Launcher Features

About launcher features - Last updated September 10th, 2024.

Factorio Access uses its own launcher for managing the game and individual save files. This is because the official graphical game menus have limited OCR access because many parts rely on graphical features such as sliders or icons. The launcher is being improved alongside mod development and has a number of features itself. These are explained on this page in detail. The launcher repository is linked here.

Game configuration

Configuration at the first launch

When you first run the launcher, it offers to configure its language to use your system language. Next, it offers to configure game settings to required for the mod to work, and also some recommended settings. You can decide for each setting individually or you can approve all changes in one step. The launcher then edits the game's "config.ini" file to save the new settings.

Configuration after the first launch

If you want to configure the game differently, you can directly edit or delete your "config.ini" file. It is located inside the folder named "config", under the main Factorio data folder. If you delete this file, the mod launcher will create it again and go through the recommended settings with you again.

You can also edit the config file yourself line by line using a text editor such as Notepad. In this file, if a line has a semicolon character at the start, it is a comment only and the game ignores it. Some of the comments offer basic info about the settings, but generally you need to know what you are doing. When editing this file, if you want to explore the proposed mod settings and their explanations again, you can find the relevant files inside the "config changes" folder, which has the following path under the main Factorio data folder: "mods\FactorioAccess\config_changes".

If you want to change keybinds, you can find the appropriate line in the config file. A valid keybind may include only one key, with the exception of also including modifier keys such as CONTROL or SHIFT or ALT. The list of keys can be found on this official wiki page by expanding the table that begins with the line "These names are available for the normal keys".

Full list of configuration changes, as of update 0.10.1

Note: This section is formatted to match the config ini file of the game. The words inside square brackets are settings category names. Lines with semicolons are comments about the settings changes being made or suggested. The lines with equals signs are the settings being overwritten with the recommended values. Some of these changes are optional, and so you can decide for each case separately.

[other]

;The GUI update checking interrupts the launch flow.
;Updating will soon be available from launcher.
check-updates=false

; This setting normally makes newly installed mods enable themselves, including Factorio Access and compatible mods.
; Due to how Factorio Access is organized, the setting always enables all installed mods.
; If you have incompatible mods installed, whether they are activated or not, you should set this to false.
enable-new-mods=true

Note: With the recent addition of the ability to toggle mods on or off from the launcher, this setting be set to false in future updates, making things easier for players with lots of mods installed.

[interface]

; This is a graphical setting only. Only one quickbar can be used at a time in the mod, so displaying only one at a time would make good parity.
active-quick-bars=1

; This is a graphical setting only. It resizes the shortcut bar to match the suggested quickbar size.
shortcut-bar-rows=1

; Set this to true if you use the smart pippette tool and you prefer to get a ghost version of an entity in hand when you have zero units of it in your inventory.
pick-ghost-cursor=false

; This is set to false because this particular system is graphical and not accessible and it leads to visual clutter.
show-tips-and-tricks-notifications=false

; This is set to false because this particular system is graphical and not accessible and it leads to visual clutter.
enable-recipe-notifications=false

[controls]

;This is an additional keybind for a mouse action.
mine-alternative=X

;This is an additional keybind for a mouse action.
copy-entity-settings-alternative=SHIFT + RIGHTBRACKET

;This is an additional keybind for a mouse action.
paste-entity-settings-alternative=SHIFT + LEFTBRACKET

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; F1 is used by the mod for manual saving.
controller-gui-logistics-tab=

;This is an additional keybind for a mouse action.
fast-entity-transfer-alternative=CONTROL + LEFTBRACKET

;This is an additional keybind for a mouse action.
fast-entity-split-alternative=CONTROL + RIGHTBRACKET

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it. 
; The mod uses X for mining.
rotate-active-quick-bars=

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; The mod uses T to give time and technology progress info.
; In vanilla mode it works as it usually does.
open-technology-gui=

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; P is used for the warning menu. 
; You can use top-right screen graphical buttons to open this graphical menu.
production-statistics=

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; You can use top-right screen graphical buttons to open this graphical menu.
logistic-networks=

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; V is used for the fast travel menu. You can instead disconnect a vehicle by selecting it with the cursor and pressing SHIFT + G.
disconnect-train=

;This control has been restored to the default after earlier changes.
clear-cursor=Q

;This control has been restored to the default after earlier changes.
smart-pipette=Q

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; The graphical map can still be opened by clicking on the graphical minimap.
toggle-map=

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; You can use top-right screen graphical buttons to open this graphical menu.
toggle-blueprint-library=

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; You can use top-right screen graphical buttons to open this graphical menu.
open-trains-gui=

; We remove this keybind to make our mod features use it.
; The ESCAPE key can still be used to pause the game.
pause-game=

; This control adds an additional way to use this input
order-to-follow-alternative=CONTROL + LEFTBRACKET

;This is an additional keybind for a mouse action.
build-ghost-alternative=SHIFT + LEFTBRACKET

[sound]

; We make walking sounds louder because they need to stand out.
walking-sound-volume=1.000000

; We turned down the music volume. It is nice but a bit hard to hear over.
; You can turn it off completely by setting this value to 0.
music-volume=0.100000

; This setting make mod sounds work independent of the zoom level.
zoom-volume-coefficient=0.0000

[graphics]

;High graphics settings can be demanding, but if you're streaming it will look nicer.
;Options: high, normal
graphics-quality=normal

;These simulations make noise and can be highly distracting.
;They would start playing before launching multiplayer or contiuing your previous session.
show-game-simulations-in-background=false

; If you set this to true, the game will boot much faster in general but it will take 2-5 GB of extra hard disk space.
cache-sprite-atlas=false

; This is set to false to improve performance.
show-smoke=false

; This is set to false to improve performance.
show-decoratives=false

; This is set to false to improve performance.
show-particles=false

; Options: true, false (minimal effect on performance)
; show-item-shadows=true

; This is set to false to improve performance.
show-inserter-shadows=false

; This is set to false to improve performance.
full-color-depth=false

Creating a new game

You can create a new Freeplay Mode game from the launcher. This is the most popular Factorio game mode by far, and it is the only supported mode. For every new game, a new world map is generated using a randomly chosen map seed number. You can generate the same map again if you use the same seed number. There are also several map settings that can be chosen, but to make the setup easier, you can simply choose from among the map presets.

Map presets

• The recommended map preset for new players is "Compass Valley", which is a custom peaceful map that generates with the same seed every time. This makes geography-based discussions a lot easier. Every other map preset uses a random seed by default. The map also has some tweaks across the board to make it easier to work with.
• The "No enemies" map preset removes enemies entirely from the world, so that you do not need to worry about combat at all. This preset uses default settings for every other aspect of map generation.
• The "Peaceful" map preset makes enemies not attack you unless you attack them first, and they do not expand their bases. This makes combat mostly optional. This preset uses default settings for every other aspect of map generation.
• The "Default" preset is the officially recommended way to play the game. Enemies are aggressive and they slowly expand their bases. The aggression includes reacting to your presence nearby and to your pollution when it starts to reach their bases.
• The "Rich resources" preset is like the default preset but resource patches have about twice as many resource units per tile. All other settings including enemy settings are as default.
• The "Marathon" makes recipes more expensive in general, and so you have to mine and process far more resources. Technologies cost 4 times as many science packs.
• The "Death world" preset makes enemies tougher in various ways. Their bases are twice as large and twice as frequent, and the starting area where there are no enemies is 75% of the default size. Furthermore, pollution spreads further and enemies react to it twice as intensively. Enemies also evolve faster over time and as pollution is generated.
• The "Rail world" map preset creates a map that makes it important to use trains. Enemies are aggressive but they do not expand their bases, so you only have to defeat each base once. Furthermore, it makes resource patches larger and further apart. It also makes lakes larger.
• The "Ribbon world" limits the North and South edges of the map so that you can only explore and expand to the East and West. The distribution is tweaked for resources and terrain features to suit this layout.
• The "island" preset makes the start area an island surrounded by endless ocean. Resources and enemy bases are finite. All other settings including enemy settings are as default.

Details about individual map settings

A lot of these options will not make much sense to new players, but veteran players may enjoy tuning them as they wish.

Map seed

This is a natural number that guides the map generator for the placement of resource patches, enemy bases, and terrain features. Using the same seed will create the same map every time, in line with the adjustments determined by the other settings.

Resource settings

Entering this submenu lets you toggle and tweak the generation of the main resources such as stone, ores, and oil. Frequency refers to how many ore patches can be found in a given area. Size refers to the average dimensions of each ore patch, and richness refers to how many resource units are found in each tile. For each of these, the default value is 1 and the typical values range between 0.17 and 6.

Terrain settings

This submenu handles the natural terrain.

For water and trees, the scale refers to the average dimensions of each forest or lake and the coverage refers to overall amount that can be found across the world. For each of these, the default value is 1 and the typical values range between 0.17 and 6. Disabling water will still give you the starting area lake.

Cliffs form steep natural walls that you cannot walk through or build on, but underground belts and pipes can pass under them. They also work as natural barriers to slow down enemies. Cliffs follow general land patterns and thus form valleys and mountains in a sense, although the ground itself is practically flat. The frequency determines how often cliffs are found and the continuity describes the average length of an unbroken segment of cliffs. For each of these, the default value is 1 and the typical values range between 0.17 and 6.

Moisture and terrain refer to how the different types of grass and dirt and sand are distributed. The bias setting determines which tiles appear more. It ranges between -1 and +1, with 0 for default and a typical range between -0.5 and +0.5. The scale setting determines the average dimensions for each area before it transitions to a different type. For scale, the default value is 1 and the typical values range between 0.17 and 6.

Enemy settings

You can disable enemy bases to remove enemies entirely from the game. Otherwise you can adjust the frequency and size. For each of these, the default value is 1 and the typical values range between 0.17 and 6.

Peaceful mode can only be toggled. In this mode enemies will not attack you unless you attack their bases, and they will not expand. Attacking any base will anger nearby bases but the hostility ends when you leave and your chasers stop following you or are taken out. Angered enemies who follow you to your base can still attack your buildings.

Enemy expansion settings refers to how extensively enemies settle in new areas over time. Th expansion distance is in terms of chunks, which are 32 by 32 areas. Groups sizes refer to enemy unit counts and cooldown times are given in minutes.

Enemy evolution settings determine how the enemy evolution level increases. This is a global level that starts at 0 and quickly approaches 0.5 and then slowly approaches 1. A higher evolution level means larger enemies will appear more frequently and smaller enemies will become rare. The time factor, 40 by default, determines evolution speed over time. The destroy factor, 200 by default, determines the impact of every enemy spawner destroyed. The pollution factor, 9 by default, determines how quickly evolution is influenced by the pollution you generate in the world, while it does not matter whether the pollution reaches the enemy bases or not. Changing these factors more than slightly may have strong effects.

Pollution settings

Under the advanced settings, the pollution settings determine how the world reacts to the pollution generated by machines. The absorption modifier refers to how effectively the pollution is absorbed by trees and the ground. It is typically between 10% and 400% with the default value of 100%. Healthy trees are very good at absorbing pollution while damaged trees and ground tiles have slighter effects.

The attack cost modifier refers to how much pollution is needed for an enemy unit to be sent for attack. It is typically between 10% and 400% with the default value of 100%.

The minimum to damage trees refers to the pollution intensity in an area that begins the tree damaging process. The default value is 60 and it can be betwen 0 and ten thousand. The absorbed amount per damaged tree is how much pollution is removed by a tree getting damaged. The default value is 10. Note that damaged trees cannot absorb pollution as well as before and the effects are permanent.

The diffusion ratio describes how quickly pollution spreads out over time. The default value is 2% and typical values are between 0% and 25%.

Continuing a singleplayer game

You can load existing or imported save game files from this part of the launcher. Saved games are listed in terms of recency, with the latest on top. These games include worlds that you can rename while exiting a game session, and they also include copies of the demo maps.

Multiplayer game setup

Multiplayer is easier to set up for the Factorio Steam version because Steam can handle the connection work for you. Otherwise you need to set up port forwarding. Multiplayer is also possible when hosting the game on a server.

It is essential for every player and the server (if used) to have exactly the same mod versions. If you have the correct Factorio Access version but you still get errors, try to delete the entire Factorio Access folder before re-installing the correct release. This would resolve issues arising from old source code left over in the folder.

Hosting a game via the launcher

1. On the mod launcher, create the game world as a single player map and save it.
2. On the mod launcher, go to Multiplayer mode and follow the relevant instructions.

Joining a Steam game via Steam Friends List

1. Add your friend on Steam.
2. Make sure that both of you are online.
3. Find your friend on the list. You should see that the friend is playing Factorio.
4. From the options menu for the friend, select "join game".

Joining a Steam game via the launcher

1. On the mod launcher, go to Multiplayer mode.
2. Add your friend's Steam username to the launcher's friends list.
3. Follow the relevant launcher instructions.

Note

This section is still being written but you can contact us on the Discord server about it.

Enabling and disabling mods

Factorio Access GitHub releases come with some other mods included for supporting features. You can also explore and install other mods as explained on the page about other mods.

The launcher has a menu where you can examine which mods are currently installed and toggle them on or off.

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