I've always craved something like this too.
Of course, you can crank the biter difficulty, but you only get two outcomes: it's too hard and you can never build a base that lasts more than an hour, or you manage to arm yourself from the beginning and biters stop being a problem very quickly.
I'd really like biters to be a threat I need to pay some attention to for the duration of the game. Evolution isn't really a factor because as you say, once you have laser turrets, you're set. Even red bullets suffice.
Re:Factorio: Space Age
by politician on Friday August 25, 2023 @03:07PM
(#37265873)
You're looking for the Warptorio2 mod. "Build your base on a platform that warps from planet to planet and escape biters before they overwhelm you."
Re:Factorio: Space Age
by chienandalou on Friday August 25, 2023 @05:05PM
(#37267047)
Sounds a bit like the Wave Defense scenario. It is available within the game: https://wiki.factorio.com/Wave_defense
Try a deathworld then. Once you're comfortable defending until you can secure flamethrowers, you can add in some mods that slightly extend or complicate the early/mid game (like AAI industries and/or Krastorio2). Especially with K2, you get some new options for controlling your pollution (planting trees, running greenhouses, air filters...), and in the endgame you get the tech that enables fully self-sustaining bases. I think all of these are interesting alternatives to the endless expansion and the sudden, rapid power spike of the base game.
Imagine something like 7 days of constant biter attacks on all fronts, with biters much stronger as well. A relentless strain on the economy of your base more than anything, with there being a real need for repair bots to fully repair and remake certain sections of the perimeter as it gets destroyed by perhaps some special baneling-esque biter.
Add to this the idea that things get infinitely more and more difficult over time, and you instead compete for places on a leaderboard of like "survived 400 days and 14 hours".