysis trying to figure out how to improve the efficiency or deal with multiple dictionaried inputs ... that's entirely a me problem though, so don't take that as discouragement: I have the same problem with many other mods, and even vanilla, where I get stuck in an inactivity loop. Really looking forward to seeing what you produce moving forward. I've been tempted to do something similar in the past, and this is definitely encouraging to see.

[@galdocstutorials]

That is good feedback tho -- I feel like I might end up in the same boat too, for whatever that's worth! But for me, that's a good impetus to kick me out of my comfort zone, though I know that's not a positive for everyone.

[@1stviperr]

I think this is going to be such an amazing journey, good luck!!