Towards Automatic Design of Factorio Blueprints

TL;DR

This paper explores the complex problem of automatically designing optimal blueprints in the game Factorio, using a constraint model to balance correctness, efficiency, and performance in blueprint optimization.

Contribution

It introduces a new problem formulation for automatic blueprint design and investigates the feasibility of a constraint-based approach for optimization.

Findings

Constraint model can effectively represent blueprint optimization problems

Preliminary results show potential for balancing correctness and performance

Framework can be extended to include various optimization criteria

Abstract

Factorio is a 2D construction and management simulation video game about building automated factories to produce items of increasing complexity. A core feature of the game is its blueprint system, which allows players to easily save and replicate parts of their designs. Blueprints can reproduce any layout of objects in the game, but are typically used to encapsulate a complex behaviour, such as the production of a non-basic object. Once created, these blueprints are then used as basic building blocks, allowing the player to create a layer of abstraction. The usage of blueprints not only eases the expansion of the factory but also allows the sharing of designs with the game's community. The layout in a blueprint can be optimised using various criteria, such as the total space used or the final production throughput. The design of an optimal blueprint is a hard combinatorial problem, interleaving elements of many well-studied problems such as bin-packing, routing or network design. This work presents a new challenging problem and explores the feasibility of a constraint model to optimise Factorio blueprints, balancing correctness, optimality, and performance.