Major Expansion for Factorio Will Take Trains to Whole New Level
The upcoming expansion for Factorio, which will allow for space exploration, will also improve ground infrastructure - especially that of railroads.
At the end of August, we received the announcement of of a major expansion for Factorio, called Space Age. The expansion will move the game's action into space, enabling us to colonize other planets.
To do this, we will need to develop not only our star fleet, but also the ground infrastructure, if only to take care of more efficient transport of materials to factories. The developers from Wube Software will enable us to do this, among other things, by introducing completely new rail routes - the Space Age expansion will enable us to build above-ground railroads.
Highballing into space
In a recent post on the developers' blog the team announced that in the upcoming DLC the players will be able to elevate their rail routes above the ground level.
- The construction of above-ground tracks will be aided by two new construction elements: an elevating ramp and supports, which will have to be placed along the route from time to time to keep the structure stable.
- The supports will also determine the direction of the line - we will set them in 8 different directions.
- Above-ground tracks will be able to run not only over land, but also over bodies of water - so eventually it will be possible to create railroad bridges.
Source: Wube Software
The developers explain that multi-level rail routes will be useful in the DLC, as with the expansion of space, they expect players to build more and more expansively. Increased infrastructure capacity will then come in handy. On the blog linked above you will find many gifs showing the new railroad in action.
The underground railroad is expected to appear in Factorio along with the Space Age DLC, when the strategy game will transform into Factorio 2.0 (the expansion will also be accompanied by a free update). This will take place in the summer of 2024.
