The maze itself is destined to be automated.
Ribbon Maze challenges you to explore a maze in search of rich resources. The maze is impassable, but new late game technologies let you terraform the maze...
Mod portal page: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/RibbonMaze
- Perfect maze - only one right path takes you deeper into a practically infinite maze. But...
- Dead ends are rewarding! - resources spawn at dead ends. Longer corridors hold the most valuable resources
- Mixed ores near start - mixed ores near the start of the maze provide an early game challenge, while making sure you can get your factory started
- Great for trains - resources are spread out so you'll soon want trains. The maze is "chunk aligned", ideal for rail network blueprints
- Mangroves - the water at the start of the maze is lined with trees. Turn off normal trees in terrain generation if you wish. Mangroves offer wood as an infinite resource, like crude oil, but with new logistical challenges and opportunities
- Terraforming - Terraform the maze into canals using new recipes which provide a late-game need for wood and nuclear-generated steam. Automate the process with special artillery which will explore the maze for you. Decide: will you landfill your canals for more space, or exploit the new mangroves that grow along their banks?
Ribbon Maze is designed to be "softmod" friendly. The core maze and resource generation logic can function without the mangroves and terraforming prototypes. The mod's control.lua configures the settings, constants, and events for the default mod experience, but all the logic is in separate scripts in the control directory. So just providing a different control.lua should allow heavily customized setups, scenarios and soft mods.
Terrain graphics for maze adapted from the MIT-license More Floors mod by Tone (https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Tone/More_Floors).
Thanks to illiander42 for various modifications.
Thanks also to Factorio staff and forum users for their help and support!