Oho - I see new entity graphics! If my guess is right, they will have more lively animations as well. Like the spaceship engines and recycler.

we added a new method of researching a technology. Instead of processing science packs in a laboratory, technologies can now be completed with a trigger.

I hope this doesn’t break the planning involved with needing to balance research and factory expansion. I don’t want to be handed oil processing just because I extracted some oil. On the other hand I also don’t want to be hindered if I think of that in advance and set up processing infrastructure before I start extracting

I like none of this. They are getting defensive about the criticism quality received. It looks like they are trying to add early game bloat. The research triggers look super annoying. Maybe on your first play though that’d be nice to keep from being overwhelmed, but for a game with such replayablility it looks like it keeps you from working ahead.

It seems like these are good ideas for Factorio 2, not an expansion. They should just keep to Space Age and not mess with their beloved game mechanics.

Also having infinite research for rocket parts makes no sense. Having infinite research for mining productivity works because it makes you have to update how you manage resource patches for the increased productivity and throughput. Without that you’d just stamp down the same outpost in the late game. It basically forces “tiers” of outposts. How are you suppose to design a factory around a decreasing need for green circuits? That just seems annoying.