Modify enemy expansion rate in existing save?

[11clock]

I am starting to get really annoyed with this mechanic. Base under attack, go over there and plop down a turret wall. Base under attack in different direction, go over there and build another turret wall. Apparently they expand more and more often the further you progress, too.

I would like to lower the expansion rate, but NOT turn it off entirely (because DLC reasons). Is there a way to do that in an existing save? I really don't want to start over.

[Simon]

If you're annoyed by enemies on Nauvis, I would say just go to space already. You can come back to Nauvis later once you have artillery and settled more firmly on a planet that doesn't have enemy expansion, just stop expanding on Nauvis and perhaps setup defense as needed from remote view.

[11clock]

Originally posted by Simon:

If you're annoyed by enemies on Nauvis, I would say just go to space already. You can come back to Nauvis later once you have artillery and settled more firmly on a planet that doesn't have enemy expansion, just stop expanding on Nauvis and perhaps setup defense as needed from remote view.

I'm still on green science and just made it to oil, so it will be a while before I get to space.

[Zhardoz]

I think you can do what you ask in the map editor. Just load your save from the editor.

[Fel]

game.map_settings.enemy_expansion is where all of the settings for enemy expansion are.

So to make it happen less often (doubling the base values for both minimupm cooldown and maximum cooldown in this example), you could run a console commands like:

/c game.map_settings.enemy_expansion.min_expansion_cooldown = 28800
game.map_settings.enemy_expansion.max_expansion_cooldown = 432000

If you want to make your own command, the page related to this would be:
https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/concepts/EnemyExpansionMapSettings.html

Console commands disable achievements for that save and will need to be run twice the first if achievements were still enabled as a safeguard against disabling them without knowing.

[Khaylain]

Install https://mods.factorio.com/mod/EditMapSettings, change your settings, save the game, disable the mod.

[11clock]

Thank you! I was trying my best to handle the biters, but my breaking point came when one of the nests just parked on top of my only oil field nearby when I barely have the tech to fend them off at this time, and my only means of progressing at the moment is via getting oil. All while dealing with other nests that recently decided to appear right outside of my base, as well as trying to support my new mining outposts that are also being regularly attacked...

I get that I should be clearing the nests to slow down the attacks as they show up, but it takes me like over 5 minutes to destroy one nest with my dinky machine gun and robot buddies, and grenades that don't deal enough damage to kill medium biters before being swarmed.

I'll try to play a bit longer before I do any map editing. Things are just really tedious atm. Maybe best move is to reclaim the oil field and try to get better stuff asap.

[artem]

For the comfortable gaming you are supposed to find an oil and build a defence with the flamethrowers before the mediup biters show up, because gun turrets are not efficient against bigger biters without additional researches. They consume too much iron on ammo.

If you don't want to restart the game then you can do following steps:
1. Switch off our base to reduce pollution and stop biters attacks
2. Find an oil field without biters or craft enough grenades, gun turrets and ammo to kill the nest on oil field.
3. Build flamethrowers and set up the defence with the wall and flamethrowers around your base and mining outposts.
4. Enjoy

P.S. To craft enough ammo and turrets you can move to a separate iron patch and do all the necessary craft there instead of polluting your base.

[11clock]

I found a trick that you can throw grenades and shoot at the same time. This allowed me to take back the oil patch, and now I have a flamethrower and can continue down the tech tree. The game is fun again!

[Phishfood]

Originally posted by Simon:

If you're annoyed by enemies on Nauvis, I would say just go to space already. You can come back to Nauvis later once you have artillery and settled more firmly on a planet that doesn't have enemy expansion, just stop expanding on Nauvis and perhaps setup defense as needed from remote view.

Not gotten to space yet but does time effectively stop, or that enemies no longer attack you once you're in space but your factory continues to produce?

[ARM505]

Originally posted by Phishfood:

Not gotten to space yet but does time effectively stop, or that enemies no longer attack you once you're in space but your factory continues to produce?

No, everything carries on in real time - you pretty much need to have the base defences set up, and at least some level of drone/automated production for repair and construction IMHO. But just completely slow down production levels to idle, and your base won't pollute, so biter attacks will be very infrequent and evolution rates will be low.