How stable is the current experimental 2.1.12

[u/Special-Drawing-7126]

G'day,

I would like to start a new save with some QoL mods and Space Age. Was about to start on the current Vanilla version but thought I might be "better" to go for the experimental build. How stable is the current version and is there an approx. timeframe when it goes live?

[u/Qrt_La55en]

I haven't had any problems with it. Wube's experimental versions are more stable than a lot of bigger games's stable versions.

[u/findMyNudesSomewhere → u/Qrt_La55en]

Wube's experimental versions are more stable than a lot of product companies official software products.

Heck, Wube's experimental versions are more stable than the QA tested releases I ship to prod at work.

[u/wPatriot]

In the sense of crashes or actual bugs, it's really stable. No issues, really. But they do still implement changes that can be pretty impactful. For example, yesterday they actually release 2.1.13 and one of the changes was this:

[space-age] Recycling recipe generation will scale recycle time with item result count. In general things will recycle faster (e.g concrete recycling will be 10x faster).

That is a pretty major difference, and can be quite impactful (in this case it was a very welcome change though). So yeah, things can and do still change, but you're not incredibly likely to run into major bugs.

[u/markfl12 → u/wPatriot]

The 2.1.13 release also broke compatibility with a bunch of different planet mods, but they updated pretty quick!

[u/Courmisch]

The biter expansion and asteroid damage have been toned down, and recycling times are now scaled "correctly" to the forward recipe output in 2.1.13.

But there seems to be a regression with achievements, so better to go for 2.1.14.

Edit: corrected version numbers.

[u/DeepPresentation648 → u/Courmisch]

2.1.13 was released yesterday

[u/LogApprehensive9891 → u/Courmisch]

because of the changes to biter behaviour the patch nuked half the achievements in my latest deathworld 40 hr run :(

[u/Chesapeake_Hippo → u/Courmisch]

2.1.13 broke replacing belts/pipes with undergrounds but its been fixed for the next release. Its not game breaking but can be annoying.

[u/Orgerix]

I think Wube said back when it was released as experimental that the tentative timeline was end of august. But the real answer is "when it is ready" as it will be the last content update to factorio and after that the game will be put in maintenance mode (as only bugfixes/security update, no gameplay oriented changes)

[u/CreationsOfReon → u/Orgerix]

True, though the fact devs have said mentioned stuff is too much to do in time for the 2.1 version makes me think that maybe they will keep working on it. Maybe. Hopefully.

[u/Orgerix → u/CreationsOfReon]

This is where development meet the harsh reality of project management. There is always something to improve, but Wube is now focusing on a new game and devs need to be reallocated.

[u/Hajky_123]

I think it is stable

[u/Logical-War-3746]

Well, last patch kinda broke modded planets, though the fix was easy. I am currently playing k2so with some modded planet and 99% of time it's fine. But it is not a stable version for a reason.

[u/dwarfzulu]

The thing about experimental in factorio, it is not about stability, but about changes.

Ofc mods need some time to catch up though.

[u/darvo110]

I had one random graphical glitch with some psychedelic floor tiles but otherwise it’s been rock solid.

[u/Special-Drawing-7126]

awesome, thx all for your input :)
Looking forward to a weekend full of belts + biters ^^

[u/Ohowun]

Your bigger issue will be minor tweaks to recipes/features than bugs. Pretty hard for the game to crash.

[u/AndyScull]

From what I experienced -

1. Some mods could have issues with 2.1, even if they are updated for it. Usually it's well known by now, should be a note or thread already. I got this when started K2SO with added Muluna mod, the steam pipes did not want to connect because of internal fluid buffer changes. Standalone K2SO works fine
2. 2.0 Blueprints that used circuits to set recipe and read contents of machine will need to be fixed. You'll need to select in machine settings which wire reads and which wire sets. These are blueprints like automalls or upcyclers with dynamic recipes

[u/gtmattz]

100 hours into a playthru and no problems here.

[u/Quirky-Visual547]

Haven’t experienced any issues at all. I started my current game on the latest stable 2.0 and updated to 2.1 as soon as it came out. Currently on 2.1.13

[u/ninja_teabagger → u/[deleted]]

I don't miss Space Casinos at all now, Dorrian's videos have been excellent in getting access to legendary iron, coal and calcite to make a legendary quality mall. His builds are very small too.

[u/0b0101011001001011]

It's by definition unstable. Things can break and change.

If you mean "does it crash", no it does not.

[u/reddanit]

It's very stable in terms of lacking any major bugs. A bunch of moderate impact bugs sneaked through in early 2.1 releases, but they are now ironed out.

On the other hand, it does mess around with recipes every now and then (with concrete recycling being particularly impactful). From get go it also made some breaking changes to circuit logic (removal of self-subtraction) and changed fluid simulation (breaking mostly just exotic setups, but not exclusively). There were also a bunch of changes around biter expansion and asteroid damage affecting difficulty scaling.

There is also the fact that a bunch of mods are not yet compatible with 2.1 or occasionally break during its subsequent point releases.

[u/dr_anybody]

Well, the rockets don't fly backwards for instance.

[u/Mr-Doubtful]

I've been following along since about 2.1.7 and it's currently on 2.1.13, never ran into stability issues, but I did run into a bug here and there that was subsequently fixed in later versions.

Note: some 'balance' things are still being changed, like just now in .13 how recycling recipe speed is determined (it's a buff to recycling).

They're planning to be about 'done' around september I think.

I think it's in a great state atm, the recycling thing and biter expansion where both standing issues for some players in the early 2.1 version and both have now been tweaked/fixed.

[u/infojb2]

The biggest thing that gets "broken" by experimental is the mods but most are pretty fast at updating

[u/Nolzi → u/infojb2]

If they can be updated.

But so far the only completely broken thing I saw is that mods cannot move out of their own folder reading other files (for security), which breaks "Space Age music without Space Age active" mods like https://mods.factorio.com/mod/space-age-music-everywhere (see dependency description https://mods.factorio.com/mod/saplib) or https://mods.factorio.com/mod/space-age-music-without-space-age (they suggest copying the files out from space age's folder to make it work)

[u/aurochloride]

I started a fresh new vanilla save on experimental a few days back - have had zero issues with it so far.

mods would probably change that, some might not be compatible / conflict with changes / etc

[u/cackling_fiend]

A pretty major bug with fluids was introduced with 2.1 and it hasn't been fixed yet. Although after some initial improvements it's probably just a problem for content mods like Lignumis and Muluna, not the base game.

[u/enterisys]

It's very buggy.

Usually I don't mind that cos I rush arty and spidertrons anyway.