Upcoming features

This is a list of planned additions and changes for Factorio's next major release 0.17, which is planned to be released in January or February 2019.

Planned features

• GUI rewrite [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  • Improve the looks of the GUI [6]
  • Technology tree [7]
  • Changed location of cancel and OK buttons [8]
  • Map generator GUI [9]
  • Action bar [10]
  • Settings GUIs [11]
  • Research queue [12] [13] [14]
  • Different GUI scaling [15]
  • Browse mod GUI [16]
  • Blueprint library [17] [18] [19]
  • Train GUI [20]
• New graphics back-end, SDL, OpenGL, DX11, v-sync fix, texture streaming, VRAM usage optimizations, shaders [21] [22]
  • New font rendering [23]
  • Better rendering performance (CPU side) [24] [25]
  • Uses OpenGL 3.3 Core and DirectX 11 feature level 10.0 [26]
• Recipe explorer (mentioned as 0.17 goal here: [27])
  • Foundation of some kind of in-game "factoriopedia"
  • Should provide the player fast ways to get the answer to questions like:
    • "What is this item used in?"
    • "How do I produce this item?"
• Mod integration improvements
  • Syncing mods with multiplayer game [28]
  • Syncing mod settings to saves [29]
  • Mod browsing improvements [30]
    • Show the mod picture and more smaller things
• Map editor improvements, both technical and usability wise [31][32]
• Map generator improvements and fixes, autoplace specification improvements and documentation [33]
  • All combinations of settings should no longer create strange maps such as circles of cliffs.
  • Much more predictable starting area resources that don't overlap each-other and are not covered by water, but the starting area will always contain water.
    • The starting area contains only iron, copper, coal and stone, in very predictable amounts. Uranium and oil are explicitly excluded from the starting area.
    • Starting area resources are usually in one ore patch each (depending on settings).
    • The starting area patches are usually close together.
    • The starting area size setting no longer affects resource placement, it just has a fixed size.
  • The resource generation settings now have a much more dramatic effect (previously they had little to no effect).
  • Increased the number of steps (small, medium, big, etc) for each setting from 5 to 9 for even more customization.
• High-resolution sprites for the rest of the game, including a few changes to some entities
  • New laser turret textures, new laser beams also for the personal laser defense and distractor capsules [34] [35]
  • HR flamethrower turret [36]
  • Spawners redesign in HR [37]
  • HR defensive structures [38]
  • HR worms [39]
  • HR biters [40]
  • New transport belt, splitter and underground belt graphics [41]
  • HR substation [42]
  • HR power poles [43] [44] [45] [46]
  • HR icons (during stabilization) [47]
• Final game balancing
  • New science pack technologies [48]
  • New science pack names [49]
  • New science pack recipes [50]
  • Separation of nuclear energy and nuclear processing [51]
  • The rocket parts have their own technologies and are used in more recipes besides the rocket [52]
  • Launching a satellite no longer ends the game, instead any rocket launch (with or without a payload) wins the game [53] [54]
  • Better separation of technologies between high tech and production science [55] [56]
  • Military upgrade technology unification [57]
  • The rocket silo and all its prerequisites can be researched without using military science packs [58]
  • Coal liquefaction now produces much more Heavy oil that you can crack into whatever you need, but produces less Light oil and Petroleum gas. [59]
  • Belt item spacing has been reduced to 8 from 9 pixels [60]
• Upgrade planner [61] [62] [63]
• Rich text editing [64]
  • Different fonts, color, and icons
  • Item and recipe references, map positions, and blueprint strings [65]
• Better plural form localisations [66]
• More modding support [67] [68] [69]
  • Script rendering [70]
• Better sounds [71]
• Copy, paste and cut functionality [72]
• Ability to undo building, mining, blueprinting and deconstruction [73] [74]
• Small quality-of-life improvements [75]
  • Better recipe catalyst mechanics
  • Items no longer spill onto belts
  • Separate construction queue for tile ghosts
  • Belt immunity equipment
  • Bots can be shown on the map as a debug option [76]
  • Fast pipe replacing [77]
  • Train out of fuel alert [78]
  • Better error messages when building/inserting fails (out of reach etc) [79]
  • Selecting an inserter/miner shows what entities it interacts with [80]
  • Trains in blueprints [81]
  • Cliffs can be deconstructed [82] [83]
  • Robots do not leave the player's personal roboport when the player is moving faster than they can fly [84]
  • GUI style inspector [85]
  • Filter inserter blacklist mode [86]
  • Alt-tab no longer toggles "alt-mode" [87]
• Keyboard bindings now use scan-codes instead of key-codes [88]
• Steam networking for multiplayer [89]
• Mining tools (iron and steel axe) are removed [90]
• Armor has infinite durability [91]
• The mining hardness and mining power mechanics are removed [92]
• Stone has the same mining time as the other ores [93]
• Burner efficiency streamlining [94]
  • Boilers are now 100% efficient instead of 50%
  • The fuel value of all fuel except nuclear fuel and uranium fuel cell is halved
  • The energy consumption of burner devices except locomotives and nuclear reactors is halved.
• The ingredient count limit on assembling machines is removed [95]
• Resistances are streamlined [96]
• Option to show the entity info tooltip at the mouse position [97]
• Better fluid physics [98] [99] [100] [101]

See also

• Friday Facts #269 - Roadmap update
• Friday Facts #235 - 0.16 stable
• 0.17 Mod/Script changelog as of December 10 2018
• Planned releases