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 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] [11]
    • Ghost cursor [12] [13]
  • Settings GUIs [14]
  • Research queue [15] [16] [17]
  • Different GUI scaling [18]
  • Browse mod GUI [19]
  • Blueprint library [20] [21] [22]
  • Train GUI [23] [24]
• New graphics back-end, SDL, OpenGL, DX11, v-sync fix, texture streaming, VRAM usage optimizations, shaders [25] [26]
  • New font rendering [27]
  • Better rendering performance (CPU side) [28] [29]
  • Uses OpenGL 3.3 Core and DirectX 11 feature level 10.0 [30]
• Recipe explorer (mentioned as 0.17 goal here: [31])
  • 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 [32]
  • Syncing mod settings to saves [33]
  • Mod browsing improvements [34]
    • Show the mod picture and more smaller things
• Map editor improvements, both technical and usability wise [35][36]
• Map generator improvements and fixes, autoplace specification improvements and documentation [37] [38]
  • 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 [39] [40]
  • HR flamethrower turret [41]
  • Spawners redesign in HR [42]
  • HR defensive structures [43]
  • HR worms [44]
  • HR biters [45]
  • HR spitters [46] [47]
  • New transport belt, splitter and underground belt graphics [48]
  • HR substation [49]
  • HR power poles [50] [51] [52] [53]
  • HR icons (during stabilization) [54]
• Final game balancing
  • New science pack technologies [55]
  • New science pack names [56]
  • New science pack recipes [57]
  • Separation of nuclear energy and nuclear processing [58]
  • The rocket parts have their own technologies and are used in more recipes besides the rocket [59]
  • Launching a satellite no longer ends the game, instead any rocket launch (with or without a payload) wins the game [60] [61]
  • Better separation of technologies between high tech and production science [62] [63]
  • Military upgrade technology unification [64]
  • The rocket silo and all its prerequisites can be researched without using military science packs [65]
  • Coal liquefaction now produces much more Heavy oil that you can crack into whatever you need, but produces less Light oil and Petroleum gas. [66]
  • Belt item spacing has been reduced to 8 from 9 pixels [67]
  • Worms and spitters now attack with movement-predicting streams of acid instead of homing projectiles [68]
• Upgrade planner [69] [70] [71]
• Rich text editing [72]
  • Different fonts, color, and icons
  • Item and recipe references, map positions, and blueprint strings [73]
• Better plural form localisations [74]
• More modding support [75] [76] [77]
  • Script rendering [78]
• Better sounds [79]
• Copy, paste and cut functionality [80]
• Ability to undo building, mining, blueprinting and deconstruction [81] [82]
• Small quality-of-life improvements [83]
  • 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 [84]
  • Fast pipe replacing [85]
  • Train out of fuel alert [86]
  • Better error messages when building/inserting fails (out of reach etc) [87]
  • Selecting an inserter/miner shows what entities it interacts with [88]
  • Trains in blueprints [89]
  • Cliffs can be deconstructed [90] [91]
  • Robots do not leave the player's personal roboport when the player is moving faster than they can fly [92]
  • GUI style inspector [93]
  • Filter inserter blacklist mode [94]
  • Alt-tab no longer toggles "alt-mode" [95]
• Keyboard bindings now use scan-codes instead of key-codes [96]
• Steam networking for multiplayer [97]
• Mining tools (iron and steel axe) are removed [98]
• Armor has infinite durability [99]
• The mining hardness and mining power mechanics are removed [100]
• Stone has the same mining time as the other ores [101]
• Burner efficiency streamlining [102]
  • 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 [103]
• Resistances are streamlined [104]
• Option to show the entity info tooltip at the mouse position [105]
• Better fluid physics [106] [107] [108] [109] [110]

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